Getting Ready...

One week until departure from the U.S. and I'm still figuring out what on Earth I'm bringing with me for the next two months. Tried out my rain gear today in the shower; felt a lot like Ippolit in "The Irony of Fate":


The trial went well - nothing underneath got wet at all. At least I didn't attempt to venture into a January night in St. Petersburg after leaving the bath... but of course, my New Year's celebrations often fall on days that are far more hospitalble than the typical weather on the Russian Новый Год.

Here's to a new year, starting the instant my plane lifts off from the New Jersey ground and heads East - an adventure bedecked with camping gear, Russian phrasebooks, and long-anticipated fish soup - and I'm positively terrified. At least I'll be prepared if it rains...