Ballet and Back to Novgorod

The ballet Swan Lake was absolutely beautiful. The leading swan ballerina was incredible. It was a lot of fun to get dressed up and go to the theather. We had really nice box seats too. I think even the boys enjoyed the ballet because it is a story and meant to entertain rather than be overly technical dancing.

When we got back to the room we just hung out. Our new friend Max came over. He is visiting Europe with his mom but he goes to school in Penn. We met him the first morning we were there at the bliny place. He was super chill to hang out with and I hope my path crosses his again someday. (Plus he said he would read my blog...so "Hi Max!).

Getting home to Novgorod was awesome. I missed Lena, Tamara and Max (my little brother) SO much. I was also super hungry when I got home because food was expensive in the 'big city' so Tamara was super excited to feed me becauase I didn't refuse anything she put in front of me. She was thrilled...it was adorable.

Started up classes again yesterday morning. I feel like I am getting a better handle on Russian language. Learning a lot of grammar and phrases which is really helpful. We had a test this morning and I'm pretty sure I did ok. Yesterday we had a really interesting lecture in Russian history about Paganism and superstition in Russia. It was really very interesting. I also got to see Masha, one of my very good Russian friends who I hadn't seen in almost a week which was really nice. We were going to go see the new Harry Potter movie in russian last night, but I couldn't actually make it because of my internship and stuff. Oh well, I wouldn't understand most of it anyway.

My internship is going Ok. Sasha and I go to the orphanage for 2 hours after class and basically just play with the kids and color and stuff. It's really fun. They try to teach us a little Russian but I am still struggling a little bit to understand them. Oh well, it is good practice.

Tonight Colin, Magda, Misha and I are going to see a little opera type show at the drama theater here in Novgorod. The company of performers is actually from St. Petersburg though which is cool. I'm off to have some tea and food, then go to the orphanage, then to the theater :-)

Francesca