Tiffany Windchime in The Gentle Diarrheas

Woke up, watched some 30 Rock, and had breakfast at like...8am? I had black tea with milk and sugar, and some bread with Valio cheese, which is sooo good. My host mother also had cottage cheese out and encouraged me to eat some...I tried but I was too grossed out with the texture to really appreciate it. I also had some green grapes because I miss grapes a lot haha. I realized that most of the products on table were dairy: sliced cheese, Valio cheese, cottage cheese, milk, and most times yogurt will be out too. Thank goodness I'm not completely lactose intolerant. After breakfast, we had more tea about an hour and half later and I mentioned having eggs and bacon for breakfast since I'm not getting as much substance I need to get through my day, and she obliged and apparently thought I literally ONLY ate yogurt, fruit, and bread for breakfast because that's what I told her the first day. But I only said that because she mentioned those three things and I nodded to all of them, I didn't exactly compile a list of all appropriate breakfast foods and shove it into her face...

But anyway, my host mother also taught me that it's not custom to bring your outside coat/jacket into the kitchen or anywhere past right near the door. It should be hanging on a coat rack right at the doorway, but I keep forgetting to do so since I also don't take off my shoes when I get into the apartment, I walk straight to my room and take off everything there. Also, I keep things in my pockets that I move around a lot so I dont want to leave my coat at the door and freak out later about missing my iPod and other essential things...

My host mother walked me to the University to get a feel for the route, but she took the more maze-like route where we immediately turn on our first left, etc. And so we kind of just zigzagged our way up to Gagarinskaya--I did however run into Elizabeth on the way, so the three of us were walking and chatting at points (me and Elizabeth in English, my host mother and Elizabeth in both English and a tiny bit of Russian). We all got to the University, which is very nice from the outside, but totally confusing and miserable looking inside. It used to be a palace, but then converted into a Soviet Russian labor/workers' rights building, and now it's European University, the second endowment-funded university. It's a very young institution and very liberal thinking. It has its limitations but also provides many possibilities since they have such a strong art history department and tie to the Hermitage and the Russian Museum.

We had our orientation, which was nice. Started out with meeting the head of the Art History Department in the room we're going to be studying in, which has nice red plush dining room looking chairs. Then we left and skipped the Russian economist big wig since well...none of us would really appreciate the two hour Russian lecture...So we walked around, and stopped for lunch at a bliny cafe where I had the most delicious and filling lunch. Elizabeth and I shared a "chicken pancake pie" that had mashed potatoes, mushrooms, and chicken in it, and we each got a dessert bliny as well. I had peach and ice cream and it was absolutely heavenly. I didn't even have enough room for my tea, which was unfortunate, but ohhh my goodness so good.

Going back to the University, we went into the reception and had a glass of wine in the rooms that are the only ones preserved from the palace. They were....amazing. Absolutely stunning. During the reception we met our future professor at the Hermitage, the head of the Prints Room, and a specialist of Rembrandt and all other Western Prints in the Hermitage's collection. He was really interesting...he kind of sounded like he had a bit of a British accent, which was cool. We then took a group photo on the marble stairs, but a terrible incident occurred where a guy was trying to figure out the photo down a few stairs from the group, and then missed a step and rolled down the rest of the marble stairs, and then smashed into the first of two sets of doors leading outside. I didn't see it happen at all, I didn't even see who got hurt since I was all the way in the back, but I definitely heard it, and it sounded awful. According to multiple people, he rolled and then gashed his head on the side, and there was some blood splattered on the ground, oh boy. What I remarked being all the way in the back was that I heard the sound, but no like...exclamations. Apparently some people gasped, but I certainly didn't hear a sound. And the majority of the group just stood there and watched, and then waited for the picture to be taken. Very...disturbing, when you think about it. Of course a few people helped, but that was a pretty big group on the stairs being completely immobile.

Anyway, after the photos, we all went to the art history department party where we had to introduce ourselves and sit through many many toasts. More glasses of wine, there was cheese and meats, apples, juice. Apples were used as decorations around the room! They were hanging from the lamps, from the chalkboard, it was really...odd. It was a very Russian party as the toasts were very long winded and rambling and I started really feeling antsy after an hour since it's literally just...me sitting there with no clue as to what they're saying, and everyones just chatting quietly while someone makes a rambling speech about their lives, how they go to the university, etc. So I was the person to first get up and leave and then everyone followed suit pretty quickly. A woman "stopped" the others and said "it's a shame you're leaving so early. it's too early to leave." but multiple people told us before that it was okay for us to leave any time when we wanted to.

So we all left, and then we meandered around, enjoyed the view of a canal, a palace, and then chilled at a park. It was nice, and it was such a beautiful day I couldn't help but just fall in love with St. Petersburg's architecture and aura.

I walked home after we decided to part ways, and my host mother got back from work at like 8:30pm, and we had dinner together. She made me borscht but with chicken in it which was good, and I had another piece of bread with cheese. I also had a nice green apple as dessert and was satisfied and full after that. I was supposed to have tea and cake after, but I was too full and then I had to leave to meet the others at Kazan Cathedral and go to a bar. So I get there and we go to a bar that the others went to a few days ago. I had one glass of champagne since I was confused about the pricing and it looked like the cheapest thing on the menu, but also because I've never had a glass of legit champagne. So I sipped my glass for two hours and talked with the others and then when the check came, I realized that they charged per gram, so it was a $4 glass of champagne, which is not bad at all and totally worth it for me. I just got back and now I'm hungry again, so I'm probably gonna get another piece of bread and some cheese (seriously. Valio. so good.) and then head to bed.

I'm meeting my Russian tutor tomorrow and going on a boat ride down the canals :DD I'm also going to bring my huge camera because it's time to bring it out finally.