Life and Age in St. Petersburg

Today I woke up at around 8:40 AM and met the group in the cafeteria for breakfast. There were sweet muffins, coffee cake, hard bread with butter and cheese and salami, grapefruit juice, etc.

Then we all headed upstairs to the classrooms for our program introduction by Professor Kruschkov. Then I had to take a placement test (which was impossibly hard!). Then, in some free time. I tried to make a pitcher of sanitary water with my filter and boiling it. Then I got my money matters in order. Then we met back up for lunch which was salad, soup, some meat patty that tasted (and smelled) like felafel's, but was definitely beef and potatoes.

Then we were off for the city center! We took a bus there with a tour guide. The whole city had this aura of life and age. I know that it's not as old as Paris or London, but somehow, it had more to say for itself... It's like a beautiful old woman. You can still see that she must have been radiant in her youth, but her wrinkles tell the story of her life, and so the faded dilapidated quality of it all is not negative, but is its soul.

St. Petersburg is a faded photo that is still alive.

I actually saw people swimming in the Neva. Who could imagine that happening in the Hudson?

Anyway, we went to the fortress of St. Peter and Paul and then to see the Nevsky Prospekt, the Winter Palace, etc. It wasn't so much the sights, though, because we only saw them for two minutes and didn't go in. It was the city itself (and the heat!) that left such a remarkable impression.

There are over three hundred small bridges connecting the watering passages that flow, like blood, through the city's core. Like veins, they are what gives it life.

Anyway, we changed money at the Hotel Grand Europe and headed back. I fell asleep on the bus, partially from jet lag and partially from being exhausted. Then we went across the street and bought some water at the supermarket-- Marta. (I have to remember to tell Contessa about that !)

Then, at 6:45 PM, I called home and talked to my mom straight through dinner. I went downstairs anyway, though, and ate a muffin. Then I came back up, relaxed and polished my nails and worked on my poem. I think my roommate likes to go to bed early. Lucky for me it will be light in the room because the sun is still out. Anyway, it is 10:00 PM right now.

Until later...

-h-