Rain Rain

I wrote this in a hurry cause I gotta study.

So it's been raining non stop for the past 24 hours. How much rain you ask? The canal outside my apartment has risen at least 5 feet since yesterday. The water covers half of the stairs leading down to where you would get on a tour boat. This weather reminds me of the 1824 St. Petersburg flood that Pushkin mentions in his poem "The Bronze Horseman."

...PS so happy I got that umbrella now. Definitely worth every ruble.

I'm making friends like no other. The guy that sold me the gym membership is an engineering student and also his grandmother teaches English and Russian literature. Really cool guy. He was the one that really encouraged me to go to the Ghostface Killah concert. Long story short. We became friends and we went to McDonalds and I talked to him in broken Russian and he talked to me in broken English. He's from Novogrod and he loves American French and German hip-hop. Mostly American though. We're supposed to be going to a soccer game (Moscow vs. St. Petersburg). He explained to me that St. Petersburg fans were not very okay with Black people. I don't know if I still want to go after hearing that. But he's a good guy. His name is Peter.

By the way. I still get looks in public. I guess it makes sense though... I guess white people that visit Lagos have similar experiences...

And I'm more familiar with how racism here works. I literally live in the center of St. Petersburg. What would be the equivalent of Manhattan. In my research (yes. I'm still doing it) I've noticed that most racist attacks occur on the outskirts and outside of the city. Like in little hick towns. I still keep my head on a swivel and my eyes wide open but I'm in a safer area than I thought.

Sad story. A newborn baby died when his mom left for a few days and he and his other older siblings ages 4 and 6 were left in the care of their grandmother and father (both alcoholics). The baby died he/she wasn't fed. The older kids survived by eating the left over alcohol chasers bread and juice... That's kind of sort of how this country is outside of moscow and st. petersburg.

HILARIOUS! HILARITY! I got into a Sauna today for the first time (maybe in my life) and there was this big burly Russian man in there. I had NO IDEA that saunas were so hot! So I'm just sitting there. Not able to breath very well cause the air is so humid and hot. And then the big burly Russian man pours a gourd of water onto the steam maker thing and the temperature in the room jumps up another 70 degrees! After that he turns to me and says "Ещё!?" to which I replied "Нет! Очень жарко!" And he hit his chest two times really hard and looked at me dead in the face and said "Хорошо! Хорошо!"

Translation-

Burley Russian man: Do you want more!?

Me: No! It's very hot!

Burley Russian man: That's good! That's good!

I sat it out in that place for about 10 minutes and lost out about 20 gallons of sweat.

Worked out like crazy today and I'm ridiculously sore.

I want to write more. I can write more. And I will. I have to do homework now and study study study STUDY! This grammar.

Stay Tuned