June 15, 2007 || First Day of Class/Walking with Masha/The Great-Grandkids!

June 15, 2007

I’d be happy to use the toilet seat covers mom made me bring, if only I could find public toilets with seats to cover! A better investment would’ve been travel-size toilet paper. I packed all wrong for this trip, and brought way too much (more batteries, less dress clothes)…the only consolation is that when I go home, my bags will be lighter by half.

So, left to my own devices and given a space of my own, I am super-anal about keeping it neat (who’d have thought?). I spend at least 30 minutes every day straightening things up and can’t go to sleep until all is in its proper place.

It’s been almost a week and I think I’m finally settling in. There are still periods (typically in class) where I find myself thinking, “What did I get myself into?” but then other times (like when I’m walking home and BAM I pass a crazy huge monument dedicated to “The Heroes of the Great City of Leningrad”) and I think to myself, “How AWESOME that I get to live here.” I wish I would stumble across some lost American tourists just so I could say, “Palace Square? Oh, it’s down this street—you turned left instead of right. Yeah, no problem, I live here.” But my body is still stressing out, even if I don’t realize it. On the bus yesterday, about halfway to school, that Jesus song by The Killers came on the speakers (this was the same bus driver who played System of a Down on Thursday), and my whole body sort of… unclenched. Like I had been all tensed up without even knowing it—and I’m still not sure why I would’ve been tense. I’m glad I use the buses—which I could best describe as mules—(except when they break down, as was the case on the way home yesterday) to get to school, and not the metro—which KK can only describe as “angry.”

The first day of class was excruciatingly hard—I felt so overwhelmed that I just wanted to break down and cry at least twice (this mostly happened in grammar class—I don’t even understand ENGLISH grammar, so how could I possibly learn Russian grammar while it’s being taught IN Russian??!). I’m definitely the worst student in the group, and whenever someone asks a question, 9 times out of 10 it’s me (the other time it’s the teacher, and she’s asking a completely different kind of question). Marina said that her exchanges always complained like I did the first day, and that being in the 2^nd Group is a very good thing, but I’m still not sure. By Friday I felt better, but it’s very, very exhausting to have to fight every second just to understand what’s going on in class… Not to mention it’s very disheartening to be the worst in class at everything we do, always. I’m going to talk to Neil, just to let him know how difficult I’m finding it, since our grades are based on effort a bit, too, and I feel like that’s something I should give him a heads-up on. There are 4 groups arranged according to skill level, from 1st the most advanced to 4th, the beginnerish group. In my group there's 2 grad students and a kid who's had about another semester and a half experience on me... so I think it's okay to feel a little over my head.

I got lost for the first time Wednesday, which is always a memorable experience (although more familiar a feeling to me than you might think). I turned the wrong way coming out of the post office, and ended up way down on Starry Nevsky (“starry” = “old” in Russian) before I figured out where I was going. I DID manage to find a few great (and pricey) restaurants, however, and a boulangerie that I’m dying to try.

Thursday we toured the medical clinic that we’re to go to if we get hurt, and I was really quite impressed by how nice it was. It’s run by an American doctor who studied, got licensed, and worked in America, so everything is up to his (read: American) standards. Conveniently, it’s located close to our apartment, so I’m not really all that worried about getting sick anymore.

Marina’s brother Yuri came over Thursday night, too, and he’s harder for me to understand than Igor! But he was, of course, very nice, and is the handyman of the family—he came to fix the brackets holding some cords that run along the floor (behind the fridge) in our kitchen. Marina put it well when she said, “He doesn’t work, but he loves to help.” While I was doing homework that night, I accidentally tore my dictionary in half (it had already taken quite a beating, I wasn’t really THAT upset at my homework, I swear). When I asked Marina for tape, she said she wasn’t sure if she had any, but that I should give my dictionary to Yuri to fix. The next time I looked up, Yuri was punching holes in its spine! He sewed the dictionary up through these holes, and now it’s even better than when I first bought it. Note: Brother Yuri kind of reminds me of the smiling old man with spectacles in the Pixar short who plays chess against himself.

Yesterday I met with Masha again. We tried to see a Russian film, but none were playing at the theater we went to (only American and French films, and Masha didn’t really want to see any of them). We then tried to get a theater program, but the kassa we went to was out of them. We walked around Vasilevsky and saw the Rostral columns, and wedding parties taking pictures with them, and tried to go to 2 museums, but both closed on Friday. So we walked to the Admiralty, and the Bronze Horseman (which I literally expected to be glowing, it’s such an important monument in the Russian consciousness and especially literature), and then back to Kazan Cathedral. We talked a lot although sometimes I just laughed where it seemed appropriate and agreed a lot—there’s only so many times I’m going to say “I don’t understand” and ask her to try and explain herself another way. We talked a bit about accents, and I had fun trying to explain the importance of the word “pop/soda/Coke” and the arguments it provoked at school. She also invited me to sometime meet her friends—I said yes, then asked if any of them spoke English…and OF COURSE they don’t, so I can only imagine how much fun it’ll be to hang out with them (this was one of those ‘what did I just get myself into’ moments).

Today we’ve an optional excursion to a cemetery dedicated to the Siege of Leningrad (which I mentioned in one of my earlier posts), and hopefully after some of us are going to spend a little extra on a nice dinner. And since today’s Saturday, I’m going to take a loooong shower and shave my legs for the first time since I left home. Ypa! (“oo-RAH!” / hooray!)

Oh! I learned today that our hot water is getting turned off July 6 and will be off for 20 days, so that means that I get TWO free gifts on my birthday—the last day of class AND hot water!

àQuick Note: I JUST met Marina’s great grandchildren, Danya (Danil/Daniel) and Nora (Elenora). They are absolutely adorable. When I came home (after spending the day at Piskaroe Kladbishyeh, which was beautiful, but very very sad with its long rows of mass graves and solemn monuments, grabbing dinner with Trisha, Liza, and Neil—who had BEST story—and then grabbing a quick drink with the girls), I was taking my shoes off when I thought I saw a little face peering around the wall down the hall—but when I looked up it disappeared. I was a bit confused, but then came the sound of giggling. I called out hello and this beautiful little girl appeared and said hello back—then ran away. I hurried to the kitchen and finally got properly introduced to the kids, who had apparently been allowed to stay up only until I got home. There was a board game laying open on the table, and I started a game with Nora while Danya changed into his pajamas (the game reminded me of Chutes & Ladders, which I’ve always been horrible at, so of course Nora completely smoked me). When Danya finished changing, we started a new game, but Marina made the kids go to bed, saying we could play again in the morning—“At 8 o’clock!” Nora said, which made me quickly say, “How about 9?” They’re just so cute, and still all giggly and shy from meeting someone new—Danya kept pretending to run into walls because it made me laugh. I’m so glad I finally got to meet them, although I’m sorry I missed their mother.

It’s funny that I met them today, because Neil mentioned after dinner how kids were great to talk to in Russian because you can usually understand them better. But Nora is one hell of a fast talker, and she rolls her Rs like nobody’s business. I THINK she was talking about her dog when she said some crazy name, which she offered to write down for me when I couldn’t pronounce it. Her handwriting wasn’t bad, but I STILL don’t think I could pronounce this word the right way: Эрдэмтерьеп / Erdemtyeryep.

====You Might Find This Interesting====

>It’s illegal to leave the country with authentic religious icons, old samovars (a Russian invention for making tea), and books printed before 1946.

>It’s also illegal to drink out on the streets now—although this rule isn’t strictly enforced.

>When in Russia, never go to the police for help—stay away from them if you can. There’s a Russian saying about policeman being nothing but “wolves in epaulettes.” Your best bet is to show them your proper documentation (carry it with you ALWAYS) and tell them you don’t speak Russian—normally it’s too much of a hassle to try and deal with you. Also, never initiate a bribe—but if they start asking for money, it’s better just to give some to them.

>Don’t go to all-night bars (of which there are many in St. Petersburg). People specifically hang around these places (policemen and criminals) to harass drunken foreigners.