Getting to St. Petersburg and my hotel
was actually more exciting and full of adventure than I had
envisioned. As I expected, nothing noteworthy happened on my flight
from Salt Lake to New York but at New York I had to switch terminals.
The second I got into the international part of the airport the whole
atmosphere changed. It felt almost as if I had already stepped onto
foreign ground. I found the line for Aeroflot airlines and
immediately was surrounded by Russians. I was standing in line,
patiently waiting my turn, when one of the airline personnel came up
to me and motioned for me to follow. Apparently she had decided that
she would help me before the other people in line. Ya, I don't know
why. Basically from the time forward I only heard Russian in the
airport since it seemed that I was the only American on the flight to
Moscow.
After sitting in the airplane, which
hadn't left the airport yet, for over an hour I decided to try to
talk to the girl sitting next to me. She seemed to be in her 20's and
looked nice so I gave it a go. We talked for maybe 2 minutes before I
had exhausted my entire vocabulary. At this point we switched to
English which she spoke perfectly. Thanks to her I actually had a
very pleasant 10 hour flight and as we were landing she even gave me
her number just in case I missed my flight since we were arriving
late.
Going through customs/immigration is
definitely a nerve wracking thing. When I went to Canada they grilled
me about where I was going, what I would do, and even about how they
hated the place I was going to. I expected the same from the
Russians, only much much worse. After waiting in line for only a few
minutes I was in front of the immigration officer wondering what
would happen next. She looked at my passport then looked up at me.
You could see in her eyes that something was wrong. She kept
switching between me and the passport without saying a word. Finally
she decided that the photo of the bearded, long haired hooligan in
the passport was in fact me and let me through.
The next piece of excitement came when
I arrived in St. Petersburg. I quickly bought a phone, which they
promised could call the US (they lied), and called Anatoly. He picked
me up with the craziest cab driver in the world. Actually, this cab
driver seemed quite sane but he drove like he was trying to run from
the cops. As I sat in the back seat I literally felt like I was in a
Fast and Furious movie, it was both terrifying and exhilarating.
Afterward, Anatoly told me that the cab driver had the “Russian
gangster” style of driving. Well, after driving like that, I
understand why people are so terrified of the Russian Mob.
After getting settled in my room with
my two Vietnamese roommates Anatoly and I walked around the city. He
gave me a quick overview of the center of the city and it was quite
nice. I was exhausted from all the travel then all the walking but it
didn't seem to be very late yet. Even though I thought it must only
be 7 or 8 o'clock Anatoly took me back to my room. He said it was
because I was going to get cold since I didn't have a jacket on. It
wasn't until he made that comment that I realized something: I was
literally the only person in the entire city who wasn't wearing a
jacket. These Russians all wear a jacket and they all have some sort
of bag. Even the men all have a bag, the man purse is alive and well
here in St. Petersburg. Turns out we got back around 10:30, these
white nights can be deceiving. It literally doesn't get dark until
after midnight.
The next day I began the process of
getting placed in a class and getting my passport registered. I
walked to my class and was able to find what I assume is the director
of classes. I talked to her for no more than 2 minutes before one of
the teachers took me away. He was the teacher of group 5, which is
the lowest level of study. We talked for about 20 minutes and I was
amazed by the amount he knew about Salt Lake. He talked about the
Utah Jazz and even knew about Kirilenko. He complimented me on my
accent and then told me to try out the different groups to find out
which one I was most comfortable in. After 20 minutes of group 5 I
knew that there was no way I could be in any other group. When I got
back from class it couldn't have been past 6:00pm but I instantly
fell asleep. I woke up around 11 and my roommates invited me to eat
with them. We had a dinner of something like ham, rice, bread, and
vodka.
On Wednesday, Marguerite (one of my
three classmates) introduced me to some of the other students. She is
from Switzerland and has been here since February. When she showed up
all she knew how to do was read, talk about being brave. Luckily, or
perhaps unfortunately(?), all the international students speak
English. This makes it so I actually have someone I can communicate
with and it also means I don't have to speak Russian all the time.
(In case you were worried, I can only speak Russian with my roommates
since they are Vietnamese and only one of them speaks any English).
I think the general consensus among the
foreigners is that the food in St. P sucks. Instead of saying that a
restaurant has good food they say it isn't disgusting and overpriced.
Talk about inspiring confidence. On that note, the other day
Marguerite invited me to go to a restaurant called Teplo (warm) with
her, Fanni, and some other people. (Both Marguerite and Fanni are
Swiss). We shared a bottle of wine and bottle of water between the 5
of us, (yes you have to pay for water), and I order beef stroganoff
and a chocolate dessert. It ended up being about 1000 ($33) rubles
for each of us, which apparently is a pretty good price.
You know, I'm starting to believe that
living in the hotel is a great way to not need to really know any
Russian. Who knows if I will actually improve at all here in St. P
but I'm having a great time exploring the city and getting to know
these other foreigners. The Finns invited me to go to a bar with them
later and watch a hockey game between Finland and Russia so I guess
that's kind of Russia, right? Hockey and Russia.. it sounds very
Russian to me.
Next up. Pictures.
До свидания мои
друзья!
