Моя квартира красивая!

My apartment is beautiful!

Today, I again woke up at about 5:30 a.m. to find I was still unable to get enough sleep. Once again, we sat through orientation sessions for most of the day. During the section on cultural differences, I found that I’ve been raised to be more like a Russian than I thought. My family complains, though we don’t really mind what we complain about. We’re frank about a lot of things many people in America are uncomfortable with, and we definitely have a thick skin.

There were a few specific stereotypes about Russians that were explained in very understandable terms. Like how Russians don’t smile on the street. Their logic is that if you don’t know someone, why would you smile at them? They see Americans who smile at everyone they see as fake. To Russians, a smile means something special, something more than a display of politeness. To me, at least, that makes sense.

What might be the consequence of smiling at a Russian on the street? Well, this morning, as my roommate Paige and I walked along the street to a café for internet access, we were chatting and laughing. I was wearing my sunglasses, making it impossible for other passerby to see where I was looking. Pretty soon, a Russian man beelined for me, asking me my name and where I was going so early. I put my metro face on (a mixture of tired and pissed that Russians display in public) and walked past without a word, and thank god he didn’t follow me. He thought I had smiled at him, which to him meant that I was romantically interested. I was lucky that he didn’t pursue me any further, as I’ve heard Russian men are known to do.

But moving on from the culture crash course…After another day of sitting in a cold room and listening to Jarlath and Katya, our student advisors, we got our bags, hopped in various buses depending on where our homestays are located, and headed out to meet them. All I knew of my host family was that it is a family of 5: a mother, husband, daughter, son, and aunt…plus a chinchilla! How adorable is that? But at any rate, a family of that size is unusual for most of the host families. Most consist of a mother and perhaps another relative and a pet of some sort. So I was anxious to see what state the apartment was in. Would it be tiny, with many people sharing a room? I knew I was guaranteed a room, and I didn’t want to displace so many others into a single room. I also knew that I am in Russia…and Russian apartments, though cozy, are expensive and small.

On the bus, I got a bit carsick from the heat, humidity, sleep deprivation, travelling…all that good stuff. It was disappointing to drive by the Hermitage, various cathedrals, and other intricate and beautiful buildings and only care about keeping my stomach’s contents in their place. But nothing too eventful happened, and when I stepped out of the bus onto the street I immediately felt better. Though I’m still not at 100 percent. My host mother, Inga, greeted me outside. She led me into a brick building and took my bags up in the tiny elevator to the fifth floor. When I say tiny, I mean only she could physically fit in it. I had to walk up the stairs. But when she opened the door, I found myself in a breathtakingly gorgeous apartment, with wood floors, high ceilings, a jacuzzi, heated bathroom floors, a few televisions, and many other luxuries that I don’t enjoy even at my beautiful home in America. What Jarlath had said about the exterior of buildings being less than attractive while the apartments were cozy proved to be more true than I imagined. I seriously can’t believe I get to live in this absolutely jawdropping apartment for the summer!

My sweet room

The view from my room

But Inga, her son, and a woman I believe is her niece were there. She said something about her husband’s whereabouts that I didn’t fully understand (one of many things) and her daughter is at their dacha. The niece, from Finland, speaks English better than she speaks Russian, so I’ve had a little help. But, I’m here to learn Russian, so by god I’m going to try to speak it. Inga’s been very helpful, correcting my huge mistakes while letting me get by with smaller ones, all the while praising my language skills. All in all, I couldn’t be happier with my situation!