Saturday Feb 12th

My roommates and I were all excited for the weekend and to finally get out of the community and had plans that we wanted to go into town and spend all day Saturday doing and seeing what we could. But then on Friday night we got any email from the embassy that said there was a riot going on down town if you’re American stay away it wasn’t safe. Well our native coordinator Guliya hadn’t heard about it yet so she was planning on us going to see an art museum and our group was like we don’t feel comfortable going so count us out. When she heard about the riot she was like, no way are we going.  I’m cancelling it for everyone. Everyone just needed to stay at their apartments or around them and not travel into town anywhere near it. 

We were bummed because we just wanted out. So we decided to head to the little shopping areas around the University and go shopping there just so we were away from down town and anything that was going on. We were so happy to get out and to see other people and do things. Its nice living in the country but it’s also hard because it takes so long to get anywhere.  It was sooooo cold outside but we still braved the weather and walked around. A lot of the shops are just like little street venders and they try and get you to come into their little area and buy their stuff. We just were in a browsing mood so we just quickly went through and glanced at their stuff. I found a few things that were cool like a fur coat, ha-ha yeah it was $35,000 and that’s American dollar value. So I think I’m looking for the fake ones!! And the fun Russian fur hats for men were like $120. It was still fun to look at them and feel how soft they were. We didn’t spend too much time because we were all getting really cold and knew we had a long ride home ahead of us. 

So nothing to adventurous we stayed away from all the exciting things which was a good idea because it sounded like things got a little out of hand and many people were hurt and arrested. I was happy knowing that our embassy was looking out for us and told us to stay away. We were also told we shouldn’t go to church either because our church is near everything that was going on. We were bummed about not being able to go to church this week because we didn’t go last week, but better safe than sorry!  

So yeah that was pretty much my week in a nut shell, hopefully I’ll start having more adventures to tell you all about in the coming weeks when we head to Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. Awesome huh!! I would have never believed I would make to anywhere like that in my life and now I get the chance and I’m sooooo excited.  And then at the end of our time here for ILP we are taking the last week and going to Poland to see all the concentration camps and museums we can!  Just another amazing adventure awaiting my arrival.