Big Post to cover the last few days. I have been so busy and never found the time to completely finish any of the daily posts until now.
Aug 29th
Day Tour of St. Petersburg.
Today we had a bus tour of the major sights of the city. While it was interesting to see it all, the bus moved so fast and we saw so many things that I could not really take in any of it.
We did have a great short stop at the St. Peter and Paul Fortress. It was a very cool place, on my list of places I will return to. We spent the rest of the day going around to the major sightsaround the city, mostly to find where they where and not really to see them.
We then went on a walking tour of area around our IMOP building to find all the exciting food and stores in our area. So far I am a bit concerned with a dearth of restaurants to buy food at, I am fine cooking some meals a day, but doing it every day for every meal may get quite annoying. Time to go out and explore more, but I need more Russian to be able to do it correctly.
A few first observations about Russia:
Supermarkets- They are not as bad as I know they could be, however they offer quite a limited selection of most things. But food is very inexpensive, so it all works out in the end.
Change- ATMs here pay out in 1000 or 500 ruble notes, but stores will give you a hard time unless you basically pay in exact change or near enough to it. So far I have been ok, but now my money will be mostly coming in 1000 Rubble notes, which can be hard to break unless I buy quite a bit of stuff at once. This is going to be interesting, but I am sure I will find some place to do so soon. Stuff is so inexpensive here, bread, a dozen eggs, juice or 2 liter bottles of water for all lees then a dollar. I have only spent about 1000 rubles to get all of the food I have eaten and equipment for the room.
Water- Buying and using massive amounts of bottled water is not fun. Period. Having to use it for teeth brushing and to use for everything food related is not very much fun. Even less fun, carrying 4, 2 liter bottles bought across the street and up 3 flights of stairs.
Light- It stays light until past 9:30 here as well, quite very convenient. This will change very soon however as we get closer to the very short days at the end of the year.
So much more happened today but it’s hard to get it all down, the important and cool things will come back in later posts I can assure you.
Aug 30th
This Russian Placement Test- It was not very much fun, to say the least. It was almost all vocab based, mostly with words I did not know. Unfortunately my language class was almost entirely grammar based. Hopefully I will get the right class, but I am not super worried about it. After that we hung out in the dorms waiting for the first year Russian students to finish their first class and we could get on with our activity for the day.
Our activity of the day was a walking tour of Nevsky Prospect the main street of St. Petersburg. Most of the big monuments of the city, the best stores and the most interesting things happen along this street. And this is the place I know I will be returning to the most often. More on it later when I understand and have explored it better.
The end of the day brought the Теремок restaurant for БЛИНЫ (Blini). For those of you who don’t know what that is, think crepe. They are not as sweet as crepes and have even crazier flavor combos available. I had one with chicken and cream sauce and another with strawberry jam. Both where very good, cheep and filling. I am luck that this is one of the largest Russian fast food chains both as restaurants and as little kiosks and they are all over the city including about a block from our building.
I will need to find more places like this, it was great fun to try and figure out the menu in another language while I was hungry. I ended up ordering with the words I knew, not what I thought would taste the best, but I will only get better.
Tonight, 7 of the guys from our group and I decided to go play some soccer down at a rather nice turf field the university has near us. Turf in Russia is much different than in the US, the “grass” is very short and has gravel under it instead of rubber like on US turf. And on one side of this field is what we think is an abandoned power transformer station which is rusting and looks like something in a post apocalyptic movie, what a great atmosphere! But we had quite a bit of fun in the 49 degree night air.
I am also finding that I am learning quite a bit from the American students on the trip. I have spent much more time talking with them then with Russians, but the differences between us as Americans can sometimes seem to be even greater then between myself and Russians. As a Californian we have a very specific way of life and view of the world which can, at times, be very different from other Americans. I realize now that I have encountered far more foreigners and been to many more places then quite a few of the people here. These experiences have helped me a lot and prepared me for this trip more then I could have imagined beforehand.
Aug 31st
Class started today, it’s going to be good I think, 5 people in my class and 2 instructors who alternate days. I am in the level I wanted to be in, and was able to fit right in with the rest of the class in terms of abilities. The professor started with verbal exercises in the form of a getting to know us and her exercise. I was weaker at this then I would have liked, but later when we had to do reading and translation I was very well prepared for it and excelled.
That also reminds me I need to pick my electives now, thinking now of 2 history classes as my electives but not sure what of the 3 offered courses I will take.
Surprisingly I was able to order lunch and to buy school supplies from behind a counter completely in Russian today. Both where almost textbook conversations, which made it simpler of course, but still it’s a good feeling to know enough to be able to do something useful with the language. It was the real highlight of my day, and really does validate my study so far of Russian. My 100 rubble (3 dollar) lunch at Теремок (this one or local kiosk version) was very good, this time I just went with the cheese one, and tried the chocolate one as well. Both where very good.
In fact, why can’t we have this kind of fast food at home I ask you?
By now I have gotten the layout and availability of foodstuffs at the grocery store, I know to answer when they ask in Russian if you want a bag for your groceries (they charge of them), and I have been able to buy enough food to eat well quite cheaply. I have my great Russian Bread, tea and kasha for breakfast and meats and cheeses for lunch or dinner and quite a selection of waters and juices. I intend to have at least one large restaurant meal a day though, it’s too inexpensive not to! And I did not come all the way to Russia to spend 3 hours a day cooking and cleaning!
We tried to play soccer again today but could not really find a good place to do so despite an hour of attempting to do so. But we ran around and had some good social time in the area around the IMOP building and that’s what really matters.
Aug 29th
Day Tour of St. Petersburg.
Today we had a bus tour of the major sights of the city. While it was interesting to see it all, the bus moved so fast and we saw so many things that I could not really take in any of it.
We did have a great short stop at the St. Peter and Paul Fortress. It was a very cool place, on my list of places I will return to. We spent the rest of the day going around to the major sightsaround the city, mostly to find where they where and not really to see them.
A few first observations about Russia:
Supermarkets- They are not as bad as I know they could be, however they offer quite a limited selection of most things. But food is very inexpensive, so it all works out in the end.
Change- ATMs here pay out in 1000 or 500 ruble notes, but stores will give you a hard time unless you basically pay in exact change or near enough to it. So far I have been ok, but now my money will be mostly coming in 1000 Rubble notes, which can be hard to break unless I buy quite a bit of stuff at once. This is going to be interesting, but I am sure I will find some place to do so soon. Stuff is so inexpensive here, bread, a dozen eggs, juice or 2 liter bottles of water for all lees then a dollar. I have only spent about 1000 rubles to get all of the food I have eaten and equipment for the room.
Water- Buying and using massive amounts of bottled water is not fun. Period. Having to use it for teeth brushing and to use for everything food related is not very much fun. Even less fun, carrying 4, 2 liter bottles bought across the street and up 3 flights of stairs.
Light- It stays light until past 9:30 here as well, quite very convenient. This will change very soon however as we get closer to the very short days at the end of the year.
So much more happened today but it’s hard to get it all down, the important and cool things will come back in later posts I can assure you.
Aug 30th
This Russian Placement Test- It was not very much fun, to say the least. It was almost all vocab based, mostly with words I did not know. Unfortunately my language class was almost entirely grammar based. Hopefully I will get the right class, but I am not super worried about it. After that we hung out in the dorms waiting for the first year Russian students to finish their first class and we could get on with our activity for the day.
Our activity of the day was a walking tour of Nevsky Prospect the main street of St. Petersburg. Most of the big monuments of the city, the best stores and the most interesting things happen along this street. And this is the place I know I will be returning to the most often. More on it later when I understand and have explored it better.
The end of the day brought the Теремок restaurant for БЛИНЫ (Blini). For those of you who don’t know what that is, think crepe. They are not as sweet as crepes and have even crazier flavor combos available. I had one with chicken and cream sauce and another with strawberry jam. Both where very good, cheep and filling. I am luck that this is one of the largest Russian fast food chains both as restaurants and as little kiosks and they are all over the city including about a block from our building.
I will need to find more places like this, it was great fun to try and figure out the menu in another language while I was hungry. I ended up ordering with the words I knew, not what I thought would taste the best, but I will only get better.
Tonight, 7 of the guys from our group and I decided to go play some soccer down at a rather nice turf field the university has near us. Turf in Russia is much different than in the US, the “grass” is very short and has gravel under it instead of rubber like on US turf. And on one side of this field is what we think is an abandoned power transformer station which is rusting and looks like something in a post apocalyptic movie, what a great atmosphere! But we had quite a bit of fun in the 49 degree night air.
I am also finding that I am learning quite a bit from the American students on the trip. I have spent much more time talking with them then with Russians, but the differences between us as Americans can sometimes seem to be even greater then between myself and Russians. As a Californian we have a very specific way of life and view of the world which can, at times, be very different from other Americans. I realize now that I have encountered far more foreigners and been to many more places then quite a few of the people here. These experiences have helped me a lot and prepared me for this trip more then I could have imagined beforehand.
Aug 31st
Class started today, it’s going to be good I think, 5 people in my class and 2 instructors who alternate days. I am in the level I wanted to be in, and was able to fit right in with the rest of the class in terms of abilities. The professor started with verbal exercises in the form of a getting to know us and her exercise. I was weaker at this then I would have liked, but later when we had to do reading and translation I was very well prepared for it and excelled.
That also reminds me I need to pick my electives now, thinking now of 2 history classes as my electives but not sure what of the 3 offered courses I will take.
Surprisingly I was able to order lunch and to buy school supplies from behind a counter completely in Russian today. Both where almost textbook conversations, which made it simpler of course, but still it’s a good feeling to know enough to be able to do something useful with the language. It was the real highlight of my day, and really does validate my study so far of Russian. My 100 rubble (3 dollar) lunch at Теремок (this one or local kiosk version) was very good, this time I just went with the cheese one, and tried the chocolate one as well. Both where very good.
In fact, why can’t we have this kind of fast food at home I ask you?
By now I have gotten the layout and availability of foodstuffs at the grocery store, I know to answer when they ask in Russian if you want a bag for your groceries (they charge of them), and I have been able to buy enough food to eat well quite cheaply. I have my great Russian Bread, tea and kasha for breakfast and meats and cheeses for lunch or dinner and quite a selection of waters and juices. I intend to have at least one large restaurant meal a day though, it’s too inexpensive not to! And I did not come all the way to Russia to spend 3 hours a day cooking and cleaning!
We tried to play soccer again today but could not really find a good place to do so despite an hour of attempting to do so. But we ran around and had some good social time in the area around the IMOP building and that’s what really matters.
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