Frontloaders Aren't Just for Construction

Strange things happen to me when I travel. Its like a become a different person. I do things I would never do in "real life" because some how I feel more adult on my own and thus do things that I presume adults do. Like floss. I never floss, ever. Ask Christine, my dental hygienist. I bleed like the French in WWII when she goes at my gums. Since arriving in St. Petersburg I have flossed six times. Once for each time I've brushed my teeth. I also fold and rehang my clothes after I wear them, clean my room and make my bed every morning upon waking. If you know me at all, (which I hope you do because if you don't you are a total blog creeper) then you know this behavior is nothing short of revolutionary. There's nothing to say I won't slip back into naughty behaviors of neglecting my gums and laundry, but for now at least I'll continue the charade of being all growed up.
Saw the city yesterday. Ready for a bombshell? Its way better than Moscow. Every building is colorful. Its like instead of dropping bombs in WWII, Hitler loaded his planes with tanks full of pastel paints and bombarded the city*. Everything is a former palace bathed in pastels of blue, yellow, green, and pink. Think Anastasia meets the Easter Bunny and the design a city together. St Petersburg is made up of 42 islands connected up hundreds of bridges small and large. The largest of which is over 100m wide, the smallest taking only foot traffic. Wide side walks make for pleasant strolling down even wider boulevards. Shops line the first floor of every building only to yield to lofts and studios above. Seldom are the street vendors and beggars, becoming more of a surprise than a normality. Gone are the grays and steels of St. Petersburg's sister to the south, replaced by granite, greening copper, and the fading paint of plaster facades. You are never more than a street or two from a new bridge, crossing a new river, bringing you to a new island, each with its own character and history.
Ok enough with my new love affair with this city down to the nitty gritty of my adventures so far. In short there have been none. Where as my trip to Moscow was a jolting and rough adventure in a lawless city, this trip is more like a pleasurable, jaunty stroll. Everything is done on a relaxed timetable, with constant attention to Обедь and Отдых. Sight seeing is done with Марина who is equal parts Fromer's Guidebook and Donovan** sister. She talked with out stopping for two and a half hours as we toured the city. You know how they say "if these walls could talk"? Well apparently in St Petersburg they can, and Марина is their PR.
Evening was spent seeing the city пешком with my rent-a-friend, Даша. According to the program she is technically a "student assistant" but rent-a-friend makes me look lonely and incompetent, so lets just call a spade a spade. All in all we walked for almost two hours, briefly using the metro but mainly stopping at her favorite stadiums, movie theaters, museums, book stores, coffee shops, and other relevant points of interest. Даша is great. Fun, chatty, knowledgeable, more than willing to laugh at me, especially when I'm speaking Russian. In short the perfect friend for me, although the fact that someone is paying her makes me feel a little cheapened...but I digress.

Got a new phone and changed my dolla dolla bills to rubles, looks like there's no turning back now.

Ramble on,
-Craig

*Note the second WWII reference in this post. I just finished a WWII biography courtesy of Uncle David. If you've read or seen Band of Brothers and got anything out of it, I highly recommend "The Biggest Brother", its phenomenal.

**Mother's family. You truly need to know them to understand...unless you have a cousin who set a US record for constant speech in a car ride from Iowa to Connecticut.