Peterhof and an All Night Party and a Real Russian Dinner

Today was a really fun day. We woke up early and all assembled outside to get on the bus to Peterhof. Melissa was flipping out about whether or not we were getting lunches.

Anyway, the bus ride was kind of bumpy but okay. I mostly listened to my walkman.

First we saw the Chinese Palace, not quite at Peterhof. It was so beautiful, but we had to walk for a really long time and it was hot out. After that we headed to Peterhof where I was completely stunned. The fountains were absolute perfection and trumpets sounded and the water sparkled and it was indescribably wonder-- the best ever!!

We walked around there for a while and I waded in the Gulf of Finland. It was so hot and I really wanted to run in a fountain, so I did. I got absolutely drenched. It was so much fun. When we got home, everyone was pretty tired, but we had all agreed earlier on going out.

It took us a while to get our act together, but we finally went out for drinks at "The Idiot." We were there for a long time and none of us really wanted to go home at all, so I hailed us a cab to get to some club that David knew (called "Metro.").

When we got there, we realized that it was 1:40 AM and the bridges were closing, so Ally, Katherine and Melissa went home. Tricia, David and I (the party trio!) decided to stay out all night. We went into the club. The lighting was really kind of cheesy-- eighties laser beams, but with a tough crowd. Tricia and David danced a lot. I met a couple named Tatiana and Igor and talked to Igor for a long time.

Later on in the evening, I met some Italian guy-- Ernesto and some Russian guy that he was trying to communicate with and translated for them between Italian and Russian. The Russian guy really liked me and kept offering to walk me home, etc. He even invited me back to his apartment. By this time, it was almost 6:00 AM, though, so I said "no" and the three of us headed back home.

I bought a beer in the street and Tricia and I sang Bon Jovi on the subway when guess who we bumped into? The Russian guy! Anyway, we managed to dissuade him and made it back to the dorm.

The three of us stayed up in the lounge talking for a while. I cut my finger and then went down to breakfast at 9:00 AM after a shower.

The next day:

I was all ready to go shopping at noon with Katherine and Ally, but at some point I completely passed out and fell asleep and never made it.

The rest of Sunday was basically spent recuperating and doing homework. Oh, wait-- that was wrong. We had to eat dinner with a real Russian family. Ally and Katehrine and I met some guy named Dmitri downstairs at 6:00 PM. He was Olga's husband. Olga was a teacher at the university. She had two songs-- Sasha and Nikolai. Their friends came over later to meet us too. They were all university age. And their little grandma was there, who was born in 1904 and was SO sweet!

They completely catered to us with wine, champagne, coke and a Russian soda called "Kvass," made from bread. All the food was really good, but we were there forever. Nobody seemed to say anything about us going and before we knew it, it was almost midnight. It was kind of a weird thing.

Finally, Katherine told them that the dorm was closing, so Dmitri drove us home. Then homework and to sleep.