After a full 24 hours of traveling we all arrived in Veliky Novgorod - commonly referred to as Novgorod. Fun Russian Fact: There are two Novgorod's in Russia - Nizhny and Veliky. Nizhny Novgorod goes by Nizhny and Veliky Novgorod goes by Novgorod.
It was a four hour ride from the St. Petersburg airport (we were told 2 to 3 so that was a shocker). We got into a van and made the journey. Megan and I slept in the most awkward positions in the van but we were in back-facing seats soooo it was ok.
We didn't do McDonald's but we did KFC. That was our first real introduction into what it is going to be like and how much Russian we didn't know and how frustrating it is going to be at times. Thank god for Sima and her Russian speaking ways or we would be very very lost.
Right before going to our apartment (it is now 11p Moscow time) we stopped at a supermarket. HOLY MOLY. It was packed and it was basically a 24 hour BJs. It was just people everywhere. I feel like we spent forever in there and all we wanted to do was get to our dorm and sleep. We spent 2,150 rubles at the grocery store. Which is not really all that much - it is weird adjusting to a scale of money that is so far off ours.
We finally got in around midnight where we were showed around and met Konstantin who is in charge of coordinating our internships this summer. We got a mini schedule about the next few days but too bad I don't remember any of it because I was pretty much a zombie.
But we unpacked and went to bed finally at 2am and woke up this morning at 11 to get ready and go out with Misha a boy from the school and run errands. We got cell phones - mine currently does not work because my sim card won't work. So Sima and Megan just can't lose me until we get it fixed tomorrow.
We experienced the bus for the first time. It sounds like it is going to break down the whole time but that is ok---as long as it doesn't actually break down. Misha told me that my site is only one bus away - unfortunately Sima, Megan, and Lori will have to do transfer bus routes to get to their sites.
We also went shopping at the local grocery store and it was actually not too bad. It is workable and has American brands! I bought some dove soap because obviously I forgot soap.
We made it back to the dorm and are going to be going to a rock show tonight. Pretty interested to see how that turns out and what it is like. We are going with one of the Russian students who was supposed to be working with us this summer but he got an internship in Florida so he had to pull out of the program.
We just finished our first Russian meal which we made and it was super good and healthy. Sima and I may end up becoming vegetarians by the end of this trip since vegetables are the safest option and definitely the easiest to cook.
Above is Sima and Megan in our kitchen. The left is us actually cooking and Sima discussing dill and scallions with Megan. the right is our finished first dinner in Russia. Soooo heres a tour of our apartment which is really like two bedrooms and a bathroom and separate kitchen and dining areas.
Heres the Bathroom - which is two rooms, the shower room is on the left and the toilet room on the right. This is pretty basic. Currently we have blue toilet paper
This is Megan in our bedroom - she has since this photo added her our photography to the walls and it is very pretty pictures of flowers and it definitely brightens the place up.
The beds....are interesting. It is pretty much a little bit of padding on top of a metal grate type thing. It is kind of like sleeping on the floor but when you are as tired as we were last night it was something you can just deal with. It will sure be incredible to sleep in our big american beds when we get home. We have a 3-bed room and a 2-bed room we affectionately call the 2-bed room our office it will most likely be used for a few different things but for now we are just sleeping in the three bed room with our clothes between each room and making it work. We will see how things change with time.
I will post more soon. To be honest I have no idea what we are doing tomorrow so who know what will come of that!
With Love from Russia,
Jess
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