keith birthday has norwegian arms

another not so legit excerpt from email update

well, actually im in naples, italy at the moment. I am also going to
apologize in advance for not using apostrophes because its too
complicated on this keyboard. Anyways

I have been eating a lot of pizza because it is super cheap and super
delicious. i am also enjoying the fact that italians eat cookies for
breakfast, its like a childhood dream come true. ive been staying with
my friend ilaria who i know from tomsk and shes been showing me around
and its been awesome. we went to pompeii yesterday and it was another
dream come true. her roommates have also been forcing me to learn
italian. its not so hard, they make me say silly things, and then
congratulate me. its a pretty supportive system. im a fan.

also, i like the italian way of hanging out. everyone sort of just
converges at the currently hip square and just talks a whole lot and
gets drunk. of course the people that live on this square absolutely
hate it. luckily the trend shifts every six months to a year or so.
people dont really seem to do clubs or bars here. at least not the
students. apparently they dont have the money for it.

in the next couple days im going to go on an official sight seeing
tour of naples (today) and then to sorrento tomorrow. i leave thursday
for berlin for another two days, where ill get to see some more
friends and prepare myself for reentry to russia. its been nice not
being there, but my multiple entry visa clearly states that i cant
spend more than two weeks outside of the country.

technically my actual going places vacation is until the 26th, when
all of us fulbrighters meet up in moscow to have a midyear seminar.
that means we go to silly meetings at the embassy all day and then get
really drunk at night. but ill be spending two days beforehand in st.
petersburg with a smaller group of fulbrighters, the ones i get along
with most, who oddly also happen to mostly consist of those who live
closest to me in russia. i guess were the siberian elite or something.
then well take a night train to moscow, have our silly meetings and
then the plan is for a few of the siberian elites to take the train
back with me to tomsk (basically on the way for them), stay a few days
there, and then ill remain in tomsk until the beginning of the
semester (mid feb) and theyll head on back to their towns. then most
of my foreign friends will leave for home on the 10th or 11th, and
that will be pretty sad. at least in the meantime ive gathered up
enough russian friends to not have a steep drop off slash be suddenly
lonely.