The Tsar's Funeral

Anyway, I changed, but skipped breakfast and the "elective" tests that only David ended up taking. Slowly, everyone else woke up . We hung out at home for a while, but all wanted to be downtown after lunch to see the Tsar's funeral procession. We were running late and the whole city was in a deadlock.

In the subway on the way down, though, I bumped into John Isham-- my Russian teacher at Columbia. We rushed madly down Nevsky from "Gostiny Dvor" to the "Hermitage" and made it there to see the colorful crowds and helicopters. The procession was really simple-- black vans with the coffins and purple vans carrying soldiers and important persons, etc. There was some military music, but the most impressive thing was all of the soldiers in their uniforms.

Overall, though, the whole thing was really low-key.

After the procession, Ally, Katherine and I all went to McDonald's for dinner where we bumped into Tricia and David on their way to the ballet.

After that, we headed back to the dorm for Dan's going away party. He and Karen had been cooking and preparing all day. We were just a little bit late, but there was good food-- salad (a big luxury here!), and little toasted sandwiches and "trash can" punch. I stayed so late with Tricia and David and Diana and Melissa-- even after Dan went to bed. (Diana is a student studying at the university. She's from Croatia.)

Anyway, we were up really, really late and I had been up all the night before. I'm not even sure what time I fell asleep...