Today was the first day of trekking to the university here in St. Petersburg, and since we all know I couldn’t find my way out of a box if I tried, it’s inevitable that I would get lost. And I did. Momentarily. I walked to Primorskaya Metro station (five blocks from my apartment, not far at all) and waved my pass at the turnstiles then hauled ass down the extremely long escalator (St. Petersburg has the deepest metro in the world because of the Neva River water table) to the arriving train. When I exited at the Mayakovskaya station three stops later, I took too much of a right turn onto the street. Instead of ending up on the east end of Nevsky Prospect (the main drag), I ended up on some godforsaken side street with people yelling at me in Russian to rent their taxi. Um. No. After I realized that my trolleybus couldn’t run on a street without tracks, I turned around and ventured down Nevsky to find my stop and my trolley came about 15 minutes later. All of this combined with a 10 minute chill stop somewhere underground on the metro and the not knowing where to get off the trolley (you try looking for a red brick building in a huge city) put me at Smolny at 10:30, half an hour late. I felt awful, but at least I was able to figure out where I was and didn’t wander aimlessly around St. Pete’s for hours. Which would have been completely possible seeing as how I still don’t have a cell phone (yet). Also, I wasn’t the last one there. Score.
At Smolny, we went over safety basics (How-Not-To-Act-American-101) then took our placement test, which comprised of oral, written, and multiple-choice reading questions. After that we went downstairs to eat. We had a standing lunch (so we could mingle and meet each other) of cheese, ham, bread, fruit, priyatniki (!!!), and some form of Russian strudel thingy. And Sprite. Of course! They wanted us to take the leftovers home with us, unfortunately since we didn’t know it was going to be a standing meal, few of us brought bags. From now on I am bringing a Ziploc with me everywhere. Free food is free food, no matter what country you’re in.
After we finished eating, a few girls and I ventured out into the Smolny-Liteyny neighborhood which pretty much consists of just Smolny Institute, Smolny Cathedral, a super expensive hotel, lots and lots of apartments, and the British Consulate. Good to know that if something ever happens at school, I can go see my British BFFs. Actually I think they’d shoot me if I tried to get into the consulate. It is Russia, after all. I’ve never seen so many police before in my life. They’re EVERYWHERE. The police presence here has two dimensions to it: you feel safe walking around and using the street ATMs because there’s police all around you, but the fact that the Russian police is so notoriously corrupt makes you nervous when they’re chilling on the corner or walking on the street near you. Today I had one following me so closely, I could have elbowed him in the chest. Needless to say, we have adopted the policy of shutting up when we pass the police because, yes, we do speak English when we’re out and about. Communication has to happen somehow, and sometimes you need more than rough Russian to get the point across. Plus it’s nice to speak English every once and a while because you spend all day operating at maximum capacity to process what is said to you in Russian.
We made our way down to Nevsky Prospect, which was beyond crowded. When people cross the street it’s like some sort of mass exodus. Who knows what we were originally looking for because we got caught up in the beautiful architecture and the canals that criss-cross St. Petersburg, and we ended up in a bar. Go figure. The place was much nicer on the inside than it looked on the outside, a surprise to be sure. You can never tell what a Russian restaurant is going to be like. I paid 150 rubles (approx. $5) for 500ml (approx. 17 ounces) of beer. Not bad considering the volume and the niceness of the restaurant. We’ve learned it’s better to spend a bit more on food and drink just for the sake of using the nice bathroom the restaurants provide. Public plumbing is an adventure I would prefer to avoid at all costs. After beer, we split up and wandered down Nevsky some more to find free Wi-Fi, which does exist in Russia contrary to popular belief. A local version of Starbucks, Coffee Haus, has free Wi-Fi and a good atmosphere. Our waitress was patient with us as we needed more time to read the menu and to construct our confusing Russian orders. Two blini (sour cream and Nutella) and a cappuccino later, I was a happy camper, tapping away at my iTouch that I linked into the heaven-sent Wi-Fi. We sat there and talked for about two hours, most likely pissing off the locals due to our use of English. But we were respectful, polite, talked quietly, and left a good tip so they can get over it. And we ordered in Russian, so there. I know that’s not a great attitude, but after the placement test, my brain was shot.
And now I’m back at the apartment (since 8pm). Anna Akimovna and I had tea and some sort of pastry when she came home. I believe she told me that she will be out of town tomorrow, which means I need to figure out how to cook the kasha (kind of like oatmeal, but sweeter and creamier) she left me. Tomorrow I’m leaving for class at 9:00 instead of 9:30 in hopes of getting there on time…which means I should probably get up at 7:30. Hеохота. We’re planning on going to a museum after class, but I want to stop and get a cell phone and St. Petersburg SIM card first.
I’m completely out of sync here because the sun doesn’t set till midnight and it starts to come back up again around 1:30am. Right now it’s 10:00pm and it looks like its 6:00pm. It really screws with your sense of being tired and makes it hard to sleep, but I do my best. Though I have to say, the fact that it’s still light outside when I come back at 9 or 10pm is comforting. I wouldn’t be nearly as at ease walking back alone in the dark, as no one else lives out by me. And it will be like that the whole time I’m here!
Oh well, time for sleep! Пока!
P.S. It looks like I’m going to have to get good at showering without a shower curtain. Thoughts?
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