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.