Heather Worley Living in St. Petersburg, Russia

The most difficult thing for me to get used to here is phone etiquette.  If I call one of the other students and they're not home, the typical response is "Netu!" *click* ["They're not home!"].  Allison actually called home one time to tell her host mom she'd be late, and she started out with "Eto Allison..." [This is Allison...].  But before she could get any further, her host mom, used to the rest of us calling and Allison not being there, reacted with, "Allison netu!" when she heard the name and started to hang up.  Allison started yelling, "Niet! Niet! Niet!  ETO Allison!  YA Allison!"  [No no no!  This is Allison!  I'm Allison!], and thankfully her host mom heard the screaming as she was setting the receiver down and didn't hang up on her. 
 
It's weird, because I'm used to, "I'm sorry, she's not here, may I take a message?" "Yes, please tell her I called."  "I'll pass that on."  "Thanks."  "No problem."  "Bye."  "Bye."  Whereas Russians typically say what they want to say, usually don't wait for feedback (as in, "Okay, tomorrow at five, see you then"), say "Davai" (a multi-purpose word meaning everything from "let's" to "come on" to "all right"), and then hang up. 
 
Also, if you want to know a Russians' general impression of Americans, it's that they think we're all ridiculously overweight.  My host mom told her English class and some co-workers that I was coming to talk to her class, and they all said, "Oh, well, she'll be really fat," and refused to believe I wasn't.  So after I came, all the students were quite surprised I wasn't fat, and her co-workers simply insisted that they hadn't seen me, since they hadn't seen any fat people that day.
 
Speaking of English, I'm learning how little I actually know of my own language.  I cannot for example, explain the difference between "I have been to the Hermitage," and "I went to the Hermitage."  This is a problem, because the first sentence is an example of a tense that does not exist in Russian, and it's hard to explain, and I always have people asking me when to use which one.  I don't know...I just talk.  It's definitely wrong sometimes, and definitely right at others, but beyond that I can't say much. 
 
Anyway, my time is almost up.  Since I didn't send an issue last week, I'll make up for it by sending another one this week.  Till next time -
Heather:)

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Men'she znaesh', luchshe spish'. The less you know, the better you sleep.

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