wow-wee

hey everyone!

greetings from SPb Russia! it's my second day here and i already feel like i could write so much. the plane ride was alright the first plane i was on for 8 hours to Helsinki Finnland it wasn't too bad but towards the end i was getting antsy and feeling like i needed to stand.. the second plane ride that i had was only an hour but BOY what a fiasco i caused... so i get off the plane get through passport check and get my bag only to realize that i didnt have my little camera bag with my nice canon in it...OMG. i was freaking out.. well to make a long hectic story short me, one of the program directors, and the nice Russian transport guy went on a wild goose chase and LUCKILY -- SO LUCKILY i got it back. phew.

lets talk about my "hotel" i got great roommates so i'm really happy about that but this place my goodness i wish you all could see it. the bed feels like cardboard and the shower has soot or something in it haha! to say the least, the place is DEF. not what you would WANT to live in- but again its part of the experience to live in a S*^% hole i guess. i'll have pictures up shortly hopefully ive been having some technical difficulties here..

it's been pretty cool here though so far we went into the grocery store yesterday and did some shopping everything and i mean everything is in russian. me and my roommate rachel walked around for about an hour and a half yesterday trying to find an internet cafe but we couldnt! i finally got enough courage to walk up to a lady at a news stand and said, "eez vee ne tee, gde internet kafe?" (excuse me, where is the internet cafe?) and even though she said "shto?" (what?) and shook her head i felt kinda proud of myself lol. you dont realize how scary it is to try to speak a foreign language in a place where everyone speaks it as their native.. im a little insecure about it but i think once classes start on monday maybe ill get a little more confidence.

OH something so strange. so rachel and i are walking and i look at my watch and it says 21:something (9 something pm) and guess what?! ITS NOT DARK!!! ITS NOT EVEN CLOSE TO DARK!! by the time i passed out (11 pm) it was still not dark! but i hear that this time of year its like that.. so i guess that will be something to get used to..

i'm not feeling to well today. it might be jet lag i dont know but i got sick this morning so now im scared to eat..i just hope i start feeling better soon

ok thats all for now!

if you want to call me you will have to dial:
011 7 960 249 6264

just remember that i'm 8 hours ahead of you!!

love & miss
-M.