Pyramids? Check.

Carrie, Jenn and I spent all of yesterday sightseeing in Cairo and Giza. Our tour started with a trip to the national museum, where we saw a bunch of stuff from King Tut's tomb, and after having lunch by the Nile, our bus took us out to see the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx. It was surreal to see them in person. I had this feeling of excitement and accomplishment as I mentally checked "See the Pyramids" off my list of "Things To Do Before I Die."Then we went to a perfume museum of sorts. I didn't know this before, but Egypt produces most of the essence oils used in all the world's perfumes. We met a man whose family has been making essence oils for generations. He was pretty neat-- he said he could recommend a type of perfume for an individual by looking at his or her skin type and "aura." He told me that with my skin type (*cough* freckled and pasty) I shouldn't wear scents that are too sweet or flowery. Regarding my aura, he said, "You are a fighter." I wanted to say "Is that a challenge?" but instead I just bought some of the essence oil he recommended for me-- a light Japanese perfume.Tonight we're going to take a bus to Mount Sinai. The plan is to hike to the top of the mountain, watch the sunrise, and maybe receive the Word of God, if there's time.

Blog like an Egyptian

I now have in my passport a new stamp and two really cool visa stickers that say stuff in Arabic on them. You know what else they say on them? "Egypt." Yeah, man.We arrived in Sharm El Sheikh this morning, and our hotel is even better than we thought it would be. The pool is gorgeous, and even has a swim-up bar. Of course, I don't think we'll be doing much booze-drinking while we're here because the country is predominantly Muslim and furthermore, it's Ramadan. Whatever. I can drink in Russia. What I can't do in Russia is get a tan. Well, truthfully, I can't really do that anywhere with much success given the stubbornly pasty/freckled nature of my skin, but that's a whole 'nother story. What I'm trying to say is, I'm psyched to be here.A little later in the week we're going to the Cairo/Giza area to see the pyramids and such. Apparently we can buy tickets there on a local airline for less than 10 dollars. I don't know how I feel about that, exactly. I mean, I love bargains and all, but I just hope it isn't like a Flintstones plane or something-- like we all have to take a running start before we can get airborne.On the agenda for tomorrow: nothing. Absolutely nothing. Of course, our plans may change-- we might take the bus to the Red Sea and check that out. But right now, I'm looking forward to sun, pool, and nothing. Bliss.

23 hours in Moscow

Hi, all. Melissa, Jenn and I took an overnight train from St. Petersburg to Moscow. We arrived here at around 5 in the morning (Saturday), and we will meet the guy with our plane tickets to Egypt at 4am (Sunday). I got zero sleep on the train. Damn overheated tube-of-death. Right now, I'm running on sugar, caffeine, and fumes.We did have a pretty cool day, though. We met up with Carrie (she left Petersburg a day early) at her boyfriend Ivan's apartment in the outskirts of Moscow-- a classic (by "classic" I mean "endearingly janky") Brezhnev era apartment building. We met his brother Petya and his friend Nikolai-- nice enough guys. They invited us to have vodka (at 10am, mind you) and buterbrody (Russian open-faced sandwiches) of butter and caviar with them. Sooooo Russian! I'm actually developing an affinity for red caviar now. Thanks to childhood memories of camping trips and fishing in the Idaho wilderness, I never thought I'd be able to see that stuff as anything other than bait-- goopy red stuff in little jars in my dad's tackle box. Anyway, it was really cool to be socializing with folks here in such a Russian way. I was jazzed. Of course, that could have just been the vodka.Melissa, Jenn and I then spent most of the day strolling around the center of the city, including a visit to the Tretiakov gallery (free admission with our student IDs! Woot!). Now we're killing time at the airport. Egypt or bust!Poka!

Good News and Bad News

First the bad news: our plans fell through, and it turns out we're not going to Scandinavia for our fall break next week.
The good news: we're going to Egypt instead.
Actually, that's not really "good" news, is it? It's more like holy-crap-I'm-going-to-Egypt!!-awesome news.
This weekend, Carrie, Melissa, Jenn and I will be fleeing this freezing cold (albeit beautiful) meat locker they call St. Petersburg to lounge poolside at an Egyptian resort hotel.
Egypt, baby. Woot.

Zolotaya Osen'

The title means “golden autumn,” for those of you keeping track. That’s how they refer to this time of year ‘round here.To celebrate the end of the first round of exams, a few of the other students and I went to Pavlovsk on Saturday. It’s a town about a half hour away from St. Petersburg with a beautiful park—the former estate of Grand Duke Pavel, Catherine the Great’s son. It was great to get out of the city and see some foilage (sic).Foilage (sic), yay!From left: Alex, Swathi, me, Jenn (hiding, for some reason), and Hilary. We ran into some students from Hogwarts, who were there on a field trip. The locals got into the spirit of the season by making crowns out of the leaves. We were lucky enough to find some crowns that were left behind. Here’s Hilary, modeling one of the crowns: I tried to make a crown of my own, but it was hard, so I gave up. Alex apparently thinks we’re posing for a Calvin Klein ad in this pic:Even the statues were getting into the spirit of the season! We found a lovely bridgeSuch a good-looking bunch: Melissa, Jenn, Hilary, Alex, and me. That night, we traded Alex for Carrie (hee!), and the six of us girls had a fun impromptu Ladies’ Night in Swathi’s apartment. Her host family was away at their dacha for the weekend, so we had the place to ourselves. We stopped by a grocery store on the way to her place and bought a splendorific assortment of food and beverages—complete with three bottles of Soviet champagne! I love that stuff. I just love that it exists—oxymoronic in a way. Cristal for the Proletariat.Anyway, it ended up being a fabulous evening of delicious food, drink, and girl talk. It’s really cool how all of us in this fellowship group hit it off and became friends automatically. We don’t have classes during the last week of October, so a few of us are planning a boat trip to Scandinavia! I’m sooo excited!Oh, and I do have great pics from Novgorod, and I will post them once I figure out how to resize them. I’m still a bit of a greenhorn at this stuff. Do vstrecha!

Bonnie: 1, St. Petersburg: 0

Well, it's been a long week of tests and near-death experiences, kids. As far as the tests go, well, we've been assured that they're just for the teachers to assess our progress and tweak their methods accordingly. They aren't testing us to see who gets voted off the island (or islands, as it were-- damn swamp city). Which is a good thing too, since I did craptacularly. Have fun with that one, LJ spellchecker.
They made the mistake of telling us that the tests didn't really count towards any "grades" before we took the tests. Knowing that, I was so tempted to go all Mad Libs on the tests. That would have been great:
The Sofia Cathedral is the lumpiest cathedral in Russia.Peter the Great died after someone bet him he couldn't eat fifty eggs.In the Peter and Paul Fortress ladies drink free every Wednesday.
Oh, right-- I promised you near-death experiences. Well, I've gotten used to my life flashing before my eyes every time I try to jaywalk here. But this morning was extra special. During rush hour, the metro trains are filled to capacity. Everyone crams in, and if you find yourself in a pack of people moving in a certain direction, you have no choice but to go with the flow. Well, this morning I was caught in a crowd of people trying to cram into an already-full train, and I lost my footing at an inopportune moment: my right leg slipped between the train and the platform, down to my knee. Quite a moment. I said to myself, "Self, you're going to lose your leg, or your life, or both. You're gonna die ugly." Fortunately, a good Russkii Samaritan grabbed me by the arm and pulled me up just before the doors closed. I was too embarrassed to look him in the eyes when I thanked him.
But despite the city's best efforts, I escaped both its language tests and its transportation system with my life. Hence the score, Bonnie: 1, St. Petersburg: 0.
On to cheerier topics, here it is, abiding byim_no_robot 's rules: the Sex Mix, coming in just under the wire at 79 minutes, 59 seconds.
Cruisin', D'AngeloI Feel Love, Blue Man Group & Venus HumThe Wind Cries Mary, Jimi HendrixI Wanna Mmm, The LawyerDream On, Depeche ModeLatour 'Blue', Buddha Bar 5God Put A Smile On Your Face, ColdplayRapture, BlondieRez, UnderworldI Put A Spell On You, Nina SimoneFirst Cool Hive, MobyLove Song. 311You Can Leave Your Hat On, Joe CockerPurple Haze, The CureThe Way You Dream, 1 Giant Leap and Michael StipeDelicate, Damien Rice

Picture Dump

As promised...My host family: Tatiana Nikolaevna, Lena, Tanya, and Lena's boyfriend MityaMy apartment buildingMy bedroom. It's still this clean. I swear.Ema. The dog that God forgot.The statue of Pushkin in front of the Russian Museum.Let me put it in perspective, SAT style...RUSSIANS : PUSHKIN :: GERMANS : DAVID HASSELHOFFThe cast of characters: Hilary, Melissa, Mike, Carrie, and JennBadasses.Hilary and meJohn and AlexMe and Johnsome art museumWe're going on a tour of Novgorod tomorrow, so I'll hopefully have some moregood pics soon. I really like the other students in the group-- we all get along great. We're all feeling the stress of our classes and the workload, but having each other's encouragement and reassurance at the end of the day is a lifesaver. Plus we have fun on the weekends. Next up: a visit to the Russian Ice Capades and the Baltika brewery(fingers crossed!)So I'm having fun, and I'm getting an education. And I'm developing quite an affinity for seaweed salad andSoviet Champagne. Yum...