First week in Russia!!

Hello all from St. Petersburg! I decided to keep a blog instead of doing mass e-mails, because I know how annoying those e-mails can get. This way, I’ll send you guys the address once (maybe again if I think you’ve lost it), and then you can check it on your own schedule. I’ll try to write fairly often, but I can’t promise anything. I arrived here three days ago, but this is the first morning that I have woken up at my host family’s house – it certainly is a different experience . . .
Last Sunday, I met my program at Bard College for a not-so-thrilling 3 day orientation. Bard campus, if you’ve never been there, is a sprawling piece of land, but with nobody there (school had not yet started), and 2 degree weather (colder than St. Petersburg), there was not much to do. But, I guess it accomplished its goal. By the time we were ready to leave for Russia, we were very sick of just talking about living in Russia and were ready to go there. The flights were fine, although customs was a big pain. I had to declare my viola and it was a completely bureaucratic and painful process – actually just a Russian process. My advice to you is if you ever need to bring a musical instrument into Russia, bring documents, preferably in English and Russian, and a set of photos of it from every possible angle.
After arriving, we moved into a hotel in the center of the historic city, which was a great place to first get acquainted with life here. We spent the days attending more information sessions, getting our second HIV blood test, taking black and white pictures of people (only myself and one other girl had brought the right type of pictures with us –thanks mom and dad!), and doing some beginning sightseeing. We went on official tour of the Church of the Spilled Blood, which is a beautiful church built on the place where Tsar Alexander II was killed – search for a picture online. The mosaics inside the church are absolutely gorgeous, as is the outside of the church, but we had an extremely unenthusiastic Russian tour guide giving us a tour in Russian, so barely anyone could understand her.
Adjusting to life in Russia with the group wasn’t so bad actually, because it felt more like a vacation. We were simply traveling with our group, including the program staff. The food for vegetarians has surprisingly not been so bad, except for the meal that was all white – bland cauliflower, plain rice, and buttery potatoes. They eat so much here, though! Every meal usually includes a salad, a soup, a main dish, dessert, and tea. I’m usually not a big tea drinker, but yesterday I had 5 cups – you can’t refuse! Also, they don’t normally drink a lot of plain water. Host families think Americans are crazy for drinking so much water, but they always keep a pitcher around for their students.
The craziest experience so far was taking the metro during rush hour, which is like being in a vicious concert crowd. People literally push you (hard) in and out of the cars, and you are crammed in the car closer to people than you have ever been before. I also went to a Russian bar/club Friday night, which actually reminded me a lot of Oberlin – it was full of Russian hipsters, it felt kind of like the ‘sco.
Now I’ve moved into my host family, and I’m getting adjusted. For those of you who thought I was going to be living with a ferret . . . sadly, the ferret died a few months ago. But, they do have a pet rat! Things with the family are interesting, I’ll write about it later. All is good, though. Well, please e-mail me!

If you feel so inclined as to call me, my cell phone number (from the states) is 0-1-1-7-921-650-3889.
And, if you really like me and want to send some mail (although it takes 3-6 weeks to arrive in Russai), my address is:

Hannah Levinson
c/o Bryan Billlings
Bard-Smolny Program
Smolny College, SpSU
Lt. Schmidt Emb. 11, Office 416
199034 St. Petersburg
Russia

If you are really ambitious and want to send a package, don’t do the care of portion, make sure it ONLY says MY NAME. Russians are crazy like that.