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!