Helsinki, baby!

A lot has happened in the past day and a half or so. Jess and I took the overnight bus from St. Petersburg to Helsinki, Finland. It was fine, although we didn't get much sleep. Customs took a while, so that was annoying. When we got to the bus station, it was raining and cold. We found the train station which was only about a block away conveniently! It was really sketch with tons of garbage and people sleeping everywhere, but it was about 5:30am or so. We found luggage lockers for the day and managed to fit everything into 2 lockers. Being so early on a Sunday morning, NOTHING was open. We stayed in the station for a while to plan out our day using the awesome travel book Jess brought. We planned a really full day and after some much-needed coffee we set off. Here's a list:
- Olympic Tower from the 1952 games (which my uncle Hans was at because he was born here!). That was amazing because we were able to go up 11 stories to see the panoramic view of the city.
- Next we got some really expensive Subway (the dollar sucks) and wandered around some parks (Helsinki is GORGEOUS).
- A church that is completely under this rock formation with only the top dome of the church being visible. SO cool.
- The National Museum of Finland which was interesting and fun.
- From there we just walked around; we saw the parliment building, a famous mall and the great downtown area this city offers.
- The largest Orthodox cathedral in all of northern and western Europe. We also saw another really unique cathedral up on a mountain by the gulf.
- We met Andrew in a beautiful park after waiting a while
- The three of us hung out at a cafe and swapped stories of our travels so far
- We did A LOT of walking and saw some amazing views
- Eventually found dinner which was UNBELIEVABLY tasty (reindeer...mmmm....)
- Went back to the train station for some "sleep" (if you can call it that) for about 30 minutes
- Went on a late-night adventure to watch the sunrise at 2:30am overlooking a beach
- Went back to train station and had to wait outside for almost 2 hours in the cold watching annoying drunk Finnish teens
- Sending our duffels home today, enjoying Helsinki some more and heading to Stockholm on an overnight ship (hot shower and warm bed, here I come!)
I will do my best to update fairly often, but no garuntees. I can tell this will be an amazing trip and I'm very excited!

Helsinki...according to Jess

So, here we are in the beautiful Helsinki, Finland. Audrey and I arrived yesterday morning at 530am on the Express overnight bus from Petersburg. It took about 2 hours to go through customs (basically just the Russian part), so neither of us actually got much sleep. We pulled into Helsinki not having any idea where we were in relation to...well, anything. Also, since it was a sunday morning everything was closed, so there was really no one to ask either. We lugged our backpacks and duffel bags in the rain (because OF COURSE it had to be raining for this) out of the bus station after looking at the map in the guide book. We were trying to figure out what the street signs meant and how to pronounce them...or really, just read them. Finnish makes no sense. So, we were on some street called Manninheisterninshteinium or something like that. Ridiculous. My first impression of Helsinki...HelSTINKY. There was garbage all over the streets near the bus and train stations and the mall across the street. I have never seen so much garbage in my life! Horrible. We later found out that it is filthy in this area because thats where the young folks go. Finland as a whole is actually quite clean. Anyway, the train station was really close, so we immediately went over and put our bags in luggage lockers and began planning our day. We made very good time, going to the olympic stadium and tower from the 1952 Olympics, the National Museum of Finland, three churches (of course), a market, and a couple really nice parks. The nicest thing about Finland is that there are all these random parks and planted flowers around the city. One church is built into the rocks and only the dome is visible. Honestly, it was probably the coolest church Ive ever seen...and you know ive seen churches... Another church we saw was the largest Orthodox Cathedral in Northern and Eastern Europe (pretty boring on the inside). The third church was...well... it was a church.
We met up with Andrew when he arrive in the afternoon. We have basically been walking ever since. We didnt have a hostel planned because Audrey and I were originally supposed to arrive at 10pm, not 530am. So, we havent really slept more than about 2 hours in the past two days.
Some Highlights:
-Aud and I thought we were stuck in the elevator coming down from the Olympic tower...actually, audrey just pressed the wrong button.
-Audrey got stuck in a door... it just closed on her randomly and wouldnt budge.
-We met a very hyperactive American woman and had a nice conversation with her
-We found an AMAZING beach and watched the sunrise
-Finland is really beautiful and the people are really friendly
and last but not least...
-WE ATE REINDEER! and it was delish.

Dosvidanya Russia, Hello Europe!

This week has flown by! School was the usual, kinda boring but not too painful. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings were not TOO exciting; mostly we hung out and went to cafes. I did my laundry at a laundromat here on Monday. They don't let you do your own, you just drop it off, pay, and come back in like 3 hours. It was nice not to do it by hand and wait like a day and a half for everything to dry. On Wednesday, we went on a boat tour of the city, which was really nice despite the crappy weather. The water level was VERY high, so we barely made it through some of the bridges (scary!). We didn't have class on Thursday, only a really short closing ceremony of sorts. We got certificates and our grades. Jess and I of course both kicked ass (we're kind of a big deal...). In the evening, we went to the Marinsky Theater to see Swan Lake! It was UNBELIEVABLE!!! I was absolutely blown away, I can hardly describe it. Needless to say, it was definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip. Friday morning we went to our Program Director, Anna's, house for final grades, evaluation forms and of course delicious pies and tea. She has a beautiful apartment and it was a very nice way to officially end the program. After tea, some of us had a "park day" where we went to a couple very nice, famous parks around the city. First we went to Letney Sad (Summer Gardens), which was slightly different than where Jess and I had gone before. It was gorgeous and the weather was perfect. Aparently, after this summer the gardens will be closed for 5 years, so it was a good thing we went. From there we stopped at the souvenir market again because some people wanted one more thing (I just kinda people watched and enjoyed the weather). Then we all kinda split off and I went, with a friend, to these northern gardens by the Gulf of Finland. They were SO beautiful. There was a large beach at the end of the park looking out at the Gulf. I wish we would've had more time to walk around, but we had to get back for dinner. At 10pm, we all met at the bridge to go out all night for our last night together. I suggested to go to that beach and just watch the sun set and rise. Everyone seemed to be ok with that so we bought some beer and picnic blankets and headed for the beach (it's a long metro ride and walk). There was a HUGE party going on at at the end of the beach so we heard pounding, super loud music the entire night (Russians don't sleep). It was fun though. We just hung out and had a good night together, even though people were cold and tired. It never actually got completely dark which was weird, but cool - It was so beautiful. At about 3:30am, we started a fire which was the highlight of the night. Everyone was warmer and happier then. We also shared a bottle of champagne as the sun was rising. It was so weird that NO ONE cares in Russia about just hangin out at a public beach all night with alcohol and building a fire (that would never happen in America; we would probably be there all of 5 minutes before being kicked out). I got home a little before 7am and slept until about 3pm; I was exhausted! What a good night though. Today I'm just getting ready for Europe. I'm so excited!!! Jess and I leave tonight for an overnight bus to Helsinki, Finland which should be fun. I don't know when or how I will get internet around Europe, but I'll blog when I can. It's really sad to say good-bye to Russia. I feel like it went by really fast although it feels like I've been here for SO long; it's a bitter sweet feeling. I've had SUCH a great time here and look forward to more adventures in Europe!

что сейчас?!

First of all, I forgot to mention last time I blogged that I went to a respectable coffee chain (The Republic of Coffee), and when I paid for my coffee, apparently they didnt have enough change for my modest bill. So, they gave me a...can you guess?... didn't think so...an IOU. Seriously. Like, seriously. An IOU...OMG. It was kind of cool.
Well, Aud talked about what we did in Moscow already so I'm not going to get into that. Moscow is a nice place, but it's a little too crowded and dirty for my taste. It was great seeing Lenin's body --he looks good. It was nice to have a hotel with intense water pressure--it felt like a machine gun of water. It was really great when the shower head fell... ironically on my head. We went to a huge souvenir market where I put my bargaining skills to the test. Turns out, i'm not too good. Nevertheless, I bought some nice things including a beautifully hand-painted laquer box with a shell cover and a tea pot, all the things I need to become a housewife. It was a lot of fun walking around and seeing all the vendors and trinkets, and I was suprised to find out that I understood more Russian than I thought I would AND the vendors spoke to me in Russian (meaning that my accent and skill might not be so bad after all). The train ride to Moscow was lovely. We had air conditioning, a big room, nice beds, nice bathrooms, and...air conditioning. The train ride back to St. Petersburg was slightly less luxurious and slightly more... Soviet. We were basically on a really fast box car with ...no air conditioning, really small uncomfortable beds and room, and a bathroom that could have come out of a 1920s horror film. The toilet emptied directly on to the tracks and you could actually see the tracks moving when you flushed. Okay, enough with bathrooms. When we got back to St. Petersburg we had to go directly to school :(. I have never seen a class so completely out of it before...the teacher anwsering her own questions..come on now. At least I think she was answering her own questions...I was asleep. Advice if you're wondering which city is better...ST. PETERSBURG. They have air conditioning.... I still cant believe they gave me that IOU.

Moscow Nights!

Moscow was a short-lived but REALLY fun trip. We left on a sleeper train for Moscow on Friday night. It was really nice although we all had trouble sleeping. We felt like we were in a Harry Potter movie, lol. We arrived at about 8am and continued with a full day of sight-seeing. We started off with Red Square (St. Basils Cathedral, Gum, Kremlin, etc.) - it was of course awesome. We were able to see the changing of the guards (looks like a clip out of Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks) and LENIN!!! It was unreal. It was some of the strictist security I've gone through and the whole experience was slightly sureal. He looks fake, but of course it's his real body. After the Red Square, we went to a really famous graveyard (can't remember the name) and we saw MANY famous people's grave-stones, including Boris Yeltsin and Shostakovich! From there we went to the hotel to check in. It was a long metro ride. The hotel we stayed in is a part of this tourist hotel complex. They're really nice. I was SO happy for a nice hot shower and a real bed! After a little down-time, we went back to the Red Square, this time to get a full tour of the Kremlin. We saw the largest bell in the world, the largest canon in the world, the presidents quarters and offices, and of course MANY cathedrals. It's a beautiful place with a lot of rich history. After a nice dinner, we went back to the hotel to get ready for the night. We pre-gamed in the hotel and left to go out dancing at Hard Rock Cafe (aparently it's also a dance-club there). Unfortunately the entire city (and country) was stopped for the football game (Russia vs. Holand) and there was no dancing anywhere. After buying some t-shirts anyways, we found a nice cafe to sit and watch the game. Russia won and everyone went crazy (of course)! Overall, it was a REALLY fun night. On Sunday, we had breakfast at the hotel, which was really nice. We toured an AMAZING art gallery (Tretskoye I think it was called) lead by a really sweet old lady. Then we went back to the hotel area for the souvenir shopping trip of a lifetime. We were staying by the biggest open-air souvenir market in the country and bought a lot of really awesome things. The weekend was extremely exhausting so most of us stayed around the area for dinner and to get ready to leave. We took another overnight train back to St. Petersburg (much crappier than the first, which sucked). Some people partied but our cabin pretty much went straight to bed because we're cool like that. We got back around 8am this morning (about 8:30 to our home stays) and had to be at school at 10am, which sucked. There were 3 people there, including me, who actually made it on time. School was ok, but we were all VERY tired. I went to a cafe after school and went to a laundromat with a friend after that. You pay to have people do your laundry here, it's not really self-service. So, I'm currently waiting for my laundry to get done. Tonight we're all staying in because we're all so exhausted. Overall, Moscow was awesome and we all had a great weekend. Less than one week left, then on to Europe!!!

Just another week in Russia...

Hey guys, so for the last couple of days we have been in school. You can guess how much fun that has been. The weather has been pretty crappy. Yesterday I went for a walk along the canal right by my apartment building and this random guy came up to my friend and I and started speaking very fast in Russian. We had absolutely no idea what this guy was saying to us, something about birds and Siberia? Anyway, we said "Da" about 5 or 6 times with a good smile and nod for good measure, and he went on his merry way--thinking he had just enlightened us on Siberian birds.
Some bad news is that there are now other American students in St. Petersburg. Apparently University of Rochester is the only American university that does study abroad in St. Petersburg in June. Now that we're nearing the end of the month, all of the other universities are shipping their students over. These Americans really suck. They're loud, annoying, and generally make me miss home. Personally, I dont consider them true Americans because during their school brake they smoke cigarettes instead of eating...like my group. My group has taken to bringing a large vat of peanutbutter to school, which we all eat with spoons (and the occassional fork when the cafe runs out of spoons). Apparently Russians hate peanutbutter. I asked a Russian why this was and her response was, "we prefer chocolate," to which I responded, "Well, have you ever tried mixing them?" and walked away. Clearly they dont get the food network here... We've been going a lot of restaurants and cafes (generally avoiding Jesus...get it? churches?). Tonight we're planning to go downtown on Nevsky Prospect and pull the infamous all-nighter. We're going to go to a club and then watching the bridges go up, which St. Petersburg is known for. The bridges need to go back down before we can go home...and they go down around 6am. Thus, all-nighter! Also, tomorrow night we set out for Moscow!! We're taking an overnight train to Moscow, staying in a hotel one night, and then taking another overnight train back to St. Petersburg.
A lot of the people from my group have been getting sick--one sinus infection, a few colds, and one food poisoning. Beware of Russian-Chinese Restaurants... Luckily on this day of the chinese restaurant Audrey and I had a magical date in downtown St. Petersburg. We walked around the Summer Gardens (the #3 most romantic spot in St. Petersburg according to the "top 10" guidebook), and ate at the Literary Cafe (the #3 best authentic Russian restaurant according to the guidebook...we actually went there because a random professor we met at the airport suggested it).
I'll update you all after I get back from Moscow! Do svidaniya!

Ok, so you all know about Novgorod and the weekend of touring we had. Since we were SO tired from the long weekend, we all stayed in a basically slept Sunday night, which was nice. Monday started with classes once again (not exactly our favorite part of the trip...I'm sure you're all very surprised). After class, Jess and I went on an afternoon date (we REALLY needed time away from the group). We walked to Letnie Sod (Summer Garden) which was beautiful and the weather was gorgeous. Then we walked around some souvenir shops on the way to Nevsky for lunch. Lunch was good and kinda fancy. We went to a cafe/restaurant that an American we met at the airport had recommended called Cafe Literaturnoye - it was a good recommendation. In the evening, we met up with about half the group and just kinda hung out by the canal. It was really nice weather and we didn't really have any ideas of what to do. Later on, when the mosquitoes started to get to us, we went to a nearby cafe for ice cream and cappuccinos. There was live music and lots of really funny older people dancing - good people watching to say the least. They all wanted us to dance and one guy even offered to pay us to dance (kinda sketch). It was a fun but chill night. Today we had class again. My class has culture day on Tuesdays where we mostly watch movies and talk about holidays and stuff. Two of five people were missing from my class because I guess they were sick of something. Then, at break, Oren, another guy in my class got really sick and ended up needed medical attention. He's ok now, but it was a little scary at the time. It was quite interesting finishing today's class with only two students...whom know the least Russian. After class, Masha took us to St. Issac's Cathedral and we went to the very top to see an amazing view of the city. I took lots of pictures/videos so I'm sure you'll all see them eventually. The group was going somewhere else after that but it's hot out and I'm really kinda sick of sight-seeing and being with the group all the time, so I split off. This weekend is Moscow, which should be a lot of fun so stay tuned for Moscow adventures. Well, I guess that's all for now, I hope you're all enjoying your summer and Jess and I will talk to you soon!

Audrey

We are exactly half done with our study abroad in Russia! Yesterday we went to the city of Novgorod, which is either the oldest or second oldest city in Russia (long story). We saw many wooden churches and also an active monastery built in the 12th century. Audrey and I had to wear skirts and cover our heads when we went in since it was still active and the walls were completely covered with paintings. The monastery was so old the domes weren't onion shaped, they were "helmet" shaped, because that is how they did it back in Constantinople. It was really cool when a true Russian monk walked by. We waved but i think he thought we were being inappropriate...we were. Novgorod is truly a city full of history, the Nazis came in and completely took over the city and burned it to the ground. which is convenient because the city is made out of wood. Most of the original buildings do not exist today but the Russians have done an amazing job restoring the city. We had a very large picnic on the beach and afterwards decided to go to...you guessed it...another church. Novgorod is not exactly close to Petersburg and the bus took 3 hours each way. Listened to basically half my ipod. We went on a nice but extremely dull boat ride that showed us absolutely nothing but water and...more churches. To be fair the church made completely out of wood was cool and made me appreciate not having those anymore.
Today, we went to another church!!! The church of spilled blood, which marks spot where a czar Alexander II was mortally wounded by a suicide bomber...yes a bomber...on the 8th attempt on his life. I wanted to know more about these terrorist in the 1800's but instead we went into the church. This church is not a functioning church and is made entirely out of mosaics because of the humidity along the river. Pictures really cannot describe how beautiful the church really is and it must be seen in person. so... get on it. A cool fact about the church is that during WWII the Nazis dropped a bomb on the church but miraculously it did not detonate. Several men risked their lives to remove the bomb from the roof of the church and detonate it nearby, thus saving the church. Afterwards we walked for about a minute and reached the Russian museum. The museum in arranged in chronological order and it begins with approximately a millennium of icon paintings!!!! Jesus never looked so good. We then moved to Czarist Russian paintings and sculpture. it was really boring and i wanted to leave...and i did. We went and ate blinis. They were good...i love ordering food in Russian. The weather is not the greatest outside but we all are enjoying ourselves. about to run out of time at the internet cafe. talk to you later!
Love,
Jess

Quick update because I'm really tired. Tuesday night Jess and I stayed in and relaxed. Wednesday we had school and went to an awesome piano concert/museum. Wedneday night we went to a local bar because we didn't have school on Thursday (it was Russia Day!). Thursday I went to "Mega" mall with some of the girls (kind of a mistake) and Jess went to Nevsky for a parade and concert I didn't know about (jealous!). Thursday night we went back to the hookah bar which was a lot of fun! Today (Friday) we went to Peterhoff, which was of course amazing. Then tonight we went to a Russian banya!!! It was really relaxing and fun. I uploaded lots of pictures on facebook, so check them out. I will try to write a longer blog next time, but I had a long day today, I have a long day tomorrow and I have to quickly catch a bus home before they stop running for the night. I love you all and hopefully I will talk to you all soon! (Jess sends her love and will update eventually).

Yesterday (Monday) consisted of another boring day of class and freezing cold weather. A group of us got some delicious Italian lunch then went our separate ways. Another Jessie and I decided to go shopping by where I live, where I'd seen a mall - basically, all the shopping sucks here, which may or may not be a good thing. It started to pour buckets and the wind was almost unbearable. I waited for a bus for about 20 minutes because I was not about to walk it that weather. When I finally got home, I slept for like 2.5 hours and kind of ate dinner. A group of us met up later and went to this sweet place by my house to have some beer, ice cream, and hookah - it's a really nice, and very reasonably priced, place and we'll probably go back sometime. I cannot get enough sleep here because I can't get over being sick (this weather is not helping). Anyways, I still got up for school this morning (maybe a bad idea) and suffered through it. My class pretty much just watched a Russian movie. After class we went to this really nice Georgian restaurant with the entire group (paid from program money). It was absolutely delicious. Then we all went to this really awesome cafe for dessert. After the cafe, we sloppily tried to find an internet cafe and were not lead very well. Of course, once we split up, I found one almost immediately. It's way better than the one by our house and I will definitely bring the group back here. It took me a while to figure things out here, but a young boy saw me struggling and totally helped me out - that was nice. Anyways, I think I'm staying in tonight, but the rest of the group is getting together to watch the soccer game on TV. Well, that's all for now, but I'm sure I'll catch you up soon (I'm pretty good at this).

Alright, I haven't talked about Catherine's Palace, aka Tsarskoe Selo, yet, so here it is. On Friday, we went there and it was gorgeous. It's a really big and beautiful palace with a lot of history. Jess and I went there in 2003, but it was one of our favorite parts of the trip so it was nice to go back. It's surrounded by a lot of beautiful gardens in which we saw probably about 30-40 brides and wedding parties; it was rediculous. The palace has been, and still is, going under a lot of restoration because the Nazis severely trashed it during WWII. We were able to see pictures of before destruction, after destruction, and after restoration - it's been a lot of work. One particular room it is known for is the Amber Room, in which is the walls are almost completely covered in pieces of polished amber - it's pretty sweet. I suggest googling Catherine's Palace for pictures, although we will be posting some as well later on. After we got back, I walked home, which pretty much killed me because I was already so exhausted. I showed Raya my photo album of friends and family, which I gave her, and pretty much just went to bed. I didn't go out with the rest of the group that night. Saturday, as Jess said, we went to Peter and Paul's Fortress, which is also really sweet. I didn't dress warm enough and ended up being REALLY cold all day; that sucked. After that, Jess, Jessie, and I split off from the group to go shopping and hang out on our own. We were not sucessful at all shopping because everything is so expensive, but it was fun anyway. After dinner and a short nap, we all met up to go out for the night. We met Masha and Sam (it was Sam's birthday) at Nevsky and did a bit of bar hopping. It was pretty fun until we went back to our respective houses. The buses had stopped running about 10 minutes before, so I had to walk. Now, normally, in tennis shoes, it takes me about 30 minutes to walk to and from my house - throw in heels and taking a wrong turn and we're talking a minimum of 45 minutes, alone, and it being pitch black by the time I get home. I've never been so tired, sore and scared thus far and I've been recovering all day. My feet were completely blistered and cut open and I could hardly walk - basically it REALLY sucked. Anyways, today I slept in, which was really nice. It took me about 2 hours or more to do all my laundry by hand (it's also very tiring). I eventually made it out to our meeting place just in time to basically say goodbye as my group took off to Nevsky (I really didn't wanna go). So, here I am. My feet are well cleaned and bandaged up (although still painful) and I'm going to head back for dinner soon. I'm really glad we had a day off because I feel like just existing in Russia is extremely tiring. I hope everyone at home is well. Feel free to email me, facebook me, etc. Talk to you all soon!

Hey Everyone!
I think Audrey basically said everything that we've done so far so I wont bore you with the details of Catherine's Palace, etc. Today we went to Peter and Paul's Fortress, and saw the places where the royal family is burried (including Nicholas II, the last tzar, and his family). Tomorrow is the first day where we have a free day!! I'm excited. Andrew Pribram put some of our photos into an album online: http://gallery.mac.com/apribram/100033
You can see my apartment, my view of the Gulf of Finland from my room, and a few other pictures. Lastnight we went to a club near our homestays and saw a wedding party (the woman was still in her wedding dress and they were all dancing in the club--super random). Also, some random guy went up on stage and started dancing and undressing. Russians are frickin crazy. Like, seriously. That's basically it here for now. Our days are pretty packed so i'm beat. Goodnight! -Jess

Ok, so I think I'm gonna try to keep my blogs shorter because days are starting to run together. Class was much better on Wednesday. We went to McDonalds after class - it was quite interesting. Then a small group of us went shopping for a sweatshirt/jacket for me because it's freezing here in the morning and I didn't bring enough warm clothes. Malls are pretty cool but very expensive here. Something I found interesting was that there was a gun/sword shop in the middle of the mall. Crazy! We were all very tired and decided to relax at a restaurant in the mall. Our waitress was very nice even though we struggled a bit language-wise. The metro ride home was the craziest rush hour I've ever seen in my entire life! It took us like 20 minutes just to get through the front doors into the station! We finally got home for dinner and met up again later on to go out. We went to Nevsky and walked around FOREVER until we finally found a place to go - we are very indecisive. On the walk, we met a girl, Sam, from England who was here alone for 2 months, so we invited her out with us. She's very cool, is 22 (almost 23!), and has a degree in Russian. At the place we went to, "Klub Sendvich" (aka "Club Sandwich"), we had beer and bought a nice bottle of Russian vodka to take a couple rounds of shots from. I feel like I'm officially welcomed, lol. It was a lot of fun there but we had to get home before the bridge went up and transportation shut down for the night. I got home just fine just as it was turning dark (still weirds me out). Class was good again today, it went by pretty fast. I feel like I'm absorbing more and more every day. We walked to this awesome blini place for lunch which took a while, but it was tasty. Then we split up and went home. Jess showed me her place (it looks like a castle compared to mine) and we went to the internet cafe, which is where I am now. Tonight we plan to see a movie at a theater (of course dubbed in Russian), which should be good. All is well here and I'm having a lot of fun. I uploaded pictures on facebook because I'm not sure I can do that on here. I love you all and I'll talk to you soon!

Well, it's another beautiful day in St. Petersburg, Russia! Audrey and I are now done with our first week of classes! Oorah! We went to lunch at a blini restaurant (Russian crepes)--de-lish. Aud and I are getting pretty good with public transportation and luckily there are a lot of different and easy ways to get around in Petersburg. We take the bus to school in the morning, and usually the metro during the day or at night. The metro stop is just up the street from me and the bus stop is literally directly across the street from my building. I have a very central location. :)
I've been getting along very well with my host family, and my host sister is learning English so we have conversations half in English, half Russian. I help her with English, she helps me with Russian.
Audrey is going to try to load pictures of us so far on facebook and the blog (if possible). That way you'll all be able to see where we live!!
That's basically it from me today. I haven't have the most interesting day so far...sorry.
-Jess

My side of the story.

Hi Everyone!
So, we've been here for almost a week and I love it! My host family is great. I have a really nice, big room with a bed, dresser, desk, couch chair and a terrace-type thing with an overview of a canal and the Gulf of Finland. The apartment is very nice and pretty big. Unlike Audrey, I have a nice shower and bathroom. My host mom, Valentina, is a great cook and she has a daughter, Olga, who is also very nice. Olga is 25 and a pharmacist. Neither of them speak very much English, but I'm able to communicate with them enough to have short conversations about my family, day, etc. I've had a little jetlag the past few days, but it finally seems to be getting better. At least I'm not waking up at 5am anymore.
School is good--we have class from 10am to 1pm Monday through Thursday at the University of St. Petersburg, which is on the Neva River. On the other side of the Neva from the University is the Hermitage Museum. We went tot he Hermitage yesterday and it was amazing! It's absolutely enormous. I was a little more interested in the actual Palace than the art, I must admit. We saw a lot of Rembrandt, two paintings by Da Vinci, and a mummy!!
I had a slightly scary incident at a cafe/bar a couple nights ago. Two old men were drunk and trying to a) force me to dance with them, and b) go home with them. Luckily one of the Americans in our group is actually from Russia and is completely fluent, so after about half an hour he was able to get me away from them and walk me home. Also, a Russian police officer asked me for my phone number and told me I was unlike any women he'd every met (...and he carried with him a loaded, fully automatic weapon). Basically, I'm irrisistible to men...
So, yeah, it's been very good so far. Our days are pretty full with school and excursions, and I cant wait until I can go explore more on my own. So, I think that's about it so far. Everything is great! Love my host family and school so far. I'll try to keep updating the blog more...i've been pretty lazy about walking to the internet cafe...which is less than a block from my apartment...
-Jess

And the learning begins...

Well, I'm just going to continue blogging and hope Jess catches up soon. I'll try to put pictures up eventually, but be patient. So, yesterday (Monday), the group met to go to school together. We were shown around, welcomed, etc. which was fun interesting. We had a surprise entrance oral test which I was very nervous for, but it was fine; I got into the highest of 3 levels of classes! From there we got lunch at one of the cafes which was quite the ordeal because of course everything was in Russian. After lunch we were given our kick-ass student IDs which we have to have on us AT ALL TIMES. Then we were free to go so Jess and I walked around the university area and ended up in a restaurant/pub called "Biergarten". Before we walked in, there was this nameless van and a group of extremely large and scary Russian men all in black with bullet-proof vests and we believe lots of money that came out of that restaurant and into the van. We were slightly taken aback, but walked in anyways. Inside was totally normal, thank God. So, Jess and I just chilled and had a beer and talked. It was nice to get out of the extreme wind and cold (yes, it's FREEZING here). We were both very tired and just went back for dinner and a nap after that. We met the group at 9pm again and decided not to venture far. We went to this karoke bar place that looked like a tent of some sort. It was very fun; we met Russian guys, sang karoke (in English!) and drank some beer. We also ended up talking with 2 policemen with huge guns for like 2 hours and they were SO cool. One was only 22 and very interested in Americans. One of the guys in our group exchanged numbers with him, so we're gonna hang out with him when he's not on duty. It was almost dark when I was waiting to catch the bus and they pulled up in their police car and offered to drive me home. I accepted and felt pretty damn awesome. Needless to say, we totally have connections now if we ever get in trouble. Today, Tuesday, was our first day of school. I got up and caught the right bus just fine. We were early to class which was great, but our teacher was late. My class today consisted of talking a lot about nationality stereotypes and drinking vodka in Russian (very odd class...) I was a bit offended how overwhelmingly negative the American stereotypes were and how amazingly positive the Russian ones were - not something I would've chosen for the first day of a class. Anyways, I already have homework and feel challenged, which is good I suppose. After class, we all got lunch and went to the Hermitage, which is just across the river from our building at the university. IT WAS UNBELIEVABLE. Google it. Seriously. Anyways, I need to go home for dinner now, so I'll blog again soon. Ya lublu vsye i shoslyeva!

Why me?

The flight to St. Petersburg was surprisingly smooth. Amsterdam's airport is sweet. Russian customs didn't take that long and it wasn't that scary from what I remember in 2003. We immediately saw two people with a sign with our names on it - Natasha and Nickolai - both speak English VERY well. They drove us to our host families right away and explained things/answered our questions on the car ride there. I was the first to be dropped off. My apartment building is very typical of Russia, slightly run-down but nonetheless cozy. I live next to a beautiful park and right by the water (Gulf of Finland and some canal) because we're on an island (check out google maps). The building is VERY scary and I have to walk up about 5 or 6 flights of stairs to get to my apartment. There are 3 dead-bolt doors with crazy keys (I have my own set) to get inside. I have a small cot to sleep on and no dresser. The bath tub (no shower) is in the kitchen - it also serves as the kitchen table when a board is on top of it. The toilet is in the smallest room I've ever seen (my knees barely fit inside the door). My host mom is a nice, short old lady named Raya. She speaks no English but we've had really lengthy conversations with minimal problems with language (I'm that awesome). Yesterday, when I got there, she showed me around VERY quick; I had to jump right into Russian (AHHH!), fed me, and took me to where we were supposed to meet my group. We took a bus and Raya wrote down her address, phone numbers and possible buses to take for me. All was good. We met the group, the students and leaders went to a sweet coffee/bar/cafe to sit and talk for a while (I had amazing ice cream and Kvas which was just ok). I went to wait at the bus stop on the way home, caught a bus that Raya said would work, talked to the bus driver and he let me off at what he THOUGHT was my neighborhood. WRONG. I had NO idea where I was. It was 11pm and totally light out, luckily. I started to freak out and asked a group of young nice Russians to help me. I of course started crying (why me?!) and they just smiled and told me to stop crying, it was gonna be ok. They called Raya and we agreed on a meeting place. They sent me in a minivan taxi thing to the stop I was supposed to meet Raya at and I got out of the van. Raya was nowhere to be seen. I waited about 20 minutes, and walked back to the apartment - Raya wasn't there. So, I left to go search for her. After another 15 minutes or so, I gave up because it started to get dark. I went back to the apartment and called her cell from her land line. Raya came back and we talked for about the next hour or so about what happened while she fed me (Russians like food a lot). She said that she told the people I was with to have me meet her at a slightly different spot about a block away. Oops. I felt bad but she said it was fine and that I would get to know the area soon. She explained the layout of the city and drew me a map. Finally, at about 1:30am, I went to bed. I was EXHAUSTED. This morning, I got up late, but it was fine. I attempted to take a bath (in brown water...) - what an experience. I got to the meeting spot today just fine by myself (early, in fact!) and had time to go to the grocery store, which was fun and very different. We went on a tour of the city today which was AMAZING. St. Petersburg is unbelievable. After the tour, Natasha and Nickolai helped me get a phone, which is great. It's MUCH cheaper than the U.S. and I can call Natasha and Raya for REALLY cheap, which is great. Overall, I've had a great experience in my first day or so here. I love Russia and I feel very independent and self-sufficient; I feel like I'm mostly prepared on the language end of things. I'm going out tonight with the group and start school tomorrow (yay!). I hope to put some pictures on here as well so you can all see what life is like here. I'll try to blog every couple days or so, so keep up! Jess will have different experiences, so this blog page should be quite interesting. I love you all, please keep in touch! Uvidyemcya!