Heyyyyyyy remember me?

Well, Ami left this fabulous city and country last night on a late train to Riga and so my life returns to normal for....... a few hours. Not for long though as today is Halloween, not quite a normal day, followed by what promises to be a not-quite-a-normal weekend in Moscow with the group. Hm.

You've probably been wondering what Ami and I have been up to for all of these days when you have been deprived of entertaining commentary on St. Petersburg to read. Well, let me give you the complete list of all of our activities...... but just a list, as you will be able to read about all the sordid details in the next Greetings-From-Russia Counterpoint column I will be writing together with Ami about her time here with me.

So. Here's everything that Ami managed to pack into her six days in St. Petersburg:

ACTIVITIES:
1. during time waiting in Moscow -- saw Red Square thanks to Bryan's friend.
2. Kuntskamera with Lauren while I was in printmaking.
3. the newly discovered and fabulous Zoological Museum (has more taxidermied animals than I would say even the Natural History Museum in NYC!)
4. a performance of the Swan Lake ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre that made the version we saw this summer look even trashier.
5. a Saturday-night trip to Fidel.
6. witnessing daylight savings time in Russia (now we have a 7 hour time difference) and the earlier darkness and the pending winter.
7. a Sunday trip to Udelnaya where many a weird junky treasure was purchased.
8. saw the inside and the outside of Church of Spilled Blood.
9. saw the outside of St. Isaac's, the Bronze Horseman, the Admiralty.
10. saw the inside and the outside of Kazansky Sobor (it was just how I remembered it when I was in there in 2005 with Mom, Nunni & Puppy -- dark and smokey and smelling of beeswax, with a service going on and a capella church hymns that reminded me of Christmas).
11. Halloween costume-making of many kinds.
12. multiple trips to the market behind Church of the Spilled Blood.
13. two attempts to get into the Summer Gardens when they were already closed, finally getting in on the third try and walking through in the rain.
14. the Hermitage.
15. the Russian Museum (complete with power outage!).
16. multiple trips to the consignment stores.
17. Tuesday-night trip to Mod.
18. Wednesday-night trip to Dacha.
19. impromptou sleep over with Ilana that involved depression pink nail painting.
20. the Arctic/Antarctic Museum (where there were no less than THREE tours of school kids).
21. the Museum of Bread (where Ami set off an alarm).
22. the Museum of Hygine (finished with their renovations since this summer -- how??? I'm so impressed!! -- also with multiple groups on tour.... what???)
23. finally seeing the inside of the Vladimirskaya Church which I walk by at least twice every day.
24. Lauren's choral concert.
25. the view of the Hermitage, etc from Peter & Paul's fortress at night.
26. trip to the army-navy store on Petrograd.
27. walking around the inside of Peter & Paul's fortress.
28. witnessing one of her own letters arrive at Office 416 all the way from Italy.

MEALS:
1. breakfast at Chainaya Lozka.
2. lunch twice at two different Stolles.
3. dinner at the schwarma place near Dumskaya.
4. dinner twice in Teremok.
5. business lunch at the Georgian place near the Vasileostrovskaya Metro.
6. business lunch at Tequila Boom.
7. ice cream at McDonald's.
8. dinner at the Chinese place near Cherniskevskaya.
9. late night dinner at the Caucasian restaurant with Ilana.
10. breakfast at that pastry place on Nevsky.
11. dinner at Yolky Palky.
12. coffee at the mall on Marata (while looking for Halloween costumes).
13. Uzbek bread lunch from the market.
14. the most amazing cake in the world on Thursday night.

TRANSPORTATION:
1. an overnight train from Moscow ---> St. Petersburg.
2. an overnight train from St. Petersburg ---> Riga.
3. many, many buses.
4. even more walking.
5. enough metro-riding to warrant two 10 ride cards.

See?? We were BUSY.