Duke- Week 1

Julie,

Well we are currently coming to the end of week 1 (I am writing this on Thursday Sept 23 and Friday Sept 24 is the last day of week 1 classes). It is crazy that this first week has gone by as fast as it has, but I have REALLY enjoyed it. I unfortunately haven't taken many pictures outside of the ones I took day one, but I will try to take more pictures of Fuqua and my school experience during week 2.

Day one the program organized a "Duke Basketball Experience" for our class in Cameron Indoor. It was a really cool experience. Half the time was spent touring the facility and learning a little about how the team watches film and prepares for games. The other half of the time was spent on Cameron Indoor's Coach K court going through various basketball drills. It was really cool to be able to shoot hoops on the Duke floor.

Unfortunately I didn't get to meet or see Coach K (still hoping for a random run in), but while we were doing defense drills I did get to see Coach Steve Wojohoweski who was a player in the 90's that I love watching. He actually even gave us all high fives as we went by which was pretty cool for such a big Duke basketball fan as myself.

 Here we are making the trek from Fuqua to Cameron Indoor.

 Stepping foot on Coach K Court.

 This is where we did a mini film session with the Duke assistant coaches. 

The guy in the white shirt is Kenny King the academic coach for the team (a Fuqua alum), and the guy in the black shirt standing up is the video coordinator that does EVERY film session with Coach K. Coach K relies on him so much in fact he took him to Turkey for the World Championships for Team USA. 

 These are giant photos put on all the walls around the Duke Media room that we were in to do our mini film session. This is Jon Scheyer hugging Lance Thomas right after the buzzer sounded in the National Championship game against Butler.

 This was really cool to see. Since we were in the Duke Media Room this is the table and backdrop where the players and coaches do all the press interviews after games.

 This is called the Defense Room. This is the last room the players are in before they take the court before a game. On one side of the room are pictures of the current team and on the other side are pictures of all the Duke players who have won the national defensive player of the year award. Duke has won twice as many of these as the next closest school. My favorite Duke player in high school was Shane Battier, winner of the award three years in a row. 

 Shane Battier #31

 This year (2001) he also won National Player of the Year and Duke won the National Championship.

 This picture is kind of blurry, but I wanted to give you an idea of how big the room is. Pretty much just big enough to fit all the players. The coaches don't even come in the room with them.

 We didn't get to go in here, but it was cool to be so close. :)

 This is the door leading into the practice facility and weight room for the team. It felt really cool to go through that door. 

 The entire hallway is decked out floor to ceiling with Duke stuff.

 Great Duke players of the past. The second player from right to left that you can just see his head is Christian Laettner. He has one of the most famous shots from the final four off a full court pass from Grant Hill to beat Kentucky at the last second. The funny thing is there is a guy in our program that HATES Duke basketball for that very play (as do all Kentucky fans) so that is him in the picture taking a picture of Christian Laettner with a thumbs down hand. He was cracking me up.

 How cool is this!

 My all-time favorite Duke player.

 This is the practice facility. It was SO COOL to go in there.

 This is pretty cool. The weight room that only the basketball teams get to use. Pretty funny that the basketball team has a better weight room than the football team (usually the basketball is "allowed" to use the football teams equipment).

 Me, suited up and ready to be put in the game.

 One day I want an office chair just like this.

 This is the room where the basketball team watches film.

 During the basketball drills portion of the experience, Coach Chris Carawell and some other former Duke players and current coaches took us through drills. He was the 2000 ACC player of the year.

 They displayed posters of former players illustrating the five core principles of duke basketball.

Trust, Pride, Communication, Collective Responsibility, and Caring.

 My boy Battier was a big communicator on the court.

All in all the basketball experience was a lot of fun and it was cool that the program put that together for us. Now all I need is to be able to meet coach K and to see a Duke game in person! Hopefully both will happen fairly soon!

After the basketball experience, we had a tailgate party with our class outside of Fuqua. I feel kind of weird writing this to YOU when you were there, but I wanted to document it since I didn't get any pictures of it. The BBQ was really good food and it was nice to have you there to meet a few of my classmates. Still being Day 1, I felt like we were still getting back into the comfort phase with everyone in the class, but it was cool to catch up with a few people and have some good food. 

After the tailgate, you and Cole fell asleep (Mason was with Cherin) and I went to the Duke v. Alabama football game. Mainly I was really interested to see Alabama play in person since Duke football is still working on getting good and it was free cause I am a student so I thought I would go check it out. 

 Alabama is currently ranked #1 in the nation, so this was a really big deal for Duke to have so many people at the game. This was the first time I had seen a blimp in person (don't get many blimps flying around Utah).

 Here is the student line we stood in to get in. The regulated the number of students that could go in at any one time and since I showed up right at kickoff it took a little while to get in.

 Here is what the scoreboard looked like a couple of minutes after we got into stadium. Yep it only got uglier from there. I left at the end of the 1st Qtr and it was 28-3.

Here is a look at Duke's stadium. It was PACKED! I would say it was probably 55/45 with the majority being Alabama fans. It was amazing how well they traveled, especially considering they were playing Duke who is not known for being a good football team. 

After I left the game I went over to the team store to see what gear they had for sell and as I was walking back I noticed this stream of people leaving the stadium. At this point it is about 2-3 minutes into the 2nd quarter. Wow!

This wasn't even the end of Day 1 as after this we went as a family to a Luau that Sam and Cherin's ward had at a members home. That was a lot of fun and a great farm style house with lots of acreage around it. 

The next day started our classes. This first week I have had a class called Entrepreneurship and New Venture Management. I have been a little nervous for this class because a lot of time it seems like these types of classes get too theoretical and aren't really applicable to real life. This class, however, is AWESOME! We are meeting with real venture capitalists, evaluating real business plans and I have just absolutely loved it. I am looking forward to my negotiation class next week, but I really wish this class could continue into next week as well, because it really has been a lot of fun. One of the best parts is I feel like it has helped me to reflect more on what I want to do with my career and the medical management company idea that I have. There are always going to be bumps in the road, but this class has inspired me even more that I really think I have a viable idea that is marketable and could be a great company. I love being able to sit in class and just ponder over thoughts I have had about building a business and have some of the discussion open my mind to ways I can structure my current idea to really make it work. It has also really opened my mind to the resources that I have available at both Duke and back at BYU that could be a definite strength for me (us) in getting started. 

I have also been really proud that I have been really good with crossfit this week. I have had to tweak a few of the workouts because of lack of equipment but the student gym has worked out fairly well. What hasn't worked out is eating well. I did a really good job in Russia and part of it was probably the food selection. In Russia they didn't offer a lot of variety and they didn't offer much that was enticing to me so I actually lost 4 lbs why I was there while working out everyday. Here I am sticking to my same workout schedule (Mon-Wed, Thurs rest, Fri-Sat, Sun Rest) and doing the same crossfit.com workouts that I would be doing at home, but I am eating too much of the junk that they have available. After all the treats that I tried today, I decided that week 1 must have been my cheat week, so week 2 I am going to clean things up. I mainly want to clean things up to get ready for what I am going to do when I get home. 

When I get home, I will be entering my 11th month doing crossfit. Since I am coming up on my year mark I really want to lose some of the extra fat that has been hanging on and build some more muscle. Then I will take a 1 year picture and compare against what I looked like before I started. So when I get home I am planning to do a very strict 30 day zone diet to see what results I can get. Another reason for this is I would really like to boost my crossfit WOD performance and cleaning up my diet always helps. I am really excited about it and I know it will only be easier if I start cleaning things up now than to try and make they adjust coming off of two bad weeks here at Duke. 

All in all program wise I am really loving this time at Duke. I know things haven't been easy for you since you are away from home living in someone else's house and you don't have any autonomy on how your day goes, but I am sure glad you guys were able to come with me. Even though I don't get to see you everyday, I love that you are closer than a skype chat. I loved that after a couple of days being away I could tell stories and sing songs to Mason and put him to bed or throw Cole up in the air and hear him giggle. I also loved being able to wrap my arms around you and give you a big hug and a kiss and just know that you were there. I am going to be really busy over the next week as I try to finish papers, proposal, assignments, and even some work from back home, but it is nice that I have you to lean on every once in a while (even when you are already shouldering the majority of the weight for our little family).

I want you to know I love you VERY VERY MUCH and you are such a big strength to me to help me push through and finish this program. Thank you for being so supportive as we have navigated this last year of working, school, family, searching for a job, and wondering where we were going to live for the next few years. You are an absolute amazing person!

Love ya babe!

Brock

St. Petersburg- Day 8

Julie,

LAST DAY!!!!!! Can you believe it? Last day of the last international residency! Pretty crazy eh?
Not much fan fare today just a lot of closing up shop.

I finished out the week with my morning workout. Although the gym isn't good at all here, I have been able to workout every morning on this residency which has been really good. That coupled with the fact that I have had only a few treats and I've overall eaten really well and had a lot of water to drink makes me feel like this residency has gone really well. I tried to take a picture of me after my workout in Russia today, but the sun kind of washed it out (see below).

First we had operations today and it was a really good class. I really like the material in this class and hope I can put it to good use in a medical practice.

At the end of class, we had an  hour session called "looking ahead" which always gives us some idea of what the next residency is going to be like. This session was really cool because next time we get to go to Duke and the whole look and feeling of this residency is going to be different.  So the residency will be two weeks long during which time we are scheduled to take two electives one week and two electives another week. Because I am taking two HSM classes and they start in August, I will actually only be taking two classes. Negotiation the first week and Entrepreneurship the second week. Each day there are 3 time periods morning afternoon and evening and each class will rotate through those time periods. So, for example, if on Monday my class starts in the morning, on Tuesday it will be in the afternoon, Wednesday in the evening, and then Thursday in the morning again.

There are a couple of other cool things on the schedule. Of course, there is participation in the Fuqua Fridays and probably because we are the first class to do this type of format for CCMBA they really want to integrate us with the daytime students and the staff/faculty while we are at Duke.  The other thing is they are trying to arrange a Duke Basketball experience. They haven't given any details of what it entails, but I guess Duke Basketball has a consulting arm that does corporate team building events and they are trying to arrange something like that for us. It also happens to be the same day as the Duke v. Alabama football game so that first Saturday before we even get the ball rolling with classes we are going to have a Duke Basketball experience and go to a Duke football game. Needless to say I am pretty stoked about both!

Now here is the really good news (and again I think this is because we are the first class to do this program and they are trying to finish with a bang). Normally when we go to Duke we would stay in the Thomas Center which is where all the MBA students come to stay when they are on campus. Well for our class instead of the Thomas Center, they are having us stay at the Washington Duke Inn!

Check out the website in the link, but you won't believe what a nice place it is. It sits right on the golf course and is really classy. What made me really excited was the fact that you are going to be there with me so you can come and stay a few nights with me at least, WAHOO!!!!

The other part of the announcements had to do with the distance portion after the Duke residency. It is going to be ten weeks, but each class is only 5 weeks long and they rotate every other week. That means for 10 weeks I will only have one class each week once I finish my HSM classes in October. That should be really nice.

Once "Looking Ahead" was over, we had lunch and then the afternoon class was CCL. We reviewed the culture dashes that we did and compared the Russia region to all the other regions we had visited and then we were DONE!!!!! We finished about 4pm and now we have the evening to relax, pack, eat, say goodbyes, and get ready to leave tomorrow.

Here are a couple of pictures of things from today.

Here is the washed out picture I was talking about.

This has been my best friend in Russia. seriously.

Besides using this to brush my teeth morning and night I have been drinking water like a mad man.

Partly to stay hydrated and partly because I tried to stay away from all the soda.

By my estimation I would drink around 8 or 9 of these bottles a day. That's around 4 to 4.5 liters. Definitely hydrated and definitely familiar with the bathroom! :)

I retrospect, wow it has been quite a ride since we started this journey way back in August huh? Not that we are finished yet, but the accomplishment of completing all the international residencies feels like a pretty significant milestone. I am so glad I did this program and I have been able to have all the experiences I have had thus far. Although we haven't seen any of the campus yet, I really love being apart of the Duke culture and I am happy that I will be able to say I am a Duke Alum for the rest of my life (once I squeeze through the rest of this term and next).

Well I love you very much babe and you have been such an amazing support through all of this. Seriously, even with the student debt we've taken on and the time requirements that this program puts on me, you have always been so supportive and helpful. The best part is that you always knew this was a dream of mine and you have been there to help me carry it through. Thank you from the depths of my soul. I LOVE YOU!!!!!

Can't wait to see you and the boys in a little under 36 hours!

Love ya,

Brock

St. Petersburg- Day 7

Julie,

Well today was a really good day with a few "odd" occurrences. The day started out with our last class of accounting. Accounting started day earlier than Operations so naturally it ended a day earlier too. As we wrapped up class, I realized I have a lot of work to do in order to get ready for the midterm we are going to have to do in week 1, but I also am excited about. I like the material and I think it can be really applicable to medical practice management.

During class I also was reminded of a few ideas I had about my job situation earlier in the week that I wanted to tell you about. First was the ideas I came up with for my current job and some of the stuff we are doing for the website for Foot and Ankle. I had come up with an idea of a symptom self diagnosis that people could use on our website that essentially helps them know what they could possibly have and then points them to how our doctors treat those conditions better than anyone else can and then gives them an action item on how to contact us. Well I was having a difficult time wrapping my head around exactly how it would lay out and work. While I've been here I did some research and came across an iphone app that does a similar thing. That really opened my mind and helped me realize what I can do with this without making it too complicated or difficult to accomplish. It was like a light bulb went on. So I am excited to get back to get working on that.

The second idea has to do with my job applications. As I have contemplated on why I haven't been getting a good response rate on these job applications, I think there are a few factors. 1. I haven't graduated yet so they see me as still a student, 2. I have very little experience--especially in a healthcare setting, and 3. (which ties into 2) since my experience is so little by way of what I can list on my resume, my resume just blends in with the group.

During one of the CMC events, I had the thought that I need to change it up. For what reason other than tradition and conformity do I submit a resume like everyone else? The purpose of the resume is to show the prospective employer the skills and experience you have and hope that they tie that together in their mind of how that will apply to the position you are applying for. If the tie together goes well enough in their head the hiring person calls them in for interviews, etc.  Well my thought is to guide them in the tie together better. I am going to draft a non-traditional resume that still lists my chronological education and work experience, but rather than trying to summarize what I have done at each job and helping adapt that to the position I'm applying for, I will insert the job responsibilities of the new position into my resume and then show how something I have done at another job applies directly to that bulleted responsibility for the new job. (I hope that made sense). Anyway, for me it was another light bulb moment that can help me stand out and hopefully streamline me to the interview pile and not the "everyone else" pile.

After accounting we had operations and then we broke for lunch and the culture dash. It was at this point that I realized what a weird team dynamic I currently have and it initially made me angry. See for the culture dash we are all suppose to go out together and film interviews at key places and then put together the video. Well as we met after class right away everyone on the team was saying how they were going with this group or that group to different places rather than our team sticking together and getting the assignment done. They promised they would get some video at the places they went to and then took off. So there I was by myself, feeling the burden of having to do the "real" interview for the video and then obviously I will be editing and putting it together. I felt like everyone else just blew off the assignment and put it into my lap so I was starting to get pretty mad... but it all worked out. First of all, breaking off allowed me to go to the renok (market) and see what they had to offer and also do some souvenir shopping. I also was able to get an interview while I tagged along with another group. I also thought back to how our team dynamic has worked and we are not a team that really gets together like my last team did. I think we "divide and conquer" a little too much, but with that divide and conquer it has worked out that on every assignment different people have stepped up and taken charge. Even though this video falls into my court quite a bit that also means the paper doesn't and in our other classes other team members have stepped up and taken the load. Our team overall has some disfunction, but every team does and the most important thing to me is that everyone carries their load and overall I think that happens.

Here is the underground tunnel where I bought some souvenirs.

These are the tunnels that are passes under certain big streets and typically 

connect to the metro.

One of the sites along Nevski prospect where I took a walk tonight.

Cathedral of Christ and the Spilt Blood. 

I've shown this is a previous letter, but today I wandered over there from

Nevski prospect and found this really cool street performer.

Check out the video below.

Oh yeah, here is another cool thing that happened during our culture dash. We were taking a long walk to the penok and as has been happening all week with my classmates, JP started asking me how I knew Russian and why I lived in Moscow. I explained to him that I lived in Moscow for two years while I was serving as a missionary for my church. Usually that is where the conversation stops with most people although some would ask a little further about my language training. JP (who is from Argentina) was the first to ask more about the church. I explained to him what we did as missionaries and then he asked more about what we believe and where our members are. Nate and I both gave some input and then I had to stop to talk to a man on the street to get directions for our group. By the time I got back to the discussion Nate was in the middle of explaining what we believe and what beliefs our church is founded on... essentially the first discussion. It was really cool to be a part of that and for the most part observe it. It felt different because I wasn't a missionary with a "duty" to share this. We were just members sharing our beliefs. Who knows what will happen with JP as he is a pretty big partier that may have a difficult time with other principles if he were to research the church a little more, but it was a cool experience.

After we went to the market, we did some souvenir shopping and I got a few things for  you and the boys. When we were done with the culture dash I came back to my room for an hour or so to get some things done and then I headed out for dinner. I've realized through these residencies that I like going out to dinner, but more specifically I like going out to dinner with you. For me it is an experience for both of us so most of the time here, I am not really interested in going to dinner at a nice restaurant. Some of my motivation might be financial as well, but I really do feel like I prefer just to get some quick, simple food. I also was able to spend a good amount of time wandering up and down nevski prospect and that is when I got the video and some of the pictures.

After I got back, I ended up working on my operations quiz for WAY TO LONG for how big of a quiz it was, but oh well.

Now just one more day till its time to get ready to come home!

Love ya,

Brock

St. Petersburg- Day 6

Julie,

Today should be titled "The REAL marathon day." Holy Moly it was a long one! We started at 8am with operations and finished at 6:30pm with CCL. By the time we were done, it felt like we were staggering out of there.

Operations actually ended up being really good today. We did a simulation called the beer game which was a simulation of all of us acting as different steps in the supply chain (factory, distributor, wholesaler, retailer). It was an interesting exercise and was fun to see that it takes quite a bit of coordination to figure out demand and what is happening. For example, I went from having 10 "cases" in my inventory to -90 "cases" (back ordered) and then having over 100 in inventory as I tried to figure out how many cases my wholesaler (I was a distributor) would need and being able to have enough on hand to supply him. It was also nice because it took up a good chunk of class and made that class go a lot faster.

It was also good because the class helped me come up with a few ideas of what I want to do for my Health Sector Management concentration project. I think I am going to go with one of three ideas: 1. There is a principle called Queuing Theory which is the study and understanding of making people or things wait... as for example in a doctor's office. My idea is to do a study of alternative methods or adjustments doctors offices can do to both shorter the wait and make the wait seem shorter while keeping themselves busy.

2. My second idea has to do with applying process analysis to a medical office's billing cycle to determine flow, bottlenecks, processing rate, cycle time, and throughput time with the idea of being able to improve upon it to get dollars collected more quickly.

3. The last idea has to do with doing a cost estimation for every type of procedure seen at the office between material costs, direct labor costs, and overhead costs in order to best assess what procedures are effective and profitable and which are not.

After Operations, we had another speaker that was not much better than the others.. not better at all in fact, and that part seemed to drag on for a long time. Then came lunch and to be honest it was awful. The funny part is that it was the same food they have been serving us all week and although everyone has been complaining about the food cause there is no variation at all, I haven't worried about it too much because it has kept me on track with my workouts. So maybe it was because we had such good food the night before and there was so much variety, but to get to lunch and see another chicken dish and another fish dish was a little disheartening. Oh well it wasn't like we were throwing it up but it was the first time that I felt like it made me lose my appetite.

After lunch we had cost accounting and it was a LONG struggle to get through. I like the professor, but it was tough today. Right after that class it was already 4:15pm, but we still had a whole other class to go in CCL. It ended up going a little quicker because there is more of a discussion and he had us break out into groups quite a bit throughout, but still when it was all over I was VERY GRATEFUL.

Now that class is over for the day, I went to dinner and now I am going to study a little bit before I go to bed. Well only two more days left of this residency. Pretty crazy!

I love you very much and miss you!

Love ya,

Brock

St. Petersburg- Day 5

Julie,

Today hasn't been anything too exciting, but overall its been a good day. The morning started out with the Career Management Center doing a case discussion so class started an hour later than usual. That was nice because it gave me some time to sit down and do some studying for accounting and operations that I had put off.

Both classes also went really well. First we had accounting, then lunch, and then operations. Operations tended to feel like it was dragging on quite a bit, but that was more due to the fact that it was the afternoon class and not the morning class.

Class got out about 4:15pm and I decided to go out and try to find a supermarket where I could find a bunch of candy and things to bring home. What I forgot was how weird candy is packaged here. They are all saran wrapped on a foam plate like you are getting ground beef at the grocery store. AND they don't come with very many pieces. So anyway, I ended up spending 30 minutes there only to walk out with nothing... oh except for some youbollenya cookies--we'll see how they compare to lorna doones. And by the way, big side note... I realized that now that you done nursing Cole that means Milk is 100% off the list for you. Which is good cause these cookies have milk in them.

Tonight we had the CEO Event with dinner. Kirill Korniliev, the General Director or IBM Eastern Europe/Asia came and spoke to us. He was a very knowledgable guy, but boy was I having a hard time staying awake. After the speech was over, it was time for dinner. I was going to take some pictures but there really wasn't anything to take pictures of.. except maybe the food.

The funny thing about the food here is that none of it has been amazing. Everyday for breakfast, lunch, and dinner they essentially serve the EXACT SAME THING! Eggs, fruit, cereal, and juice in the morning. Chicken, Fish, Pork Medallions, salad, and dessert for lunch and dinner. For me it really hasn't been that bad because I have been able to eat relatively healthy and the desserts aren't even enticing. Well tonight for dinner it was like the pulled out everything they had been hiding. I didn't go overboard, but I definitely wasn't as strict with what I ate. They had prime rib, tempura shrimp, spring rolls, beef skewers, chicken skewers, fish skewers, asian beef skewers, cold shrimp, salads, vegetarian foods, and a whole table of desserts (some of which I tried and none of which ended up being very good). They even pulled out the soda they had been holding back. Usually they only give us Coke and Diet Coke and water. Well tonight (on top of the alcohol for everyone else) they had fanta, sprite, coke, diet coke and even some others. We were all just laughing about it trying to figure out where all this stuff had been the whole rest of the week we have been here.

Well that was our day. Tomorrow is going to be a beast. The worst day of all. Besides an hour break for lunch we will have class and a speaker from 8am to 6:30pm straight... ouch! Sure glad we are on the downhill now. I'm feeling a little behind in the material for the classes so I need to catch up in that, but I am glad we are winding things down.

Love you so much,


Brock

St. Petersburg- Day 4

Julie,

Well today was a good day especially after the two marathon days we had. Today our classes were only 2 hours long each and then were over by lunch time. The other good part about that is I really enjoyed both classes today. Like I said before, I think the content from these classes are going to be very useful to me, but I was nervous that I would have a hard time getting into the classes. This wasn't the case today. The only wishful thinking that I have now (which I have had throughout this program) is that I wish there was a way to apply what we are learning in class to the EXACT scenarios that I currently am facing at work. It is funny cause every professor will walk us through examples and my thoughts will be along the lines, "oh wow, that is cool, now I wonder how I can apply that to a medical practice." Because medical practices are small businesses and typically operate on cash basis as opposed to accrual basis and have their own third party payer system, they have to be thought of in a different way. Anyway, in a perfect world, I think it would be cool if each student could work with the professor to do practice problems, etc that would apply directly to their current business and industry. :)

After class, today was set up to be the corporate tour day. Usually I pick a corporation to attend, but for Russia they only gave us two options. One was a brewery (high interest to everyone else, no interest for me), and the other was the "Russian Wal-mart." So, a lot of the class decided that this would be a good time to go to the Hermitage. The Hermitage is a HUGE museum with all sorts of paintings, sculptures, armor, historical vehicles, etc.  It was originally the Winter Palace of Catherine the Great. All in all this was a dream land for Eden I am sure. For me it was a good experience. 

Here is the line we stood in for about an hour. If you can't

tell it wraps all the way along the side of the building and then

into the entrance that is all the way on that far side. Once we

got out of the shade it was HOT, so the time felt like it went

even slower, but thankfully a few of our classmates bribed 

our little group that was well ahead of the other group to let

them come up with us by buying us ice cream.

It was the first ice cream I had eaten here in Russia since coming back.

Mmmm, I forgot how much I loved the ice cream. Not a delicacy, but good!

I had a Nestle Maxibon, which was one of my favorites when I served here.

Needless to say it was a good reunion.

Once we got inside, we found out even more good news... FREE TICKETS!

Students were free to get in so luckily most of us had our Duke IDs. Sweet! That

saved me about 13 bucks!

Some of my classmates were making fun of me because when we finally got in,

we walked by a couple of rooms of art and then the first thing I pulled

out my camera for was this stairway. But can you blame me, those are a lot of stairs!

This is Rembrandt's "The Prodigal Son" 

This was the one I definitely wanted to see so

it was really cool to find it in this MASSIVE museum.

Seriously, a lot of our time was spend trying to figure out where the heck

we were going.

This is DaVinci's "Madonna with Child"

I couldn't believe how awesome these doors were. I mean they were just 

doors in a random room of a HUGE palace. Crazy!

Michelangelo's "Crouching Boy"

Can you believe these rooms, massive yet decorated/designed

down the the little details in the ceilings.

For some reason these knights on horses made me think of

Mason. I thought he would have liked it.

This was the like "When Animals Attack" room. All these pictures are HUGE

and just stacked side by side.

Monet

A few of the square in front of the Hermitage from the 2nd floor of the

Hermitage.

Van Gogh

Picasso

Wow...

Wowzer...

Wowzastic!

Needless to say the Hermitage was a great experience and a lot of fun. I was pretty exhausted from standing/walking for like 3 1/2 hours, but very glad I did it!

Well that was pretty much our day. After the hermitage, I've pretty much been at the hotel, although I also did some research on where I can go to get souvenirs and such for the family.

Now I am off to do some homework and get to bed early!

Love ya,

Brock