city life is beautiful?

hello everyone! i'm so sorry about not being able to post yesterday- i barley had 5 minutes for myself.. so get a cup of tea or coffee, whatever you prefer and get ready to hear 2 days worth!

WEDNESDAY:

well of course i went to school as usual and had classes until about 4:40. last week we were all given a place or a subject in the history of SPB and we are to present pictures and a small powerpoint on it.. not a big deal at all! the problem was that rachel and i didnt receive any guidelines or anything as to what he wanted until after class the day before we were to present. so he calls us up to talk to him and he says: "so.. do you guys have time to get to nevsky tonight to take pictures?" (note: it is now 5:00 pm, takes an hour to get to the dorms, and then about 30 mins to get to nevsky ) i straight up tell him no. but he pretty much ignored that. and i felt sorry for rachel because she had plans to meet up with her peer tutor and have dinner at her house so of course she wasnt going to cancel.. so what happened was: i went home, made myself dinner, came here for like 5 mins to say i wasnt posting, and then went to nevsky to meet rachel.. by the time we got there and started it was 8 pm .. we walked almost all of nevsky prospect (around 3 miles?) in about an hour. then comes our next adventure..

we're at the end of nevsky prospect and we're trying to decide on whether or not we wanted to walk a couple blocks back to the metro or walk one block to get the the bus..we went for the bus... so since rachel and i both dont speak russian it was a little confusing but since we can pretty much read it and we've had a little experience with the bus system here before we felt as if we figured it out.. we would get on bus #7 and get home...we get on a #7 only to ride around on one of the other islands in SPB for no reason.. the bus lady came up to us and said something (asking where we were going) and we told her we wanted kapetanskya or prymorskya station and she was like net net and was shaking her head.. she got a random guy who spoke a little english to tell us we were on the wrong bus and that we needed to get on a diff. one..keep in mind it is now like 11 pm and we're both exhausted! so anyways what happened was there are trolley buses and autobuses and we got on trolley bus #7 when we were supposed to get on trolley bus #11 ... apparently its AUTOBUS #7 not trolley bus #7... lesson learned... we didnt get home until 11:40ish i think and didnt finish our project until almost 1 am... but hey- he said we did a good job so what the hay.

THURSDAY:

today felt like such a long day of classes and i felt so frustrated too.. they move so fast and they DONT SPEAK ENGLISH! like ok im obviously getting this wrong for a reason and your explination of why im getting it wrong is said to me in russian which i dont understand and you repeating it doesnt make me understand it!! actually its quite funny and im glad im in the class with the people i am.. we have a good time even when its difficult..oh! a few of us went to Svetlana's (one of the program directors) flat for dinner it was really good.. she made these things kinda like quesadillas but better and she had amazing bread and cheese.. we had salad and then russian dumplings filled with meat and she also made something kinda like dumplings but with mushrooms and potatoes... THEN she brought out tea and desserts... ahh she stuffed us but it was so good!

after class i went to my peer tutors (Vasa) flat. she invited me over to try some russian cuisine! i met her brother (excuse me- im terrible with pronouncing russian names so i wont try to type it lol) and they are both so nice and welcoming. before i got on the metro to meet her i bought some flowers as a gift (it is custom to bring gifts such as flowers or chocolates when you are invited to someones home). first i tried the soup which was so delicious- it had cut up carrots, potatoes, cabbage, onions and small meatballs in it ..ugh! it was SO GOOD! then i tried something called gretchka (you may know it as buckwheat) omg delicious. i hope they sell it in the states cause i def. wanna make it! and he brother made chicken to go with it.. Vasa also made an apple pie which was really good. after dinner i looked through photo albums and answered interesting questions that they had about our country.. i myself also asked some questions that i had.. now im here at the internet cafe its about 12 pm and ill be going home right after this!

overall i had 2 great meals in the past 2 days! yummy yummy!

hey arianna im not sure when you leave but im pretty sure its soon so i just wanted to say have a great time! i know youll love it- your going to be amazed by all the beautiful things you see there and also by how much differnt life can be in a foreign country.. enjoy every minute, take lots of pics to share with me, and be safe! i love you girl!

i hope i'm not missing anything...

p.s. G & Gpop- thanks for fixing my zipper :)

miss yall
xox