Chapter the First, Section Kappa: Getting There, Part IV (now with UPDATES!)

As I type this, I'm sitting on my bed, in my apartment, in St. Petersburg, in Russia. Wooo!

The final flight was delayed a little bit; I think some guy got held up for lack of sufficient ID or something, but that was it. No serious weather issues or anything; we landed only about 20 minutes late. And then I made myself personally another 10-15 minutes later, because I'm a dumbass and it took me five or six tries before I filled out the migration card correctly (all I had was a pen, the blanks are tiny). I got through passport control just before they shut down the luggage carousel for my flight; my big red suitcase was the very last one on the conveyor belt, but I got it and found the guy sent to pick me up pretty quickly. A wheel broke off while he was hauling the suitcase to his van, but now that I'm in the apartment I don't think I'll need to move it again. And it's not that heavy. I guess I'm buying luggage at some point before I leave, anyway; that red suitcase should really just be retired. It's served admirably over the years, but the hard plastic lining inside has almost completely broken off, and now it's missing a wheel.

Before arriving, I had looked at maps of St. Petersburg and came to the extremely erroneous conclusion that it would not be difficult to navigate. See, I made the fatal mistake of assuming that they actually mark streets here in more than one location. The longer we drove around, the more disoriented I got, although part of that could have been from the sun going down and the tinted windows in the van. We eventually found my apartment, though.

I have four roommates. I've met two of them, and after my typical fashion, have already forgotten their names. I am a terrible person. There's a guy who isn't here right now for reasons I'm not entirely sure of, and another girl who is supposed to arrive tonight. Their names are Alex, Liz, Jorge and Corinne. Alex and Liz are both from Michigan and were here when I arrived; Jorge is from Iowa, and was out shopping when I got here as a way to avoid cleaning; and Corinne is from Texas, but she goes to school in Washington state, and arrived a couple hours after I did. If anyone is concerned about a man living among four women: there's nothing to worry about, as Jorge is very, very gay. It's like Three's Company, plus two people and minus the sexual tension and occasional appearance by Don Knotts. Jorge has offered-slash-threatened to take me (and Corinne) with him out to a gay bar; I actually think that would be pretty fun, just not tonight. He's fun to be around, though, as are the other girls.

I got here first, so I got first pick of the remaining beds. After talking with Alex and Liz for a while I retired to my room and sent the requisite "made it here alive, please don't start calling Eric in a panic" email, which if you're reading this means you probably got it. :) Once I'm done typing this post up, I think I'll take a shower...if I can. Of course I had to forget something important; to that end, I'm almost certain I don't have a bath towel (in addition to also managing to forget the toothpaste somehow, unless I derped and put that in another suitcase for some reason). I'm sure one can be purchased somewhere nearby, but I don't want to go back outside tonight...and I really, really want a shower. :( That'll teach me to doubt my roommates; there are extra towels, so I ended up getting clean after all, yay! The shower is kind of fiddly; there's a very, very narrow margin of error when it comes to positioning the handle. Mere millimeters to the left or right gets you boiling or frigid water, though it didn't take me too long to find the "sweet spot" as it were. I just don't know how long the hot water lasts. Guess I'll find out eventually; Corinne and I have to get up relatively early tomorrow and head down to the Vasileostrovskaya metro station with Liz to meet a guy for our orientation, where we'll get phones and get our classes finalized. I'm not sure which one I'm looking forward to more.

QUICK STATUS:
Headcold: [Swear word] [swear word] [swear word] [swear word] [swear word]. I'm just going to stock up on tissues at first opportunity.
Excite-O-Meter: 6/10. I'm here, the reality is still settling in, but I'm also tired and dirty and cold. I'll be more excited after tomorrow, when my schedule and everything is finalized.
Revised Excite-O-Meter: 9/10. Talking to Jorge and Alex got me pretty excited to start classes, and now that I'm relatively settled in and I know who I'm living with I can tell this semester is going to be memorable.