Last Minute Stuff

In 8 short hours I should be taking off from Portland, headed to Chicago, then Frankfurt, then St. Petersburg. Hopefully on the way I'll meet up with other people from my group. There are about 6 of us coming now, with one girl waiting for her passport, and our head teacher is gonna be there as far as I know. I just realized, I hope someone is waiting with a sign for us ILP people!

One of the landmarks of St Petersburg is the Savior on the Blood church. It's never been used for any major church services, and was heavily damaged in the Siege of Leningrad (St Petersburg in WWII). Today it is a museum, covered in the icons traditional of Eastern Orthodox churches. When I was there my junior year of high school it wasn't open, but it's one of the top places I want to see while I'm there.

My next post will be from Russia, and I'll do my best to have pictures of my group, host family, etc up soon after that. 24 hours of flying and airports, here I come...

63 hours to go...

Here I am sitting in my room surrounded by suitcases and boxes. I'm allowed 2 50-pound suitcases, as well as my carry on. I have the two suitcases, but a sinking feeling that they are both over the weight limit. Last night I started taking stuff out of them, transferring things I won't need immediately to a box that I'll have Mandy send to me when I have an address. I also have a bag of things that will be staying here, mostly summer clothes that I definitely won't need in the Russian winter! Most of what still needs to be packed and organized is stuff I'll be using before Tuesday morning. My flight leaves at 6:30 in the morning, and I'll arrive in St Pete at 1:20 pm local time (if all the flights are on time....) That gives me pretty much 24 hours of airports and flying. Not sure yet how I feel about that, but I'm sure my body will tell me somewhere between Chicago and Frankfurt that this was not a good idea!

I think I'll be using this to give updates and post pictures. If you have a gmail address then you can easily post comments. Otherwise, just email me! I probably won't post again until I arrive in St. Petersburg. Until then, hope everyone is doing well!