The Last Few Weeks…

Hi friends!

So, if I could choose a theme for this past semester, it would be something along the lines of “Never count on Plan A, because nothing ever goes as planned.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining… I love the adventure and the many laughs I get from never being able to count on “Plan A”. If nothing else, being here is made me extremely flexible. From Day 1, I new my only hope for adapting to this country at all was for me to just go with the flow. (When I arrived, my only instructions for the next week, as I was by myself in this huge new country, consisted of a blue sticky note and 3 dates and times and a roomnumber by each.)

Well, once again, I’ve had to resort to Plan F. You can call it the Plan of Failure if you’d like, but I think I’ll just call it “the plan you come up with really fast because all your previous plans have fallen through and you have to have some sort of plan.”

Originally, my friend Ciara and I were supposed to leave Russia May 16 and travel around Europe until June 4. Unfortunately, what we didn’t find out until a week before May 16, was that the airlines didn’t actually change Ciara’s flight when we called them a month ago. It was changed on the website, but the actual flight didn’t get changed. By the time we figured it out, it was too late for her to really change her flight. So, after trying to come up with a few new options, I decided I would just stay in Russia for a few more weeks.

Of course, it was disappointing to realize I won’t get to see as many other countries as I had hoped, and disappointing that Ciara wasn’t going to be able to travel the world with me, but, at the same time, I’m at the point where nothing surprises me. It’s kind of become a joke here to say “Nothing surprises me anymore – I live in Russia” (You can also substitute the word “scares” for “surprises” in the appropriate situation).

So, here I am, hangin out in Russia, until May 30. It’s great. All the Americans are gone, which is both refreshing and depressing since there’s almost no one to hang out with. Thankfully, I have several friends from church and such that are still here.

I have a list of all the things that I need to see and do before I leave. There’s quite a few major tourist attractions that I just haven’t made it to, despite the fact that I’ve been here almost 4 months. But I’m doing quite well… I’ve already knocked 4 things off.

So, I’m here, enjoying the last 2 weeks of Russia! Seeing all I can see, and being all I can be. haha. minus the being all I can be part.

Anyway! I don’t want to leave this crazy place at all. But at the same time I can’t wait to see all of you in a few weeks and tell you my hundreds of crazy stories!

Here’s a few pictures of what I’ve been doing the past few days… there’s a bunch more on facebook.

at Peterhof… where Peter the Great built a palace and beautiful grounds with hundreds of fountains. At times it has been called the Versailles of Russia… Although I don’t think I could call that an equal comparison, Peterhof was really beautiful.