This was one busy month for me, especially comparing to the February. I often felt like I am on a survival mission, which was probably mainly because of the new course in „Behavioural Economics and Decision Making”. Since it lasted for two weeks only, it was very intensive - almost every day, including Saturdays. Moreover, those were 5-hour long lectures. Fortunately, the professor was a great guy who made this course so interesting for us that the hours with him just flew by. In my student life, I had never experienced this kind of excitement about a class before. I liked the subject so much that I was even searching additional information about the topic in my free time. Still, I did feel like a zombie for most of the time during those two weeks. Which was also because of the other courses and group works happening at the same time. I never got to sleep more than 6 hours. And one night when I was off to bed early, the fire alarm went off and it did not stop for 40 minutes straight. It began around 11 PM and even though soon after we learned that it was just a small incident in another kitchen, the alarm just kept repeating the same two sentences over and over again. So yes, it was quite difficult to manage. I even had to skip several Russian language courses due to the overlaps and upcoming deadlines.
Actually, at the beginning of March, I was very motivated with the Russian language. I finally replied to my tandem, who had written me one month before and I agreed to meet up with him to practice my language skills. Since he did not speak English at all, we ended up talking for 2 hours just in Russian. It was ideal for me, except that I did not entirely feel that he is a kind of a person that I would like to hang out more. However, he has been writing to me quite a lot afterward. Since it usually takes me forever to reply in just a few (Russian) words and due to my busy schedule, I was ignoring some of his messages. But then he began writing me texts like “so you don’t want to talk with me?”, making me annoyed. Right now, I don’t really feel like continuing this relationship.
But just to say few more words about the professor in Behavioral Economics. He certainly was a great and very inspirational guy. In the first day, he already managed to learn all our names. And he did excellent, especially because we were around 35 students in total. He made an impression that he wants to be more like a friend to us and not an authority, so he emphasized that we should just call him by his first name. He is originally a Greek, but he lives and works in the UK. At this University he was a guest lecturer, which might explain why this was such an intensive course. He was cracking jokes all the time, and his teaching style was more as a coaching session. So yes, just because of this course I can say that my studying experience here has been a success already. The only downside of this course was that my final presentation took place on Saturday morning, which was the day when my boyfriend was visiting. Fortunately, the professor allowed my group to be the first one to present so I could leave right after that.
So far I have started three out of my five courses. „New Product Development” and „Knowledge Management” are usually taking place once a week. I am not a fan of neither of these subjects and for me, it is just about being present and trying to survive the long and boring hours. Well, „Knowledge Management” is not that bad. It is just very silly because an old Russian lady is teaching us how to make flowcharts and mindmaps on a computer. The first part of the class is usually about different competitions, where we need to draw for instance a mindmap that explains to the alien what is a shopping mall. Then she collects all the drawings and asks us to grade them. The winners are then invited to come in front of the class so that she can give them a small gift. Everyone sitting in the „audience” has to applaud and cheer to the „chosen ones”. It is happening at least 3 to 4 times during one lecture. I soon figured out that when the drawings are more colorful, she doesn't even care about the content anymore. So since then, I have been among the „winners” almost every time. Once, when the classmates did not choose my and Raphaelle's drawing, she still rewarded us with the same usual ceremony as it was obviously her favorite work. Also, once in the computer class, she was so into my job that she asked everyone to come around me to observe how a perfect example should look like. When everyone was around me, she said to the class that content is secondary as long as there are beautiful colors and the picture is simple and pleasant to look at. So yes, a course in a very "high" level...NOT!
Before the two intensive weeks begun, Raphaelle and I did have some fun together as well. We went out two times. The first time we went to the house party, which unfortunately had to be cut short as the neighbors were complaining about the noise.
We ended up separating from the rest of the group and together with an Italian, Czech, and a French guy went to a night club. For some reason, we did not stay there for too long because all of a sudden we needed to find a shawarma place. Kebab is called shawarma here, and we apparently loved this word so much, that we kept shouting it until we were directed to the most awesome place where they sell them. Finally, we decided to order an Uber to go back to the dorms. Since only my phone was not dead yet, it was me who had to order the car. When we finally got inside the car, there was some connection problem, which we resolved by agreeing to pay in cash to the driver. When we finally got home and were ready to crash, I realized that I had left my phone at the Uber. It was one of the most miserable moments for me. Unfortunately, it had happened to me so many times already that I knew the drill. At 5 AM, totally tired and wasted I connected to "Find My iPhone" app and tried to reach my device. I was so lucky that the guy responded because he could have just left, and I would never get to know who he was. As I said, we did not connect on Uber application. Anyways, the adventure continued, because I had to agree with him in Russian that he will bring me this phone back right away. For some reason, it took him around 40 minutes, during which I managed to call and text him like three times. I don't know why, but he could not find the right place. I then run outside in my pajamas and tried to look for him. Suddenly there came a taxi of which I think six students fell out one by one. I asked if anyone from them speak Russian and fortunately, there was a girl who could help me out and tell the driver where exactly he has to come. When he finally arrived, I was almost frozen, but he did not let me relax because he wanted me to give him more money than I expected. I, therefore, had to run up and down again to my 10th floor for more. Thankfully the guards were sleeping that night because I forgot my entrance card and for that reason, I had to climb the gate as some sort of a criminal. When I finally got to the bed, I promised myself that I would never do this kind of partying again.
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| At the house party with Raphaelle and Lotte |
Of course, next week, Raphaelle and I had to celebrate our five weeks in Russia, so we decided to go out. Just two of us. The very beginning was already quite fun because we missed the last metro and somehow we hooked up with this random local guy who also had to go to the center. We reached the first bar around 1 AM. Unfortunately, that was a pretty lame place, so we decided to go to the karaoke bar instead. We knew that one guy from our group is there already so we just asked him to order a song for us. Meanwhile, instead of walking for 15 minutes, we decided just to take the taxi and get there in two minutes instead. When we were about to pay for the ride, the taxi driver asked us an amount that is a double what we usually pay to Uber for about 30 minutes ride. We could not believe this nonsense, especially because he could not even provide us with any evidence such as figures on a Taximeter or a receipt. We tried to argue with him for 5 minutes, but because of my broken Russian, I probably did not sound very scary to him, so long story short - we lost the fight. The karaoke bar was also so full, that when we arrived, our song that Jarkko had ordered for us was still 1,5 h away. We were patiently waiting on a stage right behind the performers, so after all - we kind of got to sing a lot of the songs anyways. But when more fun people came from our group of friends, we decided to leave the place and go to the nightclub instead. The night, of course, ended in the shawarma place again, but this time we were finishing it with a significant promise – that we will run a marathon a month later with one of the guys who is planning to do that. Needless to say that by the next morning, this determination was all gone.
That was also my last night out. Since then I have been a nerdy student, who mostly hangs out in either the library or gym. By the way, I am still going strong when it comes to the gym. It is funny that it took them a whole month to make my gym card, but when I finally got it, they made a mistake in not only my name but also my last name. I guess, now I can say that I have a new Russian identity. The gym also made a mistake with the names of two other persons. For Clement who is a guy, they put Petra’s name. Petra is a girl. And for her, it is Clement's name on her picture ID. So, I guess, when things are put in the perspective, I have to be happy that my name is at least somewhat close to the actual one.
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| My new Russian identity |
Not only with the jacuzzi, once in a while, I am also trying to treat myself with different things. Besides doing the manicure, I tried a facial procedure at the beauty salon nearby. The procedure was very qualitative, but I was very disappointed at the end when I had to pay much more than I expected. I went there two times before just to agree on the price, but when I had to pay, it turned out that the cosmetologist has used some additional mask that costs extra. I was so angry because no matter how much you try to protect yourself from hidden costs, they still will find a way how to drag money out of you. I had experienced it also with my manicurist. In regards to the manicure, though, it was so funny the last time I went there. The lady used this “mood” color on me, which changes the tone in different temperatures. When I was about to leave, she asked me if they could take some photos for their Instagram page. I, of course, agreed, but I was not expecting that it will be almost a 15 minutes long photo shoot where my hands, for instance, will be drowned in water, and I will have to hold an icy coca-cola bottle.
At the beginning of the month, I was also quite cultural. I went to the ballet in the Mariinsky Theatre together with my buddy. It is a very famous theater where a lot of dance performances and operas take place. I truly enjoyed this experience, but I was
expecting a little more elegance in the interior design of the building. Anyways, when I came back home around 11 PM that evening, I was so loaded with positive energy that I thought nothing could destroy it. I was wrong. When I tried to grab a little bite as I was super hungry, I was paralyzed from the view in my kitchen. Everywhere where I looked, I saw cockroaches. I could not even eat because they were everywhere. So I just run to my room with an empty stomach and feverish plan to get out of this terrible apartment as soon as possible. Since my flatmates are disgusting, and they don't clean after themselves, it will never be enough with just some poison to get rid of the insects. The same night I already found a girl, who speaks good Russian to come with me to the reception to talk about changing apartments. Of course, I did not succeed, because all the rooms are full, and cockroaches in the opinion of the administration are nothing special. If I have good relationships with my roommate, I should just enjoy that and not complain about anything. She did, however, promise that somebody would come to our apartment and talk with rest of the girls about the cleaning issues. The cockroach saga continued, but in the past week, something has changed. I haven’t seen any insects for almost a week. It is so weird because the girls still don't clean after themselves. Maybe this place has just become too disgusting even for the cockroaches?
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| At the Mariinsky Theater |
Then, we had an interesting time with Raphaelle on March 8. It is a Women’s day, and in Russia, they take this very seriously. Here it is a National holiday. Our flatmates gave us gifts and candies to congratulate us. Even my wardrobe lady Natalia at the school gave me a chocolate congratulating with the Women’s day. How sweet :)
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| March 8. Celebrating with some ushki (austiņām) |
Ten on another day, we went to a place that was suggested by my mom. We went to a horror house, where real actors play out little etudes written by famous Russian poets. It is located in a shopping center, and we went there on a Thursday morning, just to avoid any possible queues. We ended up to be the only clients in the entire shopping center, and when the excursion started, we were a group of only four people. The 50 minutes long excursion was held in Russian, so we were just nodding our heads and pretending that we understand. After that, we went to the 7D cinema, where we were also the only clients. When we sat down to watch the movie, we were suddenly surrounded by flashes from a photographer, who approached us after the film, trying to sell already printed photos and magnets with us sitting in the empty hall and our 7D glasses on. So funny!
In general, it was a good month and just two weeks of it was very overwhelming. But these weeks were actually concluded with the best possible price named Jonas. Jonas came on Friday evening. After I was done with the lectures, I went to the airport to meet him there. We then went to the 4-star hotel which was simply fantastic and located in the heart of the city.
It was such a lovely evening, even though I had to find a moment to prepare for the final presentation for the Behavioural Economics class that took place next morning (on Saturday). So while Jonas was still sleeping next day, I quickly went to the University and did the presentation. And even though I don’t know the grade yet, I think we did pretty well. I did not stay to see others because I had something much more exciting to experience. And it was the weekend with my favorite guy. When I arrived back to the hotel, Jonas had just woken up. So it was perfect. We then went for breakfast to a very cozy and sweet café nearby. After that, I showed him the center of St. Petersburg. We went to the Church of the Savior on Blood and Russian Museum. These are two must-see places that I had not yet experienced myself.
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| My bed for 3 great nights |
In general, it was a very nice weekend together. We tried so many nice restaurants. On Sunday we went to cinema and Hermitage. And even though I had to stay in a line for the wardrobe for 20 minutes there, we had a good time anyways. Unfortunately, Jonas was not very impressed about St Petersburg. I think I can see why. It is not as unique city, comparing, for instance, to Rome, Budapest, Paris or London. It is also a very polluted place.
But he very much enjoyed visiting the more authentic area with the tall block buildings where my dorms are located. This was a very short visit ad I miss him already. But I am very glad for this exchange semester because it is a great reminder to me of how lucky I am not only with my family, friends, and education, but also with my one and only – Jonas.
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| Jonas' last day in St. Petersburg |
This turned out to be another super long story. I will try to write more often but much shorter. However, I am not sure if I can keep this promise, as the April will be so much more chaotic for me than the March. So pray for me guys! :)
Cheers!
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