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!!