Day 9 & 10

Day 9 we had nothing planned for us, we were suppose to be moving into our homestays and some of us did, but my homestay was pushed back until Sunday. So we went to the pizza bar that we like and then went downtown, well we split off into 2 groups and my group was trying to find a soviet store... well we look for about 2 hours for a store that we FINALLY find and does not actually have soviet stuff in it! Only guns! So we then go to meet the others and we go to a really touristy market by the cathedral of spilled blood. It was interesting there, everyone wants to haggle for things haha.. I bought a Nightmare Before Christmas Matroshka doll so I was very happy lol after tht we went home, watched the soccer game and then went to bed because we had to be at breakfast for 8:30am the next day

So we get up and we head out to the Pushkin Palace, which was about an hour away. The palace was BEAUTIFUL and the gardens around the palace even moreso, however, after about 5hours of being there, and about 8 hours since we had eaten... we were tired and hungry and wanted to go haha...

But Austin and I moved into our homestay today, so we had to get back and rush to pack because Yuri, our homestay father was coming in less than an hour to pick us up. So we get everything packed, Yuri comes to pick us up, and the Digornaya (the floor administrator whom we named Digorno) started fussing at us and Yuri for something (still don't know what haha). But we leave, ride to the hours, I smask my pinky in something, and it is still bleeding periodically a few hours later, and then we unpack in our new rooms... go over some rules, which I'm not quite sure entirely what he said haha, and then we head out to eat dinner with some of the other kids from the group at the pizza bar.

After dinner, we head back, which we have never done before, but we get on the same bus that brought us there... however after driving for about 30-40min, there is no one except Austin and I... and the driver yells at us (don't know what) so we get off the bus... in the freakin ghettos... where we have NEVER been before haha

We walked for a little less than a mile and luckily found a metro, so we rode that back to the homestay, but it was still really clost to getting lost in Russia...

After getting home though, we had tea with Yuri and Tatiyana, got to talk with them for a while, which is always fun/exhausting... then after about 1-2 hours of that, we went to our rooms, I did some homework, and now I'm going to sleep!