Pancakes, camels, fights, cockroaches ...

The February month is over now, and with almost a week long celebration called “Maslenitsa”, we have welcomed the spring. A big part of this celebration is bliny – thin pancakes or crepes that people eat in combination with basically anything - jam, crème fresh, caviar, cottage cheese, and the list can go forever. For this reason, I ate pancakes for almost a week, and surprisingly I am still not tired of them. I went to three different markets organized around the city to witness the very local traditions where people of all ages come together and dance, play games, and of course – eat pancakes. In one of the markets there was even a camel that did not make any sense to me, but ouh well, I guess everything is possible in Russia.

With the camel celebrating Maslenitsa

But my favorite time during this holiday was the Saturday morning when we were invited to another flat at the dorms, where the three girls living there made pancakes for us. It was so cozy and sweet to spend the morning this way. I hope that sometime soon there will be a second round!

During the breakfast on Saturday, I got to hear a spicy story from one of the German girls - Olga. According to her, she has a very impatient and disrespectful roommate, who has been complaining about everything that Olga does since the first day they met. After three weeks of trying to please her companion, Olga was finally fed up with it, and she decided that she will ignore her completely. So when she came home Friday night, she just marched inside the room, turned on all the lights and started working on her laptop. Then from out of nowhere her roommate suddenly appeared and grabbed her by the hair and pulled her down on the floor. When Olga somehow managed to get up, the other one just pushed her into the closet. Olga said she was screaming and at one point even tried to kick her in the stomach. When she finally escaped this crazy chick, she ran downstairs for help. Nevertheless, the security said that if they called the police, both of the girls would have to go to jail and be expelled. So finally the night for them ended up by switching the rooms with other flatmates and sleeping in different beds. What a crazy story, especially because they both are between 26 and 28 years old. 

Fortunately, nothing that “exciting” is happening at our apartment. However, we are the only apartment still suffering from the presence of cockroaches. Last Wednesday there finally came the sanitary people that sprayed some special poison all over the kitchen, bathroom, and, the toilet. When we got home, the smell was pretty bad, so I was expecting these jerks to be long gone. Unfortunately, the very next morning, I already saw two fat and healthy „guys” just sitting in the sink and staring at me. It was so upsetting; because getting all our things out and afterward cleaning everything up was such a hassle for us that now it just seems like a waste of time. At least after the cleaning, Raphaelle and I got our own clean shelf where we can now keep our stuff. During this situation, however, we realized that none of the other flatmates cared about being involved and once again – we had to do everything ourselves. Sharing your living space with three other people and 100 cockroaches can definitely be challenging at times. What to do? Four more months to go and I will come out of this experience as a much stronger person :D

Since nobody had cleaned neither the bathroom or the toilet, it is even greater motivation for me to go to the gym and take a shower there. In the last nine days, I have been to the gym eight times. I love it so much, especially because I can clearly see the results, and most importantly, take a shower in a spacious and clean area.

Another way how I have spoiled myself this week is my appointment at the manicure. This place was suggested to me by one Russian woman working at the gym. I for sure don’t regret going there because my manicurist was so accurate and patient that I could not be happier with the result. I went there on Thursday, which is a Defender of the Fatherland day in Russia. It is a national holiday and, with special concerts and fireworks they were honoring and celebrating the people who are or were serving the Russian Armed Forces. Unfortunately, my appointment took 2.5 hours, so I missed the fireworks in the center. However, I got to watch the TV behind the manicurist, where they were showing the concert and the speeches dedicated to this holiday. 

My manicurist was also quite a funny lady. At first, she was not very talkative, but then she started to talk so much that I could not follow her anymore. Of course, she could not say a word in English, so for me, it was another great Russian lesson. But I had to laugh every time she asked me about the places that I have visited, because when I could not remember she grabbed her phone and shouted to the Siri to show the pictures for me. Once she could not remember a name of one of the many castles here, so she immediately ran outside and asked the receptionist for help. After we were finally finished, she wrote a list with all the places that we talked about and even a TV show that I should watch to practice my Russian language. 

I definitely can feel that my Russian has improved significantly during this one month. I am also attending three lessons a week that count up for 9.5 hours in total. So it is pretty intensive. Sometimes I feel that I should be in a bit more advanced group so I can discuss things better with others, but then again – I get to repeat all the ground rules, that I have apparently been missing in the past. I also like the teacher, even though at first she reminded me a bird, which is totally lost. But I have got used to her high pitch voice and weird jokes, and now I find her teaching techniques very effective.

Thanks to the language lessons, I can feel that I am starting to finally use the right endings during the conversations with people in my everyday life and they, therefore, understand me much better as well. So, for instance, on February 19 I went to the metro station to order my student transport card. Unfortunately, only after the cashier had filled in all the papers and I have paid for the service, she informed me that the card would be ready in 10 days. It was not a very convenient situation for me because I had to give my passport to the International Office for VISA extension purposes. But in order for me to collect the transport card after the ten days, I had to have my passport with me. Anyways, I couldn't do anything about it anymore, so I had to wait. I began bothering the cashier one day before the deadline both on mornings and evenings just to see if my card has arrived before the time. Every time, when she went looking for it, the card, of course, was not yet there. So when I went there again on the actual pickup date, the woman informed me that the card is still not ready. I said to her that this is not acceptable and I need my passport for the VISA and, I will not go anywhere until she presents an alternative to me (at least that is what I think I said :D ). But long story short, she went looking again and surprise, surprise, she came back with my card. I mean how can this be? Of course since in the entire metro station there are only three cashiers, by the time I was done, there were at least 20 people in the line behind me.  By the wat, it happened every time, I “visited” the cashier. My point is – I feel that I finally have good enough Russian language skills to stand up for myself!

True Zenit Fans

I would like to finish up just to point out that this past week has been rather cultural for me, without any crazy parties. One day I participated in a free tour around St. Petersburg organized by my University, and in another day I went to a basketball game where Petersburg Zenit was playing against another Russian team called Enisey. Since my uncle knows somebody from the Zenit team, he said I can go to any of the games there and take up to 10 friends with me. So I did that, and we had a nice opportunity to sit in good seats and watch one more good game. For Raphaelle and I this was an excellent opportunity to collect even more Zenit posters that we could put all over our boring walls at the dormitory. Now it may appear that we are the biggest fans of the Zenit.