Self Hazard

My biggest worry here should not be getting attacked by racists but me attacking myself.



I just hit my head up against an air conditioner hanging out of a window on my way to the metro I thought I ducked low enough to avoid it but I didn't and next thing I know... BANG! I said a swear word in Russian as soon as it happened so it must have been hard...



It was hard. I was stunned for a while and I could feel a knot swelling up on top of my head. Thank goodness my hair is thicker and longer than it's ever been and I was wearing my trademark Yankees hat or else I'd probably be in the hospital now. The corner was kinda sharp and I'm kind of bleeding now but if I apply pressure to it and get the trainer at the gym to check it out I'll be ok. Emphasis. Kind of bleeding. Nothing serious. When I saw my own blood on my hand I got light headed though. I usually only get light headed and on occasions come close to passing out at the sight of someone elses blood.



The metro that came before this one was empty and apparently not in service. Weird. Someone on here smells really terrible. Like musty body odor and beer and it's really humid... It's stomach wrenching.



At my stop. I'll be sure and get this very minor injury checked out first thing when I get to the gym. So don't worry.



Stay tuned.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

I Don't Wanna

Chinese English

Metro

Beautiful station. Smelly European people.

Busted old apartment. Not mine but just a typical looking one.

When I was little, maybe 5 or 6 years old I used to not want to go to school. I would wake up cranky and tell my mama that I didn't want to go. Nevertheless, I eventually ended up going to Bluebonnet Academy that morning. Same thing here and now. I don't wanna go to class today right now. But I have to.

The hot water is back.

Also thanks to my membership at the Fitness House I look good without a shirt on again. I'm just saying... It also probably has a lot to do with the fact that I'm eating healthier too and not as much fast food (like none) and all the walking. My membership runs out in about a week.

I'm a country boy. Born and raised. For those that don't know me too well I grew up in a small town outside of Houston, Texas in a small neighborhood out in the country very much so isolated from city life. So I've never ridden the Metro or lived in an apartment in a big city. Things a lot of people are accustomed to are totally new to me. I love the Metro here and I think it's incredible but I'm just not a fan of all the other people packing in on there with me. I'd much rather drive a truck or a high end luxury Benz and listen to my own music on the way to school/work every morning. Also Here in this apartment the person living next to me plays the strangest music I've ever heard in the middle of the day. Making it virtually impossible to take a nap. Like really really weird music. REALLY weird music. At first I thought it was coming from this apartment but then I realized that it was not. It's the one next to me. I don't know which smell I hate more. The smell in my apartment or the one in the elevator and the stairs coming up here.

I say that to say this. I'm a country boy used to wide open spaces and freedom of mobility. This old busted smelly Soviet apartment and stinky, musty body odor people on the Metro is an annoyance of epic proportions.

Plus a lot of men here wear purses. Come on dude. Purses?

I met up with Ana last night and she really really REALLY helped me with my homework! I helped her with her English. I met her sister here who is very ditzy and looks similar to her but not quite like her. Kind of like me and Jared (my brother). Anyway, she's (her sister) the public relations manager for the most expensive, posh club in St. Petersburg. Word? Looks like my weekends here just got a little more fun. I don't have that many left by the way...

HAHAHA! The shirt! There's this Chinese girl in our group from China and she'll occasionally wear this shirt that says "whena starwinks rough glare14"! Basically it was made at a Chinese factory and they thought they were writing something clever or cool in English. HAHHAHA! I get the biggest kick out of it every time she wears it. Don't worry I'm not being mean to her or anything. She actually thinks it's funny too and she only bought it cause it had her favorite colors.

Obama is in the Moscow! I'll be treated significantly better because of the Obama buzz while he's here with is family.

I need to finish getting ready to head to class though.

Stay Tuned.

Swing of Things

I rode the metro to school by myself. I know people say that the best way to learn is to make mistakes and to be corrected but I don't like sounding like a four year old trying to speak Russian in class.

I fell asleep yesterday at 8:00 pm and woke up at 7 this morning. It was really weird. This room is freezing cold and everytime I come back home the dog tries to take off his muzzle and I'm worried one day he's going to get it off.

On the bright side! The bath water was really really hot! I was thinking that it would be 3rd world cold but it was good and warm.

And this place has the most God-awful musty smell. Partly cause of all the animals (Dog, Cat, turtle...) and partly just cause it's an old busted building. My apartment isn't that bad but outside of here coming up the stairs or the elevator it smells like urine and cigarets.

I bought 3 green apples from this gypsy. They were only 45 rubles (about a $1.50) she was very nice. I think I will buy fresh produce from her often cause she's on my way to school.

There are a lot of farmers that stand around the city trying to sell their produce. It's like every 50 paces there's a small set up where I can buy apples, chives, celery, potatoes, carrots... Stuff like that.

I got my Russian cell phone today. The School gives them to us with 100 rubles credit on there and we can add more rubles as needed.

I think I saw a black person but I'm not sure... They were moving quickly and wearing a hood.

Anyway, I have to run and get breakfast. 3 eggs. toast. and water/juice. every morning. Later!

Making Russian Moves

That's me in front of the Church of the savior on Blood (Xрам Спаса на Крови). It is at the site where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated on March 13, 1881. It was a very pointless and violent assassination that caused a lot of problems.

Today was cold and rainy. Not terribly rainy but every now and then there would be a few raindrops. Nothing my jacket couldn't handle. I saw some ridiculously crazy stuff! Like you wouldn't believe! I don't know where to start!

Let's start with the look that Russians (vendors, teachers, people in the street) give me when I speak grammatically perfect Russian with little or no accent. The shock on their faces is indescribable. It's like "What!? What was that?! Where did that come from? Did he just say that?" One of the best feelings in the world catching someone off guard like that...*

My school is in a very nice neighborhood. There's a huge fancy fitness center/Jewish community center in a very nicely built building and the other buildings in the area are new and very modern. HOWEVER! My school is in this old run down horrible looking structure that has that same Soviet resonance to it... On the inside the school wasn't much better... It looks like an underfunded public high school and not the big huge fancy university I had pictured it as being. Looks can be deceiving though. Students from Brown, Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford would not continue to come to Nevsky Institute if did not have some merit.**

We didn't have class today but just a brief orientation/tour of the school and neighborhood. There's so much cool stuff here! Hopefully I'll get to go over everything I see in more detail as the summer progresses.

After school we went closer to the center of St. Petersburg with my Russian professor from Brown. She's cool. She took us on the Metro and told us to go and explore on our own and have fun. We did. This is a huge city! The streets are huge, the buildings, the rivers. Everything!

Random thing I noticed! All the cars here are dirty! Really nice Mercedes Benz's and Ford's and Chevy's and Beamers and Japanese cars too. I guess there are no car washes here...

Anyway! I rode the metro all by myself! And found my way back home. By the way. The metro in this city is one of the most beautiful things in the world. It should be one of the wonders of the world. Everything is in marble and it's like 5 Miles underground... (not really but it's really really deep underground cause of all the rivers in the city) and the stations are spacious and really big and grand. It's like the common man is royalty.

I have been appointed the leader for bar/club/pub excursions tonight. I'm going to show some of the kids in my program around my neighborhood. Which is really nice. So I'm going out to meet them now. In future blogs I'll incorporate some more Russian words (слова) and more photos.

Stay tuned