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

American Cultural Imperialism (Thank God!)

The McDonalds here is the best thing to happen to me since I've been here. It is so delicious! Way better than any American McDonalds! And the Sprite was the perfect mixture of syrup and carbonated water. It wasn't flat or disgusting like the Sprites from McDonalds in France. It was lemon and lime harmonization perfected.

There were these two kids I saw on my way back listening to some surprisingly good sounding Russian hip-hop and I turned around and pointed at them and kind of gave them a thumbs up and their faces lit up like Christmas!

....

I started this blog a while back and saved it. We went on a tour of the city today. I had seen some of the spots already when I was exploring with some of the other Brown students earlier.

I almost forgot that I'm here to be a student. But now I'm going to get really serious about doing well in my class and mastering as much Russian as I can this summer. I'm picking up words and phrases here and there but the grammar is still escaping me. I have two Russian language teachers. One is young and she talks so impossibly fast! (The classes are all in Russian) And my other teacher is older and she talks nice and slow and I do really well with her. She probably thinks I'm the best student in the language class cause I can converse with her and answer questions in class easily. The younger teacher spits off Russian words like a gatling gun spits off rounds. She probably thinks I'm the worst student in the class.

The poverty here is so grimy. Contrary to how busted up and disgustingly awful my apartment smells there's still a lot more worse places the further away you get from the center of St. Petersburg. The majority of Russia's wealth is concentrated into Moscow and St. Petersburg. The further away you get the more depressing and awful things get... Another reason I think the United States is kind of on top of things in terms of administration and quality of life. If Huntsville, Texas was in Russia I'd probably be a farmer and alcoholic.

The metro is MADNESS during rush hour in the afternoon! I'm from the country and I've never had to take metros and buses. So getting around reading the signs and stops in Russian on one of the worlds largest metro systems is a huge leap for me.

And the Taxi's here! Are absolutely ridiculous! You just stop a RANDOM UNMARKED car in the street and negotiate a price and you go off to your destination. There are some cabs with yellow things on top indicating they are a legitimate cab but cabs don't have meters in them! Pricing with cab drivers is best negotiated by people that know the city and know how much things should cost.

Anyway! I'm about to get very serious about my homework and things of that nature. Dinner time...

Stay Tuned