Beginning of the Journey

Incredible. I have been in St. Petersburg a total of two days and I feel like I’ve been here for at least a week! Tonight is my last night in the dormitory, tomorrow I am meeting my host family. I am going to be staying with a 60 year old woman and her 40 year old daughter. (who seem lovely, by the description I was given in my home stay letter).
Well, let me update you guys on the last few days…(please ignore my poor grammar should you come across it… I have REALLY bad jetlag).
I had my orientation for the program on Tuesday in Washington DC and for two and half days the program staff prepared us for the depths of some place called Russia. I have to say, I had a very vague and unclear picture of what St. Petersburg would be like. I got on the plane on Thursday and flew to Frankfurt and from Frankfurt we flew to St. Petersburg. The flight went alright, I was sad because I had a really comfortable neck pillow that I was really looking forward to using in the over head “cubbie” as I like to call it, and I only realized this when I was about to go to sleep on the 7.5 hour flight. I decided against getting the pillow as I didn’t want to drop anything on the sleeping people below. This resulted in a stiff neck and a sore back. Planes are the WORST places to sleep.
When we got to the Frankfurt airport, I was intrigued by the ultra-modern and industrial look of the airport. It was very clean and I was going to stop for a Belgian waffle on the way to my gate, but since we had to go through 2 security checks and walk across the entire (very large) airport, I forwent the waffle. I will just have to travel around Germany one day…
Alright, so after landing in St. Petersburg (a very tiny airport), my group (a total of about 28 of us) went through customs. It’s one of those experiences where you are so nervous, but nothing ever happens. Once I was successfully allowed into the country, we loaded up a bus with our bags (around 50 bags each weighing around 50 lbs or so.) the bus was full to the brim, literally. It was raining. We drove through the city, which through me through bit of a loop. First of all, I instantly impressed with sheer size of the city. We passed parks, libraries, churches. It was beautiful. Then, to my dismay, I fell asleep.
We arrived at the dorm and we had to unload all of our luggage again and drag (a little more than 100 lbs) of stuff to the lobby of the dorm. There were stairs. Gah. I got in this teensy weensy little elevator to go upstairs to my room. Once on the 4th floor, I went down 6 hallways, all with doors in between. My roommate and I used lots of teamwork to drag all of our stuff to our room.
Once we got there, we got to wash up and then….. took a walking tour of the city!! :D There are not enough words to describe my first impression of the canals, the Church on Spilled Blood, the Hermitage/Winter Palace, the people, and the grand Palace Square. Ah, It was PERFECT. The sun was shining and it was about 65 degrees. We stopped for dinner at an adorable little пирог (pie) place where I ate пирог с капустой и красный чай. (cabbage pie and red [berry] tea). It was simple and cozy and was just the right meal to begin my stay in Russia.
That night, I was awoken at 1 in the morning by fireworks right outside my window. Way to start with a bang. Lol. Today, we met our resident director in one of the dorm lounges for our group meeting; he gave us our week schedule and a helpful city-information book. I also bought a Russian cellphone to today which I’m really happy about. After that we used the metro for the first time and visited out school, where I will be taking classes. After that we had lunch. I tred Kvass for the first time. Not as bad as I thought it was going to be. We went to the largest bookstore in St. Petersburg called Дом Книги. (Books House) I bought Anna Karenina in Russian. This is probably getting in a little over my head but my goal is to read the book in English first, then attempt to read it in Russian. (Obviously with the help of my noble companion, my dictionary.) Well, I’m totally exhausted and need to get some sleep, but I hope all is well with all the people I know and love in various parts of the world. Спокойной ночи! (Good night!)

3 days before I leave for St. Petersburg...

Well...the first of many blogs! (I hope). I leave in three days. Oh. My. I am beyond nervous. I'm also extremely excited. I have everything I need now; my bags are packed, I have my dictionary(very much needed), the description of my host family is very promising and I will be in DC for my departure orientation on Tuesday. whew. I will be flying out with all the other students in my program. I'm really happy about that. We will be able to get to know each other two days before we leave. Can't wait to meet everyone!
It seems like it has been truly a long journey to get to this point. I've been wanting to spend a significant amount of time in Russia since I started studying the language in 7th grade. I went during my junior year to Moscow for 4 days (I also spent a little bit more than 3 weeks in Ukraine during this Eurasian trip). That was an incredible experience and I've missed Russia ever since.
I guess my nervousness stems from the fact that I will be away from my family and friends for so long. Perhaps it is the fact that I will be attending a Russian university. This is slightly daunting. Not going to lie. All of my classes with be IN Russian. This, I know, is the best way for me to really acquire as much of the language as possible, as well as improving my listening comprehension. I feel prepared, I'm as ready as I'm ever going to be! I have this really strong feeling that I am going to have an amazing experience there :) I'm not sure how much internet access I will have. So there may be few blogs, but I hope I can let you all know what I'm up to and how the time in Russia is going! :) Miss you all already.
'Til the next post...До свидания!