Sushi in St. Pete

In the last few years sushi has become a BIG DEAL in St. Pete. Every third restaurant is a sushi restaurant. That's not an exaggeration.

My history with sushi has not been a good one. I tried sushi for the first time in high school and thought it was the most repulsive thing I'd ever eaten in my life. (Keep in mind that this was before I ate "meat jello" for the first time in Russia.) When I lived in Iowa--a good seven years after my first attempt--I decided to give sushi another try. Still disgusting.

After arriving in St. Petersburg, I realized that once again I was going to have to reassess my terrible relationship with sushi. The reason why there are so many sushi restaurants here is because everybody here loves sushi. Since everybody loves sushi, that means that all of my friends here love sushi. And since all of my friends here love sushi, that means they go out to eat sushi a lot. And since they go out to eat sushi a lot, that means that I would eventually have to go along with them. I dreaded that moment.

However.

From my first bite I was hooked. I thought it was one of the best things I'd ever tasted. I was completely in shock. The day after I had my first sushi roll in St. Pete all I wanted to eat was more sushi. Thankfully, everybody here is more than happy to tag along when someone has a sushi craving.

So there you have it--after 9 years of negative feelings for sushi, we've finally been able to put the negative experiences of the past behind us.

Here are a few pics from a "mass sushi outing" from a couple weeks ago:

Finally

After 50 years of waiting, my computer is finally connected to the internet in my apartment. This means more blog entries! and pictures too! But for now, I'm tired. Good night.

Obligatory "Sorry it's been a long time since I last wrote" post

Reason #238 for why there have been no pictures yet: I may or may not have left my camera at someone's apartment last week. (Yet another) grand reunion is expected in the near future. And then pictures will be posted. Really.

I've completed my certification course and Saturday was my first official day as an English teacher. Tomorrow evening I start with my first group--I'll be teaching them twice a week for the next two months. I'll also begin teaching business English at a company in the mornings as soon as the details get worked out. (The place where I work holds group classes at the center and then also sends native-speaking teachers out to companies to teach groups of employees.) I should also start working at a second school next week as well. I'm starting work right on time...my shoes are beginning to fall apart and I really need new ones.

I've been reading a lot during my underground commutes. There are always tons of people reading in the metro--newspapers, novels, crosswords. For the most part nobody talks in the metro--everyone just sits in silence and read. With my 30-minute commute to the center every day and then other time spent on the metro I always get a good 1-2 hours of reading time in every day. I read the entirety of David McCullough's 1776 in the past few weeks (sort of an odd choice to read a book about the American Revolution while I'm living in Russia) and now I'm about 300 pages into the EPIC Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky (only 500 more pages to go!).

I really love not having a car here--I don't have to worry about gas prices, I spend a fraction of what I used to spend with a car on my monthly transport pass, and I get to read while I'm in transit instead of needing to pay attention to the road. I don't see why some people insist on owning 3-4 vehicles and then claim that it's a "convenience." I find it much more convenient to live in a place where it's not a necessity to own a car. It will definitely be a case of reverse culture shock for me when (or maybe it's better for me in this case to use the word "if") I go back to the states and once again live in a place where I will be required to have a car.

As you can see from this post, my English is suffering.