The post I started 2 weeks ago...

Is there a word that translate to organization in Russian? probably not, because it doesn't exist. And by saying it doesn't exist, I mean it really really really doesn't exist. On Tuesday (Oct. 29thish) I had class. I didn't know where it was because of two reason. 1) I had my final the day before and wasn't in class(I will get to that soon) 2) Classes for the past week have been all over the place. Apparently St. Pete University in general was having exams. Because of this our classes were moved to accommodate the test takers. Our class of course had to be moved to a whole new building that is about a 15/20 minute walk away. Friday of last week I was told that classes would resume to normal on Tuesday so I was banking in on that statement. Well no such luck

This is the story:

So I go to the normal building early and to see no one in my class. I wait a little and then, being me, I get scared that no one has showed up so I walk outside thinking that maybe my classmates were just walking to the building. No such luck, and then i remembered 307. This is what we call the room of amazingness. They know what is going on (which is rare in this country called Russia) and can tell you what to do and how to do it (I lived in this room when preparing my Multi-entry visa). So I go to the room and there was this lone lady. I ask her where my class is and she calls a number and told me it is 221. I walk down a flight of stairs, go to the door, and it is locked. By this time class has started so it shouldn't have be locked. I go back upstairs and tell her no such luck. She then tell me to check my schedule. Of course I have already been there and it isn't open, and I tell her that. At this point she was just as lost as me. So I sit for a little in the office while she calls a couple other numbers. So then she tells me my room was now in 212. I say thanks and go down the same flight of stairs, arrive at the room and like it has been all day-it is locked. Out of nowhere this old lady comes and opens up the door, turns on the lights, and tells me to sit. Being stupid, and stunned, I didn't ask her where my class actually is. She disappears. So I wait alone in this one room for like 5 minutes and decide to just check my normal room again. You know things can change quite quickly here. So I leave the room walk to the other room and the lights just so happen to be on. no such luck, there was a different class in there taking a test. I then read a note on the door that said to go to room 415. The note is for a different class but I think maybe it applies to me too. I walk up to 415 and there is also another class in there too. I then go back to the lonely room I was siting in (mind you this was 3 minutes later) and there was my class. It was like magic.

Apparently what happened was the day before (Monday) the class was told that classes will stay in the other (non-normal) building. So the whole class (minus me) met there to be told nope you are in the other building. So the whole time I was waiting for them they were walking to me. So this is what we call Russian organization. No one knows anything and somehow everything works out just later than it was planned to.

Ok so now lets talk about last week. Wednesday I had my presentation (wow does that feel like it was ages ago) in my business class. It went well. We met up an hour before class to run through everything etc. but one person didn't show up. He also didn't read anything over the weekend (when I sent out the powerpoint and told everyone what needed to be said and when) because his parents were in town. Because of this we were a little (but not dramatically) disorganized. Also, we were right after the longest presentation that ever existed. It was 50 minutes...no joke. So anyways I don't think the teacher was happy with life when we were presented, so he gave us lower marks than we deserved. regardless, It went well. I was really proud of everything and my group members thanked me for all my work. That in itself is just more wonderful than a good grade.

Thursday and Friday was Katya-less day again. We had the same teacher as the week before. Still don't like her. I also wasn't prepared for class because I was doing the damn powerpoint for like 3 days straight and all the jazz. So i go to class which apparently started earlier than normal. Apparently, according to some source of mine, the school decided (out of nowhere) to turn the 2 block system into a 3 blocks system. . Because there are now 3 blocks, classes in the 3rd block need to get out earlier than like 6pm or something like that so they made the 1st and 2nd block earlier. Now my classes start at 9am and 12:20pm. I am not OK with this change. 9am means I have to wake up at 6:45 leave the apt. by 8:10 to get to class 10 minutes early (i like to be punctual). stupid, stupid school. So anyways as soon as I enter class the teacher looks at me and start making me talk. I can't even comprehend my life let alone speak in another language right when I walk through the door. So for the rest of the class she just yelling at me, making me feel incompetent. Not cool. So of course Friday I prepare for class get there early and she was late. I KNOW FREAKING TEACHER. class went well and I feel less incompetent now.

This weekend was boring. I didn't do much. I went to see Jessica's first hockey game. She had to be Vika, a 12 year old Russian goalie because she was playing for the younger girls division. Mind you, she is 24 years old and not Vika and doesn't look at all like a Russian. So every time the ref looked at her she held her head down and pretended not to exist. It was entertaining to watch.

So anyways they lost. They were playing against some really good boys team. It was so cute to watch though. Everyone was falling over everyone else's sticks and there was a cute 5 year old girl playing in the division. Apparently, before I got there, she scored the only shot on the girl's end. It was a penalty shot. How cute is that, the whole stadium of course went wild (so I heard).

It really wasn't Jessica's fault that they lost. She is a really good goalie but the goalie's job is to keep the puck out of the net on the first attempt, all other attempts must be intercepted by the players (Kudos for me for understanding something about hockey). Her teammates couldn't stop the other attempts and Jessica was already somewhere else from the first interception so the puck went in. I think the game ended 8-1 or maybe 7-1. At least they are playing and having fun doing so!

After that we walk along Cenaya ploshads. Apparently it is one of the oldest streets in St. Pete. It was pretty then we decided to be boring and hop on the metro and see all of the red line's stops. it is the the first metro line in St. Pete and all of there stops are open. Usually there is a second door that has to open up for you to get onto and leave the train. Because of that, you cannot see the exterior. Jessica heard that there is this one beautiful stop and that she hasn't seen it yet. Of course it is like the longest ride ever, I think it took 20 minutes and like 5 stops to get there, but it was worth it. It has freaking Chandeliers, in the metro! who does that? Also the pillars were like this gorgeous bronze color with glass pieces on it. God I can't even describe it but it almost beats the ceilings in the Hermitage. it as that breathtaking. Random, but beautiful!

Nothing too interesting the rest of the week until Wednesday. I had no business class, obviously, because I took the exam and I wasn't (for one day) go to the Russian literature class at St. Pete U. So instead, I decided to wake up late(r) and go on a museum hunt. Rule of thumb, don't ever plan anything in Russia. So anyways I wanted to go to the Museum of Applied Art (my host mother raved about it the night before). So I go there to see a small little sign that said it was closed. I personally don't know if that means indefinitely or not, but regardless, I had no plans but that for the day. It was also raining, like St. Petersburg always does, so I decided not to walk too far (I forgot my umbrella in my room). So I went to the closest museum which so happened to be on of the Russian Museum's subset buildings. The Russian Museum has like 6 buildings, all of which are usually referred to as the Russian Museum. Very confusing. I went first to Mikali's castle, I think it is also referred to as the Engineer's palace. Anyways it is gorgeous inside and out. I first entered the building to find the best exhibit I have seen thus far. Of course it wasn't an exhibit of a Russian artist but instead a Canadian artist by the name of Robert Bateman. He is the best wildlife painter that every existed. all the paintings were breathtaking. So anyways I go upstairs to the other more permanent exhibits. The cool thing about the Russian museum, is that all paintings are either of Russia, by Russian painters, or by people that spent time working in Russia. It is very authentic and nice but nothing really stood out for me. So after an hour in the Engineer's palace I went to the marble palace. It is really weird to call something the marble palace because everything is marble in Russia. So anyways ironically, thinking it will be all sophisticated, everything was modern. There was a main exhibition by a Russian who just died (who I also think was Jewish because a lot of his paintings had Hebrew on them). His name was Ebgeni Abeshaus (or something like that). He is one of those you either hate or like painters. Some of his painting were breath taking and others were just black canvases with glued on rubles and happy shiny paint. You know that paint you get at the dollar store that is all glittery. Yeah it weird to say the least. The other exhibits had to do with the modernization of 20th century painters. Of course that means there just had to be a jacket entitled the Costume of a Golden Ass. Don't even ask what was in it. My favorite had to be Olympia by Надежда Зубарева. I don't know how she does it but she takes like aluminum coils and turns it into a human body. Google her, she is amazing.

Well then nothing again interesting happened until Halloween. I didn't do anything too exciting but I still had fun. I went to James' apartment (which is right by the Morinski Theater). There we (Me, James, and the Taiwanese) carved a pumpkin, watched Legends of Sleepy Hallow and roasted pumpkin seeds. Seriously, that was the most Halloween festive I have ever been my whole life. It was very fun, and pumpkin seeds are very delicious straight out of the oven. After that James wanted to take us to this cafe where a DJ was going to play Halloween music. Of course the cafe was completely crowded and filled with smoke so we left quite quickly and wound up at another cafe. There we just drank tea and talked.

So anyways we just so happened to get seats right by these 5 police officers. Nothing dramatic happened, but it was quite obvious there disgust towards the Taiwanese. I really don't know how to explain it, but every couple of minutes they would just give us the evil eye. It also didn't help that we were loud and random diner games (or whatever you want to call them). Also we were just walking back to the bus stop when we ran into a lady/man with a Mastiff. The dog was so gorgeous and huge, and all the Taiwanese (i really need to come up with a better name for them) stared at it with amazement. The lady/man gave them the middle finger and walked away. Seriously Russians you need to get with the times. The Asians are taking over the world better now to get along with them, then go through the consequences in the near future.

Sunday was also a never plan in Russia day. I wanted to go to the Pushkin House Museum and it just so happened to be closed, indefinitely I am not sure. Anyways I again didn't want to walk too much so I went to the closest museum, which was the Naval Museum. I can now say for certain that boats bore me. I walk in there and of course there is every school child that existed there. So the place is packed and I decided to have some fun and take pictures when I didn't have permission. Some places like the Russian Museum you can't take pictures of anything and other places you have to pay an extra fee to take pictures. This place was under the extra fee concept. So I took some pictures when I had the scary old ladies walk down. Every time I knew you wasn't looking I took a picture. I feel so dangerous now, you gotta watch out people, I am going to come back a rebel.

A weekend filled with animals

I was actually sitting in class today and was thinking "wow I am starting to actually know what is going on." Note to self: be active, even if you screw up (A LOT) you still will get more out of it than staring aimlessly at the wall for 3 hours. Home is good too. As soon as I hear my host fam say "so tell me Claire" (obviously in Russia), I perk up and listen intently. Then I answer cause apparently I know what they is saying. I feel very accomplished at the moment. Watch Thursday ruin it all because I have a harder (less caring) teacher then. My Monday/Tuesday teacher is this wonderful older lady. She is fluent in English (which helps with definitions) and plays games. Yesterday we threw around a ball. Who every caught it had to answer the question. How wonderful. Its like kindergarten for adults.

So anyway, enough of me gloating and boosting my ego on with what happened last week. Well I didn't do much. I had my 30 page paper due in my business class. It was a group assignment (that we had 2 weeks to do). We had to analyze the entrance of a business into the Russian market. My group picked MasterCard. Mind you, I hate everything to do with finance but it really wasn't that bad. There was a lot pulling things out of our butts. I e-mailed the Russian division of MasterCard and of course they couldn't answer any of my questions. It wasn't until I read a summary by some no named author that I found out the year MasterCard entered the Russian market. Worse off, my group had two Germans (or Austrians) and one single Russian. Well that doesn't help the situation. So we just took like certain concepts like Porter's 5 Forces and Behavior Approach (all of which are useless in the real world) and analyzed it to the best of our ability. It turned out quite well. I haven't gotten an e-mail back yet about the paper so that should be a good sign. It wound up being 37 pages (some of which were pictures, graphs, and a survey we did). Of course I was the only one that didn't have anything else going on so I did a lot of the work. I wrote the introduction, conclusion, edited, wrote my own stuff, and then made it look all pretty. I didn't get much sleep the day the paper was due. A week later/tomorrow is the presentation. No one could meet up beforehand so this should be interesting. Nothing like a good 10 minutes of presentations and another 10 minutes of questions. I better not get grilled on financial stuff. I would rather die, or maybe I would just stare blankly at someone else in my group. It really funny knowing that every person bull craps everything, yet we still grill them on the simplest things. Last class was just hilarious. A lot of grilling and a lot of pulling answers out of nowhere. Nothing is better than that in a business class.

So again Thursday and Friday I didn't have my normal teacher. I think this is week 3 of her being "sick." I say she is sick of children that don't know the Russian language. Again this week it was a new lady. She was young and fluent in English and German. I think I didn't like her because she would casually have conversations outside of the Russia language. Of course that is better for me (and the rest of the class) but it almost makes me feel more inept. It is like she is over exerting herself because we are not capable. Of course that isn't true but that is how it feels.

Saturday I decided to wake up later than normal. Apparently that is 11am now. How depressing. So i call Jessica and obviously she is like I want to sleep because she (every Friday night) has to stay out all night. The dorms open at 6 and her hockey practices are at 6:30. She cannot stay in the dorms and risk being late. She usually goes to an internet cafe all night and then goes to practice and then sleeps. It seems terrible. So anyways I told her I would call her at 1, but I didn't want to stay at my place till then. I went around town. I didn't take a metro so I was in like nowhere land St. Pete (where I live). There is of course the sea and a wonderful hotel by there. So I walk there and get to some random play ground. There are like two types of playgrounds in Russia, the very top notch ones where it is colorful and bright and the really bad ones made out of metal and have graffiti on them. This one (because it was right next to a high end hotel) was quite nice. It was themed I think hundred acre woods. Winni Pooh (the Russian version) was painted on the sides of the play areas. It was very cute, I took pictures.

So it was finally 1 and I called Jessica. We decided to go to the zoo. Of course I am inept in every which way and didn't realize that the zoo in the rain would be awful. So we get there and it is awful. On a better note: there was no one there. So this zoo is probably the most bizarre zoo you will ever hear about. The first place we go to has a linx (you know those big cats with huge paws that can maul people with) and a calico cat. Yes the calico cat was inside the cage with this wild beast animal cat thing. Better yet, the linx was licking the cat. I didn't think it would get more bizarre than that. Apparently I was wrong. The next cage had foxes, then the next cage had chickens and hens, and then the last cage on the row had raccoons. Of course the Russians call them raccoon dogs. Well that was awkward. Then we see this extravagant area with a mote and a island. I automatically think monkey because that seems logical. Nope, it was for porcupines. Yes a whole exhibit for porcupines. hmmmmm. I couldn't find any because it was raining out and I do believe they are nocturnal. There was also a whole area devoted to bunnies. Cute, but unneeded. I also saw moose, horses, donkeys, and deers. They might have been all in the same area I don't remember. There was a monkey section and right by it was a polar bear section. One of the polar bears was in the water playing with a baseball cap. It was cute. There were two in cages and between their cages was a black bear. Nothing like having every random animal together. It is really weird seeing all these animals in the same area living in the same weather. don't monkeys need the warmth and polar bears need the cold? I kinda felt like I was in the circus in the Last Unicorn. If you haven't seen that movie you should. But it was like the spell wore off and instead of there being scary soviet animals (that eat humans of course) there were wimpy raccoons. That is the only good explanation i could come up with. And when we were leaving we decided to see the calico cat and linx because it was just so mind boggling. The cat was gone and the linx was freaking out. She/he was just pacing the cage. It was quite interesting to watch.

Sunday Jessica didn't feel like going out. It was raining really bad the day before and she refused to hold an umbrella. something about them being useless? I personally think they protect you from hypothermia in areas such as Russia but I could be wrong. Anyways I decided to stay indoors and go to the zoology museum. It was fun. I think it has the most taxidermitized (yes i will make up a word for the day) animals in one area. It is quite a freaky place. Small, but freaky. They decided to make it as real as possible so I saw taxidermitized rats being eaten by taxidermitized snakes. There were "dead" dog carcasses and vultures. I think I saw a wolf eating another animal. Its like seriously, it is bad enough that I am looking at taxidermy, you have to also make them look like they are dying. A glass eye is bad enough really. I am quite perplexed on the rhinoceros front, also. So can you taxideritize a rhino or can they only be fake made out of wood. I couldn't tell. They also had like every possible embalmed (happy Audrey) parasite. Nothing like fearing for your life. especially since I am in Russia and if I drink the water something slimy and worm like will enter my body and eat me alive. It was still pretty interesting. All that was on just one floor. Then I went up to the second floor where there were insects. That was so much better. I like butterflies. They are pretty and don't have glass eyes or fake tongues.

It only took me an hour to go through the whole museum so i decided to just walk around town. I had a destination though it was just a long walk. I decided to go to 'the' Peter and Paul fortress. So i finally get there and go to the ticket place to find out the place is huge. You would think I would know this already. Well anyways the tickets last for two days so I thought to myself that it be best if I go on a Saturday and finish on a Sunday. So I leave the area and decide to just walk around the town there. It is on its own little island and I didn't get a chance to explore the area yet (ironically the zoo is there also). I wind up at this nice religious building. I say that because I know it wasn't a church and I thought it was a temple (because there was Semitic writing on it) but according to Jessica there is a mosque somewhere around there. It was all different shades of blue and I believe it was like partly made out of mosaic. Very interesting. Anyways I am taking pictures of this wonderful building when I get stopped by these three drunken (not noticeably) Russians. I do believe their names were Nikita, Igor, and Vlad (not short for Vladimir). I talk with them for a bit, obviously they don't know English so it was quite painful. I left them and, because we were walking and talking, I got lost. Of course I have a map and it is a good map but that usually never stops me from being a blond. I thought I was going in a different direction than I was going. I decided to just go with the flow and walk in a straight line. No matter what you will eventually hit a metro in St. Pete. It was definitely a terrible long cold walk but it was fun none of the less.

So I am walking to the metro doors when I hear this crazy babooshka. I really do think that when a Russia lady turns like 80 they go mad. I haven't met one that hasn't. Anyways this lady was obviously homeless. She was howling with her dog and throwing/twirling around a dead rat. I really have no comment for that. After that experience I was like it has got to be a full moon. Guess what it was! First time in my life I really felt that. It is weird how you just know it is due to the moon.

So after that it is still only 5pm. I didn't want to go home yet so I hung out with Jessica. We made popcorn on the stove. We bought one of those microwavable popcorn bags and then opened it up and put it in a closed pot. How brilliant were we? I think I am now a gourmet chef!

It was a good weekend I believe. I have two plans for next week. If it isn't too ugly out (like it has been) I will go to Pavlovsk. It is like Pushkin, a town outside of St. Pete, that has a nice palace (or something like that). If it is worse out, I will go to Peter and Paul's fortress on Saturday and Sunday and Sunday afternoon will go to the weaponry museum (There were tanks outside the building) sounds interesting enough. Watch none of this work out :-D

Two weeks of walking

Its been a non-hectic, hectic two weeks.

First off, awhile ago I got my host family chocolates just as a thank you for being amazing. They thought i was leaving, I was like no I just wanted to thank you. It was definitely a painful experience. The reason why I mentioned it is because of what happened afterward. The chocolates were in a nice foil and my host family started to play with it. First it was just to see if it could float in the air and it went all the way to crafting out airplanes. For like a whole week we all started taking various chocolate wrappers and making airplanes. Then we started rating how well they did. It was fun. Bet you never expected that to happen.

Saturday of last week was a very big cultural experience. I celebrated the moon festival with the Taiwanese. It is like the Chinese version of Thanksgiving minus the part of Indians and pilgrims. It is really just a time to spend with family and friends that you haven't seen in awhile. Usually you have a BBQ outside at night and look at the moon, but because it is Russian and cold we decided to have it during the day. I WAS NOT THE ONLY AMERICAN! it was wonderful. His name is James he is from Kentucky and goes to school in Minnesota. He has no personality. I think I have like the worst impression of American men here in Russia. They are all so boring. Could anyone please entertain me.

The festival itself was us (like 15 girls and 1 guy) making a BBQ by the dorm. Of course it was like 40 degrees outside and raining. It was very uncomfortable. I was frozen. There were like 3 grills (all bought from Ikea) that had various thing. Apparently for like 2 days straight some of the girls started to prepare for the festival getting vegetables, preparing meat, etc. So everything was raw and we cooked it on the grill. There was vegetables so I was good, but A LOT of vegetables. The Taiwanese are like my mother and Russians put together. They just don't know how to cook for a certain amount of people and over prepare (my mother) and then keep on feeding you (Russians). It was fun though.

I met a lot of wonderful people. It was hard sometimes to talk with them, because of the huge language barrier and all. We all kept on going back from Russian to English back to Russian. I even used some of the Chinese words I learned from class. One girl, this typically stereotypical Chinese girl who is overly animated and always pops up out of nowhere, told me I was smart because I knew some Chinese. It made me feel good. I mean seriously, she is the one who knows Chinese (with the complex characters-compared to Modern Chinese with simple characters), is fluent in English, and is learning Russian. I wonder who is the smarter one....

After we decided that the cold was too much we moved to the dorm. There we finished eating the food. There was just sooo much. There was also this lone Japanese girl there. I felt bad for her. Her English and Russian were on the same level as everyone else. It was like, how do you communicate? She was so wonderfully nice though.

So now whenever I see any of the girls I met at the Moon Festival they smile and say hi to me. They are too friendly. Actually it is really fun watching them all eat together. They are always sharing with each other. Like when they make a sandwich, one girl takes a bite and then just passes it around. It even happens in class now. Who ever has food gives it to everyone. I am so unaccustomed to this...

Anyways Sunday of last week I decided to be a tourist. Jessica was sick and I was like I don't want to go to a whole museum by myself, how boring is that. Instead, I decided to go to Nevsky Prospect. This is like the street where everything is happening. The clubs are here, the restaurants are here, Our Lady of Kazan Cathedral as well as the Church of Spilled blood are here/around here. So of course I had to eventually take picture. Obviously I have been here before, I am just a lazy, lazy individual. It was a little cold out but still quite beautiful. I just walked around wishing that America had such pretty churches. Well at the same time why are these churches exquisite. Aren't you suppose to like solicit a religion...does the elegance mean anything? that one Temple I found (yes I found one) was simple yet elegant. It was everything a religious building should be. It told you what it was and it took your breath away. There was meaning behind that temple, the Church on(of) Spilt Blood to me is like a landmark. It isn't a church, but a building. Same with Our Lady of Kazan Cathedral. Mind you I stared at both of them for quite some time....

Well things are interesting at school. I have not had Katya (my Grammar teacher) for like two weeks. I enjoyed it. She gets very angry at us, seems a little sexist (is always yelling at the boys), and has like no emotions. Week two without Katya was amazing. We had this really young teacher that always went off on tangents. One time she decided to talk about how men in Russian refuse to go out shopping and the other time she started talking about how chocolate is an anti-depressant. It really makes learning the language fun. We also have another student. You know when you see a white person you automatically think they are from America, well I do. His Russian accent (because that was the first time I heard him) was just like it would be if he was from say Texas. O how wrong was I. He is a Swish. Could I have been off any more. He speaks German, French, a little English, and is learning Russian. He is also the cutest 70 year old retired man ever. Was a music teacher and his wife is in Switzerland. He is here for 2 months. Anyway, I like him because now I can feel less like the minority. There is still a huge language barrier though.

On Saturday again I was alone. Jessica was out and about somewhere else. So i decided to just find a random place to go and see what happened. I picked a park that was a couple metros away. Never heard of it before but my map told me it existed. It was quite nice. I just walked around doing nothing. The trees were all perfectly fall. Every tree was a different color/shade. The birds were chirping, why they are still in Russia I do not know. I also enjoyed yet another group of weddings. I have come to the conclusion that as the weather gets colder, the dresses get uglier. Who ever said you have to be warm on your wedding day?

After the park i decided to walk around the area and found a Pizza Hut. Why i went in there I don't know. I think it is just because I am so sick of soft foods. Every time I eat with the host family I have soup, baked potates, bilinis, etc. i just wanted something crispy. Speaking of which, I really really really miss toast. Well anyways after that I almost died. I got sick from Pizza Hut. I really believe it was God's way of telling me to enjoy Russian food. I decided to take the metro back to Nevsky and just walked around. Anyways my stomach was so bad it was almost painful to walk, on top of that, it started hailing. Yes you heard me correct, it started to hail in October when it was perhaps in the 50s. How weird. I went to Dom Kinigi (the book store) and sat around there for a little. I mean I am used to Barnes and Nobles, that place is huge, but this place is even bigger. I think it has 3 floors and an actual restaurant. Mind you this restaurant is like overly expensive, but still like a sit down restaurant none of the less.

Saturday night I went to the dorm to see Jessica. Wound up that I stayed over and went out to my first Russian Club experience. I actually did not have the normal Russian club experience because I went to a high-end club, Brian paid. It was expensive and nice. The place wasn't crowded, there was an area that took your jackets and bags, and there was loud music area and a quiet you can talk area. It was fun. We wound up talking to this group of Russian students. Some of the people were from Vladivostok, South Osetta, and Armenia (maybe). A little unnerving yes, but still fun. I went to the club with Brian and Jessica, obviously, and also Thomas. He is Brian's roommate from Sweden. He speaks good English and also has been learning Russian for 8 years. He still has trouble, but at least he knows the language. So the whole night I listened to him talk to the Russians. Apparently Moscow and St. Pete hate each other? who knew that?

Well I had to be at the club till 6 because lovely dorms don't allow you to leave or enter the dorms from the hours of 1 till 6. No joke you are locked out/in. Of course there is a person by the door always, they just won't let you in. How mean. So we get back to the dorms around 7 and I can't go in. Apparently there are visiting hours as well, and they start at 8. I really didn't want to go all the way to my apartment and perhaps wake up my host family. So Jessica and I game planned. The lady already saw my face so it wasn't like i could take Jessica's entrance card and go in. So we went to the side of the building and switched coats. She took Brian's entrance card and I took hers (they are electronic things that let you in to the building more or less). It worked and I slept. WOOOHOOO

The rest of the day was boring. I went and walked along the beach front with Jessica. It was a wonderfully nice day, one of the warmest in awhile. The water was perfect (to look at), the walk was entertaining...

Today is not one of the nicest days out. IT IS SNOWING. I am talking about full on white stuff falling from the sky and sticking to the ground. I can handle hail, that is painless it ends, but this snow is not ending. EVERYTHING IS WHITE...white! it is cold and it is wet. It is beautiful but I think I am already over it. It was funny in class today though when I looked outside and said something like interesting and my teacher was like what and I was like I am from Florida. everyone laughed at me. Apparently snow is a common occurrence. Wonderful! I really need to find a GSOM bus to my apartment. It takes me 20 minutes to get home. Coming here today i was completely covered in snow. My gloves have yet to dry and I have been indoors for the past 4 hours. YEY. I am jealous of all you Floridians! basking in the sun, not a worry in the sky...tehehe

Week 5

Well classes are getting harder in both school. In business class my teacher is crazy and I don't know how I am graded. gave my first presentation on "Cross Cultural Interpretation of Advertisements." It went well but the teacher didn't like the fact that I didn't reference the creator of the concept (even though its more of a strategy that people should just follow) and took off points.

I got so angry about the presentation that I decided to walk in a straight line for an hour or so. It was actually quite relaxing. I took pictures of run down churches and found a cute little children store. Went inside and bought some tiny bed time story books (8 rubles for each). I am planning on reading them and hopefully learning some new vocabulary. After walking for awhile I hit a metro station. How fantastic is that. Walk in a straight line long enough and you can go back home by the metro instead of retracing your steps. Of course it was too early for that so I kept on walking in a straight line and ran into a friend. Also something amazing about St. Pete. It is like the smallest big city ever. You run into people you know all the time! So we decide to talk over tea (well actually he had coke and I didn't drink anything, but that just sounded so much better). Its times like that, that I realize just how stupid getting upset about grades are. If i fail academically I will excel mentally here. Its just a trade-off I am going to have to face soon enough. I mean obviously I won't fail academically because that's impossible for me, I might just care less about my grades. That is quite a step up to what most people are used to.

So anyways Russian classes are getting hard. Well actually they are easy in the sense of vocabulary and concepts but the whole class is in Russian so its like you learn more through the explanation than the work itself. Because I think slow in general I get yelled at here. I am with freaking Chinese people, obviously I am slower than them. So my teachers are always like speeding me up and tell me what to say because I am going so slow. I am thinking about actually talking to them about it. I really don't want to be correct or be told what to say. I want to actually think. I am not going to learn the answers if things are spoon fed to me.

I went to Ikea on Friday. It was my first time. Jessica needed some things for the dorm, now that she had clothes and all. It is quite an interesting place. I don't think there is anything better than finding stuff animals and throwing them at people. I really should not be brought anywhere. I am just too much of a child. I also played with the little kids toys. What else am I going to do, stare at things I can't buy? So instead I played with everything. Even cooler, the bus that takes you to Ikea is free. There is nothing in the world that will brighten up a students day than free transportation.
The weekend was a nice one. On Saturday I went to Kunstkamera Museum. It is actually the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography. The whole concept is quite interesting. You go through the history of people in all different parts of the world. There are wood cutouts (that are quite realistic) of the people and actual stuff from the culture like jewelry and trinkets. That part of the museum was amazing. The other part was devoted to Peter the Great's collection of oddities. Ok that sounds alright. but what is an oddity? Well apparently it is malformed fetus. Seriously, there are embombed fetuses from 300 years ago. Peter decided that instead of people shunning the malformed they should embrace it. Well I am obviously all for that but to embomb a two headed fetus or the cut head of a fetus or a limbless fetus, is kinda just wrong. The scientist behind all the embombings (Fredrick Ruysch) was so good at it that no one, not even know, can compete against him. Well this also doesn't help the situation. I mean these 300 year old fetuses were so realistic (well obviously because they are) that they didn't looked aged. Not at all, the skin was still the same tint is was 300 years prior, the umbilical cords were all attached, and I think there were still even fingernail. I started to get a headache going through this part of the museum. It might have been because I was surrounded by embombing fluids or embombed bodies. I am not quite sure which one is worse.

Sunday I went to the Hermitage. Sergei gave us a tour of some of the hermitage, and by that I mean that I might have seen 1/1000 of the museum. They do say it will take you 11 years to see every room in the museum. So of course we saw the highlights. I saw some Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Leonardo Da vinci, and some others. Obviously, being me, I wasn't completely taking aback by these panting. I have seen them all before in books. What excited me the more were the ceilings and chandeliers in each room. The actual rooms themselves were just fantastic. There were golden ceiling, three-dimensional ceiling, ceilings with paintings in the middle, and ceilings with sculpture. Each room was a different color, different feeling, different emotion. The throne rooms seemed majestic, while some of the other rooms seemed simple and almost had a carefree-ness to them. In these rooms you could relax and just contemplate your entire existence. Each place you walk into had a different story, weather it was the actual painting telling the story like Rembrandt's Return of the Prodigal Son or the or the room like the big throne room. I felt like I was in a different world and it was amazing.

It of course help that Sergei is brilliant. Each room we went into, each painting we saw, he knew something about it. He analyzed The Return of the Prodigal Son telling us about each and every crevice of the painting. He walked us through rooms and knew stories about the rooms, and each sculptures. Even when I asked questions like "are these frame original?" he had the answer to it and then went back to it when the frames were original. My brain is still overloaded with all the information I got on my 2 hour tour. his knowledge, by far, made my first (and not last) visit to the Hermitage that much better. Best thing about the hermitage: it is free for my to explore. I wonder what I am going to be doing on a cold winter day?

I also took quite a few pictures. It is funny when you go into a museum and you see just how much the workers don't care about their job. They sit in chairs staring aimlessly at nothing. Obviously, no one should be taking a picture of Leonardo Da vinci's work. It is bad for the painting (or at least I have been told that). Poor paintings!

I am getting closer with the host family. The day after I went to the Ikea store, Luda got the 2010 catalog. Random fact: Ikea has been in Russia for 10 years. well anyways she was telling me just how different life is now than in the soviet union. It is really interesting hearing about what the soviet union was like from people that actually have been in it. We also just kinda crack jokes and talk about nothing. I am starting to stay up later with them. The last couple of days I went to my room at 11pm. I am usually with them from 8 till like 11 now. I am definitely understanding more but I still can't explain much. Everyone should be proud of me. I explained what a mortgage was to Igor yesterday AND he understood. Mind you it was in the simplest of terms, but still I explained something confusing in Russian!!!!! I am very proud of myself!

Random fact of the day: the seasons (fall, spring etc.) start of the first of the month not at the end like we have it. So fall didn't start on the 22nd this year but the 1st of September. There are now no arguments about what season you are born in. It is quite nice.

Just alot of nothing

So this is me thinking all the way back to last week. Let me first mention how much I love my host family. Igor went to the Dasha (it is just some random house that all Russians have outside of the main city). He went to go pick flower and mushroom. The flowers were gorgeous. They were these fuchsia lily like things. The mushrooms were delicious. I finally have realized what people mean when the say that Russia has amazing mushroom. I have yet to get tired of them. So for every day this week I had mushroom soup. Nothing is better than some good mushroom soup!

Besides that last week I didn't really do much. I went to class, chillaxed, you know the usual. One Friday I decided to explore around St. Petersburg University. It is nice, a little boring. I bough a cheap umbrella, tried to get used to my surroundings, you know the usual.

Jessica finally got her luggage that has been in storage for 3ish weeks. So the full story: its all corrupt. It all started in Canada where she decided to send, by cargo, her luggage through British Airways. Before going to Russia, she decided to backpack Europe and couldn't lug around all her stuff, especially because she is a goalie in hockey and their equipment is quite heavy and extravagant. In Canada the cargo man told her all she needed to do was pay a little fee and pick up her luggage at the airport. Seems simple enough...well it isn't. The day she arrive in Russia they told her the cargo place was closed and she couldn't pick up anything. Then she went numerous times after that and no one knew where her cargo was. Each person told her to go to a different person and the cargo place told her she couldn't go to them unless she paid but no one knew where to pay. Twice, I went with her to the airport and no one knew anything. Her mother got involved in Canada and called up the original cargo man that mailed it out. He wasn't any help. Also, she involved the consulate in Russia and Canada. They tried to help. We also went to the information office at British Airways in the airport. This is when they first told us that she needs to pay a large lump sum and that she needs to also pay for a customs broker. Jessica knew nothing of this. On top of all this, custom brokers only work with commercial stuff. Her luggage was not commercial, it was her stuff, so no one wanted to help her. So once again for a week she was told to go to one office to the next. She called every possible consulate and then they came up with a explanation. They pretty much told her she had to pay 1500 dollars and pick up her cargo and each day she kept it there she has to pay more money. The issue still stood though: where was her luggage? So finally Sergei came back from his trip and they went to the airport. Things were accomplished. She went to offices she never even heard about and got her luggage and payed a sketch man 1600 dollars (so sketch he wrote out her receipt by hand and drove a BMW). Of course this money was meant for her semester stay in Russia so now she is broke, but isn't cold. What a wonderful payoff. Only in Russia can these things happen.

The weekend wasn't bad. Saturday Jessica and I just walked around doing nothing. I went to McDonalds! I had fries and ice cream (Hannah recommended the 50 cent ice cream so I had to get it). I also got ketchup. Can anyone explain to me the concept of paying for condiments. I don't want to pay 50 cents for ketchup! am I really that pampered in the US? Jessica got free condiments with her chicken fingers. Once again this vegetarian hatred motif arises. She got sweet and sour sauce, or I think it was. I translated to Acid Sweet Sauce. It was delicious.

Sunday we went to Pushkin. Of course I am never notified about anything and thought it actually had something to do with Pushkin, the poet. Well apparently not. It is a town named after him. In this wonderful town, about a 20 minute bus ride from St. Pete, is a castle.

Ok lets start off with the ride there. We took the metro to some part of Russia and then ate at Pizza Hut. I really need to stop telling you people where I eat but I just had to mention that there are Pizza Huts in Russia. It was delicious and cheap. During our (me and Jessica) whole dinner they played crappy English music. I am talking about Hanson and Spice Girls here. No seriously, we walked in and Mmmbop was playing!

So then we take the bus ride there in one of the miniature buses and there were not enough seats so I sat on Jessica's lap. I think i damaged her. During the whole ride I listened to these three Russian boys talk. It was hilarious, at one point this guy started singing Billy Jean and then Sexy Back. I literally think it made my day!

Pushkin is wonderful. It is this small quaint town with a garden in it. Of course in the garden stood the castle. We decide to walk around before looking at the castle. Well this garden is HUGE. I am talking it has a map like the one you get (free) at Epcot. It wasn't as extravagant as Peterhof but it was just wonderful to be in, very green and fresh. It is much greener than Peterhof and the random building are interesting to say the least. There is a Chinese garden apparently where two Chinese like buildings stand. It is weird being in Russia and seeing a red hut like building, especially when at the time you don't know that you are in a place called the Chinese Garden. We then venture back to the castle to find a huge line waiting to get in. Of course the line doesn't move for like 15 minutes so we decided not to go in. Apparently that is where the beauty is though. The infrastructure, painting, sculpture, etc. are actually what attracts an audience. I will go back there and explore the inside.

After exploring the garden we decided to explore the town, find anything worth finding. Of course I see a flee market and decided we should walk through. No such a good idea. Every other stand was a honey stand and there were bees EVERYWHERE. they were on the honey, inside the honey, in the air, on people, etc. It was like death trap for people allergic to bees (ironically Jessica is one of them).

Instead of being cramped up in a bus again we decided to find the train station. So it took us an hour to find it and asking like 20 Russians where it is. This is how Russians explain directions to you: they point in the general direction. I mean if you angle your arm just right I will know exactly where to go...right. So finally we ask the right person and we walk another 15 minutes. God were my legs hurting by then. The train station is not understandable, well it is so confusing that we decided not to even take it. Maybe next time!

Well that was me whole week! Nothing too interesting

Few Notes
-I love my host family more and more each and every day. I still feel bad for them though. I am such an inept American trying trying to learn, but I am getting better. My comprehension is getting fairly better. I think I comprehend my host family more though because I know what they are thinking, listening to my Russian teacher is a little harder. I usually just blankly stare at them. Or I do know what is going on but I am still processing it, and then they explain it in simpler terms because they think I don't understand. I really hate that.

There are like random silent pauses when I don't understand something the host family says. Its like the worse awkward pauses ever and I can't do anything about it because I want to learn. I am also unintentionally teaching them English. How cute is that. I don't know when I helped him, but Igor took out one of his notebooks on English and started to read to me. Its really funny when they try to distinguish the difference between vowels. Beeeech (beach)...Biiiitch. I giggled.

-Did you know that the Canadian consulate in Russia is actually within the Australian consulate. Apparently no Canadians go to Russia for them to have a separate consulate...but isn't is also a commonwealth of England? random I know.

That is all for now

Weekend Fun

Well my Friday definitely was not a weekend, however I did skip class. Instead I needed to register for my visa extension/multi-entry visa.

Let me explain registration as best I can. Its like making a whole pie in an easy bake oven. Nothing gets accomplished. We 1) you need to say you are registering. This is when you get a spravka (or document paper) saying you are in the process of registering. 2) about two days later you go back to the same people to receive a paper that ironically you filled out to get your spravka. This paper allows you to start your visa extension paperwork. 3) you need to prepare your visa extension paperwork. Now this is painful because each place you go to you are told different things. Some say you need photos, others say you need matted photos, even others say you need 4 or 5. Also, each year St. Petersburg University adds a piece of paper to the list, but this is an invisible list because you don't know about this piece of paper. 4) you give the babooshka's your paperwork and they take your passport. 5) you wait a week to get back your passport and a month to get your visa extension. Ironically enough, if you wait until exactly a month and give them your paperwork they cannot promise you that you will get your visa in time.

So where am I in this mess. on step 2. yes I have been here for 2 weeks and I am on step 2. Why it took me so long? well thats because everything is just so disorganized. The place that you get all this work done changes every like 2 days, it could be buildings it could be rooms. So I got my spravka on Thursday(ish) the week before. I couldn't go on monday to get the paperwork back so I waited till Tuesday. I wait in line (maybe 2 hour) and the babooshkas tell me that they aren't do that paperwork today. Mind you it isn't paperwork, it is receiving a piece of paper you filled out. So i wait till Friday to do it attempt getting this paper again. I wait in the same line for about an hour to be told that I am in the wrong line. So I wait again in another line for an hour and I get everything done. It took all of 5 minutes.

Wish me luck on step 3!



Saturday
Saturday was pretty much amazing. Jessica and I decided to go to Peterhof. It was a bright sunny day, the birds were chirping, the wind was mild, it was just perfect. We decide to take the boat to Peterhof and come across a couple and their children. They are from Wellington, New Zealand (and I am from Wellington, FL, how wonderful). They were just on a 3 week vacay. We tried to help them out a little, tell them what to do and such because they spoke no Russian. But the one thing we were all confused about were the boat tickets. When paying for the ticket there were two prices 350 rubles or 400 rubles. We payed 400 so we thought that meant we payed round trip. But still, we weren't sure....

So Peterhof, gorgeous. I really can't explain it besides showing pictures. It HUGE. Me and Jessica decided not to go inside the building and just tour the outside. We had plans later that day for a hockey game and we knew the inside was going to be packed.

The outside was amazing. I saw swans, squirrels, and flowers galore. The random thing I noticed was the fascination with water. There were a couple of random places that to get by you needed to get wet. I don't understand why anyone doesn't see this as human torture. Yes it is like 60(ish) degrees outside and the sun is shining but there is still a breeze.

I saw a load of weddings as well. I think I finished at counting 7 maybe 8 weddings. I tried to take pictures, but I had to be a stalker so my pictures all came out bad.

This is where I finished the ticket story. So Jessica and I are still under the assumption that our trip is round trip so we wait for the boat starting at 2:30. We need to be at the arena by 4, because her coach (she is on a Woman's Hockey team here) had our tickets. That gave us plenty of time to go across town. Well we were also under the assumption that, like North America, everything came on the half hour or hour. WRONG. so we watch other people go on different boats from different company while we wait for ours. It doesn't show up. It eventually shows up at 3:15 and we wait in line to be told that our ticket was only one way. We waited, and saw, 4 other boats depart to find out we could have been on them. So we buy our tickets and go on a different boat. The boat ride took about a half an hour and we were still needed to take 2 metros, 4 stops to get to the arena. We were screwed.

So Jessica texts her coach (in Russian) to tell him we would be late. It worked out in the end and we wind up meeting up with the coach later. We payed him 100 rubles (or 3 dollars) for professional hockey game tickets. Yes 3 dollars!

The game was St. Pete Vs Belarus. Of course St. Pete won! ...and of course I wasn't paying attention. I was too busy taking pictures. It is kinda amazing how fast hockey games go. I am so used to (American) football games. They take like 4 hours, the timer stops like 40 times, and there are like a 5 time outs. Nope, none of that in hockey. There are two breaks, the timer rarely stops, and I don't think there are any time outs.

Random things in Russian hockey: Cheerleaders, I don't believe they are in North American hockey. Yes they cheer and have pom-poms. They also look just as skank-a-licious as in American. I would describe them as the winter version of the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. They have have short skirts and boots on. There are also random choirs, and by that I mean people that clap together. They start random clapping songs and scream a lot. When i looked at them towards the end of the game I notice that all the men were shirtless. Mind you, professional hockey games here are in heated arenas, but still. Why are there people making up clapping songs and why are they not wearing clothes? Also the player are nicer the each other. There isn't much contact like you see in the movies and they shake hands at the end of the game. I was very impressed.

So after the hockey game we (Jessica Brian and I) had plans to go clubbing. Of course they fell thru, when do they not. The issue was this: the metro closes at 12 and the dorms close at 1. Yes you cannot go in or outside the dorms after 1. You are locked. So what we decided to do was play poker with kopecks in the dorm. I had to sleep over because it was past 1 when we finished.

The dorm...boy am I lucky. How do I explain the dorms. They are disgusting. The beds are such bad quality that they make noises every time you move, and I am not talking about little squeaks. I am talking about like loud obnoxious squeaks that you get woken up every time someone moves. The insulation in the dorms also sucks. The windows look like they are molding and it is always cold. Whereas, in my room it is wonderful. My bed doesn't make noise, I am always warm, and my room isn't molding are forming its own little army of cockroaches. Boy am I happy.

Sunday
I didn't really do much. I went with Jessica to another hockey game. This time is was her team vs. an 11 year old boys team. You see she is on the only woman's hockey team in all of St. Pete so they can only go against men. Why they were 11 is beyond me but boy was it cute. The girl (who were of all different ages) towered over these prepubescent boys. The goalie, i am not kidding you, was like 3 feet.

The sad part was that the girls lost. The boys were heavily funded. The girls team had on all different types of skates, clothes, and their equipment wasn't all that good. The boys were all uniformed and had on nicer stuff. With that in mind they probably also have better coaches and their parents probably ingrain in their heads that they much be the best.

This game, ironically was also longer than the professional one, or it felt that way. It lasted like 2 hours with 2 breaks. You could tell that the girls were getting tired. The goalie was almost dead. She was working a lot harder than anyone else because the puck was always by her. The girls only scored one point whereas the boys scored like 16. I would be dead too!

Jessica also didn't play so we were together talking the whole time. She still doesn't have her equipment because it is still in the cargo area. I will give the whole story once it unravels. But that was my weekend. very fun filled!

What I have notice

Pregnant Women
For a county dealing with underpopulation, there sure are a lot of pregnant woman. Mind you, every single one of them is like 8 or 9 months pregnant. I wonder why. I bet you that more than half of the Russian Population has birthdays in July, August, September, and October.

Driving
Of course driving sucks here, but that is a subject statement. Russian drivers are so bad that they know how to get out of any mess unharmed. In that regards, aren't they the best drivers. I mean just the other day I saw a little tiny car between two buses going into another bus and swerved out of danger. Also drivers here love to drive right in front or behind you. I don't see how they can miss a person every time. There is usually only like inches between. Seriously scary.
You want to know what is scarier: Bus-train things. They are like buses on train track. Of course Russian engineers decided to put these said train tracks on the same path that walkers walk. Of course because these are bus-train thingys they do stop but that is besides the point. When you wait for the light to turn green on the sidewalk you don't want to die because you are on the tracks of a train.

Russian People
Things have changed big time. I am in St. Petersburg and am more European but OMG there are African Americans. Yes, I see one at least once a day. It is quite exciting actually. I still don't know if they are Europeans visiting Russia or Soviet Union mechanics sent from Africa. I will keep you updated once I talk to one.
Also, just the other day I was in the metro and there was quite an interesting group of people. One guy was all goth wearing 4 inch high boots with like a bazillion buckles dressed in all black. Right next him was a ghetto couple. The girl (who was a white Russian) had cornrows and the guy was wearing a do-rag. I am no joking here. Bet you didn't expect that huh?
Also women are much more friendlier with each other. It is really hard to find lesbians in Russia because all women are holding hand. Also, they kiss each other all the time. It is quite interesting really. A culture that we, as Americans, define as tough, serious, and emotionless shows more emotion to each other than even us. There is also a lot of PDA. I mean maybe I just think it is a lot because I have the emotionless stereotype but everywhere I look there are men on top of their woman (maybe it is because Russian men are like the luckiest men when it comes to attractive women). It reminds me of high school with that couple that just can't stop making out in front of your locker.

Random Fact: Russian weather is just like Florida weather. It is raining one day and so sunny your eyes hurt the next. I am starting to get very annoyed when my plans get stalled because of rain!