Я Ещё Живу

Forgive me, I haven't written in awhile, I've had a lot going on. I've been to many places. The past two weeks I was on vacation, I spent about a week in Moscow with my friend Christian and with my parents. My parents and I toured Moscow we saw the Kremlin, Red Square, Lenin's Masouleum (very weird), the convent where Peter the Great sent his wife b/c he became bored with her, State Museum, and the American embassy with the golden arches also known as Don's or McDonald's or Макдоналдс. Christian and I had a fun time we found a cool wine place that just opened and we were invited to the opening by our new Italian friend, who also cut up a 40kg piece of bologna. We sang "Strangers in the Night" with musicians at a German restaurant and afterwards they recruited Christian to join them, don't know if he's going to do it though. Had the best hot dog ever, Star Dogs. A hot dog wrapped in bacon with ketchup, mustard, onions and pickles. soooo tasty! also had shaurma or in novgorod called shaverma also really tasty. Had Uzbek food which is also tasty and had Georgian food with Christian and my parents. Also very tasty if not more tasty!! After Moscow my parents and I travelled by overnight train to Novgorod for a day and saw the sights and had dinner with my host parents. I was the translator and by the end of the night my head hurt and was making silly mistakes such as saying "tomorrow" instead of "yesterday." Just from mental exhaustion. Slept very well that night. Next day we travelled by train to St. Petersburg where we saw Peterhoff, Catherine's Palace, Paul's Palace, and the Hermitage. I left them and went to Великий Устюг (Velikyi Ustyug). We also went to an ice bar which was way cool, everything was made of ice even the glasses! Velikyi Ustyug was an interesting place. 30,000 people and kind of difficult to get too. Took a 24 hour train ride to Kotlas and from there an 1.5 hr bus ride to the bus station followed by a ten minute cab ride into the middle of the city. Only thing there is Дед Мороз or Father Frost (their equivalent of Santa Claus) I happened to run into him at the post office where I was buying some souvenirs. So naturally I got a picture with him. I saw him the next day when I travelled to his estate, a 20 minute cab ride from the city. He recognized me, he even said, "Welcome guests! and the guest from America I recognize, yesterday we had a picture taken together." He has a very deep booming voice. I had a tour of his residence and must say he is more stylish than Santa Claus. He has fifteen different outfits all different colors while Santa Claus only has the red suit. Santa you gotta get with it. I even asked Father Frost what happens to the bad children, he responded with, "they get the worst presents you can imagine." Kinda creepy. His estate was also a little creepy. Set in the forest in the middle of nowhere, he has a trail you can walk around that has background noises of howling wolfs and hooting owls. Eerie. I'll post some pictures later. I even got a picture with his reindeer, he only has one. Father Frost is up with the 21st Century, he moves around be motorized vehicle. I think he even has his own helicopter. Though I would never want to fly in his, nothing against his piloting skills. I just don't trust Russian made helicopters. Anyways I left Velikiy Ustyug two days early and thankfully the railway ticket agent had the patience to help me change my tickets. I left Yadrikha which is in the middle of nowhere on the way to Kotlas, and went to Vologda. 12 hours. And to save money I went third class where 54 people fit into one train wagon, not bad but not too comfortable. Don't fit on the beds, luckily it was an all day ride. Arrived into Vologda with 3 hours to kill. Tried to negotiate with the head provodnitsa or nachal'nik on another train going to Petersburg if I could change my ticket. She said I was too late. But there was another provodnitsa (female carriage attendant) who tried to help me and was very nice. But it didn't work out, had to wait the three hours. Waited and caught the 12 hour train to Petersburg, thank goodness I went second class. I slept the entire train ride. Spent the day in Petersburg and saw the Blockade Museum. Very interesting, I wish it had more but it didn't seem like it had a lot of testaments from the civilian population. Took the train back to Novgorod last night. Today tried to buy some running shoes that caught my eye but unfortunately not in my size, uber lame. Went to the opening of a supermarket. Never have I seen soo many people standing in line to go to a supermarket! In front of the supermarket there were tents with games. One was arm wrestling, called arm wrestling in Russian. I played and won, after a grueling 5 minutes. I won a can of plov, uzbek food that I've wanted to try. I wanted the supermarket t-shirt but I got canned food instead. At least I won something. I saw a 12 yr old boy go up against a babushka (grandmother) and she took him down easily. It was hilarious.