Happy Day of Knowledge (or Why I had to go to school on a Saturday)

So I have safely and happily arrived in St. Petersburg. I've been here about a week, but our classes just started today, Saturday. Wait what? Yes, on Saturday. As per Russian tradition, the first of September is always the first day of school. Actually its considered a holiday - День знаний, literally "Day of Knowings," but "Day of Knowledge" sounds so much better. So we had our first day of class. Since my communication level is equal to that of a five year old, I felt like I fit right in with all the kids, accompanied by their parents, carrying flowers to their teachers on the first day of school. Class was pretty uneventful. We met our teachers and made up some silly skits, much like kindergarten. Unlike kindergarten, we already have homework.  

"Best wishes for the holiday"

To get everybody up to date, I just started the Flagship program in St. Petersburg, Russia. A full academic year in a city where the average annual temperature is only 40 degrees F? Are you crazy? Yes. In all seriousness, I am really looking forward to the upcoming year. I really enjoy language learning and I'm thrilled to be traveling again. Also, St. Petersburg, "the Venice of the north", is a gorgeous city. I plan on staying warm and learning a lot. 

I have a wonderful host family, who I'll be staying with for the whole year. My host mom, a former master gymnast, teaches physical therapy and calisthenics at a university and my host dad is an engineer from Moldova. They're lovely - very patient and ready to answer my many questions (what's this? what's that called? where is this? is it safe to eat this? can I go jogging in the park? is it possible to buy this?...).They also have two daughters (and a granddaughter) who live in St. Pete as well and come to visit a lot, so there are people closer to my own age around as well. Friends of my host mom have been visiting from Moscow this week, so the house has been busy, which is great. I've had lots of practice chatting. And eating, so much eating. This summer I was cooking mostly vegetarian dishes and eating a lot of Indian style foods - light, spicy dishes. Russian food is so different - heavy, usually fatty and more bland, with meat. And a lot of food at that! I had to explain to my host family the difference between what Americans consider healthy and what Russians consider healthy eating. They sort of laughed and told me that I would have to eat like a Russian in order to stay warm in the winter. However, they were very excited when I offered to cook Indian food. I brought spices with me, but I think I'm going to have to lay off the spicy for their sake. Since my host mom and her friends only get together a few times a year, I have also had a lot of practice drinking wine and champagne, practicing an essential skill in Russia, making toasts. 

My new home

To be quite honest, the highlight of my first week here, besides just walking around the city, has been talking about food and eating with my host family. In general I love trying new foods and learning how to cook new things. Also, I know enough vocabulary to carry on an intelligent conversation about cooking, while still learning new words and phrases. The problem in Russia is that if you say you like something, the host usually produces seeming never ending amounts of said dish for you to eat. 

Like I said, I spent a lot of time just strolling around the city as well.  Here's some of what I saw: