So It's been a while. I won't try to catch y'all up to everything, since I am borrowing a computer and there are only 30 minutes of wireless at MacDonald's before some unknown horrific fate occurs, I will keep this brief.
,
My last night in DC was fun, and I got to see the Natural History Museum and National Gallery of Art before catching the bus to the airport.
My journey from the US was exhausting, even though shorter than the last time. I fell asleep on the bus into St. Petersburg, and so missed an introduction to the city beyond being startled awake by our Russian coordinators at important buildings. I fell into bed once the chaos at check-in was sorted out and slept for 12 hours.
Jet lag. Awful, awful jet lag. Bitterly resented the beginning of orientation in Russia, as it was mostly redundant. Coffee/Tea break was good. Almost didn't go out into the city during our free time, but am really glad I did go. 5 hours of walking, and I got to unknowingly discover most of the places I was absolutely dying to go. Church of the Resurrection on Spilled Blood? Yes! Winter Palace? Check. Admiralty? Done.
At 10 PM we went on a boat ride around the city. I have pictures that I will post here soon.
Today was pretty good. Will elaborate later. Have to let Hannah have her computer back now...and pack for our 2 AM wake-up call for our 3:30 AM ride to the airport. Oh, and I have to call Bank of America, as my card has been rejected at 3 different bankomats. I'm so mad. I took care of this before I left!!!
Love, Shelley
Friday, June 6, 2008
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
DC Daze
Hey gang!
I arrived at Reagan at about 2 PM on Sunday (my flight out of GSP was delayed for over an hour), and promptly retrieved my bags at baggage claim before setting out to find the metro station in the airport. It was easy to find, but I forgot all my rules of subway travel, and deliberately chose not to get on the first train going my way (as I was looking for a train labeled "Yellow-Fort Totten," rather than remembering that the end destination of the direction you want to go in is the usual name). That was a 45 minute mistake, as apparently "a body and a train collided" in the DC Metro that afternoon. This backed traffic up terribly.
The hotel was directly above the Metro station, and so I really had no trouble at all getting to the hotel once a Yellow train finally showed up.
As soon as I walked into the lobby, I saw Matthew Cox, a fellow Gamecock who has spent the past year in Georgia. It was soo good to see a familiar face. Turns out his room wasn't ready, and he'd been hanging around for a couple of hours. I signed in, dropped off my bags, and realized that I had 3 hours to kill before the Meet-and-Greet.
Matthew and I decided to walk over to the National Mall (its across and down the street from our hotel). There was a Jewish festival going on, so now I have a GoIsrael! beachball. We managed to run into the National Art Museum before it closed, and saw the Afghanistan exhibit as well as the modern art galleries. We both opted out of "Small French Paintings." The we ate egg rolls at the Filipino festival down the street. I love DC.
After our Meet-and-Greet, where no one remembered anyone else's name, we went out to Chinatown for dinnner. Unlike NYC, this food was identifiable and quite delicious. (and cheap. I got a bubble tea for dessert...yumyum.) We were all tired after dinner, and took the metro back to the hotel to crash.
I slept very well. My roommate is a girl from UVA goint to Nizhni Novgorod, the city I wanted to go to originally. Her name is Kristin and she seems really cool. Fortunately, we don't seem to have an excessive number of Russian Freaks on this trip. (you know what I mean.)
Orientation lasted ALL DAY. This was unnecessary. But they fed us fairly well, and a couple of people were actually interesting. Our program director talked in Russian for about 30 minutes, and I am proud to say I understood or got the gist of about 90% of what he said.
I tried to go to the other National Art Museum before dinner, but it closed at 5. Instead, we wandered around Air and Space. They have some really cool Soviet stuff that I don't think was there a couple years ago. And the commercial exhibit is way cool. Some attache to the Russian embassy came to dinner. He wasn't that interesting, but it was good to hear a native speaker again. I miss Russians, and Russia.
I've got to go. I'm paying $5.29 to use the hotel computer. Giant rip-off.
Oh, I leave at 5 PM or so tomorrow, so I hope to get to more Smithsonians before the van leaves at 1 PM for Dulles. I'm flying Lufthansa, and hope that a combination of busy museum going and Jack-and-Cokes will let me sleep until our 7 AM arrival in Frankfurt.
Love ya, Shelley
I arrived at Reagan at about 2 PM on Sunday (my flight out of GSP was delayed for over an hour), and promptly retrieved my bags at baggage claim before setting out to find the metro station in the airport. It was easy to find, but I forgot all my rules of subway travel, and deliberately chose not to get on the first train going my way (as I was looking for a train labeled "Yellow-Fort Totten," rather than remembering that the end destination of the direction you want to go in is the usual name). That was a 45 minute mistake, as apparently "a body and a train collided" in the DC Metro that afternoon. This backed traffic up terribly.
The hotel was directly above the Metro station, and so I really had no trouble at all getting to the hotel once a Yellow train finally showed up.
As soon as I walked into the lobby, I saw Matthew Cox, a fellow Gamecock who has spent the past year in Georgia. It was soo good to see a familiar face. Turns out his room wasn't ready, and he'd been hanging around for a couple of hours. I signed in, dropped off my bags, and realized that I had 3 hours to kill before the Meet-and-Greet.
Matthew and I decided to walk over to the National Mall (its across and down the street from our hotel). There was a Jewish festival going on, so now I have a GoIsrael! beachball. We managed to run into the National Art Museum before it closed, and saw the Afghanistan exhibit as well as the modern art galleries. We both opted out of "Small French Paintings." The we ate egg rolls at the Filipino festival down the street. I love DC.
After our Meet-and-Greet, where no one remembered anyone else's name, we went out to Chinatown for dinnner. Unlike NYC, this food was identifiable and quite delicious. (and cheap. I got a bubble tea for dessert...yumyum.) We were all tired after dinner, and took the metro back to the hotel to crash.
I slept very well. My roommate is a girl from UVA goint to Nizhni Novgorod, the city I wanted to go to originally. Her name is Kristin and she seems really cool. Fortunately, we don't seem to have an excessive number of Russian Freaks on this trip. (you know what I mean.)
Orientation lasted ALL DAY. This was unnecessary. But they fed us fairly well, and a couple of people were actually interesting. Our program director talked in Russian for about 30 minutes, and I am proud to say I understood or got the gist of about 90% of what he said.
I tried to go to the other National Art Museum before dinner, but it closed at 5. Instead, we wandered around Air and Space. They have some really cool Soviet stuff that I don't think was there a couple years ago. And the commercial exhibit is way cool. Some attache to the Russian embassy came to dinner. He wasn't that interesting, but it was good to hear a native speaker again. I miss Russians, and Russia.
I've got to go. I'm paying $5.29 to use the hotel computer. Giant rip-off.
Oh, I leave at 5 PM or so tomorrow, so I hope to get to more Smithsonians before the van leaves at 1 PM for Dulles. I'm flying Lufthansa, and hope that a combination of busy museum going and Jack-and-Cokes will let me sleep until our 7 AM arrival in Frankfurt.
Love ya, Shelley
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