A Stroll Through the Park

Today we went to Pavlosk Palace and Park on the outskirts of the city.

The palace was interesting; I am beginning to see the standard features of Russian architecture and also how ones from different eras possess their own unique traits to reflect the current fashions. Unfortunately, I guess I am beginning to develop what I can only think to call Palace fatigue. Having seen so many of them since arriving here it takes quite an impressive sight or story to blow my mind like palaces used to. However this was quite a nice palace with what might be the most amazing Russian park I have visited yet.

It is not a park in the sense that Americans would be used to with grass feilds and concreate paths. Instead it is really more of a carefully planned forest (It looks like a forest but every tree was planted and chosen to be where it is) and stream complex with tree lined paths. It was a rather cold day today but we did not mind as we wandered from one end to the other, enjoying the silence of nature and the beautiful fall foliage around us. (I now know that in the fall, in many places tress actually turn to orange, yellow and red not only remaining green or turning brown as often happens back home) I took many beautiful pictures there during our lovely stroll, some of which I put up on Facebook and my favorites:

It was a wonderful place to visit, and I believe we were there at the best possible time to do so with all the trees changing, lack of crowds and chilly but very very fresh fall air all around us. It is already starting to get cold here as well, hovering in the low 40s at night and the high 40s to mid 50s during the day.  But I now fully understand the concept of a hat, gloves and scarf and how they are essential to keeping warm in such a climate.

Today when we returned I also moved to a new room down the hall.  When people moved into their home-stays with Russian families it left unoccupied spots in rooms, so we had to move around to fill them in.  Luckily for me, I a now in a slightly bigger room with a nicer kitchen and a new roommate who is a good friend of mine.  So it worked out nicely in my favor.  And the big advantage to traveling to Russia with a strict bag and wight limit means that moving down the hall takes less then an hour from start to finish!. 

Tomorrow will be devoted to the immensely fun tasks of laundry, grocery shopping and learning Russian verbs! Russian studying should get easier now though as I have acquired a nifty Russian keyboard to type with allowing me to peck at the keyboard now in a whole additional language!

Next week I will have my midterm for Russian, and Friday we begin our week long fall break with an overnight train ride to Moscow. Then on Monday I shall fly 4 hours south-west to meet my Mom in Strasbourg for 6 days, 5 nights in France!