dobre dyen. today was pretty good. woke up at six, had breakfast, then went for a walk. i decided to walk to class instead of taking the metro. it took about an hour, and it was cold (8C)...fortunately my host-family loaned me a coat. unfortunately i was wearing uncomfortable shoes. i am seriously considering buying one of those black leather coats everyone has around here. i'll blend in, and they're supposedly really cheap here. i almost might get some cheap walking shoes that are black. i arrived 45min early, so i went to the cafe i had juice in yesterday and ordered it again....8rubles. then class...it was so much fun. hard, but fun. totally in Russian, of course. today we mostly introduced ourselves to the teacher. then for lunch we went to the basement and i ordered liver with macaroni and tea...that was 15 rubles. don't order liver. it was alright, but dry. i'm not a fan. then more class....we talked about maybe going to the Banya (bath house) and all of us girls renting a room. apparently you can go there very cheaply, and get an hour massage that costs around 150 rubles. CHEAP. after that we toured St. Isaac's Cathdral. absolutnaya krasivaka tzerka. it was fantastic. designed by a 19year old architect in the early 19th c., it's gorgeous. at the iconostasis there are gigantic columns made out of very green marble and blue marble (each colomn is one color). i liked it better than the churches i saw in Rome. there were mostly mosaic icons, and they were gorgeous. they just finished some major renovations from WWII....during the Soviet times it was a museum, and they had a huge pendulum in the center. they have services there on big holidays. (like my birthday.) after that we were done for the day but we all went to a cafe called "The Idiot" (yes named after Dostoyevskii's novel, in the district where he lived...so we're not to go there at night -- apparently it hasn't changed since then, meaning, it's still a "bad" area)....i ordered Armenian coffee and stuffed-Plum-icecream. yummy. they also give a complementary shot of vodka. the prices there weren't so low. then...here i am. this net cafe is much cheaper. i'm in the area where people buy train tickets and the military members pick up their paychecks. lots of uniforms around. they all have wheel-caps....they look like a military. it would be nice if the US military looked like a military too. after this we're going to each go home, eat dinner, and meet up later on tonight. maybe we'll watch the bridges rise (they all open so the boats can move up and down the Neva). i haven't done anything at night yet, so i'm excited. we've all talked about seeing Swan Lake when we get back from Moscow...and i'm in charge of getting us all the tickets to the Sting concert for the 3rd of June. isn't that exciting....Sting in St. Petersburg!

well everyone is finishing up...i'll be back in the morning...it's 50% off then.

Paka!