A piece of my heart

So, here I am in Russia. The monument behind me is for sailors who fought in WWII. It's about five minutes away from my apartment. I am having a great time here. It hardly seems like a week has passed. It seems almost like I've always been here. I love eastern Europe, there is definitely a piece of my heart that will be always be here. Here are a couple pictures that are just a glimpse of the things I've seen so far here:

This is a church near the monument to Peter the Great.

This church is called "spas na krovi" or saved by the spilled blood.

Here is one room in the Hermitage museum.

I'm here!

I am in St. Petersburg now and I can't believe it. I was expecting a new wave of homesickness and culture shock, but so far I'm doing just fine. It's like picking up a game of monopoly after leaving it for a week or two. I might be a little unfamiliar with what's going on, but after a few times around the board, everything makes sense again and I feel right at home. Even though my previous experience was in Kiev, Russia feels very simiar. I've seen places that almost register in my memory; they look so similar to places I've been before. I truly love being in eastern Europe. It's a different lifestyle, but the change is welcome. Things do take longer, but I enjoy all the little glitches here. I find them endearing instead of annoying. Towards the end of my mission, there were definitely things that I was annoyed with, mainly the post office or the copy store, but I don't think that will kick in for a while. For right now I am enjoying the Russian life. Last night I took a cold shower because they turned off the hot water, and I just thought to myself, yep, I'm back. I hope I don't have to do that again.