I Can See Russia From My House.

So today it struck me that I lucked into a really, really excellent living location!
My art class took a walking tour (in the freezing, windy rain) about Dostoevsky's life, and we walked past my house. Why? Because Dostoevsky lived around the corner from me!!!! In Crime and Punishment (or, as my art teacher says, The Crime and The Punishment) the main character Raskolnikov also lived here! There is a monument to Dostoevsky on my street under his old apartment window which I walk past and mentally try to translate every day, so I had an idea. But anyway it is so cool. I'm reading the Crime and the Punishment now, which is even cooler.

I can see my house from here!

I live a five minute walk from the only tri-line metro station in the city, so it is very convenient to get around. This location where the metro is used to be the Hay Market (now it is Сенная Плошадь) and happens to have two malls; a Мак Доналдс (McDonalds), a Teremok, a Chainaya Lozhka, AND a Carl's Jr; lots of pirogee and flower stalls; street musicians; a theater ticket stand; and lots of people walking around at night so I don't feel unsafe.
It takes me about twelve minutes to walk to Nevsky Prospekt, the main shopping/dining/cavorting/bus-catching street, and Gostiny Dvor. There are very famous theaters, museums, and churches on this road, so lots of times I don't have to take the metro after all. It also takes me under ten minutes to walk to St. Isaac's Cathedral, about fifteen to the Hermitage and the Neva, and probably way less to get to the Mariinsky Theater because my metro stop is the closest metro stop to the theater (I will let you know when I see Prokofiev's Cinderella ballet there in November!) I live really close to the Bronze Horseman statue, the Admiralty, and plenty of other famous things, which is still surreal to me.
I'll stop boasting now. I just realized today that, although I've come to love where I live, I certainly take it for granted sometimes. That's all!
До скорого,
Emily