So we get there amidst the chaos that is an arrivals terminal in most places outside the US and Europe. The heat, the breaking down conveyer belt slugging along with our bags piled high, pushing, shoving, a rainbow of passports in hand, yelling taxi drivers, "taxi, taxi miss." All of the stuff that as an adult, I've come to accept as part of doing my job and living my life, but as a child was a little scary and a little exciting. On the other side of the immigration area my father grabbed us, literally, and we made our attempts to clear the madness. After that is just a blur of cars, streets, people, and a 2 room "suite" in a student dorm that we would call home of the next few weeks.
The evening comes and sleep...finally after many hours in airports and planes. But wait, it is sunny outside. A few hours later it is still sunny outside. Welcome to St. Petersburg in the summer. Dusk begins at 11pm and it is sort of dark for the rest of the night until it is daylight again by 6am. First thing on the to do list suddenly becomes finding heavy curtains.
So the next morning we ventured out and things began to get really interesting from there. We rounded the corner outside of our house and came to an intersection. The road curved on our left and we planned on heading down a side road cutting off to the right to grab what would become almost a daily stop for hotdogs...the Russian version. Right as our little family comes to the intersection we all look up to see the skirmish. There were a line of cars stopped in traffic on the road curving left and other cars coming from the side street desperately trying to either get in line or make holes in the line big enough to get their cars turning in the opposite direction. One such car making a desperate attempt to take a right turn to get in the line of cars was a little to forceful and more than a bit disgruntled by the time we got there. So disgruntled in fact that he was outside his car yelling, causing the driver that had blocked his right turn to also get out of his car, hands waving, to begin his own Russian tirade.
It was a serious, hands waving, furious pointing, people staring sort of argument until it took a turn for the worst. The man in the flow of traffic decided he was done with yelling and went to his trunk to pull out what looked a baseball bat. He proceeded to go over to the other guy's car and smash in the hood of the car....Ok, well that is one way to deal with a traffic disagreement. Eventually the sufficient damage was done for the offense. The guy pulling in to the traffic had lost the battle and everyone went on about their business as if nothing happened. Another new experience, I guess.
The evening comes and sleep...finally after many hours in airports and planes. But wait, it is sunny outside. A few hours later it is still sunny outside. Welcome to St. Petersburg in the summer. Dusk begins at 11pm and it is sort of dark for the rest of the night until it is daylight again by 6am. First thing on the to do list suddenly becomes finding heavy curtains.
So the next morning we ventured out and things began to get really interesting from there. We rounded the corner outside of our house and came to an intersection. The road curved on our left and we planned on heading down a side road cutting off to the right to grab what would become almost a daily stop for hotdogs...the Russian version. Right as our little family comes to the intersection we all look up to see the skirmish. There were a line of cars stopped in traffic on the road curving left and other cars coming from the side street desperately trying to either get in line or make holes in the line big enough to get their cars turning in the opposite direction. One such car making a desperate attempt to take a right turn to get in the line of cars was a little to forceful and more than a bit disgruntled by the time we got there. So disgruntled in fact that he was outside his car yelling, causing the driver that had blocked his right turn to also get out of his car, hands waving, to begin his own Russian tirade.
It was a serious, hands waving, furious pointing, people staring sort of argument until it took a turn for the worst. The man in the flow of traffic decided he was done with yelling and went to his trunk to pull out what looked a baseball bat. He proceeded to go over to the other guy's car and smash in the hood of the car....Ok, well that is one way to deal with a traffic disagreement. Eventually the sufficient damage was done for the offense. The guy pulling in to the traffic had lost the battle and everyone went on about their business as if nothing happened. Another new experience, I guess.
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