alexandrafeet

HELLO FRIENDS. It is freezing in St. Petersburg. Everyday the temperature ranges from -30 degrees Celsius to -10 Celsius. So we are all freezing, and sometimes it takes QUITE the motivation to get out of the ol’ warm house. The other day when my roommate Jorge and I were walking to school, the ice got me. It was a dramatic fall, and so embarrassing. I also appreciated the Russian woman in heels who just stepped right over my body and continued on her way. Jorge saw my terrible fall as a bad sign and wanted to turn back, but I just COULD NOT let the ICE win. I made it to class.

Yesterday was fabulous. A few weeks earlier, one of my friends informed me that ZENIT, the saint petersburg soccer team, had made it into the championships and would be playing a game here. Even though the tickets were expensive, three of us decided to go.

STADUIM. Very open indeed.

Everyone warned me that the stadium was an “open stadium” meaning no roof. Everyone also warned me that the stadium would be freezing. I thought two things about this. I thought “I’ve been to open stadiums in the US and they ALWAYS have some kind of half roof or something, it’s not like it will be bleachers.” I also thought, “Large groups of people who are really excited about something are usually pretty warm.” I concluded that everyone who had warned me about the cold where wimps. SPOILER ALERT: not the case.

GETTING READY

In preparation for the event I bought some face paint crayons with the team’s colors. I also bought a championship game scarf. When soccer teams play championship games, they make scarves that are split in the middle, with one team on each half. Each side is made of the team’s color and has the date of the games on it. Its pretty cool. It was kind of $$ but I was so jealous of the ones I had seen in soccer pubs and the one my Irish friend had from when he went to the Ireland vs. Russia game in Moscow. So I am glad I have that now.

ANYWAYS. The GAME! There is sooo much security. First, there is a barricade of riot police that holds everyone back about 50 feet from the entrance of the arena, and then lets small groups go through their barricade in order to not overwhelm the gates. Once you get right outside the gate, you show your ticket and they do a pat down and look in your bags. Once you pass through that checkpoint, you are at the actual gate, and you get a pat down again. This time, the pat down for me was THOROUGH. I have never been patted down like that in my life. Women are there to pat down the women, and when one called me through I had no idea what to expect. This woman put her hands EVERYWHERE on my body. I started laughing because I was so surprised that she literally slid her hands down, and underneath my chest.  So that was fun, but I was not done with the security checks yet. Once we got to the stairs to the actual seats, we had another screening. I had another pat down, but not as intense as the last one. Man, you must have to have SKILLS if you want to get something into those stands. Also there was police in the stands, particularly around the opposing team’s area. We saw a fight break out between Russian fans, and that was pretty intense, but it took a surprisingly long time for the police to get involved. They also ended up taking away the guy that had gotten beaten up and thrown to the floor, not the guy doing the beating or throwing. So that was funny.

So the actual game was awesome. Despite the fact that it was freezing, we were all super into it. I had worn long underwear under my jeans, thick socks, big boots, my biggest coat, a hat, my hood up and my FAB scarf. I wasn’t THAT cold, but I wish I would have worn two pairs of socks because it felt like my toes were dead. My nose was also as red as Rudolf. Also I was half hiding behind/ half cuddling with this Russian 50 year old man next to me, and he was keeping me warm. Also I had the scarf over my nose, so only my eyes were visible.

But the game was INTENSE. The fans cheered constantly, and I liked the call and answer cheers that one side of the stadium would start, and the other would finish. I could actually understand most of the cheers which I was excited about. The most popular being “синий, белый, голобый!!!” Which is BLUE, WHITE, LIGHTBLUE, the colors of ZENIT. I also have noticed that teams in Europe don’t really have mascots like sports teams do in the US, so that’s interesting… The game stayed tied 1-1 pretty much the entire game, and then we scored again right after the half time. With about ten minutes left, the other team scored, bringing it back to a tie. We were all sad, and were all cold. BUT THEN about a MINUTE after that happened, we scored AGAIN! Bringing the game to 3-2. We held on for the last ten minutes and we won! IT WAS CRAZY. The fans were going nuts, and about 1/3 of the men in the stadium took off their shirts. It was hilarious because the cold made everyone’s bodies BRIGHT RED, so you could spot large groups of red people all over the stadium.  It was intense but SO MUCH FUN. I really hope ZENIT wins again when they go to Portugal, and if that is the case we are against teams like Arsenal, Barcelona and Madrid so we will totally lose but it would be SOOO AMAZING to see one of those teams here. I kept my ticket because I guess sometimes when tickets are in high demand they give out championship tickets to people present at the first game first. So we will see. GO ZENIT.

Yeah, we were a little cold.

HELLO friends. I am bad at blogging bla bla bla…. I WAS IN IRELAND!

December was a great GREAT month for me. My dad came and visited me for Christmas which was really the best present ever. I really missed my family around thanksgiving, so it was so nice that I got to see my dad. We had so much fun running around St. Pete. I showed him many of the cool sights and also showed him aspects of my life here, for example: my walk to school, my doctor’s office and my favorite mall. We had our Christmas meal at a Montana/Australian themed steak house that only played sting videos. Perfect Christmas. It was such a great time.

After my dad left, I had exactly a DAY to chill in St. Pete before I left on my adventure to Ireland. This involved me taking the bus to Tallin, Estonia and then waiting six hours to take the plane to Dublin. I didn’t take a plane directly from St. Pete because EU countries have cheaper airfare between them, so I took a bus 7 hours to the nearest EU major city and saved myself a couple hundred dollars. I also dramatically increased my travel time, so I’m still undecided about my method.

ANYWAYS. I arrived in Dublin and was the very last person off the plane and through security which scared my friend Jack. How funny. I immediately noticed that cars drive on the WRONG side of the road and almost got ran over 122 times. It is also funny because I sit in what would have been the driver’s side in the US, but there is no steering wheel. It is very strange.

The first few days we stayed at my friend’s aunt’s house in Dublin. It was really nice, and even though it seems like every Irish person I met HATES Dublin, I thought it was a very cool place. We visited a large Gaelic sports only stadium and it was MASSIVE. Dublin also has the Guinness Brewery  which was really cool to go to even though I do not care about beer or drinking really. It was really an impressive place and I liked looking at all the facts and history of Guinness. Also I bought some FABULOUS socks with Tookie the Toucan on them. They have googly eyes and everything.

FISH FISH!

NYE was also in Dublin. It was really a fabulous evening. In Ireland they have these interesting alcohol drinks that I like. They are kind of like what we would call ‘wine coolers’ in the US, but they are very different and they sell them EVERYWHERE. So I was enjoying those, and also was enjoying the fact that we met a school of fish and a very talkative polar bear on the way to the massive club party. They must have been dressed up for a play or something, but they were cool. The club venue place where the party was held was intense. It was three stories high, and the sinks in the bathrooms on the upper floors looked out on the dance floor below which was cool. We also got selected to be VIP probably because I was wearing my toucan socks and a puffball in my head, which meant that we could go to the top floor which had less people and scantily clad waitresses. Very nice. On the way home we had a fabulous cab driver who sang Irish songs and made jokes about Detroit. Very nice. The next day we went to NEWGRANGE which is a prehistoric house/building that is totally older then the pyramids. I looked up that it is estimated to be from 3200BC which is the oldest human built thing I have ever seen. It was really cool because it was built with perfect precision and has never leaked or let in any light, except once a year during Summer Solstice. That day was also funny because it was rainy and cold, and jack forgot a coat. He was so miserable. Also Gary sat on a bird bathroom, which was equally as hilarious to me. Also that day I saw the best rainbow ever, I am still freaking out about it.

NEWGRANGE

I was not cold at all and Jack had not been rained on at all

I did so many cool things in Ireland that it is hard to pick out the important ones to talk about. We went to the CLIFFS OF MOHER which are LEGENDARY. Unfortunately we went on one of the windiest days ever which meant there was a legitimate possibility of blowing off the cliffs. There are stairs along the sides, and I literally got blown up the stairs, so we decided not to go on the part of the cliffs that the direction of the wind was blowing off of. It was a little scary. The wind also unbuttoned my coat

quick pic on the ride up to the cliffs

and almost blew away my stuffed animal sheep that Jack bought me. I named her WINDY. Speaking of sheep, there were some sheep chillin by the edge of the cliff but they did not even care that the wind was blowing the water from below onto their face. Irish sheep are tough apparently. But the Cliffs where absolutely gorgeous. The drive to the cliffs was equally as beautiful, and the water was so angry because of the wind. It was impressive. After the cliffs, we found a cave that was supposedly popular and interesting, and we decided to go in. At first we were annoyed because our tour guide looked like he was 15 and was dressed like a slob and not a SPELUNKER. But he knew his stuff. Also this cave has the #3 longest stalactite in the world and that was impressive.

For real though, everything in Ireland is beautiful. We did a lot of driving, and I did not get bored looking out the window. Everyone kept telling me (when I understood what they were saying) that it was the WORST time to visit Ireland, but even with the rain and greyness, everything was so beautiful. The hills were green and filled with happy sheep. The water looked so nice and

OCTAGON FORMATION

often menacing as well. Me ears popped every five seconds because Ireland is the land of hills. Jack took me on top of the highest hill around and the view was amazing (it is the first picture and the last one). There was also a really old structure up there that we broke into and climbed on top of. I also climbed when we went to Giant’s Causeway which was a weird naturally occurring formation of octagons stacked on top of each other by the water. According to LEGEND, a giant actually was throwing rocks around and did this, but it is really according to SCIENCE that this happened. That was so fun, and I kept thinking how much fun my mom would have climbing on those octagons. The wind was also intense that day too, which was scary because you could have fallen down hundreds of rock octagons and it would not have been fun. Thankfully, I did not get blown off or sucked into the water.

Groovin on octagons.

So many other interesting things happened in Ireland that I liked. We can talk about it. Everyone should go. Correction, everyone should go with my friend Jack because he was such a fabulous tour guide. He also introduced me to UK Celebrity Big Brother which has taken over my life pretty much. I may or may not have applied even though I am not a citizen of the UK… WAAAAAAA Seeee you soon! I plan to write again more often. I plan to do an entry ENTIRELY about how cold it is here. FOR REAL.

I LIKE IRELAND

GUYS I AM SO SORRYYYYYYY I HAVENT POSTED.

I feel like a negative nerd. I can’t really post now because I am leaving for IRELAND in literally 10 minutes. I hope my roommate LINDSAY gets home before I go so I can say goodbye to her because she leaves before I return. PUFFA. ANYWAYS. Things that have happened lately… I went to TALLIN and it was amazing, I went to MOSCOW and it was amazing, and my DAD came to visit me, which was 2314314% amazing. I am about to go to Ireland and I am hoping it follows the same sequence.

So if you haven’t been following Russian news lately, you should be. Crazy things are happening, and it is a great time to be here. People are upset with the way things are going here, and they are mobilizing. On December 10, I was lucky  enough to be in Moscow and witness the largest protest (at the time) since the fall of the Soviet Union. On the 24th, the people of Russia beat it again. I wrote something for my school and I want you all to read it! CHECK IT OUT!!!!

http://www.sras.org/moscow_protests

GUYS I know it has been 1000 years. I need to get  better grasp on the concept of blogging. I am realizing I have AT LEAST three potential blogs piling up, because I am going to Estonia  on friday, and I hung out at Lenin’s house yesterday. Today I want to talk to you about BANYA.

Banya is a Russian relaxation experience that is amazing. You can not study Russian language without the text talking about BANYA and DACHA every ten seconds. Dachas are little cottage-like houses outside of the city that a lot of families have, and they usually have banyas in them. A Banya is technically a sauna, but when someone says “we are going to banya” it means that they are GOING TO HAVE AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE.

We had fun playing with the sheets.

There are Banyas (bath houses) all over the city, and the one that we went to was in Primorskaya. I should have taken pictures of the outside of it, because you would never guess it was there. It was in the basement of a weird, but huge, soviet style apartment building. There was a children’s play ground outside of the Banya, and because we got there early, we were thinking that we might have to play on it, but alas we got in.

So the Banya that we went to, was a private Banya. That means that you pay, as a group, to rent out the entire- apartment size Banya experience center for either 3 or 4 hours. We rented it for 4 hours, there were 7 of us, it ended up costing around 20$ each for the entire time. Technically, we spent more than that on the experience because we all brought a TON of food and had an amazing feast waiting for you to chow down on when you were not in the Sauna. It was delicious. I was introduced to this thing called “Smoked Cheese,” which is the best thing ever. It is small, thin strands of cheese that were braided together. The cheese is very salty, and at first, it is the strangest thing you have ever eaten, and then you are immediately addicted. I will bring home 342 pounds of it. Also you drink while at banya, so Alina and I split two bottles of champagne. Champagne was totally the way to go, as beer is naturally disgusting and liquor is a bad idea because you get so dehydrated at Banya, that you will DIE if you drink liquor. Russians drink liquor at Banya, but I am not even going to pretend for five seconds that I can handle alcohol the way that they can. That kind of pretending has serious consequences.

Let’s talk about the set up. Our Banya had three rooms. It had the main room with the sauna and the pool, the hangout room and the boom boom room. Wait for it.

The main room had a sauna, and then a huge ice cold pool. The idea is to sit in the sauna for a while, then hop in the ice cold pool. YOU FEEL SO ALIVE. There is also a shower and a hot tub in that room. The floor in that room was tiled, because it only takes five seconds for water to get everywhere. Leaves also get everywhere. Where do leaves come from? They come from this bundle of sticks that you hit each other with. YES. It is either a bundle of birch leaves or eucalyptus, and while you are in the sauna you have your friends hit you with it. You think it is not amazing, BUT IT IS.  I wish I had a picture of these branches but I forgot. Our tour person told us that there is actually a THIRD type of branch that exists, but it has thorns on it, so it is only for INTENSE Banya goers. I will also mention that we held a contest to see who could stay in the ice cold pool the longest, and I was out in 5 seconds. Joe and Kaylan were the champions and were in there for over 20 minutes, but we decided they needed to tie instead of catch hypothermia.

The hang out room is self explanatory. It is a room with a ton of leather couches, a big table and a big TV playing Russian music videos. The floor in there was wooden, because it also gets wet. That is where we kept the food, and hung out when we were not doing a water activity.

The third room is “The boom boom room.” I went on a tour of the place before we rented it, and even though the woman was talking in Russian, when she was showing us this particular room, in English, she said it was called “THE BOOM BOOM ROOM. And yes, it is what you are thinking. I am just going to tell you straight up. That room was for Sex. In it, there was a bed. There was also Mirrors on the walls and the ceiling. There were also artsy- close up pictures of a woman’s butt, chest and stomach. The bed did not have any sheets or anything, it was pretty much just a mattress with a suede slip cover. So that room was there. Other than to change into our bathing suits, we didn’t really go in there. I couldn’t help but wonder while I was changing, how many other people had been less than clothed in that room. MYSTERY.

Alina LOOKIN GOOD in the Boom Boom Room

ICE POOL

steam room

So Banya is amazing. We were there 4 hours, and I was ready to stay longer. I pretty much was in a constant state of amazing relaxation, and did not ever want to leave. When the woman came to give us our 10 minute warning, I wanted to CRY. I also decided to do a last suana/cold pool run, so I had to brave Russia with soaking wet hair. Walking out of the Banya, my skin felt so healthy, and I felt like it was feeling air for the first time. I KNOW I AM DRAMATIC, BUT IT WAS AMAZING.

Not crammed in the hot tub at ALL

Russians do not usually rent out an entire private banya like we did, there are actually a ton of public ones around the city. Men go more often than women, but women can go too. They are also separated by sexes when you go to a public one, because technically you are supposed to not wear any clothes, and just hang out in a sheet. We hung out in bathing suits because we were coed. Apparently public Banya is a great place to meet people, and I will venture there soon. But until then, THIS WAS MY BANYA EXPERINCE.

Also, after we left. Alina and I decided that we wanted to go watch the bridges rise. We killed 2 hours chattin at SUBWAY and eating the leftover snacks, and then waited by the bridges. The only problem was that the bridges did not rise that night because it was a holiday. WE WERE WET COLD AND ANGRY. We were about 2 miles from my house, and we usually walk that distance, but we were wet cold and angry. We decided to get a gypsy cab. That was a first for me. For those of you who do not know what that is, that is a cab that is not a cab really, it is just a person with a car that you flag down and have them take you places. The fare is cheaper than the real cabs, and EVERYONE does it. I am sure that there are circumstances where this is unsafe, so as a girl, I would never do it alone. Since Alina was with me, I knew we could handle trouble. By myself, I was one 100lb 5’2″ girl, but add ANOTHER 100lb  5’2″ girl, you have one TOUGH squad.

Alina and I had never done it before, and she was the expert at hailing cabs, so she stood out on the side of the road with her hand out. I don’t really know how you do it in the US but I think you put your hand HIGH in the air in the US, but in Russia, you put it down below your waist. Within 30 seconds a car pulled up. I told him where we wanted to go and he said 100rubles. So 3 dollars. I was down. We both got in the back, and he typed the address in his GPS. He probably does this as his job, drives around all night looking for people like us. It was also 2 in the morning, which is prime time because the metro stops at 12am. His car was actually pretty nice. It was weird riding in a car, I forgot that it had been over 2months since my mom took me to the airport.

We found out that he was from Tajikistan, because Alina likes to use every opportunity to practice Russian. He asked where on earth we were from and Alina and I were thrilled to tell him we were from the US. Probably not the best idea because, he just found out he had two 100lb 5’2″ HAWT American ladies in his car, but it was okay. Alina told him her name, which is funny because she has a Russian name too. People must be so confused when they meet me and Alina, two Americans with 100% Russian names, just hanging out in Russia. Either way, when he dropped us at my street, he asked for her phone number. I had an extra 20rubles (70cents) to give him as a tip for speaking to us, but at the last minute I decided that her phone number WAS TIP ENOUGH. I do not think they have communicated lately, BUT THEY NEED TO.

IN OTHER NEWS, I MET A HORSE.

Hello everyone! I am writing this blog on October 3ost, so technically Halloween has not even happened yet. HOWEVER, in the unfortunate, but common event that October 31st is not a weekend day, Halloween is designated as the weekend before. Now that its Sunday, I think I know enough to write about it. SO HERE GOES.

I loooveee Halloween. I really do. I love dressing up in costumes, and being creative, so Halloween for me is just the bees knees. Last year I dressed as the fabulous American pop starlet Ke$ha, and the year before I sewed my own raccoon costume and hung out near garbage cans all night. Other than dressing up myself, I love to look and see what people are dressed as. The year I was Ke$ha I went to the University of Michigan for Halloween, and it was a sight to see. There was a pacman, little bo peep, and fleet of solid green, plastic looking army men. I loved it.

ME AS THE BLACK SWAN

So before I came to Russia, I asked around to anyone who I thought was qualified, and was told that Russians do not really care about Halloween. Some people told me that in Moscow and St. Petersburg, some people would celebrate it, but not many. I could not believe my poor luck. I immediately decided I was going to dress up anyways, walk around the streets, and serve as a “Halloween Ambassador” of sorts. So that is what I did.

Around 2 weeks before Halloween, I spotted something unusual in the Subway. It was one of the advertisements, and it had recently changed to have a picture of a girl dressed up as a devil, and it gave a website and an address. I immediately went on the website when I got home, and found out it was a costume store that was claiming to have a Halloween section! The store was located in a mall very close to my house, so I went to take a look. At first, the store had a small section of masks, wigs and a few outfits. But as it got closer to Halloween, their selection grew and it was transformed into a only Halloween store and I loved to hang out there! The costumes that the store had were directly from the US. They were the common, sexy police woman, bumble bee, pirate, prisoner, or other corseted costume. Many of them came in plastic packaging, the same way that those pop up halloween stores in the US sell them. The costumes ranged from about 60$ – 180$ US. They were expensive! I had wanted a tutu FOREVER but I hadn’t found one, so I ended up breaking down and buying a black tutu dress, and spent a little more on it then I ever would have done for a costume in the US. Here, there just weren’t that many options, and St. Petersburg lacks the big craft stores that are a GODSEND during Halloween time.

So I decided to be the black swan. I didn’t know how popular the movie was here, so I thought the reference would be lost, but I did not mind. Friday of Halloween weekend came around, and some other people from SRAS decided they were going to have a Halloween party, and then that we would head out to a club or something after. Sounds good. So I went, along with a cat, 2 pirates, a doctor, the crow, and a braveheart something or another.  UNFORTUNATELY the people who were having the party decided to be lazy and not dress up, but it was okay because I was still in the company of other dressed up people.

Walking to the party on Friday was loads of fun. NO ONE on the street was dressed up, so we got stares. Kyle had a big blue face, Lindsay had let me paint whiskers on her last minute, and I had Black Swan face on. People were staring, sometimes saying things, and it was awesome. I was hoping we convinced people to dress up next year.

Long story short, there ended up being massive amounts of confusion after the party, and we ended up just going to KFC at 2am and calling it a night, which was fine because I was tired. Anyways, we saw one other group of teens in costume and when they spotted us, they gave us an appreciation nod which we gladly returned.

SO THAT WAS NIGHT ONE. Night two, Saturday, I went back to the Halloween store, to see what was happening, and it was busy as a bee. There were sooo many people there! There was a huge line for the register, and I quickly realized that Saturday was going to be the Halloween day in Russia, if there was one. Filled with excitement, I returned home and discussed my plans with Alina. Alina goes to a different university than I do, and she told me that at the international dorms there was a party. So I invited myself, got my swan outfit on, with more comfortable shoes this time, and walked out the door. I left my house at around 9, and on the way to our meeting place, I saw into some not yet filled bars, and saw that they had Halloween decorations AND a waitstaff in costumes! It was big time. When I met up with Alina, I saw her fabulous Miss America costume, and also saw some other people with witches hats, tutus and zombie make up. I was thrilled.

We headed to the party, and EVERYONE was dressed up. It was great. There was a James Bond, Jesus, a very creative cheburashka, a dog, bugs, people with wigs, everything normal on Halloween, which was funny because all these people were international students who didn’t really dress up for Halloween in their home countries, but they embraced it here. One girl actually became a zombie with actual ketchup, which we know as being a terrible idea in the US, but she had not yet learned, and unfortunately reeked of ketchup and probably lacked of friends.

Although it was a fun party, parties at the dorms get broken up promptly at 11, and instead of following the group to the

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

clubs, I decided to have an early night and go home and go to bed (I also was not feeling it because everyone was going to take off their costumes BEFORE going to the club, which is backwards thinking). But walking home from there was a fabulous adventure. The mile and a half walk was filled with HALLOWEENERS. I walked through a street that is full of popular clubs, and there were just so many people dressed up, it made my heart happy. I had so much fun walking around and looking at the costumes. There were really so many. Usually the costumes were just simple add ons, like a tutu, a pair of cat or bunny ears, a witches hat, or zombie make up. Every once in a while there were really creative ones, and my friend reported seeing a Princess Peach and a Lady Gaga walking hand in hand. So the Russians aren’t as creative with their Halloween yet, but it will come with practice. HALLOWEEN IS HAPPENING IN RUSSIA.

Now, lets see if people actually dress up for class tomorrow like they said they would. All I know is I will def. be wearing a fabulous crown at the very least. HAPPY HALLOWEEN.

PAVLOVSK so pretty...

HELLO EVERY ONE. It has been years since I updated. I apologize a million sincere apologizes. I have been busy with school, exploring Russia, and getting adjusted. I haven’t done any one spectacular thing recently to share with you so this will be just a cornucopia of fun random stories.

STORY #1. We went to Pavlovsk a week ago. Goodness, I think it was more than a week ago, maybe three weeks? Anyways it was built by Paul I in the 18th century and its really beautiful and amazingly preserved. Sadly, this is not the case for a lot of the old castles and fortresses in Russia because a lot of them were destroyed in various wars, or just kind of left alone to crumble during Soviet times. However, Pavlovsk is really beautiful, there were amazing JADE columns that I was quite fond of as well as probably the most

I told you we got kicked out on the side of the road.

comfortable bed one could dream of. Unfortunately they do not let guests sleep in this amazing bed, which was sad because we all could have used a royal rest. Pavlovsk is also really close to Saint Petersburg so it was a nice little trip. We met at a metro stop kind of far away from the center of the city and then rode the BUS OF DEATH the rest of the way. Thankfully it was not really a bus of death, more a bus of motion sickness. We got into a traffic jam which meant it was stop and go traffic for a long time. There was also a lot of people on the bus, and not very many of us in our group had seats. I was lucky enough

to get one, and after a back tickle from my friend, I felt a LOT better. We were all complaining, and the leader of our group was really stressed because the bus took much longer because of the traffic jam, and now he had 10 kids ready to instapuke all over. We finally got kicked out at the side of the road for unclear reasons, and our leader kept apologizing but we were not even upset because we were so thankful to feel the air, and see real foresty trees and grass. It was a beautiful fall day and after the castle got boring, we made a fall WONDERFUL wedding in the leaves that was so much fun. What a great day.

JAADDDDEEEEEEE This is apprently called 'the green room' I call it 'I LIKE THE COLUMNS'

Hi mom! I'm in a castle surrounded by egyptian statues with blue showercaps on my feet!

It was a beautiful wedding between Alina (who loves leaves) and George (who got bored after 5 seconds)

STORY #2 WE WENT TO AN ICE SKATING EXTRAVAGANZA. So this was a really cool Russian thing to do, that happened because I crush on Johnny Weir. For those of you who are sadly living without knowing about the most amazing human ever, Johnny Weir is a world champion figure skater, he has a reality show, he has the best personality in the world, the best style in the world and the best face in the world. Another fun fact about him is that he is really into Russian culture too. TWINS I KNOW.

JOHNNYNYNYNNYYNYYY

Anyways he skates in Russia all the time, has a russian coach and is really involved with his enormous fan base here. He even has a twitter account in Russian, which I follow and translate for fun. I met him once because I am the luckiest person in the world and we talked about Russia stuff during the few moments my eyes weren’t popping out of my head.

ANYWAYS, I was missing some Johnny in my life, so I posted on his facebook fan page asking him when he was coming to St. Pete. Within minutes I got an answer from one of his Russian fans telling me that he was coming in the middle of october! HORRAY. I booked ticket immediately for me kyle and alina. It was held at the hockey arena which is called ‘the ice palace’ and I think is much bigger than Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena. It was actually an event to honor Tamara Moskvina who is a very famous Russian pairs coach responsible for many olympic wins for Russia and the USSR. What was cool about the event was that all her friends came and performed whatever they wanted, since they weren’t being judged by anyone but the fans. They skated to fun music, and one guy actually came out with a bedazzled jacket with the Justice band logo on it, and he just skated to an amazing medley of Justice songs that would never make it to a competition because they are kind of techno, and I am not sure every old judge would be in favor. I started video taping half way through, but I cannot get videos off of my camera for the life of me so everyone is missing out except us. SADLY two weeks before the show, I woke up one morning and had a feeling in my gut that the one and only Johnny Weir dropped out of the event, and checking the internet confirmed my nightmare. No explanation was given, and me and other SPB fans were sad. But we still love him. JOHNNY

Story #3 I WENT TO THE GYM. As I have been doing lately. MAJOR PAT ON THE BACK. Anyways today was a great day for me at the gym for many reasons. First I got on a treadmill right away, then I ran the first full 5k I have done since highschool. I was a cross country runner in highschool, and back then I pumped out a 5k every 10 minutes. Since I have been working out lately, I have been running about 6k a day, but I usually stop around the 3k mark and walk for a little, but today I busted it out and I am proud. It took ALOT longer than it did in highschool, but at least I have a goal to work towards. Sadly after I ran, I dropped my favorite watch on the ground and it broke . It really is so sad, I got it in TOKYO and it has a map of the world on the face, and the second

This is obviously NOT me at the gym or a saran wrapped woman at the Gym, but I like this picture of me and lindsay chillin.

hand has a little plane that flys around the whole world every minute and it is my favorite thing. I picked up all the pieces and intend on taking it to a watch store to fix, but unfortunately I have only seen expensive watch stores here with pictures of Steve McQueen in the windows, and I hope they are not insulted by my request to fix a watch that is not made of solid diamond. So that is sad.

Anyways, the reason I am even talking about this is because something STRANGE happened at the Gym.  Strange things happen in the gym every day, I really need to blog just about the gym, I mean you should see what the Russians workout in! (SPOILER: Jean shorts, collard shirts, jean pants, pushup bra, NOT anything close to running shoes…) But today when I was in the locker room, I saw something strange, in between the 43254123 constantly naked bodies (I am in Europe where people are freeeee) I saw a woman saran wrapping herself, you know, the clear wrap intended for saving your homemade chicken salad leftovers, she was putting it AROUND HER BODY. She was wrapping her entire torso multiple times. I mean, I haven’t really had a gym membership in the us or europe so I don’t know, maybe everyone knows about this except me. I really feel like someone would have told me about this phenomenon. SO why was this happening? I am pretty confident I figured it out, but you have to guess and I will tell you the next time I post.

JUST KIDDING. Dedicated readers will remember that I did something like this in my third post and never got around to answering it (the answer is hard peanut butter.) So I will talk about it now. So here’s the thing: the woman was slightly pregnant <6months, and was hanging around the tanning bed.  I couldn’t stand and stare at her naked saran wrapped body, to see the conclusion of whatever she was doing but I am pretty sure she went into the tanning bed. I don’t know if she thought this was going to protect the baby from UV rays or what, esp since I have seen plenty of pregnant people (women only) smoking. Maybe she was going to run miles after ward and was using it as a belly bra, but I don’t know why that would be because women don’t even wear sports bras here, they just flop around all the time. Its funny, they will change from one lacy bra to another one before working out, and I am always confused. Once I saw a woman getting out of the tanning bed with small metallic pasties on. If you don’t know what those are, don’t google it, but I was just thinking: “You justified THAT breast related purchase but not a sports bra?” Strange. Every day something new.

This is the closest thing I have seen to a naturally occuring "Spurlock" in the wild. I mean, its a spur and key.

Hello Everyone! It has been about a hundred years since I have updated, the reason being that I have been here a month (and a week) and everything is normal to me now. Let me expand on that jumbled sentence. I have been here a month, which is completely crazy, but I feel like I am used to my area, and things are not as SHOCKING and CRAZY as they were when I first saw them. For example, I can see a fleet of 20 girls wearing burger king jackets zipping around on scooters near the local burger king and I think to myself, “that is so normal,” when in fact it is not. (I haven’t actually figured out their purpose yet, but they keep saying something about a free burger which is fabulous, but not that fabulous because I can not understand the catch. There is always a catch. Even in Russia.) The point being, it is hard for me to find INSPIRATION lately, even though it is all around me every second, I just need to remember that this is not a normal place for me to be.

In AMAZING news, my favorite professor from the US came all the way to Russia to visit me! Actually that is not entirely true, Dr. Tafel is in Moscow for a little bit on sabbatical, and she and her boyfriend decided to visit St. Petersburg and met up with me! We met at the Alexander Column and then spent a few hours seeing only part of the Hermitage. After we went to this restaurant and got some mulled wine (I can’t remember the other name for it) which was basically warm wine with fruit and cinnamon. It was a nice warm drink, especially since it was kind of a gloomy rainy day. But rainy days can make for great museum days and also gave me a chance to see her fabulous umbrella with cats all over it. It gave my dolphin umbrella a run for its money. Anyways it was so great to see Dr. Tafel and wander around the Hermitage with her! She also gave me some great Russia tips and websites that I need to check out immediately.

The outside of the Winter Palace and Alexander's Column.

THE HERMITAGE. Let me tell you some facts. It is a massive museum comprised of six buildings, four of the buildings being part of the winter palace. It is a very old building, and very beautiful. One of the coolest parts about this museum is the fact that the building itself is a huge piece of art, and most of the rooms still contain the fabulous palace interior designs that were  fit for a queen, because the royal family actually did walk the same marble stairs and hang out in the golden ball rooms. It was beautiful. They have every type of art you can imagine, and naturally all the big art guys are here. There are even two paintings by DaVinci which I almost missed because I was following the art on the ceiling. Thank goodness Dr. Tafel saved me and pointed them out! I get in free all the time with my student ID and I see no reason to not go back and explore. They even have a section with the royal jewels that you have to get on appointment only, but I will absolutely be doing that. I hope they let me wear some jade earrings home. HERE ARE SOME PICS.

As you can see. The Hermitage is lacking gold. And by lacking gold, I mean not lacking at all because the WALLS WERE GOLDEN for no reason other than just being gold walls. We should redo the White House, I mean with all that money the US has lying around right now.They also had beautiful Jade and Blue Jade-ish columns and decorations. I really love Jade, and I think a lot of it comes from Russia, and I it is safe to say I am in the market for some Jade jewels. In other news, I am also in the market for some ankle boots and a hair bow to snazz up this bun I keep putting on the top of my head. When in Rome…

Truly the most sincere form of flattery.

Aren't they beautiful?

There is a GOLDEN PEACOCK in that cage. They have to put it in the cage so you know, it does not fly away.

I could have a party here.