Communication Breakdown

The blog and my nearly year-long habit of updating it were no match for the arrival of 7 American friends. The sightseeing, travelling, catching up, dining, and general having of fun crowded out the opportunity to write.

As my friends arrived at the airport on different flights over the course of a day, I thought I was burned out on Russia. Everything seemed to be both difficult and aggravating - the purchase of a SIM card for my cell phone for some reason involved close inspection of my legal status in the Russian Federation, for example. And a lot of everday things began to annoy me, too.

But as I wrap up my Russia experience with 5 days in St. Petersburg, I find myself curiously coming back around. There's beauty here, and culture, and an urban-yet-sane pace of life. I resolved to not let things bother me - and I've had much more fun than I did in Moscow over the previous few days.

So I've begun to refine things. I think I was burned out on travel, not being in one place for more than a couple of days over the past month plus (remember Kiev and Novorossisk in the total travel tally).

But being essentially homeless in Russia dooms me to that fate. When travel plans of the visiting American contingent changed, I decided to opt out of further adventure in Russia between now and my scheduled departure date at the end of May.

Instead, I moved the plane ticket forward.

Blog entries from this point, then, will be from stateside. I'll try to wrap up with things I have learned, seen, figured out, or failed to understand from my time in Moscow and Russia. I'll post pictures, too, that are illustrative or interesting or maybe just funny.

But the big adventure is over - at least the Russia chapter - and everything from now on will be from the domestic perspective of someone who once had an inside track, a ringside seat, for one of the world's great spectacles.