Americans...

On my first full day in Russia, I had to get naked.  You heard me..naked. Well, half naked, but still naked.  We were taken to get pictures for our visas and then taken to an office with a nurse and a doctor who were going to take x-rays of our chests to make sure we are healthy enough to work with the kids here.  I guess American physicals aren't good enough for them... Anyway, we were given a sheet of paper translated to english explainig what we needed to do:

1) Remove all clothes from the waist up  (Umm, excuse me??)

2) Take your passport to the doctor  (Wait, you want me to take my passport to a man while I'm all out here?)

3)  Stand in the machine, inhale, and hold your breath.

As you can imagine, some of us were laughing and some of us were freaking out, and some were doing both.  Luckily, the nurse (I assume she was) that was helping was really great and didn't make you feel uncomfortable.  Also, the doctor didn't look at me, so that was nice!

To continue, the reason I titled this post "Americans..." is because that's mostly the response we got today.  A few people were kind to us even though we stuck out like a sore thumb.  But most were pretty grumbley and cold towards us.  I expected that, so it wasn't a surprise.  One lady who was standing in line for x-rays was not happy that our group was going before her.  All I heard was her yelling about "ce sheh ah" which means USA!

I saw a couple of babushkas.  They were cute.

We took the metro to Nevsky Prospect, where the scenery got a million times prettier.

(Random lady I caught while taking a pic of the cafe)

Our apartment is small and a bit run down but it's kind of cozy in a weird way.  Luckily, we have hot water!  It feels like New York because there are constantly tons of cars and traffic blaring on the street below us.  It's midnight, and it's still just as loud as it was at 9 am.  I'm glad I brought my ear plugs!

We had our blood drawn and our vitals taken at a doctors office.  And saw a dentist as well.  It's kind of funny how they want to evaluate us themselves, even though we have better medicine in the US!

We were all pretty tired by the end of today.  The only reason I am able to stay awake long enough to write this is because I took a massive nap when we got home!  I am still tired though so I'll just go back to bed after this!  I knew my sleeping during the day in the US was going to be helpful...see Mom and Dad?? :)

Well, all in all, it was a good day. Long, and tiring, but good.  And a little bit of my Russian is coming back so that's helpful!

I have another full day ahead of me tomorrow, so I am going to hit the sack!  спокойной ночи!