Letter From Afar

well so here am in yet another strange land for 4
months. First things first let's dispel some rumors:

1. Apparently it's not cold in Russia, or at least St.
Petersburg. the 16 of us left London wearing most of
our luggage and after surviving a bumpy plane ride of
drunken Russians (one of whom tried to smoke on the
flight and hit on the American girls) we exited the
airport again wearing almost everything we owned only
to take a deep breath of air "god damn it's like 45
degrees out why the hell am wearing 3 pairs of long
johns." everyday since I’ve seen the sun for most of
the day it's been nicer than London (not that that is
saying much)

2. Communism isn't gone it's on vacation, Lenin is
still flying high in front of the Finland station
awaiting his return. and our dorm life is far from
capitalist, everything is included.

3. Study abroad schools are slack? oh no I’ve got
Russian 3 hours a day, which is quite a bit
considering that it's light out only like 8 hours a
day. plus another hour of Hw. but we go on plenty of
field trips and small adventures like...

4. the Russian Hospital: not as clean as you'd think
with socialized healthcare. the needle did come from a
package though (might not have been a brand name or a
medical one but I don't ask too many questions). and i
think the paint chips and broken walls are just to
keep the patients spirits up (you pray to god to get
well and get out of there, in my case don't complain
about having to take a HIV test, I’ve never been so
not scared of a needle in my life).

5. All they do here is drink vodka and i won't be able
to escape constant drunkenness: false, they have beer
too.

6. will be the only one of the 16 students who won't
speak Russian... false know why? cause Russian is
ridiculously hard (there are three of us)

7. there will not be any Americans there wrong again
there's this really weird guy from Washington DC who
is obsessed with kickboxing and fighting, oh and
women, really really into women, his names Ben so be
on the look out ladies.

8. Dostoevsky is the greatest writer and the city of
St. Petersburg loves him: i bet you thought i was
gonna say false but not even 80 years of atheistic
communism can wipe fydor of the map, his salvation
thru suffering is very alive in this land of black
snow. honestly that might be all the myths i can
address right now, will address the myths of
babushka's, kvass, and others in later emails. this
being the first email it is g-rated after this those
of you with curious children might have to use a black
magic marker as we all know i am a casual cusser. what
can i say i get it from my father. I’m here, i just
went to Dostoevsky's house it was incredible, i feel
complete tomorrow we go to the hermitage for a field
trip. the avenues are as wide as the women's
cheekbones are high. everything is in some sort of
coded language that makes it difficult to understand
(apparently they call it Cyrillic) but I’m getting
there hopefully next time I’ll say goodbye in Russian
but right now I don't know the word peace ell p.s. by
the way I’ve seen 2 bear cubs just chilling on park
benches