From Russia With....Vodka?

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The Russian bureaucratic process was immediately evident as our bus from Helsinki to St. Petes was held up at the Russian border for over an hour while the driver sorted things out with the officials. I didn't know it at the time but this was a sign of things to come in this lovely country. Out of all the countries I've visited on this trip, Russia has got to be the most difficult to enter. I had to line-up outside the Russian embassy in Helsinki (which had a really rediculous working day of only 3 hours) for two days in a row in order to get my student visa. Then, upon entering the country everyone has to fill out migration cards that needed to be registered in Russia wherever you are staying otherwise you may get in trouble with the authorities or pay a hefty penalty upon exiting the country. When I checked in at the student dorms in Moscow, near the Moscow State University, I again went through a multi-step process to get registered with the dorm and the language course which I was enrolled. And laundry, I think you need to bribe the floor attendants in order to get a laundry time scheduled! I think this huge hierarchy is just created to give people jobs here and the communication level between departments is pretty sad....but who's complaining, only observations, eh?

St. Petersburg was great and the weather has actually good for most the time I was there. The hostel I stayed at wasn't really a hostel but was actually a flat that received a 'Russian-reno' and was looked after by a 19 year old kid, Kiril, who's uncle owned the place and profitted from the business. Kiril was a pretty funny guy and we got along great for the time I was there as we learned language and slang from each other (I now know how to say the Russian word for 'sugar-mama'). Anyway, it was fun to sit and chat with him while listening to his Russian alternative and rap music while sipping on some great (and cheap) Russian pivo, as well as the occasional sampling of some vodka....Our vodka in Canada is pretty much crap compared to some of the good stuff you can buy here and for half the price. Either Kiril thought I was working at the hostel or maybe it's just Russian culture but he had me running errands to the local supermarket to pick-up toilet paper for the place and beer for himself (I think the guy lived off of Pepsi Gold, Nesquick cereal, pilmeni (Russian tortellini), hot-dogs, and Baltika-7, a local St. Pete's brew).

One thing that was truly exposed while I have been touring here is that my Russian language is really shitty. I mean, I can't even go to buy a train ticket properly. Either I ended up having to ask local Russians for assistance or they offered since they could tell I was a lost tourist with terrible language skills. Most people I talked to were really helpful though and they found it quite amusing to hear me communicate and figure out the Russian procedures. At one point in St. Petes, 2 young women were laughing at me as I was trying to comprehend how I couldn't obtain a train ticket to Moscow even though I was at the official train ticket office....a ticket office that doesn't have tickets!? Oh well, it was funny for me too and big thanks to the friendly Rysskies.

The Hermitage Museum was truly amazing as most people had told me. I spent 4 hours walking around that 'Mother' and I don't know how much of it I even saw (I'm guessing about 30-40%?). The amount of priceless art, sculptures, historic peices, exhibitions, etcetera was astonishing. I eventually just had to leave because my mind was sore. My favorite part had to be the Rembrandt paintings and drawings...most people couldn't take photos as well as that guy could draw.

One of my favorite experiences here so far has got to be the 'Russian shower', also known as a cold shower. The hot water was off at the hostel in St. Pete's and now the dorm building has also shut theirs off for maintenance. I will be in this country for nearly a month and there is a really strong possibility of only having 1 hot shower the whole time I'm here...welcome to Russia!

The language course has been very fast-paced and challenging thus far. It's really good though as I think the more difficult it is, the more I will be able to learn. 3 weeks is not long enough but it's better than nothing and just maybe I will be able to come back home and say something more compex than "Hello, how are you?". It's only been one and half weeks so far but when you are constantly surrounded by the language and people speaking it, the level of understanding does increase.

On a closing note, I've attempted to go out 5 nights so far to clubs with both English and Russian friends on different occasions but have only succeeded once in actually getting into a place. Between getting lost, finding the right address, and other excuses I'm only batting 200 for the club scene, which I hear is really good here. Ahh, there's still a couple more weekends to go....

Yashka

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