Pretty Average day with a BIG surprise... We had class yesterday afternoon, which you already know, that was in the last blog. It was pretty average... some interesting stuff some not so interesting. We checked our e-mails and I did some laundry! yay!! they are actually American Washers and dryers.. kind of crappy like any laundromaut... but they are dryers so who would complain! (This isn't common all over russia by any means, the Provost of Kuban University has a son who studied at ASU for a little while, and when he came back he invested in and set up the laundry facilities, 5 washers and 4 dryers)
Everyone was supposed to meet at 3:30 to go to St. Catherine's Cathedral, but no one was really excited about catching a mass... (2 hours long, standing, in Russian, and i would probably be the only one who had an inkling of an idea about what is going on) We waited around forever and Brit and I finally gave up and went to find our own entertainment. I think the #1 thing that has irritated me here, other than the whole language issues, is how disorganized things are. We can never seem to get anything straight, which is going to happen when you have 20 people and 3 cell phones distributed among them.
Brit and I decided to go walking on our own.. (Our Russian mentors would have gone nuts if they knew, they tend to watch us like mother hen and her chicks... its getting a little old. Its nice to have them around to help, but we haven't had any problems or been yelled at yet...) Anyway we walked the down the street and stopped at a wedding dress shop... just for fun to see what the styles and prices are like here... no funny ideas people... They are very into the "Fairy Tale" big poofy strapless gowns. The ones we saw did not really have any long trains or anything and averaged $1,500-$3,000 and those were designer dresses, which was surprising. Hoenstly though the quality was not exactly perfect but they were beautiful.
We continued walking and went through a market and to a shopping center than Britani and some others had been IceSkating. It was really really nice. Huge brand new video arcade, Addidas and Reebok outlet stores, a store called "Vogue" that sold Versaci and other really big name brands.. for really big prices even by American standarsd. It is a really new building and businesses were opening all over the place. It was kind of like an outdoor mall... The 'sidewalk' was had a roof but it seems like it must have been like Skylights or something, I don't know how to describe it really. Along the walkway they had 3D murals painted of different cities around the world, like Venice. Infront of the venice one was a gondula (i don't know the spelling) that you could sit in and take pictures.. really neat modern ideas.
Now here is the exciting news... are you ready? We found a SUBWAY!... yeah like the sandwiches back home... oh my, you couldn't wipe the smiles off our faces after that one... We stood there praying that they spoke some English and sure enough they were like high school/early college students that spoke a little.. enough for us to order anyway. But it was more like a McDonald's menu where a Italian BMT was a #1, and Ham was #8, and Turkey was #5, etc. And each sandwhich comes on its own type of bread, so you couldn't really choose that, and the cheese was more like pre-wrapped kraft cheese .. but we didn't care it was exciting. We still got to choose our veggies, etc. but they don't have Ranch dressing in Russia, so that was a little dissappointing, and they don't have chips with their sandwhiches.. but hey who cares... it was subway, and subway break... and the bathrrom signs were written in English.. and it had the new yellow New York Subway way paper.... I can imagine you can feel my excitement? haha
There was something i kept wanting to mention, the vegetables and fruit. Now that is something you can't beat in the states. Everything is completely fresh and grown nearby somewhere. Each lunch we usualyl have some sory of tray with slices of fresh cucumbers and tomatoes. The tomatos momma are AMAZING... almost as good as the ones in your garden : ) and I have plenty of salt to eat them with. Thats really about it so far. Yesterday was a rather normal day, except for the Subway of course.
Thanks Larue for the little update about Trey and Tyler. I can't seem to access the page for somereason, and by now i'm 10 days behind. Its crazy to think I've already been in Russia for 8 days. its about 1:30 pm here and we are going to the zoo at 2:30! yay that will be an experience. Check back in tomorrow for more details...
oh yeah, pictures. UGh its frustrating. Like i said these computers are ridiculously old without USB ports to plug my camera to, and I have to be lucky to get one in the pay lab that will work. The way we have to pay for internet in the dorms is my Mega bite or soemthing, and it would take like 12 megabites per picture or something to upload them, so one picture would be like 1 US dollar, and thats hard to accept. I'm still trying though! I won't give up.... have a good day or a goodnight! - kait