Oh, the places we went and the people we met.

The Main PlayersFor the past month it has been the three of us traveling from Beijing to St. Petersburg. I've heard time flies when you're having fun but we had an amazing time and time didn't fly.Peter was a bit of a surprise addition to the trip since it was a little last minute but I can't imagine the trip without him. Through his eye in the video camera, we will produce a short film that will attempt help other people have a clue of what the trip was like for us.Sara and I had initially planned to roadtrip through Australia. I remember calling her from Shanghai to hash out where in the world we'd decide to take our trip. At that moment we had no idea how great our trip was about to be. Nerpa!

It all began in Beijing
Through family friends of Sara's, we met Mr. Yao Di, our personal tour guide of Beijing. With him we went around to all the touristy Chinese places and some incredible Chinese restaurants. In Mongolia we were amazed by little Puce's art. An odd thing that struck me: he loves Bob Ross and learned a lot about painting through watching his shows on Mongolian TV.Our first true friends made on the trip, Katiya and Gana were such helpful people. Gana was a great host when we stayed at his home in rural Mongolia and Katiya taught us our first Russian, about Russian culture, and was just fun to hang out with.Without Artiem, nothing in Baikal would have happened. This young guy was our personal tour guide and great friend throughout our time in Siberia. We had some tough times, but I even look back on those fondly, remembering that rough day hitchhiking out of the Small Sea.Our Russian party people. These guys hazed us like pledges. We met them at the Small Sea but caught up with them in Irkutsk for a final farewell dinner. Francis is French-Canadian and Line is Danish. We met them at our hostel in Moscow but continued to party with them in St. Petersburg. Just our type of people, we shared music, vodka, and the dance floor throughout the week. Tanya was our partner in art outside of the Red Square. She helped us with an inventive clip that won't be seen until the trip's film is released sometime in the Spring of 2008. Annya from Cuba Hostel. At first we thought she hated us, but then we learned it's just her spunky attitude and that just made us like her all the much more. She took us out to the great bars of the St. P. night scene and it couldn't have been more fun.With Peter here is our dearest Sasha. We spent her 20th birthday with her walking around St. Petersburg and then took to the bars later that night to party with her. She was so good to us but both as an employee of the hostel but even more so as a local friend.I can't stress how much of our good times were multiplied by having these final characters with us. Here is Mickey Mouse, aka Dave Carter, the creator of the Dave Carter Show. We met him in Moscow but hung with him for a week until he left for Eastern Europe. His sense of humor is so unique, I can only beg you to go to his site and watch his animation. To prevent hairy situations Steven from Brooklyn always kept a shave kit handy and usually experienced his life in his mind before doing so in "real life." In St. P. he was constantly having an out-of-body experience and instead of leaving for Helsinki, he just suddenly disappeared into thin air. Stephen is out of focus in this pic but it's still indicative of his character. We got off on the right foot from the beginning since he's currently a student at U of M but times only got better as we all hung out more. As I post this, I'd just like to give a birthday shout out to him and hope that wherever he is, he's enjoying some Roman Charity.