An update

If I had been able to access the Internet for any significant length of time this weekend, I would have been somewhat the emo blogger. Culture shock hit me on Thursday evening, but things improved on Saturday afternoon and then visiting Peterhof yesterday was pretty awesome. Class is starting right now so I have to go, but I'll update more (with pictures from Peterhof!) in a few hours.

From Saturday evening (Internet died just as I was about to post it):
<< Title: "Borsch"
Don't have time for much of a post right now because I'm supposed to meet some people, but I wanted to mention that culture shock hit me on Thursday afternoon. I'm doing better now after a fun afternoon out. I walked around Nevsky Prospekt with one of the tutors (Russians who study at Smolny and help us Americans with our Russian studies). It was a lot of fun! We walked around, went to a café, and saw a movie. It was the American film "Push" staring Dakota Fanning et al, dubbed into Russian. The tutor helped me at parts, and I really enjoyed it actually. I'm looking forward to more trips to the Kino. On Nevsky, I also found a place to buy reproductions of Soviet-era propaganda posters for cheap, and they're awesome. Going around with one of the tutors definitely makes for a better Russia experience. If the guides and Israelis hadn't been with us in Israel, it would have been quite boring and would have seemed quite far away indeed.

Anyway, culture shock sucks, but I'm doing better. I'll say more later as I really ought to go, but let me just say that being so far away in a foreign culture really makes me appreciate the connections I have back home. It also makes me think about what I left behind, but the important thing now is that I'm in Russia, and I owe it to myself to make the most of it. In any case, to anyone reading this blog--you mean a lot to me, and I'm so glad that you took the time to read this. You all know who you are--I miss you.

There's a lot to say about the young man going abroad, yearning to see the world. Agh, the more I write, the more I want to write, but I have to go. I'll explain more later--probably on Monday morning.

Anyway, I just finished a delicious bowl of borsch, and now it's time to go. I'm at a café (near Vasileostrovskaya Metro) where everything is orange. Time to go.
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Class now, more in a few hours. Thanks for all the emails, everyone! And Happy Father's Day--here (Monday now) it's Memorial Day.