Anoher week!

       Well I can't believe this! Another week has gone by and I haven't posted! Life is crazy here, and when it's not I am too tired to do anything. We have the day off today because it is the "Day of Russia" when the Russians declared themselves free from Communism. Because of this I was able to catch up on my sleep a little bit (woo hoo!) and have time to do other things, like post this blog.

       So much has happened this week, and I am now down to only 19 days left in this country! I suppose I left off at last Wednesday. After class we went to Menshikov palace, which was the finest, most expensive palace in Saint Petersburg during the time of Peter the Great. Thursday we went to the Peter and Paul Fortress. This fortress was first made to keep out the Swedes during the Russian-Sweden war between the late 1600's and very early 1700's. The funny part, however, is the fact that the fortress was not finished until long after Russia had won the war! In the church inside of the fortress the Romonovs were re-buried. Other famous people that were buried there were Cathrine the Great, and Peter the Great.

Outside the fortress

One of the walls of the fortress

While I was there I got my pictures drawn...for free! I was so happy because I had been wanting to get one done. It doesn't look exactly like me, but it was done pretty fast, and it was free, so I'm not complaining!

After the fortress I went to see mom and grandma at their hotel. We went out for supper and I had a huge hamburger and fries, yum yum!

         Friday was a free day so I met up with mom and we went shopping, picked up some Russian food and took it back to the hotel to eat with grandma. I felt so bad for them when I left because there was a wedding reception going on in the ballroom downstairs, and it was extremely, extremely loud. My word do Russians know how to party!!!

       Saturday I went to Peterhof Palace with my group. We had to take a boat out to the island (There is a way to drive it, but it takes much longer). It was absolutely gorgeous! The palace wasn't extremely ornate, but the extensive gardens were stunning! Everyone watch out when mom gets home, because there will probably be some major renovations going on in our garden, hahaha!

The type of boat we rode on.

 Lot of pictures, but it still doesn't even cover 1/10 of the beauty of the gardens!