'October has come'

Well, October has arrived in St. Petersburg! And it has brought significantly colder wind with it – my most mom says it may even snow on Sunday!! I have only seen one fur coat so far though, on the escalator in the metro. Plenty of earmuffs, though – earmuffs in September! In St. Petersburg, where they are supposed to be experienced at this whole living with the cold thing. The kids are kind of cute though, all bundled up. I really can’t wait until the crazy fur coats start showing up all over the streets, its supposed to be quite incredible. The gas turned on in our apartment last night (30th of September). Apparently, you have no control over when that happens or over your thermostat. The radiators made strange noises for about twenty minutes and then it started getting warm in my room! I ended up opening my window a little because it got so warm. The tapochki we bought this week have definitely proved their worth already, my feet are cold when I’m not wearing them despite the hardwood floors. Still loving the apartment, been cooking up a storm with the host mom and we’re still talking about going to the circus this weekend, or a sauna if that doesn’t work out. So we’ll just have to see!

Currently we’re watching the daily show on Brian’s computer at school. Oh how I’ve missed Mr. Stewart. Its funny to watch satire of the events going on back home when we feel rather disconnected from all of that. I’ve been watching videos of Merkel’s victory in Germany, too, and catching up on news about the new version of the missile shield and the healthcare debate. I booked my hostel for Berlin today – WOMBATS! Didn’t know they had a wombats but as soon as I saw it I had to check it out. It has a kitchen, which helped to set it apart. Since I’ll be there for a week I definitely want to be able to do some grocery shopping so Tom and I will check it out when we get there. That’s a month and a week from now, somehow that seems both far away and very soon. At that point I will have been to Tallinn, Moscow, and hopefully Helsinki. To say nothing of the ballet we’re going to next week (Sleeping Beauty) and all of our cultural experiences and excursions. Which means a whirlwind is coming! Thankfully I’ve worked out a routine to make sure I’m working a lot on my grammar and vocab at home as well as at school so the language is still definitely going great and I’m picking it up even faster now that I’ve been here a little while. Learning slang from students is a good time, too.

Random post will have to come later, still need to put it all together! Sorry for the thrown-together nature of these last few posts, its been a little crazy this week and I think I’m finally over the cold that’s been after me for the past little while. So much more to come from the land of the freezing rain, I hope it is warmer wherever you are!