One Week Left

I can't believe I only have one week left here in Russia. I'm so devastated to be leaving, I can't even think about it. I haven't even started souvenir shopping or mailed my postcards yet. (Sorry guys! I'll mail them tomorrow I promise!)

Anyway. Yesterday was good. Went to the beach with Colin and sunbathed for a few hours and really got some tan back. Then I worked at the orphanage for a few hours. I can't believe I only have 3 more days with the kids! We've really done some fun stuff with them. Played catched, hopscotch, tag, colored with colored pencils, markers, sidewalk chalk, played on their playground, done crafts, jump roped. It's really been so much fun.

Today was similar. Couple hours and the orphanage and then Colin and I went to see a photo exhibit of local photographers. It was in the same old monastery where we went to do birchbark weaving with Matt's host dad (Vladimir?) in his workshop. That seems to be an artist community type place; it's cool. The exhibit was awesome. There were tons of beautiful pictures and a lot of them were of Novgorod, the Kremlin, St. Sophia, Jaroslav's Court, other monasteries. The pictures were so awesome. One really cool thing was to see pictures of Novgorod in the winter. It's summer here now, so it was nice to see what it looks like with snow covering everything. Still beautiful.

We also ducked into a couple stores on our way back. One of which was a jean's store named Colin's. We couldn't resist. I couldn't even resist taking Colin's picture out front by the sign. Cute. We also went into Diez which is a big media store and looked at some books. Then we came back to my apartment and chilled with Lena. She made these amazing zuccini pancakes that were delicious. I guess the zuccinis at the dacha are really thriving so she was trying to think of different ways to cook them. Anyways, when I get back to the states I will make you guys some zuccini pancakes. They are delicious with smetana by the way, of course.

Oh, and I have a culture tid bit for you. Itchy palms...you know the feeling? Anyway, if your left palm itches it means money is on it's way to you! Whoo! If your right palm itches you will be shaking hands with someone soon. Cool.

Some good news: Toma and Max should be back from the sea on Saturday! Also, my good friend Masha is coming back to Novgorod on Thursday! So I will get to see here again before I leave :-)