St. Petersburg State Technical University

When feeling home sick and wanting to be surrounded by other foreigners, the City Bar in the Kapella (opposite Palace Sq., accross the Moika). My favourite place for a quick but abundant food is the Tcheburietchnaia (called Tcheburietchnaia!) on Vassilievskyi Island (first right when coming out of the tube). On a more cultural side, do NOT miss the Yussupov Palace on the Moika, generally go for walks along the Moika and on your way stop in the cafe "The Idiot" for the happy hour (around 5:00) and their delicious homemade onion rings.

Travelling within Russia is cheap, very cheap. To save money, and help the Russian economy, stay out of the expensive Western stores that only sell imported foods and buy at local markets and from kiosks. When Russian consumption goes up, so does the production, thus helping out.

GO! You will either love it or hate it, but most people fell in love with St-Petersburg.

My Russian was very basic before going to St-Petersburg. The course was very good at giving us the grammar base as well as some everyday vocabulary (we even went to the market with our tutors!. The tutors were aware that we would make most progress by meeting Russians, so often said "You will learn more if you spend the night meeting Russian people than in the hour of seminar that you've missed becasue you went out"

We had a great apartment-style dormitory for International Students. It was in a great, safe part of St. Petersburg. It was conveniently located not too far from the city center, near a beautiful park and plenty of grocercy stores, etc.