I woke up, had some breakfast which was an omelette and some bread with cheese, and a nice cup of tea. I got to the university at 12:30 to meet people so we could walk over to the Russian Museum because I wasn't completely sure how to get there from my place, and we ended up mistaking the Field of Mars for the Russian Museum so we were a bit late. We got to the park behind the museum and just like most big, pretty parks, it took us forever to find an exit, walk all the way around, and get to our meeting spot. We were about 10, 15 minutes late, but since it was 4 of us and not just like...me, I didn't feel too bad. It was also our first class, so yeah.
Professor Ilia Askoldovich took us into the museum, which was absolutely beautiful. There were some tour groups going through the museum so hearing what he was saying got a bit difficult. It was about an hour and half of standing in a room full of Russian icons, hearing him lecture about icons. It was really interesting and I kind of wished we weren't just standing around since my feet started to hurt =/
After the Russian Museum, I walked to Liteny to have lunch with Jonathan, Eric, and Victoria at the Chocolate Cafe, which is also connected to a sushi bar. I had a business lunch and splurged and got supposedly the best hot chocolate in the world. The business lunch was a chicken teriyaki bento box and it was surprisingly good. The salad was eh, I wanted a better dressing on it than just lemon, but everything else was really good. The rice was legit, there was salmon and cucumber sushi, and yummy chicken teriyaki. The miso soup was also really good. But when the hot chocolate came out, ohh man. It definitely was the best hot chocolate I've ever had. It was like a liquid brownie, but not too thick and disgustingly decadent, it was juuust right. Found out later of course that the cocoa wasn't part of the business lunch, so I pretty much splurged on lunch, which I figure since I've been trying so damn hard to save money, one lunch couldn't hurt me.
I definitely ended up splurging that night though, since we walked around to bars around 9 and found them to be completely packed. So we ended up back at the first bar I ever went to in Petersburg, which is the Golden Pint, and it's a nice bar with a good feeling, but the drinks are slightly more expensive (probably because it's right next to the consulates). There was a generous, but not necessarily kind man, sitting at the bar in front of our table and he ended up buying like $60 worth of drinks for the table. None for me, about $14 for Jonathan and Victoria combined, and about $46 on Eric alone. Seeing as I don't know any Russian, I only really tried to nod and smile if he acknowledged me (which he rarely did) and I noticed his demeanor more than trying to translate what he was saying. He really seemed to ignore Victoria, which was weird since she has just as good Russian as Eric, and I couldn't understand why until it just occurred that he's just a misogynistic old man who was drunk off his rocker. Oh well. Good times, at least, and I ended up splurging on a girly cocktail called "Grasshopper" which was really just sugar and mint, and a Czech beer. After spending hours at the Golden Pint (from like 11 to 1:30), we went back to Jonathan's apartment and hung out, and I loved all the stuffed animals he has from his host family. Then we walked back to my area because there's a Carl's Jr. And oh geez, it was so nice getting a decent cheeseburger at 2:30am, especially with the others still feeling drunk and I sobering up. They walked me back to my place, which was nice of them, and also hilarious in general. Definitely a great night :)
So I got back to my apartment at 3am and fell asleep and now I am awake at noon and I don't know what exactly I should be doing today...oh well. Breakfast time!
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