Когда подумаешь, чем связан с миром,
То сам себе не веришь: ерунда!
Полночный ключик от чужой квартиры,
Да гривенник серебряный в кармане,
Да целлулоид фильмы воровской...

When you think what ties you to the world
you stop believing it: it's nonsense, it's
a midnight key to someone's apartment, it's
a silver dime in your pocket
and a negative from some crook's film…

...

И до чего хочу я разыграться,
Разговориться, выговорить правду,
Послать хандру к туману, к бесу, к ляду,
Взять за руку кого-нибудь: - Будь ласков, -
Сказать ему, - нам по пути с тобой.,,

And how much I want to make things move in me,
to get the talk going, to tell the truth,
to send sour sorrow to a demon, to the devil, off into the fog,
to take someone's hand: 'Come with me,'
I'd say to him, 'we're going the same way…

-Mandel'shtam


Privyet vsem!

It's been quite a long time since I've written. Life hasn't been quite as full and exciting since then, I guess it could be exciting, but not in a great way, considering I spent a month of that time being quite sick, or more accurately about two+ months since it seems I had a fun infection living in me and finally camping out in my poor kidneys the whole time. Yeah… But I'll get to that.

I think the last time I wrote I was about to go on my trip down the Volga river. I had a great time. I went with the students from ACTR (the language program I did my junior year). Jon, the director from Moscow, invited me. I'm glad I went since it was a fantastic way to see a bunch of cities without having to organize it all myself and stress about the myriad of nasty document and registration issues that come with traveling in Russia. There were students from the three cities (Piter, Moscow, and Vladimir) in which ACTR has programs, so there were a good number of kids. I thought I'd feel like the babushka of the group, but there were some grad students, tutors, teachers, and random other people on the trip. Olya was able to come on it for about 4 days, which was a lot of fun. I took the train from Petersburg to Nizhnii Novgorod, where we met up with the other students. I really liked Nizhnii Novgorod. Parts of it reminded me of Kiev, actually. I was hoping to see Alyona, my old Russian teacher from Brown, but we ended up having little to no free time there as everything was pre-planned—tours around the city and the kremlin, museum trips, etc.

In Nizhnii we boarded our boat—our home for the next week. It was really nice actually and much bigger than I expected. The rooms and food were surprisingly decent. After Nizhnii we went to Kazan. I really liked the city and had been wanting to go there for a while. It has a really unique mixed nationality of Tatar people and Russians. The Kul Sharif mosque, within the kremlin, was pretty incredible, although after Istanbul it's hard for me to be impressed by most mosques. The Syuyumbike Tower was also interesting, with an even more interesting history. It's named after a princess who had prior been married to three khans. According to the story, Ivan the Terrible decided to ransack Kazan as a result of her refusal to marry him. She and Ivan made a deal, in which if he could build her a tower higher than any mosque in Kazan in one week, she would marry him, and he would spare her city. Unfortunately for her Ivan built the tower, leading her to commit suicide from the top.

I really want to spend more time in Kazan, and am hoping to go back sometime in the spring with my friend and fellow Fulbrighter Anna. From Kazan we went further down the Volga to Ulyanovsk, formerly Simbirsk, where Lenin is from. The city itself was pretty boring and basically a shrine to the man. We visited the various homes of Lenin, his school, and a few churches. We had fantastic weather, however, which made being there quite pleasant. It was actually quite warm most of the trip. I was down to a t-shirt a few of the days, and we were able to sun ourselves on the deck of the boat. Pretty great. From Ulyanovsk we went to Samara, a sleepy little town, where the Russian Civil War began. Besides Stalin's bunker and delicious chocolate, which is made there, the city wasn't terribly interesting. Saratov was lovely and had this really peaceful, yet vital, atmosphere. It also had some really neat architecture, not to mention some pretty grand soviet monuments.

Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, was the last stop on our Volga trip. Besides Nizhnii Novgorod and Kazan, I'd really been wanting to see this city. It was pretty much entirely destroyed during WWII (or the Great Patriotic War, as Russians call it). Hitler sent over 250,000 troops to attack the city in order to gain control over the region. Stalin was a bit slow in his response, but Zhukov did his best to defend the city. The battle went on for months, with the Soviets eventually cutting off German supply lines and cornering some 300,000 German troops. Hitler refused to surrender, and then the Russian winter came. In the end, most of the German soldiers were killed or imprisoned. The victory was rather pyrrhic, however, as the city was in complete ruin, and perhaps more than a million Russians were killed. The battle of Stalingrad was/is considered a huge victory, perhaps the greatest of the war for the Russians. So the city itself isn't all that pretty (being entirely rebuilt in Soviet times), but the history is fascinating. We saw the last building standing in the city and spent a lot of time at the Mamaev Kurgan monument. This hill was where months of battle took place, and is now home to a few monolithic concrete statues and a shrine (the Pantheon) to those who died. There's a changing of the guard inside the Pantheon, which we were able to see. The enormous, raging Rodina-mat'(Mother Russia) statue (some 80+ meters tall) was impressive.

The boat trip was fun and the Volga river itself was beautiful in the autumn. The air was so much cleaner, and the trees along the bank of the river and in the hills were different shades of yellow and gold. There's far less red in the trees here in autumn than in new england, but it's still really beautiful. It was really neat just watching these tiny Russian villages along the river float by. There'd be these villages that looked like they had sprung up like a mushroom patch--basically a cluster of shacks, or even homes built out of the earth, houses partially held up by stilts and half spilling into the river, and nothing around them but rolling hills of warm sepia-toned leaves and softly eroding cliffs into the water. Some of the churches in these little nothing villages were incredible, and made no sense for such a small town. No doubt they'd been there for centuries. There were even some fairly large monastery complexes attached to these little villages.

Most nights/free afternoons were spent meeting and chatting with people, playing cards (a lot of durak) and Russian scrabble and trivial pursuit; some of the kids even made up a scavenger hunt. The whole thing sort of felt like being back in junior high or high school (granted I never really had the normal high school experience, I suppose), except with more drinking than I think most junior high or high schoolers do. I ended up really liking some of the students on the program, and have seen a few of them since then. There were a few random small-world connections too. My friend Brittney's roommate from Middlebury is on ACTR. I actually bumped into her at a bar a few weeks before and we half recognized each other. A few other people randomly knew friends of mine (the Slavic world is too small), but the weirdest coincidence was that this girl, Piper, with whom I went to high school, was on the trip. Well, not exactly high school, but one of the ballet schools I went to had other arts programs attached to it, and she was in the visual arts or writing program or something. She looked strangely familiar and then it just hit me who she was. Extremely strange. It was cool catching up with her, since I hadn't seen her since I was maybe 13 or 14.

In any case, the train ride back from Volgograd to Moscow was lonnggg and cramped. Not as long as the trip to Sochi (48 hrs), but still long. And I think it was also the beginning of the end for my health. My back started going out on that trip. Traveling platzkart isn't the most comfortable, especially if you get one of the bunks on the side along the corridor. Lucky me. I'm used to having back pain, since L5 is still half-broken from my ballet days after all, but it started getting worse and worse in Moscow, where I spent another four days with Jon and Olya at their place. Moscow itself was pretty fun, although freezing, and I didn't have warm enough clothes. Another friend of ours, another Olga, was also there. So we had a good time going out, going to museums, and a number of plays. Jon is also an excellent cook. A friend of mine from France, whom I met in Krakow over the summer, and whom I'd shown around Petersburg, was in Moscow at the time, so we met up with him a few times and introduced him to the Moscow club scene a bit.

Staying in Moscow for a few days was a nice transition after my trip, but I think it didn't do much to help my already diminishing health. I was sleeping on the couch, it was freezing out, and we were running around all day, and going to plays or bars in the evening till late at night. By my last night in Moscow my back was so messed up it hurt to even breathe, I was getting radiating pain headaches, and I was strangely limping around like a little hunchback. The whole right side of my back was completely knotted up. Olya tried to massage it out before my night train home to Petersburg. It helped some, but I think the situation was pretty hopeless. My back hadn't hurt that badly since ballet school, so I was not a happy camper. The train ride home was miserable and was the start of the flu-like symptoms. I'm pretty sure my never-ending fever started on the train. I was cold and then hot and had a pounding headache and my back was killing me. I finally got home around 9 am and had been planning on dragging myself to class, but felt too tired and miserable. Gavril (a grad student friend from Brown) was crashing in my place while I was gone and while he was looking for an apartment in Piter, and he was nice enough to leave me some things in the fridge, which made food easier, since I don't think I left the house again for a good week. Except that I was an idiot and dragged myself the same day I got home to a concert I was invited to by Katya (my opera singer friend) at the philharmonic. It was a great program, but really long, and it was clear something was wrong with me and the ibuprofin was not doing much to help out my back or head.

I spent a week in bed with what I thought was a horrible flu—bad headache, earache, body aches, backache, fever, oscillating between being really cold then really hot, nausea, intense thirst. The weird thing was that I had no congestion or sinus infection signs. I didn't bring antibiotics with me to Russia since I hate taking them and hardly ever get sick. I hopped myself up on Tylenol to keep the fever down, but not much really helped. I considered going to the doctor, but felt too awful to drag myself there and try to explain what was wrong with me in Russian. I also was a little wary of Russian doctors. And I honestly thought I just had a stupid flu. I felt really awful the fourth or fifth night I was sick, which should've prompted me to go to the doctor's probably… I was either shivering or sweating all night, obviously had a really high fever, my heart rate was out of control fast, I was having trouble breathing and mildly hallucinating. It was four am and I thought, hmm, maybe I should call one of my friends, I feel like I could pass out or die or something. But I'm an idiot. When I tried to drink some water in the morning I immediately threw up. I hadn't eaten in four days, so it wasn't that bad. Usually throwing up when I have the flu is a sign I'm getting better. I started feeling better that night some. I felt ok for a couple days, even went to classes, resumed a somewhat normal life, and then relapsed for another week. I called my doctor at home and she said it sounded like antibiotics probably wouldn't help me at that point since I was already feeling better and I wasn't congested, but if I wasn't better in another day I should go to the doctor. I started feeling better so didn't go.

I had friends, mostly Anna and Gavril, who came by to bring me groceries and make me soup, while I was sick. Olya and Alla came by as well. Although when I'm sick I generally like to be alone. Some kind of dying animal instinct I think.

I felt fine for three weeks or so after that. Halloween was a blast. We had a little int'l shindig at Anna's house, mostly made up of my Russian friends and Anna's. Olya and I made some delicious mulled wine. There wasn't a whole lot of dressing up and certainly no trick or treating, but Thriller was played and silly dancing ensued, and good times were had by all, except by Anna's grumpy neighbor. Classes and everything were going well and it was great to hang out and catch up with friends and enjoy Petersburg in the fall.

Election night was a blast here. Michael and Sasha, two other Fulbright guys, invited us over to their place around 3am. Anna and I went to a friend Rita's (a Yale grad student doing dissertation research here) for borsch and beer around midnight, and then walked over to Michael and Sasha's around 3am to begin the election watching. Sasha was streaming msnbc on his computer so we could watch results coming in. We all got pretty punchy by the end, no doubt from the excitement, not to mention the beer and how late it was getting. It was fun getting to hang out with Michael and Sasha more. Michael, around 5am, was making up country and rap songs to go along with the election results. If only I'd recorded more of them. Soviet Champagne was popped when Obama was announced as the next president, sometime around 8am here. It was surreal heading back home after that…stepping out the door, back into gray, grim, ashen Petersburg at dawn, with a bunch of sullen faced Russians on their way to work. It was as if the whole night before hadn't happened. Oh Russia.

My parents came to visit me for a week in mid-November. They had never been here before. I had a really nice time with them. Late November in Piter is not the most scenic time of year, but they still really liked it and I tried to pull out all my tour guide skills. I took them to the Mariinsky and to the Philharmonic, in addition to all the big sights in the city and some of my favorite little cafes and things. I think I've finally given up on trying to make people love Petersburg as much as I do and see the city how I see it. It used to frustrate me a lot (me: "oooh, look it's Ivanov's Bashnya! Isn't that the most amazing thing in the world!!!!" poor tourist friend I'm dragging around: "uh huh…"). All the same, I think my parents got a decent taste of life here, especially when they had to more or less fend for themselves when I got sick.

My mom brought me all kinds of random things from home, mostly spices which I'd been missing and which are hard to find here. She even brought me marshmallows! She brought a bunch of stuff to do thanksgiving here as well. It took a little bit of effort finding a turkey in this city, but Kuznechnii market, probably the best in the city at least in terms of meat, did not disappoint, and is only 7 or so min from my apartment. We ordered a 6.5kg turkey. And it was pretty freakin' tasty. Cooking it in my tiny, gas, soviet-era, lack of temperature control oven was interesting, but it worked. My mom had the foresight to bring me an oven thermometer and a meat thermometer. We were up most of the night before our little thanksgiving making apple and pumpkin pie. Thanksgiving was great. We had all the typical American things, many of which my mom had to bring, and some which we were able to get here. I managed to stuff 8 people into my kitchen pretty comfortably. My "Russian" family was able to come—my old host mom Alla and Olya and Jon. Anna and Gavril also came. It was a lot of fun and I was proud of us for pulling it all off. And… that was my last night of relative health. I'm glad my body held up that long.

I'd felt like I was coming down with a bit of a cold earlier in the week, but managed to throw it. My immune system was tanking though and then I was running around all week with my parents, not sleeping much, sleeping on a pull-out chair, and stressing a little about showing them the city and taking care of them and all of that. My parents had a flight out Sunday Nov 23rd, but a bad snowstorm prevented them from leaving. Their flight was canceled 15 minutes before we were going to get the cab to the airport. Their flight was rescheduled for the next day or something. I felt fairly bad that morning, headache and mild flu symptoms from before. By afternoon it was clear I was relapsing, and by evening I was back to being a mess and into the whole fever, chills, nausea cycle of fun. The symptoms came on a lot stronger and faster than the first time I got sick. My mom was able to take care of me as best she could, which made life easier. I got back on the Tylenol, but it would wear off after just a couple of hours, throwing me into intense chills, shivering under tons of blankets, wearing a hat, and with my space heater blasting, for the remaining hours till I could safely take more drugs. At least my mom was there to bring me water, as the intense thirst came back. When I was sick alone it would take me hours to convince myself to get up to get water… and my kitchen is not that near my bedroom, as my apartment is kind of strangely laid out along a longish hall. Monday I was clearly very sick with all the old symptoms, and was having some trouble breathing and even threw up. My parents decided they were taking me to the doctor, after I emailed my home doc to find out if the regular antibiotics my parents brought me would work. She said probably not since I had no congestion. She said since this was the third time I'd gotten sick with these symptoms, I should go get hep, blood parasites, viruses, and kidney problems ruled out. I'm glad I went. Tuesday morning I went to euromed, this really nice, western style clinic. All the docs are Russian, but have had training in the west and most speak English (although they didn't with me whenever my parents weren't around).

They ran a bunch of tests, including the usual lab work, lots of poking, a cardiogram, a chest xray, and ultra sound on my abdomen. I basically spent my first day there in nothing but my panties and my hat on. Good times when you have the chills. I was running a 40.2 temp on Tylenol when I arrived there and felt pretty ok, despite starting to black out when the doctor had me standing around as he examined me. I don't even want to know how high my temp had been before on that night I was hallucinating some (I don't own a thermometer). Apparently being stubborn and having a really high pain tolerance isn't the best thing sometimes...

It turned out I had an acute double sided kidney infection, which I probably had since the first time I got sick, and which just hung out in my system waiting for my immune system to start failing again. I had no idea. I'm used to having back pain, so that wasn't a clear sign of possible kidney troubles (although the first time I got sick I had insane back pain--I thought it was just from the train rides). When you have the flu you're always thirsty, although I guess the fact that I drank a whole one of those huge poland spring type water jugs they have in offices in less than a week should've been a sign. I also never had any bladder infection/UTI symptoms, which is usually the first stage of a possible kidney infection. I'm sure I caught whatever bacteria that caused the infection on my trip--probably on the train, or on the boat, or in one of the crazy cities I went to. Who knows. Kind of distressing...

So anyway, they admitted me immediately at euromed. The doc was pretty sure I had a kidney infection after poking me in the kidneys and it hurting. He was also pretty freaked out by my temp. My kidneys were really swollen... and I thought I'd just been getting fat. Haha. I got put in a hospital room right away and hooked up to an iv. I think they messed up the first one, because it was extremely painful when the nurse put it in. I literally cried out and started weeping (although I was also just really sick and emotionally strung out at the time). I heard iv's weren't supposed to be all that painful, but it was my first one so didn't know what to expect. I think what happened is it went in the vein but probably pierced the back of it. It was really uncomfortable the whole time it was in, and my arm and hand got really swollen the second day, and then liquid started dripping out of my arm, so I think the fluids were leaking under my skin. Yum. They ended up changing my iv three times. Once they switched the iv to the top of my arm, a bit below the wrist on the forearm, it was much more comfortable. I got a few ultra sounds, and even the technician was like, "what the hell happened to you?" when she was looking at my poor kidneys. My lab work was interesting… Everything was pretty much multiple times higher than it should've been.

The first few days there I was pumped with 8 or 9 bottles/bags of antibiotics, fever meds, vitamins and liquids a day. I started feeling a good deal better almost immediately, despite running a temp still. I felt good on the second day, and they originally said I'd be there only 3 or 4 days. My blood work, however, got worse the second day, and my right kidney was more swollen the third. Day three my fever spiked again and I slipped back into the chills/feverish cycle. They isolated the microbe that caused the infection and switched my antibiotics to something stronger and more specific, which did the trick. I started getting better after that. I had to stay in the hospital till I was without fever for at least a day and a half, while still getting liquid antibiotics through the iv. My mom was able to stay with me in the hospital, which was great. She helped me with all the pathetic tasks, like putting on socks and helping me get the knots out of my hair, since I wasn't allowed to shower the whole time I was there, and my hair quickly turns into dreadlocks. The hospital was really nice and I think they did an excellent job. And I picked up some new Russian medical vocabulary, which I hope never to make use of again. I think the word kapelnitsa will be forever burned into my memory.

The food was of course awful, but I had no appetite anyway. I lost a good amount of weight. Anna and Gavril came to visit me in the hospital a few times, which was nice. Alla came to visit a number of times and harassed my doctors a good deal to make sure they were doing everything "right." I overheard her talking to one of my doctors. I don't think the doctors had wanted to tell my parents, so as not to freak them out, but apparently if I'd waited even a day or two more to come in I could have died. He was surprised that the infection hadn't yet spread into my blood, since it had been in my system so long already. My immune system rocks. Alla brought me a number of her home remedies, which were interesting. My favorites were her "kidney wrap"—this old, wool scarf she wanted me to wrap around my middle to keep my kidneys warm, and her fever remedy—vodka mixed with apple vinegar, which I was supposed to rub all over my face, arms, and chest. I did not try it.

After being there a week, stuck to an iv, with blood work every morning or sometimes twice a day, I was discharged with a huge bag of drugs, including more antibiotics and some random liver supplements, since my liver was a little unhappy after dealing with all the medication. I was told to take it easy, not do anything strenuous, no alcohol, no coffee, not too much salt, and to gain weight to keep my kidneys "warmer" (Dr. Andrei of course had to add that he personally liked skinny girls when he told me that, oh Russian doctors). Ha. My hospital records were amusing too: "Patient is pale. Patient has big fever and shiveries." It was nice that some of it was written in English so I could at least send it to my home doc for future reference. It was really exciting getting to put pants on again (even if they no longer fit), since I'd been living in a hospital gown for the previous 7 days. I looked like a bit of a druggie coming out of there. I had so many holes in my arms from the different iv's in different parts of my arms and all the blood work. The iv that was put in incorrectly left bruises, and the same nurse that messed up that iv messed up taking my blood, so that was also a pretty sight. Apparently my veins aren't too accommodating. My legs were incredibly weak and my shoes felt like bricks, but it was nice to move around more and to see the sky!

My parents stuck around another four days or so to keep an eye on me since I wasn't allowed to go outside for a week. They figured out Russia pretty well by the end, even going grocery shopping and my dad figured out the trolley bus! It was really just a wonderful accident of fate that they were here when I got sick again. For once I am happy for bad, Petersburg weather. To be honest, I feel worse for my parents about the whole ordeal, especially after having my brother sick with malaria 3 times and parasites in Africa for a year and a half, and then me in a hospital in Russia with a serious infection... As Gavril put it to my parents while I was in the hospital: "Why do your kids keep wanting to leave the 1st world for the 2nd and 3rd?" (Gav's a big fan of America though. I think the happiest I've seen the Bulgarian since he's been here is when I pointed out the Carl's Jr. to him on Liteniy.) I'm pretty sure my poor mom lost as much weight as I did the week I was in euromed. Although I know they were happier being here with me, than worrying and feeling helpless back at home.

So I'm doing much better now. I had a follow up appointment last week, and things look pretty normal, although my kidneys won't be back to their normal size for another few weeks.

Life will slowly get back to normal, but being sick hit me a little harder than I thought. My health is so much better at this point, but my mood is pretty low still. I hate being sick and doctors and hospitals in general and feeling like my body is failing me. I just wait too long to get stuff checked out it seems and then it gets serious. Being stuck in my house has also been a little annoying. I've had friends visit and I'm slowly returning to a more normal life. One good thing about being sick, and also having my mom around, was improving my cooking skills. I think I've finally become an okay cook! And I can make a mean apple pie!

I love Russia, but for the first time I feel like I want a break from it. December is notorious for being a particularly depressing month here. The sun doesn't come up till around 10am, and it's completely dark before 4pm. I don't remember the last time I've seen the sun since it's cloudy here all the time. Russians have been getting into the Christmas spirit somewhat. There are fake trees littering the streets, and pretty tacky Christmas lights down Nevsky prospekt. Smolniy Cathedral was particularly beautiful the morning I had my follow up appointment at euromed. It was in the pre-dawn hours (9:45) when I hit Surovsky prospect. The street was criss-crossed with blue Christmas lights and if you looked down the street you could see the blue and white Russian cathedral glowing. A really lovely sight after getting off a packed trolleybus and trudging through the muddy slush. Russians do not celebrate Christmas on the 25th, however, which doesn't give one much to look forward to in December itself. Christmas has sort of been lumped in with New Years, and Orthodox Christmas is on the 7th.

I am not going home for Christmas at all, which was what I'd planned all along. I don't have much culture shock coming to Russia, but going home is always difficult. I also just saw my parents, so I'm not especially homesick. I do miss some things about America though, particularly certain comfort things, the convenience of it, the cleanness, the accessibility to good food. As my friend Katie said in an email to me recently: "I think, homesickness is not so much home itself as a nostalgia for the emotions the place invokes and the people you shared it with. When you approach Providence from either the north or the east you come over a rise and see the city, and in that moment I always know I'm almost home. I know I'm going to spell this wrong and I don't remember if it is czech or german, but it is gemutlief. It's an adjective, and something is gemutlief when it makes you feel good in a cozy way, like a cup of mulled wine at an outdoor christmas market in the evening when it is snowing and you are with friends, or having your mother take care of you when you are sick. I think what you are missing are gemutlief things, both people and activities."
Perhaps it is those things I miss. I miss aspects of home, but I do not want to actually go home. Or, I'd like to go home for a few hours, to sit in my living room and look out at the snow falling into the ocean, and then teleport back to my life here.

In any case, I am going to Sofia, Bulgaria for Christmas. Originally I was going to come back to Petersburg for new years, but I decided to stay in Bulgaria till the 3rd. My landlady will be here till the 7th of January, and I really don't feel like dealing with her and her crazy, drunk friends right now or on new years. I also really miss my Brown friends, and I'll hopefully be able to see a few of them there. I'll be staying with my good friend Sonya, who was on the Brown summer program I did the first time I came to Piter years ago. We've pretty much only seen each other in random places since then, like Istanbul or Berlin. Gavril will also be home in Sofia for Christmas and New Years, so I'll have at least two people to show me around the city. (Mariya and Hristo, if you're reading this, you should change your plans! I miss you, and I'm sure your parents do too!)

Second semester should be quite busy actually. I have so much work to catch up on and research. I will be having more friends visiting next semester as well. My good friend Lydia, a grad student at Columbia and Brown alum, will be visiting me for a week or so in early January, while she does some thesis research. Tania is still planning on coming for a month. A few other people also have plans to visit. I hope to do a little traveling myself, in between doing lots of research. I'd like to see a bit more of Russia. I want to go back to Kazan, and Anna and I are dying to see Lake Baikal, even if it's incredibly far away. Anna still has a somewhat romantic idea of long train rides in Russia (she's only taken the night train to Moscow)… I, on the other hand, do not. Although they can be a lot of fun and a great way to meet random people you'll probably never see again. We might make the trek to Ekaterinburg as well, where Gavril will be continuing his research. There are a number of Fulbrighters scattered around Russia, so we may try to visit them as well. A weekend trip to Finland and the Baltic states will probably happen since they're relatively close. I thought about going to Egypt with Alla in January, but am not feeling up to it.

So that's about it from the motherland for now. I leave for Sofia on the 23rd. I am so excited for Bulgarian food, rakia (when I can drink again), a somewhat warmer climate, and the fun Bulgarian Christmas traditions I've heard about!

Happy Holidays to all of you!

-tvoya liza

p.s. If you haven't been inundated enough with pictures, there are more on my flickr site: flickr.com/photos/estern. My dad took some my last day at euromed, but those are not up... and probably never will be.