Independence Day Abroad

There was one more exciting thing that happened to me on Saturday: since Sunday was the 4th, we were all discussing how we would celebrate Independence Day.  Most people seemed in favor of celebrating in a very Russian way (i.e. going to a bar and getting drunk) which I, naturally, opposed.  However, I was studying Saturday night when I received a phone call from one of the other members of my group, Anna P-, who said that she had been discussing this with her host mother when her host mom offered to have us all over to her dacha!!  Now, the opportunity to see a real Russian summer house, especially as a way to celebrate our most American holiday, seemed just too ironic to pass up, so of course I agreed. :]  Unfortunately, the outing was an all-day affair, so I wasn't able to go to church, but there are some things you only get one chance to do (and it is looking less and less like we will be invited to Tatyana's dacha, so I figured I should take the chance when I am offered it :P).  We met at 11 am at one of the most northernly metro stations in the city, from which we took an электричка (train) out into the country.  It took an entire hour just to get to the train station from the metro stop near my apartment - St. Petersburg is a big city!!  The train ticket cost 60 rubles, round trip.

Leave it to me not to be able to even get around the city without having an adventure :]  About two stops from the end of the metro line, there was an announcement that everyone had to get off the train and wait for the next one.  I just barely heard it - it was a long metro ride and I was going to the end of the line, so I was listening to my iPod.  I still don't know why we had to vacate the train, but I got on the next one and finished my journey without any problems.  

The group consisted of Anna, Molly, Kelly, Emily, me, Mykola, Andrew, and Hayk.  It was a good group and just the right size - big enough so that no one felt left out but small enough to all fit around the dining room table.  :]  It was good to be in a group of friends again: when we go places with the entire PiP group (17 people) it feels more like a school field trip, it's too impersonal.  This felt more like a holiday.  As we were waiting for the train we were approached by a Russian girl our age who pegged us as Americans and tried out her English on us (she spoke very well).  Then the train arrived, and the real adventures began.  It was so crowded!!! I honestly don't know how we fit into the train: we were all standing, pressed up against one another in the foyer of the train car.  I couldn't move in any more because there were mothers with small children directly in front of me, and I didn't want to crush them.  And kids weren't the only fragile beings in the train car: a lady near me was trying to hold onto a tabby kitten that couldn't have been more than three weeks old and kept mewing silently and trying to explore during the entire train ride, and another woman beside me held a cat carrier in which was a fully-grown and very frightened orange cat.  I didn't see any dogs, but I'm sure they must have been around; I would think it more likely for people to take their dogs to the dacha than their cats (and I'm assuming that's where they were all going, heading out of the city on a Sunday morning).  It was so crowded that not all of us could get into the same train car and we were forced to separate: Emily, Mykola and Hayk weren't with the rest of the group, but we maintained phone contact during the ride.  It was absolute chaos: no one knew where we were going or how many stops to wait.  But somehow we all managed to detrain (again, if you can deplane, you can detrain.  I am going to make up an entire new family of verbs based on this stupid idea ^.^) at the correct stop and set off for the dacha, following Anna's host mom like ducks in a row.

Anna's host mom is a hoot.  She can't be younger than 50, but she's the kind of person you would love to have as your grandmother.  She's really fun and she has a huge personality.  She knows a bit of English (a few words here and there) which she uses generously, although at this point we all have MUCH better listening comprehension :]  On the way to the dacha (about a 10-minute walk from the train station) she pointed out the various plants along the road, including Russian bird-ox which she insisted on throwing at us so that the burrs stuck to our clothes :]  And she is SO hospitable - the picture of a Russian babushka.  We had a great time at her dacha.

Finally we arrived.  The dacha definitely resembles an American summer camp in the woods or on the beach.  It is a smallish wooden house with 8 or so rooms and an attic, as well as a large garage/storage shed and what used to be a sizeable in-ground pool but is now just a small inflatable above-ground one (Anna's host mom explained that the other got a hole in it, unfortunately :P).  It was already 12:30 by the time we arrived, so we all sat down to eat the lunches we had brought with us.  Anna had told us to do so because she was unsure about the food situation.  As I have probably already ranted enough, the food in Russia is unbelievably cheap.  I was able to buy a loaf of bread, cheese, a juice box and a булочка for only 74 rubles, and I was quite proud of myself for this.  However, we were soon to be surprised; Anna's host mom started bringing out food for us!  It is no small feat to feed 8 college students a substantial lunch, but she managed it:  we started out with a giant loaf of bread and some cheese, from which we all made sandwiches; then she brought out a heaping plate of sliced cucumbers, which were quickly consumed; she then followed this with some delicious meat-and-noodle soup (the meat was very tender, either pork or lamb).  When she served us the soup (it was pretty funny: she fed the boys from large bowls, while the girls' dishes were much smaller) she also brought out six large and very silvery spoons and announced "These spoons were in the Gulag.  Who wants one?"  Of course, we all did.  I'm pretty sure they were made of aluminum, and we definitely could have bent them with very little trouble.  (The Gulag, for those of you who don't know, is an abbreviation that has now come to stand in for the entire system of Soviet forced-labor camps which existed from the 1930s-1950s; while not nearly as atrocious as the Nazi concentration camps, they worked on essentially the same basis, with poor conditions and hard labor characterizing the lives of the criminals and political prisoners sent there.  Thank you, Wikipedia.)

After our scrumptious lunch, Anna's host mom went over to a cupboard and pulled out a bottle of champagne, placing it on the table and declaring, "To America!"  She then repeated the process with a second bottle of champagne, a 2-liter bottle of Coca-Cola, and a bottle of some suspiciously dark homemade wine.  Now, all of you who know me know I don't drink, but I would be lying if I said that I'm not the least bit curious about why so many people do.  As it was a holiday, and as I was in a group of my friends, and as I am in Russia where the drinking age is 18, and as drinking alcohol in general is actually not against any of my beliefs, I decided to try it.  So there; Erin Mills has now had alcohol.  Please don't be too shocked.  :D  It was so gross!!!!!!!!!!!  The champagne taste was not so bad: I've had sparkling cider before, and the champagne tasted similar to that.  But the alcohol: the sharp bite and the prickling all the way down my throat - it was so gross and weird!!  Therefore, I can now say that I have tried alcohol and I don't like it.  It may be true that another kind of alcohol - beer, wine, vodka, etc. would taste very different and I would like it: I don't know.  But I don't need to know, because now I can say that I don't drink because I'm still underage (in America), I'm scared of alcohol and particularly of how I would be drunk, and because I've tried it and I don't like it.  (Not to mention that alcohol tends to lead to drunkenness, which is expressly and repeatedly warned against in the Bible, as well as to other illicit behaviors which I have no desire to take part in or be witness to.)  And that is that.

So, back to our adventurous day.  As it turns out, there is a lake not far from Anna's host mom's dacha, so we decided to go there and swim on account of the day being so hot.  So we walked back to the train station and took it one stop further (fortunately this time, at 1:30, it was much less crowded).  The train tracks literally ran along the edge of the lake, so it was about 50 feet to the beach.  We weren't the only ones who had the idea to go to the beach this day: it was so crowded we could hardly find a place to put our stuff!  However, we finally succeeded and proceeded to enjoy the perfect day.  Although we were so extremely far north, the water in the lake wasn't much colder than in a lake in Maine (which, if you ask a normal person, is probably pretty cold, but at least I'm used to it), so it felt wonderful on such a hot day.  The lake bottom was soft sand and the gradient so gradual that you could go out 200 feet and still not be in water over your head.  There we spent an extremely pleasant afternoon alternately sunbathing and playing in the lake.  Hayk had brought his soccer ball, so we played pass for a while, but we quickly tired of that and moved on to chicken fights.  This game requires four people at a time: two people stand on the lake bottom and one person sits on the shoulders of each of the "bases," from which standpoint the person on top tries to knock their opponent into the water.  It is one of the most fun water games I have ever played, although we usually don't get much of an opportunity in pools and such (too much adult supervision :P).  The last time I played this, in fact, was one year ago at Jasmin Burfeind end-of-year foreign exchange student party, with Nikola, Alicia Lane, and the Meehans (shortly before mud-wrestling Nikola and losing badly :P).  The conditions at the lake were perfect: the bottom was soft, so it wouldn't hurt the bases' feet to hold someone on their shoulders and move around, and since the lake was so shallow we could move quite a ways off from shore so that we wouldn't bother as many people while we were being loud, obnoxious Americans.  Naturally, the boys were the bases (although one of them, Andrew, has a runner's build and thus weighs less than I do) and the girls fought it out on top.  I think I won more than I lost, although I can't properly remember.  It doesn't matter, anyway; it was all in fun.  I do remember that Hayk was the champion base: whoever was on his shoulders always won.  Probably because he's 6 feet and 180 pounds, with nice broad shoulders and good balance.  I personally want to make another excursion to the lake some weekend with the rest of the group: I think Phil the gymnast could give Hayk a run for his money ^.^ :P

We arrived at the lake around 2:30; by 5:00 we were all ready to leave.  We packed up and returned to the dacha (as did everyone on the beach, it seemed - the train was once again extremely full) where Anna's host mom surprised us with even more food: this time, homemade blini.  We passed the time before dinner playing Mafia, and discovered that I shouldn't be Mafia because I make too much noise when I play.  I don't make a very good God either, because I have a hard time keeping silent during the discussions.  I bet you can't imagine that ;]  In any case, a grand time was had by all, and the blini were delicious.  We had both apple and raspberry preserves to put on them, which were both very sweet and flavorful.  We also had tea in the traditional Russian way: there was a small teapot of previously-brewed tea, extremely strong: you took as much as that as you wanted, according to how strong you wanted your tea, then filled the cup the rest of the way with scalding water.  Much more interesting and precise than using teabags, and less messy than tea leaves.  :]

So, sunburnt and with full stomachs, we returned to the city.  The train at 7:30 was again, much less crowded than it had been in the morning or at 5; it must be all about picking the right time.  I finally reached the apartment again at 8:45, where Latalia was waiting for me with some stories of her own.  Being tired from the day before, she had opted to revisit the Hermitage Museum in lieu of the lake, and even after hearing about all of my amazing adventures, was glad that she had done so.  She had also scoped out the souvenir stalls which are located near all of the main tourist attractions and could give me the specs on potential prices.  One thing I was especially glad to hear: bickering is acceptable and almost expected.  However, if they gather that you are an American tourist, you may find a great deal more resistance, so I'll have to be careful :P

Thinking about the zoo (which had been my original plan for Sunday, and which I have yet to visit), we decided to check out my guidebook and see whether we could find the price of admission.  Interestingly enough, neither of the guidebooks that Aunt Shirley gave me make any mention of the zoo (it is reputed to have atrocious conditions for the animals - apparently both National Geographic and Frommers, the companies my guidebooks are from, are animal-rights activists :P) but we did manage to find some other extremely interesting things: in particular, a Dolphinarium, a roller-blade rental company, and a wax museum.  Now those are my kinds of attractions!!!! XD :D  At least now I know of several things I want to do: hopefully I can get my Russian friend to do them too, and then Princeton will pay for them!!  Yay for free money!!!!  :D

Novgorod!

This was definitely the best weekend so far.  In fact, it was so good that it deserves two blog entries all to itself.  Things have really turned around and I'm starting to really enjoy my time here.  I trust that this will continue.  :]

Side note: this blog entry is going up much later than normal: on Monday we had an excursion directly after school and on Tuesday I got about halfway through writing the blog when the internet in the computer lab crashed.  Obviously I was not supposed to post this on time :P  Hopefully I can get it finished before it's time to write another one...

My weekend actually began on Friday evening, when we went out to dinner at the restaurand "The Idiot" with our beloved professor, Stas.  Because he is a Princeton professor (as he would probably say, "There is no rest for the weary") he actually has to work on professor-ish things during the summer, so he is only able to stay with us in St. Petersburg for one half of the program.  Which we are all incredibly sad about, because we all love Stas.  As much as I have already raved about him, not enough can be said about this professor.  He is so kind, and obviously actually cares about us: it's amazing.  The fact that we should all be so excited to go out to dinner with him on his last night in St. Petersburg should be proof.  In any case, the restaurant was very nice and we all enjoyed ourselves.  My only possible complaint was that it was a vegetarian restaurant, so I couldn't get any dishes with meat.  (I'm such a carnivore :])  However, I might not have gotten a meat dish anyway because it would have been fairly expensive, so I don't really mind.  I ended up ordering пирожки с картофелем (potato dumplings) with сметана, which is very similar to sour cream; and it was delicious.  It was a high-class restaurant: we were also given bread and several flavors of butter, as well as complimentary shots.  I gave mine to Anna P- and toasted Stas with my water bottle (which I had, of course, brought from my apartment.  Water isn't free in the restaurants here ;]).  It was, overall, a thoroughly enjoyable evening. :]]

The next day was our trip to Veliky Novgorod.  This is an ancient city in Russia, founded in 862 or so, and it is located about 167 km (103 miles) from St. Petersburg.  It is traditional in the Princeton-in-St-Petersburg program to take a day trip there between the two semesters of the program. Since it is a significant distance from the city and we only take a day trip, we had to get up pretty early: we met at 7:45 on the other side of the city.  Thank God for the metro :P  Regardless, we had to leave the apartment by 7:00 to get there on time, but I'm a morning person, so it wasn't a big deal.  In fact, I ended up doing what my mom always does: waking up ridiculously early the day of travel and not being able to go back to sleep.  The White Nights are still in full force here, although the sun gets closer to the horizon every day; so when I woke up I couldn't tell whether it was 3am or 7am.  As it turns out, it was 4:44.  :P  But, as I couldn't fall asleep again (and had to get up in an hour and 15 minutes anyway), I enjoyed a nice extended prayer time for all of my friends and family back home, especially for everyone at Living Waters, where I would normally be working in the summer.  I finally got up at 6, and we got ourselves breakfast (as usual, T.T. was at her dacha for the weekend) and packed lunches before heading out for our adventure.  We arrived just on time and no one was exceptionally late, so we were able to stay mostly on schedule.  We took a private bus to Novgorod (which conveniently happened to fit us all) and it took about 2.5 hours to get there.  I tried to catch some more shut-eye on the bus, but the atrocious road conditions and my seat in the far back made that rather difficult.  Unfortunately I had forgotten my hard ginger candies (which help alleviate motion sickness), or I would have read to pass the time.
We finally arrived at the city a little before 11 and waited around for about 15 minutes before our tour guide met us.  We went on a short bus tour of the city (it only took about 40 minutes to cover all of the interesting parts) before debusing (if you can deplane, you can debus ^.^) and exploring the крепость (fortress) and St. Sophia's Cathedral on foot.  The weather, as it was all last week, was gorgeous (чудесная in Russian - Tatyana was really impressed when she figured out that we knew that word, even though we learned it on about the third day of class here ;P) but almost too hot and we quickly tired of walking around.  It was really cool to see the inside of a working Orthodox cathedral, though: it is very dark inside because of the lack of windows and every surface, walls and ceiling, is covered with paintings of saints and biblical scenes.  Every Orthodox cathedral is split into three parts: the outer part, near the western-facing door, is for the women, children, and poor people (in olden times: now they can enter the main part of the church) and is supposed to represent hell: the scenes painted are often of torture and frightening things.  The main part of the cathedral is where the men gather to worship: it is representative of earth.  There are never pews or seats because in the Russian Orthodox tradition, suffering leads to salvation so it is better to stand.  The icons in the main part are mainly of saints, both traditional and local.  There are sometimes sarcophoguses (sarcophogi?) of famous or influential church leaders along the sides of the churches; I saw many people go up to these and kiss the top of them.  There are many candles lit around the room, which I am assuming serve a similar role as those in Catholic churches (if only I knew what that was, ignorant Protestant that I am ;]) but these provide the only additional light.  The final section of the cathedral, the "paradise," is separated from the rest by an iconostasis: a wall that reaches most of the way to the ceiling of the cathedral and is richly decorated with several rows of icons.  Only the priests are allowed behind it (although I have no idea what is back there: do Orthodox churches have altars??).  All in all, the cathedrals have a very solemn atmosphere, and I'm sure that the worshippers who come there are going through all of the rituals that they believe will lead to salvation; but it makes me glad that I know Jesus and that he isn't looking for me to do anything perfectly in order to earn my place in Heaven. 
After the tour of the fortress, we were all very hot and tired and hungry; good thing lunch was next on the itinerary.  We had a nice surprise at the cafe where we went for lunch: it was already paid for!  That was really great, and it ended up being a very nice three-course meal (Russians take food very seriously :]).  First was a salad that I wasn't very fond of because it contained atrocious amounts of tomatoes (I am not a tomato fan).  The next course was chicken noodle soup, (which surprised me that it wasn't something more Russian: they certainly have enough traditional soups...) followed by the main course of meat (I think it was either pork or lamb) and potatoes and coleslaw and peas.  We had both water and some really yummy (but ambiguous) fruit juice to drink.  
Then it was time to tour the monastary.  Since it was a working monastary, all of the women in our group were required to wear headscarves.  Latalia and I were able to borrow some from Tatyana: I got a giant pink polka-dotted silk scarf and Latalia received a somewhat more moderately-sized floral print one.  It was pretty awkward trying to figure out how to put it on, but apparently Russian Orthodox isn't nearly as strict as Islam; the head only had to be covered symbolically, it wasn't like we had to hide all of our hair or anything.  We saw inside yet another orthodox cathedral, but overall didn't stay at the monastary for very long.  Our next stop was a much more interesting one: we went to a Museum of Wooden Architecture.  It was a collection of wooden buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries which had been turned into museum pieces and filled with artifacts from the time period.  We saw inside the houses of a typical middle-class family, a typical poor family, and a working-class family.  We also saw some really amazing wooden chapels and cathedrals, decorated every bit as extravagantly as St. Basil's in Moscow or Church of the Spilled Blood here in St. Pete.  I got some great pictures there (although I was informed that I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside the buildings a little after the fact - whoops!).  There was a great little souvenir market right outside the museum where I bought various souvenirs because they weren't too expensive there.  I'm kind of dreading the souvenir shops in St. Pete - the prices are notoriously exorbitant.  Let's just say, some of you may be receiving more "unconventional" souvenirs :]]
After the museum, we headed back to St. Petersburg.  It was unbelievably hot in the bus: the American Northeast isn't the only place that's had a heat wave this last week.  (Monday got above 100 degrees Farenheit, which is exceptionally unusual for Russia's Northern Capital)  Thanks to our crazy driver, we made it home in just over 2 hours (although at some points I think I would have rather been traveling more safely and less quickly!)  It was another hour before Latalia and I reached home again, so we finally got to the apartment at 8:30.  Since lunch had been paid for, we were able to eat the food T.T. packed us for our supper (sandwiches and yogurt).  I took a shower just to cool off before spending the evening studying (okay, we haven't even started the second semester and we have homework? Leave it to Princeton... :P) before hitting the sack at 11:30, more than ready for a good night's sleep.  


As usual, I didn't wear any sunscreen on Saturday (I don't believe in it) and I wore a tank top since it was so hot.  However, the sun here so far north isn't quite as strong as it is elsewhere, so I ended up getting a nice tan without burning.  So there.  :]]

Summer rain

Wow, what a week.  It's really hard to believe that the program is halfway over.

• On Monday, our group ate at a Georgian restaurant: Georgian food has a similar relationship to Russian food that Mexican fare has to us in America: foreign enough to be popular, but still not too far off from what we normally eat.  We ordered (on recommendation of Anna, who had been to that particular restaurant before) хачупури, which is a bread dish baked with cheese and possibly other foods inside.  We got one with just cheese, and one with eggs and cheese.  Unfortunately the cheese was very bitter (I think that's called old cheese) and I didn't really like it (it reminded me of the cheese they had at the Serbian wedding reception).  But overall, the dish was fairly tasty.  We also ate шашлыкы (shishkebabs) made from both chicken and lamb (the lamb was really good, but much more expensive: this is only the second time in my life I've eaten lamb) with a really yummy and slightly spicy sauce.  The restaurant is located on the mainland, but in a part of St. Petersburg I hadn't been to yet; also, since it was Monday and we spent all weekend studying, I decided to walk to the restaurant.  It was more than an hour's walk, but not significantly more complicated or lengthy than riding the metro would have been; besides, that neighborhood is very beautiful, along one of the many canals of the city.  However, walking home was a different story; my legs were tired and Latalia started not feeling so well, so we decided to take a маршрутка for part of the way.  I really don't know why they warned us in Princeton against taking маршрутки - I don't find them any less safe than a bus, and they're quicker (if a bit more expensive).  I had a bit of a challenge convincing timid Latalia of this (she hadn't been on a маршрутка yet) but finally settled the matter by getting on; she had to follow or find her own way home (a little mean, but the маршрутка would have driven away if we hadn't gotten on, and I didn't want to walk the rest of the way).  Unlike our last adventure with public transportation, the маршрутка was going exactly where I thought it was, and we got off at the end of our street.  It was totally worth the 27 rubles.  
• Also on Monday, I made a serious shopping trip to "7я семья" to replenish the snack food that I had finally consumed.  I spent 200 rubles and bought animal crackers (they aren't as good as in America :[), salty crackers (which are AMAZING after all of the sweet things I've been having), more pretzel-dough ring things (these ones are cheap and soft and GROSS :P), more peanuts, a couple of булочки (small pastries, sometimes with a fruit or творег filling), and some APPLES!!!!  Okay, so here's the story on the fruit.  One of the other members of our group, Mattias, had been bringing in apples every day as a snack; and since our supper always consists mainly of meat and starch, I was desperately craving some fruit and extremely jealous of him.  He said that the apples were only about 10 rubles each, but every store that I looked in had prices around 56 rubles.  I didn't understand and was getting pretty fed up when I looked more closely at the price tags and realized that the prices were per kilogram.  Duh.  Anyway, I'm really glad that I found that out; at "7я семья" I can buy Granny Smiths for less than 10 rubles each!!!!  Having the fruit this week has been AMAZING.  I didn't even realize just how much I missed it until I bit into that first one.  It was, to quote Molly, "a religious experience."  But really, thank God for fruit and cheap food.  
• Actually, I've made a trip to a store nearly every day this week.  Monday was the biggest, but I stopped back at "7я семья"on my way to school Tuesday and bought a drinkable yogurt for lunch (strawberry, of course ;]).  On Wednesday I trekked out to Идея, another grocery store a couple of blocks from the Institute, where I bought another 8-liter container of water and some булочки с яблоками (apple pastries) for 15 rubles each.  They have become my morning snack every day.  I was much smarter about the water this time than last: I walked back to the nearest bus stop and rode an автобус most of the way home.  (I have officially mastered public transportation in St. Petersburg.  I think I have due occasion to be proud.)
• Tuesday also marked my first unofficial outing (of what I hope will be many).  Mattias and I went to this old orthodox cemetary on his island that he often runs past but wanted to explore more fully.  It was so cool!  The graveyards in Russia are vastly different than those in America: they are designed to become overgrown, instead of looking like perfectly manicured lawns.  The outside of the graveyard had tombstones from the 19th century, and it really looked like a woods: the trees had grown up around the graves and there were ferns and flowers everywhere almost obscuring the stone or metal crosses.  We knew it was mostly orthodox because of the cross with the extra, slanted bar on the bottom (although I have yet to research what that means).  The middle part of the cemetary, however, was comprised of very recent graves: many people had death dates within the last 10 or 20 years.  As such, this part of the cemetary was open and not yet overgrown, although we could see how the dirt was left on the graves so that plants could grow undisturbed.  The graves themselves were very different, too: it appeared that instead of burying the bodies in coffins, it is much more popular to be cremated in Russia.  Each tombstone stood at the head of what looked much like a stone bathtub: a hollow structure raised above ground with stone or (if the person was much poorer) metal walls, filled with dirt and presumably the remains of the person.  It seemed that the tombstones followed patterns: persons who died in the early 1800s had mostly metal crosses, while those of a bit later were often comprised of pebbles pressed into concrete, forming a sort of crude mosaic; the newest ones were granite or marble (as you might see in America) and a few had elaborate wooden crosses with icons on them.  One thing that I noticed that I had never seen before was that many of the people who died in the recent past had a portrait of themselves etched into the marble of their tombstone.  These were mostly busts of the people when they were in their prime, although we saw one rather extravagant full portrait and an apparent filmmaker who put a picture of a camera on his gravestone in lieu of any religious imagery.  Some of the stones had messages like you might expect: "in loving memory" and such (all in Russian, of course).  There weren't enough of these for me to notice a pattern, whether there are typical things to put on a gravestone (like we might put "rest in peace").  The other big thing I noticed was that none of the graves dated from the Soviet era.  Many of the older ones were from the 19th century, and there were many from the last 20 years, but if there was any death date between 1920 and 1990, that person was buried with someone who died outside of that time frame.  I wonder whether, since there was a chapel in the middle of the graveyard and it was obviously a very religious place, the Soviets closed it during their time of power (since they shunned nearly everything religious).  It definitely gave me something to think about...  otherwise, it was very clear that Russians respect their dead in many of the same ways as we do.  There were many bouquets of flowers on the graves, both real and fake, as well as many candles and jars of incense (which are more characteristic of Orthodox Christianity).  Some of the graves were simple and humble, while others were extravagant and displayed the wealth of the surviving family (some might even be worthy of the title 'shrine' more than 'gravesite').  One last thing that caught my eye was what looked like letterboxes in one corner of the graveyard.  When Mattias and I got closer, we could see that some of the boxes had marble covers over them with names and dates, and many had flowers affixed: it was a condo-cemetary!  The cemetary was nearly full: I wonder whether the letterbox-graves are available for economic or space reasons.  In any case, that is something that you would never see in America.  
• The weather this week has really taken a turn for the better: ever since Sunday it has been warm, sunny (and mostly clear) although it is often very windy here not far from the Baltic Sea.  I even got a bit of a tan from wandering the graveyard Tuesday (it was a full two hours from the time we left the institute until I finally got home) including a tan line across my chest from my purse :P  Well, such is life: it's better than the "farmer-jane" tan I usually get in the summer from my constant outfit of T-shirts and jeans :]
• On Tuesday Latalia and I met Tatyana's older daughter, Olya, for the first time.  She had been in Turkey during the month of June, on vacation from work, but now her vacation time is up and she has to come back to work (although she tells us that she has a really great job, so that's not a sad thing for her).  She is married and has a 6-year-old daughter, Nastya, whom we have yet to meet.  But Olya was home for supper on Tuesday night and we got to introduce ourselves to her.  Meeting someone new really brought home for me how much my Russian has improved; I understood nearly all of her questions and I found it fairly easy to respond.  If this is what has happened after only four weeks, I can't wait to see how things will be after eight!!  So, we talked a lot to Olya, and learned that T.T. would be going to the dacha for the next couple of days, so Olya would be preparing our meals (as if we can't do it ourselves - I think hospitality is a really important thing with the Russians, so I won't take it as an insult to my intelligence).  I really liked Olya: she was very nice, and interested in our lives, and she looks a lot like her mother :]  She also takes care to speak slowly and clearly to us, but she only knows about as much English at Tatyana.  Overall I hope we made a mutual good impression.
• One funny (and embarassing, to tell the truth) story about Tuesday:  I had told T.T. about having been a Presidential Scholar and going to the White House and meeting Joe Biden.  She was (in my opinion) overly impressed; anyway, she bragged about me to her daughter (that's a little backwards...).  Then Olya asked about how many people were in the program.  I estimated... "around 70," I said.  They looked impressed.  Then Olya asked how they were selected, and I explained that there were two from each state, as well as a few Arts Scholars... then Tatyana asked me how many states there are.  "50" I confidently replied.  Then the last number that I had said reoccurred to me... sheepishly, I corrected myself and said that there were probably about 120 people in the program.  50 x 2 still equals 100, even here in Russia... we all had a good laugh out of that one :P  I made my excuse by saying "I came here to study Russian, not math..."  So for all of you who may be misinformed to the contrary, I too make mistakes.  Silly ones, too.  :P
• On Tuesday night (actually Wednesday morning) at 1:40 am, my phone rang.  Now, usually I turn off my phone at night, because the alarm still goes off even if the phone is turned off.  I was also dead asleep at 1:40 am (like a normal person).  So at first I was very confused, because even in the White Nights I could tell that it wasn't 7am, when my alarm was set to go off.  By the time I reached my phone (which was still in my purse instead of on my desk) some part of my subconscious had registered that it was my ringtone, not my alarm, that was sounding, and I answered the phone.  The voice that met my ear was speaking in Russian, and somehow (don't ask me how) I understood that it was Olya and that she was telling me that her key wasn't working in the door, so would I please come and let her in?  I did, and met her profuse thanks with only a "пожалуйста" (you're welcome).  It was only upon reaching my couch-bed once again that I realized what a feat I had just accomplished.  Roused from a sound slumber I had not only recognized my ringtone but been able to understand spoken Russian and react appropriately.  I think that means I've reached some kind of level of internalizing Russian: I just hope I don't have to test that very often.  (Fortunately, I was able to go to bed early the next night and catch up on my disturbed slumber.)
• Olya made breakfast for us both Wednesday and Thursday morning.  She made it much earlier than Tatyana tends to: it was ready by 7:50 instead of the typical 8:07.  Latalia and I were very glad for this because it meant that our walk to school was much less rushed than usual.  In Conversation class on Wednesday we did a ток-шоу (literally pronounced "tok show-oo"- I love Russklicized English words) in Russian.  It was possibly the most fun I've had in class all semester.  Each member of our group was given a role (I was the daughter) and we role-played a talk show where we had to resolve a problem: Dad wants to travel but Mom would rather stay home and watch TV all vacation.  What should they do with the kids and pets?  Our professor was the family dog, and every time we talked about the family and fogot to mention her she would bark - "gaf-gaf"!  It was crazy fun.  In my group are probably 8 of the smartest people you could find, and then you put them together and unleash their collective creative genius.  It was like drama, all over again.  In Russian.
• Thursday we had our final exam in Grammar.  It wasn't too bad - only six pages, single-sided, and I remembered nearly everything: there was one concept I was unsure about but it turns out that I got it right in the end.  In the afternoon we had Conversation, as usual: every day our homework is to think about a certain subject in Russian, and at the beginning of class we talk about what we thought about.  (I say the beginning of class, but as the semester goes on this has gotten longer and longer - now it takes nearly an entire period to get through all 8 people and their thoughts, which I suppose is a mark of growth.)  This day the subject was "sports" and many people talked about the sports that they played when they were younger or what they currently do for exercise (we have a couple of serious runners in our class, including Mattias who seriously reminds me of Daddy in several ways :]).  Phil Miller, one of the kids in our class, was a diver in high school and also practiced gymnastics for a while: thus, he is very flexible.  During his time to talk he tried to explain what kind of gymnastics he did, but the teacher didn't understand, so he demonstrated by doing a backflip at the front of the classroom.  Fortunately, he didn't get hurt, but it looked pretty dangerous... Molly, one of the other girls in the class, told him that she would only be impressed if he did a handstand-pushup.  He's a guy: of course he tried it.  He did a handstand at the front of the room, but couldn't balance for very long: he went to rest his feet on the wall and instead they found the door, which (since it was unlatched) opened at the touch of his feet and he slowly and gracefully toppled upside-down into the hallway with a terrific 'thump.'  The other group was at this moment taking their grammar final in the adjoining classroom, and Stas was administrating it.  Upon hearing the commotion (according to later reports) he jumped several inches into the air before rushing out into the hallway.  All we saw was Phil get up, brush himself off (he was, of course, unhurt) and give Stas, who was now standing in the hallway, a sheepish smile before re-entering the classroom (and, might I add, continuing his shenanigans).  However, as I learned later, Stas, upon returning to the testing room, was heard to mutter, "That man will be the death of me," which is, of course, a very dramatic, romantic, and utterly Stas-ian thing to say.  I would be hard-pressed to say whether I've ever had a teacher who was kinder or cared more about us than Stas.  For his sake, I am quite sad that I will not be continuing with Russian but instead moving on to bigger and Deutsch-er things.  I also can't believe that he's leaving this weekend: I'm so glad that we at least get to eat dinner with him tonight before he returns home to his wife and daughter.  
• But this wasn't the only thing that made Thursday the highlight of my week.  I'm finally used to heels now (or, at least, the pair that I brought from America, which fit my feet exceptionally well and are quite comfortable, as heels go) so I was wearing them again on Thursday.  Just before class let out for the day there was a sunshower outside: the sky was bright blue, but the rain was pouring down.  It only lasted a few minutes, however, and by the time we started walking home the weather was beautiful again.  At least, it was beautiful right above us: as I reached the first intersection and looked down the road I could see a visible gray front of thunderheads quickly rolling towards us, complete with lightning and a gray curtain of rain.  I decided to try and beat the storm home, since I didn't have my umbrella with me.  I found out that you can, indeed, run in heels, as long as you keep well-balanced and take short steps.  I was still about three blocks from home, however, when the storm broke upon me.  Huge, sparse raindrops quickly evolved into a 'soak-you-to-the-skin' downpour before I could go more than 50 feet.  The thought crossed my mind at one point to seek shelter in a doorway or store, but as I looked around and didn't see any immediately nearby, and as I was already wet and had no idea how long the storm would last (and as the lightning and thunder were something terrible, directly overhead) I decided to book it for home and try my luck.  Not surprisingly, by the time I reached my apartment I was thoroughly saturated and water was streaming from my hair and skirt.  My purse was also soaked, but fortunately nothing was damaged (good thing, too: I had my iPod, phone, camera, wallet, and $125 textbooks in there!)  The storm subsided probably 10 minutes later, and then Latalia came home much drier than I (she had, intelligently, taken refuge in a store through the worst of it; she had also had her umbrella with her, and a coat on).  But the rain was warm, and honestly, had I not had my purse with me, I may not have hurried home so quickly: it's good for the soul to stop and dance in the rain every once in a while.  :]]  Besides, clothes dry, and you only live once!
• And that wasn't even the end.  About 6:00, another terrific storm rolled in.  From my desk I could see it approaching and hear the nearly incessant thunder through my open window.  It was so incredible that I took video of it, since pictures couldn't capture the unbelievable swiftness with which the clouds moved or the quick succession of thunderclaps.  There was even hail, for a little while!  I was forced to close my window because although the storm was moving parallel to that side of our building, the rain was falling so hard and so fast that it was splashing into the room off of the windowsill.  But again, the rain was warm and the air smelled so fresh afterwards that it wasn't really an unpleasant experience, after all. :]]  I was, however, glad to be inside during this display of God's power, which lasted nearly an hour!  And I mean, full-blown thunderstorm for nearly an hour, not just raining.  It was truly Awesome.  Unfortunately, Tatyana wasn't as lucky as Latalia and I; I'm not sure where she had gone, but she was intending to be back at 6 and was walking home when the storm hit.  She, being a native St. Petersburger, had her umbrella with her and took shelter somewhere, but by the time the storm was winding down at 7 Latalia and I were both very hungry.  (We're both accustomed to eating between 5 and 6 in the evening, at home.)  We didn't know where T.T. was, so we finally decided that fending for ourselves for supper, under the circumstances, was allowable.  Of course, as soon as we put the frozen блины in the microwave and started warming them up, Tatyana walked in.  I should have known.  But, she wasn't offended by us making our own supper, and only offered to help us prepare it now that she was home.  (Good thing, too; I was worried that she'd be mad at us, since she hardly ever lets us prepare our own meals.)  So supper was microwaveable ham-and-cheese blini and cold hamburger котлеты, made with a new recipe that actually turned out to be quite good (the meat was ground up and mixed with onions and some spice that I couldn't place but that made the burgers almost too tasty).
• Today I had my finals in Reading and Conversation: I don't know when we'll know our grades, but I'll let you know as soon as I find out.  I'm not too worried: the work is hard but I know I've vastly improved and I feel good about all three exams.  Actually, I'm pretty sure I got an A in Reading (but I don't know if the grades she handed out were only for some parts of the exam or the entire thing: it had four separate components - an essay, vocabulary exercise, recitation of a poem, and an oral response.  That was by far my most intense exam) and Conversation was really easy.  But we'll see.  I'm sure I'll live up to my expectations, as usual.  

So, another week gone.  The time has really started to fly by here.  This month I really want to take more advantage of the rich culture that surrounds me on every side in this beautiful city, whether that be going to the Hermitage more often (I could spend 20 hours there and still not see everything) or the other museums, or just wandering around the many parks and neighborhoods.  I want to go to the Necropolis, where you can see the tombs of Doestoevsky and Tchaikovsky; Peter and Paul's Cathedral, whose spire is the tallest point in the city and in which are buried all save two of the Russian tsars; the Field of Mars with the Eternal Flame in the middle; Church of our Savior on Spilled Blood, possibly the most picturesque (and certainly most Russian) cathedral in the city; Tsirk na Fontankyeh, the city circus; the zoo; and the list goes on.  Now that my Russian is much better and I've discovered that I won't necessarily get lost every time I step onto the metro, maybe I'll be less inclined to hole myself up in my room each afternoon and play endless rounds of Solitaire on my iPod (I kid you not, that is what I spent the last week doing).  But, only time will tell!!

The One-Month Mark

Today marks the one-month anniversary of my arrival in Europe.  By 18 days, this is the longest period I have ever been outside of the United States (and by 2 weeks the longest time I have spent in a country other than the US).  I think it perhaps a cause for celebration:  I think I'll forget homework for tonight and go for a good long wander around the city.  I'll meet my friends for dinner and then enjoy a peaceful stroll back home under the hazy glory of the White Nights.  (Wow, that almost sounds cool enough for me to have actually planned these things to coincide.  I'm going to blow my own cover on this one; none of those things have anything to do with the fact that I've been here a month.  The eating out is postponed from last week and I walk because I'm too stingy/nervous to take the metro.  I don't have to worry about homework because I study so much on the weekends.  But you are free to think of me what you like :P ;])

Seen from one angle, my weekend was incredibly boring and kind of pathetic.  It's a good thing I'm used to seeing things from a different angle.

• On Friday night, I decided to finally wash the clothes that I had worn when traveling from America.  It sounds disgusting, but it's because both the skirt and shirt are covered in sequins and marked "Hand wash only."  I don't usually pay attention to those kinds of things, but I like the sequins.  Here's a good side note: when traveling, your choice of clothing should be governed by both the comfort level of the clothes and the convenience of washing them.  I failed on the second count.  However, I figured it wouldn't be too difficult to hand-wash them; after all, they weren't stained or anything, they just reeked of sweat.  So I put some tepid water in the sink and poured in some of the detergent powder that we use over here.  Only then did I notice that the tags of both articles said "Hand wash cold" but I figured that wouldn't be a big deal.  Once again, I failed.  Both the shirt and skirt were made in India - I guess in India they don't know the meaning of "colorfast dye."  The colors in both articles ran like nothing I've ever seen before.  And the skirt was a bright, turquoise blue.  I'm just glad that a) I hand-washed them; and b) I didn't have anything else in the sink with them.  It was actually quite humorous - the water in the sink was a brilliant turquoise color.  I should have taken a picture.  However, I'm happy to announce that neither the skirt nor the shirt appear at all permanently the worse for wear, and they are clean (and fresh-smelling) now.  So that was my adventure of Friday.
• All Friday night and continuing through Saturday we were bombarded with thunderstorms and intermittent rain.  As a result, Latalia and I stayed home on Saturday and spent the entire day studying.  Which seems more boring than it is; I actually don't mind having a lazy study-day every once in a while.  There wasn't really any pressure, since it was the weekend; I got a lot accomplished; but I also had a lot of time to read and procrastinate.  It almost felt like summer vacation.  The most entertaining thing that happened all day was the thunder: when it got really close and boomed overhead, the noise would set off the burglar alarms in our building and the one next door.  Occasionally I worried that we might lose power; then I remembered that we're in a big city and not in Maine, and big cities don't usually have those problems.  Although when Latalia and I were walking around on Sunday we saw some pretty good-sized trees that had been blown down by the wind and rain, so perhaps it wasn't an entirely superfluous fear.
• On Sunday we went to church, as usual.  It always makes me smile to hear the same old familiar worship songs sung in Russian (when they're translated from English, they never make as much sense or sound as good but at least it helps me to learn new words and I can sing more easily because I already know the tune).  This week we sang "Your Love is Amazing," "Amazing Love," "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever," and "Your Name is Holy."  I videotaped us singing some of the choruses so that I can show the people at Calvary Chapel when I get back to America.  I hope they enjoy it as much as I do.
• Both on our way to church and afterwards Latalia and I ran across some kind of road race which was being run in St. Petersburg.  After later researching it I discovered that this is the "White Nights Marathon."  I found the information for it on some obscure marathon-review site where people can write reviews for the marathons they've run.  Most runners complained about the scarcity of refreshment as well as how the citizens of the city don't seem to care that there are people running a marathon around them.  I would say from observing the event that their remarks are quite accurate - I hadn't seen any sort of advertising for the race (not that I would have understood it anyway) and saw almost no one along the course cheering the runners.  The police would stop traffic on whatever section of road the runners were going along until they had all passed, then life resumed as normal.  From what I observed, it didn't seem that the citizens of St. Petersburg were very aware of this marathon, either - many marshrutka drivers and people in cars were honking and seemed confused as to why the traffic wasn't moving.  Kudos to the people running the marathon, though - it was a gorgeous day for it but SO WINDY!!  We saw lots of old people walk-running and even some in athletic wheelchairs :]
• After church, Latalia and I decided to visit the Hermitage, since the weather had vastly improved and we on no account wanted to stay at home studying for another afternoon.  So, we grabbed a quick lunch at MacDonalds (I got a McChicken and a McFlurry - the McFlurries in America are much better even though the ice cream is tastier in Russia) and walked over to Palace Square.  We soon discovered that this is where the finish line for the White Nights Marathon is located; it was very crowded and confused.  At one point it was so windy that the finish line blew over - I hope no one got hurt :P  In any case, Latalia and I quickly figured out where the entrance to the museum was and commenced standing in line.  And did we ever stand in line!  It was a good 40 minutes between the time we entered the courtyard and when we finally got in to the museum.  Fortunately, students (of any nationality) have free admission, so we plan to go back several more times.  
• The Hermitage is known as the best collection of Western European art in the world, and I believe it.  There was SO MUCH ART there!!  I had only been in an art museum once before (and that was the Princeton Art Museum) so I was completely unprepared for the scope, elegance, and opulence found in the one-time Palace of the Czars.  Latalia and I looked at Ancient Egyptian artifacts (including a mummy!!!), Ancient Greek and Roman sculpture, and really explored the Italian Art wing (which is unbelievably extensive).  We also passed through the wings of Flemish Art, Netherlandish Art, Dutch Art, Spanish Art, Medieval Art and Artifacts, and European Arms and Armor!  Which was for me the coolest part that we saw yesterday.  It is incredible to think that one could wear a suit of armor such as I saw there and do anything, much less fight!!  They had equestrian armor, too - that was cool.  We saw a Pablo Picasso exhibition, too, but I was much less impressed.  I don't get modern art (I don't think anyone does, really, but I don't even appreciate it as art).  Besides, it didn't belong in the midst of such palpable history.  Sometimes even more amazing than the art itself were the rooms that it was housed in!  It can be seen in every room how the Hermitage used to be the Palace of the Czars - from the exotic wood floors to the extravagantly painted ceilings, many of them overlaid with gold.  There were even a couple of actual throne rooms!  I couldn't help remarking, a little sardonically, "I've never been in a throne room before."  We also walked through an exhibition of how Russian nobleman's houses were typically furnished in the 19th and 20th centuries - the extravagant writing-desks and tea-tables were very impressive.  There was even a fully furnished library with a balcony to get to the books on the top of the shelves (that was Latalia's favorite room, and one of mine).  My absolute favorite room, however, would probably have to be the corridor that we found on one edge of the building - the ceiling was painted apparently to imitate the Sistine Chapel, with dozens of biblical scenes in the Italian Renaissance tradition.  This is my favorite style of art and I had a great time craning my neck and spinning around trying to figure out which biblical story each panel represented (I was able to recognize most of them without much difficulty).  Only I wasn't able to stay in that room for too long, because I quickly got dizzy. ;]  The most surprising thing I saw at the Hermitage was probably the exhibition of Korean art on loan from some Korean national museum.  I definitely didn't expect to see Oriental art prominently displayed in a museum in St. Petersburg, but I also noticed that guided tours were available in Russian, English, German, French, and Korean, so there must be some backstory about the relationship between Russia and Korea.  I mean, why Korean and not Chinese?  In America, Chinese would be much more likely to be seen as an alternate language than even Japanese and especially Korean.  There must be some reason in Russia's history for it.  
• As could be expected in such a museum, photography was not allowed; but there was an interesting exception.  A ticket can be purchased for 200 rubles (about $6) that gives you the right to take "non-professional photography and video."  Since I can gain entrance to the museum for free, I figure that it wouldn't be a bad idea to purchase one of these tickets on one of my visits, so that I can photograph without being subtle about it (or in the very least without my conscience bothering me later ;]) and share some of the splendor that left me open-mouthed for the entire 90 minutes that we wandered the museum.  In any case, I will have to return - there are entire wings of the museum that we left unexplored, and we didn't even go up to the third floor or to Peter the Great's Theater which adjoins the Hermitage. 
• Finally, at 5pm Latalia and I returned home, footsore and with our minds filled with all that we had seen.  We had quite a bit of difficulty getting into the apartment - the humidity in the city is rising and it has caused our wooden door to swell in its frame; I feel like I'm going to break something every time I force it open :\  Tatyana finally returned from the dacha, where she had remained all weekend (for which we were very glad.  She left us some sort of Russian microwaveable TV dinners for supper on Saturday night, but they consisted of rubbery cutlets and over-frozen mashed potatoes and were overall not very appetizing.) and cooked us supper - pelmeni again (the meat-filled bite-sized perogies we've had several times now).  I really enjoy her cooking, but I wish she'd feed us something besides cutlets and macaroni... I do understand though.  Latalia has yet to explain to her exactly why she's so picky (she has a sensitive stomach and new foods can throw her off really easily) so T.T. only dares to cook what she knows Latalia likes.  She tried soup and I told her that I don't really like that; Latalia isn't very fond of rice (she's not accustomed to it) and neither of us like tomatoes.  She's figured out that I like cucumbers, so I get them just about every night with dinner, but that's the extent of our vegetables, and we never have any sort of fruit.  She thinks it's strange when we ask for juice in the morning or any sort of drink with dinner, and we're both too timid to insist (and I feel that I don't know enough Russian to do it politely, and I by no means wish to risk offending her again).  Hopefully none of this will lead to a serious deficiency in any vitamins or minerals.  I've asked, and Anna said that fruit bought from fruit stands should be okay as long as I wash it; there's one nearby the institute so I think I may start purchasing apples so that I'm not completely devoid of those food groups in my diet.  :P
• Mom called again!!!!  It was so good to hear from her (this is only the second time we've spoken since I left, not including the brief Skype conversation we had in Belgrade) and it really helped to cheer me up.  The only part of my studies that is really getting to me is the vocabulary - there's so much of it that I feel that I can't possibly keep up (and I'm never sure how much I really have to know).  Mom said - and she's right - that the best way to learn the vocab is to use it in conversation, but that's a bit difficult when the only Russian I have to talk to is Tatyana.  But I refuse to despair - the program isn't even half-over, and already I can carry on conversations in Russian with some ease (and a lot of painful pauses and "umm..." and blurted English words and pantomime, but at least it's something :]).  It's a good thing that she was able to get through this time - she actually called me on Friday evening, but I wasn't near my phone so I didn't hear it ring.  She tried again on Sunday but caught me literally as I was finally walking into the Hermitage building (after my 40-minute wait during which I would have been more than happy to talk to her in order to pass the time, but such is life ;]) so it was good that we finally found a time when we were both free. 

And so passed another weekend.  The Hermitage marked the first thing that Latalia and I have really done on our own impetus, and it was so fun that I can't believe that I haven't been doing more up to this point.  I fully intend to change that - get ready legs, you're going to have to do some walking!!  For, after all, what good is a Wide-Eyed Wanderer if she just stays cooped up in a cold bedroom studying all day long??

"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!!

Small Improvements

This weekend we had our first excursion with our Russian Friends.  We went to Peterhoff, which is the outpost that Peter the 1st built on the gulf of Finland so that he could survey both his beloved St. Petersburg and his island fortress of Krondstat.  We were supposed to meet at 10:40 behind the Winter Palace, and the boats (called meteors) that would take us across the gulf to the estate would leave from here.  Latalia and I arrived on time only to find that the Gulf of Finland had been closed (how do you close the Gulf of Finland?) so we would have to wait until it was reopened before our boats could leave.  (I think the closing of the Gulf had something to do with the International Economic Forum that was taking place in St. Petersburg the same day.)  Latalia and I managed to get tickets, but the pier was very hectic and crowded with people who wanted to go to Peterhoff and so our group got separated.  At one point, a very large and intimidating man closed off the entrance to the ticket booths and boats and wouldn't let anyone by until the Gulf was opened again.  The only problem was that half of our group was still on shore, while I was with my Russian friend and a few other girls on the pier.  Thus ensued a long and frustrating wait in which we basically stood around not knowing what to do.  Eventually the Gulf was reopened and we were able to get a place on a boat after the remaining members of our group bought their tickets, but by this time it was already almost noontime.  But the boat ride was picturesque and comfortable and it was very interesting to see St. Petersburg from the water (perhaps as it was meant to be seen).  The journey took only about 30 minutes during which, as is my custom, I kept my nose pressed firmly to the window in order not to miss anything interesting that we might happen to pass.  I can tell you, however, that the Gulf of Finland is not very exciting. 
When we finally reached our destination we once again ran into troubles buying our tickets for entrance into the park.  Most of us had our Russian friends buy our tickets for us since it is highly unlikely that we could convincingly pass as Russians and therefore get the Russian student discount (we have the proper document, called a студентский билет or "student ticket" but it would only take an exchange of a few sentences before the cashier figured out that we were foreigners).  But since it was an absolutely beautiful day weatherwise, Peterhoff was very crowded and the ticket lines were more than a little chaotic.  A woman directly in front of us was having some sort of issue buying her tickets and was becoming very angry (from what we could gather, she wanted to buy a certain number of tickets at a discounted group rate for her tour group, and the cashier was telling her that they only sold group tickets in certain quantities, which she refused to believe).  But, eventually we gained access into the park. 
By this time it was past 1:00, so the first thing we did is find a place to eat.  I had ham pizza.  It sounds a lot more boring and America than it was - it was a very Italian pizza with olives and onions and peppers on it as well as ham.  It was quite good (though not very Russian).  What was Russian was the choice of drinks - you could have Coke, water, beer, wine, coffee with or without alcohol, or tea.  And this was a fairly casual restaurant.  Latalia got a hot dog but couldn't finish it, so I ended up eating that too.  For dessert I bought some ice cream (since everyone had been telling me how much better it was in Russia).  It was of a very different consistency (it was soft serve), much more granular than in America, and it tasted more like icing than ice cream.  I'm not sure that I like it better than American ice cream.  Maybe I need to try different kinds :]
After lunch we spent the afternoon wandering the gardens.  Peterhoff is famous for its fountains - we only saw about a dozen of them, but there are more than 400 in the complex.  Many of them were gilded and generally very opulent - there is really nothing like it in America.  The garden itself is very beautiful and green and altogether pleasant to walk around.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon (pictures do the experience much more justice than mere descriptions).  We took a marshrutka back into the city in the interest of saving money (the boat cost 450 rubles whereas the marshrutka ride was only 50), although since we were doing this as part of the Russian Friend program our expenses were taken out of the budget given to each of us for that program (which amounts to 4000 rubles, or $125 for each of us for the entire summer - the only stipulation is that if we don't use the money, we have to return it :P). 
The program, as an idea, is excellent - but it doesn't often work out as well as it should.  My Russian friend (and from talking to the other members of my group, I know I'm not alone in this) isn't very friendly towards me - in fact, we have hardly spoken at all.  The only progress we've made is that now she speaks to me in Russian instead of English (but now if I don't understand what she says she merely repeats it more slowly or gives up instead of trying to explain, so I'm not really sure if it's a gain at all).  On the boat ride to Peterhoff she listened to her iPod instead of talking with me, and she preferred to hang out with her Russian pals and smoke instead of engaging me in conversation in the park.  It's a little frustrating, but at least I have Tatyana to talk to (our after-dinner conversations are a regular tradition now and seem to stretch longer and longer each night). 
The marshrutka we took back (or should I say, I took back - my Russian friend bought herself a round-trip ticket on the boat) was exceptionally crowded, particularly after our group of 7 or 8 students got on.  There weren't any seats left, so we just stood and hung on the best we could as the vehicle bumped and swerved down the road.  It was certainly an adventure.  The marshrutka dropped us off at a metro station near the outer limit of the city and I took the subway into the city center, where I met Latalia. 
We then went to the biggest bookstore in St. Petersburg, Dom Knigi, both to look around and to see if I could find a Rusian-English Bible.  I was able to make my request understood (in a full sentence, which is a first for me) but I was told that they didn't have any.  I figured if I didn't find one at the biggest bookstore in St. Pete, then I probably wouldn't find one in the city, so I settled for a small Russian Bible instead.  (I now own several English Bibles in different translations, a French New Testament, a Spanish Bible, and a Russian Bible.  Not exactly the most traditional souvenir, but certainly interesting...) The Bible I bought only cost 195 rubles, which is about $6 - not a bad deal.  I'm pretty sure it's a Protestant Bible, although the names of the books all translate to "The Book of the Prophet Isaiah" or "The Gospel of Mark" and the names are strangely transliterated into Cyrillic, so I'm not always sure which book I'm in.  Also, some of the chapters are numbered strangely - one of the psalms around Ps. 9 is missing, so the psalm marked 23 is actually the 24th psalm... but there are still 150 chapters in Psalms, so I'm not entirely sure what's going on there.  I can't read well enough yet to figure it out ;]  Latalia bought a copy as well and wants to go back later to see if they have more so that she can bring them home as souvenirs to her pastor and such. 
After this little excursion, we ended up getting home around 7:00.  Jenya had called me while I was in Peterhoff to ask when I thought I would be getting home, since T.T. was once again at the dacha for the weekend.  However, she came back that evening to cook us dinner, so the dacha must not be too far away.  (Also, Latalia and I don't think either she or Vacily have a car, although we can't confirm that - in which case she would have to take the metro or a bus to the dacha.  We're hoping we'll figure all of these things out by the end of our 8 weeks here.)  Also, since Jenya called me but T.T. came home, I think she asks Jenya to be the one to contact us since she knows English enough to communicate if she has to - although that time I am very proud to say that I carried on the entire conversation in Russian.  I think I am making progress.  ;]  Supper was kotleti and pure, and I don't think it would be wrong to assume that this was because I had pointedly remarked the night before how much I love both of these foods :]  I was getting pretty tired of macaroni... but T.T. is pretty careful what she feeds us, especially after the kasha fiasco.  I still wouldn't mind trying different Russian foods, even if they don't agree with me - it's part of the experience.  Oh well, I guess you can't have it all.
Saturday was also (yet another) holiday in St. Petersburg - the Festival of the Scarlet Sails.  It also happened to be the graduation day for all of the high schoolers throughout the city, and these two events combined to make it quite a rowdy night.  Nonetheless, Latalia and I met with two of our other friends who live on our island in order to watch the purported fireworks from the river (and because I still hadn't fully experienced the White Nights and I wanted to at some point before it actually started getting dark again).  Unfortunately, and perhaps as we should have expected from Russia, we waited for a full hour and didn't see anything (we later found out that the concert was at 11 and the fireworks didn't begin until almost 2am, by which time it was actually dark by an absolute standard) and one of the other girls was getting very nervous about all of the young drunk people around, so we called it a night at around 12:15.  (Strangely enough, the high concentration of alcohol surrounding us didn't seem to bother me - I think I have a very skewed sense of danger :P)  Not to mention, it was beginning to rain, which discomfort more than outweighed my desire to see the fireworks.  However, the night was not completely in vain - at least I got to experience the White Nights.  I can now sleep in peace (and I actually can - I've finally adjusted to sleeping in the perpetual dusk in my room). 

On Sunday Latalia and I went to church, as usual (Phil and Mykola opted out, since they had stayed out to the bitter end of the festivities the night before and didn't feel like waking up at 10am).  Service seemed particularly long this week, and by the time we got out at 1:30 both of us were very hungry.  T.T. had gone back to the dacha the night before, so we were on our own for lunch and decided to go to a McDonalds, of all places (because it was just down the street from the church and we were both very curious about a Russian McDonalds).  It was strange to see "Big Mac" or "Chicken McNuggets" transliterated into Cyrillic XD  We both ordered the Chicken McNuggets (although Latalia got a Happy Meal), which as far as I remember taste about the same as they do in the States.  I got another ice cream (I love McDonald's ice cream cones) which only cost 15 rubles ($.50) and it also tasted just about the same, although perhaps a bit creamier in consistency.  By the time we left McDonalds it was raining pretty heavily outside, so we opted to take the metro back home instead of walking.  That turned out to be a 30-minute journey, whereas we could have walked the distance in 15 minutes, but at least we stayed dry (and we are both feeling much more comfortable with the metro now - a far cry from that first Friday where Latalia walked from the city center in a downpour because she was afraid of the metro :]).  Both of us passed the afternoon in studying. 
At 5:30 we went back into the city center to meet some of the other members of our group, and we went to a restaurant where they sell German perogies.  Not exactly Russian, but really tasty :]  These consist of flaky pastry which is filled with all sorts of fillings, from savory to sweet.  I personally had one with scallions and egg, one with strawberries, and one with tvorets, which is a kind of very sweet cream or cottage cheese particular to Russia.  It's consistency and flavor are remeniscient of cheesecake, and it is quite delicious.  Then we returned home, where T.T. was cooking dinner for us, and we decided not to tell her that we had just come from eating (the perogies hadn't been all that filling, and by this time it was nearly 7:00, so we were reasonably hungry again).  This time supper was a bit more varied: chicken cutlets, mashed potatoes and rice that had various vegetables mixed in.  I hope that our dinners continue to get more interesting like this, and tried to encourage this by enthusiastically affirming how good the (new) rice dish was. 

The most exciting thing that came out of our dinner conversation this night was when I tried to explain to T.T. why I often mixed up dates on her calendar.  All calendars in Europe are set up so that Monday is the first day of the week, whereas (as you know) calendars in America show Sunday as the first day.  When I tried to explain that to T.T. she was amazed.  She wanted to know how it was done in England (I didn't know at the time, but now I've looked it up and all of Europe definitely recognizes Monday as the first day of the week).  Apparently the US is just weird like that - but we still call Saturday and Sunday the "week-end" so I suppose our weeks start on Monday too.  I do have to often do a double-take when looking at T.T.'s calendar, though, just because I'm used to Sunday being the first day.  Oh, the little things :]

"I shouldn't use that word on the street, should I?"

Some more highlights and entertaining anecdotes from last week (I forgot my notebook on Friday where I keep notes on all of the really good stuff that happens to me, so I missed a few things). 

• Monday was a holiday in St. Petersburg, but we still had classes as normal.  However, the cafeteria was closed because the cooks had the day off, so we went to a nearby restaurant (Чайная ложка or "The Teaspoon") for lunch.  This restaurant is basically identical to Teremok, specializing in блины of all different flavors.  I ordered a chicken, cheese and bacon bleen which was quite delicious and cost only $3.  I love the cheap food here.
• Latalia finally recieved her own set of keys last week, so we have begun to travel between our apartment and the Institute separately.  This is good - it means I can stay after and blog if I want without feeling guilty that I'm making Latalia stay when she has nothing to do. 
• I really started buying things beside lunch for myself last week, and perhaps it's about time.  On Monday I went to the аптека (pharmacy) next door to our apartment and bought powdered laundry detergent so that I could wash my clothes.  Russians almost always wear clothes more than once before washing them, and it is completely normal to wear the same outfit for several days in a row here.  Thus, my laundry schedule is primarily governed by my supply of underwear and socks.  Honestly, had I known that the culture concerning clothing was so much more lax here than in America, I might have brought only half of the clothes that I did - I still have outfits that I haven't worn, and I've been here more than 2 weeks.  I'm personally enjoying not having to feel like I need to wash my clothes as often (and they really don't get dirty very quickly, since all I'm doing is walking around town and sitting in a classroom - no overly strenuous activity) and I fully intend to continue the practice upon my return.  I don't care if people think I'm poor or whatever.  If it isn't dirty, why wash it? :]  I also bought some mouthwash on Tuesday because I still use the tap water to brush my teeth, although I won't drink it.  It occurred to me after a while that any germs that were in the water would be just as easily caught by my rinsing my mouth with the water as by my drinking it (although I've heard that there are heavy metals here in the water, which in order to imbibe I would actually have to drink significant quantities of the water, so I'm okay on that front).  However, at least by my calculations, if I always rinse my mouth with an alcohol-based mouthwash after brushing my teeth, it should nullify the effect of my possibly using dirty water (and it's a lot more convenient and efficient than using filtered water to brush my teeth).  I hope I'm right.  Also on Tuesday, I went to our local grocery store (Пятёрочка) and invested in some snack foods, in case the supper situation doesn't improve.  I found out by doing this that snacking is a distinctly American idea.  I couldn't find any chips or crackers (although I've since been told that I must have been looking in the wrong place) but I bought some bread rings (very similar to unsalted pretzels) and some sweetbread- or cookie-like things that you might eat with tea (of course, anything eaten with tea is quite plentiful in Russia).  Having something to snack on helps me concentrate in the afternoon as well as not be so hungry by suppertime, so I don't bolt my food.  And it's quite economical - I spent around $3 for snacks that will probably last me 2 weeks.  Have I mentioned that I love the cheap food in Russia? :]]
• Tuesday was also the first day that I spent some time out of the apartment after school.  I had gotten a bit ahead on studying because of the weekend, so I got the chance to wander a bit and explore our neighborhood.  So I walked around the park that is located at the end of our street (which also happens to contain the zoo, although I didn't go to the zoo this time).  There were PONY RIDES!  They were actual ponies, otherwise I might have tried to get one.  But it might look a bit funny if my feet touched the ground on either side... :]]  The park is very pretty and filled with walking paths, playgrounds and statues.  It bears more exploring later. 
• I also started doing more pleasure reading last week.  I had brought a few books from home, thinking that I really couldn't study ALL of the time and I would probably get quite tired of Russian at times.  I finished both Mere Christianity and More Than A Carpenter last week (both excellent books, which I highly recommend and am slightly ashamed to admit that I had not previously read them).  I also started The Bridge on the Drina, the book written by the only Serb to ever win a Nobel Prize.  As I told you, Mrs. Stojanovic gave it to me as a parting gift from Serbia and told me to let her know if I read it anytime in the next 10 years.  Well, I'm reading it now and it's actually an excellent piece of literature.  It's historical fiction and contains quite enough action to keep the reader engaged (granted, the history of the Balkan States is anything but boring).  I'm enjoying having time for pleasure reading again, a pastime that is quite foreign to students at Princeton.
• On Wednesday, as Latalia and I were returning home (from our троллeйбус adventure), she was recounting to me how a police car had slowed down and was looking like it would stop in front of her the morning before as she was trying to cross the street in front of our apartment.  She told me that she feared that since she was standing on the curb and not in the street, the policemen might have thought she looked like a prostitute (which I think is highly unlikely.  Latalia is a very meek, modest, petite girl and looks the farthest thing from a prostitute).  Then she caught herself and exclaimed, mortified, "Oh, I shouldn't use that word on the street, should I?  It's the same in Russian!"  There weren't many people around, and we were speaking quietly (as we always do when we are speaking in English in public) so I didn't think it was a big deal.  However, soon after that we overtook a well-dressed, middle-aged man who was walking in the same direction as us; as we drew abreast of him, he turned to us and said in clear, distinct English and with a smile on his face, "How do you do?"  Latalia jumped three feet in the air and scurried forward to the door of our apartment (which we had almost reached).  Laughing silently, I hurried after her and once we were safely on the other side of the imposing wooden door, explained to her between giggles that the most likely explanation for the man's strange behavior was that he was a Russian who had heard us speaking English and wanted to try out his knowledge of the language, much as I might say "Bonjour" to a person I heard speaking French.  But the unexpectedness of the encounter and the conversation leading up to it had caused Latalia to assume the worst, and her naturally timid nature had gotten the best of her.  Her actions, therefore, had not been entirely without cause, and I hope that the public recounting of this anecdote will not too badly embarrass her.  Perhaps I could stand to develop a bit more of her caution ;]
• Though I don't recall why this came up in class, we were discussing on Thursday the different sounds that animals make in Russian.  Some of them are quite comical.  For instance, a Russian dog says "gaf gaf gaf" and a Russian frog says "kva kva kva."  Although, I suppose some of our onomotopoeia is just as arbitrary - why should a frog say "ribbit" instead of "kva" ?  It still made us laugh, though.
• On Friday evening Latalia and I enjoyed a particularly long conversation with Tatyana; however, because of our limited Russian vocabulary, several (comical and hopefully not serious) misunderstandings occurred.  By the end of the conversation, I'm pretty sure that T.T. thought that one of the members of our group is pregnant (we had showed her a picture of the group taken on a windy day and this particular girl's dress was ballooned in an unflattering manner in the picture), that one of my friends is suicidal (I was trying to describe that he was in a bad mood and was just feeling very tired of everything), and that Latalia and I have a huge crush on our professor, Stas (he is a wonderful teacher and a very kind man, so everyone in the group adores him - just not in THAT way :P).  Oh, the things that come with learning a language.  I still often get frustrated when I can't communicate the way that I want to, although T.T. tells me I'm progressing (just not as quickly as I would like).
• The other exciting thing that happened on Friday (and possibly the highlight of my week) was the World Cup Germany vs. Serbia game.  Yes, Jennifer, I'm going to brag on here too.  So, the backstory is that I personally care very little for soccer, or sports in general.  But several months ago my half-German friend Jennifer found out that Serbia and Germany were in the same group, which means that they would play each other in the first round of the world cup.  She also found out the date of the game and as it drew nearer, began leaving taunting messages on my Facebook wall.  I'm not entirely sure (that's a lie, I know) how she associated me with Serbia, but she turned the game into a competition between us.  I acquieced - I love a good bit of competition between friends (especially Jennifer - she's particularly fun to compete with).  So it was a bit of sweet victory when Serbia defeated Germany 1-0 and I was able to watch the entire game (although, since it was commentated in Russian, I understood very little of it).  The only sad part was that I didn't have computer access all weekend, so my gloating had to wait until today.  And how sweet it was... :D XD :]]

So, that's a little more positive version of last week.  Hope you enjoyed it.  Coming soon: this weekend, including a trip to Peterhoff, Czar Peter 1's extravagant complex of gardens, palaces, and 400 fountains!!