It's warm(er) here now!!!

Oh man, I'm so excited! It's actually pretty outside now. The first few weeks that I was here, it was freezing, but now, I actually like walking around outside. The government also turned on the heat in the buildings, so I'm not freezing anymore (although school seems to be colder on the inside than on the outside...I'm not sure how that one works, but whatever). Anyway, I had a relatively calm past week. I had classes like normal, and then on Saturday, our group went to Peterhof, which is supposed to be the Versailles of Russia. Personally, I think that Peterhof is way better. There are a lot of fountains there, which is why we went last weekend because they were getting ready to turn off the fountains for the winter. Anyway, the palace is located right on the Gulf of Finland, which was absolutely beautiful. We got to go into the banya house, which was awesome. There were a lot of saunas and the coolest room by far in the banya house was the fountain room where the guests would go cool down after getting out of the sauna. I have decided that I want a fountain type room in my house. It's going to happen, mark my words. Anyway, I walked around the park and it was so pretty. That night, I went to an ex-pat bar just off Nevsky Prospekt with a few people, which was fun. We drank a beer or two and just hung out. It was nice just to relax after a long day. Then on Sunday, Michaelene, Meg, and I went to the Summer Gardens, which was AMAZING!! There are all these beautiful statues that line the paths there and the trees there are starting to turn, which made for a beautiful scene. I am really happy I made it there because in the winter, they put boxes around the statues to protect them from the ice and snow and I wanted to see everything before it got boxed up. So far, I have to say that the Summer Gardens are my favorite place in Petersburg. And now to switch the topic completely: I think I landed a job teaching English!! I'm really excited because I love teaching languages, so I feel like it is going to be perfect for me. It's once a week for two hours and I have to plan activities for class. I'm really super excited!! Anyway, that's about all that's going on with me. I don't have anything too exciting lined up for the next week. I really want to start hanging out with more Russians, so I think I am going to start working on making that happen. I think that's all for now.