Well, I've been here for one week, and so far I haven't died, been threatened, or otherwise come to undue harm. It does amaze me that the other females on the trip are making the guys walk them home, and will only go anywhere in a large group... which means they only hear English. I have walked at least half of the city on my own, and have not yet even felt uncomfortable, much less concerned for my safety. It does help that the nights never truly get dark- we aren't quite at the white nights yet (that's late June), but the best it ever gets, even at midnight, is late dusk-type lighting. Regardless, I have gotten spectacularly lost at times, and occasionally have had to rely on my horribly limited Russian to figure out where the heck I am, and how to get back. It's wonderful, and I love doing it.
Ironically, one of the reasons I've walked the most is that I'm (still!) trying to find the bookstore here. Apparently it's on the lines of a Borders back home, with Russian and foreign books at reasonable prices (ok, maybe only kinda like a Borders), and it's located right across from a metro stop in a huge building that used to house the Singer sewing machine company. Somehow though, perhaps because of my dislike of taking the metro when it's not needed, I cannot seem to locate it! I have walked the entire length of the road it's on, which is over a mile and a half, but I swear to you, the store disappears when I get close to it. Ah, well, it just means the success of finding it will be sweeter when it happens.
The weekend was fairly calm; we went on a tour of the Peter and Paul fortress on Saturday, where I learned that the Russians don't believe in public toilets. (I kid, I did learn more than that, but it was a pressing lesson, let's say). We took a boat tour that started out beautifully, turned extremely cold, and ended up beautifully. Only about half of us took the weather warnings to heart, and were still outside, bundled up against the cold, by the end of the tour. We took a "survivors" picture which I will attempt to get my hands on later.
Sunday was fairly restful, and a great chance to catch up on the masses of homework assigned to us. After being sunk in a dictionary and paperwork for a number of hours, I decided to walk to the circus we were attending, when I discovered that the maps here are slightly less than accurate when it comes to distances. It ended up taking over an hour to walk what should have been just over a mile, and rest assurred, I'm not a slow walker. Fortunately, I tend to aim for being early, so I made it with plenty of time to spare, but I was quite grateful for a chance to sit down. The cirucs itself was very nice, close to being on par with Cirque du Soleil, though on a smaller scale, and they had a number of wild animals perform, which I'm still on the fence about. All in all, though, I'm very glad to have gone. Not sure yet what this week has in store, but I'll be back on a bit later today to see about getting some pictures loaded up. Cheers!
Ironically, one of the reasons I've walked the most is that I'm (still!) trying to find the bookstore here. Apparently it's on the lines of a Borders back home, with Russian and foreign books at reasonable prices (ok, maybe only kinda like a Borders), and it's located right across from a metro stop in a huge building that used to house the Singer sewing machine company. Somehow though, perhaps because of my dislike of taking the metro when it's not needed, I cannot seem to locate it! I have walked the entire length of the road it's on, which is over a mile and a half, but I swear to you, the store disappears when I get close to it. Ah, well, it just means the success of finding it will be sweeter when it happens.
The weekend was fairly calm; we went on a tour of the Peter and Paul fortress on Saturday, where I learned that the Russians don't believe in public toilets. (I kid, I did learn more than that, but it was a pressing lesson, let's say). We took a boat tour that started out beautifully, turned extremely cold, and ended up beautifully. Only about half of us took the weather warnings to heart, and were still outside, bundled up against the cold, by the end of the tour. We took a "survivors" picture which I will attempt to get my hands on later.
Sunday was fairly restful, and a great chance to catch up on the masses of homework assigned to us. After being sunk in a dictionary and paperwork for a number of hours, I decided to walk to the circus we were attending, when I discovered that the maps here are slightly less than accurate when it comes to distances. It ended up taking over an hour to walk what should have been just over a mile, and rest assurred, I'm not a slow walker. Fortunately, I tend to aim for being early, so I made it with plenty of time to spare, but I was quite grateful for a chance to sit down. The cirucs itself was very nice, close to being on par with Cirque du Soleil, though on a smaller scale, and they had a number of wild animals perform, which I'm still on the fence about. All in all, though, I'm very glad to have gone. Not sure yet what this week has in store, but I'll be back on a bit later today to see about getting some pictures loaded up. Cheers!
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