Life after Russia

Just so we're clear, I survived Russia and returned a week ago from St-Petersburg. I haven't said anything about it yet because of the rash of essays due last week, the last of which is a ten-page politics paper due this afternoon. It is finished, so now I can tell you everything.

Russia.
Russia was pretty cold, really. It was more of an intense experience than Rome, and I'm not actually going to go into detail here, though you should definitely ask me when you see me, I'd love to tell you about it. Everything was very...Russian. Also, we took the subway, and the subway stations were all Soviet, which was pretty fascinating. I'll tell you about it when I see you.
The pictures are: Rachel and me in front of Cathrine the Great's monument (which you aren't see in the background). Rachel is from Massachusetts, and is excellent. Then, me on a swing in front of the Winter Palace. Yes, it was very snowy in Russia. And then St-Petersburg at sunset. The building on the right is the Hermitage, the largest art museum in the world. It was pretty awesome. Also, this picture was taken at like 3:30 in the afternoon.

Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving was actually quite excellent. We had classes, which was fine because all I have on Thursday is History and we were looking at feminism, so that was good. Then I just chilled. I got dressed up for dinner and sat with several Americans. The food wasn't terrible. It was Thanksgivingish. We hung out in the dining hall for several hours singing Christmas carols. A few guys dressed up as Pilgrims and Indians. It was a good time all around.
No football, though.

Dr Bader.
So I went to a talk last night given by Alfred Bader, the man who bought this castle and gave it to Queen's. He was quite excellent, actually. A nice old Jewish man, like so many are. He talked about his collection of Rembrandt paintings, which he is leaving to Queen's. He was particularly interesting because he really isn't an art historian at all, but seems to genuinely love it, and talked about it with at least as much passion as Daphne (the art history professor here) does. Very interesting. Also, he was a real "the world is your oyster" person, which is a phrase that I interpret differently than how it is probably meant--Its not that all these opportunities are open to you if you're smart and go for it (which they are) but more about how global a community we have become, if that makes sense. Like, I can be in Italy, England and Russia in the span of two weeks. (And Sweden and Latvia, if we're counting layovers.) Do you know what I mean? Dr Bader talked about being in the States (he's from Milwaukee) and Amsterdam and here and Prague and Kingston... Because really the world is your oyster.
Anyway, Dr Bader was outstanding.

Exams.
So, this is the last week of term, followed by exams next week until the 11th, and then I get to go home. Its good, I'm ready for this term to end. Theres an end of term party on Friday, everyone is going to get dressed up. Things are winding down. This term went really quickly. I'm looking forward to next term, though, it sounds like the classes are going to be less introductory and more interesting, and I expect everything is going to be a little less new and frightening.

And yeah. I'm home on the 13th in the evening.
Which is in 18 days.
Woohoo!!

Rome

Rome was incredibly amazing. I went with my roommate, Ariane.
We ate well, we saw cool things...
Day one: We arrived in Rome around 9pm, we went to check in at out hostel, which was well-located right near the train station, and we went for dinner. I had lasagna and Italian wine. I still don't like wine, but the lasagna was outstanding. Then we walked a bit and went to sleep.

Day two: We woke up early and scurried off to the Vatican. We meant to go stand in line for the Sistine Chapel bit first, but we got kind of lost and ended up in St. Peter's instead. So we bopped around there for awhile, figured out that that wasn't where we meant to be, and went to stand in line for the Vatican Museums, which took awhile. Totally worth it, though. We saw the Sistine Ceiling and the Raphael rooms and art and things of this nature. It was a good time, overall. Then we went for pizza, which was outstanding, and then walked to the Pantheon, the Trevy Fountain, and to see the Colosseum at night. And had another pasta dinner. And then it started raining, so we got on a bus.

Day three: We woke up and headed to the Colosseum in a roundabout kind of way, via...everything. (We were given maps with important places marked on them when we got there, we went to almost all of the places that were marked.) Anyway, we got to the Colosseum, did one of those touristy tour things where they take you in and tell you about the places and you get to skip the lines, etc. Actually, the tour was really good. So we learned about the Colosseum and then about the Roman palaces and the Forum. And then we had pizza again for lunch and wandered off for shopping. We passed Gucci and Dolce and Gabanna and things of this nature. I don't really understand designer shopping, but thats how it goes. We ended up on top of one of the hills at sunset, so we could see the whole city. It was amazing. Then we kind of wandered back toward our hostel, had another pasta dinner with a really quite amusing Roman waiter, and that was that.

Day four: We got up, got on a bus back to the airport, went to catch out plane, but we had print-out tickets and the Romans didn't know what they were, so that was a bit of an issue. It all worked out though, and we got on. We get back to England and are diverted many times in the taking-the-train-back process. They're doing work on the trains, which is pretty bothersome. It took awhile to get back. Thats how it goes, though.

So, basically Rome was amazing. I think it was about the most amazing city I have ever been to.

Pictures:
Me outside the Pantheon
The Colosseum at night
Ariane holding the Colosseum, because she is cool like that.

Hallowe'en

I thought I should say something about All-Hallow's. We did a haunted house on Wednesday night in which each hallway competed against the other hallways. Ours was an asylum, complete with Nurse Ratchett and screaming people. We won for most creative theme. Then there was a Halloween party Thursday night at the pub. I dressed up as a chinadoll. It was very cute. The party was pretty good, too.

The picture is of me being a chinadoll.

Mid-Term

Hello all.
Sorry I haven't posted in so long. I've been back from Midterm Trip for about a week. This is how things happened:
We left here at the crack of dawn on coach buses. We drove for fourteen hours (stopping every now and then, including at the National Coal Mining Museum of England) until we got to Edinburgh, Scotland. We hung out in Edinburgh for awhile (three days), hitting such sights as Edinburgh Castle, Scottish Parliament and the National Gallery of Scotland.
And lots and lots of tourist shops.
Scotland really is quite excellent. I liked Edinburgh a lot more than London, and even the trip up wasn't bad. It was very scenic.
On the way back, we stopped first at Hadrian's Wall, which was built by the Romans to keep the crazy Scots out of England, which they controlled. So we went to a Roman fort and walked around and took lots of pictures and generally had a lovely time.
And then we stopped in Liverpool for a night. We went to lots of Beatles sights and had generally a lovely time there, too. All the Liverpuddlians are just so kind... And...what else? Yeah. Then we drove in the buses back to school.

And then the next day my mother came to visit and we have an AMAZING time both here and in London, where we went to do excellent things such as tour the Tate Britian, and the National Gallery, see Wicked and shop in Harrod's. And eat real people-food.

It was outstanding.
The picture is of me jumping off Hadrian's wall.

Upcoming events:
Bonfire night, Monday
Rome, Thursday-Sunday
St. Petersburg, weekend after next.

And then exams and then home!
See you all soon.