Whew! Who knew Petersburg summers could be so hot??? This past week has probably been the hottest week that I've experienced since I've been in Russia. Though I'm pretty sure it's even hotter in America right now, I'm also fairly certain that more places have air conditioning than here. Nevertheless, I appreciate it after having to endure the freezing winter here and have been trying to take advantage of the sunny days we've been gifted with.
Last weekend was pretty busy. On Friday, our moped-riding friend from Amsterdam that we met in Warsaw arrived in St. Pete's so we met up with him and took out with us to the bar, SPB, where we celebrated one of the student's birthdays. It ended up being a pretty late night, but I still managed to get myself up at 9:30 the next morning to go with my host parents to visit my host sisters at their summer camp. The summer camp was amazing! It was maybe in hour or so away by car, so it was far enough away from the city that you could actually breathe comfortably. The camp had a pool, basketball court, playground, movie theater, dorms, cafeteria, and discoteka. My host father said it was pretty expensive to send your children there, but his company got him a discount. It was great to see the girls again - I missed them a lot this month! We took them with us to a river near the camp and grilled shashlik and tanned there for the afternoon. Before we went back home, we watched Alina have a swimming lesson and I took some pictures.
The next day was the fourth of July which our group decided to spend on the Gulf of Finland. We were going to set up base at one of the student's dachas, but he ended up getting bit by a dog (like me! but he wasn't wearing pants, so it was a bit more serious) and had to go get a rabies shot. Nevertheless, we took a train there in the morning anyway. I can't imagine a better way to have spent the fourth in Russia. We just tanned, swam, ate, and drank together all day long and then took the train back in the evening.
On Monday we had our weekly meeting and found out for certain that we are going to the north for our big trip! Apparently we will be taking several forms of transportation including boat, bus, and probably train, but we'll spend less time traveling than we did to Sochi. We are going to solovetskiy islands on the White Sea and petrozavodsk in the region of Karelia. Apparently, summer is one of the only times during the year that is even possible to visit there, so lots of Russians haven't even been there. He also said we'd probably get to do some nature-y things like rafting and rowing there, so I'm really excited!
On Tuesday, we went to a bar that we've been going to the past couple of weeks because it gives out free champagne to girls during certain times on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We think they've begun to notice that we come every week though and thus are a little bugged. Free champagne was supposed to start at 10, however, we had to wait an hour for our free bubbly. Nonetheless, we had a good time and we'll probably still go back - free is free.
Wednesday started out great because we finally got our hot water back and I had my first warm shower in two weeks! I don't think that I realized how lovely it was until I had to do without it. Then we had our excursion to the political history museum to which Grace and I had both already been, but had been looking forward to since we had had such a good experience the first time around. This time, however, we had to endure an hour-long "tour" about censuses (censi??), which took us on an expansive journey around a single tiny room (well, perhaps there were two at most). On top of this, I had made the poor decision to take painkillers that next morning, thinking that they would help numb my sore throat. I later found out that they were only muscle relaxers and while one was sufficient to numb the most powerful of headaches and muscle cramps, they wouldn't do a thing to help my throat. This I found out only after having taken three doses that morning. Needless to say, I had some difficulties listening to an hour-long Russian oration on historical censuses. There was, however, a film crew there making a commercial for the exhibition, so maybe we'll at least come away from the situations as Z-list celebrities. After the census tour(ture), we took a brief quick tour of the ACTUAL museum, which is actually pretty awesome. It just would have been better had we not all been exhausted from the previous hour of censuses.
After that, we went to a really great pelmeni restaurant which offered a wide assortment of different types of pelmeni, including mexican pelmeni! I went with one of the lunch specials because it came with beet salad, which I've grown really accustomed to. In the evening I met up with my tutor, Sasha and Anya at Krestovsky Island where the Russian mini-Disney world is located along with a gorgeous park. They arrived on bikes and traded off letting me ride around the park - I didn't realize how much I missed riding my bike! We first went and sat by a lake for a while, then went to a mini-zoo, which had ostriches and reindeer and rabbits. After that, Sasha and I rode up to see the Gulf of Finland and where a new stadium was going to be built. All in all, it was a great evening! We also made plans to get together this weekend to go to a club together, since I told them that I hadn't been to very many since I'd been here.
As I'm finishing up this entry, we are finally getting some much need rain here = hopefully it'll cool down the city a little bit! :)
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