I'm surprisingly unaffected by jet lag at the moment--it's 11:30pm, and I'm still awake, which is good news. I forced myself to stay awake last night, which is the only way to get used to the time change. Still, I'm taking it a little more conservative than at the start of last summer's trip, when I went out with my host sister and some of her friends until the wee hours of the night on my very first day in Russia. But this way might be a better idea.

Today, we met at the American Home at noon, toured around the home, got acquainted with the Russian staff, and had a small excursion around the center of Vladimir. We saw the historic churches and 12th-century Golden Gates, which once defended the entrance of the city from invading Mongols. I had actually seen these places when I was here two years ago. They are still impressive the second time around. After that, I went home and had a great dinner and got schooled in the Russian card game durak by my eight-year-old host brother. I did finally beat him once though! Here is a shot of Big Moscow Street, which is the main street here in Vladimir. I took this picture from an upstairs window of the Golden Gates. I caught the street at a quiet moment; it was jammed with cars and buses all day, and the street is quite busy with foot traffic from all the shops that line it.