Hello again all! Sorry for the delay in updates once again. The end of my time in Petersburg is fast approaching, and so we're all trying to get everything done that we haven't already, so by the time I get home I'm usually ready to collapse.
So, where did we leave off? Friday, I believe. On Friday, Anna, Geoff, Emily, Kim, Bart, and I decided to make the rounds of the various cathedrals and churches in St. Pete. We started with the rather impressive Kazaan Cathedral, however there's not much to tell about it beyond the fact that it is a beautiful cathedral. We then went to the top of St. Issac's cathedral, where I got some beautiful photos of the city and how expansive it is, though it is nowhere near as unending as Tokyo appeared from the top of the skyscraper I was in.
After that, we all went to the Liverpool pub to watch the US soccer game in the World Cup, followed by the England game. Both games were really fun to watch, even if our waitress was less than accomodating, and I chatted with the Russian businessman sitting behind me, who was regaling me with tales of how Russia should have beaten Slovenia. His name was Konstantin, and I found him very interesting to listen to. Not to mention the fact that I got to practice speaking!
On Saturday, Anna and Kim and I decided to go to the Hermitage, since none of us had been already. We met up for breakfast/lunch at a coffeehouse on Nevskyy and then made our way to the winter palace. In the palace square, we saw a strange chandelier-type thing being held aloft by two cranes over a stage, but we didn't have any idea what it was for. So we just continued on into the Hermitage, where we proceeded to get lost and have to ask one of the attendants for a map. While we were there, we even saw Olga, our tour guide from our previous Petersburg excursions. Several hours later we emerged from the palace and headed back towards home, though we stopped off at the sportsbar near the dorms to watch the soccer game.
On Sunday we had our boat tour of St. Pete. Anna and Kim and I met up earlier for lunch and coffee, and then headed to the meetup point. The tour was lovely, if exceedingly cold, but I can't help but feel that it might have been more useful/interesting if we had done it at the beginning of the trip. After all, by this point we had more or less seen and heard all about the places we were being shown, so it was really nicer for the boat ride than for learning anything about the city. One notable issue was poor Anna's unfortunate run in with one of the bridges. The arches that the boats go under are very, very low, and Anna didn't realize the bridge was coming up until she stood up and it hit her in the head. Luckily, she was alright, but it was certainly scary!
Today we had our last grammar class, and a test in said class. I'm not sure how well I did, and I know I made a couple of mistakes, but since it isn't really graded, I'm not too worried. Benny, on the other hand, had the teacher very upset, because he scribbled his test down and left in the first 10 minutes. She lamented to me in very unhappy Russian about how many mistakes he'd made and then returned to the room after handing me the hat that Benny had forgotten. After class, though Kim and I were going to accompany a few of the others on their trip to Pavlovsk, my knee just wasn't up to the task, and so we wandered along the Fontanka instead before meeting up with a few of the others to watch the game and then return home.
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