Mmmm so many long tedious entries.

I hope I am not boring you all to death.

This has the potential to be another long entry, but it's 10pm and I got home from Novgorod not that long ago, I still have homework to do, I'm tired and cranky. So there. Wah. So instead of a beautifully fleshed out blog entry about all the details of Novgorod, I'm going to list what I've been up to since Thursday.

SUMMARY: Novgorod was fun, but not as much fun as Pskov. Probably because the weather was shitty, the food was weird, and our tour guides were long-winded and boring or overly protective.

So.

FRIDAY 7/19/08:
-- School, as usual.
-- Hung around with Bryan and Philipp and Hart for a while at Smolny.
-- Went home briefly to organize my life.
-- Then went to the ballet for our cultural excursion to see Swan Lake at the Alexandercheskii Theatre.
-- Funny story: definitely saw this same version of Swan Lake in this same theatre on the Globus tour with Nunni, Puppy & Mom when we were here in 2005 for three days. There were so many tour groups. I don't think any Russians actually go see Swan Lake themselves.

SATURDAY 7/20/08:
-- Unfortunately early in the morning we left for Novgorod.
-- We ate lunch when we arrived which was the first time I had a problem with any food this time around in Russia. We had soup that consisted of half a hard boiled egg and a chunk of turkey floating in a "broth" that was basically water and fat. The best part was that we ate lunch, dinner, breakfast and lunch again at this same restaurant all weekend -- the delicious and nutritious Cafe Люкс. Mmm-mmm.
-- We had a tour of the city. This involved a lot of walking and listening to this dry woman who spoke on auto pilot who every now and then would forget her speech and just be silent for several minutes as she tried to remember it. Odd.
-- There are a lot of skinheads in Novgorod. Nothing happened to anyone, but that was disconcerting.
-- Post-tour, we sat on the beach by the Novgorod Kremil and drank Novgorod's very own honey beer. Oh my god, most delicious thing in the world.
-- While drinking said beer, our other Novgorod tour guide, who actually wasn't a guide, but really just planned our tasty meals, hovered near by on a bench and watched us and then followed us to the restaurant to make sure we weren't late for dinner. AHH. How old are we?! We've just been living on our own in St. Petersburg for a month and a bit. This seems illogical.
-- Then there was dinner which consisted of a small microwavable pizza and tea.
-- Post-dinner, there was napping.
-- Post-napping, we returned to the beach. I went swimming, some people created a sand version of the Novgorod Kremlin, Adams made friends with the locals as usual.
-- Then it was late and I was tired.

SUNDAY 7/20/08:
-- The most important thing about this day is the fact that one of my most diligent readers of this very blog turned 20 years old today, on the 20th of July. So let's all give a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Ms. Ami D. Li. Also, Mom, she got the package. Good job on mailing that. Thanks.
-- This morning, breakfast at our favorite establishment. Actually, not bad. Eggs and tomatoes and such.
-- We hit up several monasteries. I wasn't really paying attention to what they were all about. I took about 50 pictures of a cat at one of them.
-- We went to a wooden architecture museum which was identical to the one we went to in Irkutsk last summer. No, really, if you are absolutely dying to see my photos from this place, just look at my photos from last summer. This makes me question the authenticity of how unique and old these wooden houses are. Even the souvenir fair was the same as Irkutsk.
-- One last meal at Cafe Люкс.
-- A long drive home. The bus was very warm but had a roof window which we kept open and then it started to rain and I got a little rained on. Fun.