WELLESLEY IN RUSSIA, etc.

So, Ms. Abigail C. Lees is visiting St. Petersburg this weekend and it is Erin's last weekend in Russia, so basically all the Wellesley stars aligned and we're all here at the same time and it is great.

Abby came to Smolny after I was done with classes on Friday, yesterday, and then the two of us and Grace went to Stolle again for coffee. Sasha and Erika joined up with us and we hung out for a bit, and then Abby got to experience the Metro at rush hour on our way back to the apartment. Also on the way back, we stopped to buy flowers for Abby to give to Olga as a thank you for letting her stay here for two nights. Abby and I don't know that much about flower giving etiquette in general, let alone in Russia, so Abby used her (much-better-than-mine) Russia to ask the sales girl about it. We learned that flowers are usually given in 1, 3, 5 or 7 (I did remember learning during orientation that even numbered bouquets of flowers are bad because they only give those for funerals) and that roses are acceptable and don't just have a romantic connotation like they do in the U.S. So Abby got Olga 3 salmony-pink roses and awkwardly carried them back to the apartment as if she were holding a baby.

Olga and Abby hit it off which was nice, and Olga fed us little blini which have a different name that I forget now with this jam she makes herself from berries from the garden where her mother lives. We ate a lot, but Olga kept encouraging us to eat more, of course, as usual. And then we went out and met up with Erin and Malina and some Smolny people and some Yale people and wandered around and had some Wellesley-in-Russia and liberal-arts-college-students in Russia bonding moments while enjoying being out in St. Petersburg and it still being the white nights.

Today was our cultural excursion to the Hermitage which was frustrating. Not that the Hermitage itself isn't great -- I am planning to go all the time after school on random weekday afternoons and evenings because I can get in for free with my Russian student ID -- but going on a Saturday is hell. First of all, it didn't help that we had to be there at 10am because we were all tired from being up late the night before, and then there were about 50 tour groups there and it was so hot and so stuffy and so crowded and I couldn't hear tour-guide-Olga when she spoke. In general I hate doing museums in group tours; I like to wander on my own and look at some things and not others and move on if I get bored. I didn't even really look at anything because I was tired and out of it and also lazy because I know I will be going back many times on my own. We're allowed to skip one cultural excursion without an excuse and I kind of wish I had skipped this one, but Abby tagged along because she wanted to see the Hermitage as she's only here for the weekend, so that was good.

And after the Hermitage, Abby and I met Erin for lunch and enjoyed the fact that we were once all in Russian tutoring together in the PLTC in the library at Wellesley, and now we are all in St. Petersburg eating Georgian food in a little basement restaurant. We walked around a little bit afterwards with Erin; Abby bought a bag at the same store where I got my new little school bag. And then we came back to the apartment and as I write this Abby is napping on the floor before we go over to Bryan's apartment for dinner at 8.

Bryan is running in a marathon tomorrow all around Petersburg and asked some of us from the program to give him water and Gatorade along the way. Apparently the pit stops at Russian marathons do not have such things as water and Gatorade. Instead they have black bread and salt (?!?) and Russian runners grab a handful of bread and a handful of salt and shove it in their mouths while running. So, Bryan asked us to arm ourselves with apple juice and water and hang out around the city in various strategic locations, and as a thank-you-in-advance he invited us over to his apartment for dinner tonight.

We also might try to go to the Russian Museum tomorrow because it's not on our list of excursions and Abby also really wants to see it this weekend, so the two of us and Grace might go. We'll see.