Things I Have Learned....Or need to learn

1. Must learn how to use a squat toilet. Enough said.

2. Buying groceries without knowing whats a good price is hard. But what is even harder is having no idea what the label says.

3. Because of above, must bring Russian/English dictionary to the supermarket, no matter how stupid you look.

4. Be prepared for the cafeteria lady to get very mad if you give her a big bill---even though the atm gives you a 1,000 or even 5,000 ruble bill and you need to break it somehow.

5. You will not fit in with the clothing style---St Petersburg is like going back to the late 80's, early 90's with mullets galore, in addition to tights with shorts which is something that I have not seen in YEARS.

5a. Most of the women wear high heels. There is no way that I will wear 4 inch stilettos on my walk to and from the metro no matter how much I stand out.

5b. Its hot. Its sunny. Yet everyone is still wearing their winter jackets. I will not fit in, but I will have a lovely tan and be comfortably warm and not boiling.



Other then that, I am having a lovely time. It has been hard and frustrating at times, but I know that I am already learning so much each time that I struggle to order meat at the deli, or ask for tea from the cafeteria lady. Today, I successfully got lunch from the cafeteria! But when I asked for milk with my tea, I got a response that I could not make heads nor tails of, so I just gave up on that part. She is scary anyway. So I almost successfully got lunch. Close enough.

Oh and I had my first two classes today. My teacher is very friendly and older, but she does not speak much English. She would use French to explain some things, which worked for the other two students in my group, but not me. Our class is only three people so I feel a lot more comfortable than I did in University, even though that class was fairly small as well. Its also nice that we have been grouped together by skill.

When I get better internet (Sunday I think), I will post some pictures for y'all.