I don't have HIV!

So the saga begins.

I go into the office of St. Petersburg State University on last Thursday because I needed to extend my visa. They tell me that the person who I needed to talk to was not there and I needed to come back on Friday and talk to Natasha.

I talked to Natasha on Friday. She took down my information and told me to come back on Monday.

On Monday I came, she told me to come back on Tuesday.

On Tuesday I came, and she asked me why I hadn't taken care of this before! She also told me that I needed to fill out some forms, bring 600 rubles, and also have new "document-type" photos taken and get a new certificate saying that I didn't have HIV.

So I was planning on doing stuff after school on Tuesday, but instead I go to the nice, non-sketchy laboratory where I got my first HIV test taken. I went there, and asked somebody in the hall where to go to get my blood drawn.

She said to go to a poliklinika.

But I didn't want to go to a poliklinika.

But I went there anyway, and the front desk was taking a 20 minute break at the time. Everything else in the poliklinika was working, but the front desk wasn't. So I went back to the laboratory where I got it done the first time, and asked again. Same response.

Then I call our resident director, who came to my aid there. It turns out that the nice laboratory no longer performs those types of services.

So I had to go to a poliklinika.

And wait in lots of lines.

With all of the other sick Russians.

But it turned out fine.

And then I went back today and picked up my certificate and I don't have HIV!

Cats cats cats nothing but cats

....and the saga continues.

I was summoned into the CIEE office and was told some exciting news - they found me a "luxury" apartment in a really safe and good and close and excellent neighborhood and I was welcome to move in any time! The lady was a professional musician and very nice.

So, I go to her apartment for a "meet and greet" and the first thing I see is a cat.

A very pretty cat, a very soft cat, but a cat that still has dander that would make me miserable.

So there goes that.

But today they told me that they decided where to put me next semester and it sounds really nice! The best thing is that it is close to my orchestra. Which I am skipping today because I am sick.

Golden Ring

1. Frescoes inside a church inside a monestary in Suzdal

2. A courtyard inside a monestary in Suzdal

3. Another Church in Suzdal, a town in the Golden Ring

Moscow again!

1. A church in Suzdal, a town 130 km northeast of Moscow

2. A town square in Sergiev Posad, a town 60 kilometers northwest of Moscow

3. Bulgakov's grave

Photos finally!

MOSCOW PHOTOS


1. The former KGB headquarters
2. Red Square at Night
3. St. Basil's Cathedral

Circus.Museums.Churches.Walks

That is what I've done in Moscow!

The circus was spectacular. Stilt jumping, ice skating on stilts and jumproping, a bear driving a car, bears walking like people, bears walking like people while catching rings and putting them on their head, monkeys doing tricks in the air, a flawless trapeze act, and clowns that were really funny!!!!

I went to the Tretyakov Gallery - the one with famous Russian paintings and the one with the modern crazy ones - the Mayakovksy Museum, the Museum by the name of Pushkin with an awesome Impressionist collection (probably the best I've ever seen in my life), the armory where all of the jewels and faberzhe eggs and thrones and crowns are kept.

I walked around many churches, and went to the Monastery where the "Who's who" of the Russian dead is buried, including Stalin's wife, Mayakovsky, Prokofiev, Scriabin, Kabalevsky, Bulgakov.

I walked around Moscow and saw Gogol's house, Pushkin's house, Chekhov's house, the stroll that the Anna Karenina sisters walked along, and the park in Master and Margarita.

Lenin's corpse

You can still see Lenin's decrepid corpse inside the Red Square in Moscow, and I waited in line for an hour to do just that.

It looked really fake. His head looked completely completely just like wax, only his fingers looked like a dead person. And his body had no form; it was more like a potato sack full of hay with a wax head of Lenin and creepy dead person hands.

But, the body is getting to a gross condition so that they are thinking about closing it down permanently with his "real body" and burying his "real body" next to his mother in Petersburg where he wanted to be buried and putting a memorial to him there.

Mind-blowing discoveries I've made

The Importance of Boots

Boots are not just a fashion statement! People actually wear them so when it gets cold and there is snow on the ground and then it gets warmer and rains and turns to slush - - your boots protect your feet from the water that will get in them if you wear shoes and keep your feet warm.

The Importance of Scarves

Also not just a fashion accessory, keeps your neck warm

Eating my Words

So I said that I thought Moscow was really inferior to Petersburg and I didn't think I needed to go there, but I was so very wrong!

I love Moscow so much! I think it might be at this point because I've only seen the cool tourist things and the nice parts of the city and in Petersburg every day I see the neighborhood that I live in...

The Moscow metro is so much better than the Petersburg one! It is much more efficient and the map looks a lot more confusing, but that is because there are more stations so there is always a really close metro stop.

And the trains in the Petersburg metro come only every two minutes or more, and the Moscow metro trains come every 30 seconds! Even at the rush hour times the Moscow subway is a lot less hectic than Petersburg.

I really wish I was studying in Moscow in the spring.