Motivation

I told myself when I started this blog that it was going to be about Russia and my adventures in St. Petersburg, while also serving as an update to my family back in the States. Today, I'm breaking that. My post is going to have very little to do with Russia and all about my new source of motivation.

Food.

I guess I should make myself more specific... foodgawker.com. Yes I have known about this website for ages, but it keeps haunting me with beauty.

After missing almost an entire week's worth of lectures due to "pickles", I have found that I have no motivation whatsoever to go over the lectures. Add this to my horrible diet of grain and you get me looking at food all day wishing I could make these dishes and devour them. Since that isn't going to happen until I journey back home, you could say I am wasting my time, but I look at it differently.

You see, I have things I need to get done, as well as a stomach that needs nutrients. By combining my ever growing will power with my need to accomplish the painfully dull, I am actually able to get things done. If I ban myself from looking at delicious food for even an hour at a time, I am able to focus on the boring task at hand. This, of course, means that I have to limit myself to how much food I look at or I would continue to look at it all day and no 1 hour would save me. Therefore, I have limited myself to three pages of foodgawking. Picking out delicious looking and sounding recipes from 3 pages takes me about 30-45 minutes. In the end, I'm actually spending more time on work than on food. And no, I do not allow my mind to venture off into the world of food during my work time.

Now some pictures of yummy looking food!! ...and where to find the recipes.

http://www.closetcooking.com/2012/09/grilled-eggplant-and-roasted-red-pepper.html

http://www.the-baker-chick.com/2012/09/salted-caramel-brownie-pies-virtual.html

http://natashaskitchen.com/2012/09/26/crisp-oven-roasted-potatoes-with-bacon-and-cheese/

http://natsadventuresinbaking.blogspot.com/2012/09/cookie-dough-fudge-take-two.html

http://www.partial-ingredients.com/archives/3686

http://dianeabroad.com/2012/09/29/spinach-cheese-and-roasted-tomato-quiche/

http://vegieproject.com/pea-and-haloumi-fritters-with-tomato-salsa/

http://www.bakeaholicmama.com/2012/09/hard-cider-sweet-potato-bisque.html

http://whatsgabycooking.com/slutty-brownies/

You are welcome.

Cucumbers

Getting sick. It happens. No one likes it, but it happens. Just take my advise. If you're studying abroad in Russia, don't get sick. ...or at least try to hide it until you just need medical attention.

Tuesday night, I felt bad. I was very tired the entire day, felt ill, and needed some serious sleep. Hot Stuff gave me some vitamin overload stuff so that I could make it home in one piece and when I made it home, I went straight to bed.

Wednesday was my day off of school. Since I didn't feel very well, I slept in. I got up long enough to check my email and get of Skype, but due to how bad I felt, I went back to bed. I was woken up later by a woman I had never met, telling me how worried my host mother was. Not once had my host mother come to check on me, but she had instead waited all day and then called someone over to check on me for her. At that point, I had a fever, migraine, I was light headed, my sinuses hated me, my throat was dry, I felt nauseous. I wanted to crawl back into bed and wait patiently for death. So after having to get out of bed to talk to three different people on the phone and convincing everyone I didn't need an ambulance, they let me.

Yesterday I felt better. My fever had broke and my sinuses had decided to leave me alone, but I still felt awful. I had some sort of eggy, oat-filled broth soup thing and went back to bed. I got up long enough to check my e-mail and go to bed. I found out from Hot Stuff that a doctor was coming. It was 3 pm and no one had bothered to tell me anything.

I took my sick and exhausted self back to bed, only to be woken up by the same woman from the night before and another woman who turned out to be the doctor. Everything the doctor said was translated by the other woman, and everything was done in lamplight. The doctor asked to see my tongue. I opened my mouth, she kind of glanced at it, and said I was fine. She asked to see my stomach. I showed it to her and she began awkwardly pushing and moving her hands trying to find where it hurt the worst. At first, she thought I was pregnant. I'm not. I know I'm not. Other people know I'm not. Still, I could understand her concern. The first time she asked.

Once she figured out the exact location of my pain and finally asked my other symptoms, she declared my trouble was caused be one thing.

Cucumbers.

If I had had the energy, I would have laughed, face palmed, or both. This lady was going to put me on medication and a strict, high-carb diet over cucumbers. That diagnosis to me means that this doctor had no idea what she was talking about.

I woke up today feeling so much better. I still feel a little nauseous and I could totally go for a gallon of water right now, but considering how I felt yesterday, I feel fantastic. Still haven't received any medication. Have had to put up with the diet though. It sucks. First chance I get, I'm going on a veggie eating spree, because I don't see me getting fed any of those at home in the near future.

This post is rather lengthy, so I will end it here. But seriously, take my advise and don't have a doctor come see you in Russia. Unless the illness is staring them in the face, they have no idea what's going on.

Gee Willikers, Batman!

Before I talk about what has happened in the past day or two, I thought I would share a tidbit brought up originally by hyperboleandaquarter.blogspot.com author, Hot Stuff. (This is my travel companion, and no. I will not explain why she is going to be referred to as Hot Stuff from this point forward.) She took a moment to look at what countries are looking at her blog. Her mind was blown to see European countries looking at it. I don't know if she noticed this, but the more views a person gets from a different country, the darker the color is. Thanks to a certain someone, the US is forest green. (You know who you are!!!) This leaves Russia and the few other random countries very light green.

Anyway... To the update.

I have been wasting my time away these past few days. I know that it wouldn't seem that way since Hot Stuff and I have been walking around, exploring, and tourist failing throughout this entire trip, but we have a weakness that is destroying us both. This weakness will be labeled SF. SF, which is in no way related to San Francisco, has cost us valuable time, effort, and even a bit of money. All things that could have been spent correcting our attempts at tourism.

We finally pulled it together yesterday and were able to revisit the Peterhof Palace to correct our mistake from the previous trip. It was magical....

Rainbow Included

In all seriousness though, if you ever make it to Russia, take the time to go. The fountains there are so beautiful. Several of the pictures we took yesterday would have been ruined by plastering one of us (ok, so only me) in them.

Ok... So this photo is not necessarily one of them, but I still have to go through the 500+ pictures taken from yesterday. And the videos. ...and get rid of all the accidental butt pictures.

This doesn't even remotely show the actual number of tourists present.

This, however, is a glimpse of what beauty you can see when you walk to the back of the grounds!!! This is probably the most iconic part of the Peterhof Palace and we completely missed it the first time....

Minus the fact that I forgot my Student ID and had to pay full price, this was our second tourist adventure that didn't go wrong!!! The first being the ever so beautiful Russian Museum, which we must return to because we only were able to see half of it during the hours we spent there.

Now that Hot Stuff and I have regained what it is like to be a tourist, we plan on going to as many places as we can and actually seeing stuff!!! If someone will remind me in the comment section below, I will make a photo dump post of the Museum, the park we went to, and post more from Peterhof. Until then...

I am off to the theater. Well... in a few hours.

Life in the Fast Lane

Ever since the weekend, life has just been go go go. My traveling/tourist companion and I have been trying to get in as many touristy things as we can and soak up all the culture that goes with it. This past weekend was epic fail on the tourisy side, but win on the beautiful side.

On Saturday, we went to Peterhof Palace because the fountains there are only matched by two other places, one of them being Versailles. We failed to see 2/3 of the fountains. Only realizing this by the time it was too late to go back. On the bright side, though, we did get to see Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Peterhof.

It was quite magical. We are determined to return to see the remaining fountains as well as the inside of the Cathedral now that we have a free day and head covering.

The next day we were told there would be a recreation of the Napoleonic Wars. It was going to be fantastic with people dressed up in period clothing with period weapons and I was going to die a little inside. (For those of you who know me, I have a soft spot for anything Napoleon. ...and for period clothing.) We were told to go to this big, beautiful park after getting off at Krestovsky Ostrov. So we did. And we went to a big, beautiful park. But there were no people in period clothing and no Napoleonic War. So we went looking for it. We found a carnival, a German brewery, the most pitiful petting zoo, creepy men sunbathing, amazing scenery and statues, but no war. After two hours of walking in this park, we should have found something.

The next day for me, upon returning home for my companion, we discovered we had gone to the wrong park. The war was happening in the big, beautiful park next to the big, beautiful park we went to. Still got some spectacular photos though, which I will upload as soon as I am done putting the shots together.

Well, as exhausted as I am, and as much as I would like to go back to merging photos, I need to head to class. There is no time wasted in St. Petersburg. If you aren't doing something outside the house, you best be eating, sleeping, or getting ready.

There is no Music in Russia

Week 2 is what I would like to call the trial week here in St. Petersburg. Week 1 being the week during which you sleep, eat, maybe walk around, and sleep some more. This week we finalize our class schedules and desperately try to figure out what classes we can somehow petition the University of Oklahoma to let us obtain lovely credits for. The verdict so far is that I am going to die. I had my first class yesterday and let's just say I am happy that the teacher was talking about religion, because that is all I understood. I am considering dropping this course, but it seems I may somehow get it to count for one of my conversation credits. Decisions. Decisions.

Partially due to boredom and the quest to find a Megafon, my other two American comrades and I walked from the main building of our institute all the way to Nevsky prospect on Tuesday. This was probably the smartest decision I have been a part of making since my trip to New York City and the walk from the tip of Manhattan to Grand Central Station. Several hours, a pizza, and some very sore and dehydrated Americans later, we finally reached a Megafon. My phone for the next few months, looks like an old school red Nokia. I get to be all cool and retro with this around everyone else's smartphones.

Along our way we saw some really cool things.

 This is the Flying Dutchman. Yes. It is an awesome ship... which has apparently become a restaurant and gym.

 This is the longest, unbroken building in the world. I would play name that building with you, but that may be too easy.

So far this trip has been nothing but painful on my legs. On the plus side, it is the best way to get in shape. I think that some Russian people need to take my advise. And I'm not talking about the old ladies. There are people in Russia that cannot say anything about how fat Americans are. Now, I'm not saying that they look like fat sausages or whales, but they could  lose a few pounds.

There are some other interesting things I have come across. The stereotype that all Russians drink was broken on day one, as well as the one stating that all Russians cannot get enough of potatoes. The stereotype about Russian women and high heels is so true it's scary, and Russians also chain smoke like no other.

The things that I found even more interesting include a lack of refrigeration of milk and yogurt (at least in the stores), the fact that yogurt is a drink as opposed to a food, the love for cottage cheese and sour cream, the fact that no actual Russian music is good and the American music they play is either crappy techno remakes of what Americans deem to be popular music or bad music from the 70's and 80's, and the overwhelming amount of PDA in Russia.

This last discovery is so bad it scares me. It is not uncommon to see a couple so into each other you think they are going to start having sex on the street. In fact, there are so many different cases of really bad PDA in Russia that I could write a book on it. That is not very likely to happen, but I could point out that they could be the reason why the Sex Shop (yes, that is really the name of the store) is still in business.

Winter is coming soon. So far the weather has been fantastic. Yesterday was 75 degrees and I was sweating. I don't remember the last time I sweat over 75 degree weather in Oklahoma. In mid-October though, it is going to become very very cold. So cold and potentially snowy they are going to close all of the museums and I am most likely going to have to find an H&M to add to my sweater collection. And that is why I am enjoying short sleeve shirts and dresses while I can.

By now this post has become much too long so I will end it here. Maybe there will be a part two. Maybe I just won't bother. Who knows? It's me. The person who normally couldn't keep a blog going to save her life.

I Can't Seem to Get Away from Accountants

I forgot to mention this in my last post, but Irina is an accountant. Last night she and I actually had a discussion about the tax system in Russia. If you don't want to have to file a tax return every year, move to Russia. They get withholding taken out of their paychecks and the companies take out tax money for government benefits workers will never receive, but that's it. The only people who have to file a return are business owners but all that means is that they have to turn in quarterly reports to the government. The thing I found most interesting though, is that an accountant in Russia only needs a degree. They don't have to be certified at all. You will never find a CPA in Russia unless the person is a tourist. lol

This past week hasn't been very eventful. I enrolled in my classes, got settled into the apartment and have spent the rest of the time studying. I really want to do well this semester. My classes are going to be really hard. I am taking a lot of political classes and cultural classes that would be hard for me even in English. That is why I have been so focused on studying vocabulary. I have been going through all of my Business Russian vocabulary in hopes of surviving my classes.

This week I will start my classes. I will have to drop two or three at the end of the week, but the woman in charge of the international student program here recommends this. She said that it is easier to drop classes than it is to add them. I will get my schedule on Tuesday, when I have my first Russian class. I am scared and excited.

My Russian is so horrible. Well, I should say that my Russian vocabulary is horrible. Irina said that my grammar is actually really good, which surprises me because I don't think I remember the case endings that well. Irina is teaching me vocabulary every day. Today I learned body parts using the cat, Prince Charles. I also learned how to say "gently" and to "pet". She taught me two other words that have nothing to do with a cat. Wallet and drums. She is going to teach me how to say drum kit tomorrow. She tried to teach me today, but we decided it was a good word for tomorrow. lol

Today Irina and I are going to do a bit of shopping. I am looking forward to spending time with her. She said that this week she is going to take Colby and I to the Hermitage. I am really excited. I haven't been able to do anything touristy this whole trip. It will be nice to be able to see something before they close the museums for the winter.

Next week I should have pictures to post. If it doesn't rain much that is. Until next Sunday.

Greetings from Russia

Finally, after a long flight, a delayed arrival and at least an hour spent waiting in line to get my passport checked, I have made it to St. Petersburg. Irina, my host mother for the first 10 days is really... cute. If you saw her and spent time around her you would understand. I am looking forward to having her as a host mother. She seems to be very sweet. A cute personalitied, vegetarian Russian, who doesn't drink or smoke. For me, this is a good thing.

We're going to Nevsky tomorrow. I actually get to start eating breakfast on a regular basis. I don't quite know how I feel about that as I don't normally eat breakfast, but I'm paying for it so might as well. I think the biggest problem is going to be waking up in the morning. It's only 3:15 in OKC, but midnight here. Needless to say, I'm not tired. Got to get used to the time change though.

With that, goodnight. I'll tell you all about my adventures when there is more to say and more time to say it in.