Food

We have had some great chances to eat everything. Ok, not actually everything, but some really good things...and raw bacon.

From the time we got here and found that they always serve tons of food and drink at cafes, we knew that St. Petersburg would be a good chance to taste the culture. Some of the Russian foods we have enjoyed so far include;

Blini - This is a food that is like a giant crepe filled with everything from sour cream, to ham, to cheese, to berries. It is a staple food that we have come to eat a lot at a place called Teremok. It is a Russian fast food restaurant that can make you a blini quicker than McDonalds can make you a burger.

Punch - Russian fruit punch varies from place to place. This is because most of the time it is made using real fruit, rather than concentrates. Some places, like Teremok, make it taste more like cranberry. Other places, like cafes around where we live, make it taste sweeter and more like cherries.

Kvas - This Russian drink is like tea and cola. Some places it tastes like bread tea, and other places it tastes like bread cola. Both are good, though I prefer the tea version to the cola version.

Meats - As mentioned above, they like to serve meats on a plate raw. Bacon is no exception...unfortunately. Some of there meats are very fatty, while others are very much like the roast beef we have in the U.S..

Cheese - Russia has some amazing cheese. There is one kind in particular that is a spread cheese that is so creamy you would swear on your mothers grave that it was butter. It goes great on plain bread, or with pasta. They have a lot of European cheese as well. It is fairly expensive though, so try not to get too addicted.

Baked Potatoes - At a restaurant called Koschka Kartoschka, you can get the best baked potatoes you may ever have in your life. They bake the potato, then mash it up in the skin with butter. You can then add whatever toppings you like and they mix it in. I got garlic, cheese, and onion. It was amazing and very filling.

Borsch - This tomato based soup is to die for. Though it is Ukranian, the Russians know exactly how to make it just right. It comes with vegetables, like leeks, and sour cream on the side. If you come to St. Petersburg, you need to eat borsch.

Russian Dumplings - They are like raviolis. They are dough on the outside and meat on the inside. They can be eaten with butter, sauce, or plain. They are exceptionally good and found at almost every grocery store. They make countless varities and kinds, so its best to try as many as possible to know the range of flavors offered.

Chinese Food - This is obviously not Russian, but it is worth noting. We live by the best Chinese restaurant in St. Petersburg. It is called Restraunt Makao. We go there often. It has the best sweet and sour pork and chicken we have ever had. It is about 600 r to feed both of us.



There are so many places to eat in St. Petersburg that we find new things everyday. Being called the cultural capitol of Russia is no small boast. If you want to find good food in Russia I highly suggest coming here.

Classes

In this entry, we're going to talk about our classes - since they take up the majority of our time here in Russia. Here is our class schedules:

Jake - Group 6
Monday 9:30am-3:00pm
Tuesday 9:30am-3:00pm
Wednesday 9:30am-12:50pm
Thursday 11:20am-3:00pm
Friday is a Study Day

Amber - Group 9
Monday is a Study Day
Tuesday 9:30am-3:00pm
Wednesday 11:20am-3:00pm
Thursday 9:30am-12:50pm
Friday 9:30am-3:00pm

Because we both have to go to the University on Tuesday-Thursday, we go together for the full day from 9:30am-3:00pm, and on Wednesday and Thursday when one of us has class and the other doesn't, we use that time as study time. Jake's classes uses one of the same textbooks as my grammar class, so it is helpful when I review with him what my class did previously (as his just started the book a few weeks ago).

All of the classes assign a lot of homework, and it usually is really nice to just relax on the weekends. To get to school takes and hour and a half, and the same on the way back, so our weekdays are also pretty quiet aside from studying and sleeping. However, both of our Russian language skills have dramatically improved.

Time for a fun story...

About a week or so ago, Jake and I decided during our lunchbreak that it would be great fun to splash in one of the giant spring puddles outside the school (think mini-lake) because we were so happy that it was finally warming up. It ended up less of a light splashing and more of an all out war, and while we quickly claimed a truce, we were both soaked before we had to hurry to our next classes so we wouldn't be late. I squished down the hallway to my grammar class and thankfully arrived before my professor, but with enough time to explain to my classmates why I was so soaked.

I was settling damply in when my professor arrived. She took one look at me and said (in Russian, of course) "Emma, are you wet?" I tucked a sodden strand of hair behind my ear and nodded while blushing. I explained that my friend and I had fallen in a puddle. She shook her head and said, "This will not do. Take off your shirt."

To which I gaped at her, feeling very much like a fish, saying, "I'll be okay, it's alright." And she simply shook her head at me and said, "Emma. I am a mother. You cannot wear such clothes, you will get sick. Look, you have your jacket, you can wear that while your shirt dries. Hang it over the heater."

She was quite insistent, so I stood up, and she made Bjorn (the only guy in my class) turn and face the wall while I took off my shirt and donned my coat. She then GASPED loudly, looking at my jeans, which were even more drenched. She ordered me out of those as well, to which I did some more of the gaping and stammering while she insisted, and then I was swiftly out of my socks and pants as well. I hung them all over the radiator, and retook my seat next to Bjorn, while one of the girls from Spain in my class (I am the only English speaker) lent me her coat to put over my legs.

My professor then asked me whether the radiator under the window was hot, and I felt it and said it was warm. She came over and felt it and said they would NEVER dry, and plugged in the portable radiator and turned it all the way up. She then grabbed my pants to hang over the new heater, and exclaimed loudly, and this time in English, "These are soaked, Emma!"

I nodded, quite nearly naked and awash with embarrassment. She said once more, "This will not do. I will find a way to help," and left the class.

She was gone for quite some time, so my peers and I started studying and going over the lesson after about ten minutes. Half an hour later, the professor returned to the class with two bags of clothing, and proceeded to have me try on various pairs of pants. I found a pair that *almost* fit, and she nodded, and around that time the coordinator for my and Jake's program came in, announcing she had got the morning bus to return to take me back to our apartment. I do not even ride the morning bus, but she said I MUST hurry or the bus would leave, as they were unhappy coming back. She rushed off, and my professor looked at me, and said, "Hurry, then, Emma." She then turned to everyone in the class and asked who had a plastic bag for me to put my wet clothes in, and no one did. She gave them all very disapproving looks, before glancing at my shoes which I was about to put on. She asked, "Are they wet?" and then pushed on one with her foot - water flooded out in a mini puddle.

She shook her head, immediately beginning to rummage through one of the two bags of clothing she had. She shook her head again, saying "There are no socks, Emma, but you CANNOT put your feet in wet shoes. You WILL get sick. Wrap your feet in these." She handed me a pair of boxers. Hurriedly, I wrapped each foot in a pair of boxers and shoved them into my sodden shoes. I gathered up my school things and my wet clothes and fled the classroom, my professor yelling after me, "This is why you cannot be friends with men, Emma!"

I rushed outside to find that the bus had, indeed, left already. So I went back inside to the coordinator's office. She looked at me, and shook her head sadly, asking "You missed the bus?" and I nodded glumly. She said that she would call a taxi, and asked if I wanted to get Jake. I nodded, since I realized he would have no idea I left early and would be sitting around waiting for me after class, just as wet as I was.

I pulled up the baggy pants and walked to Jake's classroom on the third floor. I knocked on his door, and his professor answered. I told her in Russian that I needed to speak with Jake, and she asked if it was serious or not, and I said that it was serious. She nodded, and Jake packed up his things and came in the hallway. While he was getting his stuff together, she asked the class in Russian to be sure and let him know what the homework would be. They looked at her blankly, so she turned to me and opened the grammar book, pointing out all of his homework and what he should study. I nodded and told her he would do it. Everyone in his class was peering at me, since I knew most of them, and some of the Koreans were whispering "What's happened?"

But then we were back on our way downstairs, and Jake was looking at me, at the clothes I was carrying versus the clothes I was wearing, and he asked "What happened?"

"We're going home, Jake. I knew that they wouldn't make YOU strip in class."

Laughter ensued.

To this day, we wonder to ourselves, where did my professor get those clothes from? She's the sort of woman I could see accosting random men in the hallway and demanding their clothes, saying "A woman needs them."