"Niet Paruski" ("I don't speak Russian.")

That's a (very) rough and phonetic translation. 

We've been in Russia for the past five days and had our "4th" of July party as we left port today. Finally, good food! After wandering around a country where I can't even understand the alphabet, it was the perfect "coming home." I don't think I've ever been so happy for barbecue, lemonade, and American flags! No fireworks, though. : (
Russia was definitely different than I expected - St. Petersberg is really pretty and not as gloomy as all the literature lead me to expect - and it's much much bigger than Bergen. I spent most days just walking around exploring with people, looking at buildings and monuments. We had "Russia Day" instead of classes the day before port, and they scared us all with horror stories about the metro, Russian vodka, pick-pocketing, xenophobia, and lost/stolen passports. Thankfully, no one I know of had a problem with any of those things, and most of the Russians I met were friendly.
The first night I got to go see Swan Lake at the Hermitage theater, and it was really pretty but I felt a bit uncultured because I expected it to be obvious that this was world-class ballet, but it looked normal-amazing, as opposed to amazing-amazing, to me. I could even see the main ballerina's arm shaking from our box! A few nights later we went to see another ballet at the famous Mariinsky theater, but it was modern (Glass Heart) and so strange. It seemed less like ballet and more like modern dance; they used more arm movements than leg movements, and there were a lot of (very confusing) props. Not knowing the story always makes it a bit more difficult, I suppose.
We went to the Hermitage (Catherine the Great's winter palace, which is now a museum) this morning and it was HUGE - we only made it through two (out of 7?) floors, but managed to see Rembrant, Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, Van Dyck, Cezanne, Picasso, Pissarro, Rodin (my favorite!!), Matisse, Kent, and a WHOLE lot more. Not to mention the palace itself is the most opulent building I have ever seen. Then we went souvenir shopping, which wasn't quite as cheap as I'd hoped, but everyone got very cool presents. Also, I got to hold a baby bear. (We were walking through the park near the Bronze Horseman, and saw a very strange looking dog, which upon closer inspection turned out to be a bear, and it was only 100 rubles ($4) for pictures with it, so I got to hold it and feed it from a bottle. It was only 10 months old and very cute, though a bit dirty.
There are so many places that I didn't get to visit - including Moscow - so I'll have to come back some day, though preferably with translator and car!
We only have two days of class before Denmark, and it's incredibly easy to get out of the habit of doing work while in port!

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