Tuesday's classes started with phonetics...where I, once again, hadn't been able to memorize the story she wanted us to memorize. We finally got out of classes at 2:30 and ran down to the stolovaya for a snack before our group meeting. At the meeting, we learned that we're leaving for the baltics on friday at 5:30. We still haven't recieved visas to get back into russia once we leave. It seems that the local visa office is the only one in town that has heard of a new rule that foreigners studying in moscow aren't allowed to leave the country during their stay....so we're hoping that we can get new visas in estonia. If not, future dispatches might be coming to you from the baltics. (Don't worry, mom...i'll be back in time for your visit) After the meeting, I logged in for the first time in several days to discover that Utopia's new sendmail configuration is apparently bouncing at least some of my mail. So, I set up forwarding to Wes for the duration. (It's also easier to telnet to wes, in the even that I find a cyber-cafe in the baltics.) After that, it was off to the bank, in order to change $350 in travellers checks into rubles so I can go buy train tickets tomorrow. On the way, I passed several women in green and white jumpsuits passing out free cigarettes. I swear the girl in the bank kassa must have counted my checks 20 times...but she didn't give me any hassle about cashing the checks themselves. For the moment, at least, I'm a ruble multi-millionaire. It's only a little disconcerting knowing that I have two million of anything in my wallet. But, it will get much lighter tomorrow. On the way back from the money changer, I stopped to pick up a kilo of ponchiki (a cross between doughnuts and fried dough) for several people on the program. While I was waiting, a beggar hit me up for money several times. (You'd think he'd take a hint afer I said "No! Go away!") When I got back, I discovered a game of hearts in mid-trick. Within moments, I'd taken jocelyn's spot. (Matt, you'd be proud of me: I took about 4 points over 4 hands...) Well, after several hands, everybody else got disgusted by my winning streak and I bowed out to log back in. I got to talk to my friends rachel and jen and kate....who happen to be so net-addicted that they were logged in at 10 am. ;) (through iowa no less!) God, I love the internet. Later, my hall-mates olya and tanya invited me to tanya's "7000 days" party. Apparently it's her 7000th day alive....it was really just an excuse to have a party....we played silly party games, drank chai, ate cookies and told stories...it was quite silly and a lot of fun all around...now I'm just typing silly journal entries and dreading my job interview tomorrow.