... I hate school days.
Not because of doing class entirely in Russian-- that's good for me, and while it's frustrating and tiring now, I understand that it's going to be of great benefit to me in the future.
And it's not the hour-long commute to and from school-- that's normal for Russia, and I can be nothing but appreciative of the fact that it's no longer tacked on to the beginning and end of my Fridays (which by themselves last from 9 in the morning to 4:10 in the afternoon, all in Russian with the longest break being half an hour for lunch).
No, the reason I hate school days is because, save for if I wanted to write about what I learned in my classes (which I don't), I have an utter dearth of materials to post about. And that simply won't do.
Luckily, I've been stocking up a little bit, so I still have some new, pertinent information before I go out into the Russian world and glean new (and, I hope, interesting) information.
So, without further ado...
My neverending battle with shoes has just reached new heights, as well as Princess's and my penchant for getting embarrassingly lost. Today, we decided that we would stop by the H&M on Nevsky Prospect, but to get in some exercise, we were going to walk there. It wasn't supposed to be very far between Spasskaya (the first metro station on the Orange Line, where it connects with the Blue and Purple lines) and the H&M; and since all we had to do was walk straight North, we figured it couldn't be too bad.
I was wearing thick socks with my tennis shoes that day, something that I thought was not too terribly revolutionary of an idea. I was perfectly comfortable and felt confident and ready for this walk.
Princess and I chatted as we walked down the street, pausing to take note of a fantastic Russian parking job (which will be shown below) and happily heading down a direction that we knew (at the time) was North.
An unknown quantity of time later, Princess and I were still walking down the street when we crossed a bridge and went to go see a statue of an Angel that we saw. We went over and happily began taking pictures when I suddenly realized that the name of the intersection we were on was far too familiar.
This was the "Troitskiy" (or Trinity) Church, behind which there is a market every single day. I recalled that my other host mom had said that it was near a metro station; and I had no idea whether or not this meant that Princess and I were on the right track.
(For future reference, the Troitskiy Church is here.)
As Princess and I resumed our walk, I began noticing that there was a very uncomfortable pain in my ankles. Determined not to slow down, I began trying to alter my gait; but even then, the pain just kept getting worse and worse, until finally I was forced to take a break and examine my ankles. Two massive water blisters greeted me the moment I pulled down my socks.
Explanation? My shoes had changed their fit because of how much I had been walking. Add that to the thick socks, and my shoes had been rubbing my ankles. Walking was officially a trial, and we still had as of yet to find the H&M.
Now limping like a battered war hero (and feeling as far from it as possible), Princess and I kept walking and desperately searching for landmarks... Yet there were no such "Glass Monsters" to greet us. Finally, we spied a familiar sight: a sign saying that Baltiyskiy Vokzal (a metro/train station) was close at hand. Limping desperately, we raced towards the finish line.
Were we close?
Would this be embarrassing if we weren't?
All told, the path (roughly) that Princess and I took goes like so:
Upon reaching the metro, this was the path that we ended up having to take:
There's only one thing that's still a mystery: we really did start off heading North.
Lessons learned:
1) Always have a map on your person.
2) Always have the actual address of where you want to go with you.
3) Be careful of dying shoes.
Not because of doing class entirely in Russian-- that's good for me, and while it's frustrating and tiring now, I understand that it's going to be of great benefit to me in the future.
And it's not the hour-long commute to and from school-- that's normal for Russia, and I can be nothing but appreciative of the fact that it's no longer tacked on to the beginning and end of my Fridays (which by themselves last from 9 in the morning to 4:10 in the afternoon, all in Russian with the longest break being half an hour for lunch).
No, the reason I hate school days is because, save for if I wanted to write about what I learned in my classes (which I don't), I have an utter dearth of materials to post about. And that simply won't do.
Luckily, I've been stocking up a little bit, so I still have some new, pertinent information before I go out into the Russian world and glean new (and, I hope, interesting) information.
So, without further ado...
FLASH TO THE PAST
It's just been one of those Saturdays.My neverending battle with shoes has just reached new heights, as well as Princess's and my penchant for getting embarrassingly lost. Today, we decided that we would stop by the H&M on Nevsky Prospect, but to get in some exercise, we were going to walk there. It wasn't supposed to be very far between Spasskaya (the first metro station on the Orange Line, where it connects with the Blue and Purple lines) and the H&M; and since all we had to do was walk straight North, we figured it couldn't be too bad.
I was wearing thick socks with my tennis shoes that day, something that I thought was not too terribly revolutionary of an idea. I was perfectly comfortable and felt confident and ready for this walk.
Princess and I chatted as we walked down the street, pausing to take note of a fantastic Russian parking job (which will be shown below) and happily heading down a direction that we knew (at the time) was North.
 |
| See? Russians really don't know how to park. |
This was the "Troitskiy" (or Trinity) Church, behind which there is a market every single day. I recalled that my other host mom had said that it was near a metro station; and I had no idea whether or not this meant that Princess and I were on the right track.
(For future reference, the Troitskiy Church is here.)
 |
| This will be relevant very, very soon. |
Explanation? My shoes had changed their fit because of how much I had been walking. Add that to the thick socks, and my shoes had been rubbing my ankles. Walking was officially a trial, and we still had as of yet to find the H&M.
Now limping like a battered war hero (and feeling as far from it as possible), Princess and I kept walking and desperately searching for landmarks... Yet there were no such "Glass Monsters" to greet us. Finally, we spied a familiar sight: a sign saying that Baltiyskiy Vokzal (a metro/train station) was close at hand. Limping desperately, we raced towards the finish line.
Were we close?
Would this be embarrassing if we weren't?
All told, the path (roughly) that Princess and I took goes like so:
Upon reaching the metro, this was the path that we ended up having to take:
There's only one thing that's still a mystery: we really did start off heading North.
Lessons learned:
1) Always have a map on your person.
2) Always have the actual address of where you want to go with you.
3) Be careful of dying shoes.
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