At last, at last, the weekend is here! Sadly, that means my time here is 1/4 done, but I still intend to make the best of it. We had a meeting this morning to sign yet another Russian document- we're all trusting Kirill (our Russian leader over here) to ensure that they're not selling off our firstborns or anything like that. Anyhow, that was at 11:30, lasting til about 12:30, and then we were free. I'm slightly ashamed to report that I slept until about 10:30, having gone to bed just after midnight. I don't know if it's the weight of the humid, denser air down here or all the walking we do, but I'm sleeping at least 9-10 hours every night. I'm one of the few who do, though, as most of my group is underage and delights in getting smashed at every opportunity, coming back home at about 2 or 3 am. To each their own, I'd rather be well-rested.
Anyhow, decided to walk around down on Nevski Prospect- the incredibly wide street that runs almost the length of St. Pete's and has an amazing number of restaurants and shops. I went again to Dom Knigi and managed to find the kid's section this time, coming back with two books of fairy tales that I hope to be able to improve my reading skills on. Along the way, I ran into a display of Navy (as far as I can tell) vehicles that were parked on the huge walkways. For some amount of money, you could hold rifles and get your picture taken with two rather un-war-like females in skimpy dress, but I refrained.
Also common (apparently) on Nevskii Prospect, apparently, I found a random statue of one of the people from the movie Avatar. Similar to
this statue of Yoda I had stumbled upon (at a different place, but still along Nevskii), there was nothing saying why it was there, or who did it... just a randomly-tucked statue. Ok, whatever, take a picture and move on.
Linguistically, I feel like I'm constantly taking two steps forward and one back. I keep being asked for directions (though I suspect that's more because I refuse to stop looking at least pleasant, if not smiling outright), and the storekeepers at various places where I shop seem to think I'm a native... right until we get outside the expected boundaries of buying and selling, and they ask me unanticipated questions in rapid-fire speech that goes
right over my head. Best I can do, though, is keep compiling my vocab lists, and hope I catch on before I have to leave. Here's hoping.
As mentioned earlier, there is currently a display of "buddy bears" going on in the garden across from the Hermitage (which I'll be attacking as soon as we get our student ids), and this time I had a camera with me. I was mightily disappointed in that there wasn't a bear from Scotland, but I was able to get some of the more interestingly-decorated ones. Some of them looked like they'd been done by professional artists, while others looked like they'd been handed to a third-grade class to decorate, though I wasn't able to pick out any rhyme or reason to why. Some of my favorites:
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| Singapore |
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| Cuba |
 |
| Ireland |
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| Moldova, and they're right, I wouldn't have known. |
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| USA |
The US one was strangely popular, it took a bit of patience to snap a shot really fast between people posing next to it. The Russian Federation one was interesting, but they'd painted fat hands over the bear's paws, and I didn't like it at all.
Final picture for today, as I don't know how long I'll be able to steal internet before the guy catches on... I was heading home from school yesterday and decided to get off one stop early and walk a bit, as I hadn't done anything exercise-like that day. To my surprise, there was a car parked alongside the road that had this on the side of it:
It's a picture of SImon's Cat (google it if you don't know, and shame on you!); the image on the gas tank is his food bowl with the letters and numbers for fuel in Russia. I was highly amused, but realized I didn't have my camera on me- you'd think I'd learn by now- and my Russian cell phone doesn't have a camera on it. So, like the crazy american I am, I pulled my laptop out of my book bag, opened PhotoBooth, turned it around so the screen was pointing at the car, and awkwardly took a picture. Because an opportunist never lets lack of proper equipment get in the way. :) Cheers!
Also common (apparently) on Nevskii Prospect, apparently, I found a random statue of one of the people from the movie Avatar. Similar to this statue of Yoda I had stumbled upon (at a different place, but still along Nevskii), there was nothing saying why it was there, or who did it... just a randomly-tucked statue. Ok, whatever, take a picture and move on.
As mentioned earlier, there is currently a display of "buddy bears" going on in the garden across from the Hermitage (which I'll be attacking as soon as we get our student ids), and this time I had a camera with me. I was mightily disappointed in that there wasn't a bear from Scotland, but I was able to get some of the more interestingly-decorated ones. Some of them looked like they'd been done by professional artists, while others looked like they'd been handed to a third-grade class to decorate, though I wasn't able to pick out any rhyme or reason to why. Some of my favorites:
Anyhow, decided to walk around down on Nevski Prospect- the incredibly wide street that runs almost the length of St. Pete's and has an amazing number of restaurants and shops. I went again to Dom Knigi and managed to find the kid's section this time, coming back with two books of fairy tales that I hope to be able to improve my reading skills on. Along the way, I ran into a display of Navy (as far as I can tell) vehicles that were parked on the huge walkways. For some amount of money, you could hold rifles and get your picture taken with two rather un-war-like females in skimpy dress, but I refrained.
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