About picaso

If you guys want the links to albums I am sending out, give me a shout! (ie - leave a comment) 

I'll still post some pictures, but the process is soooo slow.

Quickie about the dacha

So it was freezing and slightly wet.  And awesome.  I now know how to gather mushrooms (at least some types).  I also ate blueberries and this red Finnish berry straight off of the ground.  I felt very man vs. wild.  We also picked berries her garden.  I have some cool pictures that I'll post at some point.

Btw, it's almost midnight here.

Teaching English

This was seriously one of the best experiences I've had in Russia yet.  A group of the kids picked us up at the train station and led us on foot to their school,apparently, taking us that we had to go the safe way in order to avoid "bad drunk men".  So we get there and the rest of the kids are all standing in a semi-circle and greet us in unison.  Behind them, we see that they have laid us out a mini-banquet.  They seat us so we each get a group of about six or seven students.  They start out a little shy, but before long it becomes a fight to speak.  Every so often, the teacher randomly interupts in order to ask us for a new word or a new phrase (you know, important things like "lumbering along" or "to strut" or "get away from me").

Seriously, I've never felt so appreciated.

They are all so amazing.  I can't wait until next Friday.

Russia - the land of milk and honey .... and prisons.

So it happened.  I got sick.  We all knew it would happen sooner or later.  Here is how Russians apparently deal with illness:

Step one: Freak out.  Find out the cause (aka a person to blame).  In this case, it was my grammar teacher.

Step two: Freak out some more.  Describe all of the worst possible scenarios.  Describe how quickly and terribly this sickness will spread to those around the ill person and how awful it will make their lives.

Step three: Tea.  Like the English, this apparenlty is the solution to all of life's problems.

Step four: Sleep rediculous amounts.  Like 14 hour in one night amounts.  This is not as outrageous as it sounds because you will be putt in solitary confinement and only let out to eat and use the bathroom.

Solitary confinement prison at Крепость Орешек.
Or my room.  Hard to tell.

Step five: Drink boiled milk and honey.  Yum.  I had a deprived childhood.

Step six: (which can ben done simultaneously with steps four and five) Force the ill person to wear a scarf.  In the house.  ALL the time.

Step seven: Freak out some more.  If the ill person hasn't gotten better in a day, it's obvious they are nearing death's door - no doubt by some mischief of their own doing (in my case, not wearing socks with my topachki for dinner)

Step eight: Go to the drug store and by some amazing drugs that you'd need a perscription for in America for about 10$.

Step eight is probably the most affective.

Besides getting sick, I've worked some more on the internship project of updating and translating the handbook and gone on an excursion to Крепость Орешек.  Which translates roughly to "Fort Nut".  Yeah, sounds better in Russian.  It was a fort that was passed back and forth between the Swedes and the Russians, that protected Russia during WWII and also served as a prison for political prisoners (including the Decemberists)

Here are some pics:

Super cool shot with two memorials juxtaposed.

Cloudy morning and a bombed chapel.

Memorial to the peace treaty between Russia and Sweden

More Gatchina

Island of looooove

I guess you have to pay more if you don't speak Russian....

Гатчина - наша первая экскурсия

Гатчина - это старый замок с замечательным парком и даже "Остров Любви".  Да, это место для свиданий.  Наш тургид был очень скучным и никто не обратил внимание на нее.  Ничего страшного - еще красивое место несмотря на тургида.

Да, солнце светит в России.

Уууууууу!

Комната без ремонта

I'll post some more later when I have free internet.  Consider this the preview.

Yeah. I live near here. I'm kind of a big deal.

I think this is a theater....not sure.  The sun looks pretty cool, though.

Nina and the Hermitage

By the River

Me with the Bronze Horseman

The Bronze Horseman

Church on Spilled Blood

Church on Spilled Blood

Artwork on the Street