There are two guys playing poker at the table next to me. That's all on that.

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Also can I say that I seriously disagree with the Olympic Committee?

So my experience in Sochi was greatly tainted by the weather this week, but let's be honest, weather will probably affect the Olympics too. It rained a lot while we were there. We had a couple days of sun, but it wasn't nearly what we were told it was going to be and very disappointing. But I can take you through the week. Monday was the first day of hardcore rain. Leah and I slept late and by the time we had woken up, Andrea was there. Andrea wanted to see the town so we took the marshrutka to Sochi (our hostel was halfway between Adler and Sochi and therefore a pain in the ass) and wandered around for a little bit. We ended up eating dinner at a Stolovaya which was cute and quaint as probably only Russian majors can think. We walked up and down the boardwalk and stared at the sea in the rain for a while, and I tried to get some pictures of the waves crashing into the boardwalk, but I don't think it worked. Tuesday we went up to Krasnaya Polyana, which is the valley where they're going to have the skiing and a lot of other events from the Olympics. Unfortunately the chairlifts were being repaired until December so we couldn’t go up to the top of the mountains, be we did walk around for a while. We wandered for a little bit, had some lunch and then went back down to town and went shopping in Adler. Wednesday was one of the few clear days in Sochi. We first went and tried to change hostels, which ended up having us search for babushkas to host us in their houses. It would’ve been good, except it wasn’t worth the hassle of moving to Sochi for me and Leah since our flight was leaving from Adler, but it worked out pretty well for Andrea. Then we went on boat cruise of Sochi, which was beautiful but cold at sunset. Thursday was our last day in Sochi, so Leah and I went off to explore Adler, and we went to the market, until it started raining really hard. Andrea went off to Sochi for an excursion of some kind. We met up later in Sochi with some Russians from Adler who we had met earlier in the week. All in all, Sochi was ok, but there was so much rain, that it prevented a lot of stuff we wanted to do outdoors and certainly no tanning. Maybe it’s nicer in the summer…

As for now, I’m back in Petersburg, probably for the longest stretch I’ll ever see. I went shoe shopping today, though I didn’t buy anything. If only I had the money and the closet space… It is colder here and I’m going to need to buy gloves before things get really painful. Anyway, I’ve got some random things I need to do since I’ve been incommunicado for 10 days. So, send me emails and updates as always.

From Russia With Love

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