кошка/cats

Wednesday night we went to a modern art installation that was tucked away inside of

what seemed like an old apartment building. It almost seemed like a secret place because the gate to go inside was locked and out guide had to go inside a tiny office to get the people to let us go inside. This guide was a Russian friend of our program director Tatiana named Sergei. once inside we saw an interactive art exhibit that you could move around an entire room by pulling a few pipes up and down. We also saw another art exhibit on the roof of the building that included large, free formed, black shapes that gave visual delight to dinners eating in a restaurant on the same floor. We all ate at the restaurant, which had lovely food. I had some dumplings stuffed with Russian style meat, which were very кусный (tasty). Then, Sergei took us on a walk around the city while one misfortunate boy went to pick up his suitcase, that had been lost by Singapore Air, at the airport. We saw Napoleon's face on the balls of a hourse monument, because the Russians defeated Napoleon, of course! Maybe you can make it out in the picture I took of it too. We also visited a monument to cats. The monument was created to honor the cats that 'helped' the citizens of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) survive the 900 day seige of the city by German forces during World War II. We also visited the Church on Spilled Blood, a cathedral built on the spot where one of the czars was assassinated. Look at the picture of the Russian cross. The cresent moon at the bottom signifies the defeat of the Muslim Mongols by the Orthodox Russians. All new Othadox churches are not allowed to have the cresent moon feature on the cross. The ban relates to a deal worked out by the Russian government with the new Muslim Republics of the former Soviet empire.