ALIVE IN RUSSIA.

YES I AM!

Finally, after what felt like a week of traveling. Oh my god, I feel like I am so behind on this blog because it seems like it was months ago that I did that last post. Though it has been..... two days? Not even?

Orientation was kind of crazy. There are 30 of us in the summer program, I'm still figuring out everyone's names and colleges. 9 of the kids are from Bard, 3 are from Oberlin, and everyone else is scattered..... 1 from Columbia, 1 from Barnard, 2 from Reed, 1 from Cornell, 1 from Princeton, etc..... an eclectic mix of students, but also typical Russian majors nonetheless..... artsy or hipster or smokers or nerdy, you know, the usual. And so far it looks like three other girls will also be staying for the fall -- Amanda, Ilanna, and Emma -- and another one or two might come back for the spring semester. I also really like everyone I have met so far who works for Smolny; Bryan Billings and I are going to be friends, I am sure, thanks to Carly's influence. He's already calling me "BARTELS!" and said he was referring to me as that even before I arrived, though he was saying "BARTLES!" and Carly had to correct him. Thanks, Carly.

So Orientation consisted of a bus tour yesterday of the main sights of the city, and then it was just a lot of going over what was already mentioned in the Summer Language Intensive Handbook -- how not to get robbed, where skinheads hang out, don't get caught with drugs, STDs are rampant, etc, etc, etc, etc. It was basically just three hours of Bryan talking really fast about anything and everything because he'd drank a lot of coffee. I took notes in my journal. My favorite tidbit from Orientation was how in the Soviet Union the government wasn't supposed to do business with foreign companies, so when McDonalds opened in the 80's, since they couldn't pay them in money, they took furs and caviar instead. Ha.

And now I am already moved into my host family and oh my god, I so lucked out. They live right in the middle of the City, on Dostoyevskovo St. and their apartment building was built in 1805 and my host mother, Olga, and I already had a conversation about how we prefer old buildings with character to new buildings. My family consists of Olga and her two children -- her son, Misha, who is 22 (PUPPY, IF YOU ARE READING THIS I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE THINKING) and works for a TV news program in St. Petersburg, and her daughter, Katya, who is 19 and also a student. They instantly made me feel comfortable and showed me to my room which used to be Misha's and still has his old Queen poster on the wall. Also, it helps that they all lived in Toronto for a year ("Only one year!" Olga was saying. "It's not interesting! Not like here! Boring! Blah!") so Olga speaks a little English -- she can understand when I speak slowly -- and Misha knows more English than I know Russian, which is comforting for when I really panic and get confused, though we've been speaking Russian together all afternoon with only occasional English phrases. This feels vaguely like cheating, but I had to sign a pledge to speak only Russian when doing Smolny activities, so my life is going to be so full of Russian anyway I don't think it will matter. I already feel myself getting better and it's only been two days and classes haven't even started yet.

So, yeah, I've just been sitting and talking with Olga and Misha (Katya went to go study with a friend for her history exam on Monday). They're really nice and understanding about speaking slowly, and really interesting. Olga teaches art and was interested to hear about my photography and my painting class. They're also really into music. Olga said that Misha and Katya's father is a violinist -- though they never mentioned where he is or why he doesn't live with them -- and Misha also plays violin and electric guitar. We then, of course, had an extended conversation about how I play cello and my mom plays piano and Puppy plays trumpet and how great Russian composers are. We also talked about movies -- Mom, Olga also can't wait to see "Sex & the City" -- and have been watching some Russian TV, and when a dubbed version of "Murder She Wrote" came on I said that my babushka and I always used to watch that show together, Olga said her mother also loves it.

And I gave them my host family gifts from Massachusetts -- Mom, we did good. Misha and Olga loved the taffy, and we've been trying to figure out what flavor each one is. The only one Olga doesn't like is the liqourish flavor. Nunni, the Rockport candy was such a great idea. And then Olga was very excited to look all through the Images of Massachusetts book and was surprised with all the pictures of the ocean because she said she's "not very good with geography" so wasn't exactly sure where Boston was. Also, Olga immediately wanted to know what I do and don't like to eat and was very relieved to learn I am a "normal" eater (her word) and that I wasn't a vegetarian. She made me dinner tonight, and I actually really liked all of it -- chicken, rice, salad of cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes -- NO DILL or BEETS. But we'll see, the honeymoon with the food might not last. In summary, I really like my host family so far and am really sad that I won't be living with them into the fall (I asked the assistant program manager, Elena, today if I would be staying with them in the fall too and she said no, it didn't work out, but I'm glad that I'll get the summer with them at least).

I'm not sure what I'm going to do tonight. Maybe meet up with some Smolny kids, maybe hang out with Olga more and bond. Tomorrow we have a picnic and "sporting activity" (a.k.a. Bryan trying to get everyone to play wiffle ball).

Oh, and did I mention that my host family has wireless internet? Who would have thought? Where is the Russia I thought I was coming to? What the hell? This is fucking great so far. Yeah, yeah, yeah I know this is the euphoric stage of culture shock, but it's pretty nice while it lasts.

So yeah. All is good. And since I have internet in the apartment, internet is definitely going to be the best way to keep in touch. All the phone stuff is really complicated. Smolny gave me a Russian cell phone -- Dad, I think I'm just going to use their loner phone, at least for the summer, because it has things like Cyrillic character keys and is all set up for the pay-as-you-go system of adding money to your phone to make calls. See, in St. Petersburg, cell phones and land lines have different area codes, so calling a cell phone to a land line is technically a long distance call and not as cheap as calling cell to cell or land line to land line. Phone cards all have land line area codes, so therefore using a phone card to call the U.S. should only be done with a Russian land line, while using your cell phone to call a phone card to call the U.S. is long distance and not that much cheaper than just calling the U.S. directly. So when I do want to make calls out, I will either use Skype (as I have wireless here and don't have to worry now about dragging my computer on the Metro to Smolny every day where there is wireless but I can't use it to Skype in English because it's against the language pledge) or ask Olga to borrow her land line phone and use a phone card to call home. But that won't happen too frequently.... probably only to Mom to calm her nerves. JUST KIDDING, love you, you nervous little thing. BUT BUT BUT, all incoming phone calls and text messages (! yes you can text me in Russia if your carrier allows it.... Verizon doesn't, but T Mobile does..... maybe AT&T? it's probably expensive though) are free for me, so you can call my Russian cell phone if you really want/need to get it touch or my SkypeIn number which I am going to momentarily forward to my phone.... ask Karen or Rich for those numbers if you want them, as I don't want to post them on here since this is a public blog that anyone in the world can read.

Anyway, that's it for now.... that was a lot.