things that make me feel totally Russian

Do you ever have those moments? "Wow, that was so Russian of me." Maybe not. But the longer I'm here, the more often I realize, yep, I am beginning to integrate. Adaptation is happening. I don't need to call myself a tourist… except when that helps me get what I want, anyway. So, a few things that make me feel Russian, for your enjoyment: 

1. seeing representatives of the Communist party march down Nevsky Prospect with a Lenin flag. "Lenin lived. Lenin is alive. Lenin will live." And it was just sort of… normal, to see that. Slightly annoying, because Nevsky Prospect was closed all morning, but the fact that there were Communists and Lenin's face didn't even seem terrifying.
2. walking everywhere, all the time. It's "spring", which means Russians don't want to take the bus. They don't want to sit in a café. They want to walk. My tutor and I took a walk from Чернышевская to Новочеркасская, which took about 1.5 hours. Yes, it was sunny, but it was also 45 degrees and windy. The next day my other friend wanted to walk around for a few hours, and the weather was exactly the same. I don't entirely get why this is (see last post), but I do it anyway.
3. getting ice cream from the Продукты stores. There are these little stores peppered around the city… kind of like tiny convenience stores? I'd wager they're about ¼ the size of a 7-11, with about as much food inside, if not more. And ice cream, it's a big deal… just waltz in, hand over your 15 rubles (45 cents), and continue your walk through the city with frozen deliciousness.
4. bringing my own bags. In Russia, grocery bags do not come free with purchase. You plan for your trip (how much will I buy? will I need to double bag anything?) and bring bags accordingly. I've usually been pretty good about this.
5. sitting alone in Столовая Но. 1. This is very Russian. You go to this restaurant/cafeteria, get your three different variations of mayonnaise salad, and proceed to sit alone in the dimly-lit, smoke-scented seating area, with nothing to keep you company but your smartphone and the bad techno remixes of American pop music playing over the speakers.
6. wearing tights. Maybe it's just because this is something I never do in the States but have to do here… but every time I put on those dratted things, I feel legitimately русский.
7. reading on public transit. So I know most of what you all have heard about the St. Pete metro/busses makes them sound frightening, but for the most part it's fairly normal. And Russians know this, and the vast majority of them prefer not to notice the normality/abnormalities, and they choose to bury themselves in their Kindles/flipbooks. (A flipbook is a small book, wherein each set of pages looks like a single sheet of paper with text, so you can hold it with one hand and grip the metro handrails with the other.) I don't have a convenient way to read with one hand, but when I get my book out I still feel quite Russian.
8. eating while walking. Just kidding, that's totally American, nobody here does that. Unless it's ice cream.
9. picnicking with Frisbee. A bunch of girl friends (English, American, and Russian) and I had a picnic on Mars Field. We ate open-faced sandwiches, drank tea (who brings hot tea to a picnic??), and played Frisbee. And it felt very… normal.
10. eating salad that's half mayonnaise, half dill. And enjoying it. Okay, so my proportions are a leeettle skewed, but not too much. Again: I didn't just accept it, I liked it. Hands down scariest moment of the semester.

 Something tells me I'm going to fail the second round of the "Intercultural Development Inventory," because apparently the idea is to move closer to not noticing/absorbing cultural differences. Whoops.