Snow in St. Petersburg

Hello!
Well, it has been another quiet week in St. Petersburg. And, on Friday, we saw the first snow fall of the year. Mind you, it snowed for about 5 minutes but nevertheless, it snowed. My history teacher said that there has only been 4 or 5 years since he was born where he hasn't seen snow before October 14. This year, the supposed coldest winter in Russia in 1000 years, snow fall by October 14 was only one day off.

Since I've been in St. Petersburg for almost 8 weeks now, I guess this is a good time to tell you all about my wonderful host family. I live on Line 3 of Vasileoevsky Island, just on the outer edge of the city center (2 blocks away from the metro station!). My host mother, Elena Ivanovna, is (I've gathered) a social worker/teacher at the nearby school. She is so patient with me and my lack of Russian skills. We can now converse in Russian but she can write and understand English. If I don't understand what she says, I luckily have 2 nice American boys who can translate for me, something that no one else has in the CIEE program. I have 2 host sisters, although I've only met one. The other, Ilona, is teaching English in China so I doubt that I will meet her. The younger sister, Irina, attends St. Petersburg State University as well and since she is an English major, her English is perfect. We can now converse in both Russian and in English. (Side note: When you come to a country and you don't know the language, being able to converse and understand what someone is saying is honestly the greatest feeling). So, I even surprise myself sometimes because I can converse with someone. I don't know much about Elena Ivanovna or Irina, which is unfortunate. I know even less about my host father, Yuri. I don't see him very often and I do not know what he does for a living. Irina mentioned something about him being a professor but Matt (my housemate) said that he was a merchant marine. The only thing we say to each other is "Good Morning" and "Good Evening." He once told me that it is going to be very cold from now on in the city. Yep, that's the extent of my relationship with him. I know that I am very lucky in my host family. My friend Emily tells me that her host mother scolds her and tells her when to go to sleep (and we thought that her mother put a car battery on the washing machine to shock her...not true, obviously). I have never had any problems in my house and they are very sweet to me. I do wish sometimes that we could have deeper conversations but we just do what we can.

So, apart from a very quiet week (and a not so quiet weekend), I went to the ballet on Thursday to see "Romeo and Juliet." Yes, yes, of course I had to go to the Russian ballet. The show was just amazing. The three of us who went had our own little "opera box" and although we couldn't see the death scene, I can't complain too much since I paid very little for the tickets. The music was the greastest thing...there was even one point during the show when I said to myself that I should probably watch the dancing rather than the orchestra. Everything was just so beautiful. I also bought tickets to see an opera later in November so I am definitely looking forward to that.

We are in Tallinn, Estonia next weekend and I am super excited for that! Check back next weekend for more pictures! :)

Until next time,
HD