I woke up with one of the worst hangovers I've had in awhile, even worse than the one after my going-away party, and approaching the one that I had after the last time that I actually got sick off of vodka. Not only was this a bad hangover, it was also an unfair one. I feel like I should only have to pay if I've actually had fun the night before, which was definitely not the case. I seriously contemplated not going to breakfast, but decided that if we were having excursion until 2, it was probably better to eat something.

I made it all the way to the doors of the cafeteria before I had to turn around and find the bathroom. It took a couple trips to get everything out (the color of stomach acid never fails to amaze me, but this time it was blue because of my adderall), but finally everything was more or less okay. I wasn't thrilled about the prospect of riding around on the bus, but that turned out okay too. While I'm on the subject of Russian buses, they suck pretty much a lot. There are no shocks, they're always too small, they smell, and the drivers are without exception, fucking maniacs. They (the buses, not the drivers) also look like bugs.

This is the Volga river from outside the hotel.


Our first stop on the excursion was the Stroganoff cathedral. It was commissioned by one of the Stroganoff family members way back when and is super beautiful both on the outside and on the inside. It's also got crazy colored onion domes. Check it out.


There are no pictures of the inside because that's really not okay. Except if it's a museum, and then I'll probably be too cheap to pay for it. Anyway, it was very tastefully done and it smelled really good. Incense that is not nag champa is a great thing, guys. Anyway, there was the usual iconostasis and some saint's relics, and lots of babyshkas kissing the icons. I dug it a lot.

After that, we piled back into the bus and drove around the Kremlin, having sights pointed out to us on the way. Then we got out and walked along the top of the ridge that the Kremlin's built on. It was super cold and windy up there. And when I say that it was cold, it was probably the coldest that I have ever been in my life. And I was wearing two pairs of long underwear, three shirts, two sweaters, a hat, a scarf, and my dumb gloves that don't have any fingers.

If any of you want to send me March Forth cd's, I'll love you forever.

Somehow March Forth and fingerless gloves got crossed... Interesting. Anyway, we walked over a concrete bridge that had cracks in it (yay safety!) to go have a look at the church where Gorky was baptized. This was also a very tasteful church. Sometimes the churches are really ugly. I'm not sure why this is—maybe it's just that the murals or frescos or whatever the fuck they're called are just ugly. Or maybe it's just that I want them all to be done by Andre Rublyof. In any case, this church was totally okay. It also had a really great old icon that I liked a lot. It was one of the ones of the mother and child, but this one was cool because Mary was really sad but Jesus was laughing. Usually he just looks serious, but he had a big old happy smile in this one. But Mary looked so sad—it was very human. I can't describe it.


We also saw the outside of a 18th century merchant's house. It was really only cool because it was old and had cool tiles on the outside of it. I guess the architecture is pretty cool, but we didn't get to go inside.


After that, we got to go back to the bus because everybody was cold and cranky. We drove around the city for a little while and then we got escorted down the main pedestrian street, Bolshaya Pokrovka. This was a lot like Nevsky Prospekt in Petersburg, but with less restaurants and even more designer stores.


At some point, I learned the factoid that the cost of living is the same in Nizhny-Novgorod as it is in Moscow, but the salaries are a fraction of what they are in Moscow. This is also interesting because Nizhny is a fairly small city—only about 1.5 million people. On the other hand, it must be growing because they were building umpteen million new apartment buildings. I dunno. It was nice, but I was too cold all the time to really appreciate it. I also bought myself some grotesque earrings that are not designer, but just ridiculous. But they're green, and I wanted them. Mostly because they're huge and ridiculous. I forgot to get the picture out of my camera, but there will be a picture soon.

Anyway, after lunch at the restaurant in the Kremlin, we continued our excursion with a tour of the Kremlin. This wasn't really any more than walking around outside for a while until everybody was thoroughly cold and grumpy. We did see the outside of a pretty cool church, and the eternal flame that they have up there for the WWII memorial.



After that, Evgenii proposed that he would lead an expedition to the universam to buy groceries and warm clothes because we were going to be outside a lot the next day. However, somewhere along the line, this turned into a quest for Baskin Robbins. Don't ask me how, because I don't know and can't explain. Granted, ice cream does taste better when it's cold, but why it had to be from Baskin Robbins is a complete mystery. Maybe just because Western is "better"—except that in most cases relating to food, it's not. Anyway, I followed Evgenii and a large group around the city on this absurd quest (there were two Baskin Robbins, but neither of them seemed to be in business as they had disappeared by the time we arrived), but bailed around the time he said that he would just go to McDonalds. Here's a monument I saw on the way.


So I headed down the pedestrian street with Laura F. on a quest for a warm coat for her (which she accomplished because money is no object, nor is she picky) and gloves for me (which was not accomplished because money does matter, and I'm really picky). I find the fact that she spends money like there's no tomorrow slightly amusing since I know she's on all kinds of scholarships. Well, maybe if the feds had given me more, I could buy fancy coats and go to the opera whenever I wanted too. But I also remembered why I try not to spend a lot of time with her—she's just really fucking annoying. She seems very nice, but she's just one of those people that tries too hard. She wants to be liked so much that she just overdoes it and just comes off as being weird and affected, or just annoying. She also talks funny. Yes, in both languages. Although Laura W. said it's because she's from Maryland and not because she has a speech impediment. Shto-ever.

But, while walking around with the obnoxious Laura F., I discovered something that made my soul happy: you can get take-out pizza in Russia. This is a country that doesn't really believe in take out (except for McDonalds and Teremok, which have walk-up windows) and most places will look at you strangely if you ask for something "to go." Anyway, Laura had said that she had seen a lady with a pizza box, so we went in and negotiated a mushroom pizza, to go. It was pretty tasty, although it had sour cream instead of tomato sauce. This was actually not quite as gross as it sounds. Actually, that's a lie. It was kinda gross. But, I ate it anyway.

Then I was tired from being hung over and having to endure the company of Laura F. for two hours and I was lame and went to bed around 8. It was also super cold in our room and I didn't really want to have to deal with going downstairs and talking with the people at the front desk to have them bring up a space heater, so it was just easier to take a long shower and go to bed. Laura W., my poor roommate, was very sad not to have someone to study GRE words with, and apparently I missed when her hairdryer started spewing sparks into her hair when it got fried in the electrical socket. But I had a real good 12 hour sleep.