Sunday, July 4 - Happy 4th of July!!! I have to say that this July 4th is unlike any that I've had in the past… and I'm pretty sure is unlike any I will have in the future. There were no bbqs, no fireworks, no parades - but I was in St. Petersburg. I can deal with that for one 4th of July :) On my last day in St. Petersburg the group headed down Nevsky Prospect to the Hermitage Museum - which comprises of the Winter Palace and two other buildings built onto the Winter Palace by Catherine the Great to house her massive art collection. The Hermitage HAS to be one of the largest museums in the world, it's absolutely HUGE!! Our guide said that if you wanted to see everything in the museum and stood in front of each exhibit for 1 minute, it would take about 5 years; there is absolutely no way to see everything in the museum but I was still able to get a good overview of the collections and saw some of the most important pieces. Because we were such a large group (about 30 people) we were able to get an English guided tour at the last minute and got to skip the 2 hour line to get into the museum.
The Winter Palace is a green and white building, right next to the river which was built as the imperial residence of the tsars after Peter the Great. The palace itself is just astonishingly massive and majestic. Every room in the palace is more impressive than the next - paintings the size of the entire wall, dozens of crystal chandeliers hanging in every room, gold crown molding, mirrors everywhere, 30-50 foot ceilings, marble columns…. it was truly breathtaking. For me, the most fascinating thing is to think that people used to actually LIVE here! A lot of people actually lived here! 
Catherine the Great, the Empress Elizabeth, Nicholas II and Anastasia - I walked through the same hallways as them, I took the same stairs as them, I looked out the same windows as them…. for me at least, that was the most interesting and erie thing to think about. The tour with our guide was about 2 hours and then we had to meet back at the bus stop for the next destination. After a quick lunch at Subway (yes there's Subway here) the group split and 1/2 went back to the hotel and 1/2 went to the Church of Spilled Blood…. I went with the latter.
The Church of Spilled Blood is built in the more traditional "Russian" style, with multiple onion dooms and bright colors. It was built on the site of the assassination of Alexander II. In the late 1800's he was riding through St. Petersburg when a group of terrorists threw a bomb into his carriage; because the bomb detonated so close to him, his body essentially disintegrated and his remains were brought back to the Winter Palace were he "died" (although I'm pretty sure he was dead before he got there). Thus the name of the church. I didn't have time to go into the church but I was able to get some great pictures of the building.
I have to admit that I was a little anxious about the train ride back to Yaroslavl. Since my overnight train experiences have been less then stellar - especially after my experience being in a car with the Russian army - I was timid to say the least. However, I think God took pity on me and my train ride back was a very pleasant and safe experience. First of all, I was in SECOND class! Which means that there are only 4 beds in a compartment and the compartment has a locking door! Second good thing, was that 2 of the other beds were occupied by 2 other of my volunteer friends - Yay for not staying with random Russians! There was one random older, Russian man who's room was in our compartment but we were able to convince him to trade compartments with another volunteer, whose compartment was only 2 down. So, I was able to get a restful nights sleep - or as restful a nights sleep as one can get on an overnight train - and felt completely safe, since I was bunking with 3 of my friends. Besides the random Russian in the dining car who was trying to talk to us about Jazz, it was a fairly uneventful night. Here's a picture of our compartment...
And here's a picture of the Russian countryside - the dachas that practically every family has (a weekend cottage) Note that this picture was taken at 11:30pm
Monday, July 5 - the train pulled into the station about 6:40am and after a quick nap back at the home base, I had to head off to work at the Women's Hospital in the morning. I was secretly hoping that it might be a little quite (I believe the other volunteers were suffering from a lack of sleep as well) but it was not to be… Monday was probably one of the loudest and busiest days at the hospital so far (of course right, that's they way it works!). Luckily my puzzle lady, as usually, was very interested in doing puzzles and after 2 puzzles she gave me a hug! It's those little things that make what I'm doing worthwhile. Knowing that something simple like doing a puzzle makes her day a little better, that's what it's all about.
The afternoon was a little different than usual. My "group" that I go to placements with is made up of 5 girls, but 3 of the girls are 'Interns' which means they have separate meetings and guest speakers and are getting academic credit for their time here. Since the interns had a guest speaker, me and the other girl who aren't interns (Bayleigh)went with another girl to the Yaroslavl Botanical Gardens. I'd never been to this placement before but it was really nice just being outdoors - we pruned and weeded some bushes and trees. Not exactly what I envisioned when I imagined volunteering in Russia but I have come to realize that few things are exactly how I imagined. Sometimes it's not always what you expect and even if it doesn't seem like you're making a difference, everywhere I've gone the people who work at the placements have been so grateful for the time I've spent and energy I put into helping them. You don't always realize where you can make a difference.
My Monday evening was both interesting and quite enjoyable. Needing to send several postcards and a few letters, I decided to try and figure out where to post office was, to buy stamps (apparently this is the only place you can purchase them). After getting directions from my program coordinator, I was off on the bus for the first time by myself! I got to the post office without incident although once I was inside, I realized that I had no idea which of the TEN windows to go to to buy stamps! I just picked one and hoped for the best. After waiting for about 20 min I got to the front and pointed to the top corner of my postcards, to show that I needed stamps. The post office employee had no problem understanding I wanted stamps for the 4 letters I had, what she had a difficult time grasping was the fact that I wanted an ADDITIONAL 10 stamps for future letters (there was no way I was going to the post office on a regular basis). After about 15 min of going back and forth - me using hand signals to try to explain what I was looking for - she finally called over another employee who spoke a little English and understood what I was trying to get across. So after my half hour struggle, I emerged from the post office successful…. we'll just see how long it takes for the mail to reach America! I had planned on running right after my visit to the post office so I went for a little run and stopped at the big grocery store across from my homebase for a little "American" dinner - a delicious meal of fruit and yogurt! Just like I have at home :) My day concluded watching a double feature with a few of my ROTC friends - courtesy of me, "When Harry Met Sally" and courtesy of the Army volunteers, "Blackhawk Down". I have to say it is interesting watching a war movie with people in the Army - it really gives you a different perspective. They can explain all of the little details that I usually miss in war movies, they explain all the different ranks and what all of the military lingo is. I was told that watching Blackhawk Down (since I'd never seen it) would make me feel hooah - and it did! Hooah!! :)
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