In 1812 the invincible Grande Armee of Napoleon Bonaparte crossed the Neman River and thus began entered war with Russia. The Russian Army was unable to stop Napoleon's advance yet, neither was Napoleon able to destroy the Russian Army. Napoleon even captured Moscow but instead of the expected peace delegation he found a deserted city which was set ablaze soon after he arrived. Napoleons supply train was hopelessly overstretched and the Grande Armee was forced to retreat. Russia's time had now come and it seemed the very land seemed to come alive. The Grande Armee was plagued by constant raids from cossacks and starvation but the most terrible foe of all was the land itself, Russia's General Winter. Out of the original force of 615,000 proud French men, it is estimated at as little as  50,000 saving and frostbitten soldiers made it back to France. 

Of course this is just one of the many chilling stories of the dreadful Russian winter, yet so far it has not met expectations. The winter has intact been quite mild and I have not even had a chance to wear my heavy coat! 

Classes are ending as yesterday was the last day of exams. Now we will furiously grade papers to give back our results in our next and final classes. It has been a good semester and I shall miss my students, but I am proud of their progress and am happy to say that I think that almost all have substantially improved this year. 

I had a very exciting weekend last week. On Friday night I came home, took my shoes off, washed my hands, and turned to see a large carp swimming around our bathtub. "Marie" I said, "why do we have a fish in the bathtub?" "O" said she, "I bought it today, road home on the bus with it, laid it down on the floor, and then when I tried to cut it up he started jumping around!" "So you put it in the bathtub? Why didn't you leave it and let it die?" "O thats horrible I can't kill it! I'm a women, but your a man, can you kill it? Men can kill things." I laughed, "sure," said I looking at the breadcrumbs floating in the water that she had been feeding it. So Marie hands be a bucket and a big knife and I drain the water. I'll just cut off its head quick I thought, that will be nice and quick. So I stabbed the knife in just behind the gills only to realize that the knife was extremely dull. It took a lot longer than I had originally planned, but eventually I succeed and Marie immediately started gutting her late pet. And I must say, he was quite delicious.

Pskov

I headed to work with with an extra bag of clothes on Tuesday November 3. It was the last day of work before our fall break and I had and overnight train to St. Petersburg that night were I would finally see my friend Katya again. Katya had been the Russian house director of Sewanee my Junior year and had keep in contact since she left. At first meeting in Russia had been a distant dream but it had slowly crept closer and now it was only a day away. Naturally, the day passes slowly but eventually the time came and I was free. I made my way to the station where I saw 3 of my fellow teachers who had also decided to journey to St. Petersburg. When the train came I jumped into my bunch and passed the trip reading and catching a few hours of sleep. 

   I arrived in Petersburg Monday morning and Katya met me right out the door. I nearly ran past her in my haste to get off the train but she called my name and we caught each other in a long embrace. We then dropped my things at her place and spent the day traveling around the city seeing many beautiful sites and grabbing some food at a delicious cafe, but mostly just talking and enjoying the company of a long-absent friend. 

    That night I met Katya's sister Sveta. I knew that Katya and Sveta lived together in an apartment but what surprised me was how fast me and Sveta became friends over the next few days. 

   I spent Thursday walking about the city on my own while the two sisters where at work visiting St. Issac's Cathedral, the Kunstkammer museum, and the Peter & Paul fortress before my legs reached the limit of their stamina. 

     Friday was the first day me and Sveta spent together and the day we really become friends. She told me around much of the city visiting many amazing places some of which I had seen and some of which were new. But that night we meet Katya on the outskirts of the city and boarded a bus for Pskov, an ancient Russian town to the west where Katya's parents live. We were heading there for a family reunion and arrived at about 1 in the morning. Originally I had planned to return Saturday evening but when I had arrived I had realized that I may never again have the chance to meet Katya's family like this and had rebooked my train to bring me back to Vladimir Monday morning. It proved to be one of the best decisions I have ever made and my time in Pskov was incredible. I saw the ancient fortress of Uzborsk and the protected Monestary of Pecherski but both these were dwarfed by the magnificent Kremlin of Pskov with its massive Cathedral that towered over the city. 

Katya's family members are some of the kindest people I have ever met and I can not wait to see them again. The reunion its self was also amazing and I now have several invitations to come and stay with other families. All in all the hardest part of the trip was having it end. I can not thank Katya and her family enough for their kindness over the past weekend but I hope to one day return the favor until then I will be counting down the days until I can see them all again and return to Pskov. 

                Peter the Great's house (which he built himself) 

 Peter & Paul Fortress 

  Church on the Spilled Blood

 Pecherski Monastery

 Uzborsk Fortress

 WW2 Memorial (Russia lost roughly 30 million people during the War and probably did more to defeat the Axis than all of the other powers combined. Their sacrifice has not been forgotten)

Pskov Kremlin coming soon!