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| Friday, 31-Dec-2004 00:00 |
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Last Russian Photos
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The Kremlin Walls outside of Red Square, Moscow
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Really random Communist demonstration @ Barnaul capitol building
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Yulia, the best host sister ever
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The Malkovs (3rd host family) + me
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Host moms + me. (Yes, it's very "in" to be blonde in Russia)
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Host dads + me, Valera ruining the photo by making me laugh
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Novosibirsk airport
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The harbor in Vladivostok
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Close-up
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Yes, it has finally neared the end. These are my last photos of Russia.
I went to Moscow the last week of my exchange, but it was so humid there that my camera died and I had to buy a throw-away... so I only have ONE photo of Moscow from my digital camera, from right before I stepped into Red Square. The irony! Aagh!! (It was beautiful there, though, if you're wondering.)
After I returned to Barnaul from Moscow, there were lots of goodbyes and a few parties, and then I went home through Novosibirsk and Vladivostok.
Koshmar.
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| Thursday, 30-Dec-2004 00:00 |
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Lake Teletskoye
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If you ignore my host sister, this is an awesome photo.
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Valera (host dad w/o shirt) & other not-as-important people
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Breakfast (Andrei Malkov in the middle)
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View from the porch
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My first two host sisters, Janna + Veronika
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Mountains
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Almost immediately after my return from Petersburg, I went into the Altai Mountains for the last time. This time I went with two of my host families, some other Rotary people, and this crazy Hollywood movie star originally from Altai who was visiting home and who my host parents knew. (He's been a bad guy in some DeNiro film. Rawwwk.)
We traveled about 12 hours away from Barnaul near the Mongolia border to the largest lake in Altai, Lake Teletskoe. This was by far the best trip I took anywhere all year.
(I have hundreds of photos from this trip because all the Rotary people gave me copies of their photos, too, but I'm not so much of a loser to actually go through all of them, so these are some of my favorites from my own photos.)
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| Tuesday, 14-Dec-2004 00:00 |
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Petersburg Cont. - Tsarskoe Selo
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More photos from Petersburg in early July - these are from Tsarskoe Selo.
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| Sunday, 19-Sep-2004 00:00 |
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Petersburg - Trip 2
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I went back to Petersburg and met Tim there almost immediately after camp - I think I was there from the 2nd to the 5th of July or something. All sorts of horrible things happened this time around since I went totally alone and stayed in a different hotel from Tim and his grandpa, but I definitely learned alot from it and in its own way it was sort of exciting to be alone alot. (I also met the Malkovs, my third host family, in Petersburg but I only saw them for a few hours; it was just chance that we were all in Petersburg at the same time.) I took alot less photos this time around since I had already been there, but I still took way too many.
Tim, you got YOURSELF lost in a Russian "ghetto" (which it wasn't). Liar.
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| Wednesday, 8-Sep-2004 00:00 |
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Summer Camp
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The above are photos from YMCA "Camp Pilgrim" in the Altai Mountains, where I spent ten absolutely amazing days as a counselor at the end of June.
(Note: Photos 17-20 were taken at 5:00 in the morning after an outdoor all-nighter; I was one of about six who made it through the whole night without sleeping until about 6:00 in the morning. I went for a walk along the Katun' all by myself for about half a mile, and took those photos. It was... yes.)
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| Tuesday, 7-Sep-2004 00:00 |
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The Middle of Everywhere/Nowhere
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Biggest theater in Siberia (I forget the name)
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Intersection
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A slightly purple me at the center of Russia
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So I've finally put up all the May photos that I'm going to put up, and have moved on into summer. The first photos are from Novosibirsk, where the geographical center of Russia is. We were only there for two days but I had a great time with my host sister Yulia getting lost multiple times and taking walks in the middle of the night.
The rest of the photos were taken either in Barnaul's big garden thing twenty minutes out of town, or in the Middle of Nowhere - or at least it felt like it. Basically the Bergers and I decided to go way out of town to a place none of us had been, perhaps only an hour from the center of Barnaul but seemingly at the end of the earth, because it was pretty. I didn't get very many photos, though, because the Siberian mosquito hordes attacked us every time we opened the car door. Oh well.
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| Monday, 6-Sep-2004 00:00 |
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My Birthday!
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My class + me w/Russian flag
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My Putin balloon (a present)
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Jenya, Nastya, + Vika on teacher's desk. (Teacher not present.)
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These are photos from my 17th birthday on May 14th, all of them from school just because I felt like taking photos in school. (My class gave me a surprise party - they sang happy birthday in English, and collectively gave me chocolates, a huge Russian flag, two balloons from Putin's then-recent presidential campaign, and a card. They actually DID surprise me.)
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| Saturday, 4-Sep-2004 00:00 |
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Walking Photos
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My sister Yulia with one of Barnaul's many Eternal Flames
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On the alley doing down the center of Leninsky Street
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"Sibiriya: The Biggest Country In the World." (Beer ad outside.)
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These late-May photos are mostly random outdoor shots of Barnaul and Barnaulians(?), many taken during "walks" with my friends as spring finally - FINALLY - started kicking in. (The photos of the mountains which I posted earlier were actually taken in late May as well, so that's a bit out of order.)
The third through ninth photos are a few photos I took simply walking home alone from school back to the Bergers' house, which I did every school day. The October Region (Oktyabrskiy Raion) sign is actually on top of my host sister's school, the Russian-American school specializing in English (even though there's no real connection to the States anymore.) And the park seen at the end of the alley in the sixth photo is owned by Mr. Berger, my last host dad. Our house is right across the street from it, but a ways from that entrance because the park is really long.
The tenth through fourteenth photos are from the 15th, the day after my 17th birthday, when some of my best friends, their friends, and I went for a really freaking long walk all the way out of the city to the beach. (The beach is actually just this mosquito-ridden stretch of littered sand set on a large stagnant pool, but the locals don't really seem to notice how disgusting this is.) I sure as heck didn't touch the water, but it was a fun day anyway. (BTW: The Ob' is a river beginning in Gorny-Altai with the Katun and the Bia rivers meeting, and runs all the way up to the Arctic Sea - and if I'm not mistaken, it's the 3rd-longest river in the world. You learn something new every day, eh?)
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| Sunday, 29-Aug-2004 00:00 |
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Den' Pobyedy/Victory Day
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Photos from Barnaul WWII Memorial and Victory Day celebrations on Barnaul's Victory Square (May 9).
Over 200,000 soldiers from Altai State died in WWII, which is huuuuge considering that the entire state has a population of less than 1 million people.
The poem in the photo reads something like this:
Remember!
In a century,
In a year, -
Remember!
O, those
Who are never to return -
Remember!
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| Thursday, 12-Aug-2004 00:00 |
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The Mountains... Continued
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These are more photos from our trip to the Altai Mountains in May. I know I've got a LOT of updating to do, but the computer of my last host family in Russia was so slow that it would take ten minutes to upload four photos so I didn't update often. However, that is now not a problem because... I'm back in Michigan. Oy, oy, oy. Oy, oy. Sooo... now I can get these pictures up in a flash, though I'm rather busy right now so it may still take a while to get up to date. (I only got back on the morning of the 10th; I haven't even gotten over my jet lag yet!) But I promise more are coming!  ...OH MY GOD, I'M BACK! Oy.
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.. Great job ad-libbing a little, and i'm glad you had fun in Russia (except that one interview in Russian on t.v...
I was 6 weeks in Russia, Kaluga on 2000. It is very beautiful country. Your pictures remind me of that time. 
