Sophie's Russia Journal!

 

Friday, June 11.

Before I start talking about Russia I guess I should start talking about the last of the stuff we did in China... Well, we saw an AWESOME Chinese acrobat show!! They had a couple Magicians, some REALLY flexible people, and well, Acrobats! The two Magicians there were were cool, one kept on making Water bowls appear, the other had an assistant and he used "Magic" to change her clothes in 2 seconds. The Flexible people we so flexible that they could basically bend their backbone so much that you might think something fell on them and broke their back! They had a team of Acrobats that jumped through hoops. The other two things they did are hard to describe, One was doing stuff with Hats, and the other had to do with Chairs.

After staying in Shanghai we went to Beijing. In Beijing we went to Tienanmen Square and flew a Bird Kite, but me and Valerie kept on tangling the string. It was a good kite and it didn't break! (Which is surprising because it was made out of a really fragile wood.) We also went to the Forbidden city, where the emperor lived. I didn't like it very much, it had a very Depressing feel to it... Last we went to the Great Wall! I LOVED the view from the Wall, it was really pretty. Valerie, Alex, Mom and Dad went for a long walk on it. I stayed though because I liked the view just fine from where I was. But it took FOREVER for them to get back! In that time Me and James drew pictures while the hawkers near us (who gave up trying to sell stuff after we told them we had no money) laughed. I'm not sure whether or not they were laughing with us, or at us though... It was sad because some stupid jerk gave them a quarter for something they were selling and told them it was an American Dollar!!

After our stay in China we were on the road for 10 days!!! We went through Ulan Bataar in Mongolia (which was REALLY depressing) and then went to Irkutsk. Our stay in Irkutsk was nice and fun, I saw a sled dog place that had like a hundred huskies and German shepherds and mixes between the two! it was really cool. We also tried doing a russian sauna called a Banya I think.. It was great! You had to sit in the sauna. then you come out and jump in cold water and go back in and repeat until you get tired. Dad only did the cycle 4 times! I did it for like 8 or 9 times. If you got thirsty they gave you a weird russian drink, that I call "Bread Beer" cause that's what it is, except it's un-alcoholic. I tried some to see how that foul stuff that 21-year-old and over people drink tasted like... And it tasted like, well, umm, hard to describe. I guess the over all word is Yuck-a-licious or Horrible or something like that. It made my taste buds explode. Blech...

After Irkutsk we went on the tran-siberian railroad for 3 days. It definitely was NOT as comfortable as the POW train in India. But it wasn't a living heck.. It turned into a living heck though, after we met..... NIKITA. Nikita the terrorist. Nikita is a 3-year-old that is cute, but was raised wrong. His mother is a scary Train-conducter. When Nikita pushed Alex over so that he hit his head on the table I told Nikita to leave, so he left and started crying, Mom tried to explain to his mother what happened. All she said was, "He needs to hold on better". She's a real Witch if you ask me! After the train we went to Moscow for a few days. and now we're here in Saint Petersburg for the next 2 weeks!

 

Tuesday, July 6

I haven't written in a LONG time. Even though I am in Moroco and going home in 1 day (YES!) I still need to write about Russia. Well Russia was really fun. I got to basically hang out for 2 weeks I guess. We had unlimited internet access! So I got to go on the internet and look at stuff. But then I ran out of stuff to look at. We took a road trip through the countryside that was really pretty to see where our great grandfather lived. Oh yeah! We went to a really cool place that had a lot of Fountains. It had a HUGE main fountain, and since it was windy, we kept getting water all over us. Then there was a fountain for kids that you could run through and get wet. There were also rotating fountains, regular fountains, fountains with statues, and plenty of other features. We went to a restaraunt and saw a show with russian dancing. It was kinda scary becuase everbody was smiling constantly and they were all dressed up, so they kinda reminded me of Barbie dolls... So being in st. Petersburg was a nice break. We hung around mostly and occasionally went out to see things. Things we did to keep us occupied were playing Mah Jhong, going on the internet, eating, and making pictures for our desktop backround out of our pets.. One is Taz in a Trenchcoat with shades and holding two swords. Another is Tiko on Olivers head. Or Taz in the BMW we used to have... I miss that car. I miss how Oliver sleeps on cars, the BMW used to be his favorite to sleep on, now he sleeps on the Lincoln's windshield. It's only 1 day till I get to see my home again!