No longer homeless!

So after sitting by, watching my friends who are going to Italy receive their host assignments, go through the turmoil that is calling said families for the first time, and planing out where they will travel their first days there, I finally got my assignment!
As of 10:08pm Wednesday night, we know where will live (given that we leave Friday morning, we found out only a week after everyone else)! Some might consider this as cutting it close. I think not. Slavic Department for the win!
Julia Titus always said that Russians are 15 minutes late to everything (that's when Nick stopped showing up on time to class...), so why not apply that to this situation?

I'll be staying at Novosmolenskaya naberezhnaya, 1/1252, which really means nothing to you. :P Try google-mapping it. I still don't know if I'm looking at the right street:



So "B" is roughly where I'll be staying and "A" is the university. Seems close, right? Well, it's an hour walk or a 30 minute bus ride, apparently. My mornings are just going to be wonderful XP
My biggest problem is that I think I'm on a completely different island than the rest of the class. Um. See that bigger piece of land on the lower right? That's where the main part of the city is and where most people will be staying.
I'm just really curious to see how things will turn out. Constantine's words: "So the outside of the apartment buildings are nice, and the inside of the apartments are nice. It's the in-between you should be worried about. The entry-ways are old and dark, and homeless people like to live in them. Just make sure you come home at night with a buddy." Riiiight. So. Where's my buddy? My thought is that if that area was dangerous, Anya (one of our 'paid friends' - I'll get to that in a later post) wouldn't put me there all on my lonesome....right?
Morgan's advice? Maybe there will be a well-built policeman living across the street who would be all willing to take me домой. We can only hope.
Though, it does overlook the water, which should be gorgeous, especially during the White Nights (:D).

I'll be staying with one Irina Leonidovna Petrova. My impression? Her first name is the same as my highschool art teacher. Win? Also, she works at the Mariinsky Theatre, which actually got me really excited. I want to see a plethora of shows while I'm there, and she will be just the person to ask. Her job could really be anything, though, from the janitor to a director. I'll find out soon enough. (Hopefully, at least. Language barrier and all that).

Well, it's now 1:30 am and I have my last test in the US (for this summer at least) tomorrow. Better get my sleep on.

I leave you with this gem, from Morgan (as she calls it, existential angst): Garfield Minus Garfield

Пока!

--Н.И--