This past week was the start of classes. Конечно. I mentioned that last time. Geez Caitie, that's old news. So sorry - all that Russian messes with my head. Worse today, as my host mom was showing me pictures from her family trips and was talking about France. The English and the Russian and the French were all crossing in my head and I dearly hoped, что я говорила une langue seulemente. Not some sort of Frenglian; that would be weird. And kinda unintelligible, even though it makes complete sense in my head.
So new news: I had one major mishap, and two excursions since I've been gone. My major mishap was that Russia doesn't want to give me money. Not surprising. No one ever wants to simply hand over money. But I had a travel debit card, and the cash I exchanged at the orientation hotel by the airport was running low. And I need things, like lunch and the internet and an emergency chocolate supply. My card worked fine at a giant grocery store, where I stocked up on bottled water. You know, since I can't drink the tap water here?
So much water
Looks like overkill, right? The smaller bottle is one I got out of the vending machines at Smolney. The larger one is 1.5 liters and cost exactly the same. The difference being that I bought that giant bottle at a grocery store (and it'll last me for maybe a week). Best thing ever - it only cost $1. How great is that? Great, right?
Wait, where was I before this? Oh right. Money problems. Sorry.
I bought lots of water at the grocery store and used my card and thought nothing of it. Bad idea. For the rest of the week I was fighting with ATMs trying to get them to give me more money. All the start-up costs here in St. Petersburg (like buying the program phone and a metro card) really ate into my original rouble supply. For some reason, all ATMs were rejecting my card, but only after they let me go through the whole set of screens for how much money I wanted dispensed. Rude. Then it got rejected at a smaller grocery store (продукты) I called the card company and they told me my card was locked because the PIN number had been tried too many times.
I still think that's a load of bullshit, since the ATMs never gave me money and the PIN was always correct. But anyway, I tried an ATM over the weekend and IT GAVE ME MONEY!!!!! The day is saved, no thanks to the travel card company.
Now on to awesome weekend adventures!!
Saturday was an adventure in both Russian culture and the minute layout of St. Petersburg. CIEE had a scavenger hunt set for Saturday. One of the girls who lives near me met me at the metro and we metro'd and walked to one of the most famous museums here in St. Petersburg - the Hermitage. Beautiful, beautiful building.
.......but we didn't go inside. Not then, anyway. About half the people on the program remembered that there was a scavenger hunt that morning, and my friend and I got there waaaaaaay early, so we did the tourist-y thing.
Gratuitous pictures of Caitie. Not sorry at all
That second one's a bit blurry, but you get the picture. I also have a million other ones of the square, the horses on top of the gate, the Winter Palace (that pretty green and white building), and the obelisk. When more people finally showed up, one of the program coordinators split everyone up into their scavenger hunt groups. The prize: tickets to the ballet.
The items to find were definitely not what anyone was expecting. First and foremost, my team needed to find the new CIEE administrative office and collect a 2 liter bottle of water (and accept any and all tea and candies). There were several items we needed to photograph, a couple videos to be taken, and a few things to collect - all teams were to meet up at the train station at 3pm.
We ran around for HOURS looking for these things. We ate these awesome donut/fried dough rings called pishki (пышки), drank bread flavored soda (ick), videoed one of the guys in my group dancing to Katyusha (one of the most stereotypical Russian songs ever), photographed a ticket booth in a particular store, got a tram ticket, photographed a Russian mosque, videoed a group member paying for one of Russia's group taxis (marshrutka), and find four very out of the way bridges, among other things. Wow. Long sentence. Anyhow, we split up towards the end to make a last ditch effort to get everything. Everything I listed in that ridiculously long sentence are items we did get. Unfortunately, we didn't get everything on the list. On top of that, because our group split up, half of us were 15 minutes late to the finish line - we were almost disqualified. As it was, we came in second. It was still fun, and I got to see more of St. Petersburg in 3 hours than I have in the entire time I've been here. At the time though, all I could think of was that my feet were killing me and we came in second.
On the bright side, I was the one that got photographed on all four bridges. And they were really pretty bridges, too.
One of the four awesome bridges. This one had lions on it.
So that was adventure number 1. I returned home that afternoon, maybe around 5ish, and made the enormous mistake of asking my host mom if I could have some water with a lemon wedge in it. I wasn't home for lunch, and I had assumed that it would be obvious that I had eaten some sort of food while I was out. After all, it was 5pm - I left at 10am. It seemed like a safe assumption.
Nope. Yulia's thought process seemed to be as follows: Caitie wasn't home for lunch. She says she ate food. I don't think she had lunch. I should make her lunch. *bustles around the kitchen* Here Caitie, have some lunch.
In moments I had before me fish soup with cabbage, kielbasa links that looked like hot dogs, more cabbage (this time cooked and kinda tomato-y), and toast. Oh, and tea. You can't forget the tea here, it goes with literally everything. So I had a full dinner spread at 5pm. And it was lunch. I ate very little of it and politely asked if I could save it for later (since Russians do not throw away any food). Yulia now calls me her little bird, complaining that I don't eat enough. I'm really very sorry. I'm just not a 17 year old boy - I don't eat three meals crammed into one.
There was a full dinner a few hours later, and I took just a bit of that too. I mean, she cooked it special in honor of the Olympics, and it would be rude not to eat. Just look at it.
Five rings for the Olympics
Those oranges were delicious, by the way. And they're trucked in from Sochi. Yulia and I were kinda annoyed at her husband, as we were eating the orange slices around the edges and leaving the five in the center alone - he just reached over and grabbed a middle one before all the edge slices were gone. For shame, Vladimir Nikolaevich. For shame.
I almost feel like there should be an intermission here. It's a super long post, I know. Adventure number 1 is finished, adventure number 2 has yet to be told. If you need to refill that mug of hot chocolate, or take a bathroom break, now's the time. All good?? Great. Moving on.
Adventure number 2 was a tour of the Hermitage on Sunday. So that beautiful green and white palace from waaaaaaaaay at the beginning of this post?? That is the museum, or a part of it at least. It reminds me very much of Versailles, and indeed, the Winter Palace is modeled after the famous French palace. However, I like the Winter Palace much better - it's decked out in a better mix of colors, and I can actually picture people at court wandering the halls. Versailles is so much more frivolous, and there isn't nearly the same level of artistry and care put into the building itself as in the Winter Palace. At least, I don't remember Versailles having the same level of artistic detail, and I don't have pictures from that trip that come close to what I saw going through the Hermitage.
Look.
At.
All.
This.
Detailing.
I have a million and one pictures of ceilings, of doors, chandeliers and skylights. Literally every detail here is so beautifully crafted. The tsars had excellent taste in their palaces. The same goes for their artwork. The collection at the Hermitage is quite extensive, covering all the major Renaissance artists, ancient Greek and Egyptian relics, statues from every era, and enormous vases and furniture carved of malachite and lapis lazuli. There were entire sets of rooms devoted to artists from different countries, including Italian and Spanish artists. There was even a statue carved by Michelangelo himself - it was very rough cut, but supposedly he created it in 3 days as he sought refuge in a monastery. It was his way of saying thanks, I guess. The entire collection was quite impressive, and I only saw a part of what is housed at the Hermitage. More adventures to come, perhaps later in the semester when the weather is warmer and the Neva River isn't frozen over. There were some lovely views of the river from the Winter Palace, but the slabs of brownish ice are a harsh contrast to the artwork within the palace walls.
I went with some friends to get more pishki after the tour before making my way home. One of my friends and I ducked into a little grocery store by our home metro station, the very same one that rejected my card last week, and picked up some general snacks for the week. I also grabbed some juice - multi-fruit cocktails are excellent here, so I brought a bottle home with me. Mmmmm it was delicious.......
Anyhow, that was my weekend of adventures!! And look - you made it through!! Well done. For those who have been asking and asking after pictures of where I'm staying, of my school, and of my host family, those are on the way. Next post, I swear.
Sounds like fun! How come you eat things like fish soup and cabbage when you're there, but complain about your food choices when you're at home? Just kidding... sort of.
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