the days before Moscow

Ok so last week (Monday) I had my first Marketing class. It is of course more complicated then that. It is The Cross-Cultural Differences of Global Marketing (or something close like that) with a focus in SPSS. It is just as bad as it sounds. Like my first class (IBS), this class is ALSO 6 hours long once a week. But unlike IBS, the first class was straight lectures for all of those 6 hours. talk about brain overload. The class is pretty much based around SPSS (an excel like program that analyzes survey data)and a survey. So what is our survey on you ask? well naturally it is on the marketing of senior citizens. No, it gets better. The teacher wants the foreigners to get samples from their home country. The sample size has to 50+ years old. O the many problems I have with this. Besides that very little problem the class went Ok. There are only like 5 foreigners and it is very interesting to see how no one wants to change. Like the foreigners all eat together and the Russians all eat together, there is no immersion and rarely any conversing between the two groups. I like IBS better for that reason. He forced us to communicate with each other and we actually became friends. But this teacher is ostracizing us by putting us in our own group. regardless, I like the foreigners, who are just as foreign as the Russians to me. And most I already knew from IBS. Lets see there is someone from Switzerland, Holland, Finland, Netherlands, and Germany. Very nice group of people.

Wednesday was the no school no work holiday. They call it National Unity Day and it has no purpose. It was formed a couple of years ago to probably diversify the people but no Russian knows who they are suppose to unite with and how they are suppose to do it. So in the end nothing is different besides having no school or work. I, thinking that the Russians are very festive people, decided on this day to go to Nevsky Prospect, or the main square of St. Pete. In my head I am thinking there will be a festival with music and happy shiny people. Nope, nothing has changed. Most businesses are open because businesses like money. Also, there is not a single congregation around town. There aren't more people drinking in the cafes, or walking down the main street. So Obviously I am beyond upset and just decide to walk around. First I go to Dom Kinigi (a big bookstore) and I buy a small Russian book. Then I figure out I have nothing to do. So I decide to walk. Where I was planning to go, I have no clue, but I did get lost. And this time I got lost for like a couple of hours. I didn't look at my map really. I had nowhere to be so why not walk for a long amount of time with not destination in mind. I finally start getting cold so I take out my map, realizing I am really really really lost, and start walking towards a metro. I apparently was going in the right way. I somehow always wind up getting lost in the right direction. It really is a wonderful ability.

So it is Wednesday and I finally get my itinerary for Moscow but I forget all the important information. So I tell Igor, because Luda is relaxing in their bedroom already, that I am going to Moscow Friday Saturday and Sunday. Of course I don't realize I must leave the apt. Thursday night (11pm) and I won't be back until Monday morning (7:20 am). That really doesn't help the situation. So on Thursday I get some of the information but misread the rest of the information. I know i must leave the apt. at 11pm and I tell them this. But I thought I was getting back to St. Pete at 1am. This complicates everything because the metros close and they both didn't understand how it was possible for me to arrive that late. (ironically the trains to come at 3am and people are stuck in the train station for like 3 hours until the metro opens again). So we all get frustrated with each other not understanding what really was going on with me and they resolve to thinking I will be arriving Sunday night. I decide just to let them think that. Times like this I feel like I haven't progressed at all. Of course I am also being interrogated. Scaring and Rushing me does is a good thing. I get flustered and don't think straight. Regardless, they knew that I was leaving and got me chocolate. How sweet, I kinda love them.