Scavenger hunt day!

Today our resident director (Nathan from here on out) paired us up with the students on the year-long program and sent us on a scavenger hunt through the city. The first task was to figure out how long the metro is open during the day. We decided to take the metro so I could get used to it. I went up to the window and ordered "пять жетон"( 5 tokens). I gave her my rubles and she asked if I had anything smaller. When I told her I didn't she stared at me, then proceeded to roll her eyes before giving me change. First time on the metro, by the way=terrifying. Another metro story to come.

The next task was to go purchase my Russian cell phone. Not only did I get to buy a cell phone, I got to experience my first interaction with a drunk Russian. He was wearing the ugliest purple hat I have ever seen and tried to steal a movie. He was saying "Американски девушки" (American Girls) over and over. Good thing the cell phone guy Римель was so nice with helping me, or figuring out how to buy a cell phone while simultaneously being worried about the drunk guy behind me would have been quite difficult.

Then we went to Московский Вокзал (the train station to Moscow) where I had to text Nathan the answer to the question "What famous statue is in the Moscow Train station?" Answer: Peter the Great. I was wondering when I'd see a statue of him.

On the way to our next stop, the med clinic, we got lost in a park. Plus side: ADORABLE RUSSIAN CHILDREN sledding. Russian kids are so cute. And they are all bundled up and can hardly walk, adding to their cuteness. See below.



Finding our way around was not so fun:


After coming back to the dorm (we were 30 minutes late, but one of the only groups to FINISH the scavenger hunt=win), my friend Nina and myself decided to explore the city. Goal: to buy hairdryers (American ones don't work well with converters, and as you all know I don't have the best luck with converters). The store with cheap hairdryers was quite far away, and being semi-afraid of the metro still, we wanted to walk. Well, after wandering down Nevski Prospect for a while with no luck, we had no other option. While figuring out what stop we needed, Nina accidentally smiled at what turned out to be a drunk Russian man-- he walked closer and gave her this creepy "hey babe" type of look. She quickly turned and we gtfo'ed.(Got the frick out).

Got of the metro and found some 'Murrica: MCDONALDS!! Another ordering experience from hell... I walked up to the counter and said in my BEST Russian accent: Чикен Макнуггетс" Literally " Chicken Mcnuggets". This Mcdonalds lady was again very impatient (Noticing a pattern here?) She said something I couldn't understand so naturally I just said "Da". I thought I ordered a combo, but nope. Ended up with 6 nuggets and was too afraid to try and order more. Quite amusing, really...Positive thing: They were playing Lady Gaga in the restaurant.





Adorable Russian girl CHOWING DOWN on a big mac.


Then somehow we found the mall with the electronics store (although we didn't know that while we first walked in). We went into some young hip accessory store and decided to ask them semi-friendly looking Russian women where we can find the store with the hair dryers. WOULD have been easier if we knew the word for hair dryer. She didn't understand so I decided to play charades. I pointed to my hair, said "волосы"(hair) and then waved my hand around my head and went "vroooooooooom vroooooooom". She started laughing and said "AH!, фен!" Went through all of that trouble for a 3 LETTER WORD.

Found the store, just 5 minutes before it closed. Oh and by the way, the store was called El Dorado.. what the heck?

FINALLY, while leaving the mall, some Russian boys must have heard us speaking english, because they yelled, in English (heavy Russian accent): " GIRLS. I LIKE YOU". Again, amusing...

Crazy day to say the least. Here are some more random pictures.

Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, or Спас На Крови


Me in front of Спас На Крови


In Soviet Russia, vacuum sucks YOUUUUUU. OLD vacuum. I'm surprised it works.

Good things today: Successfully ordered two meals without them asking me to repeat myself. (We're gonna forget the McDonalds incident) Rode the metro AND a bus, and bought a cell phone. Also got to know the city a bit better. And by the way, the temperature was in the negatives all day.

Meet my host family tomorrow and move in! They don't have internet so I won't be able to update for a while. Until then, пока!

Pics from Day 1

Here are some random photos I took from my first day in St. Pete!


St. Pete Airport


Driving downtown St. Pete, I think this is Московский Проспект


Old Soviet-Like dorm rooms that we're staying in until Sunday


....aaaaand the bathroom. Notice the practically cardboard toilet paper? Awesome...




SNACKS! Best part of the day. Notice the sweet mountain dew bottles.


Hope you enjoy. There will definitely be more to come.

Lesson learned today after my failed attempt to order a meal: The difference between fizzy and non-fizzy water. С газом или без газа. I ended up with с газом (fizzy) when I wanted без газа. Next time..
Oh, and I also learned that you don't need to use the big chunky block convertor to plug in your stuff.. just the adaptor. I figured this out after it started sparking and smoking. YIKES. Had to go get the Resident Director to save the day.
Don't worry though, I didn't burn down the building.

Needless to say, I've already learned a lot, and on no sleep. Time for bed. Спокойной Ночи!

In St. Pete

I'm writing this in my temporary dorm... and stealing wifi from some hotel across the street. Sneaky...

Today (well, I guess the past two days) have been NUTS. The flight to Frankfurt seemed about 37 hours.. luckily the girl I sat next to shared my love of Michael Jackson and the airplane was showing his movie "This is it". I did not get up for the entire flight, and when I stood up after landing I almost fell over. Embarrassing!

We landed in Frankfurt at 730, our plane to St. Pete was leaving at 810.. so here are 20 some American Students SPRINTING through the airport with the grumpy Germans judging us along the way. Don't worry though, we made it in time.

But.. our baggage didn't. It was actually a blessing in disguise because I got a chance to use my sub-par Russian to tell the baggage people that my bag was missing. They call you in one by one into this room and I felt like I was about to be interrogated because they make you close the door behind you and the Russian ladies stare at you like you're the worst thing that ever happened to them. Luckily one of the program directors was in there and when my Russian went to hell all I did was look at her and she came to my rescue. I did manage to tell her: "orange bag. very big"

After that was done I made the mistake of accidentally making eye-contact with an older Russian man. He did not like that, as he stared at me until he left building. Yikes. Mental note: Russia has a lot of Russians. You don't need to look at all of them.

Then we got on this old Soviet Style bus and headed to the dorms. The males insisted on taking all the ladies' luggage and putting it on the bus. American boys take note: Chivalry is not dead. There is hope for you.

As we were driving through St. Pete, we saw the statue of Lenin... and there were Soviet Flags EVERYWHERE. I guess the anniversary of the blockade was yesterday. I took some pictures and I would upload them for you but as my DePuglio luck would have it my battery died. And I can't find any outlets in this dorm.

After driving for a while I fell asleep. I've got BAD jet-lag. It's only 4pm and our day isn't over until around 9. Also I feel very gross.

Ok that's all for now. Добры Утро (Good Morning) to those of you in America!

Here goes nothing!

Well here goes! Leaving 'Murrica tomorrow at 5pm, landing in Deutschland at 7am, one hour layover, then getting into St. Pete at 1pm. From there we will drop our stuff off at a temporary dorm, and walk the city "until our feet fall off"-according to my Resident Director. Sunday our host families will pick us up, and Monday we start school.

Some things I learned at my pre-departure orientation:
-Avoid the police. They are often times drunk and will try to steal money from you. Awesome!
-Boil your water before you drink it. (Do they sell Brita in Russia???)
-Apparently Russians like to eat tongue, jellied meat, and liver. Нет, спасибо!!
-When you're walking through the streets put on your 'poker face' ( I KNEW my Lady Gaga obsession would come in handy!) aka, "look like you hate everyone"- again, according to my Resident Director
-Russian teachers aren't afraid of asking you personal questions. They love to scold girls for having wet hair (Looks like I'm in trouble)
-Watch out pools of boiling water in the street...?? (I guess thats only Moscow though)
-If you get lost, try and only ask older women (Бабушки) for directions. If they are speaking too quickly, catch the first thing they say, follow that direction, then find another бабушка, and so on so forth until you reach your destination! Its like GPS, old-Russian lady style.

A little bit about my host family:
- I'm living with 3 generations of females- Sasha, the mom is 34 and works as a manager at a university. Her mother, Tatiana is 65 and keeps the house as well as looks after Sasha's daughter, Anastasia, who is 5. Sasha's brother and family live close and visit often. Apparently Anastasia is very high energy and loves horses. Her mind is about to be BLOWN by this sweet "My Little Pony" I'm giving her.


Class Schedule:
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, I'm in class pretty much from 930-330. (One hour lunch break! YUS) Wednesday is "excursion day" where we visit different museums, etc.

I'm taking: Grammar, phonetics, syntax, history, and politics. ALLL in Russian. If they hear you speaking English on campus grounds, or on excursions, they'll knock your grade down half a letter.

WELL I think thats enough for tonight- I'm going to enjoy my last night in the good ol' US of A by jamming to MJ and Lady Gaga with my roommates.

Nervous for St. Pete! (The roommies Jess and Cornelia)