Last week, my friend Losha took me with him to the Master Hitchhiker's Guild of St. Petersburg meeting. There I met tons of nice people who have hitchhiked around Russia and Europe. At their meetings, they discuss safe ways to hitchhike, how to do it properly, and talk about their adventures. All the people there were very friendly, and have offered to show me around St. Petersburg, and the surrounding areas. At the meeting I met a girl named Katya, and she invited me to a concert the next night. My friend and I went on an adventure to find the concert, which ended up being in a tiny library across the Neva. We had to cross the Neva on a very long bridge, that didn't seem the safest. The wind is very strong on the Neva, and whenever a tram drove accross the bridge it shook so hard i thought it was going to crumble into the river.

Last Friday I went to the opera Rusalka(the mermaid) by Dvorak. This might be the best opera I have been to. The cast was half ballarinas and half singers. It was beautiful to watch and to listen to! My friend and I bought cheap tickets, so we were in the back row, but luckily he still had his school bag with so I sat on his dictionary so I could see over the people in front of me. Our dictionaries are so useful! I used it to see the opera, and then durring the intermissions, we used the dictionary to translate the story line in our program.

Last night my group went to see the opera Traviat after I visited the doctor. Now I can say I have been to the hospital on three continents! what an achievment... The opera was nice. At intermission we bought overpriced, but delicious strawberries, and then enjoyed the second half of the opera. I think it is wonderful how much music and art there is in Petersburg.