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