We made it back from he beach. and i just thought american traffic was bad. \sorry about this message the keyboard i'm using, the period button is stuck and only works occassionally. yeah! \We finally made it back to the campus after a almost 7 hour bus ride. No kidding. problem is that it should have been a 3 hour bus ride. 1st the traffic was horrible, and then, one of the fantastic russian drivers decided to cut our bus off in his \VW passat... which we crunched in to and dented his bumper and destroyed his taillight \this would ahve been fine if it wouldn't have taken he cops 3 hours to decide who was in fault. yeah really, 3 hours of sitting on the side of the road... we had a volleyball though and enertained ourselves. the worst part was that we were starving and as we drove, oh 1/2 mile, down the road there was a market... that was obviously there the WHOLE time we were starving and thirsty..... we felt pretty stupid then, but that happens. \the beach was ok if you like lots of drunk people who do'nt speak your langauge. it really was not THAT bad, but if you know me you know i don't like the beach, and i don't like large crowds. \the fact they didn't speak my language just made it that much better. \i am definately praising God for the modesty of American men. all males, 1-85 on the beach in their speedos.... some i swear were just in underwear.... it was a little disturbing, but not as desturbing as he countless older ladies in bikinis. \by that time most american women are wearing 1 pieces with skirts and cover-ups.... apparently cover up is not in the russian langauge when it comes to beaches! \i have been fighting a cold for a couple days too so i actually spent a lot of time naping ni my airconditioned hotel room. \they were nice. i am really sorry about the gramar in this message, its driving me crazy too but i don't have time to fix it! I'll be back on tomorrow.. Have a good day! We're half-way through! - kait

and yes that picture IS in russia.. i agree it looks more like colorado or New Mexico. I told ya'll things weren't that different!