Early Frustrations

Well Everyone, today is my fifth day in St. Petersburg, and honestly...it feels like I've been here for weeks. Yesterday I took the metro by myself (an interesting experience, trust me) and met the group at Kazansky Sobor (Cathedral) on Nevsky Prospect, the largest street in the city. I was able to navigate to the meeting place and only had to ask for directions once. Luckily, I understood the answer! I was meeting the group for a scavenger hunt around the city. I had heard that Russia is a very strange place but only now do I truly believe that statement to be true. During our first five minutes into the race around town, we were distraced by a Michael Jackson tribute dance mob...meaning a group of people dancing to "Billie Jean" dressed like Michael Jackson. Just strange. Next, we nervously walked around the city trying to find random objects like a 1 kopec coin, which is very rare, a business card from a Russian, a bottle of kbac (very disgusting black bread beer), while taking pictures of random historical signs and buildings. The most terrifying experience of the day was going in a gypsy cab, a random driver who can pick you up without being a registered cab driver. The five people in our group crammed into a very small car and only drove down the street. While this doesn't sound too bad, the driver would not let us out of the car until we paid him more money. Of course, none of us understood what he was saying because only 1 person has had more than one year of Russian. In my case, I've had none (I will elaborate later). Being in a cab and not being able to get out is the worst thing ever. 500 rubles ($15) later, the man finally let us out of the cab! I have never been happier to get out of a car!
To explain the title of this post, I have found some things in this city to be extremely frustrating. First, very few people speak English. This is difficult for someone who doesn't speak much Russian, i.e. ME! I am able to understand more and more each day but communicating is very hard. My host sister speaks English but she is rarely around the house and she certainly isn't with me at school. The administative director of CIEE, Irina Borisnova, does not speak any English and tells us very important instructions in Russian only when 15% or so of the students do not speak or understand Russian at all. Also, I bought a USB internet modem and since I cannot understand the directions, I can't get it to work! You don't know how lucky you are to have free and available internet in the States! So, right now, the language is the hardest and most frustrating thing about being here (Not surprising). I knew it would be difficult but when my program director refuses to speak English, learning and understanding has to come even faster. I hope that it will be easier as the weeks pass.
I am enjoying the strange aspects of the city and I am certainly enjoying my host family. I will talk about them in my next post.
Until later,
HD

ps. I will also post about classes once the routine kicks in :)