Boats and Baseball

Ah, I am beat. It's been a pretty good few days, though. On Friday, all the people we lost to Moscow got back, thankfully. That means that I am back to working at the main office of the consulate, at least for now. Next week we are planning a media cookout, where we basically invite a bunch of media representatives and cook them food. I have been drafted into helping out with that a fair amount (it will be this Thursday afternoon), so I'll probably end up spending a good chunk of the next three or four days over at Public Affairs. It really makes no difference to me, as long as I've got something to do.

On Saturday we did the baseball tournament that I have been talking about. The CG threw out the first pitch (successfully, I'm

told, but I didn't see it with my own eyes). We also grilled a ton of hot dogs and handed out free drinks. I'd say all told, it went very well. People were (not surprisingly) not completely honest about taking just one hot dog or one drink each, but what can you do? It was a hot day, people saw free food, and the stampede commenced. I think it went off pretty well, though, and if anyone was disappointed, well, you get what you pay for.

The baseball was interesting. I managed to stay for one of the games, although I was hot and tired and disinclined to stay for the last one (also, they needed my help loading and unloading the equipment to and from the van). The quality of the baseball was not particularly high, although I'd put it on par with most decent high school teams in America. The guys running the event

claim that the little league they run has a massive enrollment, so maybe baseball is taking root. We hope that soon they'll get their own stadium. They played this tournament out at an old

sporting complex without a baseball field, and thus ended up playing on a soccer field. There was no pitcher's mound, no dirt, no real fence around the whole field. But judging from the interest, it looks like the national pastime is gaining momentum in Mother Russia.

Today, I went around the city taking pictures for you to enjoy! But you know what? I took too

many, so I am not posting most of them here, but rather will provide a link for those who want

to see them. A lot of them are of ships from the Tall Ships Regatta this year. (I mentioned this all in the last post, but just in case you forgot...). The Regatta works in stages, like the Tour de

France, and

this latest stage ran from Poland to St. Petersburg. This weekend, they were moored along the

Neva River, and you could go out and see them, and even go aboard from around 12-4 pm. I

ended up only going on one, partly because I went out there so early, and partly because after I went on one, I felt like I'd seen enough and wasn't that intrigued in going around to the others. But they were really cool to look at, and I took pictures of all of them, so you should get a good

idea of what was going on. Another part of why I didn't go on any more is that I ran into this

photographer dude who has showed up in a couple of different places that I have been in the last

couple of weeks, and he wanted to see the rest with me. Since I'm fairly paranoid about being f

ollowed in this city, I lost him at my first opportunity. He also got my email address at one of

these events where we were giving out contact information,

although he has yet to use it. Frankly, I'd just like to avoid

him for the rest of the time I'm here.

I ran all around the city this morning, and now I am totally wiped out, so I am taking the time to upload the pictures and to generally relax for the rest of the afternoon. Soon the pictures will be posted. Enjoy!

Update: The pictures are posted, but since there are so many of them, I had to post them on facebook. If you want to see them, they are here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2103795&id=1102272&ref=nf and here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2103793&id=1102272&ref=mf. If you aren't on facebook, and you want to see them, contact me and I will send you a link specifically so you can see them.

C