The date for moving out of the dorms keeps getting pushed back, which is why I haven't posted anything yet. But I'm pretty sure I will have information by the end of this week.

Today I spent several hours after school with my tutor, Nastya. It was the first time we have met and hung out since the river cruise where everyone met their tutors. In my opinion, we really click. I mentioned before she wants to be a speech therapist, but that's not entirely true. Her first major in college was speech therapy, and she's currently working at a hospital doing something with speech therapy. But she wants to eventually be a psychotherapist. I think her second major in college was psychology, and she's currently taking exams to hopefully get into grad school for psychology. Today she had to drop some papers off at the hospital and took me along because she thought I'd want to see it. It's the first time I've seen a Russian hospital. She told me it was considered one of the better hospitals because it's clean and has good machines. This surprised me somewhat because, from what I'm used to seeing of American hospitals, it looked considerably more shabby. But looks are deceiving, especially in Russia. I sat on a bench in the section of the hospital where they train people who have had strokes or brain injuries to relearn tasks like cooking and whatever. I'm not sure what the term is in English, or I forget. Like physical therapy but for the mind. We also saw a man walking back and forth down the hall, and Nastya explained that his injury was not physical, but mental. I wouldn't have known this just by seeing him. I'm SO glad she took me. We have the opportunity to see stuff like this over the course of the program, during excursions and whatnot. But it's always in a big group of Americans, so I feel like I'm just on a tour sight-seeing. This time I felt like I was really gaining insider access.

Later we went to a cafe because Nastya wanted my help for her last exam tomorrow. It's an exam on English, and I was really excited she asked for my help. I'm tired of constantly asking other people for help, it was nice to help someone else for a change. She went over a list of vocabulary, all technical terms regarding psychology. She said she wanted to practice pronouncing the words, and asked me to correct her. It was kind of funny to hear her speak English for a change. Then we started sort of talking linguistics. I asked her what her favorite word in English is and her answer was "washing machine" because of all the "sh" sounds. I realized that, having studied speech therapy, she must also be interested in phonetics and such, which is great for me. She said she tries to listen to English-language songs and understand them, but she can't. She demonstrated by singing "My Humps" and, needless to say, I was quite taken aback by hearing her try. I don't know, it was just a lot of fun.

At one point I asked her if it would be a bad idea to try the blintzes with red caviar at the fast food place I like. She said she didn't know cause she never had it there, but it was better to buy caviar in a store and make it yourself. Then later when we were discussing Russian movies, she said that I should come over to her apartment sometime so she could make me blintzes with caviar and we could watch one of her favorite Russian movies, Admiral. Personally, for me, it sounds like the perfect plan. She lives with her fiance and a female roommate, apparently. She wants to meet again on Friday to visit St. Isaac's Cathedral.

She just sent me a text thanking me for getting her fired up about the English language.

Walking down a street in St. Petersburg, discussing the functions and names of various parts of the brain in Russian with a girl born under the Soviet flag. As a 7-year old kid from Maryland dreaming of becoming a veterinarian, how could I possibly have seen this coming? There are just some moments that seem so bizarre you step outside yourself and think "is this really my life?" Those are the moments I live for.

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As a sidenote: there comes a special time in every blogger's life where he/she realizes people are actually listening to and caring about what he/she is saying. Stemming from this pleasant and initially humbling realization, the blogger understands the power inherent in having a voice. I'm about to abuse this power. The following is intended neither to educate nor provoke thoughtful consideration of foreign cultures. Indulge me.

1) What is Kanye West's problem?

2) I've been listening to this guy's album on repeat for the last week. The artist is A.A. Bondy and the song is "Black Rain, Black Rain". I can't not share.