Little moments that maybe no one else will appreciate, but oh well.

1. My host mom has a steamer for cooking. As in, for two days straight, I’ve eaten vegetables that hadn’t been touched by oil. I think Galina Anatolievna was sent by god.

2. I took another oral exam today (Tuesday). I’m pretty sure I sounded like a two-year-old. As soon as I got out of the testing room, I sounded normal again. Will I ever be able to show how well I can actually speak on one of those tests?

3. Sore calves from high heels are better than quarter-sized blisters from flats that rub the wrong way.

4. One of the joys of living in a new place is figuring out the best way to walk to various high-frequency locations like, for example, school. I have most of the route pretty well down, but the bit at the beginning, getting from my house to Tuchkov Bridge has, for some reason, proven problematic time and again. I can walk along the main road, but it’s pretty busy, and the exhaust fumes are choking. Clever me, I decided to walk along a much less busy parallel road today. Guess what I discovered? The less-busy road is also less well-drained, and it rained a lot this morning. But for the kindness of the four or five cars that sped around the lakes in the road instead of through them, I would have been completely covered in dirty street water before I even got a quarter of the way to school. So, on rainy days, I’m sticking with the choking fumes.

5. A little wisdom from Galina Anatolievna for you: stewed blueberries are good for your eyesight (whether or not this is true, stewed blueberries are yummy, and have the added benefit of turning your teeth and tongue blue), and if you don’t eat before going to bed, you’ll have nightmares.

6. Filtering and boiling water doesn’t make it taste any better. That’s why Russians drink tea instead of plain water. A lot of Piter’s water problems stem from the fact that most of the pipes in the city are really ancient and made of lead and other delicious heavy metals like that. However, a huge project to replace all the old pipes is being undertaken even as I write, so hopefully at least some of the water problems will be solved within the next few years.

7. Galina and I watched the Russian version of CSI this evening. It’s called FES, Federal something something. I’ve already forgotten the acronym. This morning we watched an old episode of Daddy’s Girls (Папины дочки). The dialogue in that show is horribly stilted and poorly acted, but it still makes me laugh. In general, if Galina’s home, the TV in the kitchen is on, even if she’s sitting in front of it reading a book. It was like that at my old host family’s too, but here our kitchen is about the size of a large closet, so I find the TV a bit overwhelming. However, it is a good springboard for conversation, which is always a good thing.

8. Speaking of conversation, I’ve noticed the past few days that even though I know Russian about a million times better than I did upon my first arrival in Piter, I am still shy or nervous in situations that should already be fairly easy. For example, I’ve been putting off getting more info about joining a gym. I know my language is sufficient for such activities, but some part of me has gone back to the place I was at when I didn’t know anything and was scared of everything. Probably the best cure for this is to just quit being nervous and try stuff out. I’m sure if I go to the gym tomorrow, it won’t be nearly as scary as I’ve made it out to be in my head. Just like buying a cell phone went seamlessly yesterday (“Yeah, gimme that one. The cheapest one in the shop”). Galina again has come to my rescue – to give me a nudge towards the gym, she stopped by herself today (without me asking), and got the schedule for the aerobics and aquatics classes. Looking over the list has gotten me excited to find out more, so I’ll probably head on over there after our written test tomorrow.

9. The special department of philology at St. Petersburg State has significantly better-maintained restrooms than Herzen had. I'm talking toilet paper, soap, AND paper towels. Sure, there are still no toilet seats and it smells funny, but otherwise it's almost like heaven.

I think 9 points is sufficient for one fairly random blog entry. Good night and good luck!