St. Petersburg: Days 7 & 8

Alright, so you may have noticed that I didn't update my blog last night. There is a very good reason for this. You see, I lost my wallet in St. Pete yesterday. I know exactly where I left it, down to the table I put it on, but when I went back this morning with David and Stacy, it wasn't there. The ladies at the store said that the cleaning crew comes through in the morning, so it is very likely that they took it. Regardless of who took it, at this point it is very unlikely that I will be seeing it again ever. I reported my missing military ID to the consulate, and now I just have to wait and see if it ever shows up, which, as I said, is quite unlikely.

But anyway, to the more amusing aspects of yesterday. Yesterday was Den Goroda, as I may have mentioned before, and St. Petersburg's 307th birthday. The festivities were much as you might expect, with stages and singing and dancing and so on and so forth. There was actually a great deal of American music. Anna and I bought a wig that I wore for most of the day, which, despite apparently making me look like a prostitute, also apparently suited me quite well. I'm not really sure what to think about that, to be honest. But oh well, it was fun. After that we chilled at a sport bar for a little while, and then went walking to see a little more of the festivities.

I purchased a very pretty scarf, and a few other things at a store called Befree. Well, that's where I left my wallet. But we've been over that. After that we went to a sushi bar and relaxed and ate for a while. It was when I went to pay for my part of the meal that I realized my wallet was missing. Cue several minutes of agonizing and searching and crying and almost crying and begging poor, likely confused, Russians to help me look for it. In the end, as you already know, it was not there, but I went home with Stacy anyway, as I really really didn't want to be out anymore.

This morning we went to ask around and see if we could find it, and when we couldn't, we went to the American consulate to report it, forgetting that today is Sunday. Luckily, the guard was very nice and got me the number of the manager on duty, so I was able to call her on the spot and explain the situation. She informed me that they would be on the lookout, and that she would report it to the DoD.

We then returned to Primorskaya where we met up with a few other people who needed David's help with the internet deal, and then went to lunch at a cheap Chinese restaurant. It was actually very delicious. Now I'm sitting in my dorm at 3pm and I honestly am not sure I'll be going anywhere else today. Homework to do and food to eat here, so I'm not going to need to go out, I'm fairly certain.

Oddly enough, it turns out there's a cafeteria in this building. Who knew!?

See you tomorrow.

St. Petersburg: Day 6

A few new pictures uploaded to facebook today, so friends there can go look and see them. Also, after some experimenting, I have discovered that I am not, in fact, running down a balance for internet. It was just being dumb and unreliable. But what did I expect? I'm in Russia! Lol.

Today was relatively uneventful, as I rather expected. However, I will say that it was amazing being in class this morning. I really was not expecting to enjoy myself, given the fact that our classes this morning were Newspaper reading and Grammar. Not two classes that sound particularly awesome. However, I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed them. In newspaper reading we ended up reading an article about the oil spill, so there was some technical jargon that I didn't know, but even besides that I learned a ton of new words. Or, at least, I wrote down a bunch of new words to learn later. In grammar class, I was truly amazed. I have never felt like I was very strong in grammar, especially in application during actual conversation. Needless to say I was really uncertain about how I would do in this class. However, our teacher is amazing, and actually managed to make this a lot of fun! She also handed out a ton of papers with little tricks and information that I had never gotten before. She is also our instructor for the writing class we are supposed to have on Monday. However, she said that if we were alright with it, it might actually be more beneficial for her to do a double dose of grammar class on Monday. She told us that she had so much information that she knew we would never get in the US. So we all agreed, and I'm actually looking forward to it. As Lauren said when we left, "I have never left a grammar class with a smile on my face."

After leaving class, we all took a walk over to Nevsky Prospeckt to go to Dom Knigi, the biggest bookstore in Russia. It's two stories high and unbelievably beautiful, with marble staircases and beautifully ornate ceilings. On the way, we stopped to eat at Teremok, where I got a mushroom and cream blini and borsch. The borsch was utterly delicious, and the blini was pretty good, too! While we were there, we met a couple of Russian boys on their way to the movies to see Prince of Persia. I wonder if they liked it. After we left there, we made a couple more stops at various stores, mostly bookstores. I found a beautiful, relatively inexpensive dictionary that I'm seriously considering going back for at some point before I leave.

In more practical news, I really need to get a new bag. My bag that I brought with me broke today, and though I've tied the straps together in the best fix I can get right now, it won't last forever. I would really like to get a leather satchel type thing like my roommates have, but I am afraid they'll be expensive. Really, I just need a new purse or a messenger bag. The others tell me that there is a Russian version of Costco down the road, but I'm so tired that I don't think I'll make it there tonight. A job for tomorrow, it seems.

See you then!

St. Petersburg: Day 5

Well, turns out my internet is not quite so unlimited as I had initially thought. I may actually be running down a balance. However, six dollars lasted me almost 4 days, so it shouldn't be such a terrible thing. And there's a recharge station just downstairs.

So today I went to class once again, and once again enjoyed it quite a bit. I wasn't really looking forward to phonetics class, but it proved to be a lot of fun. Got a little more sleep last night than I had gotten previously, and so I was able to at least stay awake. I'm still a little sleepy, but I was used to being sleepy almost all the time at home, too. Lol.

Other than that, today has been really uneventful, which I kind of appreciate. I am not, by nature, a person that likes to go out every day, so it's nice to have some time to just chill. We finally got our ID cards for the dorms, so we don't have to flash receipts at the door guy all the time. He was kind of being a jerk about it, so it's nice that we don't have to worry about that anymore. I don't even look like myself in the picture, but oh well. For lunch Anna, Stacy, Benny, and I went to the Teremok stand and got blini. I got one with just sour cream, and the others got various combinations of ingredients, including mushrooms and chicken.

When I got back from eating that, I intended to take a nap, but instead I got caught up doing this, so I might not be able to. No big deal, though. It just helps me sleep better when nighttime comes around. I'm curious what I'll be getting for dinner today, if anything. Maybe just some cereal later. Oh well, I will see.

P.S. I forgot to mention earlier that I ended up not going anywhere last night. Instead I just stayed here. I was waaaay too tired. But apparently it was really fun, so I'm glad the others got to have some fun. :)

See you tomorrow!

St. Petersburg: Day 4

Well, now that I'm not trying to catch up with multiple days, hopefully I can go into more detail about specific occurrences, though I'm sure that these posts will be more brief, just because there isn't as much information to cover.

First of all, I need to do a reverse phone search for the number that called me last night on my AT&T SIM card. Since my phone has suddenly decided while we're here that it should beep every 2 minutes when it is on the charger, and I didn't want my roommates to murder me in my sleep, I decided to get out my old phone so that I could turn the other one off. I would have just left it off with the alarm set, but I didn't trust the auto power on function and couldn't afford to risk missing class. Well, all was well and good until I get a text message from AT&T telling me that from June 1 on, I would have to dial the area code. Whatever. Then I get a call at 3AM from a number that appears now to dial back to a fax machine. I certainly hope I don't get charged for that. Then, this morning, somehow I forget that turning the phone off doesn't turn the alarm off, and my poor roommates are subjected to a minute or two of AT&T ringtones before I run back to get it. Not a great start to the day.

When I get outside, I realize that I really should have worn a heavier coat, since it is freezing, windy, and rainy. We make it to the school in one piece, and have a lecture on political life in Russia today. I can hardly keep my eyes open and at one point actually fall asleep, though my neighbor helpfully elbowed me to wake me up before the teacher noticed. I felt so bad!! I really didn't mean to. Then we had music class which went much better, since I got food and such. It was actually really, really fun.

Then Anna, Bart, Benny and I went home with a few others from the group, and took a nap almost immediately. I slept till about 1700, then got up to go help cook dinner in the boys' room. We had chicken teriyaki. The boys went to an interpretive dance show, but Anna and I were too tired to go, so we stayed behind and hung out with Emily. Then we did the dishes, and here I am! So not too much to go into today.

See you tomorrow!

St. Petersburg: Days 1-3

Alrighty. So I have been in St. Petersburg for a few days now and I've finally achieved internet. Lol. I've been trying to catch up on internet goings on and uploading pictures and so forth, so I might be a hint more brief than I would otherwise.

Let's start with Day 1: Arrival into St. Petersburg.

Since the plane from JFK to Moscow took off 2 hours late for reasons we never could figure out, we arrived in Moscow 1.5 hours late. This left us with 1.5 hours before our flight to St. Pete took off. Naturally, this was not nearly enough time for us to get through passport control, customs, baggage claim, and rechecking. We miss our flight badly, as you might imagine, because passport control had 2 lanes open for over 500 people. We stood in line for 2 hours, tired, hungry, and very nearly ready to pass out.

But finally we make it through and claim our bags and make it through customs without a problem. We had to take a bus to the other terminal, and then we set about the task of getting our tickets transferred. Well, the info desk lady takes our passports, does some stuff, and tells us our new flight leaves at 1900. We were supposed to be in St. Pete at 1700, so I call Dr. Rouchkin in Moscow to let him know we will be late, and our pickup will need to come at 2030. Easy peasy, right? Everything in order.

Wrong. So wrong. We head over to the check-in desk, and they inform us that we are not on the list of passengers, and so we will need to go to the ticket desk. We do as they say and head over to that desk, which directs us right back to the info desk we were at before. We tell them that we were just there and have been given the run-around, and the wonderful lady goes over there with us and makes the other woman understand what exactly we need. We finally get a print out on a sheet of paper with the little detachable edges (like really old computer/printer paper) and head over to the check-in desk again.

This time, we at least are on the flight, but they don't want to let us check 2 bags for free, because it was a promotional thing they did before March something. After several minutes of arguing, I finally make him understand that we purchased the tickets in January, and we are not buying new tickets, but transferring those. So we make it through to the terminal finally and head to the gate. As I wait for Anna and Bart to get back from a food run, I have my first Russian conversation with a local.

A lady approaches me and scares me to death by hissing "Dyevushka!" at me. I turn and say "Yes?" She asks me if I am on flight ___. I don't really catch the numbers, but I know they aren't mine, so I say no. She then asks me what flight I am on. I can't really figure out fast enough how to answer her, so I just point to the number on my boarding pass. She accepts this, thanks me, and then returns to her seat, leaving me to marvel over how little I spoke in my first Russian conversation.

The plane ride goes fine, and we arrive in St. Petersburg's Pulkovo 1 airport at 2030, as I had said. But the pickup isn't there. We wait for 2 hours, with many phone calls in between, before he finally finds us. But there is still a problem. He doesn't have room in his car for our bags. So he hires us a taxi instead. I am so happy to get home that I don't even care.

I start caring right around the time I look at the speedometer and realize that we are doing 90mph in the middle of St. Petersburg, cars all whipping around us like crazy, buses pulling over on top of us, honking, dodging, and I am sitting there just knowing that I've made it all this way just to die in a horrible taxi wreck while listening to American pop music being blasted at the limits of the car's speakers.

Against all odds, we make it to the dorms and get in. I discover that I am rooming with two Russian girls, and not Anna, as I had anticipated. We're all starving, so David takes us across the street to the grocery store. A few handfuls of trail mix on the way back and I'm too exhausted to do much else. So we go to bed.

I sleep till 1400 the next day, but get up and get ready for the city tour at 1630. The tour goes off without a hitch, and I get to see so many things that I've always dreamed of seeing. A couple of times I even got a little teary-eyed thinking about it. I stop wondering why in the world I did this to myself. That evening, Anna and Bart and Benedict (Benny, for short) head over to the store and split the cost of spaghetti fixings. We cook it in Bart's room and I go to bed full and happy.

I don't sleep that well, but it is enough, and I get up at 0800 so I can get down to the bus by 0900 when it leaves. We head to Smolny to take the entrance exam and register with the police. I feel like it goes pretty well, and don't even mind the 3 hours we spend waiting at the office. After we get back, Anna and Bart and I eat dinner, and Anna and I decide to go to the internet cafe. Well, after about 124134 miles of walking, we can't find the place, and the place we thought was a different internet cafe turns out to be an online gambling place. Whoops! Well, on the way back, we run into David and decide to utilize his help to possibly purchase a USB modem from one of the major cell companies here.

A little while and several miles later, we have all our stuff for around 30USD. Set it up, making as much sense out of the Russian instruction manual as I can, and I have internet! I contemplate catching up on everything, but the task seems so daunting that I just send a few emails and then go to bed.

Which brings us to today. I get up at 0800 again and head down to the bus and off to Smolny we go. Turns out I am in the 1st group, aka the highest one. I'm rather pleased by this, and a bit encouraged. I am even more so when it turns out to be so much fun! I am honestly having more fun in a Russian class than I have ever had in my life. And I actually feel like I know something, which is equally exciting. Anna, Bart, Benny, and I head over to a cafe after class. We grab a bite, and then hop the subway back home, where I start actually catching up on all the photo uploading and so on. And then, naturally, updating this blog. Presumably they will be coming by soonish to see if I want to go to the Russian version of Wal-Mart with them. I'm not sure if I will or not, but we shall see.

And thus! I am caught up! See you tomorrow, hopefully!