Super-Duper Wacky n' Tacky Euro Adventure

Oh my god! Stupid blogger.com wasn’t working today so I’m currently REWRITING what I remember of my St. Petersburg entry that I wrote earlier. Oh yeah, If all goes well, we will get our first snow in the next couple of days. Who’s psyched? I am!

*Overnight train rides are ridiculously fun. Especially when they are combined with a couple of fine bottles of wheat-distilled beverage and various mixers. A seven hour train ride of rest and sleep turned into two and half hours of sleep BOTH ways! What a way to start and end a trip!
*To Lena our tour guide: thank you for being so knowledgeable and having a firm grasp on the English language. However, please stop talking after awhile. I do not care how many drawers the desk has.
*A couple of lunches, courtesy of Mrs. Bing, at a strip club. Not joking at all. So there weren’t any strippers when we were eating there, but we did indeed have lunch in the champagne room.
*The Hermitage: what a true cultural gem. During our very brief stay I got to see a lot of French impressionist paintings that I recognized right away. Plus I got to see Picasso from very close up, the individual brush strokes are spectacular.
*A pleasant dinner with a vegetarian and a cooky sophomore, a.k.a. Becca and Chloe. I’m glad I got to know you ladies better over the trip.
*Being utterly rejected by the bleenie stand. How can you run out of chocolate AND strawberry!
*A wild night with Irish Sean and Estonian Casper whom I met last weekend when they were down in Moscow. I also got to meet Irish Dave and their roommate St. Louis Drew who went to the same high school as Stephen. Small world!
*St. Pete bar scene. The good: cheap drinks. International crowd. No “feiz kontrol.” The Bad: people passed out on couches. People making out in the corner. Constant fights. The overall verdict: very good! The deciding factor: foosball.
*Oops, I seemed to have missed all of Saturday’s activities because I came home at seven in the morning. Looks like the exploring will be solo today.
*The bad man seems to have followed me north, forced me to buy a new coat and then run away like he always does. Damn him!
*SAT review. Nevski Propekt : St. Pete :: ??? : Moscow. Correct answer? Tverskaya! I love these streets! Lively at all times of the night. Good bars. Good shopping. Good times.
*Chinese food in St. Pete: Not so yummy. Damn.
*Warning: If you haven’t seen it already, do not see Bewitched. Even if it is the only DVD available in English. What a terrible movie!
*The town of Pushkin (great Russian poet!) where the lovely Catherine’s winter palace lies. Mostly this place reminds me of a smaller Versailles with a lot more tacky Russian bling. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t cool. Amber room: woah!
*Whoa, but probably not the eighth wonder of the world, Lena.
*OMG. Who was the genius who thought of putting all the best selling Russian souvenirs in a huge three story complex with price tags, indoor heating, and even a water fountain! What a sucker for American amenities we are! Iris, don’t feel guilty. Items I may or may not have purchased: a flask, a matrushka, amber jewelry (apparently this is a N. Western Russian thing as the entire bottom floor was dedicated to amber!), and other goodies.
*Winding down, preparing for the train ride home with a couple of purchases: a movie, some Maldovian wine, and the leftovers from the last train ride.
*Eh, might have slept through my alarm for my first class this morning. Hey. I was tired from a full weekend!
*Muchos thank yous to Mrs. Bing whose philanthropic personality we should thank for the trip. You milady, are a bad ass! If you weren’t eighty years old and 5000 miles away, I’d give you a hive five. Date pyat!

OK. That should be about it. World bank should start soon. Now to get on all these books that Dr. Trenin assigned!