Being home and photos

It has been a week since I finally made it home. And what a week! It had, admittedly, taken some getting used to. I have never been so glad to see my own bed! Though when I woke up one time on my first night, I wasn't sure where I was! Which is funny because this never happened in Russia or England! It has been nice to be back to normal food stuffs. Knowing what to expect for meals, being able to drink out of the tap (which I could do in England, it just tasted funny).

I spent most of the day Tuesday going over all the things that happened in Russia and England with Mum. Then that afternoon I went over to visit my friend Melody. It was so good to see her! I had really missed my friends while I was gone. Even though I made some good friends in Russia, they can never replace to dear friends I have here!

I've spent this past week recovering, getting pictures printed, and catching up with friends. Sunday was fun because all the girls were at church at it is such a rare thing for us all to be in the same place at once, we took a picture! It was so much fun getting to see everyone and catch up on all the things that have been going on since I left.

Yesterday and today I went back to work. Hadn't changed too much. :-) Had to remember how to do a couple of things, and sometimes I can't find things that have moved or that we no longer have. Currently we have this awesome new Studio Collection set that I adore. The only problem is everything is white... but the designs are great. (I work at the Disney Store for those of you who don't know) And actually, we now have a website www.disneystore.com You can see the cool new stuff there. I love working for that place! (well...most of the time) ;-)

Any way... sorry for that side sales plug. HeeHee.

As I type I am uploading England pictures for you all to see. However it is taking longer on this computer than it did in Russia! How crazy is that? So hopefully I'll be able to get a lot up...
Okay, I did not get all of them posted, but it is taking forever and I have stuff to do... so here are some I did get up.


I saw this on the way back from the Harry Potter premiere, it had been raining and I looked down this little side road and wow!


A little town that I had tea in with the Job's.


Tower Bridge in London... saw this on my first Thursday


Big Ben


Guard outside Buckingham Palace


On July 7, the Westwoods and I went out to Saffron-Waldon where Cheryl and her family live. It was Cheryl's 21st Birthday. Before her party started, Cheryl, Steph and Cheryly's brother, Adam and I went into Caimbridge. We went punting on a small river to see all the colleges

Steph and Cheryl

Kings College and the punts


On July 10, the Westwoods and I went out to Oxford. My goal for that day was to see as much Tolkien and Lewis related things as I could. Our first stop was Tolkien's grave...




This is the very famous pub where the 'Inklings' met. The writing/discussion group that Tolkien and Lewis started. Robert, Janice and I had lunch here. :-)


This picture was taken at the pond behind the Kilns. The home of C.S. Lewis. Evidently there is a picture of both Tolkien and Lewis sitting on this very same bench! Gotta find that pic...


This is The Kilns



And those are all the pictures I have up at the moment. You can find a few more plus pictures from the Order of the Phoenix premiere at http://www.flickr.com/photos/lils_photos/
Hopefully I can get some more up tomorrow... it is just taking a long time for them to load!

Home!

Well I finally made it home! I cannot even begin to tell you how nice it is to be back! I was supposed to land yesterday about 3pm, and didn't land till 9pm! Lufthansa had overbooked my flight home, so I had to take a different one into Washington DC, and then a connecting flight to Atlanta. It was a crazy day yesterday. But hey, I can say I've been to DC. ;-)

I don't have the time at the moment to go into all the stuff that has happened since my last update, but I hope to soon! Plus I have a bunch of England pictures to share. So keep checking back! Just because I'm home, doesn't mean the blog stops. :-)

I can't wait to see everyone!

A good week so far...

Again I must apologize for not having any pictures. It takes a long time to upload them to the net from the Jobs computer, so I'm afraid you all will have to wait until I get home. But I do promise I have them and I will put them up on the net for everyone to see!

I have had a very good week so far. I think I mentioned that on Monday I spent the day in London. That was so much fun. It was quite exciting to walk around and realize that I was in England!! And it was nice to be able to be bymyself and not worry about whether or not the locals spoke English. That is a very comforting thought.

Tuesday I went out to Oxford and had a really wonderful time. First we went to Wolvercote Cemetary and I got to see where Tolkien was burried. That was really special for me. Though I wish I thought to bring a flower or something.

After that we went to the Eagle and the Child and had lunch. Sadly there were already people in the Rabbit Room, so we couldn't sit in the room the Inklings did, but it was the same pub! And I did take some pictures of the place. Plus there is a letter on the wall from the Inklings to the owner of the Pub thanking them for such good drink! Signed by Tolkien, Christopher T, CSL, Warnie Lewis and some others. Very neat!

After that we took some time to walk around Oxford and I picked up an Oxford University shirt. Actually I picked up two, but one of them just says Oxford England and has the Union Jack on it. It is awesome. (i'm wearing it today!)

Then we went to The Kilns, the home of C. S. Lewis and got a tour. It is still in use today as a residence for scholars, so we couldn't see the whole house, but we got to see a lot of it and to hear a lot of history. It was actually just Robert, Janice and I! Our own private little tour. :-) They usually do the bigger tours during the school year, and not so many during the summer. The funny thing is, the house is own and run by Americans!!! I got some really nice pictures there.

After that it was time to come back. But I really enjoyed my day in Oxford and would have loved to spend a lot more time there.


Today I spent the day with the Jobs and we went to South End which is a costal area. It is where the Thames meets the sea. It was really nice and we had a nice time. Got to see the worlds longest pier! (and walk down it!)
I have really been enjoying my time with the Jobs, especially after having them come to America so much, it is nice to spend time with them in their country! Today at lunch we talked a lot about when the first came, and then how much people have grown up. (Especially the Ack boys! :-p Really made me miss you guys!!)

Tonight the Westwoods are having a bar-b-q. This means a cookout for us Americans. :-) Not actualy BBQ.

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As it gets closer and closer for me to leave, I am ready to come home. I've had such an amazing time abroad, yet I am really missing everyone so much. Especially today talking with the Jobs, and last night looking at some pictures the westwoods had from when they were in America a few years ago. I miss all my dear friends back at home! I cannot wait to see everyone! I'm even looking forward to the seeing everyone back at work! Well....at least most of them. :-D Actually made it to the Disney Store here in Essex. However I couldn't get my discount because they are still owned by Disney here. (In America we are owned by The Children's Place)

Well I must be going. Lots of love to you all! I miss you!

No time!

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile! My computer access isn't as readily avalibe here!

 

I've done a lot the past couple of days!

 

I saw Les Mis on the West End!!! It was amazing!!! As a stage play, I think I liked it better than Phantom.... Can you believe it? I can't wait to get home and get the music. The signers at the Queens theater were amazing. Wonder how the original cast sounded... We weren't supposed to go on Friday, but the play we were going to see ended up having the power cut at the theater! So we dashed over to Les Mis. I'm so glad we did!!! (I got a t-shirt!)

 

Saturday I went to Caimbridge. But didn't get to spend a lot of time there.

 

Today I spent the day in London. It was awesome! I managed not to get lost once. (i was bymyself) Went to Harrods!

 

Tomorrow we are going to Oxford!!! I cannot wait.

 

Thursday is Bath! How cool is that?

 

 

Any way, I must run. I'm at an internet cafe and my time is almost out! Love to you all!

Guess what???

I have JK Rowlings autograph!!!!

No, I'm not kidding, and yes it really is her!

The premire yesterday was a blast. It was a long wait, I got the Leichester Square at one and stars didn't start coming till about 530 or so. But it was totally worth the wait. The first person to come along was Tom Felton (Draco) however it was raining pretty hard when he came along, and I didn't get a good picture of him at all.
Next was Evanna Lynch. She was absolutely gorgeous. I got some moderately good pics of her.

Sometimes it was hard to take pictures, because it did rain hard a couple times. By the end of the night, my right arm was soaking wet. I wasn't able to keep it under the umbrella of my neighbor. But my camera stayed dry, and that was the most importat thing!

It would take too long to go into all the details of the evening, and I don't want to bore you all with it. But the stars that I saw (and who came close enough for photos) were... Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint (I have several awesome pics of him), James and Oliver Phelps, David Heyman, Devon Murry, Bonnie Wright (ginny), Robbie Coltrain, Imalda Stauten, Warrwick Davis , Matthew Lewis, and of course, the woman herself, JK Rowling.

When we realized Jo was coming over, I begged a scrap of paper from some one, because I thought I would get close enough for anyones autograph. When in fact I was quite close. But that is the way it goes sometimes! But all that really matters, is I've "met"Jo and have her signature. And some good pictures as well!

So last night was totally worth the rain, the standing, the cold...
The only bummer was, I saw David Tennant (and in fact several of us all sreamed his name) but he didn't come around near enough for a pic or to sign. :-( Same for Helena Bonham Carter.
James and Oliver were really nice and among the stars, they probably spent the most time signing. Dan did quite a bit, but of course it got crazy every time he walked by. People didn't scream to much at Jo, it just didn't feel right! Jo is really pretty and was so nice to take the time to sign so many autographs!
Actually every one was really nice about it, but a couple times Emma looked a bit stressed out. She is really pretty, and so was Evanna. Dan's eyes are amazing! Very blue. I have a picture where Rupert looked right at my camera. *squeee!*
Didn't make an effort to speak to the Twins about D*C this year or two years ago. Decided that it was too much trouble. But both James and Oliver were over near our section. I actually remembered who was who!!


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Today was spent with the Jobs around Epping and the surrounding area. It was very nice. Though I'm still not recovered from my 36 hour day. (yup...thats how long it ended up being) but we took it easy and I've enjoyed it very much. Tomorrow Janice and I are going to go down to London and take a city tour. I'm really looking forward to that. She bought our HP 5 movie tickets yesterday. So we have that set for the 12th at 730. Next Tuesday we are going to go up to Oxford. Yay!!

I'll try and get some pics up soon. I have to use the computer from the Jobs because the Westwoods currently have no internet. I don't have my camera cable with me, so it'll have to wait for another day.

All the best...

in england

hello from england! Actually, hello from the jobs house! it is so funny to actually be at their home after having them in america so much! really feels like i'm in england now.

 

sorry about lack of capitalization. i'm not used to beresfords computer, and i can't find the shift button. oh well. not sure how much i'll be able to update and post pics from here. but i'll try when i can. england might be the thing that will have to wait until i get home.

 

i'm dead tired because i've been up since 10am yesterday. up, that is like 30 hours or so. i'm crazy tired!!! the  plane flight wasn't bad, the layover was long... i was so glad to finally make it to the westwood. however i am really missing all the people from russia. Rob, faith, april, mama april, tracey, justin.... the city seems almost strange without them! i spent so much time with all of them, that it seems weird not to be with them any more.

 

well i'm going to sign off. love to you all...

England....Here I come!

So it is 5:30 for me. In an hour we will all be going to our farewell dinner at the Stragonov Palace.

It is so hard to believe, that before long, I'll be getting ready to fly out and leave Russia behind! I have had such a wonderful time here, and have gotten so used to it... It is hard to imagine leaving. Justin, Rob and I went to exchange some money, and on the way back we were talking about how hard it is realize it is actually time to leave. Two weeks ago, even four weeks ago, seemed so long. And now its over!

I did a lot of packing yesterday, so I didn't have to do as much today, but I still had to figure out where to stick things! Thankfully Stephanie had extra room and is able to take back some of my larger souvies. Yay!

We are leaving here tomorrow morning about 3:30 or 4am. Our plane takes off at about 6 I believe. Then I sit in the airport in Frankfurt for almost 8 hours before my plane leaves at 3 for London. I'll land there about 3:45/4pm.

I'll probably not be on the computer till Wed or Thursday. Because on Tuesday I'm going to go down to the HP preimire. Yes I'm crazy.

Any way... I guess I'll sign off.
Love to you all!!!

It's Almost Time

It's almost time to leave... I've been her for a month. Tomorrow is my last day. My last day at IMOP, my last day in St. Petersburg, my last day in Russia...

It is a sad thought. After having lived in a place for a month, made new friends, and gotten used to dorm life, I suddenly find myself not wanting to leave. A month seemed like such a long time. It seemed like forver a month ago. Now it feels to short.

This doesn't mean I don't miss my family, my friends and my home. I want to come home, to be back in the familiar, and at the same time, I want to stay. It is one of those situations where you are ready to stay, and ready to leave at the same time.

Things I'll miss about the city...
St. Petersburg itself. This city is so full of history and culture, like none other I've ever been to. Plus the people here take their histroy for seirously.

White Nights. This means coming out of a restaurant at 10 or 11 o'clock and it still being almost daylight. It doesn't get really dark till after midnight and the sun starts to come up again about 4:30 5am. This is my favorite thing about St. Petersburg. No fear of staying out late in the dark!

The Hermitage. Where students can always get in for free. Can you believe that? Second largest museum in the world. Free.

The little old Russian ladies in all the Museum's who yell at you in Russian if you get to close to a painting, use a flash if you aren't supposed to, and in general keep an eye on things. And when I say museums, I mean all of them, everywhere, in every room. Especially at the Hermitage and Russian Museum.

The awesome tour guide, Galina. All tour guides must pass a test to be guides. Meaning all tour guides here are certified tour guides! They take this stuff seriously!

Being able to walk so many places easily. Being able to walk to Palace square.

Walking out of the Metro and seeing the Church on Spilled Blood to my right and Kazan to my left and Dom Kinigy in front of me. My two favorite Cathedrals and bookstore.

The Metro. Being able to get anywhere by train. Being able to get downtown by Metro.

Blini. ... Though if things work out, I won't have to miss them for long. ;-)

Dorm life. Staying up late chatting with friends, having movie nights till 1am and not caring about being tired the next day, because every one else will be too.

Mollies, Tres Amigos, The Shamrock, Teremok

Being able to find ice cream any time, any where. For cheap. Ice cream stands are everywhere. Russian's love their ice cream!!! My favorite ice cream is only 14 rubles. Which is less than .50 cents.

The green space. St. Petersburg has some really beautiful parks.

The people I've met and made friends with... (though we've all promised to keep in touch!)


Things I won't miss

The smell. People in Russia do need to learn to take baths more often.

The dirt. Even though there are sweepers everywhere, it is still a very dusty and dirty city.

The lines. Waiting for two hours to get into Catherine's Palace.

The horrible dorm food. The bland cereal, the mystery meat, the lack of fresh fruit and vegtables.

Having to drink only bottled water. Making sure to never drink out of the tap.

Paying $1.50 for a Coke at a restaurant that is small and getting no refills. Ever. You have to pay for glass number 2.

Lack of coffee. I want my Starbucks.

Having to go down the hall to take a shower because the hot water is cut off.

The fact that the hot water got cut off in the first place.


Because of Russia...
I will never think about Saran Wrap the same.

The word "ribit" has a whole knew conotation. So does the Frog Prince.

I appreciate our water system more than ever.

I realize how much history one city can have.

How important good friends and family are.

I discovered that Snickers really are as good as everyone says.

I've eat more ethnic foods in a month than I think I ever have in a year... Okay maybe not a year, but still, a lot.

I have a goal set for at least the next few years. That is finish college at GCSU and get a degree in Mass Comm with a focus in print.

I'm also a part of something potentially big, new, exciting and totally crazy. But I can't talk about that yet. ;-)

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Wow, that was a long few lists. :-D
But then again, this trip really has been an experience for me. Just like Mom and everyone else said it would be. It has been an experince I would never trade for anything.

Sorry I haven't given a real update in awhile. I've been busy! So here is a short one:
Monday: Alexander's Palace - the last home of Nicholas and Alexandra. This was amazing!

Tuesday: Last day of classes...finals! I passed, with an A!
We celebrated with Chinease food. We being Tracey, Rob, Justin, Sonia, Stephanie, April, Faith, Emma, Ben and Ben, George and Winston. It was good food. And cheap!
After dinner, some left. And Justin, Rob, Tracey, George, myself, Faith Stephanie and April went down the road a bit to the Shamrock Pub. It was very nice. We sat outside a bit a people watched.
When we got back several of us (minus Tracey) watched the Last Holiday.

Wed: Sleep in day! Then Rob, Justin, Tracey, April, Faith, Stephanie and I went to the Okay store. This is a lot like Super Walmart. On the way we had Pizza Hut for lunch. It was soooo good! The OK store was really neat. And also very cheap. We all "complained" about Irina not telling us about it sooner. A lot of the stuff we had been buying (ie candy and tea) was a lot cheaper here. Every one bought a tea, chocolate and vodka to bring home.
When we got back, everyone had to pack and get ready to go to Moscow. Except me and Tracey. :-(

Thursday: Very quite because everyone but myself, Tracey, Big Ben, Chico and Michael are gone. Plus two of the teachers, Jeff and Bob.
But it hasn't been bad. Tracey, Bob and I spent all day out on Thursday. We went back to the Hermitage and the Russian Museum. Some one tell Rob C.that he owes me 30 rubles. That painting he loves so much, the one with the sailors, is no longer at the Hermitage. It is at the Russian Museum. So I paid 30 rubles to go and see it. There was no way I was coming all this way, and going to miss it! Ever since talking to him about Russia, I remember him mentioning this painting!! So Bob and I sped through the Russian museum to see it.
It really was worth it! (plus I got to see some other really neat paintings...so I guess he doesn't owe me the 30) ;-)

Friday: Tracey and I went to the Lomonosov factory. The make procelain, and used to make it for the Royal family. I bought a beautiful tea set.
On the way back we stopped at McDonalds and I had a milkshake and a coke. We sat there for probably about two hours because we were both pretty wiped out! But it was nice taking it easy like that.
I ended up getting ready for bed by 8pm and was asleep no later than 1030!!! This was early!

Today I'm packing and sorting through all my stuff to figure out what to do with things.
Tomorrow morning everyone gets back from Moscow, and that evening we have our farewll party. We leave the dorms at 330am the next morning! I don't expect to get much sleep tomorrow....

My Weekend...

So my goal of updating more often has not really stuck. But at least I don't have to update a weeks worth of stuff! It will be much easier trying to remember what I've been doing since last Wed than to try and figure out what I've done since last Monday. :-)


Last Wed was one of the most fun of the trip. A large group of us (meaning pretty much everyone except the "Elderlies"), went to Banya. Banya is a lot like a sauna, but different. In Russia, a Banya is dry heat and steam. A sauna is dry heat, and a Turkish sauna is steam.

The Banya we went to actually had all three, but we mainly used the Russian ones. Then outside of the little banya rooms, were pools. Inside were two pools, a cold pool and a warm pool. Outside, (where the bigger banya room was) were three pools, an ice cold pool, a luke warm pool, and a heated pool. With the heated pool being the biggest.

What you do, is sit in the banya till you can't handle the heat anymore, and then you run out and jump into the ice cold pool. This closes your pores and cleans out all the "toxins" in your skin.

At first it was really strange, because the rooms are so hot and you sweat like crazy, however once you got used to it, it was very nice. Though admittedly it took a little while before I jumped into the ice cold pool. But once you get hot enough, it feels really nice.

I wish I had pictures, because it is really hard to describe, but it would have been much too hard to take pics! All in all, it was a lot of fun. I'd love to go back, but I don't think we'll be able too.



Thursday was hard, because we didn't get back in until 130am Wed, and we had classes Thursday morning!. (we had the banya to ourselves, so we had to go late). But class wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. After lunch I took a nap because I knew we were planning to go out that night, and I was really tired. I'm so glad I did!

Our plan for Thursday was to meet up with people for Mexican and it went from being a small group of us, to almost everyone. Which is not really what we wanted. It actually got really crazy, but I mainly stayed in my room and watched people walk by and didn't bother getting in all the confusion. I kinda knew who i was willing to leave with, and figured I'd wait it out.

So by 6 things finally settled out and I left with Bob (one of the teachers), George, Justin, Tracey and Tim.

Once we got to the Mexican restaurant however, we learned that they were booked for the night, but we could sit outside. Okay we figured this wouldn't be a problem. But then, MaMa April, Tutor Sonja, and Daniel showed up. This caused some confusion, but since Sonja was Russian, she managed to get us a table.

But it didn't stop there!!! Not long after we sat down, Faith and Rob showed up for dinner. So after some re-arranging, we finally got them squeezed in. All this time we've been trying to order drinks and food. And then, the other Sonja, Emma, Tutor Masha and I think maybe some one else showed up! And somehow, we managed to squeeze them in as well.

It was crazy. But it was a lot of fun, everyone all squished together in the Mexican restaurant. We finally all got our food and drinks and were happy. My dinner was very good. I had a burrito, because they don't have tacos. Can you believe it? It was a very good burrito too. I seriously wanted some chips though. Unlike America, you have to pay for chips, and then I tried the chips some one else bought, and they were spicy any way.

After dinner we went and sat around a Mollies for a little bit where I had some divine chocolate ice cream. Then it was time to head home. Here are a few pictures from the evening:

Faith and Rob





My dinner





At Mollies - Faith, Me, Justin





Afterwards, we came back and several of us (Mama April, Rob, George, Justin, Tracey, Tutor Sonja, and myself) all sat out in the common room talking. Rob played with my camera. He has a film SLR and really wants digital. So he was playing around with mine.

He took this picture of me and really liked it, so I thought I'd share. (he like the expression)





Friday was our last culture class of the trip. After lunch, I managed to get a hot shower (did I mention we don't have hot water in but three rooms). At 3, a group of us all met up at the Russian Political Museum where they had a special KGB exhibit with a lot of papers, and pictures that belonged to the KGB. It was really interesting, but hard because Irina had to translate for us, and nothing was in English. Oh, except for a letter to Russia telling them we'd got their spy. ;-)



After that, the group split up and I went with Irina, Justin, Faith, Rob, Sonja, Bob, and Frank to an Indian restaurant. I was a little nervous about it at first, but it ended up being really good. I had Butter Chicken, and it wasn't very spicy at all. I think it was cooked in yogurt.

Justin ordered Chicken Biriyani, and though I didn't try it, it did look a lot like what Mom makes!

Then we walked around a bit on Nevsky and went into one of the main bookstores there. Then we went to the souvie market across from Spilled Blood. However they were closed as it was almost 9 o'clock.

However, all the way in the back of the market, selling his own photographs, was a Russian Hippie! I wish I had not been too shy to take his picture, it was crazy! All his pics were in black and white and were very different. He was hysterical. Mainly because he was about 50 or 6o. It was very funny.

Then we came home. Once we got home, we had a tea party in Irina's room. That was a lot of fun. She had several different snack items, and I had some really good tea. So we all sat around, drank tea and talked about the trip. I was going to go to the American Consulate that night, as they open their doors to fellow Americans every other Friday night, but I'm glad I didn't because I had a nice evening in.


Saturday was a day I had been looking forward to for a long time, Tsarkoye Selo. This is also known as Puskin, Catherine's Palace and The Tsar's Villiage. It is one of the main palaces of the Tsar's and is really beautiful.

Sadly, the day didn't turn out quite like I expected, but it was still fun. We ended up having to wait a loooong time to get in, and then we ended up seeing only about 6 or so rooms of a HUGE palace. Irina was surprised when she heard, so I think there are usually more rooms open, I'm not sure why there weren't that day. Yet despite the few rooms, it was still very beautiful.


Here are a few pics...there are more on Flickr.

Front Gate





The Palace









Thoughts were tossed around for what to do when we got home, but it was decided that we were all pretty tired. So we stayed in. Dinner was pretty bad, so about 9 me, Justin, Daniel and Frank went down the street to grab a couple of blini's at Teremok. They have great blinis that they make on the spot. Russian fast food! They aren't my favorite blini place, however they are the closest, and when you're hungry, it works.

Several people did go out that night, but April, Stephanie, Frank, Justin and I stayed in and watched the Family Stone. It was nice to be in and not doing anything!



Sunday was a free day, which meant sleeping in. However I had a fieldtrip make up I had to do, so I couldn't sleep in quite as late as I would have liked. April and I ventured out into the city and got lost, but it worked out fine beacause I got us back to the Metro without any problems. The only reason we were "lost", was the fact that we didn't make it to where we were supposed to go.

I got back at 2:30 and then went to meet up with Faith, Rob, Justin, Tracey and Irina at a mall called "Grand Canyon" which is evidently a huge mall. However, I think it is about the same size as Lenox or some others at home. But I guess for Russia, it was big.

It was a really nice mall, new. I didn't buy anything as it was very expensive, but it was fun to look!


For dinner we had Chinease. It was wonderful. It tasted a lot less greasy than the Chinease at home. The only bummer was, no English menus! So Irina had to read everything off for us. I had beef and vegtables and fried rice. It was so very good! Since Irina helped us out so much, we payed for her dinner.

Then we got back, acted crazy, (that was when I called to wish Dad happy birtday), and ended up watching School of Rock. (April brought a bunch of DVDs with her. Yay

I would go into today, but it is time for dinner, so I'm going to run. Lots of love to you all!!! Oh, and if you could keep in your prayers me and April. April has been sick (which is why she hasn't been doing a lot of the late night stuff) and today I've been coughing and have a runny nose. I don't feel bad, but I know my late nights, plus living with some one who is sick isn't the best!

But hey, I'm just running with the crowd. ;-) Every one here seems to be have been/or is sick!!!


http://www.flickr.com/photos/lils_photos/

And by the way, on the pictures, if you want to see them bigger, you can just click on them both here and on Flickr and see different sizes.

Of Letters and Concerts

I decided I had better try and update before a week has gone by again. I took me forever to do that last update!

First off I want to thank my wonderful friends and family. I have recived several pieces of mail the last couple of days and it has been so exciting! I recived a really sweet letter from Leah yesterday (mailed the day I left) and then today Irina brought me a letter from the Duffey's and then a letter from Mum which also included some really sweet notes from the Ack family. Thank you guys so much! It really brightened my day. Oh, and tell Nathan no worries, I tried it once and didn't really like it. And tell Matthew I haven't even seen caviar once, I'm doing my best to stay away from it. Hugs to you all.

Okay, lets see, today is Tuesday and I updated last on Monday right?
Well Monday night we went out to a traditional Ukranie restaurant. I must say, I wish I hadn't. Russian restaurants do not seem to know how to handle large crowds, our food took two hours to come, no ones food came at the same time, and it was expensive. Lets us just say only a few people came away from that meal actually happy.

Tuesday morning was class. It was the day for our presentations, so that means I gave mine on Annie Leibovitz. I wish I'd had a few more pictures, especially the ones for Sarejavo, but oh well. I still think it went really well. Then, because that was the night for the concert, I came back after lunch did some e-mail and laundry and then took a nap. Which was a good thing because I was tired!

We left here for the concert at 6 and made it down to the arena a bit before 7:30. Russia is very different concert wise. The doors to let people into the arena didn't even open until half an hour before the show stared. (Unlike places such as Phillips Arena when they would have opened two hours early). Plus, people didn't really show up until 8:30. One good thing though, the opening band started at exactly 8pm and Evanesance came out at exactly 9pm. Yay for good timing!

The group of April, Stephanie, Justin, myself and one of the tutors (Masha) had some really good seats. Not the best, but we were looking right at the stage.

The opening band was good, they were a Russian band that had a bit of a sound like Evanesance. I would have liked one of their CDs, but I don't know the name of the band or if they were selling their music at the arena. They finished playing at 8:30 and then they cleared the stage for Evanesance. At 9 they came out!!! The concert was amazing. They played several of my favorite songs, which was awesome. They played a lot from the second CD that I don't really know as well, so that was a bummer. But hey, it was still great music! April and I are huge fans so all the songs from the first album that the sang, we also sang. And of course would scream at each other whenever they played something we knew really well.

Amy Lee, the lead singer, said that we were one of the best crowds on the tour so far. And they'd already been a lot of places!! This was also their very first time in Russia!
Here is us after the concert... with the t-shirts we bought. Stephanie is pointing to the St. Pete tour on the back of the shirt (how awesome is it that I saw them in Russia during their European tour??)


Jeff told me I didn't have to go on the all night field trip last night so I didn't have to miss the end of the concert. Yay! But I still have to make it up, so some of us are going to try and go out on Saturday because Sunday is a free day and we can sleep in.

Today Stephanie and I went to a little souvenir market outside of Spilt Blood. I bought a several little items and I think I'm close to being done with my souvie shopping!

Tonight, a group of us are all going to Banya, a bit like sauna, except Russian style. The only bummer is we are going from 11pm to 1am and I have class in the morning. I'm not sure why Irina scheduled us for them, but I think we have the whole place to ourselves.

Love to all..

Last Week... (long post!!)

So yesterday I was going to update, and got a little sidetracked... :-) So I'm going to try and do that now, especially since everyone has gone out for field trips.

And by the way, about yesterdays conversation with George, it was a good argument on both sides. And though we did get a little loud, we weren't angry at each other or anything like that. Thanks for all the encouraging words and thoughts!!

On to last week!

Last Monday was pretty laid back. I updated my blog (as you all read), laid about the dorm room and just enjoyed some quite time in general. All the afternoon class people were out on their field trips and I just sat back and relaxed.

That night I had the chance to attend a traditional Russia Folk show that was amazing. We got second row seats (first come first sever basis) and I also remembered to bring my camera. The dancers wore traditional dress, even the musicians. There was one guy with a huge balalika. He was way in the back, but I was able to get a pretty decent picture of him.

Here are just a few shots, you can see the rest at Flickr.


Huge Balalika:




This picture is of a traditional Ukranian folk dance that was amazing. It was all these women dancing around and gossiping to each other in the market. The blocking for this was amazing!






Okay, I'll stop there. But there are a ton of pictures at Flickr.

So that was a very fun night. What is surprising is that not very many people went. I think they missed out on a really wonderful performance! Oh, and a funny story from that night... there were some people in the front row who heard us talking and turned around to ask us where we were from. They turned out to be from Canada on a bus trip. When they found out we were from Georgia, one of them mentioned that we didn't really have a Southern accent. I laughed to myself because Justin and George weren't with us, and they didn't speak to April. Or they would have heard that good ol' Southern accent!

Tuesday I had my class in the morning where we talked about shutter speeds and apeture. Still trying to work that out. But I used my apeture setting the other day and was very happy with the result. Its just hard trying to remember everything!! What different settings are etc. On our field trips Jeff, my teacher is making us use the shutter speed priority setting so that we can get used to using it. I still haven't gotten the hang of what it does exactly yet, but I'm working on it!

Tuesday afternoon Stephanie and I waited for the afternoon classes to be out to figure out what we were going to do that night. We ended up deciding on a Italian restaurant called Mama Romas.



Stephanie, April and I went later than everyone else because they had to stop by EuroMed. On of the members of our group, Faith, had been in the hospital for three days at the beginning of our trip and this was a check up. And Rob was sick and need some medicine as well. Since the three of us didn't really want to go to EuroMed, we went and reserved a table for everyone.Which was a good thing because the restaurant wasn't big!

So at 6:15 we met Tracey, Rob, Faith, Justin, Sonja, Emma, Frank and one of the tutors for dinner. Three of us split two pizza's and I got some fries. Fries seem to be the one thing I can get here that always taste just as good as they do at home. For dessert I had tirimisu that was amazing!! They really do have some wonderful desserts over here.

After dinner we all came home. Then, I was sitting in April and Stephanie's room and we were talk about how much I was always in there and there was never a place for me to sit... and suddenly I thought it might be neat if I moved my mattress into their room. This idea was tossed around for awhile, and then we did! And so my bed has stayed ever sinc. My room mate Meg, is not in our room much at all, and I seem to spend a lot of time in April and Stephanie's room, so it seemed the logical thing to do. It has been a lot of fun, a brilliant idea, and has made our room a bit of a hangout sometimes.

Wed was my class field trip out to a small town called Gatchina. Which if I hadn't been so tired, might have been enjoyable. Our train ride there took almost an hour, it was a bit dreary outside, and not nearly as pretty as Pavlovsk. We walked all over the park and took pictures. Here are just a couple of pics:
Ducks swimming through the lake...




This an adorable little boy we took some pictures of. He seemed to enjoy it very much. Doesn't he look a bit like David P. when he was little?



It is spring for Russia, so we have seen a lot of ducks and there babies. While we were walking around, we saw this family of ducks that actually let us get kinda close!!



So after a very loooong afternoon of walking, we came home. I actually feel asleep on the train I was so tired. We all decided to stay in that night and take it easy. So April, Stephanie and I watched "The Last Holiday" with Queen Latifah. It was a cute movie that had some really funny parts.

Thursday was class again in the morning. And Stephanie and I decided we'd had enough of sitting around doing nothing, and headed out for the afternoon. We went down to the Hermitage to see more of the Winter Palace. Turns out a lot of the rooms are being re-done and we couldn't see them. But we were still able to see a lot of really beautiful rooms. I'll probably go back at least one more time to look at the paitings. Stephanie isn't a big painting person.

That night we went on a seemingly spur of the moment ice skating trip. The rink was open until 11, so we didn't even leave her until after 8. The group included me, Stephanie, April, Irina, Jeff, Emma, Ben and Ben, Winston, Micheal and Chico. It was a lot of fun. It wasn't a huge rink, but we and just a few others were the only ones there. We got on the ice a little before 10 and skated for an hour. I didn't fall down once!! I think we are all thinking about going agian.

After that, it some how ended up (despite how tired we were) that some people (Rob, Justin and Faith) wanted to watch a movie with us, so we started Anastasia, but they were all asleep after the firs half hour. (it was close to 2am)

Friday was culture class (dull) and then a group of us, April, Stephaine, Faith, Emma, Rob, Jeff and Tracey, went to the Lomonosov porcilain factory. They used to make all the dishware for the Romanov family. They have a store with porcilain that they make for a really good price. I didn't buy anything, but I really wanted to! They had some gorgeous sets. Both Rob and April bought a teaset for themselves.

That evening, several people went out to different performances. Most of those with us went to Swan Lake. I was interested, but it was running about $60 for tickets. I didn't want to go that bad.

So Tracey, Stephanie and I treated ourselves to a steak dinner at the Stroganov Steak House. Stephanie and I split a dinner (which was a smart thing to do!) and it was wonderful! We started off with a salad, and it was so good to finally be eating some lettuce! For dinner we had a New York Strip, fries, and sauteed vegtables. For dessert we had Key Lime Pie. It was the beste Key Lime Pie I have ever eaten. It was amazing!!! But I think I already mentioned that. :-D

Saturday was a really fun day. We went out to Staraya Ladoga which is out in the country about 100 km from St. Petersburg. It was a long bus ride, but the countryside was worth it.

On the way there we stopped by a World War II memorial that was really interesting. In WW II St. Pete was besieged by the Nazi's for 900 days. And though they surrounded the city, they never broke through. This is a big deal for the Russians because it was such a hard time for them and they lost 1/3 of the population during that time. (Which I think was close a million people...the 1/3 that is) But the Nazi's never broke through. So it is a matter of national pride for them.

Near the location where we stopped at Staraya Ladoga was a fort that was built a looong time ago that we toured. It was very neat. Got some good pictures there.

This is Rob, Justin and Brady... Rob being crazy as usual...(the fort is near the river and they are just on the outside of the fort looking at the river)


This is a view from the fort, it was really beautiful country:


Me at the Fort (and do you see how I'm holding my purse? I wear and hold it like that pretty much at all times, especially on the subway...that way I don't get pick-pocketed!)


In Russia, it is traditon for a couple after they get married to go around to all the famous landmarks around the city and get their picture taken and drink champange. So far we've seen a lot of this, especially around the city. And while we were at the fort, a newly married couple stopped by to take pictures...


After a tour of the fort, we went about a mile down the road to a spot near the river. It was also next to some anciet burial mounds, a bit like Etowah. There, the tutors had set up a spot to cook and started cook shashleak. Which is kinda like what we would call shish-kabobs. There was chicken, pork and salmon. All of which tasted really good.

This is a view from the area we were:



Our bus and one of the mounds:


The Group:






The ride home seemed long, I guess it wasn't though. Rob fell asleep and we had to take a picture...


We got back about 8:30 and despite mentioning several times going to bed early... we didn't. Stuff happened (drama) and myself, April, Faith, Tracey, Justin and George ended up staying up till almost 3. But it was fun and at the same time needed.

Sunday April and I slept in till 11 and decided to stay in. Stephanie went out touring. And of course yesterday George and I had hour big discussion. But for the most part it was a relaxing afternoon with George, April and myself. And then a quite evening with the same three plus Tracey, Justin and Faith again. We also watched Center Stage which was awesome. It had Ilia Kulik in it!

And now I'm trying to finish this update and go with Stephanie to a Wal-Mart type place. Tomorrow is class again. Then that night is our Evanesance concert and my all night feild trip for photography. Yay!!!!



Signing off with lots of love to you all...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lils_photos/

Homeschool

Well, I was going to give everyone a long update, and it was going well until George came in and some how we started arguing about homeschooling.

He's been trying to convice me that I missed out on so much by not going to highschool and dealing with all the different ethnic groups, cliques, going to basketball games, dealing with teachers etc...

He thinks I/we are to much in a sheltered bubble and are not learning how to deal all the the things listed above and in turn won't know how to act in the real world. He thinks we should all experience highschool and the things assosiaticed with it.

Basically we are coming from two very different points of veiw. I don't have a problem with having missed out, and he thinks I don't understand enough to know whether I missed out or not. He thinks we learn and grow through these experiences. That we need to see the pot heads, the drunks and such.

I dunno, its just crazy. But its hard to explain stuff like that to some one who has only been out of highscool a couple years and doesn't know the people I know, or seen what I've seen etc.


Any way... I guess I'll sign off and try to update later.
And by the way, George and I aren't mad at each other or anything, but neither of us will agree with anything the other said so...its just a little frustrating.

Yes I'm still here! Sorry I haven't updated in awhile. Things have been busy here this past week! And still actually I don't have time to update because its one am!!! *meep!*

Tomorrow I'm going to Staraya Ladoga. A place by a river about 80km away from here. We are have a picnic and shaslik. (russian bbq) Should be a fun outing!

Went ice skating last night. Had a blast. Plan to go back soon.

Have my concert tickets for Evanesance. At the ice rink last night we saw where we would be sitting, pretty good seats!!! Not the best, but not awful either. (and yes the ice rink was in the same place as the concert will be... kinda weird)

Had the best steak and key lime pie tonight. Its funny, even though I've had some Russian food here, I've also had some very amazing "normal" food.

Any way... I need to run.

Missing you all!

Oh and Mel K. - today something happened (or actually some one said something) that totally made me think of you. and I realized I miss hearing your voice. And you are such a Mom. ;-)

Christy... Just to show how much of a crazy geek I am... I've actually been checking the D*C website while I've been here. HeeHee.

Joelle... you are right! Thanks so much. Everyone behaving on the forums?? Any spammer problems?

And would some one tell Mr. Steve that the story he tells about the French and the Russians and "bistro" being a Russian word was told during our tour of the hermitage. Almost word for word!! I found it very funny. Because actually... I wasn't to sure if Mr. Steve was being totally truthful or not. Turns out, he knew exactly what he was saying. (and tour guides here have to pass test to be tour guides)

And can some one find out from Rob if he knows anything more about his favorite painting in the Hermitage than just what it looks like. I haven't found it yet and with as big as that museum is, I'm not sure I will unless I have some idea where to look. (like is it french, british, impressionist....)

Okay... I'm really going now

Just a quick note...

This was so exciting... I had to post...

I just had my photography teacher look over my pictures from our first field trip (as all the students are supposed to do) and he said of all the ones he'd seen so far, I had the best! And I know he's already looked at most of the class.

How cool is that! He said I had very good composition. That a lot of people were just doing "point and shoot" and not setting up a shot. :-) Any way... I just thought that was exciting.

Of Food, and other things...

So things around here have been pretty busy since my last update. We've been spending a lot of time away from the dorms seeing things. But today is a free day for those of us who don't have afternoon classes, and I'm taking advantage of that by updating my blog and doing laundry. :-)

Today I thought I'd talk a little bit about life at IMOP. Merci asked me the other day about coffee here and I thought y'all might be interested in hearing some about the food.

On the coffee thing, truth is I haven't had coffee here yet. Unless you call that nasty brown instant stuff I had the other morning coffee. And personally, I don't. Tea is a big thing here, so every morning we have a large pot of hot water for instant coffee or tea. I have been drinking the tea most mornings, but the other day they were out and so I braved the coffee. It was nasty stuff. I do not recommend it.

Our meals at IMOP do not vary much. So this shouldn't be too hard.
Breakfast consists of cereal, usually a type of corn flakes. Sometimes sweet, sometimes not. As well as a type of hot cereal (not very popular at all) eggs, either fried or hard boiled, yogurt, and jucie. Jucie is very popular over here, so we have it every morning and at lunch. The jucie is either apple, pinapple, orange and a couple times we had peach. I tend to like the apple or orange best. On the food side, I usually only eat the cereal. Sometimes I'm brave enough to try the yogurt, but not always. All the flavors are in Russian, and I've tried a couple that have been pretty bad.

Lunch always comes with soup. The Russians like their soup, and so we get it for lunch. Sometimes its good, and sometimes it isn't. For example, the other day we had Borscht, that is beet soup. It was awful. Tasted just like beets. Which I now realize I don't like. But for the most part, I have enjoyed the soup. At lunch we also have some kind of meat (mystery meat as we say), cold vegtables (ie cor, peas, cabbage), bread (with every meal) and some sort of pastry dessert.

On some days however, we have a sack lunch. Our first sack lunch was awful as I think I mentioned. Thankfully though, it has gotten progressively better. Last week it was a ham and cheese with waaaay to much mayonasie. After that day, I made my own lunch with some bread from breakfast and peanut butter. Yesterday our sack lunch was peanut butter and jelly with a Kit Kat bar. That was good. We also get a piece of fruit with our lunch. Mainly this is an apple, but Saturday it was a pear. A really good pear. Not every one likes pears, so I've managed to snag a couple extras. Yay!

Dinner is sometimes the best meal of the day. That is when dinner isn't a mystery meat (either chicken meatballs, pork, or other hard to indentify meats). Lately, dinner has been a little better. Chicken and rice one night, Chicken last night. Mashed potatoes, potatoes or fries have also come with dinner and sometimes lunch. The fries were wonderful, but we've only gotten them once. Vegtables with dinner are rare, except for "cold cuts" such as tomatoes, cucumbers or red or green peppers. Corn or peas are also served a lot for meals, but they are always cold. Not very good at all.

The other day at lunch they served green beans and califlower and that was really good. I'm really hoping that they will serve that some more.
One day for lunch they served fish, which everyone was excited about until they tasted it... It was very fishy fish. That was not a good day for me. It was the day we went to the Hermitage, and since I didn't hardly eat anything at lunch and no protien. So about halfway through our tour, I had a horrible sugar crash. It was hot, I was hungry and my feet were killing me. Not a good combination. I really wasn't sure I was going to make it out! But thankfully I did. It would have helped if I could have had some water, but no water is allowed inside the Hermitage. And you know why? Because one time, some guy came in and asked where the famous Rembrant painting was, pulled out a bottle and threw acid on the painting... yeah. So no water allowed in.

But I did make it out. Then Stephanie, April and I went looking for a restaurant. The one we wanted required reservations, so that set us off on a hunt for a different place. We finally found a nice little place called daVinci which served Italian food and the server spoke English. The food there was divine... of course part of the reason it tasted so good could have been the fact that it is pretty easy to get tired of the food here at the dorms. I had a Coke (that came in a glass bottle), Penne with tomato sauce, and chocolate ice cream for dessert. :-)

So this is already a long blog so I'll try and wrap it up.

Since I last posted I have been to the Hermitage (Friday), the Gulf of Finland (Saturday) and Peterhof (Sunday). I think if I hadn't been starving, the Hermitage would have been more enjoyable. And if my feet hadn't been killing me as well. But students get in for free, so I know I'll be back. It is the second largest museum in the world, so I'm sure you can imagine how big it is! While I was there I saw works by DaVinci, Rembrant, Monet and Michalangelo. I'm looking forward to going back.

The Gulf of Finland ended up not being near as exciting as it should have been. We had to wait for a bus for two hours, and that was all standing. It was awful. Then we ended up being at the beach only about 2 hours (not much to do there), and on the way home had to stand on the bus for another hour and a half. I cannot remember a day when my feet have ever hurt so badly. It is a day I really could have missed. I also got a sunburn on my arms that day.

Sunday was much more enjoyable. Peterhoff was built by Peter the Great and is a truly beautiful palace and grounds. The sad thing is that the palace was pretty much destroyed durring WW II when a bomb landed in the center of the palace and burnt it to the ground. So hardly anything there is orginal. Though some of the people who were there at the time were able to save about 50% of the artifacts there and took pictures of everything. The restoration to the palace is amazing. And I think it shows a true dedication to the history of Russia with as much as they have done to it.

There is a huge souviouner market outside of Peterhoff, so yesterday I bought quite a few things! So far I'm very happy with them. At the museum shop, I bought four books. One of Peterhoff, one about Nicolas II and his family, one in Russian but with a bunch of pictures of Alexi Romanov that I hadn't seen before and a little one about all the Russian Czars. They are very neat.

Again, I've posted some pics here http://www.flickr.com/photos/lils_photos/
Sorry, but I don't have time at the moment to post them up on the blog. But as a sign off, here is me at Peterhoff...



Love to you all...

To My Friends...

Just wanted to let my dear friends and family know how much I miss them. I am loving Russia and am not ready to come back at all. But I was looking at some of E's pictures today on Facebook and suddenly realized what a great group of friends I have. I have some great friends here, but nothing will replace you guys!!! Lots of love to you all!


(and remember, this isn't a homesick/pity party post...its an appreciation post!)

Parks, Churchs and Pics

So let me see... what have I been doing since the last time I updated...

Yesterday was our field trip to Pavlovsk Park. Pavlovsk is a palace that was given to Paul, the son of Catherine the Great. Who surprisingly she didn't like, but still she gave him a huge park and very nice palace. Our mission of the day was to photgraph the park. It is HUGE and very beautiful. It is left in its "natural" state, and very beautiful. I took a lot of pictures, of course, and have been working on uploading them.

The Park:


Me at the park












However, pictures cannot even begin to describe how beautiful it was. It was so natural and was a really nice day. The sun was out, it wasn't too hot or too cold. The only bad thing was the fact that there were not many places to sit down. So this means I was on my feet for about 5 straight hours. Yeah. My feet haven't hurt that bad in awhile. Thank goodness for advil!! But really, it was all worth it. I wish we had places like that in GA. Because like I siad, I just can't describe how peaceful it was to be at this park and how amazing. And we didn't even cover the whole thing!


Then we got back by dinner time and had dinner. Of everything on this trip, my only complaint is dinner. I haven't had fresh fruit or vegtables since I left. I am seriously craving a Chic-Fil-A chicken ceaser cool wrap. Will some one send me one?? ;-) I may have to break down and go across the street to the grocery store and buy some fruit.

After dinner, I did some stuff on the computer and hung out with Stephanie and April. The computer is in their room, and we all take turns on it etc. And we ended up being up till midnight last night and it was so much fun. We were laughing and talking... it was great. I must say, I have some awesome suite mates. Meg was off in some one elses room. Every night people either go out to clubs or something like that or hang out in each others rooms. I tend to stay with April and Stephanie because they're...well, normal. ;-)

This morning was class again. After lunch, there are afternoon classes which a lot of people take. However Stephanie and I don't so, we decided to go out. Today we went to The Church on Spilled Blood (named so because a Czar was murdered here) and went inside. It was amazing. The walls were covered in mosacis. You had to pay an exray $2 to take pics inside, and I decided not to. But I did buy postcards. Because again, words can't describe the beauty! Especially since all the walls were covered in elaborate mosaics. So I bought some postcards, which are also very beautiful.

After that, we went to Our Lady of Kazan again. Stephanie hadn't been, and I knew she'd like it. The first time I went, I didn't wear a headcovering because I hadn't brought one, and though it wasn't required, I felt really bad for not. So this time I brought one and wore it both in Spilled Blood and Kazan. I felt much better this time around in Kazan! Even though a lot of people didn't have head coverings, it just felt like I needed one. Kinda hard to describe why. No pics are allowed on the inside and they don't sell postcards. :-( Which is extra sad because they have a beautiful icon of Nicolas and his family that I would love to have a picture of. (they were all sainted).



Me at Spilled Blood


Then we walked around a mall, a huge, huge, mall and came home for dinner. A lot of people went to the Hermitage today for the class they are taking, and many stayed downtown, so there weren't as many people at dinner as usual. That also means that it is pretty quite around the dorms now. Plus the military guys went out I think.

Stephanie and April just went out to the store to pick up some ice cream I would have gone with them but I need some alone time. Been with people all day and that's just a little more than I can handle. So I'm updating my blog and listening to some Evanesance. When they come back we're going to watch Clue. Some people (aka meg) don't seem to understand how we can stay in the dorms when "there is so much to do" but, when you can't speak the language really well, you don't quite know your way around, and you've been out all day, staying out is hard to do. Plus, this means I'm not tired all day or during my classes. And I don't want to get sick thank you very much, because I'm so tired. I don't see how some of these people can stay up/out so late and then go all day. Well, in reality they can't because then they crash after a couple of days.

I bough a bunch of postcards today. So hopefully I can start sending them out soon!

Oh, and Karen, I didn't see your comment about Terry Pratchett until 2 hours before he was here on the 5. And even though I knew where he was going to be, it was downtown during rush hour and I couldn't get anyone to go with me. So sadly, I didn't go. :-(

I've added a ton of pics all of which you can see at http://www.flickr.com/photos/lils_photos
I think there are about 3 full pages.