6/17/09, 3:23 p.m.

tomorrow be our last day of classes here in volgograd
my last class is grammar [which, oddly, i am looking forward to
russian grammar is so much better than english grammar
maybe because i was taught the latter for 10 straight years]
on friday we have a 'graduation party' with our преподавателя
we'll be drinking чай and singing songs and reciting poems
then, i'll finally be done with classes
after six long, full months of them

friday we're also going on the party boat,
which is guaranteed to be a good time
basically we'll be going on an hour long boat ride on the volga
there'll be all sorts of fun stuff for us to do
chris said it was a lot of fun last year,
so here's hoping it's equally as good this time around

saturday some of us are going to the баня
it's basically a russified turkish bath
there's a steam room [reputed to be 90 degrees celsius]
you sit in there for about 10 minutes or so
then you rush outside and douse yourself with freezing water
then you flog your self with leafy branches [or a switch]
and then you repeat the process three or four times
it's supposed to be a one-of-a-kind experience
i'm not going, but about half the group is
i've been hot enough here already
i have no desire to sit in even hotter temperatures

speaking of the weather
it finally settled into something more endurable
it was a comfortable 27º yesterday
[this is the only time i will ever say 80 F is comfortable
because it is, compared to 94 F]
it's been threatening rain all week,
but it hasn't made good, so it's kinda humid

as some [if not many] of you may know,
i'm not a fan of beer,
but i do enjoy a good dark beer/stout/ale,
my favorite being guinness
i haven't been able to get it out here
since i guess there isn't much of a market for it
however, i have discovered a quality substitute
it's called velkopopovický kozel [it's czech]
the dark ale they make is really, really good
i get it every time i go to the белая лощадь
[i also found 'murphy's irish stout' at the гурман,
and it was really good]

if anyone who reads this has been to amsterdam,
i'm currently taking suggestions for what to do there
i have a 12 hour overnight layover there on tuesday
and i know nothing about what's there
so any thoughts/ideas would be welcome