the Post-Russia update
Wheee, so here I am, "back in the states." It feels good, I guess. Mostly feels like jet lag. waaah! It'd be the middle of the night in st. petersburg now. But its summer so whatever, right? none of this will be coherent, I'm sure. But. I HAD SOOOO MUCH FUN. This will include highlights, and I'm sure you all will be hearing stories for much longer than you'd care to hear.
Running on 2 hours of sleep for a few nights, loooving the European coffee--living off of it really, making amazing new friends, spending time with old ones, playing in some of the most amazing and beautiful concert halls in the world (prolly exagerrating), having our whole woodwind section be like *this--click* =) getting to know people in the orchestra I've never even talked to, running around in a CASTLE!!!, eating some awesome foods..some...not so awesome. more cucumbers and tomatoes than I'd ever like to see again hahaa. Tried things like TONGUE, caviar, and venison. Didn't like the caviar. Tricked Heidi into eating just about anything. Having a very dramatic night in the hotel the night after getting 2 hrs of sleep on the nazi concentration camp train(yay girl talk! i wonder how boris and vladimir are doing??) and having my friends be there for me, and having the "illegal acts" not be associated with people we liked.
Jason's faces, birthday setups, skanky music videos(nuba nubaye), the bargaining game, the language barrier hahaha, paying for the bathroom, gettin cussed out in russian, thinking we were getting cussed out in russian, Chris aka Captain Obvious, Pat the Padushka/Pattifer/Paterrick, Heidi bwhaha shes so great, changing clothes with Joy ( i love herrr!--bootylicious), Amanda(more booty!) and Alicia ( i love you girls),benadrylll, Carrrrl and playing with him for the last time, laughing at/with him and Adam, religious convos at dinner, only giggling at dinner, singing with Joy, making chords with water bottles, playing yahtzee with both jasons..."just call me frank."
enough of that. That doesn't mean much to any of you that weren't on the trip, but its how i think. Little snippets that remind me of big things. We saw the HERMITAGE and pretty much every cathedral that exists in St Pete and Moscow. It was UNBELIEVABLE. Every minute, every room, was astounding. My favorite was the church on the spilled blood. it's unbelievably colorful and ornate outside and inside its COVERED in mosaic. covered. its unbelieveable. We actally saw so many, that we'd go in another cathedral and feel jaded, like "oh we've seen this before...solid gold, malakite, eh." it was very sad. but amazzzzing. there just really are no words for it. I could have stayed a few more days before going home. But our concerts went very well, or at least the acoustics made up for it, and, just...wow. It was the adventure of a lifetime. I can't wait to travel more. I wrote postcards but have to send them from here because it would take like 4 months from St Pete to get here. There are tons of stories, but I will have to tell them to people. and tons of pics, i'll post some soon??
now. I want to eeeat. and sleep. mmm food. I liked the food there mostly, actually. the ice cream, chocolate and coffee were greeeeeeat. But i'm happy to be back to america signs, BATHROOMS, food etc. Except my stomach is more unhappy now that I'm having greasy american food as opposed to greasy russian? go figure. I can't wait to see everyone here, but I miss all the GBYO-ers already. one word (spelled phonteically of course...) spahseeba!!!