"Wait...how do you pronounce Japanese words in a Russian accent?"

Woke up at 7:30 and had breakfast for half an hour--this time I tried the Russian raspberry yogurt. It was in a bigger cup and was more watery than Dannon but still good :) Then I had a piece of bread with tons of cheese on it because it was so yummy. I also had a good cup of green tea with milk and sugar. There was what I thought was a stick of butter in front of me but it was like..milk and sugar compressed into a butter-like bar. It was interesting and spread like cottage cheese texture-wise but it went so well with bread, I think I'm gonna have it tomorrow morning. Only thing is it's ridiculously sweet lol. Speaking of sweet, Russian honey is also very interesting...not as gooeyfluid, more like...mashed up sugar hmm..

At 8 my host mother left for work and I had the entire apartment to myself until I left at 12:50pm. So I went online, talked to a bunch of people, caught up on K-Pop, practiced a bit of ballroom to Lady Gaga--generally enjoying having the apartment to myself. I also took a nice long hot shower, which was really nice, and I had music playing in the back too. The water going on for that long started to take on a..not so subtle, but not awful odor. Oh boy.

At 12:50 I left the apartment and took 5 minutes to lock the doors correctly. I got to the train station in one piece, but when I got on the train, I realized I was going in the wrong direction because I misread the sign. Not too bad, just went to the other side of the platform and waited the 2 extra minutes. I do enjoy how trains literally come every 2 minutes and how long the escalator rides are (a good 3 minutes, and it's a fast escalator, too). I got to Kazan Cathedral at like 1:30, and walked slowly up to the cathedral, snapped a few shots, and sat in the park outside of it, admiring the architecture and aura of St. Petersburg. I met with the others at like 2, and we went into two department stores (one very fancy, the other okay) to buy a plethora of supplies. I bought toothpaste, floss, two folders for school papers, index cards, a nice big umbrella, postcards, and of course, the Yota! The Yota was expensive, but whatever, it's necessary. The store was quite a ways from Nevsky Prospect and it looked like a fake Apple store. It attempted to look sleek and futuristic, with the white tshirts and cool blue font and symbol, but something about an employee with a beer gut wearing the hip Yota company shirt and the random compilation of American music (Nickelback, metal, country, weird elevator music, etc.) playing in the background made it less than Apple-awesome.

By the time we got all our errands done, it was like 6pm and we hadnt had lunch. I was starving and needed something in my stomach before going back for dinner. So 5 of us went to a nearby sushi bar that is a chain called Eurasia. I got my first taste of Coke since I got here and it was costly but so worth it. I also had the unagi maki which was pretty good actually.

After the sushi bar, they all decided to accompany me back home which was really nice and kind of necessary since we got lost as a group, I can't imagine what it wouldve been like if I was by myself...They got to see my glorious neighborhood with the sketch seamstress building across the street and the unimaginative graffiti.

When I got back home my host mother and I had dinner: lentil soup, plain noodles, and steamed chicken. No sauces--the only thing she had was ketchup and...I just can't deal with that. I ate the noodles with pepper though, and had some cucumbers in yogurt. Overall, not a bad meal :) I missed noodles so much I didn't care that almost nothing was on them. For dessert I had watermelon, and I drank seltzer water instead of tea :O

After all of that, I stuck in my room and watched 30 Rock until going online. But of course, 10 minutes after I get online it seems, my phone goes off and it's one of the other students telling me that they were gonna meet up and go to a bar called the Golden Pint Pub across the street from one of the other students' homestay, which was about 10 minutes away. So I got ready, and left the apt around 11 or so and made my way. I did continue walking on one street for far too long but it was okay, I made it there in one piece. It was really fun sitting and talking with the others while sipping a vodka tonic; the conversation suddenly took a very intellectual art history and vassar academics turn and it was nice. We stayed there for a while and then head out to our individual homes--thanks so much to Victoria and Eric for bearing with my less than awesome physical memory of my own neighborhood and accompanying me home again! :)

Well tomorrow will be another day of fun, shopping, and errands...and I can finally set up my Yota tomorrow night :D!