Walking in a winter wonderland.

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This past weekend was a good weekend. It felt very mich like I would expect a winter's weekend to feel like during the time of the Tsars. I went with Maragaret to the Yusopov Palace, which took a little while to get too, because it turns out that there are to Yusopov Palaces in Peter, and the one I saw on my map and started walking to was not the right one. On the up side, the wrong one had a pond that was completely frozen over so I have some kick-ass pictures of us walking/running on ice. If this computer had a usb outlet, you would have them too. Unfortunately, the weather isn't cold enough for long enough for the Neva to freeze so a picture of me on that will just have to wait. Luckily for us, Margaret has an uncanny sense of direction, even compared to me, and see just knew where the other palace was and how to navigate through the alleys of Peter. We got the other Yusopov, which is awesome, wandered around, I got caught for taking pictures, decided I wanted to make a replica of the Yusopov theater in my house when I'm rich and famous, and then we left. For any of you who plan on being in St. Pete in the near future, I highly reccomend the Yusopov, and I didn't even have time to go on the Rasputin tour.

After the palace, Margaret and I met up with Kevin, and subsequently Ted too, and got some food and saw a movie. We saw Alexandra, which is a movie about a woman who goes to visit her grandson who is serving in the army in Chechnya. My host mom was really excited when I told her I saw it because it stars a really famous Russia singer, but the entire moving we were just sitting there waiting for something to happen. At least we got reimbursed for it.

Also, I don't know what it is about winter in Russia, but all the marshrutkas seeming to be breaking down. The doors don't want to open, the back door of one I was in was held shut with duct tape and a seat belt and the drivers keep stalling. It's freezing sitting on there for an hour and a half waiting to get to school and the whole system just seems to be breaking down. I'm kinda losing my patience with Russian transportation.

Anyway, I gotta get going.
As always,
From Russia With Love

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Photos

Yusopov Palace
The one picture I got before the babushka caught me.