Today was my last day of actual class (excluding finals) in Russia, and while in America this would normally be an exciting day, today I'm admittedly a little sad. After studying here for 6 months, I've gotten pretty attached to our little, slightly run-down school building. And it's not just the teachers or the classes, but all its little quirks and idiosyncrasies. I'll miss the 20 ruble amaretto cappuccinos from the automatic coffee machine, Masha, the university cat who "really loves men" (according to my teachers), the creepy German who walks past our classroom and stares awkwardly several times per para... Sure, it'd be nice if they'd install some AC, but it's even kind of cute to see the teachers fight over the 2 fans for use in the building. Sigh. Saying goodbye is the greatest woe of a traveler.
Anyhow, now that I've mourned a bit, I'll report a little on this weekend's trip to Pskov! I dragged myself to the metro at 7:30 am so we could board our cozy little bus to Pskov. To be honest, I hadn't actually slept the night before, so the four hour trip went by pretty quickly! When we got to the hotel and had cleaned up a bit, we followed our excursion leader, Olga, around the city for a little while. We went into some really beautiful old churches and saw a super old fortress, on which one student decided would be a good idea to climb (unfortunately he hadn't planned how he was going to get down - not to worry, though, he survived). Then later on we were walking along the river and noticed some men drinking and jumping into the river from the top of a hill. I remember thinking they were nuts until all of a sudden Nathan, our RD, takes off his shirt and dives in after them! It was basically all down hill from there, and I also soon found myself shamelessly stripping down into my underwear to jump into the water, which had been designated as "dangerous for life" by a sign that I had noticed earlier. But boy, did it feel nice. Heat makes you do some crazy things. :)
Later on, we took advantage of the absurdly low priced ice cream and went to a park, where I proceeded to catch up on my ever-increasing sleep deficit. In the evening we went to dinner and observed the craziness going on in the center for Pskov Day. It basically reminded me of our state fairs - there was a concert, rides, cotton candy, face painting, and a bunch of happy, sloppy Pskovian citizens. Best of all, there was a firework show, which we watched from the side of the river and later on from our hotel room windows. The next day we visited an old monastery from the 12th century which had a nice display of old frescos on the inside. At 3 pm we had to say goodbye to Pskov and head back home on the bus, which was a bit less pleasant this time around due to the traffic from all the families coming home from their dachas. But we all made it home in one piece, in spite of a few cases of the grumpy-grumps.
And now it's already Tuesday, and time to take our test to see our summer progress tomorrow. It's gonna be a long one, but at least, I can look forward to a 20 ruble amaretto cappuccino during the break. :)
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