"Does it sound British in Russian, too?"

Monday.  Our first day of classes at the Nevsky Institute of Language and Culture.
We didn't have to be at the Institute this day until 10:00, so we told Jenya (who stayed overnight, although she lives and works - in a hotel - in the suburbs) that we would have breakfast at 9.  I got up at 8 and took a shower, relishing the use of conditioner once again (it seems like a small, silly thing, but if you're a girl, you probably understand).  Breakfast was cereal, once again (I'm wondering when I can tell T.T. that we would be more than fine with a more traditional Russian breakfast, whatever that means) and something called a "sirok".  I thought it would be something cheesy (seer means cheese) but it turned out to be something very sweet and covered in chocolate.  It was the consistency of cheesecake, and I can't pin down the flavor.  (We later found out that it is tvorek, a kind of very sweet, thick cream or cottage cheese)  Neither I nor Latalia liked it very much, and we told Jenya that in the nicest way possible.
We left for Nevsky at 9:30 to give us plenty of time.  The first thing we had was an orientation, and I was perhaps inordinately happy to see my friends from Princeton and my Russian professor, Stas, again.  It had been so long since I had seen so many familiar faces (who all spoke English!) that I couldn't stop beaming from ear to ear and chattering (although, some would tell you that that is my natural state of being :P).  Things were rather chaotic, but we were handed schedules and sundry pieces of important information before being marched down to a room where we could have our pictures taken for our ID cards (so that we could get in to the institute).
Here, for the general information of those of you who don't know (which would probably be everyone reading this blog), I will describe the Princeton in Petersburg program.  I'm assuming that much of what I say will be equally applicable to the many such summer programs offered by Princeton University in the different corners of the globe.  The program is 8 weeks long and covers the equivalent of 2 semesters of study of Intermediate Russian at Princeton University.  Since it is 8 weeks instead of 2 semesters (24 weeks), and since it is Princeton, and since it takes place in St. Petersburg, it is necessarily quite intense.  We have to cover the entire second-year textbook (10 chapters) in the 8 weeks we are here - you do the math, that's more than a chapter a week of grammar, in addition to the two books (M.Y. Lermontov's "Hero of our Times" and Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment") from which we'll be reading exerpts.  Classes are divided into three subjects: grammar, conversation, and reading.  After four weeks, we'll have a "final exam" for our "first semester" in each subject, after which Stas will return to the US :'[ and another professor from Princeton, Ksana Blank, will come to teach us reading instead of the teacher we have now.  At the end of the second four weeks, we will have another round of "final exams" and we will receive a grade for both the first and second part of the course.  Although this program is officially associated with Princeton University, the grading is not nearly as "draconian" (to use Stas's word) as it is for most Princeton courses - A's aren't limited to 10 or 15% of the group (since there are only 17 of us, I'm very glad).
The participants of the Princeton-in-Petersburg program are split into two groups (so that we can learn in a more personal setting, and also to maximize the teachers' efficiency).  This first day we had two hours of grammar with Stas (it was just like being back at Princeton, for which I was very glad) and an hour of conversation with Natalia, a new teacher.  Unfortunately for us, Natalia, like most of the faculty here at the Institute, speaks little English.  (How one is supposed to teach a language to speakers of another language one does not oneself speak, I am not entirely sure.)  Most importantly, this means that whenever we don't understand a word she uses, she is forced to try and explain it another way in Russian, which, more often than not, only confuses us more.  Oh boy, more adventures...
After our three hours of class, we had time for lunch (good thing, too, since it was 2 pm - I was HUNGRY!) but usually we would begin classes at 9, have two hours of lessons, then have an hour for lunch before two more hours of class in the afternoon.  We all ate in the Nevsky cafeteria, which worked much the same way as Frikadelki the day before.  I had a piece of unspecified meat and some coleslaw, which cost 85 rubles.  Feeding myself for under $3 every day?  I could get used to this!!
After lunch, we had yet another orientation, where we were shown the important places in the Nevsky Institute (such as the computer lab, which is my new best friend, at least until I get caught up on my blog, which might never happen) as well as in the surrounding neighborhood.  We were shown where we could exchange money or use an ATM as well as an Internet cafe (for the weekends when the computer lab isn't open) and Pyatyorochka (the department store Latalia and I had found the day before).  Then Latalia and I headed home, but on the way we checked out the "Internet Klub" that was just around the corner from our apartment.  It was an only somewhat sketchy internet cafe, but I hope to use mostly the computer lab at the Institute (besides, the computers here are free :]).  Since our lessons are moving so quickly, Latalia and I were able to busy ourselves with homework from 3:45 (when we got home) until supper at 6.
Supper was macaroni and hot dogs again - I'm really starting to get tired of imitation American food.  Although, even fake American food here is better than real American food in the States, I have to admit...
We hadn't seen T.T. all day and Jenya left at 6:45, which was fine with us since we both had more to study.  What wasn't quite so fine was when T.T.'s husband came home at 7:30.  Neither Latalia nor I had any idea that there was still a man in the picture, although we had both wondered whether T.T. was perhaps divorced or a widow.  But when the door opened, I expected T.T., not the scruffy older man who appeared in my doorway (the door to my room is right beside the door to the apartment).  He obviously had a key and knew about me, because he asked my name but not why I was there or anything.  However, it was still a rather unsettling experience, and I wondered how many other unexpected visitors we would be having before we had met the entire family (T.T. had told me that she had two daughters and a grandchild - she had never said anything about a husband).  I was a little disconcerted, but not too much so - I'm a pretty easygoing person, as a general rule, and I don't get flustered easily.  Nevertheless, I texted one of my friends in the program, asking what I should do, and he advised me to just stay in my room and study, and not worry about it if the man didn't bother Latalia or me.  Which I did (and I've since found out that Vascelli is really a harmless character, and quite jovial - it was merely the circumstances of our first meeting that were less than ideal).  I heard T.T. come home at 9:30, and ended up going to bed at 10.  It's getting easier to sleep every night, although it's still less than ideal - I hope that within a week I'll be back to a normal sleep schedule, not waking up as often in the morning.  Again, I'm thankful for my detour to Serbia, because now I only have to adjust to a 2-hour time difference instead of 8 hours.  Thank God for small blessings.

In the spirit of learning (and to pretend to myself that blogging isn't totally detracting from my progress in Russian), I'll try to add a new Russian "word of the day" to each blog entry.  Today we learned the word ybui "uvwee" (which, like all things Russian, looks much cooler in Cyrillic, if I could figure out how to change the language settings on this computer where EVERYTHING ELSE except the keyboard is in Russian...).  It is a rather antiquated word, and it means "woe".  As in, woe is me.  (which would be ybui mne "uvwee mnyeh").  Stas, our professor, was explaining to us that it is a very antiquated and outdated expression, when one of my classmates piped up, "Does it sound British in Russian, too?"  He spoke in complete seriousness.  I'll leave it at that ;]