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I suppose I've been lacking on my posts for the last week and a half. I'll start by saying that I have less than 48 hours left in Russia. The last week has been filled with school-related activities revolving, for the most part, around a paper we had to write. The time that hasn't been spent in study has been spent dealing with the heat. I really underestimated what it could do to me. That is to say, I have hardly slept this past week and feel a little like a walking zombie - physically, it seems to have a taken a toll as well, and I would not be surprised to find that I have lost up to fifteen pounds when I get home.

Put all is not as bad as it seems, not as bad as I make it seem. This past weekend, we went to the ancient cities of Vladimir and Suzdal', which I'm told are even mentioned in the New Testament, but I have no proof of this. Our trip there was a real experience. They are located in a neighboring province - a distance that make two hours or three at the most to reach in America. But here that time reaches six to seven hours depending on the direction and time of day.

Once we got to Vladimir, our excursion was accompanied by rain and lasted about an hour and a half. Disappointing really. We spent the rest of Saturday in our hotel waiting for the club on the second floor to open up. It was nice to hang out with everyone, but a waste of time to do it in a bum hotel in a Russian provincial town. I really understand after staying in this place what centralizing the power in Moscow does to places like Vladimir, which really seems like it's just a place to hold excess population not necessary to run the government.

That said, the church there (I forgot the name and don't feel like looking it up) was quite impressive. All of the churches in this area are, for the most part, big and white with large gold (or in one case spangled blue) domes. The inside of the one we toured in Vladimir was painted with frescoes by Andrej Rubljov - especially impressive was his "Final Judgement" placed over the main entry to the sanctuary. One of the other more interesting things there was Alexander Nevsky's finger. It used to be his entire corpse until Peter the (not-so) Great removed most his body to Petersburg. As we were wrapping up our tour in this church a thunderstorm rolled over the plain outside. It was an amazing sight and an amazing sound as it came in. I took a panorama from the bluff that the church is on - all pictures will be in the next post.

Other than that, Vladimir wasn't much to look at - a run down facade of Russian history maintained partly because it's on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

Suzdal', however, was much more interesting. This is a church town to say the least. Our first stop was a sight where some wooden churches have been reconstructed and some wooden houses have been brought in from other area in Russia. It's a whole lot more interesting than I'm making it sound, but photos were not allowed without a pass (which I didn't really feel like paying for), so you'll have to take my word that it was pretty cool to see the inside of these wooden houses.

After that it was the Kremlin (remember, how I said this just means "citadel" in Russian), with another massive white church with gold domes. I would have thought that by now I had grown tired of these things, but they are all so impressive and each one slightly different. This one was under restoration, so there was scaffolding all over the frescoes, but we were treated to a song from a quartet of singers. One of the coolest things that has ever happened to me was listening to their music and letting my eyes roll across the massive glittering iconostasis of this church.

We then went to the Spassky Monastery, which no longer functions as a monastery. All of thee churches and buildings there are museums, and unfortunately, we were all a little too fed up with eachother (a likely result of the heat) to see much here. Our tour guide took us to a building full of church artifacts, which had the potential to be one of the most impressive museums of the trip. However, we were rushed and very hungry - it's a place to return to if I can get back to Russia and brave the insane traffic of Moscow to get there. Most people left for lunch or something (we weren't communicating very well at this point) while I hung around to watch the holy man ring the church bells.

I can't remember if I commented on church bells here, but they are an amazing thing to listen to. Most churches have ten or fifteen bells (sometimes even more) and when they ring, it is truly music. Not only that, but the act of ringing the bells is intended to be a religious experience (not just a marker of the time of day). This is not surprisingly reflected in the vocabulary. In Russia, bells do not "ring," they "call," just like a person calls out to God in prayer. The call usually lasts for anywhere from twenty to forty minutes 9not every hour, but at specific times of day - I think there are five, but don't quote me on that). It has been a real treat to be living within hearing of two monasteries while I've been here. I frequently find myself opening the windows and laying on the bed to take a break and listen to the bells.

After a riverside picnic in Suzdal', we packed up the bus and headed back to Moscow - we left at 5.00 PM and did not get back until after 11.00. We didn't even bother going into the city, but stopped at the first Metro station and got on that for the rest of the journey to our respective neighborhoods. I would not at all be surprised to find that we spent the last two and a half hours or more within fifteen miles of Moscow.

In addition to the heat, there have been peat bog fires all over the region, which have turned the city into a smoke house all week - it started to clear up yesterday and today it's clear for the most part. I have before and after photos from St. Andrew's Bridge. I'll probably go try to take some night photos tonight, because it is finally getting dark enough to do so. All the other photos will be in the next post.