I finally busted out the new electric toothbrush I got for christmas. This is my second attempt of switching over from manual to electric, so let me know if you think my teeth stay cleaner this way. (i guess that goes for you, EB, since you're the only one in Russia who reads this)

The weather in Petersburg is incredibly mild- it's 34 degrees today and rainy. The grey overcast sends my thoughts spinning about the economic crisis and its effects here in Russia. The Russian Federation is getting hit hard as international investors pull out and the price for gas and oil drop. When I got to Russia in September the dollar was good for about 25 rubles (which made all the conversion math swimmingly simple- 100 rubles= 4 bucks!). Now the ruble has dropped to 36 to the dollar. My rent has dropped dramatically. I was paying $580 when i got here. Even with the landlord raising it another 2000 rubles, EB and I are paying approx $414 each. Although it comes as a relief to my bank account (especially after a gluttonous trip around europe) I can't help but worry about the fate of the economy here and how bad things will be for my dear friends out here in the future.
Bryan (the director of Smolny) was over the other day telling us about the horrors of Russian life in the 90's. After hearing him describe the shortage of food, how power plants in siberia would break down leading to whole towns freezing to death, and the incredible amount of inflation- it's not hard to see why Putin has so many supporters. The picture that Bryan painted of Russian life in the 90's is hard to imagine against the glamourous comsumer culture that Petersburg paints for itself nowadays. There were no ladies in stilleto boots clinging to their sugar daddies on the way to one of many sushi restaurants in town. When inflation was at its worst, a loaf of bread would cost more than a worker's salary in a month.
I'm going to get my hands on some more reading materials to better understand how Russia's economy changed so drastically and how the oligarchs took power. It seems this story is about to take a historical twist while I'm living in it.