My hands are cold. I just realized I've been completely neglecting my webpage. I guess that makes me a nerd, or a geek, whatever the proper term is, to have a webpage and to deel that I am beglecting it. But I don't feel guilty, not in the least. Know why? Because I've been going to school and trying to get a good education. Of course, my opinion on American schools is not particularly good, but I can go on about that for days, and I don't want to right now.

That reminds me, I am making real progress on the foreign exchange project. I got an application for the Rotary Int'l. program and (duh-da-da) I've decided that I want to go to Finland. This revelation came when I talked to my friend Kenneach about it. I expected him to list off the reasons why I should go to Germany, since he spent three years there, but he told me that I'm young, chronologically, and I could go to Germany some other time. And you know what? That's the best, the absolute best advice I have gotten on the whole thing.

Right now I am in Russian class and the teacher is talking about previous students of his who went to Russia for a month and mentioned how sometimes official type programs charge you alittle more for arranging everything. And I'm thinking about the Doroshes, moy ruski semya. I lost their address when I came back to the U.S., which really pisses me off. I sent a letter Ksoosha, one of my host sister's friends, in June but I have no way of knowing if it got there. I wonder if Meri had puppies yet. She must have...

Obviously, from that nostalgia filled paragraph there, I want to go back to Russia. Economic crisis or no, it just means that the dollar is worth more over there. So here's the plan that floats in my head now. A month of two in Magadan, this spring. Then, I spend junior year living with Elspeth and Shalto and learning Ukkish. Or, my mom has some friends in Sweden, I could live with them for year. Basically, what's on my mind now is that I want to go back to Russia.

Funky. By now I am in Algebra 2 and someone lit a smokebomb in the hall. Mrs. Holmes didn't let us get out of our seats, although we all would have like to go see. All I could tell is that there was quite a biut of smoke drifting though the hall. I wonder who did it.