first impressions

Zdrastvitye! Dobro Pozhalovat' v Sankt Peterburg!



Well, we've arrived, in one piece. Mostly. Jet lag is taking a serious toll.

First, the basic facts of our traveling. We left Washington, DC around 10:00 PM. The 8-hour flight was boring, but not too painful. Killed the time by napping, a little reading, and watching Something New, one of the in-flight movies. Well, tried to watch, anyway... during the first half, the sound kept skipping; during the second half, the visuals were garbled. Good ol' United. I think I managed the get the gist of the movie anyway.

We transferred flights in Frankfurt, which is the grossest airport ever. Relatively clean in the sense that there isn't trash lying around, but it just has a dingy feel. When our plane landed, it taxied to a seemingly random spot on the tarmac, and a large staircase rolled up; we exited the plane and boarded a very crowded bus, on which I nearly dislocated my shoulder by hanging on for dear life as it whipped across the tarmac. It dropped us off at a small room with 3 chairs and a screen indicating gates for flights. To get to our gate we had to go through a security checkpoint. Beyond security was a small lounge with a smoking area and no ventilation or bathrooms. This is where we sat for an hour until we boarded another cramped bus and then our plane. It seems that there is a worse airline than United out there; it's called Lufthansa.

Flying into Frankfurt...



Getting off the bus...



Getting onto our plane.



Our flight had a LOT of turbulence, to the point where I wondered momentarily whether we'd arrive at all. At least it had great food. You know you're out of the US when suddenly breads become whole-grain rather than chewy white, and chocolate is, by default, dark rather than milk.

Russian countryside...



After about two hours, we landed at St. Petersburgs international airport, Pulkovo-2. At least the plane actually pulled up to the terminal here. Inside was a little gross as well, considering that it was an unseasonably warm 85 degrees out, and there was no air conditioning. Here we were greeted by our host couple, "Joe" and "Helen," let's call them. It's a good thing they were there, since Russian airport workers almost immediately started harassing me about declaring my viola at customs. As if it's an antique or something... what? Joe kept yelling back (in Russian) something about "she's a diplomat, shes doesn't have to, it's not old anyway," and we made our way outside to the waiting SUV.

The airport is something like 30 km from the city center, so we had an adventurous ride into town. Russian drivers really are a breed of their own; lane markings and the concept of turning lanes mean very little. The outskirts of town all need a good scrubbing, but as you get in deeper, monuments, parks, and dramatic buildings start to appear. Our hosts were pointing out important landmarks as we went, but I was completely wrapped up in trying to decipher at least one sign somewhere. Reading Cyrillic is a full-time job.

After about a half hour, we arrived at our temporary quarters. Apartments are tight at the moment because of the upcoming G8; we'll move into our permanent quarters after that. Our current street is short, with buildings that are large and majestic but could use a coat of paint. The stairway to our floor is large, echoey, and very minimalist. Our apartment itself, however, is definitely nothing to complain about it. It is enormous compared to anything we've lived in before. It has a living room, a large kitchen with room in it for a table, an actual dining room, a guest room, and the main bedroom. Our entire last apartment (which we paid over $1500 a month for in San Francisco) would fit into the bedroom here. It has beautiful wood floors and ridiculously high ceilings. Most of the doorways are probably 8 feet tall, and there's another 4 feet above that to the ceiling. The provided furniture and welcome-kit dishes and towels and such are quite lovely. Joe and Helen got us a small supply of groceries, including a Russian box of Honey Nut Cheerios, which is just surreal.



After explaining which keys were which, they left us for a bit, during which time we unpacked, showered, and pinched ourselves. When we'd had time to relax somewhat, they came back to take us to dinner. They picked us up and drove us around the city, including past the building we'll move into in August, which is next to a large park on a pretty tree-lined street. Apparently the apartment itself is about the same size as our temporary one, but more modern in its design, and the building has a gym, a pool, and a sauna. Sweet.

Inside our place...



A street in our neighborhood.



For dinner we went to a middle-eastern type place, where I had shashlik, which is basically a shish-kabob. They had both Russian and English menus, which was helpful, although the English menu was occasionally amusing. For example, there was a definite moment of confusion when I was reading my choices: "Pork shashlik, lamb shashlik, beef shashlik, cheapen shashlik. Cheapen? Is that like a bargain kabob with multiple kinds of meat on it?" After comparing the Russian and English menus we finally determined that it was a brutal misspelling of Chicken.

After dinner we realized it was time for bed, which was something you had to really think about, considering that it was 11:00 PM and still complete daylight outside. I was extremely tired though. Joe and Helen dropped us off, we started up the air conditioning in the bedroom, and pulled down the black-out shades. I almost immediately passed out.

Today Jonathan had to start working, and I was going to come along to get a sense of what his office is like, but when the alarm went off today, I felt like I'd been drugged. I'm talking hard-core jet lag, people. Or just plain extreme tiredness. After all, aside from some mediocre naps on our flights, we'd essentially been awake for 32 hours by the time we went to bed last night. Jonathan managed to get up, but we decided it would be better for now if I tried to adjust slowly. My body has an extremely hard time adjusting to change, and this is a pretty hefty change. I went back to sleep for a good long time, then woke up and had a big bowl of Cheerios, skimmed some tourist brochures, and now here I am. I feel lame for not having even gone outside yet today, but I guess it's better to not push myself and then feel like crap for our first month here.

Tonight when Jonathan gets home, I imagine we'll take a walk together, so I will get outside eventually. On our block theres a Produkti store which I believe has groceries, so well go stock up.

So there you have it, an introduction to our new little world. I'm sure future updates will be shorter and probably more interesting. Anyone have anything in particular that they'd like to know about? Please ask! Ill try to answer as much as I can. Hopefully by tomorrow my body will be cooperating so Ill be able to experience more than the view from our dining room...