Russian Transportation

Okay, so I am writing this a day later so I hope I remember everything...

That night, Katherine and I had a fly problem that was so bad. I think it was because I left the window open all day. Anyway, they kept buzzing in my ears and woke me up really early (5:30 AM!!!). We went to breakfast (same food). There is some big group of French people (all older couples ) who we always bump into and who eat next to us in the cafeteria.

Anyway, we had our first day of class. My teacher's name is Nina. She seems really nice. There are six of us in my class-- me, Ally, Melissa, David, Blakeslee and a woman named Page who says she owns a bar in DC and has her nose pierced and wears all black all the time. Class was long (10:00-1:15).

Then we got back together for lunch-- meat and potatoes. After lunch, a bunch of us all hung out and talked about regional characters and stereotypes in the US, etc. Finally we got our stuff together to go out. Daniel Drake gave us metro and trolley passes and dorm cards. We took the trolley bus to Lesnaya. A woman on the bus came up and said something to me. I thought she was homeless or something, so I just gave her a look like "no, sorry...," but it turned out that she worked on the bus and was asking for my card...

The metro here is weird. There is a super long escalator going up and down (like a ten minute ride!) and everyone crowds to get on and lines up on the escalator and stares at the people going in the opposite direction. Anyway, we got off by Moscow Station (Ploschad-- something or another!). And we started walking down Nevsky. It was really cool.

We stopped in a few shops, etc. One grocery store that we went into was decorated like an art nouveau mansion! We were out for a really long time and walked over half of the Nevsky, until we got t o a book store-- Dom Knigi, which is really big. Then we headed back.

Getting back was a lot harder because it was raining. When we got back to Lesnaya, the subway station was absolutely packed. It was insane!!! Everyone was pushing on the sidewalk. We weren't sure where the trolley bus would leave from so we sort of stood on the sidewalk where we thought it would come. When it finally came, people literally trampled each other to get on and we missed it. The next one came and we pushed to get on fast. Katherine got knocked down and David pulled her back up.

Anyway, we were one of the first ones on, but this made it harder to get off. Ally and Katherine and I got stuck and missed our stop because people wouldn't let us through. We had to walk back one stop. The rest of the night was kind of relaxing.

I am cutting this short because I have to catch up a few days...