sorry!

okay i'm back. i keep meaning to write a big post but time isn't always on my side! :)

first off, rob got extended an extra three months in iraq. lame.

off to happier things. last weekend we went to Souzdal. we went to the train station around 4 pm to get tickets and let me tell you, it's a ridiculous experience in russia. they kept sending us to different windows and we couldn't really communicate well. eventually one girl with us flipped out and cussed out one of the workers, which kind of freaked us out haha. anyway we got the tickets and it was all okay...just took awhile. we caught the train around 8 pm (note to self: don't take a train out of moscow on a friday night, especially on the friday before easter). there were SO many people. we all crowded onto the train but it was PACKED. long story short, nikki, tanya, john and i had to stand in the aisle for the first hour of the trip because there were no seats. eventually enough people got off at different stops, though, and we were able to sit down. we started talking to this guy sergei, who was sort of hitting on me. ("talk to me beautiful." haha). i also talked to this older woman who was very interesting...we talked about soviet times and such, in both english and russian. at the end of the train ride (in all about 3 hours) she told sergei and i to exchange numbers! so i gave him mine (since i won't be here much longer) and we got off the train. then we had to take a cab to souzdal (the train ended in vladimir, another little town about 40 miles from souzdal). the guy had no idea what monastery we were staying at since we didn't know the name and he ended up charging us a lot because he drove us all around, but we got there okay. this monastery had a hotel that actually was pretty cheap and quite nice.

the next day we walked around souzdal and visited some monasteries (there are many, as my pictures will show). we ate some really good meals at some tastey restaurants too. it's a lot cheaper there than in moscow so it was nice not spending so much. we went to this one market and bought more souvenirs (i bought mittens and a hat because it was cold and i didn't bring mine, haha). at night we really wanted to try some mead (it's beer with honey...a medieval drink. souzdal is famous for it) and we went to this one place where we thought we could try it. but nope, they didn't have it. we went to a few bars and eventually found it. p.s., mead is pretty gross, haha.

on sunday we needed to go back to vladimir to catch a bus to moscow. we didn't realize that the bus station was 2 km away. we walked the whole way and this stray dog followed us, haha. we were exhausted. anyway we got to vladimir and then got on the bus to moscow. this policeman came back to where we sat after awhile (we were very nervous at first) and said he wanted to practice english with us. we talked with him for an hour about whatever, and when we were getting close to moscow he went to his seat and gave us a jar of homemade raspberry jam that his grandmother made! i haven't tried it yet but i'm pretty excited.

so that was souzdal. i'm uploading pictures so check them out: http://picasaweb.google.com/caitlinelectric

the other day i was hanging out in my room and got a knock at the door. it was this guy who had been hanging out in the common room...a russian student. his name was grisha. he sat and talked to me for so long (because, again, he wanted to practice his english. i'm a magnet for these people). it was pretty odd all in all. but interesting. he wants to go to cuba.

yesterday there was quite a bit of excitement. turns out there was a fire on the 7th floor of my dorm (i'm on the 9th floor). they're fixing the showers down there and apparently were storing some propane tanks. luckily there were no explosions...as we know, with a propane tank involved the situation could've gotten a lot worse. anyway some guy came banging and yelling up to our floor but i was napping, so i really had no idea what he was saying. eventually jordana came into my room and said there was a fire. i jumped up and ran out and this girl said "get a coat." and i said "nah i'm fine" and the guy who was yelling said "no! get a coat!" haha. we ran downstairs, saw some russian firefighters, etc. it was just smoking though so i don't think there was any damage.

anyway i think i got you all caught up. don't forget to check out my new album of pictures, devoted to souzdal.