So for those of you who have been reading, you may have learned some Russian (there will be a test...), or you may have learned some interesting information about the Russian culture, or perhaps you just learned that Russia is not in America (sometimes I wonder about a college education these days...). However it might be, thank you for reading and laughing at my many misfortunes.
I start summer school tomorrow, so please bear with me as I try to get my pictures all uploaded to my computer and load them all onto some website where you can view them or order prints to bring home and share with you all in person.
My Russian has gotten much better over the course of the semester, and I have even found that I can read Polish (thank you, Dad, for sharing your anger at the Russian people in an educational manner; I hope none of Jillian's classmates can read Polish...). This has, therefore, been quite an educational semester for me.
Off now to study American Constitutional Law. That's not a jump at all.
20 May 2007
13 May 2007
Final Post in Russia
Hola, otra vez. I'm sorry that it's been so long since my last update, but I spent a week in St. Petersburg, and the computers in the hotel-thing were so outdated that they had a conniption trying to open PowerPoint...I didn't even try to get to this site.
So anyway, St. Petersburg was great, except for the fact that it rained and then got cold. Ironically, the day it poured was a holiday, so we walked around all day in the rain watching the "festivities" of "Dien Pobiedi," or Victory Day, May 9th, which is the day Russia celebrates the end of World War II. It was a big deal--parades, huge signs on buildings, flags (I even saw an American flag on the top of a military truck in the Veterans' Parade, go America!), drunk 10 year olds running around the streets, a concert and fireworks that night (although it was pretty light out at 10 pm...we're getting into what Russia calls the White Nights; because St. Petersburg is pretty close to the Arctic Circle, during the summer, they almost have no dark period at night).
I also toured the outskirts of St. Petersburg, where some of the enormous palaces are--one city is known as "Tsarskoye Selo," which means City of the Tsars (its real name is Pushkin, named after Russia's beloved poet). That city contains Catherine's Palace (Ekaterinskiy Dvoryets), where the famous yantaraya komnata (amber room) is. The entire room (on three sides) is made out of amber, and it is beautiful. I also went to the city called Petrodvorets (Peter's Palace), more commonly known to contain Petergoff. Everyone told me that the fountains would be off, but, lo and behold, I got there, and they were having a big preparatory celebration for Victory Day (I got there the 8th), complete with working fountains. So that was neat. I also think that, because of this celebration, they didn't sell tickets for the lower gardens, which is where the better fountains are. They just let people through, so I only spent 250 rubles for the tickets instead of 500 (each ticket should have been that much...imagine what it would have been without my handy-dandy student ID). I have some amazing pictures, but my stuff is all packed up to go home, so I'm not posting any until I get back to West Point.
I'm extremely excited to go back to the United States, although my semester has been amazing. Hopefully, I will see you all sometime soon, but for right now I have to go (the Internet cafe just closed...). I will talk to you all again soon.
So anyway, St. Petersburg was great, except for the fact that it rained and then got cold. Ironically, the day it poured was a holiday, so we walked around all day in the rain watching the "festivities" of "Dien Pobiedi," or Victory Day, May 9th, which is the day Russia celebrates the end of World War II. It was a big deal--parades, huge signs on buildings, flags (I even saw an American flag on the top of a military truck in the Veterans' Parade, go America!), drunk 10 year olds running around the streets, a concert and fireworks that night (although it was pretty light out at 10 pm...we're getting into what Russia calls the White Nights; because St. Petersburg is pretty close to the Arctic Circle, during the summer, they almost have no dark period at night).
I also toured the outskirts of St. Petersburg, where some of the enormous palaces are--one city is known as "Tsarskoye Selo," which means City of the Tsars (its real name is Pushkin, named after Russia's beloved poet). That city contains Catherine's Palace (Ekaterinskiy Dvoryets), where the famous yantaraya komnata (amber room) is. The entire room (on three sides) is made out of amber, and it is beautiful. I also went to the city called Petrodvorets (Peter's Palace), more commonly known to contain Petergoff. Everyone told me that the fountains would be off, but, lo and behold, I got there, and they were having a big preparatory celebration for Victory Day (I got there the 8th), complete with working fountains. So that was neat. I also think that, because of this celebration, they didn't sell tickets for the lower gardens, which is where the better fountains are. They just let people through, so I only spent 250 rubles for the tickets instead of 500 (each ticket should have been that much...imagine what it would have been without my handy-dandy student ID). I have some amazing pictures, but my stuff is all packed up to go home, so I'm not posting any until I get back to West Point.
I'm extremely excited to go back to the United States, although my semester has been amazing. Hopefully, I will see you all sometime soon, but for right now I have to go (the Internet cafe just closed...). I will talk to you all again soon.
23 April 2007
Caucasus, Part II
Woo, update, and yes, I have many more photos than I have uploaded, so if anyone is interested in looking at around 400 pictures, they exist. By the way, I will put more pictures on here later; I am too hungry to spend a long time here waiting for them to upload. Sorry, I haven't eaten since breakfast, and it's already 4pm. Use your imagination for now. I know you all have one--I've been told I do, so if that's true, then you can all imagine too...
So, in any case, I've discussed up to the verblud riding session (the CAMEL!!) and have yet to discuss the majority of my wonderful vacation less than 200 miles from the Chechnyan border.
We also went to a waterfall, which was called the "Medoviye Vodopadi (Honey Waterfalls)." This was a neat trip with lots of great views, and it even had a rickety metal ladder-like staircase that some of us were sure would collapse beneath us. But it didn't.
The same day we saw the ring in the rocks, the group took another scary bus trip to the nearby city of Pytigorsk (which translates as five mountains or peaks--pyat=five, gora=mountain) to see some kind of lake as well as the house / museum of the Russian writer Lermontov. I didn't go because, well, I don't really like the way they drive in Russia, and, although I can easily read and do various other activities in a moving vehicle that may nauseate those with weak stomachs, I felt quite sick on that 20 minute ride back to our sanatoriy (hotel, kind of) because of the driver's wonderful swerving habits.
So the next trip I went on was the one to Mt. Elbrus, also known as the highest mountain peak in Europe. We only went up to 3500m, but that was still pretty high. However, it was kind of a nasty day for weather, and the sun didn't really break through the snow and clouds to give us a clear view. It was just enough to blind us if we were not wearing sunglasses. But it was pretty neat, and two people slid down a part of the mountain like penguins, while another thought it would be cool to walk around with just a t-shirt on. This was Friday.
Saturday was amazing because, although we went on what I considered a completely pointless little excursion around Kislovodsk to see an Armenian church, the smallest krepost (fortress) the world has ever seen, and another rock formation with a fountain of nasty sulfuric water, I spent two and a half hours watching the scenery of the steppe from the back of a horse. It was amazing, probably the best views I saw the entire week, and I absolutely loved being able to ride a horse. Plus, the people we paid to do this were the nicest people I've come in contact with here in Russia. They were not what you might think of as "Russian," though. They had darker skin and pokhozh (resemble) closer to Turks than Russians. The horses, too, were extremely calm and sedate. They were used to following a leader and did not want to walk off on their own. Mine flat out refused to move if there was not another horse in front of it, which was a disappointment when I figured out how to make it trot.
Then, we came to Sunday. I bought a lot of souvenirs and got on the train, where we stayed for the next 23 hours. This ride wasn't quite as bad as the one out to Kislovodsk, though, because at least one of the women who worked on the train opened a window and the door to our wagon so that we could get some air moving and not be so uncomfortably hot.
Getting back to Voronezh was about the biggest disappointment of my life. I got up early on Tuesday morning to go run and couldn't breathe. I wanted to cry because the air was so much worse than the amazing clean air of Kislovodsk. That about sums up the way I would compare Voronezh to Kislovodsk.
So, in any case, I've discussed up to the verblud riding session (the CAMEL!!) and have yet to discuss the majority of my wonderful vacation less than 200 miles from the Chechnyan border.
We also went to a waterfall, which was called the "Medoviye Vodopadi (Honey Waterfalls)." This was a neat trip with lots of great views, and it even had a rickety metal ladder-like staircase that some of us were sure would collapse beneath us. But it didn't.
The same day we saw the ring in the rocks, the group took another scary bus trip to the nearby city of Pytigorsk (which translates as five mountains or peaks--pyat=five, gora=mountain) to see some kind of lake as well as the house / museum of the Russian writer Lermontov. I didn't go because, well, I don't really like the way they drive in Russia, and, although I can easily read and do various other activities in a moving vehicle that may nauseate those with weak stomachs, I felt quite sick on that 20 minute ride back to our sanatoriy (hotel, kind of) because of the driver's wonderful swerving habits.
So the next trip I went on was the one to Mt. Elbrus, also known as the highest mountain peak in Europe. We only went up to 3500m, but that was still pretty high. However, it was kind of a nasty day for weather, and the sun didn't really break through the snow and clouds to give us a clear view. It was just enough to blind us if we were not wearing sunglasses. But it was pretty neat, and two people slid down a part of the mountain like penguins, while another thought it would be cool to walk around with just a t-shirt on. This was Friday.
Saturday was amazing because, although we went on what I considered a completely pointless little excursion around Kislovodsk to see an Armenian church, the smallest krepost (fortress) the world has ever seen, and another rock formation with a fountain of nasty sulfuric water, I spent two and a half hours watching the scenery of the steppe from the back of a horse. It was amazing, probably the best views I saw the entire week, and I absolutely loved being able to ride a horse. Plus, the people we paid to do this were the nicest people I've come in contact with here in Russia. They were not what you might think of as "Russian," though. They had darker skin and pokhozh (resemble) closer to Turks than Russians. The horses, too, were extremely calm and sedate. They were used to following a leader and did not want to walk off on their own. Mine flat out refused to move if there was not another horse in front of it, which was a disappointment when I figured out how to make it trot.
Then, we came to Sunday. I bought a lot of souvenirs and got on the train, where we stayed for the next 23 hours. This ride wasn't quite as bad as the one out to Kislovodsk, though, because at least one of the women who worked on the train opened a window and the door to our wagon so that we could get some air moving and not be so uncomfortably hot.
Getting back to Voronezh was about the biggest disappointment of my life. I got up early on Tuesday morning to go run and couldn't breathe. I wanted to cry because the air was so much worse than the amazing clean air of Kislovodsk. That about sums up the way I would compare Voronezh to Kislovodsk.
19 April 2007
Vacation in the Caucasus
So last week, I got on a train in Voronezh in the rainish snow to find that we had the worst seats ever. Being a 22-hour ride, I was hoping for something a little more liveable than this:
But life goes on, and Slava Bogu (thank god) that I wore shorts underneath my jeans so that I didn't have to sit in that sauna in jeans the whole 22 hours.
Next phase, beautiful, sunny (and green! because the grass actually grows there) Kislovodsk. Who wants to guess at what degree of latitude this city is? I'm sure you could find it online or in an atlas, but I'll save you some trouble...it's at almost 44 degrees. Last time I checked, that's north of where I live in New York... Anyway, the first day was relatively laid back and relaxed, and we just walked around the (huge!) local park and saw all the cool stuff they had there, like a concrete crocodile. Interestingly, the Russian word for crocodile is very easy to say, but that might only be because it is the same in English...Needless to say, the 17 international college students climbed on the thing like four year olds.
We also paid a bunch of money to hold birds of prey with their beaks taped shut. Well, I kind of thought a peacock was cooler, so I picked that one up instead. Oh the crazy things we do in Mother Russia.
It wasn't until the next day (Thursday) that we began our wonderful bus excursions. By wonderful, I mean awful, as far as the riding in the bus was concerned. The excursions themselves were actually a lot of fun, and I got a bunch of neat pictures. The first place we went was a place the Russians creatively named "The Ring." This is what it looked like...
Kind of tall...
Then I rode a camel. Yeah, that's right. Woo. Her name was "Umnitsa," which, in Russian, means intelligent or wise one (feminine).
I'm not sure what I'm doing...maybe I thought I was cool...
More to say, but I'll say it tomorrow.
09 April 2007
Paskha (Easter) in Russia
Yesterday was Easter, as most of you probably already knew. In Russia, it is one of the most revered holidays because religion and faith have become extremely important parts of the lives of the people partly as a result of the years of Soviet religious repression. As a result, almost everything was closed. Usually, when I go running at the ungodly early hour of 6:30 am (7:30 on weekends), I see people meandering and sort of slowly getting around to setting up their tent-things in which they sell their various wares. Not yesterday. Voronezh was a virtual ghost town. Okay, so not seriously, but a lot of stuff was closed.
So anyway, I got back from running, and my hozyaika, Vera, woke up the entire house because we had to eat breakfast--cake, to be exact. Yes. She bought four Easter Cakes (paska; note that this word has a hard k sound, not like the kh in paskha), and we ate the great majority of all of them. Vera told us that we had to try some of each to see which was the best. Right. They were huge. Luckily, she had made this wonderful frosting with which we were to top our huge cake...I couldn't eat for the rest of the day until Vera and Vladimir decided we needed to drink some champagne for Jesus. No way was I drinking for anybody without some hearty calories in my stomach...paska, yaitsa (eggs), riba (fish), kuritsa (chicken), and, of course, frosting...
Oh yeah, we had eggs too. If you've never had an egg colored by onion skins, you should. The longer they sit in there, the darker red they get, and eventually, they start to obtain a tiny hint of onion flavor in the egg itself.
The yummy, yummy frosting:
...and the paska...the one in the back was the best...moist and almost breadish...mmm
Did I go to a church to see a real Orthodox Easter Mass? No...I contemplated it, but yesterday was an uber lazy day for me, and I did not even get changed out of my running clothes until the end of the day. Considering the recent drop in temperatures, there was no way I was going outside in shorts. I think maybe I am glad, too, because I heard from one of my fellow West Point compatriots that he found a baptist service--that lasted more than 2 1/2 hours--I can't imagine how long an Orthodox Mass would last.
So anyway, I got back from running, and my hozyaika, Vera, woke up the entire house because we had to eat breakfast--cake, to be exact. Yes. She bought four Easter Cakes (paska; note that this word has a hard k sound, not like the kh in paskha), and we ate the great majority of all of them. Vera told us that we had to try some of each to see which was the best. Right. They were huge. Luckily, she had made this wonderful frosting with which we were to top our huge cake...I couldn't eat for the rest of the day until Vera and Vladimir decided we needed to drink some champagne for Jesus. No way was I drinking for anybody without some hearty calories in my stomach...paska, yaitsa (eggs), riba (fish), kuritsa (chicken), and, of course, frosting...
Oh yeah, we had eggs too. If you've never had an egg colored by onion skins, you should. The longer they sit in there, the darker red they get, and eventually, they start to obtain a tiny hint of onion flavor in the egg itself.
The yummy, yummy frosting:
...and the paska...the one in the back was the best...moist and almost breadish...mmm
Did I go to a church to see a real Orthodox Easter Mass? No...I contemplated it, but yesterday was an uber lazy day for me, and I did not even get changed out of my running clothes until the end of the day. Considering the recent drop in temperatures, there was no way I was going outside in shorts. I think maybe I am glad, too, because I heard from one of my fellow West Point compatriots that he found a baptist service--that lasted more than 2 1/2 hours--I can't imagine how long an Orthodox Mass would last.
06 April 2007
01 April 2007
Tula and Yasnaya Polyana
Alright, after spending an hour uploading pictures,arranging them, and typing up my thoughts on this trip only to have the little window from hell that says "Microsoft Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and will now close" pop up, I had to stay away from this site for a few days. By the way, that stupid little window is easily recognizable in Russian as well as English, and it is just as depressing...
In any case, here is a recount of the excessively long trip to a city that is not even 300 miles from Voronezh. It began with a few cadets meeting up at the main university building at 10pm on Friday night and being placed in the way back of a "ghetto" Russian version of a tour bus. We settled in for what we'd been told would be a seven hour trip. Why, you might ask, is a journey of less than 300 miles going to take seven hours? Well, that was my question as well. I quickly found out that it is very easy for a "short" distance to become a long and dragged out adventure when the bus driver stops every hour and waits for a whole hour at just about every rest / parking area!
So we arrived at the vokzal (train station) in the city of Tula somewhere around 5am, but we didn't leave until well after 8 because nothing in Russia opens before 9am (except for the gym I go to...). So with the three hours of free time, I ventured into the vokzal in search of breakfast and then retreated back to the bus for some much needed extra sleep. I woke up well after the tour guide began her rambling about all the monuments and history of the city, took a couple photos of the cool stuff (like a tank, and a really tall statue of Lenin), and went back to sleep, kind of. We finally got to the prianiki museum to find out all I could ever want to know about the first of Tula's three "famous for" items: prianiki. This museum had tons of prianiki on shelves behind glass--any kind you can imagine. It had soviet prianiki, Yasnaya Polyana prianiki, "dien pobiedi" (day of victory, to commemorate the victory in WWII) prianiki, prianiki commemorating the city's 400th year in existence, and many, many more. So, what, exactly are prianiki? Why, spice cakes, of course!
Sovietski prianiki
Yasnaya Polyana prianiki
Dien Pobiedi prianiki
After this wonderful experience, we actually did get to eat some of this wonderful treat with which the Russians complement their tea, at which time we also viewed the second object Tula is "famous for." Samovars. Um, that would be the self-boiler tea brewer thing that looks excessively ornate and flashy. So here we have two very important things that have truly placed Tula on the map.
We then took a detour to the house of one of Russia's favorite writers, Leo Tolstoy. I've decided that it was called "Yasnaya Polyana" for a reason. Literally, the name means "serene / peaceful clearing," and it was amazing. As soon as I saw it, I knew exactly why Tolstoy would have wanted to come back and live there. A little history: Tolstoy became very interested in the lives of peasants and renounced his "aristocracy," much to his wife's dismay. He thought it unnecessary and superfluously arrogant to live extravagantly. This actually led to many bitter arguments with his wife, who wanted money to raise their 13 children (it may have been more; I've forgotten the exact number...) and to lavish on herself as well, and in his last days, Tolstoy actually went to the local train station and refused his wife entry until after he died there.
Me messing up a lovely view of Yasnaya Polyana and its aptly-named "Bolshoy Prud" (big pond)...I think the other lady messed up my picture, though...
In any case, this place quite fit Tolstoy's late life philosophy (other than the fact that it was huge and actually kind of extravagant in its own right...), as it was peaceful, open, and would allow him to "get back to nature" and plow his fields or ride his horses all he wanted. We actually saw a runaway horse while we were there, which was amazing. When I told my hozyain, Vladimir, about the trip, he suggested that perhaps Tolstoy wanted to go for a ride and that he was riding the horse, which is ludicrous, of course, but it is a nice thought, I suppose.
Even his grave was fitting for his wishes--simple, away from everything, no markers but covered with pine boughs in its own little clearing in the forest.
Finally, we made our final stop in the city of Tula at the Tulski Kreml (Kremlin of Tula), at which they have a weapons museum. Wasn't it obvious that a city known for its teapots and cakes would be a big weapons city as well? In any case, it was pretty cool, but I didn't take any pictures because I didn't particularly care to put an extra $4 into the Russian economy so that I could take pictures of guns and swords which look much like many other guns and swords I've seen in my life, although some of the aviation and tank guns were pretty big. I just took pictures of the outside.
The outside of the kreml literally says "Museum, Kremlin of Tula"
A view from the inside of the gateway
The church inside the kreml (which actually housed the arms museum)
By this time, it was already 4:30, and the arms museum was closing, but we weren't scheduled to leave the city until 10:30 that night. So...what to do for six hours? The international students formed a relatively large group and wandered the city, of course! ...after just about everything interesting had closed. However, we did stop to buy some amazingly good samsa s lukom i miasom (croissant-type bread filled with onions (luk) and meat (miasa)). They only cost 18 rubles each, which was a pretty good deal for how amazingly good they were. We then proceeded to watch kids skateboard, bike, and rollerblade in front of Tula's Lenin Square (I'm pretty sure every Russian city has a Ploshad Lenina...) because there was really not much else to do. Around 9, we headed back to the bus, all the time wondering why we didn't just leave after the weapons museum...had we left then, we'd have been back in Voronezh by midnight. But no, we left at 10:30 pm and stopped a million times again, to return home somewhere around 6am.
I gave myself a break and slept for four hours before I finally got up and went running.
Yes, it was excessively long, and the Russian style of "organization," "waiting in line," and "hurrying up" would never fly in the United States in general, let alone at West Point; however, it was a good trip, and I'm not exactly sure I'd have spent my weekend doing anything more productive than what I got out of this "excursion."
In any case, here is a recount of the excessively long trip to a city that is not even 300 miles from Voronezh. It began with a few cadets meeting up at the main university building at 10pm on Friday night and being placed in the way back of a "ghetto" Russian version of a tour bus. We settled in for what we'd been told would be a seven hour trip. Why, you might ask, is a journey of less than 300 miles going to take seven hours? Well, that was my question as well. I quickly found out that it is very easy for a "short" distance to become a long and dragged out adventure when the bus driver stops every hour and waits for a whole hour at just about every rest / parking area!
So we arrived at the vokzal (train station) in the city of Tula somewhere around 5am, but we didn't leave until well after 8 because nothing in Russia opens before 9am (except for the gym I go to...). So with the three hours of free time, I ventured into the vokzal in search of breakfast and then retreated back to the bus for some much needed extra sleep. I woke up well after the tour guide began her rambling about all the monuments and history of the city, took a couple photos of the cool stuff (like a tank, and a really tall statue of Lenin), and went back to sleep, kind of. We finally got to the prianiki museum to find out all I could ever want to know about the first of Tula's three "famous for" items: prianiki. This museum had tons of prianiki on shelves behind glass--any kind you can imagine. It had soviet prianiki, Yasnaya Polyana prianiki, "dien pobiedi" (day of victory, to commemorate the victory in WWII) prianiki, prianiki commemorating the city's 400th year in existence, and many, many more. So, what, exactly are prianiki? Why, spice cakes, of course!
Sovietski prianiki
Yasnaya Polyana prianiki
Dien Pobiedi prianikiAfter this wonderful experience, we actually did get to eat some of this wonderful treat with which the Russians complement their tea, at which time we also viewed the second object Tula is "famous for." Samovars. Um, that would be the self-boiler tea brewer thing that looks excessively ornate and flashy. So here we have two very important things that have truly placed Tula on the map.
We then took a detour to the house of one of Russia's favorite writers, Leo Tolstoy. I've decided that it was called "Yasnaya Polyana" for a reason. Literally, the name means "serene / peaceful clearing," and it was amazing. As soon as I saw it, I knew exactly why Tolstoy would have wanted to come back and live there. A little history: Tolstoy became very interested in the lives of peasants and renounced his "aristocracy," much to his wife's dismay. He thought it unnecessary and superfluously arrogant to live extravagantly. This actually led to many bitter arguments with his wife, who wanted money to raise their 13 children (it may have been more; I've forgotten the exact number...) and to lavish on herself as well, and in his last days, Tolstoy actually went to the local train station and refused his wife entry until after he died there.
Me messing up a lovely view of Yasnaya Polyana and its aptly-named "Bolshoy Prud" (big pond)...I think the other lady messed up my picture, though...
In any case, this place quite fit Tolstoy's late life philosophy (other than the fact that it was huge and actually kind of extravagant in its own right...), as it was peaceful, open, and would allow him to "get back to nature" and plow his fields or ride his horses all he wanted. We actually saw a runaway horse while we were there, which was amazing. When I told my hozyain, Vladimir, about the trip, he suggested that perhaps Tolstoy wanted to go for a ride and that he was riding the horse, which is ludicrous, of course, but it is a nice thought, I suppose.
Even his grave was fitting for his wishes--simple, away from everything, no markers but covered with pine boughs in its own little clearing in the forest.
Finally, we made our final stop in the city of Tula at the Tulski Kreml (Kremlin of Tula), at which they have a weapons museum. Wasn't it obvious that a city known for its teapots and cakes would be a big weapons city as well? In any case, it was pretty cool, but I didn't take any pictures because I didn't particularly care to put an extra $4 into the Russian economy so that I could take pictures of guns and swords which look much like many other guns and swords I've seen in my life, although some of the aviation and tank guns were pretty big. I just took pictures of the outside.
The outside of the kreml literally says "Museum, Kremlin of Tula"
A view from the inside of the gateway
The church inside the kreml (which actually housed the arms museum)
By this time, it was already 4:30, and the arms museum was closing, but we weren't scheduled to leave the city until 10:30 that night. So...what to do for six hours? The international students formed a relatively large group and wandered the city, of course! ...after just about everything interesting had closed. However, we did stop to buy some amazingly good samsa s lukom i miasom (croissant-type bread filled with onions (luk) and meat (miasa)). They only cost 18 rubles each, which was a pretty good deal for how amazingly good they were. We then proceeded to watch kids skateboard, bike, and rollerblade in front of Tula's Lenin Square (I'm pretty sure every Russian city has a Ploshad Lenina...) because there was really not much else to do. Around 9, we headed back to the bus, all the time wondering why we didn't just leave after the weapons museum...had we left then, we'd have been back in Voronezh by midnight. But no, we left at 10:30 pm and stopped a million times again, to return home somewhere around 6am.
I gave myself a break and slept for four hours before I finally got up and went running.
Yes, it was excessively long, and the Russian style of "organization," "waiting in line," and "hurrying up" would never fly in the United States in general, let alone at West Point; however, it was a good trip, and I'm not exactly sure I'd have spent my weekend doing anything more productive than what I got out of this "excursion."
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