"Don't assume you can pay with plastic anywhere around here"

Some things I learned from this week:

• Water is heavy.  In the interest of saving money, I buy several liters of water at a time (which costs about the same as each individual bottle in the convenience stores).  However, the store where I buy this is quite far from my apartment, and on Tuesday when I bought the 8 liters of water, it was raining pretty hard on my walk home.  Let's just say that it wasn't a fun experience (my arms are hating me for being such a spendthrift).  However, I figure since I only have to do it once a week or so, it's worth it.  Plus, bigger muscles never hurt anybody ;] (And I tell myself that the water isn't as heavy as a hay bale, so I should count myself lucky).
• Using foreign ATMs isn't nearly as scary as they tell you.  I finally got to the end of the money that I had brought from the states with me on Tuesday (about $135, so that's pretty good that it lasted me more than 2 weeks) and I decided that the CitiBank that I walk past everyday on my way to school was probably the best bet for an ATM that would be safe, wouldn't eat my debit card (as I had heard so many horror stories about), and would display instructions in English.  As it turns out, I was correct on all three accounts, and the actual withdrawal turned out to be relatively painless.  My checking account is with Bank of America, which charges a $5 fee for every withdrawal from a foriegn ATM.  Pretty steep, but also pretty standard, from what I hear.  Because of this, I had decided beforehand that I would try to make my withdrawals large and infrequent, to save money.  I took out 5000 rubles, which translates to about $160.  I had forewarned Bank of America that I would be traveling, so I didn't have any problems with frozen accounts or anything, thankfully.  The entire transaction ended up costing me almost $170 - the $162 that I withdrew, the $5 BoA fee, and a 1% conversion fee, also charged by BoA (as far as I can tell).  It seems as though the ATM itself didn't charge me anything for using my card, as I had heard it might (I've heard that these fees can run anywhere from $1-5).  So all of the terrifying anecdotes I had heard about not being able to find an ATM, having the ATM swallow your debit card or the machine displaying "broken link" while the money was still debited from the account turned out to be for naught. The banking system works.  All is well. :]
• You have to use cash everywhere in Russia.  I mean Everywhere.  On Wednesday we (myself, Aryeh, Molly, Emily, and Anna) went to purchase our train tickets for our Moscow excursion at the end of the program.  Anna told us that trains in Russia, particularly between the big cities and particularly in the summer, fill up exceedingly quickly and especially if we wanted to get tickets together, we would have to buy them ASAP.  (Molly, Emily, Aryeh and I are going; Anna, our grad student advisor, came along to facilitate things).  Although I had withdrawn money the day before, that was for everyday expenses and so I only had 1500 rubles and my debit card on me.  I thought that, at the train station at least, the technology would be up to credit cards - after all, about the only place you can't use them in America is at a yard sale :]  I should have known better - this is Russia, after all.  Fortunately, there was an ATM in the building.  After the program, the four of us are taking a night train down to Moscow, where we will stay and tour for a few days before returning to St. Petersburg to fly home (when booking tickets it is much more convenient to fly in and out of the same city, although in reality it would be MUCH simpler for me to fly out of Moscow).  On the way down, our train leaves at 10:40pm and travels all night to get us to Moscow at 7:40 am.  We're in what's called a купе (I think we also have the word coupe in English), or a closed compartment for four people (think Harry Potter except the compartments have beds).  Unfortunately, Molly forgot her passport when we went to pick up the tickets, and the tickets have both your name and passport number on them (and the ticket-takers on the train actually check to make sure you are who you say you are) so she couldn't buy them with us; thus we'll have one stranger with us (but I figure it's better than each of us being in a compartment with three strangers).  We could also have gone плат-карт or open-carriage, where the compartments aren't as secure, but since we were going to be sleeping I felt more comfortable with doors that locked.  Those tickets turned out to be 1965 rubles each, or $63 - not bad for traveling from St. Petersburg to Moscow.  Hopefully, we will all be able to leave the greater part of our belongings (i.e. our bigger suitcases) with our host families for the weekend so we only have our carry-on luggage to deal with.  On the way back, things get a bit more complicated, because my flight leaves St. Petersburg at 6am.  Oh, boy.  I'm still not entirely sure how everything is going to work out, but I'm hopeful.  Thus, I will be returning to St. Petersburg during the day on Tuesday - my train leaves Moscow at 4 and arrives in St. Pete by 8:40 (all of the day trains are the new "speed-trains" that can cover the distance in about half the time).  This ticket was significantly more expensive - I paid 2995 rubles ($96) for a third-class плат-карт seat.  But, such is life.  I will also be traveling back alone - Molly is flying from Moscow to Berlin to meet a friend and Aryeh and Emily were much more intelligent about booking their flight home; theirs leave at 6pm, so they can take a night train back up on Tuesday night.  But hopefully by that time I won't be a completely destructive force on my own - hey, it'll even be a bit of an adventure!  That's what I'm here for, right? :]
• Culture is expensive.   Also on Wednesday, Latalia went to see "Swan Lake" at the Mariinsky Theater - the most famous venue in St. Petersburg.  I had really wanted to go, but hadn't purchased tickets in time; but when I expressed this to T.T., she told me that our neighbor works at the Mariinsky and that she would ask him if there was any way for me to get a ticket, regardless.  Communication went awry and nothing ever works as smoothly as it should: what ended up happening was that on Wednesday after returning from purchasing the train tickets, Latalia was about to leave to meet another friend who was also going: they would eat out, then proceed to the theater.  Our neighbor, Sasha, was over at the time: he told me that there was a slight chance that I could buy tickets immediately beforehand at the theater if there had been some that hadn't been picked up yet.  I wouldn't have done it if it hadn't been Swan Lake at the Mariinsky Theater.  But, I agreed to give it a try.  So I was eating supper, thinking that I would then get ready and head over around 6:00, when T.T. told me that I should go with Sasha when he went to the theater and he could help me ask about tickets.  My language skills on the fly still leave much to be desired, so I thought this an excellent idea.  Sasha was leaving at 5:40 and it was by this time already 5:10, so I had to bolt my supper and get ready exceedingly quickly.  Somehow I managed it (boy I'm glad now for having that practice with makeup every day) and T.T. wasn't kidding when she told me that Sasha ran to the theater.  I don't think I ever have or ever will cross St. Petersburg that quickly - we ran to the nearest metro stop, took it one station, and walked briskly (that's an understatement) to the theater.  At some point in all of this hustle and bustle the water bottle which I had placed in my purse opened and soaked my purse with all its contents and one side of my dress before I realized what was going on; but we couldn't stop and I probably wouldn't have been able to explain the problem to Sasha (as far as I know, he speaks zero English), so I took out and closed the water bottle and tried to wring out my purse as best I could while keeping up.  (Good news: there was little permanent damage - my map got soaked but dried fairly well and fortunately all of my really important documents, like my passport, were in an inside pocket that didn't get wet.  My dress dried fairly quickly.)  We arrived at the theater around 6:15 and Sasha began inquiring at the ticket offices whether they had any tickets.  The first one had two: one for 2700 rubles and one for 3400.  I only would have had 1500 rubles in my purse, but I slipped an extra 1000 in at the last minute, just in case: now I was exceedingly glad that I had.  Nonetheless, I wasn't about to pay more than $100 for a ballet ticket (and couldn't have, even if I had wanted to).  Fortunately the second stand had a ticket for 2400 rubles - after a slight hesitation I handed over all of my money, and I was in.  That was a $77 ticket - I think I hear some of you cringing at the figure.  I wasn't very happy either at the sum, but such is the price we pay to be "cultured".  Was it worth it?  Probably.  The theater is GORGEOUS beyond belief (the ticket said no photographs but like most rules in Russia it was barely enforced - probably 60% of the people in the theater were taking pictures, and many even during the performance itself!) and extravagantly decorated, and the stage is enormous.  The dancing was exquisite - so much talent and athleticism was displayed by all!  This was the first ballet I had ever attended, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was dazzled.  The costumes, the scenery, the dancing, the music - it was all perfect.  And my seat, the one I had paid so dearly for, was on the first level above the orchestra, on the extreme left - I was practically sitting on the stage.  I could still see 95% of the performance, surprisingly enough, and we were literally right above the orchestra.  The other occupants of my box were two Russian Orthodox priests, with their long black robes and squared-off beards, and a wealthy middle-aged woman with her 4-year-old daughter.  Naturally, I immediately took to the daughter and soon found out that her name was Anya and that this was her first time at the ballet, although her mother informed me that they had a DVD of the performance at home which they watched frequently.  It didn't take long before they found out that I spoke English first, then (some) Russian, but fortunately the mother spoke (some, equally stumbling and heavily accented) English so we managed to communicate fairly well.  She told me that they had spent a month in LA in January and that Anya had attended kindergarten there, and her teachers had said that she understood well and even spoke a bit of English.  At one point, her mother gave her an apple to snack on and when I asked her (in Russian), "Do you know what that's called in English?" she impishly replied "Apple!"  We became fast friends, and I would like to flatter myself that we were on the same level linguistically, but I think the truth is that she spoke more Russian than I.  There were a couple of points at which she asked me a typically four-year-old question during one of the several intermissions: "Why is that lady still playing down there?" or "Why did the bell just ring?" which unfortunately I didn't have the language to explain to her.  But I was flattered that she asked, and that I at least understood the question (I ended up trying to explain in slow and simple English, hoping that she might understand some - she just looked at me with a childish grin on her face.  I don't know if she was laughing at the silly American and her bumbling Russian, or what, but I know that I certainly enjoyed myself - kids are kids, regardless of nationality.  I miss nursery and babysitting and being able to hang out with them :\)  All in all, it was an adventure - and in the end, that's what I'm here for.  I can only hope that I'm a bit more "cultured" now.  :]]
• Never trust a weather forecast in St. Petersburg.  The weather has been consistently nothing all week: one day will start cold and rainy but be sunny and 75 by 4pm, while the next looks beautiful on the walk to school but we walk home in a torrential downpour.  I really just ought to learn to keep my umbrella with me, but my poor purse is already bursting at the seams with my textbooks, and I have no wish to hasten its inevitable demise (I no longer have any hopes of it outlasting the summer - I just want it to stay intact as long as possible :P).  I really wish that I knew how cold it would be - it rarely breaks 70 and it's already June 25!  I'm mostly happy with the clothing I have brought but if anything, I would have taken another sweater or two.  It's almost always chilly in the apartment in the afternoons.  
• Being a girl is hard work.   Today marks the second day in a row of my wearing heels, and I don't know how people do it every day.  My calves are so sore!  It makes me curious which muscles this walking around on tiptoe all day works, and whether the strength and endurance that I'm inevitably gaining by inflicting this torture on myself will transfer to, for instance, walking in normal shoes, or biking.  Fortunately, the heels that I brought to St. Petersburg are quite comfortable and fit my feet very well - better than most of the other pairs of shoes that I brought.  This is exceedingly important since I'm walking more than 2 miles every day, even if I don't go exploring - so as time goes on, I may end up wearing my heels more and more.  (Besides, most of the clothing I brought is on the dressy side, so I try to avoid wearing my sneakers when possible.)  If I don't watch out, I'm going to return home all "girlified" - to quote a good friend, "all high heels, short skirts, and makeup."  (I actually don't know if anyone has ever said it to me like that, but it looks cool enough to be in quotes, doesn't it? :])  But I can't fool myself - inside, I'm still the same old Erin who wears jeans every day because then I don't have to worry about color coordination.  (And I do have to worry about it - just ask my friends or roommates!! :P)

So those were my major lessons and adventures.  We also visited Peter and Paul's Fortress yesterday, which was the official first structure in St. Petersburg (built by Peter 1 before the city was even founded, in 1703) but it wasn't terribly interesting and the sky was growing ever more menacing, so we left directly after the tour.  We learned about the political prisoners who were kept there (since the fortress was never actually attacked, they had to do something with the structure - apparently no one else was crazy enough to try and capture the "city on a swamp") and saw the place where the flood levels were marked from particularly catastrophic flood years (St. Petersburg is famous for its annual floods, and though they are less severe now that a dam has been built further up the Neva, they used to be particularly nasty and sometimes the waters rose over 8 feet!!)  as well as the real, working Russian Mint which is also located within the fortress walls.  There was a wax museum that looked interesting, but I figured since admission to the fortress is free, we can come back another time.  I'll make sure to tell you about it if we ever do (I've never been to a wax museum and I actually think it would be quite interesting).  Not much to look forward to this weekend, but that just means I'll have more time to think about anything that I might have forgotten about this week - once again, I forgot my note-book :P  I hope that I haven't completely worn you out with my boring routine - maybe the fact that I have people actually reading my blog will inspire me to go out and have some more adventures worth writing about.  But until then, enjoy your own equally exciting existence, and if my blog inspires you to send me a note telling me of your own grand adventures, all the better!!