A friend from the States was visiting for the past month.  Thomas Umstattd came to Russia to help us set up computers in the MIR office, establish encrypted communications with partners in Belarus (very important), and he also made a short video for MIR which I’ll post here as soon as it’s ready to go.  Several of us had dinner and then were on the Neva river embankment a few nights ago.  I took this short video; the quality is bad but at least you can get a feel for how beautiful it is this time of year; and you can hear that Olga was enjoying herself —

Here’s a view of the Palace Bridge opening, at 1:30 in the morning during the white nights.  I didn’t take this video, but I think it’s nice —