Yesterday and Today

Since all I got around to yesterday was telling you about my spider woes, here is yesterday:

We went to see the Bronze Horseman! It's a huge, statue on a huge rock, and it is a little bit badass. I wanted to link to the poem, but I can't find a site with a good translation. We wantered about and saw St. Isaac's Cathedral, which was vair neat, and then toddled over towards Nevsky Prospekt. It rained on us, and everyone was very concerned about melting (and I love the rain). So we ducked into a Souvenir shop with everything from nice cheap stuff, to nice crazy stuff. The sales girl in the back fancy room was really pushing the Faberge eggs for tens of thousands of rubles, made of real egg with pearls and crystals and all sorts of jazz I would love to have and gaze at.

And then we toddled along some more, found an ATM, went to a bookstore for notebooks - and I got a couple post cards too - but how can stamps? And how post office? I have to figure that out. And then we backtracked and ate at the Greek restaurant.

I said "Hello, four please" to the hostess in Russian.
She said "Of course, right this way. But we have no alcohol, only beer," in English. Apparently my accent is very obvious - I'm not surprised. It was kind of her to warn us, but we wanted FOOD and not booze at that time. I had...meat things. I don't know what they were, but they were pretty good. They had the most amazing brunch spread, but it was like... 660 rubles, which is around $20 something dollars, and we've all gotten so used to Russian food prices that we whine about having to pay actual money. Toddled about some more, came back here, I posted about spiders, had some dinner when we got hungry.

Then we went to the 24 hour store - which is sort of like a real grocery store! I prefer to get the real fresh stuff from the place next door, but it's really hard when you don't speak very well and don't know what things are. I like to be able to pick stuff up and read the package and figure it out before committing to buying it. We got some groceries, and came back here and lazed.

AND THEN, I was actually so excited about this that I ran down the hall to tell the boys like someone deranged. THEN I turned on the TV for some Russian background noise for my knitting? And guess what was on. Guess. Can you guess?

Ok, in case you're not obsessed like some of us, that's Dr. Venture. From the Venture Brothers. One of the best shows ever. That I like so much I have the DVD with me. The DVD this episode is from. I brought two things to watch, and this was one of them. (The other is Milo and Otis, because Tillie is a thousand kinds of awesome.) So the Venture Brothers was on, dubbed in Russian (rather poorly, Hank and Dean don't sound nearly stupid enough, but Dr. Girlfriend still had a man's voice.) And then we watched House for a bit. And some movie with Meg Ryan and a kid with a bowl cut, because apparently Russian's prefer American TV?

No spiders got me last night, thank goodness. Our roommate still slept elsewhere, and I'm starting to worry she hates us. Or something. Maybe we smell.

And then today, we went to class. Tra la la, four little schoolchildren are we. Class was good, and I had the most amazing Banana pastry during the break (they make snacks there, that are awesome), and some instant coffee that tasted like heaven. We watched the Ugly Duckling in Russian today, and it was awesome. But Russian poultry are even harder to understand than regular people.

And after class, we scampered across the bridge with the intention of going to the Russian museum. But by the time we'd taken a bazillion pictures of the Church of the Savior on Blood and walked through the garden and found the restaurant I had picked out (as kommandant of food, apparently I'm in charge of maps and planning now as well), it was too late to go to the museum. The restaurant we went to for lunch was a fusion kind of place with European, Russian, and Japanese food. I wanted to eat every single thing on the menu. Everything. Except the cow tongue. But everything else. I had lasagna bolognese, and I'm surprised I didn't melt right down under the table. And it wasn't terribly expensive, even if we are used to paying almost nothing for whole meals.
The ambiance of the restaurant was a little weird - British TV was playing, and it was all swanky and Manhattany inside, and there was a pavillion thing for eating outside. But as we were waiting at the crosswalk, someone in a sporty audi did that thing you see in movies. Where they come around the corner and peel out and lose control and get it back right before crashing into all the civilians on the sidewalk, like a TOTAL DOUCHEBAG. Like in that episode of Numb3rs almost. So we chose to eat inside. Apparently that part of town is where the "cool kids" (douchebags) hang out. We were un-chicly dressed and got some sassy looks and just seated ourselves when no one helped us (though for all we know, that's how it works). But the food was awesome.

So after discovering that it was too late to go to the Museum (it was 3:15 and it closed at 5, and we would have had to pay to get in), we wandered about the Field of Mars (and basked next to the eternal flame, it was a little chilly out today) and walked through the Summer Gardens and giggled about some of the statues (we are incredibly mature), and sat in the chair art installments. Unfortunately, I'm a big dork and forgot my camera, but everyone else got pictures so someday I will post them. There are pictures from yesterday, of the Bronze Horseman and all that.

And then, we went back the way we got there, after a brief distraction by ducklings in one of the canals. They're so fuzzy. And gave a lady from D.C. directions (she had a knitted purse with a FLAMINGO HEAD on the strap) towards the metro, even though she had already walked by it. She asked us for directions in Russian, and we were all "oh, you don't really want us to answer you in Russian", and she was all "oh, thank goodness." And Charlie's shoulder got pooped on by a bird.

Which is weird, because walking over the bridge to Nevsky my foot almost got massively pooped on by a bird. It just barely missed me. Charlie's poop was only a little one, but still a bummer. He didn't really believe me when I told him it meant he would have a good day.

And my fingers are tired from all this writing. We need to get more water, because we need more water every day. Because we don't want giardia, and I am a very thirsty person.