Tomorrow it rained.

**I would like to first make a disclaimer saying that in my previous picture post with the “Aurora”… that is definitely NOT the Aurora. It’s just a pretty ship, while the Aurora is a big steel ship from the Russo-Japanese War and World War I. Silly me, good thing I have friends who know better than myself.

Quote of the day:

Мне нужно cookie! - Matt

Lesson of the day:

Russian cheesecake earns a C- 

‘Nuff said.

Picture(s) of the day:

On Saturday I decided that it was definitely time that I let my friends and readers see my new abode, so the following pictures are of my dorm/university building and my room.

The lighting sucks, but this is my room. 

It was too sunny for a picture, though sun seems like a silly thing to complain about.

This is from the common room of the suite. 

My room is on the right.

This is our lovely IMOP building.

Left wing dorms, right wing classrooms.

I also went on an adventure to the Russian IKEA on Saturday with a friend. Our mission was to purchase tea kettles as we have all picked up a tea habit! It was a long metro + shuttle ride to the MegaMall, but it was definitely worth the trip. The MegaMall is Saint Petersburg’s answer to the American mall, although the big department stores are not “department stores”, they are more akin to Wal*mart and home stores. IKEA is actually one these said dept stores! But that was fine because we achieved our goal and obtained our tea kettles.  And to top off a trip to the MegaMall, we enjoyed a tasty IKEA dinner of Swedish meatballs and a ridiculously tasty, creamy mushroom soup.

Sign for the Russian IKEA.

And if you were wondering, it is exactly the same. 

Just in Russian and Swedish.

A group of friends and I adventured down to Nevsky Prospect to visit the Kunstkamera (also known as the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography). It was the first museum in Russia! Peter the Great personally started this collection with an exhibit of “accidents of nature” in order to show the common people that birth defects are not the work of magic or superstitions. So needless to say, the original collection of the museum was very… interesting and not for the light-hearted. The rest of the museum, however, was cool for those who enjoy looking at the development of different civilizations.

Kunstkamera from the bridge.

After our museum excursion, we were feeling adventurous and decided to brave a Russian Chinese restaurant. That was an adventure and a half if I do say so myself. First off, it was a Chinese restaurant in downtown Saint Petersburg, Russia. And much to our delight we found that the waitress spoke not only Chinese and Russian, but also English! However, to our slight dismay, the menu was completely different. Not a single fried rice dish to be found :( Although reading the menu translated into Russian and English was like reading Engrish.com and highly amusing. I ended up ordering a dish called pork and fungus, assuming mushrooms… Oh there were mushrooms AND fungus, which I guess is technically also mushrooms, but definitely looked like funny tree fungus. Tasty enough, but I think I’ll wait til I get back to the States to satiate my Chinese food cravings.

This is just a picture I really liked of the Kazan Cathedral from Decembrist's Square.

This is the huge bronze monument to Peter I (the Great) in Decemberist's Square.

And yesterday and today have been spent enjoying milk and cookies with friends, doing homework and exchanging train tickets for rubles. I also acquired new suitemates from Finland :) Until next post…  Всего хорошего.