Not The Last Post But Close

I have a few thoughts to share.

First, all my photos from the trip are uploaded to my album on Picasa. Remember you can view them without registering for an account and they are all nice and commented on and very nice, so look at them. The link again is: http://picasaweb.google.com/FrCeKo/RussiaSummer2009?feat=directlink

Second, you may be curious about how I spent my last day in Russia and jazz like that. I woke up, got ready and headed over the to Lycee because Stas needed us for a few minutes. After that, around 12:30 I met up with my Russian boy and we walked down by the river and took a few pictures. Then we crossed the bridge and met up with the group and Stas at the pizza place and had some champagne/tea/pizza. My good Russian friend Masha also met up with us and it was so wonderful to see her. Then we walked down to the Kremlin to take a few more pictures. Another Russian friend, Alina, met up with us which was nice so that I could say goodbye. Then I went with the boy, his name is Sergei btw, to see his family's apartment. I was interested to do this because I wanted to see what other apartments were like and how they were set up/furnished. I also met his brother for a quick second. Their apartment is nice. It's on the edge of the city so there was a nice view. Then we headed over to my apartment. I had to buy a card on the way for Lena so we stopped at Rus, the big store. Then we went to my apartment and spent the rest of the evening eating pilmeni for the last time and packing. While I packed Sergei helped me translate a note into Russian to put into Lena's card, read me the story of the Little Mermaid in Russian, and also told me the story of Cinderella in Russian. It was SO cute. We also listened to some music and he played with my ipod and kindle. Around 9 Misha came over, then Masha came over too, and Lena got home. We all hung out for a long time, later than I should have stayed up because it was really hard to say goodbye. Sergei stayed the longest because that goodbye was especially hard. We both got fairly attached fairly quickly and had spent a LOT of time together for the 4 or so days prior to my departure. We both knew that I was leaving, but we definitly care about each other, and that's as far as we could get.

Tuesday was all traveling. 2 hour bus ride from Novgorod to St. Petersburg. Had to say goodbye to Lena at the airport. It was horrible. Then we flew to Helsinki (took about 2 hours), changed planes, flew to NYC (took about 8.5 hours). Went through passport control and customs. Had to wait about 4 hours in the airport to fly to Roch. Ended up having to wait about 2 more hours on the plane and didn't get into Roch until about midnight. Then another hour drive home. It was an exhausting day of travel but my time feels all messed up because I am on Russia time, not New York.

It feels very strange to be in America. I missed silly things like my bed and my cell phone. As well as my friends and family. But I really miss Novgorod. I feel like I'm at my house, but I'm not quite at home.

Anyways, I will probably post one or two more times in the blog about my trip but then I will be switching to a new blog about my life in general since my trip to Russia is over :-(