1-26-07

1-26-07

Well. I took my files on a flash drive to school, and I could open them, but Blogspot refused to open on any of the computers in the lab. Tonight Becky recommended a free WiFi place near the Metro closest to school, so maybe I’ll check that out Monday after classes. On the one hand, I’m loath to lug my laptop around all day; because I worry about it and because it’s heavy and I do a lot of walking. On the other hand, if Idealnaya Chashka isn’t going to work for me, I’m going to have to find an alternative to post these things.

It’s kind of frustrating to look on my desktop and see entries from the 21st, 23rd, and 24th just sitting there knowing that they haven’t seen the light of day. But honestly, I am going to work on it. Obviously, if you’re reading this, I’ve found a solution. Unless that solution is something stupid like posting all of them in May when I get home.

So! Yesterday was my first visit to the Hermitage! First of many, I believe. It’s just simply too much to do in one day. We were there for at least two hours, just wandering around, and I know we didn’t see half of it. Hannah and I have both seen Russian Ark, though, so sometimes we would enter a room and say, “Oh! This is where he ran into Pushkin!” or “Oh! This is where he ran into his friends in modern times!” After that, it was tasty chicken and noodles here with Marina.

We had been told after classes that there was some kind of street party that night, Thursday, in celebration of St. Tatiana’s Day. St. Tatiana is the patron saint of students, so apparently all students of the city were invited. Plus, there were going to be fireworks. I love fireworks. Lots of people were making plans to go, so Hillary and I planned to meet up at Gorkovskaya Station and ride the metro in together. Well, we get there, and there’s a stage, and a bunch of people standing around, and some ridiculously loud and horrible Russian pop playing. There are students there, oh yes, but they’re all standing off to the side. Who was dancing in the street? Old people. Babushkas. Big women in fur coats and grumpy looking old men in little caps were busting some serious moves. Hillary and I just couldn’t look away for a while. But eventually, we realized no one else was there and we were freezing, so we turned to leave.

Before we can turn the corner, however, we run into Andrey, a fellow student. He assures us that more people are coming. Eventually Lael and Mattison arrive, and Marisa’s on the way. Once the newcomers get a taste of the “party,” they get cold and want to go somewhere else, too. So we end up at the “Off Road Café.” It’s a themed bar/café. The walls and floor are all rough-and-tumble adobe and dirty-style, and there’s a flat screen TV on the wall playing some Russian off-roading show. So we got warm there and then went back out to see a display of the fire arts. There were too many people to see it well, and honestly I’ve seen better on the beach of Lake Monroe in Bloomington. So at this point we start to walk away, but then the fireworks went off! It was great. Here I am, in St. Petersburg, Russia, on a street, freezing my butt off, listening to “Fergielicious” at a ridiculous volume and watching fireworks. Good times.

Today after classes we went on our official excursion to Peter and Paul Fortress. This gave me my first opportunity to take pictures. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll figure out a way to get them online.

When I walk home from the Metro, I usually look straight forward or at the ground. The other day, I shook things up and actually looked around. It was then that I noticed the sign with the sombrero and cactus that said “El Machete” in Cyrillic. Yes. I was super pumped about some Tex-Mex food. So after our excursion, a few of us made plans to be brave and try the Russian attempt at Mexican food.

El Machete’s location looks pretty sketchy at first glance, but it’s really nice and welcoming on the inside. The five of us sat at the only table in the middle of the room and made Hannah do the ordering for us. Our food was…interesting. It wasn’t bad, per se, but it certainly wasn’t Mexican. I ordered the burritos with beef and Hannah ordered the enchiladas with chicken. We’re pretty sure that other than the meat inside, we received the same thing. On the menu it said that it came with, “Mexican Salsa!” I’m not sure what the “salsa” was supposed to be. We each had two tortillas filled with meat, cheese, and possibly some egg. The burritos/enchiladas were then covered in some kind of sauce. It was yellow with green specks. It was kind of mustardy, but mostly flavorless. It’s possible that this could have been the salsa. This also came with a small scoop of rice with corn and green beans in it. And in a little bowl there were about 4 kidney beans in what Hillary said tasted like watered-down ketchup. It is also possible that this was the salsa.

Becky ordered the flauta and she basically got one of the tortillas that Hillary and I got, minus the yellow sauce and grilled in a pan. Kate ordered a quesadilla. Now, I didn’t take Spanish in high school, but I’m pretty sure “queso” means “cheese,” implying that the basis of a quesadilla is cheese. Kate essentially got mixed vegetables in a folded over tortilla. No cheese. She also had something that looked a lot like actual salsa, but she tasted it and it was simply tomatoes and dill. Hannah got the tortilla soup and it seemed to be just canned soup with tortilla strips and big hunks of cream cheese and avocado in it. This may all sound terrible, but it actually wasn’t half bad. It was cheap, too. It certainly wasn’t Mexican, but we definitely had to give it a shot.

After that we went to Idealnaya Chashka and hung out until it closed. Then I came back here and sat down to write this. As of the time of writing, Marina is not home. It’s her friend’s birthday. She left before I left and she’s still not back. Yeah, kind of makes me feel like a loser.

Tomorrow we’re going to Pavlovsk. Hopefully it will be very snowy and pretty. Right now I’m looking forward to sleeping in a bit and then showering to get the smell of smoke out of my hair. Hopefully hopefully hopefully I can get this up online soon. Bear with me, large reading audience. This is all for you. I just need to find a workable, convenient solution. I haven’t even been in the city proper for an entire week yet. Tomorrow, however, will be my one week anniversary. Go me.