Being Alone is a Good Thing

I was talking to my friend Katie today on IM and told her a good tip
about traveling.

Option A: always travel with friends
Option B: Travel alone and make friends quickly, then refer back to
Option A.

It is always more fun with a group of people to find adventure. I love
to meet new people or have new adventures with old friends. At the
same time it is very important to have time alone as well.

I need tme to collect my thoughts and reflect on the adventures I am
having. Today was such a day for me. My morning was unihibited and as
you can see from my posts, I had plenty of time to write and to post
online.

In the evening as I told you I had an appointment with Valya at her
work. She had asked me to meet her students and maybe do some activity
or something. I took this to mean she wanted a mini-discovery workshop
for her students. She told me she did not know what to expect but that
she wanted her kids to meet me. I took some time and wrote a program
with minimal equipment that would be good for ages 12-16. She teaches
an acting class, so this gave me the opportunity to include some
activities from my acting days that Jean does not use in her programs.
Jean would have been proud of me :-)

Getting there was an adventure all it's own. I left for the metro much
earlier than Valya suggested and it was a good thing. After the metro
stop it was another 40 minutes by bus to get to her town of Kolpino. I
had to take the 293 commercial bus, NOT the 293a bus. The only thing I
saw were many 293a busses and they all said "to Kolpino" on them. I
approached a driver and called Valya. Then handed him the phone. They
talked for a minute, then he very nicely directed me to the correct
corner. I was standing in the wrong place.

After boarding one of the many many 393 busses I asked Valya to send
me a text in Russian saying "please let me off at stop XXX". Sadly the
woman who read it to the driver failed to let me know when that stop
had arrived. As the last person left the bus I showed the text to him.

I understood by his gestures that I had totally missed my stop:-). So
again I called Valya and had her talk to the driver. He told her
exactly where I was. He was super nice and friendly to me and made
sure I understood what to do before he left me. Valya told me to stay
there and she would come to me.

Finally she found me. I was at her bus stop for her home so she knew
the area well. We hopped on another bus and made our way back to her
work.

The discovery program I wrote and lead went very well. We finished
exactly on time and the kids seemed to get something from it. It is
difficult to lead such a short program but I feel it was benificial
for them. It was nice to see where my friend lives and works. It all
seems so esoteric to me until I can see it for myself.

The students were lovely and friendly. Her work is at a nice location
as well. After we had tea and talked a bit with another teacher.

Finally, I am back on the bus heading to St Petersburg. Unfortunatly
this is the 201. I guess the 201 busses do not use heaters :-/ my
hands are FREEZing typing this to you but it is worth it to share good
information with everyone. If I am lucky, then the McDonalds WiFi will
be working when I return and I will post this tonight.

Tomorrow I will wake up early and head into town for a subway sandwich
and free wifi :-). Some friends are meeting me there later in the day
and we will have a good time I think.

Oops:-) I almost just got off the bus at the wrong place!!! That would
have SUCKed. Thank you iPhone for having a metro map. I showed the
driver the map and he told me it was further down the line. Yay me for
not getting lost, again!! У патитиэлса (translation: help me I'm
pathetic and lost)

-Dana