Leaving Russia

Day 44:
We went to Yusupov Palace. It belonged to relatives of the Romanov's, including the man who is considered the ringleader of those who killed Rasputin. We also saw the apartments in which Rasputin stayed for a time and where he died.

Day 45:
The Russian Museum--Again. Can you say torture? That is mostly because it was another guided tour and we had to spend a lot of time with the icons, many of which were painted in the Novgorodian school. While we were there 3 team leaders were told that we would have to create a model of our own Museum of Russian Democracy. We were given further instructions on the bus--it had to have 3 rooms and include the past, present, and future of Russian democracy and we picked teams. Then we went to Peterhoff, which I was happy to go to again. It was very pretty and I enjoyed the walks here. Our design was a rather cynical one, which I will detal in another post, another day. It was funny though because we spent about 15 minutes on it and the other teams each spent hours on theirs.

Day 46:
The next day we met in the morning to present our ideas, so that we could not alter them after seeing the real museum. However, when we went to the museum it was closed. The director was there, but we were told that it is always closed on weekends even though out tour company knew nothing about this. We went back and they handed out the prizes--ours took second because I apparently missed the part of the directions where they said it was a state-run museum. The teachers really enjoyed it, but thought that it didn't quite fit the assignment. We were also supposed to go to the Ostap Bender Museum, but it was a personal museum in someone's apartment and he had changed it, so we didn't go.

Day 47 and 48: Last Full Day in Russia and Travel Day
We got to sleep in. Then we went to "Putin's Palace," also known as Strelnia, the one that was redone for the G8 Summit. It was nice, but not nearly as impressive as some of the other palaces we had been to and the security was ridiculous. In the evening we discused our papers one more time. That night we hung out until late because we had to be up at 4 am, the longest nap any of us grabbed was about 2 hours. We got to the airport around 5am because the first group was leaving at 7, but the Magnificent 7 (the teachers gave us that name because we did both trips) had to wait until noon to catch our flight. It was a long wait at the airport. Then we flew to Helsinki and had another 2 hour wait. After that we flew to New York. I got seperated from my travel buddy at check-in, so I waited at the terminal. While I was there I wandered around andended up buying the new Drake sisters book, which I still have yet to read. Eventually, both Sam and Beth found me. Her plane was supposed to leave out of the same terminal as ours half an hour earlier. However, that didn't happen. While we were waiting Sam made friends with a little girl and the girls kept track of the flights. Beth's said that it was at the gate but it also said 9:20 rather than 8:05 and ours said it was on time. We found out that our terminal was really backed up, so Beth's flight was delayed. Ours ended up boaring about half an hour late. When we left the terminal we found a temporary ramp constructed and were lead onto the tarmac to a bus, which ferried us out to our plane. Then we had to wait a while to taxi and the pilot told us that he didn't know what was oing on he had been ready to leave on time. We ended up getting back about an hour late, but it the day had already lated 36 hours so we were a little cranky. I was met at the airport by my parents and grandparents, which was nice. We went and got me a milkshake and them breakfast, by the time I got home it was after 3 am but I woke my brother up and gave him his presents before I went to bed.

Now:
Over a week later and I am once again adjusted to the time change. I have made several trip sto the library and am devouring books written in English that I can read jus for fun. In about two more weeks I move to New York. I am excited, nervous, and sad all at the same time. I don't know tht I'm ready to start the next chapter of my life and move on to graduate school, but here I go...