Days 12-16

DAY 12: Yesterday, I really started to feel like I was settled in to my home here, and was finally comfortable enough walking around the city to listen to my ipod. I even hung out at a cafe, and the people behind the counter might not even have noticed that I'm an American.

But today, pretty much all of that crumbled. I'm feeling extremely lethargic, doing my absolute best to avoid the world around me, and I'm halfway pretending that I don't have any homework. In addition, as of the time I'm writing this, I have no internet or source of outside communication, which is unfortunate because I would really like some right now. I might even end up not being able to do any skyping tonight, which was basically the only thing I was looking forward to today. I'm reading more than I do at home, but more out of a need for escapism than any real desire to read, which is too bad, because the books I'm reading are pretty good. I guess this was bound to happen at some point during this whole trip, but I didn't think it would be so early on.

You know how I start these with DAY X:? Well, I counted, and all in all there are going to be 127 days, from when I got on that first plane until I come back to the US on June second. That seems like a lot. And I'm on day 12. Tomorrow is more or less the 10% point. I never realized how long 4 months is.

Anyways, for the sake of always having internet, I might have to buy a Yota. They cost a bit, but then I'll definitely always be able to get online when I need to. The store is close to school, so that'll probably be my plan for tomorrow.

I'll let everybody know how things are going again soon.

DAY 13: No change. blech.

DAY 15: Today, I rediscovered coffee. Also, I feel like much less of a failure. While I haven't done anything too interesting, I can now say that the sushi place across the street is decent. My feet kind of hurt.

DAY 16: I don't feel as bad about Russia as I did a few days ago, but I do just generally feel junky. I didn't get to watch Psych with Annie on day 14, yesterday, or today, which is awful for me, as I think that doing that would make me feel a lot better. Really, just talking to someone would be good right now. But here I am, alone and just feeling kind of crappy. Valentine's day is coming up, which really snuck up on me since they don't do that here.

I heard a story while I was mandatorily at the Peter-Paul fortress today. I guess the angel/cross at the top of the chapel tilted once after a storm, and they had to find someone to put it up right again. The guy that did it was awarded with free drinks for life in any of the pubs and bars in St. Petersburg. He died of alcohol poisoning within 2 weeks.

Lastly, I go to Novgorod on Saturday morning (friday at 11pm for you midwestern folks). I'll probably update again on Sunday. Hopefully I can talk to some friends then too (if not earlier).

Evan