Dude, what a miserable fucking week this has been.

Petersburg was great, but I think by walking around too much, drinking too much, and smoking too many cigarettes, I may have caused damage to my health. On the train ride back things really started to get sour. By Monday night I was running a 102 degree fever and wanting death, quick and painless. Spent the rest of the week in bed, feebley trying to fight off my host mother's home remedies, all of which tasted like ass. Watched a lot of TV though, which was nice. This week is going to be a real shit show, trying to catch up on all of the work I missed.

But in better news, went to the banya yesterday to sweat this shit out, and that was fun. Afterwords we went out for some terrible Chinese food.

The weather is getting warm, the snow is all gone, and there is almost no mud to be found anywhere. Life is good. Starting to have to think about housing lottery for next year which should be interesting form a zillion miles away. My return home gets closer and closer every day, and it's pretty wierd to think about. What an adventure this has been.

But it's not over yet, lot's to do, so I'm not going to get retrospective...yet.

All for now.

Man, got to update this thing more often.

Not too much earth shattering news to report, but I did have an amazing weekend, and am headed for another this week.

Thursday (International Women's Day) I went out and danced the night away at a club, which was mostly shitty, with a few really kick ass moments. Also, they had a ridiculous comedy show that was mostly gay jokes and fart jokes, so naturally, I was enthralled. Got home way later than the club was worth, but that's ok, I got to talk to a toothless drunk on the street trying to hail a cab. When Russians don't have teeth, which is often, they're much harder to understand. Especially when every word out of their mouth is a horrible slur. It was pretty awesome. He was drinking a beer called "Goat." Having tried "Goat myself," I can say that it's not bad, it just needs more goat flavor. Sadly, I know what goat flavor is now.

Ok that's enough on that tangent, Friday we went to the Banya, which went very much as usual, though was puncuated by a few class moments including Bren in his "asstastic" Speedo. As usual we sweat a lot, drank a lot, danced a lot, and sang a lot. I also played my first ever game of Beirut using beer, which was fun, even though I lost. So I've got that going for me now.

Saturday night Andy and I went to a concert, which was awesome. They plaнув some Russian songs, and a whole bunch of covers of American rock songs, it was pretty sweet. Again, ended up staying out way later than I should have, drinking way more than I should have (though not as much as Andy for once). I thought I had more to say about that, but that's really it.

Other than that, things are good. It's still pretty melty, I don't fall as much, but I do step in ankle deep puddles full of dog shit and motor-oil, which sucks. Going to St. Petersburg again this week, it's going to be сuh-RAZY!

As a punishment for his alcoholism, my host mother is preparing a "repression," which will include a removal of the computer from the apartment, so I'm going to be in communicado for a while. I hope all is well all around the world.

one of the cats just yacked on the floor. I miss Moe.