Russia days 3 and 4

After the late night I may have overslept a tad, so around 12:30 I get up and meet up with Sumi and we decided to go for a run around the city. I had been eating a lot, the aforementioned cheesecake made another appearance as well as some other sweet things. This combined with late night snacking inspired me to sweat a little even though my legs were dead. It was a gorgeous day out, it reminded me of Tampa in the colder months when it was a little chilly but the sun made it perfect outside. Sumi wanted to see if we could get her a ticket for the ballet that night, I had a field program I had previously signed up for so she wanted to go as well. We ran for about two miles to get to Mariinsky Theatre and the box office woman spoke no English. There were however English signs that said the season didn't open until September 9th. After our failed mission we decided to keep running/walking further down a ways and we stumbled upon St Nicholas Cathedral. We tried to go inside but the women were required to cover their heads to enter; unfortunately we weren't prepared for that so we just snuck a peak. What we saw was really beautiful, it was a Sunday so many people were there doing churchy things. 

After that we didn't really know where to go. We had been walking around Nevsky Prospect the past 2 days and didn't want to go back so we just wandered a local looking area to see what we could find. We mainly passed 24 hour convenience stores, small restaurants and shops. It was beautiful out and it was a nice change to be in an uncrowded street with no other tourists. We find ourselves at St. Isaacs Cathedral, a familiar area, and I realize that I need to go back to the boat because I am meeting the buses that will take us to the Ballet in about an hour. We start walking back and see a Teremok, a very Russian fast food stand that just sells pancakes (aka crepes), and we had to stop. We had been looking for this place forever! I ordered (by pointing) a ham and cheese pancake and holy mackerel it was too good. On top of that it cost only $1.20 or about 44 roubles. So back to the ship, a quick shower and off to the ballet! 

My roommate Amber had signed up for the ballet as well so we went together on the bus. It turns out that the ballet we are seeing is Swan Lake at the Alexandriinsky Theatre. This explains why we couldn't get tickets at the Mariinsky for that night.. funny how that works. The performance was absolutely amazing. The dancers were beautiful, the seats we had were in the fourth row and we could see everything. And I mean everything. Funny thing about ballet is that there are men.. these men wear very very tight leggings. Like.. extremely tight. Extremely tight and thin. And white. Thin white tight leggings. When they danced you could see the outline of their muscles perfectly. And other things.. if you catch my drift. 

hehehheh

The main guy had the most perfect ass I have ever seen. I don't think Michelangelo ever sculpted one this nice.. seriously. It was just that nice. 

Right, back on track, the ballet was great, I loved it. Its just spectacular what they can do. It made me miss Anders. I also was very sad because I have all the grace of a hippo and I was jealous. I think I put up some pictures of them in the last post. Afterward I just went back to the ship. I watched Sex and the City, I was feeling a bit homesick and SATC always cheers me up. 

The last day in port I slept in again. I feel kind of bad when I do that because I could be spending that time exploring but I really think that I didn't have it in me to keep going at that pace. I ran into Sumi and her roommate Maia on the way to the cafe I am obsessed with, Schastye, and I got dressed and headed there alone with my computer. Once I got there I got a perfect omelet and the most amazing croissant. I don't know the level of croissants in Paris but I imagine that that croissant was on or above that level. I WiFied and Facebooked, blogged, etc. Perfect. Something about that cafe just relaxes me. I want to go to Miami and start one. Is that illegal? 

Sumi and Maia wanted Sushi so we go off to find a Sushi place, I just ate so while they were doing that I went back to this Russian Doll market to buy some souvenirs, I had some money left and didn't want to have to worry about exchanging them later in Germany. The ship is scheduled to leave port at 20:00, students have to be on the ship by 18:00 and it was about 16:00 when they had finished lunch. They wanted to head back to avoid the lines so I tagged along. Back at the ship there are little idk awnings? tented area? idk they sold beer and ice cream and snacks. I still had roubles so I bought an ice cream and decided to spend my last hour or so sitting outside and enjoying the day. For my classes I also needed to write some things down that I observed about race and ethnic relations in Russia; there was a black guy in that area (rare) so I pounced on the opportunity and observed. I may or may not have bought another ice cream, I met some other SASers hanging in the same area and we talked until we needed to go back onto the boat. 

We ate dinner, Sumi, Maia and I watched Anastasia in my room as the ship pulled away from the dock and headed on out. 

I was exhausted and went to sleep early

Classes start right back up again today in full force. We only have three days at sea in between each port until Morocco. Afterward we have longer stretches at sea. It is really overwhelming at times adjusting to life on a boat. You get used to classes then get into port and its crazy and then when all you want to do is sleep you have classes where you reflect upon your time in port. The classes today were actually really nice, Race and Ethnic Relations in particular was really interesting. I heard about black students' experiences in Russia. Some had been refused service while they were there. 

I'm about to go get dinner now. The food here is good but repetitive. I am cutting this post short as I just peeled an orange and my hands are sticky. 

Do Svidaniya!