"Try not. Do or do not; there is no try."

I figured out my internet situation. I am now the proud owner and user of a "yota device." You can learn all about these handy things at http://www.yota.ru/en/. Basically, I now have a 4G connection anywhere I go in St. Petersburg. It will be very handy on the nice, long summer days as it will allow me to sit in the park and update my blog.

The handy little device just plugs into a USB port and I'm good to go. Unfortunately, these devices only work in six Russian cities (Vyborg, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Ufa, Sochi, and Krasnodar) and Managua, Nicaragua, so it won't do me any good back in New York. Random, right? Why Russia and Nicaragua?

Since nothing else of special note happened today, I'm going to use this opportunity to show you pictures of my apartment. I just want to say that I actually did the dishes and cleaned my room right after I took these photos. I'm not sure why I didn't do those things right before I took them. As you'll see, there is all sorts of random decor in the apartment. That all belongs to the people who actually own the place.

This is the main hallway of the apartment. All of the rooms open off of this area, with my bedroom through the open door at the far end.

This is the other hallway (it turns off the main one) going to the kitchen, and with the toilet and shower rooms on the right.

Here is my kitchen. It has been nice to have, though the food I'm able to scrape together from the limited and strange selection at the grocery stores is not really as good as restaurant food. I meant to bring one of my mission cookbooks with me (recipes specifically geared towards cooking with what's available in Lithuania), since the available products in Lithuania were essentially the same as here, but I forgot, and now I can't remember what we ate all the time. I'll figure it out.

This is the living room, which I actually have not used at all yet. Generally once I get home I retreat to my bedroom and do everything in there. But this room is here for me to use, so maybe I'll use it someday, especially if someone comes to visit me while I'm here.

And here is my long, skinny bedroom. My bed is in the corner at the far end of the room on the left.

There is one more big room, which is the owners' bedroom. They live in Moscow, but keep this apartment for times when they come to St. Petersburg for work. They shouldn't be here much while I am here, but may be up for a weekend or two at the beginning of July.

Sorry this is kind of boring. Maybe I'm running out of stuff to say...