First day of class

Ну, ладно. Хорошо!

There's no question that my Russian is going to improve very quickly. It's really a fascinating experience for me to be here, in a lot of ways. I find myself with new doubts as I begin to settle in to the program, but overall it still looks good. Eight weeks is a bit of a heady amount of time to contemplate, so I'll take it as it comes. Maybe it has to do with my host mother--the house is just her, another student boarder, and me. The host mother, I was told before I met her, is a little bit strict. I suppose more than that though, the situation is just inconvenient in a lot of ways I'm not used to. For one thing, it takes a significant walk to get anywhere, though I'm told that I have it very easy compared to most students on the program. At least it's a nice walk. The apartment is on the fourth floor of a building with no elevator, no internet, no TV, and possibly no hot water at any moment (this happens for two weeks every summer in Russia). She feeds me a ton, which I suppose is nice...fortunately for me the food is mostly very good--she's a good cook!

Aside from that, the White Nights are really cool, but it does make sleeping difficult. The picture above was taken at around 11:00pm last night, and the sun didn't start setting until after midnight. It's going to be like this for at least the next three weeks! Interestingly, with so much light in the room, I've been dreaming a lot. Mostly, I dream about people from home, from earlier times, and then I awaken to my host-mother calling out "Meester Aleksandr! Uzhen! [Dinner!]" and it's still light out. I wanted to say more about this, but I should get back for dinner, and my battery is dying. More later. Don't forget, I receive calls and texts for free. One last picture:

The ceiling of the Spas na Krovi [Savior on Spilled Blood] cathedral.