Home?

...Petersburg! Busy shops, grand old Imperial buildings, and crowds of people rushing along made the scene outside my window seem so alive and vibrant after the stagnant near-wasteland we'd just passed through. Arriving at the Finland Station, a la Lenin, I wandered off the train, feeling really, really out of place for a moment in this strange world. Luckily the driver sent by the university was there on time, so we took off in his Van. He didnt know a word of English, but it really didnt matter as the amazing scenery, the blaring russian pop music on the radio, and the insane drivers around us would have made conversation near impossible. In about the first two blocks we drove, I realized that drivers in Russia are the wildest I've ever seen, super aggressive to the point of gunning it past some little old babushka or orphan who's already half way crossing the street or totally cutting each other off all the time. The thing is no-one seems to get mad abut it like they would back home, no angry honking or flipping of the bird. I guess it's just because that's how they ALL drive. Fast too, at one point I noticed we were doing 90km/h, a little scary for a busy city street!
Catching my first gimpse of the massive red brick walls of the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Winter Palace across the water was pretty awesome. Seeing the apartment block that I'm staying in for the first time was decidely less so - very much a 60s or 70s prefab Soviet beauty and very run down. As we approached, I kept thinking "please not that one, please not that one..." and wouldnt you know it, it was that one! That said, the apartment itself isnt that bad, very small (tiny kitchen - dinner table can only have 2 chairs, submarine-style WC and bathroom, and 3 bedrooms, that's all folks!) but clean and well-ordered, which is very important. The host family - Mila, her husband, and 21-year old son Roma (an archaeology student at the state uni) are friendly, good-natured people, although they dont know almost any English which can make things awkward from time to time. My room is actually fairly large, bigger then my rez room at Totem or my old room at home. It has the busiest wallpaper I've ever seen, printed to look like green tiles covered in some type of flowering ivy - how charming! I've got a TV (all Russian channels except for the BBC and sometimes Deutsche Welle has english programs), a bookcase full of Russian books I cant read, plus a none-too-impressive view of the courtyard/park/parking lot surrounded by other dilapidated buildings. Luckily it seems pretty soundproof, probably the asbestos insulation does the trick! I dont know if I'd call it home, but I'll get used to it. Still hasnt sunk in that I'm actually in Russia..

(thus ends the excerpt from Wednesday, will post more recent stuff soon!)