Закрой за мной дверь, я ухожу

So, here's what the situation is, for those who don't already know. Ruth - the girl I was supposed to travel with for a month and a half after my program ended - got hit by a car a couple weeks ago and broke her leg. So, obviously, she won't be able to travel, and I was forced to suddenly change my plans for after the program. That, compiled with a bunch of issues involving my visa extension and flight itinerary, ended up meaning that I can only stay in Russia, and that I can only stay until May 28th. So my travel plans were cut way back and after a lot of thought as to what I want to to and where I want to go with my extra two weeks in Russia, I finally settled on Murmansk, the largest city in the world inside the arctic circle. I leave today at 6:00 and it's a 28 hour train ride. I did a project on the city last year in Russian class, so I'm excited to finally get to see it. I'll be ariving back in Petersburg on Saturday, May 20th and hanging around here for another week before flying home the next Saturday, the 27th. I'm a little dissapointed that I won't get to see all of (or any of, at that) Eastern Europe like Ruth and I had planned, but I'm sure I'll have the opportunity again. Ruth is fine and everything, by the way. She flew home on Saturday. Our last day of classes was last Friday. It's good to be done with everything, but I'm definitely already missing all my friends from the program. I know I'll see some of them again. And thank god for Facebook, by the way. So, just thought I'd let everyone know what's up, for those who are interested. I'll try to make another quick post like this when I get back from Murmansk too, and hopefully put some pictures up on Flickr. Wish me luck at the top of the world!