Hello my people!

I, your Queen, have made it to an internet cafe. I even managed to pay for a computer and get set up without embarrassing myself. Yay! That means, among other thigs, that there are about fifty or sixty new photos my flickr account

Yesterday afternoon they gave us another bonus stipend, so I'm swimming in money, which is a good place to be. I am swimming a bit less now, since I went out and bought a buncha stuff today.

But, let's take this chronologically.

Yesterday, after I posted, I went around the internet and collected a few lace scarf patters so I'll have something to do on the cruise. Then I went to the restaurant for our wrap party.

The restaurant was Georgian- to those of you confused, this is the original small slavic nation for which our Georgia is named- and WONDERFUL. There is a myth that when God was creating the world, he took a snack break, tripped over the Ural mountains, and dropped his food into Georgia. I wholly believe it now.

When we came in, the tables were COVERED in food, wine, and juice, just waiting for us. This was the APPETIZER spread, and it was all everyone could do not to stuff themselves so silly that there was no room for the main course. I kept saying that I was done, I was done... and yet I kept eating! Wonderful. And apparently the wine was good (illegal) Georgian wine. Us non-drinkers had a wonderful pomegranate/cranberry juice that even the wine drinkers liked.

There were two hours between appetizers and the main course (the slavic version of barbeque, shashliki) and that was all that saved us.

The teachers started with a toast, thanking us and saying that we had ALL passed ALL of our tests. Massive cheers. Then everyone was toasting and talking and digging into the food. We were supposed to just ask about our individual grades whenever we wanted, and everyone just started eating and having a good time, since there was no reason to worry anymore.

As the evening progressed, everyone started wandering around to sit with everyone else. There was singing- we sang all of our silly, silly songs from phonetics, and then our phonetics teacher sang a bunch of other stuff. One student did a song, and then there was the singer who actually works at the restaurant, who was phenomenal. Some people said that they wished he'd sung all evening instead, but I think that for all of the students, it was great to do what we did.

By the time the main courses came out, hardly anyone was where they had been originally- everyone was trying to find out whose plate they had, and where their plate was.

Then more food (and more food and more food), and dancing, and flowers and wine and vodka for all the teachers- we passed the hat at our meeting today, and got everyone a lovely bouquette, or wine if they don't like flowers, or vodka if they didn't like wine. The teachers left eventually, making a little procession of toasts and wishes of good luck out of the restaurant.

Only after they had all left did we realize that NOBODY had remembered to ask about their grades. Oh well! I found, after I knew that I'd passed, that I didn't care. I just had a good time.

I finally wandered out with the last people at about ten thirty, and caught a marshrutka home.

While we were still hanging out outside the restaurant, a beautiful Russian wolfhound came by. I commented on how beautiful it was, and said how sad I was that you couldn't pet other peoples' dogs here. A teacher and our assistant said, "What? Why? Are you afraid you'll get bitten?"

"No. It just seems like no one does that here."

"Of course they do! I just petted someone's dog in the street yesterday! It's fine!"

So, of course, I went home with a little spring in my step, dog-deprived as I am.

As I was walking home from the marshrutka, I saw a gorgeous mastiff hanging out with his owner, who was talking to some friends. I was admiring it as I came up- huge, beautiful, mountain of muscles that it was- and wondered if I could pet it. I wasn't going to try, being very tired and on my way home, but it was a nice thought. As I came by, I smiled at it, but as I did so, I got a little feeling that something was wrong. The dog had its ears and and tail cropped all the way off- it was obviously a cold climate mastiff, so this is probably standard- so that it couldn't really emote. There was a look in its eye I didn't really like, so I started to walk at a little angle away from it.

At that point, the dog freaked out. It gave this huge snarl and leapt at me. It didn't get any piece of me, by some miracle, but it got my purse, ripped it off me- broke the strap- and shook it like it was killing something. The owner turned around and yelled, "Zhuzhka! What are you doing?" and the dog cowered and spat my (very drooly and broken) purse out. The owner handed to me, apologizing profusely, and I just took it, said "no problem" and went home.

The dog was on a leash, which was a good thing, but it was so weird- the owner seemed completely shocked at her dog's behavior. I don't know. I have a nice pair of welts on my neck from the sides of my purse strap, but it was only a seam that gave way, so I stitched it back together last night and it's working fine.

That actually begins my story today. I live like five minutes from two handbag shops, one of them called "one thousand and one handbags", so I thought I'd stop by and buy a new purse, since I don't think I did the most sturdy or attractive repair job on earth. However, I found out that all the handbags here are ugly and expensive, so I'm sticking with mine.

Then I went into town and took a lot of pictures of the main thoroughfare, and stopped in at the mall to buy- you guessed it!- amber (this piece had been haunting me, being perfect for one of YOU) and some yarn, as well as a scarf so I don't have to use any grody public head scarfs at the monasteries we'll be visiting.

After that I walked all over the place until it was time to meet my friends. Then I found the park where I was to meet them, sat down, and went to call them, only to find that my cell phone refuses to work. It keeps saying something too me, but the only word that I can understand out of it is "too much", so that doesn't help me at all. So then I bought an ice cream cone and sat in the park eating it, and when my friends didn't show up, I just went to the museum alone. They had uttered the famous phrase, "It can't take more than a couple of hours" about the art museum they'd been to that morning, so I assumed that they'd either gotten out hours ago or would be in there for hours yet.

The second proved to be true- as I was leaving the Ethnographic Museum, I ran into them coming in.

The museum was fascinating- displays of all the dress, tools, and lifestyles of all the major ethnic groups of the Russian territories, and a big temporary display of chinese artifacts. Really cool.

Then, after that, I walked for ten thousand years (or twenty minutes, depending on how tired your feet are) and found both this internet cafe and the jewelry store that had been recommended to me, where I bought something for myself for once, and something for Noni.

Tomorrow afternoon we leave on the cruise, so tonight I'm sorting my crap and getting packed. I'm basically packing for good, since I won't be spending another night in the apartment. I did all my laundry today, so of course the apartment is coated in it. I hope I get home before these grey clouds turn into rain- I really need my clothes to by DRY for tomorrow.

It was cool just wandering all over the city today. I think it was a good goodbye. I managed to communicate nicely with shopkeepers, and did things that I never would or could have done when I came. I feel wonderful, though sad to be leaving. Like I told my hostess, I wish that I could have St Petersburg and Portland right next to each other.

So, this is it. Au revoire, blog my darling. Someday we shall meet again.