I'm Alive, Really

It's been about a week since I've posted, and mom mentioned that she'd started to question my existence. Sorry about taking so long, but things have really started to get busy. We've all hit the halfway point and suddenly it seems like we have no time left here, and still there's so much to do! So we're cramming our schedules, but at the same time, we've still got a lot of homework to keep up with too. For example, the REAL reason I jumped online is to research my project (due next week) on the latest G8 Summit. Can I at least get a little sympathy that they're making me do a PRESENTATION on the freaking G8 in RUSSIAN?! As if we cover political vocab in Russian 202. But, at the same time, it's making me work really hard and learn a lot of new things, so that's good too, I suppose.

This past week (this would be much easier if I had my calendar in front of me) we went to the Museum of Political History, walked down to a sketchy outdoor market, had individual meetings with our Resident Director (kind of like mid-terms and mid-term reports), visited Apraskin Dvor (I suppose a tiny mall like Gostiniy Dvor, but... shadier), and Masha and I hung out for a huuuuuge stint of time (you'd think I'd run out of Russian things to say after 4 hours together). They other biggie was that Curtis visited this weekend--which was great; we walked all over the city, got stuck on Vasilevsky Ostrov, discovered this really cool Russian restaurant/cafe/hang-out and basically had ourselves a merry time. I promise to try and get things in a fun and easy-to-read format soon, but I don't have as much time as I used to--Wednesday we're visiting Dostoevsky's apartment, Saturday Masha and I are going to Kronstadt, and Saturday night (hopefully!) a bunch of us are going to Castle Dance, and then on Sunday we've got a big picnic and day out at what I'm going to call "the beach" (because I can't remember the Russian word for the title). And then next week is the Museum of the Blockade, my report, a trip to Moscow... then hopefully a week of souvenir hunting, our long trip through some parts of the Golden Ring, and I come home!

....boy, I'm really running out of time here.