48 hours in Petersburg on a sprained ankle

Well it's been a full school week and a weekend since I last wrote. I was trying to think of what I would write about the school week.... hmm... well, I was incredibly depressed, if that's note worthy. I think a lot of us are at a point now where we're tired, sick a lot, frustrated, and ready to go home. I think our teachers have also hit a low point, and are much less patient and tolerant than usual. On Wednesday me, Hilary and Allison all went to Кофе Хаус to try to kick back, drink coffee, and talk about everything that was upsetting us in general. We had a great time, then the waitress charged us 18% service charge... pretty much because we're americans. This is especially bad because in Russia tipping is a new concept and people hardly tip over 10% unless they're rich. So this just took us all back down to a really low place. How can someone decide to try to pull the wool over our eyes because we're foreign? How can someone think we're so stupid and unimportant that we have nothing better to do with our money? If I did that to someone in the US I'd be fired. This happens a lot here and it's so upsetting and disheartening; we never feel like we're wanted or appreciated at all. Ever. So that was definitely a low point of the week.

On Tuesday I saw a movie with my tutor. Well, it was supposed to be with my tutor but she wanted to study so I ended up going with two other tutors. It was a french movie called "comedie de l'innocence" and was completely in French. So I watched a French movie in French in Russia with Russian students who speak English and French. Weird. And the movie, following the rules of French cinema, was really, really weird. And the sad part was that I understood most of what was going on. It's sad because I've seen Russian movies in Russian and only understand about 1/3 of what was going on, simply from context. My life...

Ok so Thursday night, or rather Friday morning at 1 a.m. I caught a train with all my friends to go to St. Petersburg. Yay! I was so excited. We got in around 9 am and were wowed by how beautiful and clean it was. We walked to our hostel, checked in a relaxed a little bit, then we started leaving to start our tour of the city. At the bottom of the stairs, I promptly fell down a few steps and landed on my right foot, which twisted under me as I fell. This was embarassing enough and THEN I realized I had actually hurt myself and was limping. From then on I knew I was down for the count and probably wouldn't see much of Peter at all. I took a bus tour with my friends, so I actually got to see most of the historical parts of the city and learned a lot through a really, really funny commentary we got to listen to, but I didn't get to visit things up close and personal. Like I really wanted to go to St. Isaac's Cathedral and climb the spiral staircase to the top and see the incredible with of St. Petersburg. 40 flights of stairs on a sprained foot? Nope. I did get to go to the Hermitage, The Church of the Spilled Blood, and the Russian Museum. I did not, however, get to go to the Erotic Museum and see Rasputin's penis in a jar. Damn my foot.

I also had to buy a cane and hobble around on it, which was hella embarrassing. And I moved really slowly and found it hard and really painful trying to keep up with everyone. Friday night we went to a Georgian restaurant, which was delicious, but the pain was excruciating and my foot began to swell in my shoe at dinner. The 20 block walk home, let's just say, was not fun. But my friends were so nice about it, and waited for me and let me tag along at the Hermitage, which was another trying event. We saw lots of really, really incredible art, including Rubins, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Picasso, Van Gogh, Michelangelo, and so on.

The train ride back was actually alright, I spent most the time talking to Grey and Carlos, two people I rarely talk to. Carlos if from Barbados so I spent a lot of time teasing him and asking silly questions(do they grow bananas in Barbados? What about pineapples? Do they practice voodoo? Do you love Americans? Do you have outdoor showers?) but he told us a lot of really cool things about his family history and dynamic. He also told us all about sugar cane production. So, all in all, a very educational train ride.

Anyways, I'm back in Moscow, spent the whole day walking around school WITHOUT the cane, and I'm glad to be back. Petersburg was fun, and way friendlier. Someone asked us on the metro if we needed help. Just some random, young guy. That NEVER happens in Moscow. Another drunk guy followed us a few blocks, heard us speaking english, and began pestering me about where we were from. I finally said "canada" (the safe answer) and as we crossed the street he screamed "I LOVE CANADA! YOU ARE WELCOME HERE ANYTIME!" this ALSO never ever happens in Moscow. If some drunk guy was following you in Moscow, it would be to assault you or try to get you to come to his car, never to compliment your country and welcome you to Russia. I then experienced true Moscow hospitality as I was leaving the metro to walk home and someone kicked my cane out from under me. Oh, Moscow.

But Moscow is definitely more authentically Russian because it hates and does not welcome tourists, and we heard a lot of English being spoken in St. Pete. Gotta love Moscow with it's cynical, evil cashiers and it's hatred towards all other nations in general.

Next time I'll post some pics of st. pete, mostly taken from the bus. Stay safe everyone!