Catching up!Jul 18, 2009
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Anne Marie & Dr Smirnova at Peterhoff Palace
| After some minor glitches (and a few major ones) our trip journal is finally up for viewing in the correct format! I will post more about specific excursions later, but for now I will just get everything caught up. Unfortunately, Shala has had to leave us so currently our group consists of me, Dr. Smirnova, and Boris (a student at FinEc who has been like my personal guide and entertainer). Hopefully Dmitry, the history lecturer can join us for more outings, but he has a newborn son so I think he will be more behind the scenes than in previous years. I have picked up the alphabet pretty fast and have learned some words in Russian, although thankfully many people here speak at least some English. I'm not quite sure why, but I've been surprised at how wonderfully friendly many people are here. My name is a little difficult to say, so I've taken to calling myself Anna, which has turned into Aniushka (Анюшка). Everybody here has a nickname. Today we took a hydrofoil boat to the summer palace of Peter the Great called Petrodvorets (or also Peterhoff). I really enjoyed it and will write more about that later. Tomorrow morning I am meeting Dr Smirnova early at the Hermitage and in the evening I am going with Boris to see Buena Vista Social Club. I'm looking forward to it! -Anne Marie |
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