HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATTHEW

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATTHEW!!!

So I am working as an Au Pair in Hilversum, The Netherlands. It is going fabulously. I love every second of it. So basically what happens is that I do light housework during the day, bike to the shops and pick up some things, pick up the kiddies from school and then take them to their activities. We also play games together which I love. I like all the kids a lot, even though sometimes I want to stick my head in the sand like an ostrich. But really, it is a great experience.  The parents in the family are super cool and sometimes I sit with them and have a glass of wine, which is really nice.  The craziest change for me about this living environment is that their is a million pounds of food right behind my bed, (my room is adjacent to the kitchen) and I have just not been used to having this much food. I think I am going to become a balloon. Granted, I am usually eating fruit and healthy things but MAN I EAT ALOT. I nom on ALOT of bread too. So keep posted to see me expand at a rapid pace.

So lets talk about my day today. Its has been crazy. It started with last night.

Last night I quickly decided to go into Amsterdam. It is like 20 mins by train and is not a big deal at all. I had a friend who was leaving the country the next morning for a little, so I thought it would be nice to stop by. I knew that the youngest kiddie in my family, Matthew, had a birthday the next day. I also knew that they did Birthday things in the morning, and so I wanted to be home to see him open presents, and I knew that would be around 7am because there was school that day. Matthew was also getting this AWESOME treehouse which we magically were able to keep him from seeing for a week. I KNEW he would freak out. I HAD to see it. So I decided to take the last train home from Amsterdam, around 12:30am.

I left my friend’s house in time for the train and everything was going great. I was sitting on my train, ready to go home. I looked through my purse to find my ticket, BUT THEN, surprise! Earlier, my friend and I had gone grocery shopping and he had left his wallet in my purse. The train I was sitting on was the last train to Hilversum, AND he was leaving the country the next day. It was terrible. I ran off the train, called him and he cycled like the wind to come rescue me and his wallet from the scary AMSTERDAM CENTRAL STATION at 1am. I was so upset at the situation because I knew I needed to be home early and did not want to chill overnight in Amsterdam and have to get up at rooster o’clock. But it is what it is. I hopped on the back of his bike, went back to his house, fell asleep and then rose like 2 1/2 minutes later to grab the train and cycle home from the station. It was great.

BUT it was really great that I woke up that early because Matthew is the cutest. When I got home, I quick locked my bike in the shed and then made it to the bottom of the stairs, where the whole family was gathered to sing to Matthew as he walked down. It was adorable and I WISH I knew the Dutch song they were singing. Then he RAN to the table to open cards and presents. Matthew is really into princesses, so when I was in a candy store and saw a PRINCESS shaped LOLLY I knew I had to buy it. I bought him some other candy too, but put the attention grabber on the outside of the wrapped gift, just like my mother would do. IT WORKED. He wanted it for breakfast. The best gift by FAR was the treehouse. It was SO CUTE. He did not see it coming at all. 🙂

After that, he and the rest of the kiddies went to school while me, the parents and the grandparents set up for the party. It was a lot of fun, but I was so worn out from lack of sleep. I saw a quick opening for a nap, and I took it. No one was supposed to be home, so I set an alarm to wake me up about a 1/2 hour before the party so I could set up last minute things. Unexpectedly my host mom came home, and I guess I got up to see what the sound was. I woke up, ALREADY talking to my host mom, ALREADY standing in the kitchen, ALREADY eating a leftover doughnut that Matthew took to school for his classmates that had his face on it. I was literally asleep until midway through us talking. I hope she didn’t notice. Embarrassed, I ran into my room. Actually, I grabbed a strawberry from the fridge then got even more embarrassed and ran back into the room. I couldn’t remember what I had talked to Sarah about, and it didn’t seem real. I knew the doughnut happened because I could taste it in my mouth. I didn’t know if she was home, or if I had dreamed talking to her or what. I am still not 100% sure what went on.

ANYWAYS, here are some pictures from the party. It was really fun, but I tell you it is impossible to get 15 5 year olds to do anything.

This is in the backyard, the kiddies are eating cake from a string. I’ve heard of this before but apparently it is a STAPLE of Dutch birthday parties.

Haha Matthew is about to cheat.

This is the backyard. There is a decent size football field, so it is so nice to play games there. As you can see, it sometimes is a MUD field. My bedroom doors are on the far right.

PUPPET SHOW TIME. The girl on the left is my kiddie Emma. She normally is not a zombie.

ILL TELL YOU WHAT. This was the best puppet show ever. It was not in English, and I did not even care. The puppets were old style and awesome, and the woman did amazing voices. The show involved some bandits and kiddies were screaming and yelling at them! They were sooo into it! Apparently this woman has played for the Prince’s kids. She is not expensive, just AWESOME.

I feel bad because I was supposed to hang out with some other Au Pairs tonight but I am going to fall over in about two seconds. Today was so nice but tiring!

THATS ALL FOR NOW. I will post some more pictures of Hilversum soon. UNTIL we meet again- XOXO.

 

WHERE AM I???

Hello everyone! A million and ten things have happened lately. Lets talk about it.

I love Russia. I left Russia a few weeks ago ago, but man do I love Russia.  I miss it already. When I first decided I was going there for a year, my parents both told me that they were 100% planning on coming to visit. My dad visited for Christmas which was AMAZING. I knew that my mom and sisters were coming at the very end of my time in Russia, and my original plan was to come back to the US on the same flight as them. But SURPRISE! OTHER THINGS HAPPENED!

FAMILY

First, lets talk about my mom and sisters coming. It was fabulous. I really liked being able to show them Saint Petersburg, where I had hopped around for the past year. They came on a tour group that I joined. At first, I was a bit skeptical of their decision to come on a tour, I figured it would be so structured that I would not be able to show them anything other than the popular sites. I WAS WRONG! It was an amazing choice. The tour taught me so many new things about Saint Petersburg, and offered excursions to places I hadn’t been before, like Peterhof and Yusopov Palace (where Rasputin met his end!) I just really appreciated seeing my city in a different way, through the windows of a bus as opposed to underground in the metro. We took a nice SPEED train from Saint Petersburg to Moscow which was a nice change from the overnight stress filled sleeper trains I’ve taken before. It was also really great to have this tour group in MOSCOW, because before I wasn’t really THAT into Moscow, but now I am a much bigger fan.  Moscow is kind of intimidating, especially when you are on foot, so being driven around in a bus allowed us to cover more ground. We also saw the big МГУ (Moscow State University) building that was amazing. It is kind of hard to get to by foot, so I had never seen it before. It is really the most impressive of the Stalin Skyscrapers. My mom was extremely impressed by

Moscow State University

it, and told me that I should come back there and get my masters. I made a note of it.

Our tour guides where also fantastic and a lot of fun. They would joke around with us and call us ‘the group of ladies.’ We would call our main guide ‘mother hen’ because he was always herding us places. So funny. My family and I are really independent and energetic, and I think the group thought we were hilariously interesting people. We would always run off and do weird things, and it was also easier because I could speak Russian, allowing us to get around easier. It was such a great time being with my family in both Saint Petersburg and Moscow!

just me lovin on the church of spilled blood

Alright so that is that. Where am I now? Amsterdam. Crazy right? Alright so here is how this happened.

So my plan for after Russia was originally to move to New York. I love New York, and my idea was to find a job, and move in with my sister and run around for the end of time. It was a fabulous idea. So the time came for me to start applying to jobs, and I began to halfheartedly apply for jobs in the New York area. The reason I wasn’t putting 100% of my effort into it was because I was worried that I would get one of these jobs, and then off I would go to New York. I didn’t want to commit to anything because the idea of staying abroad had really started to appeal to me. I started applying for jobs all over Europe, including some in Russia. I still had no idea what I wanted to do, so again my amount of effort wasn’t desirable.

In March, a friend invited me to come visit in Amsterdam. I had been to Amsterdam once before and hadn’t really liked it that much, but I decided to go anyway. I LOVED IT. I totally saw a different side of the city because I wasn’t hanging out in the 100% tourist areas, I was hanging out outside of that area, running around with someone from the Netherlands. My friend had to work, so I spent the days exploring by myself, and I loved it. I went back to Russia and focused my job search on Amsterdam, but it was really difficult! Getting a work permit was going to be a challenge, and many jobs required one before even looking at your resume. Also not speaking Dutch was a HUGE disadvantage. I wasn’t super excited to just up and move without a job in place, and after realizing how hard it was to even find jobs I was qualified for, I was worried that I wouldn’t ever find one, and would just burn out my money and have to crawl back to the US.

twirlin with opportunity AT THE REAL SWAN LAKE

In the back of my head I had the idea of working as an Au Pair. I wasn’t exactly sure what those kind of jobs entailed so I looked into it. It turned out to be the BEST IDEA EVER. In being an Au Pair, I have a job, housing and a network of Au Pair friends. It seemed like the best and easiest way to move somewhere. I have a lot of experience working with children and I really like it, so it fits for me. For a while I was talking to a million and ten families, and they all seemed amazing. It wasn’t until the night before I moved to Amsterdam that I chose one! It was super stressful, esp. since this was taking place while my family was here. But I am so happy with my decision and the family I will be living is amazing.

So that’s where I am now! It is crazy because I did not see this coming when I moved to Russia, but I am not ready to go back to the US yet. Well actually, when I named this blog, I chose to name it ALEXANDRAFEET instead of something specifically related to Russia because I had a feeling that my feet would lead me all over the WORLD. I know that if I want to do something like this, up and move somewhere random, now is the time to do it, so here I am. So this is kind of my ‘gap year.’ Who knows what I will do after this year is over, I’ve been thinking of everything, like continuing my initial plan and finding a job in NY, getting a masters, going to law school, being an Au Pair somewhere else and even moving to London (I am really into British pop culture this week). All I know is that I am lovin boppin around the world. Last weekend I had nothing to do, so I just bopped over to Belgium and explored Brussels and Antwerp. I also love the central location of Amsterdam. I can go anywhere! My dad told me that he will meet me somewhere random in Europe on his next visit! How exciting is that?!

So who knows. I am going to try and take Russian language classes here in order to keep my Russian up, and I also might be taking Dutch classes. Things are crazy, ill keep you posted.

Peep Peep see you in Amsterdam!

ПОЙДЁМ ЗЕНИТ!!!!!

HELLO FRIENDS. It is freezing in St. Petersburg. Everyday the temperature ranges from -30 degrees Celsius to -10 Celsius. So we are all freezing, and sometimes it takes QUITE the motivation to get out of the ol’ warm house. The other day when my roommate Jorge and I were walking to school, the ice got me. It was a dramatic fall, and so embarrassing. I also appreciated the Russian woman in heels who just stepped right over my body and continued on her way. Jorge saw my terrible fall as a bad sign and wanted to turn back, but I just COULD NOT let the ICE win. I made it to class.

Yesterday was fabulous. A few weeks earlier, one of my friends informed me that ZENIT, the saint petersburg soccer team, had made it into the championships and would be playing a game here. Even though the tickets were expensive, three of us decided to go.

STADUIM. Very open indeed.

Everyone warned me that the stadium was an “open stadium” meaning no roof. Everyone also warned me that the stadium would be freezing. I thought two things about this. I thought “I’ve been to open stadiums in the US and they ALWAYS have some kind of half roof or something, it’s not like it will be bleachers.” I also thought, “Large groups of people who are really excited about something are usually pretty warm.” I concluded that everyone who had warned me about the cold where wimps. SPOILER ALERT: not the case.

GETTING READY

In preparation for the event I bought some face paint crayons with the team’s colors. I also bought a championship game scarf. When soccer teams play championship games, they make scarves that are split in the middle, with one team on each half. Each side is made of the team’s color and has the date of the games on it. Its pretty cool. It was kind of $$ but I was so jealous of the ones I had seen in soccer pubs and the one my Irish friend had from when he went to the Ireland vs. Russia game in Moscow. So I am glad I have that now.

ANYWAYS. The GAME! There is sooo much security. First, there is a barricade of riot police that holds everyone back about 50 feet from the entrance of the arena, and then lets small groups go through their barricade in order to not overwhelm the gates. Once you get right outside the gate, you show your ticket and they do a pat down and look in your bags. Once you pass through that checkpoint, you are at the actual gate, and you get a pat down again. This time, the pat down for me was THOROUGH. I have never been patted down like that in my life. Women are there to pat down the women, and when one called me through I had no idea what to expect. This woman put her hands EVERYWHERE on my body. I started laughing because I was so surprised that she literally slid her hands down, and underneath my chest.  So that was fun, but I was not done with the security checks yet. Once we got to the stairs to the actual seats, we had another screening. I had another pat down, but not as intense as the last one. Man, you must have to have SKILLS if you want to get something into those stands. Also there was police in the stands, particularly around the opposing team’s area. We saw a fight break out between Russian fans, and that was pretty intense, but it took a surprisingly long time for the police to get involved. They also ended up taking away the guy that had gotten beaten up and thrown to the floor, not the guy doing the beating or throwing. So that was funny.

So the actual game was awesome. Despite the fact that it was freezing, we were all super into it. I had worn long underwear under my jeans, thick socks, big boots, my biggest coat, a hat, my hood up and my FAB scarf. I wasn’t THAT cold, but I wish I would have worn two pairs of socks because it felt like my toes were dead. My nose was also as red as Rudolf. Also I was half hiding behind/ half cuddling with this Russian 50 year old man next to me, and he was keeping me warm. Also I had the scarf over my nose, so only my eyes were visible.

But the game was INTENSE. The fans cheered constantly, and I liked the call and answer cheers that one side of the stadium would start, and the other would finish. I could actually understand most of the cheers which I was excited about. The most popular being “синий, белый, голобый!!!” Which is BLUE, WHITE, LIGHTBLUE, the colors of ZENIT. I also have noticed that teams in Europe don’t really have mascots like sports teams do in the US, so that’s interesting… The game stayed tied 1-1 pretty much the entire game, and then we scored again right after the half time. With about ten minutes left, the other team scored, bringing it back to a tie. We were all sad, and were all cold. BUT THEN about a MINUTE after that happened, we scored AGAIN! Bringing the game to 3-2. We held on for the last ten minutes and we won! IT WAS CRAZY. The fans were going nuts, and about 1/3 of the men in the stadium took off their shirts. It was hilarious because the cold made everyone’s bodies BRIGHT RED, so you could spot large groups of red people all over the stadium.  It was intense but SO MUCH FUN. I really hope ZENIT wins again when they go to Portugal, and if that is the case we are against teams like Arsenal, Barcelona and Madrid so we will totally lose but it would be SOOO AMAZING to see one of those teams here. I kept my ticket because I guess sometimes when tickets are in high demand they give out championship tickets to people present at the first game first. So we will see. GO ZENIT.

Yeah, we were a little cold.

Sheep World.

HELLO friends. I am bad at blogging bla bla bla…. I WAS IN IRELAND!

December was a great GREAT month for me. My dad came and visited me for Christmas which was really the best present ever. I really missed my family around thanksgiving, so it was so nice that I got to see my dad. We had so much fun running around St. Pete. I showed him many of the cool sights and also showed him aspects of my life here, for example: my walk to school, my doctor’s office and my favorite mall. We had our Christmas meal at a Montana/Australian themed steak house that only played sting videos. Perfect Christmas. It was such a great time. 🙂

After my dad left, I had exactly a DAY to chill in St. Pete before I left on my adventure to Ireland. This involved me taking the bus to Tallin, Estonia and then waiting six hours to take the plane to Dublin. I didn’t take a plane directly from St. Pete because EU countries have cheaper airfare between them, so I took a bus 7 hours to the nearest EU major city and saved myself a couple hundred dollars. I also dramatically increased my travel time, so I’m still undecided about my method.

ANYWAYS. I arrived in Dublin and was the very last person off the plane and through security which scared my friend Jack. How funny. I immediately noticed that cars drive on the WRONG side of the road and almost got ran over 122 times. It is also funny because I sit in what would have been the driver’s side in the US, but there is no steering wheel. It is very strange.

The first few days we stayed at my friend’s aunt’s house in Dublin. It was really nice, and even though it seems like every Irish person I met HATES Dublin, I thought it was a very cool place. We visited a large Gaelic sports only stadium and it was MASSIVE. Dublin also has the Guinness Brewery  which was really cool to go to even though I do not care about beer or drinking really. It was really an impressive place and I liked looking at all the facts and history of Guinness. Also I bought some FABULOUS socks with Tookie the Toucan on them. They have googly eyes and everything.

FISH FISH!

NYE was also in Dublin. It was really a fabulous evening. In Ireland they have these interesting alcohol drinks that I like. They are kind of like what we would call ‘wine coolers’ in the US, but they are very different and they sell them EVERYWHERE. So I was enjoying those, and also was enjoying the fact that we met a school of fish and a very talkative polar bear on the way to the massive club party. They must have been dressed up for a play or something, but they were cool. The club venue place where the party was held was intense. It was three stories high, and the sinks in the bathrooms on the upper floors looked out on the dance floor below which was cool. We also got selected to be VIP probably because I was wearing my toucan socks and a puffball in my head, which meant that we could go to the top floor which had less people and scantily clad waitresses. Very nice. On the way home we had a fabulous cab driver who sang Irish songs and made jokes about Detroit. Very nice. The next day we went to NEWGRANGE which is a prehistoric house/building that is totally older then the pyramids. I looked up that it is estimated to be from 3200BC which is the oldest human built thing I have ever seen. It was really cool because it was built with perfect precision and has never leaked or let in any light, except once a year during Summer Solstice. That day was also funny because it was rainy and cold, and jack forgot a coat. He was so miserable. Also Gary sat on a bird bathroom, which was equally as hilarious to me. Also that day I saw the best rainbow ever, I am still freaking out about it.

NEWGRANGE

I was not cold at all and Jack had not been rained on at all

I did so many cool things in Ireland that it is hard to pick out the important ones to talk about. We went to the CLIFFS OF MOHER which are LEGENDARY. Unfortunately we went on one of the windiest days ever which meant there was a legitimate possibility of blowing off the cliffs. There are stairs along the sides, and I literally got blown up the stairs, so we decided not to go on the part of the cliffs that the direction of the wind was blowing off of. It was a little scary. The wind also unbuttoned my coat

quick pic on the ride up to the cliffs

and almost blew away my stuffed animal sheep that Jack bought me. I named her WINDY. Speaking of sheep, there were some sheep chillin by the edge of the cliff but they did not even care that the wind was blowing the water from below onto their face. Irish sheep are tough apparently. But the Cliffs where absolutely gorgeous. The drive to the cliffs was equally as beautiful, and the water was so angry because of the wind. It was impressive. After the cliffs, we found a cave that was supposedly popular and interesting, and we decided to go in. At first we were annoyed because our tour guide looked like he was 15 and was dressed like a slob and not a SPELUNKER. But he knew his stuff. Also this cave has the #3 longest stalactite in the world and that was impressive.

Wind blowing the water from the bottom to the top!

me and WINDY at the cliffs

For real though, everything in Ireland is beautiful. We did a lot of driving, and I did not get bored looking out the window. Everyone kept telling me (when I understood what they were saying) that it was the WORST time to visit Ireland, but even with the rain and greyness, everything was so beautiful. The hills were green and filled with happy sheep. The water looked so nice and

OCTAGON FORMATION

often menacing as well. Me ears popped every five seconds because Ireland is the land of hills. Jack took me on top of the highest hill around and the view was amazing (it is the first picture and the last one). There was also a really old structure up there that we broke into and climbed on top of. I also climbed when we went to Giant’s Causeway which was a weird naturally occurring formation of octagons stacked on top of each other by the water. According to LEGEND, a giant actually was throwing rocks around and did this, but it is really according to SCIENCE that this happened. That was so fun, and I kept thinking how much fun my mom would have climbing on those octagons. The wind was also intense that day too, which was scary because you could have fallen down hundreds of rock octagons and it would not have been fun. Thankfully, I did not get blown off or sucked into the water.

Groovin on octagons.

So many other interesting things happened in Ireland that I liked. We can talk about it. Everyone should go. Correction, everyone should go with my friend Jack because he was such a fabulous tour guide. He also introduced me to UK Celebrity Big Brother which has taken over my life pretty much. I may or may not have applied even though I am not a citizen of the UK… WAAAAAAA Seeee you soon! I plan to write again more often. I plan to do an entry ENTIRELY about how cold it is here. FOR REAL.

I LIKE IRELAND

LATELY

GUYS I AM SO SORRYYYYYYY I HAVENT POSTED.

I feel like a negative nerd. I can’t really post now because I am leaving for IRELAND in literally 10 minutes. I hope my roommate LINDSAY gets home before I go so I can say goodbye to her because she leaves before I return. PUFFA. ANYWAYS. Things that have happened lately… I went to TALLIN and it was amazing, I went to MOSCOW and it was amazing, and my DAD came to visit me, which was 2314314% amazing. I am about to go to Ireland and I am hoping it follows the same sequence.

So if you haven’t been following Russian news lately, you should be. Crazy things are happening, and it is a great time to be here. People are upset with the way things are going here, and they are mobilizing. On December 10, I was lucky  enough to be in Moscow and witness the largest protest (at the time) since the fall of the Soviet Union. On the 24th, the people of Russia beat it again. I wrote something for my school and I want you all to read it! CHECK IT OUT!!!!

http://www.sras.org/moscow_protests

Banya

GUYS I know it has been 1000 years. I need to get  better grasp on the concept of blogging. I am realizing I have AT LEAST three potential blogs piling up, because I am going to Estonia  on friday, and I hung out at Lenin’s house yesterday. Today I want to talk to you about BANYA.

Banya is a Russian relaxation experience that is amazing. You can not study Russian language without the text talking about BANYA and DACHA every ten seconds. Dachas are little cottage-like houses outside of the city that a lot of families have, and they usually have banyas in them. A Banya is technically a sauna, but when someone says “we are going to banya” it means that they are GOING TO HAVE AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE.

We had fun playing with the sheets.

There are Banyas (bath houses) all over the city, and the one that we went to was in Primorskaya. I should have taken pictures of the outside of it, because you would never guess it was there. It was in the basement of a weird, but huge, soviet style apartment building. There was a children’s play ground outside of the Banya, and because we got there early, we were thinking that we might have to play on it, but alas we got in.

So the Banya that we went to, was a private Banya. That means that you pay, as a group, to rent out the entire- apartment size Banya experience center for either 3 or 4 hours. We rented it for 4 hours, there were 7 of us, it ended up costing around 20$ each for the entire time. Technically, we spent more than that on the experience because we all brought a TON of food and had an amazing feast waiting for you to chow down on when you were not in the Sauna. It was delicious. I was introduced to this thing called “Smoked Cheese,” which is the best thing ever. It is small, thin strands of cheese that were braided together. The cheese is very salty, and at first, it is the strangest thing you have ever eaten, and then you are immediately addicted. I will bring home 342 pounds of it. Also you drink while at banya, so Alina and I split two bottles of champagne. Champagne was totally the way to go, as beer is naturally disgusting and liquor is a bad idea because you get so dehydrated at Banya, that you will DIE if you drink liquor. Russians drink liquor at Banya, but I am not even going to pretend for five seconds that I can handle alcohol the way that they can. That kind of pretending has serious consequences.

Let’s talk about the set up. Our Banya had three rooms. It had the main room with the sauna and the pool, the hangout room and the boom boom room. Wait for it.

The main room had a sauna, and then a huge ice cold pool. The idea is to sit in the sauna for a while, then hop in the ice cold pool. YOU FEEL SO ALIVE. There is also a shower and a hot tub in that room. The floor in that room was tiled, because it only takes five seconds for water to get everywhere. Leaves also get everywhere. Where do leaves come from? They come from this bundle of sticks that you hit each other with. YES. It is either a bundle of birch leaves or eucalyptus, and while you are in the sauna you have your friends hit you with it. You think it is not amazing, BUT IT IS.  I wish I had a picture of these branches but I forgot. Our tour person told us that there is actually a THIRD type of branch that exists, but it has thorns on it, so it is only for INTENSE Banya goers. I will also mention that we held a contest to see who could stay in the ice cold pool the longest, and I was out in 5 seconds. Joe and Kaylan were the champions and were in there for over 20 minutes, but we decided they needed to tie instead of catch hypothermia.

The hang out room is self explanatory. It is a room with a ton of leather couches, a big table and a big TV playing Russian music videos. The floor in there was wooden, because it also gets wet. That is where we kept the food, and hung out when we were not doing a water activity.

The third room is “The boom boom room.” I went on a tour of the place before we rented it, and even though the woman was talking in Russian, when she was showing us this particular room, in English, she said it was called “THE BOOM BOOM ROOM. And yes, it is what you are thinking. I am just going to tell you straight up. That room was for Sex. In it, there was a bed. There was also Mirrors on the walls and the ceiling. There were also artsy- close up pictures of a woman’s butt, chest and stomach. The bed did not have any sheets or anything, it was pretty much just a mattress with a suede slip cover. So that room was there. Other than to change into our bathing suits, we didn’t really go in there. I couldn’t help but wonder while I was changing, how many other people had been less than clothed in that room. MYSTERY.

Alina LOOKIN GOOD in the Boom Boom Room

ICE POOL

steam room

So Banya is amazing. We were there 4 hours, and I was ready to stay longer. I pretty much was in a constant state of amazing relaxation, and did not ever want to leave. When the woman came to give us our 10 minute warning, I wanted to CRY. I also decided to do a last suana/cold pool run, so I had to brave Russia with soaking wet hair. Walking out of the Banya, my skin felt so healthy, and I felt like it was feeling air for the first time. I KNOW I AM DRAMATIC, BUT IT WAS AMAZING.

Not crammed in the hot tub at ALL

Russians do not usually rent out an entire private banya like we did, there are actually a ton of public ones around the city. Men go more often than women, but women can go too. They are also separated by sexes when you go to a public one, because technically you are supposed to not wear any clothes, and just hang out in a sheet. We hung out in bathing suits because we were coed. Apparently public Banya is a great place to meet people, and I will venture there soon. But until then, THIS WAS MY BANYA EXPERINCE.

Also, after we left. Alina and I decided that we wanted to go watch the bridges rise. We killed 2 hours chattin at SUBWAY and eating the leftover snacks, and then waited by the bridges. The only problem was that the bridges did not rise that night because it was a holiday. WE WERE WET COLD AND ANGRY. We were about 2 miles from my house, and we usually walk that distance, but we were wet cold and angry. We decided to get a gypsy cab. That was a first for me. For those of you who do not know what that is, that is a cab that is not a cab really, it is just a person with a car that you flag down and have them take you places. The fare is cheaper than the real cabs, and EVERYONE does it. I am sure that there are circumstances where this is unsafe, so as a girl, I would never do it alone. Since Alina was with me, I knew we could handle trouble. By myself, I was one 100lb 5’2″ girl, but add ANOTHER 100lb  5’2″ girl, you have one TOUGH squad.

Alina and I had never done it before, and she was the expert at hailing cabs, so she stood out on the side of the road with her hand out. I don’t really know how you do it in the US but I think you put your hand HIGH in the air in the US, but in Russia, you put it down below your waist. Within 30 seconds a car pulled up. I told him where we wanted to go and he said 100rubles. So 3 dollars. I was down. We both got in the back, and he typed the address in his GPS. He probably does this as his job, drives around all night looking for people like us. It was also 2 in the morning, which is prime time because the metro stops at 12am. His car was actually pretty nice. It was weird riding in a car, I forgot that it had been over 2months since my mom took me to the airport.

We found out that he was from Tajikistan, because Alina likes to use every opportunity to practice Russian. He asked where on earth we were from and Alina and I were thrilled to tell him we were from the US. Probably not the best idea because, he just found out he had two 100lb 5’2″ HAWT American ladies in his car, but it was okay. Alina told him her name, which is funny because she has a Russian name too. People must be so confused when they meet me and Alina, two Americans with 100% Russian names, just hanging out in Russia. Either way, when he dropped us at my street, he asked for her phone number. I had an extra 20rubles (70cents) to give him as a tip for speaking to us, but at the last minute I decided that her phone number WAS TIP ENOUGH. I do not think they have communicated lately, BUT THEY NEED TO.

IN OTHER NEWS, I MET A HORSE.

 

Halloween in Saint Petersburg

Hello everyone! I am writing this blog on October 3ost, so technically Halloween has not even happened yet. HOWEVER, in the unfortunate, but common event that October 31st is not a weekend day, Halloween is designated as the weekend before. Now that its Sunday, I think I know enough to write about it. SO HERE GOES.

I loooveee Halloween. I really do. I love dressing up in costumes, and being creative, so Halloween for me is just the bees knees. Last year I dressed as the fabulous American pop starlet Ke$ha, and the year before I sewed my own raccoon costume and hung out near garbage cans all night. Other than dressing up myself, I love to look and see what people are dressed as. The year I was Ke$ha I went to the University of Michigan for Halloween, and it was a sight to see. There was a pacman, little bo peep, and fleet of solid green, plastic looking army men. I loved it.

ME AS THE BLACK SWAN

So before I came to Russia, I asked around to anyone who I thought was qualified, and was told that Russians do not really care about Halloween. Some people told me that in Moscow and St. Petersburg, some people would celebrate it, but not many. I could not believe my poor luck. I immediately decided I was going to dress up anyways, walk around the streets, and serve as a “Halloween Ambassador” of sorts. So that is what I did.

Around 2 weeks before Halloween, I spotted something unusual in the Subway. It was one of the advertisements, and it had recently changed to have a picture of a girl dressed up as a devil, and it gave a website and an address. I immediately went on the website when I got home, and found out it was a costume store that was claiming to have a Halloween section! The store was located in a mall very close to my house, so I went to take a look. At first, the store had a small section of masks, wigs and a few outfits. But as it got closer to Halloween, their selection grew and it was transformed into a only Halloween store and I loved to hang out there! The costumes that the store had were directly from the US. They were the common, sexy police woman, bumble bee, pirate, prisoner, or other corseted costume. Many of them came in plastic packaging, the same way that those pop up halloween stores in the US sell them. The costumes ranged from about 60$ – 180$ US. They were expensive! I had wanted a tutu FOREVER but I hadn’t found one, so I ended up breaking down and buying a black tutu dress, and spent a little more on it then I ever would have done for a costume in the US. Here, there just weren’t that many options, and St. Petersburg lacks the big craft stores that are a GODSEND during Halloween time.

So I decided to be the black swan. I didn’t know how popular the movie was here, so I thought the reference would be lost, but I did not mind. Friday of Halloween weekend came around, and some other people from SRAS decided they were going to have a Halloween party, and then that we would head out to a club or something after. Sounds good. So I went, along with a cat, 2 pirates, a doctor, the crow, and a braveheart something or another.  UNFORTUNATELY the people who were having the party decided to be lazy and not dress up, but it was okay because I was still in the company of other dressed up people.

Walking to the party on Friday was loads of fun. NO ONE on the street was dressed up, so we got stares. Kyle had a big blue face, Lindsay had let me paint whiskers on her last minute, and I had Black Swan face on. People were staring, sometimes saying things, and it was awesome. I was hoping we convinced people to dress up next year.

Long story short, there ended up being massive amounts of confusion after the party, and we ended up just going to KFC at 2am and calling it a night, which was fine because I was tired. Anyways, we saw one other group of teens in costume and when they spotted us, they gave us an appreciation nod which we gladly returned.

SO THAT WAS NIGHT ONE. Night two, Saturday, I went back to the Halloween store, to see what was happening, and it was busy as a bee. There were sooo many people there! There was a huge line for the register, and I quickly realized that Saturday was going to be the Halloween day in Russia, if there was one. Filled with excitement, I returned home and discussed my plans with Alina. Alina goes to a different university than I do, and she told me that at the international dorms there was a party. So I invited myself, got my swan outfit on, with more comfortable shoes this time, and walked out the door. I left my house at around 9, and on the way to our meeting place, I saw into some not yet filled bars, and saw that they had Halloween decorations AND a waitstaff in costumes! It was big time. When I met up with Alina, I saw her fabulous Miss America costume, and also saw some other people with witches hats, tutus and zombie make up. I was thrilled.

We headed to the party, and EVERYONE was dressed up. It was great. There was a James Bond, Jesus, a very creative cheburashka, a dog, bugs, people with wigs, everything normal on Halloween, which was funny because all these people were international students who didn’t really dress up for Halloween in their home countries, but they embraced it here. One girl actually became a zombie with actual ketchup, which we know as being a terrible idea in the US, but she had not yet learned, and unfortunately reeked of ketchup and probably lacked of friends.

Although it was a fun party, parties at the dorms get broken up promptly at 11, and instead of following the group to the

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

clubs, I decided to have an early night and go home and go to bed (I also was not feeling it because everyone was going to take off their costumes BEFORE going to the club, which is backwards thinking). But walking home from there was a fabulous adventure. The mile and a half walk was filled with HALLOWEENERS. I walked through a street that is full of popular clubs, and there were just so many people dressed up, it made my heart happy. I had so much fun walking around and looking at the costumes. There were really so many. Usually the costumes were just simple add ons, like a tutu, a pair of cat or bunny ears, a witches hat, or zombie make up. Every once in a while there were really creative ones, and my friend reported seeing a Princess Peach and a Lady Gaga walking hand in hand. So the Russians aren’t as creative with their Halloween yet, but it will come with practice. HALLOWEEN IS HAPPENING IN RUSSIA.

Now, lets see if people actually dress up for class tomorrow like they said they would. All I know is I will def. be wearing a fabulous crown at the very least. HAPPY HALLOWEEN.