the weekend

Unfortunately, the Kiev trip was cancelled at the last minute because Irina is sick. So it looks like I may not make it to Kiev, though there's still a possibility we might go next weekend. The only thing is, my plane ticket home is on 5/21 departing Moscow at 2:20pm, so depending on the timing of trains and how long it takes to officially "check out" of this country, that may be cutting it close. Stay tuned as always.

So I had a rather unexpected lazy weekend! That doesn't mean it wasn't welcome, though. To start, Politology didn't happen on Friday when the professor simply didn't show up. I was already planning to meet Laura that afternoon to go to a souvenir market, so I did, and just as that adventure began I wound up text messaging half a dozen people about rescheduling Politology for next week. Oi. And then it started to rain. The good news was, I got a few things at the market and then Laura and I ate at му-му! All in all not a bad Friday (minus the waking up early for a class to be cancelled part).

Then Saturday was the grayest, gloomiest day you've ever seen. I slept until 1pm or so and ate a leisurely meal at the cafe while doing a bit of homework and reading. Then I wrestled with my computer for a while and Skyped Mike, Dad, and Lynne for a total of about 3 hours. Yep, that was Saturday.

Today, Sunday, was looking to be similar to Saturday except the weather was nice! Around 5pm, Laura texted me asking if I wanted to join her on a boat tour of Moscow. This seemed pretty random, but hey I'm all for random things, so off I went. It was great! It really helped tie Moscow together in my mind, since when you travel everywhere by metro you don't really get a good idea of where stuff is relative to other stuff. We went along the Moscow river from Kievskaya metro station all the way to Proletarskaya, weaving our way through the center of the city. Took a ton of pictures that I'll eventually post online. That took a good 2 hours (not including finding each other, finding the place where the boats left, and buying tickets - another hour or two) and then it was 9pm. We were starving, so back to metro Universityet we went and into the Ramstore mall for dinner. I had Rostik's KFC (a chain vaguely associated with KFC but not as good, though their "zinger" sandwich isn't bad) and she had a piece of pizza and blini from Teremok. A very excellent afternoon/evening.

Soon I'm heading to bed, because tomorrow I actually need to get stuff done. In the next week there's a lot to accomplish, and a fair amount going on. I need to complete my astronomy research, do some homework for Thermal Physics and Russian Language, and come up with a presentation for Russian Studies Seminar. Nothing's scheduled for Monday, but that should keep me busy. Then I have two class on Tuesday plus I'm going to go to orchestra to tell everyone thank you and good bye. There's a make-up Politology class scheduled for Wednesday and I'll probably also have my last astronomy research meeting that day. In addition to the normal two afternoon/evening Thursday classes, Peter Scherpelz's Dad will be in Moscow and I'm meeting him for a late lunch. Friday will bring my final Politology class. I also need to do laundry and pack sometime, which could be complicated if I try to go to Kiev. Whew.

I suppose you could say this is the beginning of the end...pretty crazy! Part of me wonders "where has the semester gone?!" but the other part remembers February. :) For now, bedtime.