Getting to Know you, getting to feel free and easy

St. Petersburg is not like the US. Although we have historical cities, like Washington DC and parts of New York, we do not have HISTORY. St. Petersburg has stories of kings and queens, war and peace, communistic rule and democratic (?) rule. In the heart of St. Pete it feels like you are frozen in time (ironically due to the Soviet Union ignoring the city for many years). I cannot begin to explain the beauty. Sergei, my amazing tour guide, walked me and another girl in the SRAS program, Jessica, through most of St. Pete today. Sergei is a teacher (I believe) from Russia that speaks perfect English. He also is amazingly knowledgeable about the city. Unfortunately, it was raining all day and was very gloomy out.
During our amazing tour we didn't go inside many building. As soon as me and Jessica get our student cards we can go to most places for free or for very little. Because of this Sergei just told us to wait a little before visiting the tourist attractions. We did, however, walk into one church. So I go inside this church and am completely awestruck. The building was just magnificent. There was marble everywhere, high ceilings, a balcony where the chorus sings, and painting galore. According to Sergei, the church is best known for have a famous prince/general buried there, or something like that. So while my mouth is agape and I can't even think straight I look to my left and there is a wedding going on. We walked into a wedding, what better way for me to start off my Russian experience with my favorite thing in the world. So we go outside after listening to the chorus and stumble upon two more couples that just got married. Am I lucky or what? The cutest thing of this whole experience was when Jessica, and Sergei, and I were looking at the Church of Spilt Blood. As we were just staring at its magnificence I see these people dressed up in the corner of my eye and just have to look at what is going on. One of the weddings we stumbled upon was getting their picture taking. It is Russian tradition to have a newly married couple go all over town and take pictures in front of famous monuments. I was just so happy to witness these strangers wedding and after-wedding bliss.
Of course I eventually have to have my first human interaction in Russia. What better way to do that then at a drugstore. So Jessica decides she needs Vitamin C. So anyways we get the pills rather fast. It isn't really hard to find an orange box that say "vitamin C" in cyrillic letters. The funny part happens at the counter. Russians (a note to anyone potentially going to Russia) hate to break bills. They LOVE exact change. Jessica only has big bills because she went to the ATM and ironically they only give you big bills. Where you break these bills I don't know. SO anyways this lady is yelling at us. We barely know what is going on and refuses to take the money or give us the pills. So this worker near by points to some candy and Jessica picks one out at random. Finally we get the Vitamin C! yey! The candy tasted like a pez, a large circular pez. Not a bad choice for not knowing what was going on I must admit.
Random fact of the day: The Church of Spilt blood, in all its glory, is a copy. Not because there is an identical one somewhere else in the world, but because it was made to impersonate St. Basils in Moscow. St. Basils was built in the 17th century, and because St. Petersburg loved it so much, they replicated the style it in the 19th century.