There is a new page dedicated to my trip to Hong Kong and Shanghai: http://myumla.wordpress.com/china/ The trip was, in one word, awesome Hong Kong (and Shanghai too) is a fantastic place, and it was very nice to hang out with Akanksha again and meet some of her friends there.

I got back on the 4th, and now its time to start my summer research. I am kinda looking forward to that actually – you would think grad school would be all about research, but the first two years are more like continuation of undergrad only you are teaching too. Well, at least thats how it is for me. Anyway, life is good It feels nice to be back in my apartment, even though Saathi is staying at my mom’s and I miss her terribly. It also feels nice to be single while having a rather, uhm, entertaining personal life and keeping my options open. It is a comfortable state and I think I’d like to stay in it for awhile. I will be going to Kiev for 2 weeks in July and that is also something I am really looking forward to. I plan on doing some sightseeing there this time instead of just hanging out with my family (although that will be a big part of the visit as well) and chilling on the beach. Kiev is an exceptionally historical and beautiful place, but main purpose of going there has always been to visit my grandmother so I never really paid much attention to what the city has to offer. This time will be different, so in about a month you’ll see a new page specifically for my Kiev travel blog

http://picasaweb.google.com/olga.p.petrova/PeruPartI

http://picasaweb.google.com/olga.p.petrova/PeruPartII

At this point, I have almost 500 pictures uploaded, and eventually I will post all of them on picasa, with some basic comments about whats on them. I am not sure whether I will have enough Internet access to keep my peruvian diary updated from now on, but the plan is to go to Paracas National Reserve on January 11th, spend the last 3 days chilling in Lima on my last $20 (next time I travel, I´ll try to plan my finances better) and fly back to the states at 1 am on January 15th. What a trip

I figured that my trip to Peru deserves a separate web-page, so here it is, all the posts put together in chronological order: http://myumla.wordpress.com/peruvian-adventures/

Хрещатик (Khreschatik? Not sure how to spell it in English, it’s the main street in Kiev)

Okay, so I am finally in Kiev It is, in one word, GORGEOUS. Absolutely beautiful, I love it. I have a ton of pictures which I will upload as soon as I can (probably not until I get back to the states though). I am staying with my aunt, it’s nice, she doesn’t have much work in the summer so we’ve been taking walks around the city pretty much 24/7 with short breaks for sleep every now and then (my feet hurt…). There are very nice places to eat everywhere, it’s more expensive than, say, Kostroma (which is expected I guess, Kiev being the capital and all), but still rather cheap compared to Moscow and the states. Lots of fancy clothes stores (>>> expensive than the states, but luckily, it is sales time). Its funny, I really feel at home here, even though I never spent much time here when I visited… Ugh, my 30 minutes are running out, I’ll write more later…

I decided to update this entry instead of making a new one about Kiev

I heard a lot more people speaking Ukrainian compared to when I visited three years ago. I don’t mind – in fact, I like it, Ukrainian sounds like a cuter version of Russian to me I had a little trouble understanding some of the signs, menus, and the like, but everyone I met was very helpful when that happened. In general, Kiev is very friendly towards visitors no matter where they come from, very much unlike Moscow…

This is where some of the most expensive stores and restaurants are. It ends in Майдан Незалежности (the Square of Independence?), that has a handful of statues, including one of a Ukrainian woman that is known as “Batman” among the Kievites, and a whole bunch of fountains.

On weekends the traffic is blocked so that people can walk on the road.

Later in the evening, the road gets filled with all sorts of street musicians; most of them stay there till late at night. Speaking of night, that’s when Khreschatiik is a truly beautiful sight – a lot of the buildings are lighted (lit? you can tell I haven’t spoken much English lately); here there are Christmas lights all year round.