Здраствый Санкт-Петербург!

What a first few days it has been in St. Petersburg. I'm currently in an internet cafe on Vassilievsky Island. If this post ends up being weird, you can attribute it to the Russian pop that is engulfing this cafe.
So this afternoon I moved in with my host family. They live one street over from this cafe and a mere 10 minute walk from Smolny! As it goes, that's luxurious. The host mother, Nina, has been incredibly friendly so far. I have my own room with a high ceiling, a terrific old wardrobe in which I can cram my clothes, and a full bed that facilitates diagonal sleeping. From what I can tell she works in an employment office of sorts. The father, also Alexander (He'll go by Sasha, I'm changing back to Alexander to make things easier), is a truck driver. He's just back from a family house on the Black Sea. It sounds terrific. Really just a lot of sunbathing and work in the garden. This afternoon was spent watching TV with his shirt off. Their son Nikita, 26, has been pretty aloof so far. All in all my family is pretty legit. (Parentspeak = Authentic)
And what have I been up to for the last couple of days? We were staying in a hotel down the street from Smolny, continuing with orientation and touring the city. Thursday was, as you can imagine after the long flight from the States, exhausting. Running on 2 hours sleep, I made it all the way to 22:00. (Amazingly I was almost instantly over jetlag. I woke up at 9 the next morning and have been doing well since). We had some free time in the afternoon and wandered up and down the Neva (the main river in Saint-Petersburg), admiring the buildings and the gorgeous weather. Much of yesterday was devoted to a bus tour, which included drive-bys of the Winter Palace, the Church on Spilled Blood (the background of this blog), and the cruiser Aurora, among other greats. Last night was host to our first experience with Russian night life. As expected, beer is cheap, bars are smoky, and Russian guys are greasy. It was a great night and lined me up for a two hour nap this afternoon.
The Russian pop is really getting to me. I hope I'm still coherent.
I've spent the last half hour wandering the island (this is a favourite Russian pastime, to гулять, or stroll), and trying to figure out how to put money on my new pay-as-you-go phone. I have had little success. Tonight will probably be an early night if I can't get my phone working. That really wouldn't be the end of the world though, I'm pretty tired!

So Saint-Petersburg has given me a terrific welcome. I'm still struggling with my Russian, but my host parents are determined to teach me, and have assured me that I will be corrected on my grammatical mistakes. Apart from that, I'm working on my street face. It's important to look expressionless on the street, otherwise people will think you're weird. I've had a couple people come up and speak to me in Russian on the street, which has been encouraging.

Oh, and I should mention... My host family doesn't have an internet connection so all of my communications will be from school or internet cafes. Skype dates will definitely have to happen at school, so more effort may have to go into organising them. But they are possible! I should be able to start skyping on Monday, when RSL (Russian as a Second Language) classes start.

Hope you are all well. I'm going to go figure out this phone.