Success! Today I bought - on my own - a monthly transport card for the trolley busses which I will be taking to school and around from now on! In Russian with very little confusion on the part of the poor metro worker! So now I don't have to worry about having 18 rubles all the time for the bus! Just wanted to share that little bit of excitement with you all!
Last night after dinner, my host mom and brother (skateboard and all) and I went to the big grocery store by our apartment to get slippers (tapochki, in russian) for me and Pasha and some other things too - like fish! Which we are having for dinner tonight, baked apparently, and I'm very excited she put it in some marinade last night. Anyways, the store was interesting to look at and Pasha and I talked quite a bit which was really cool. After fish dinner tonight I'm going to make blini again. And we are talking about going to the circus this weekend which would be all kinds of fun!
Ok sorry about the fleeting and random nature of this short post, just had my laptop and wanted to let you know of my success! :-)
More traditional post (and hopefully a random observations part two, including my thoughts on earmuffs in September) will be coming later this week, either Thursday or Friday depending on when I bring my laptop to school and when I want to go wandering through the city while not carrying it. In any event, it will be soon! Thanks for stopping by to read, and will see you again soon! All my love from Russia - beth
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Survived the Bridge Crossing!
Happy Sunday from St. Petersburg! Just got in from church (and a little informal choir practice, ha!) where I met a very sweet girl from Ghana who is studying here for the year as well, and got to know the guys who sing in the 'choir' a little better too. Spent some time with them after Mass instead of the usual coffee with the consular workers, though I did talk to them briefly too. The priest also came by to introduce himself officially too. I've read at Mass the last two weeks and it appears I'm going to be the first reader most weeks when no one volunteers, which is fine by me!
This weekend has been great - Friday after class I went to the Russian museum where there are icons from the 12th century, among many other things. Friday night my host mom and I made dough for Russian cinnamon rolls and other pastry, made cinnamon rolls that night and ate them while drinking milk and watching a hysterical comedy series nice and late at night. They were delicious, and we left the rest of the dough for the morning when we made a giant cheese and a giant apple and cinnamon pastry (both of which are already gone, between me and Pasha we took care of them real quick). After baking, I headed to a sports bar with some friends to watch the local football team (Zenit) beat a rival Moscow team! Great fun. When I got home I watched a movie with my host mom, she helped me understand what was going on but it was essentially a love triangle with some classic Russian actors so it was pretty easy to follow and I understood more and more as the movie went on. Then last night we went out dancing to a club not far from the main street in town. It was incredibly crowded but very fun - and I met a German-speaking Russian who is applying to work in England outside during one of our breaks for air. He was very nice and we chatted for a while, made me realize how difficult it is to switch back and forth between languages that aren't my native language, I'm determined to practice that more!
So to get home in St. Petersburg after a night on the town is extremely entertaining. I live on an island, and at night about 1:30 all the bridges to said island from the mainland go up to allow barges to pass through. From 2:45-3:15 one bridge to my island goes back down, if you don't catch that you're stranded on the mainland til 5 am (which isn't as bad as it sounds, all the clubs are pretty much open all night and there are more 24 hour cafes than you can count so if you're with friends it would be absolutely fine). We managed to grab a cab and catch the bridge - no public transportation runs after midnight - by driving down an ally and beating the traffic. Driving across the bridge you can see the other bridge that is still up, it is an incredibly beautiful and rather unique sight - didn't have my camera though and we got across the bridge in a flash anyway. Every other time I've gone out its been on the island or I've been home before the bridges go up, so I was excited to have made my first successful bridge crossing! Just one of the more entertaining pieces of life in St. Petersburg!
Today we're probably headed out to one of the park islands in the city, then I'll be home kind of early to finish up homework and take a nap before chatting with the parents tonight! Love you all and thanks again for reading, feel free to comment/message/tweet/email/etc. questions if there is something specific you'd like to know! Just put new pictures up on facebook, so head over there to see them all! Paka (Bye) for now - b
Thursday, September 24, 2009
On a blustery day...
Sorry for the break between postings, have yet to work out a solid routine for making sure I journal and blog and email, so thanks for your patience!
I was also a little under the weather at the end of last week. We had planned a dance excursion for Friday night, but the moment my host mom heard I was a little sick I was placed under house arrest for the night – though my phone was in my room so my friends were a little worried for a little bit. I was sat down in the kitchen and told to drink my tea and eat an apple, and moments later my host mom re-appeared with a tub of steaming hot water – to which she added boiling water as I watched. I was then told to stick my feet in said boiling water in order to clear out my head. I was a little nervous, but eventually got my feet in the hot water and had to sit there for more than an hour while she added more boiling water every time she thought the water was getting cool. It was actually really nice, because she stayed in the kitchen with me and we were watching a talk show and talking about it and reviewing vocabulary from the week. She always asks what words I’m learning and makes sure to use them and question me about them so that I get as much practice as possible. So after the feet soaking I was bundled in a big bathrobe and sent off to bed with another steaming mug of tea at about 10:30, only to discover that another blanket had been added to my bed! Needless to say, I slept incredibly well Friday night, though I didn’t get to go dancing.
Saturday turned out to be terrible weather so we postponed our trip to Peterhof and wandered the halls of the Hermitage instead. The dancing crew hadn’t gotten back until about 4 am the night before so they had wanted to do something low-key, which I was agreeable to since I was still trying to not be sick. The Hermitage was incredible, we avoided the crowds around the most famous paintings and headed upstairs for some of the most beautiful architecture in the city. In one room, the woman working security asked me where I got my boots (of course I was wearing my Burberry rain boots because it was a downpour outside) in Russian and we had a little conversation about where I got them, how much they were, where I was from in the US (initially she thought I was British), where exactly Ohio is located, and why I was studying Russian – which she thought was wonderful. I was just excited to be able to have the conversation in Russian! I told my host mom about it later and she was also super excited, which was very cute. After wandering the Hermitage for a few hours we got hot chocolate at a café and laughed over stories of the night before, both my feet-soaking antics and the inevitable fun that occurs when you’re out at night in St. Petersburg while the bridges are up and your male escorts decide they need some shaverma (street food, kind of like gyros but a little shadier) at 3 am. (When we take gypsy cabs home we always try to have a guy in the car which can sometimes be interesting.) So it was a lovely afternoon full of story-telling, shoe-watching through the windows of the café and getting very excited over the ice-water that was served with our hot chocolate.
Saturday night my cooking lessons continued and my host mom taught me how to make blini before going out for the night. We made the batter from scratch – though she’s one of those cooks who just knows how much you need, the only thing I could reproduce is that there were 2 eggs because I cracked and whipped them. Don’t worry, I’ll make her translate her knowledge into recipes before I come home in December so I can cook Russian food for you! (On an almost related side note, I finished My Life in France today and enjoyed every second of it, I’m getting lots of reading in on the trolley-bus ride in the morning and in the afternoon when I can manage to get a seat. Am currently working on Team of Rivals when I have my ipod and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall when I don’t, thank goodness for old CIEE students leaving a nice collection of books behind.) Blini are very fun to make, just a little oil in the pan and pour the batter in while turning the skillet so the batter covers the pan. My first few attempts had a few holes where I hadn’t turned the pan fast enough – despite my host mom yelling ‘turn, turn, faster’ in Russian the whole time. By the end, though, they turned out rather pretty and absolutely delicious. We ate them with jam for dessert but you can do pretty much anything with them.
Sunday we made it to Peterhof. First, though, I read at Mass and sat with the small choir, which was great! Had coffee with one of the couples, the husband had just returned from a city not too far away that is actually the sister city to…Duluth, Minnesota! Crazy, this small world we live in. Anyway he was full of stories about the incredibly nice people who were in this city and how the food was wonderful and that we simply must take the overnight train there as soon as we are able to – aka as soon as we get our passports back. So add that to the list. Then I met up with Kelly and Sarah and we headed to Peterhof via a Marshutka, which are lovingly nicknamed the communist taxis. They’re like buses, only not regulated, and you can hail them anywhere on their route. They’re the cheapest way to get to Peterhof, and it was kind of fun to drive through what passes for suburbs in Russia. (For my fellow Guatie lovers: I was shocked how the drive reminded me of the drive from the city to the country in paradise. Lots of corrugated metal walls across from stucco villas made me smile and I had to explain why I was smiling at such a strange landscape. No coffee farms though, unfortunately.)
We were in luck when we got there because there had been a ceremony the night before to signal the end of the fountain season, but because of the gorgeous weather they had been turned right back on again! Peterhof without the fountains would still have been pretty, but not the same. There were trick fountains that reminded me of Hellbrunn in Salzburg, beautiful large cascades similar to those in the park at Schonbrunn, and random ones throughout the extensive park that made you wonder if you were in Italy or Russia – though I don’t think they ever need to turn off the fountains in Italy. Peterhof’s fountains are fed by mountain streams through a complicated network of pipes, locks, and pumps (Kelly brought her guidebook so we were discovering interesting facts all day). We decided not to go in the palace and dedicate our time to enjoying the weather and seeing as much of the grounds as possible. Peterhof sits on the Baltic, and so now my boots have been in one more sea! Between the water, the fountains, the tree-lined groves, and our obsession with photographing everything from changing leaves to children’s mullets, it was a wonderful and relaxing Sunday. I’m still organizing and editing the pictures, but they will be up soon! Got home Sunday night, watched a movie with the host family, then did some homework and headed to bed to read and prepare for the week.
This week marks a month since the beginning of my time in St. Petersburg, which is absolutely incredible to me. In less than three weeks I will be in Estonia, and in less than two months I will be in Germany, and in less than three months I will be back in the US. Time really needs to remain more constant, it speeds up so much when you're in a new country!! But I have quite a bit to be thankful for; I was able to talk to Anna on her birthday, classes are still going well, I'm enjoying not sharing my host mom with another student and learning to cook with her, my Russian is definitely improving quickly, and the weather hasn't been terrible! (Though I probably shouldn't include that last one, apparently the forecast for the next week = me wearing my rainboots every day.) So here's to all being well in the Window to the West!
I was also a little under the weather at the end of last week. We had planned a dance excursion for Friday night, but the moment my host mom heard I was a little sick I was placed under house arrest for the night – though my phone was in my room so my friends were a little worried for a little bit. I was sat down in the kitchen and told to drink my tea and eat an apple, and moments later my host mom re-appeared with a tub of steaming hot water – to which she added boiling water as I watched. I was then told to stick my feet in said boiling water in order to clear out my head. I was a little nervous, but eventually got my feet in the hot water and had to sit there for more than an hour while she added more boiling water every time she thought the water was getting cool. It was actually really nice, because she stayed in the kitchen with me and we were watching a talk show and talking about it and reviewing vocabulary from the week. She always asks what words I’m learning and makes sure to use them and question me about them so that I get as much practice as possible. So after the feet soaking I was bundled in a big bathrobe and sent off to bed with another steaming mug of tea at about 10:30, only to discover that another blanket had been added to my bed! Needless to say, I slept incredibly well Friday night, though I didn’t get to go dancing.
Saturday turned out to be terrible weather so we postponed our trip to Peterhof and wandered the halls of the Hermitage instead. The dancing crew hadn’t gotten back until about 4 am the night before so they had wanted to do something low-key, which I was agreeable to since I was still trying to not be sick. The Hermitage was incredible, we avoided the crowds around the most famous paintings and headed upstairs for some of the most beautiful architecture in the city. In one room, the woman working security asked me where I got my boots (of course I was wearing my Burberry rain boots because it was a downpour outside) in Russian and we had a little conversation about where I got them, how much they were, where I was from in the US (initially she thought I was British), where exactly Ohio is located, and why I was studying Russian – which she thought was wonderful. I was just excited to be able to have the conversation in Russian! I told my host mom about it later and she was also super excited, which was very cute. After wandering the Hermitage for a few hours we got hot chocolate at a café and laughed over stories of the night before, both my feet-soaking antics and the inevitable fun that occurs when you’re out at night in St. Petersburg while the bridges are up and your male escorts decide they need some shaverma (street food, kind of like gyros but a little shadier) at 3 am. (When we take gypsy cabs home we always try to have a guy in the car which can sometimes be interesting.) So it was a lovely afternoon full of story-telling, shoe-watching through the windows of the café and getting very excited over the ice-water that was served with our hot chocolate.
Saturday night my cooking lessons continued and my host mom taught me how to make blini before going out for the night. We made the batter from scratch – though she’s one of those cooks who just knows how much you need, the only thing I could reproduce is that there were 2 eggs because I cracked and whipped them. Don’t worry, I’ll make her translate her knowledge into recipes before I come home in December so I can cook Russian food for you! (On an almost related side note, I finished My Life in France today and enjoyed every second of it, I’m getting lots of reading in on the trolley-bus ride in the morning and in the afternoon when I can manage to get a seat. Am currently working on Team of Rivals when I have my ipod and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall when I don’t, thank goodness for old CIEE students leaving a nice collection of books behind.) Blini are very fun to make, just a little oil in the pan and pour the batter in while turning the skillet so the batter covers the pan. My first few attempts had a few holes where I hadn’t turned the pan fast enough – despite my host mom yelling ‘turn, turn, faster’ in Russian the whole time. By the end, though, they turned out rather pretty and absolutely delicious. We ate them with jam for dessert but you can do pretty much anything with them.
Sunday we made it to Peterhof. First, though, I read at Mass and sat with the small choir, which was great! Had coffee with one of the couples, the husband had just returned from a city not too far away that is actually the sister city to…Duluth, Minnesota! Crazy, this small world we live in. Anyway he was full of stories about the incredibly nice people who were in this city and how the food was wonderful and that we simply must take the overnight train there as soon as we are able to – aka as soon as we get our passports back. So add that to the list. Then I met up with Kelly and Sarah and we headed to Peterhof via a Marshutka, which are lovingly nicknamed the communist taxis. They’re like buses, only not regulated, and you can hail them anywhere on their route. They’re the cheapest way to get to Peterhof, and it was kind of fun to drive through what passes for suburbs in Russia. (For my fellow Guatie lovers: I was shocked how the drive reminded me of the drive from the city to the country in paradise. Lots of corrugated metal walls across from stucco villas made me smile and I had to explain why I was smiling at such a strange landscape. No coffee farms though, unfortunately.)
We were in luck when we got there because there had been a ceremony the night before to signal the end of the fountain season, but because of the gorgeous weather they had been turned right back on again! Peterhof without the fountains would still have been pretty, but not the same. There were trick fountains that reminded me of Hellbrunn in Salzburg, beautiful large cascades similar to those in the park at Schonbrunn, and random ones throughout the extensive park that made you wonder if you were in Italy or Russia – though I don’t think they ever need to turn off the fountains in Italy. Peterhof’s fountains are fed by mountain streams through a complicated network of pipes, locks, and pumps (Kelly brought her guidebook so we were discovering interesting facts all day). We decided not to go in the palace and dedicate our time to enjoying the weather and seeing as much of the grounds as possible. Peterhof sits on the Baltic, and so now my boots have been in one more sea! Between the water, the fountains, the tree-lined groves, and our obsession with photographing everything from changing leaves to children’s mullets, it was a wonderful and relaxing Sunday. I’m still organizing and editing the pictures, but they will be up soon! Got home Sunday night, watched a movie with the host family, then did some homework and headed to bed to read and prepare for the week.
This week marks a month since the beginning of my time in St. Petersburg, which is absolutely incredible to me. In less than three weeks I will be in Estonia, and in less than two months I will be in Germany, and in less than three months I will be back in the US. Time really needs to remain more constant, it speeds up so much when you're in a new country!! But I have quite a bit to be thankful for; I was able to talk to Anna on her birthday, classes are still going well, I'm enjoying not sharing my host mom with another student and learning to cook with her, my Russian is definitely improving quickly, and the weather hasn't been terrible! (Though I probably shouldn't include that last one, apparently the forecast for the next week = me wearing my rainboots every day.) So here's to all being well in the Window to the West!
Friday, September 18, 2009
Another day in the life...
This week it feels like the pace of time has really accelerated! I will soon have a Russian conversation partner, we had a mixer that was rather like speed dating and I met two really great Russian girls who I hope will be my conversation partners, and I am also hoping to start interning at the Hermitage museum next week. Just have to fill out a form and get myself organized. Classes are still going very well, plenty to read this weekend in between hopefully going to Peterhof tomorrow and checking out a couple of dance clubs. I’m feeling a little under the weather so I might have to back off on the intense planning but we’ll see how it goes!
In other news, I’m planning my travel week for mid-November and I think I have decided to go to Berlin. I’d be there November 8th – 15th, bonus points to whoever can figure out why that would be a particularly great time to be in Berlin!) A couple of people are thinking of coming with me, but I would be just as ok going by myself, just two easy flights and then I’m sure I’d meet people in the hostels and would love to have the freedom to explore. I’m still taking suggestions on where I should go, though I’d like to buy my plane tickets and reserve my hostels next Monday or Tuesday. So let me know if you have any brilliant ideas! We’re also hoping to go to Helsinki for a weekend and in about a month we are going to Estonia as a group. So plenty of traveling, and I have all spring to figure out where else I definitely want to go!
Thanks again for reading, and comment away ☺ All the best from the land of the increasingly-cold mornings!
In other news, I’m planning my travel week for mid-November and I think I have decided to go to Berlin. I’d be there November 8th – 15th, bonus points to whoever can figure out why that would be a particularly great time to be in Berlin!) A couple of people are thinking of coming with me, but I would be just as ok going by myself, just two easy flights and then I’m sure I’d meet people in the hostels and would love to have the freedom to explore. I’m still taking suggestions on where I should go, though I’d like to buy my plane tickets and reserve my hostels next Monday or Tuesday. So let me know if you have any brilliant ideas! We’re also hoping to go to Helsinki for a weekend and in about a month we are going to Estonia as a group. So plenty of traveling, and I have all spring to figure out where else I definitely want to go!
Thanks again for reading, and comment away ☺ All the best from the land of the increasingly-cold mornings!
Novgorod
Last Saturday and Sunday the group headed to Novgorod, one of the most ancient towns in Russia. It is located between Moscow and St. Petersburg, and was about a 4 hour drive on the bus. A few of us talked later about the immediate contrast between the city and the country – as soon as you are out of St. Petersburg you are surrounded by fields, forests, and dachas (Russian summer homes). The complete lack of urban sprawl was very intriguing. As was watching people growing vegetables and playing with their dogs as the bus drove past their dachas. After arriving at the hotel (and parking behind a German tour bus), dropping our bags in our rooms and leaving our spravka – forms that are in place of our passports since the Russian government has those – at the front desk like always, we headed out for a bus and walking tour of the city. Novgorod has a population of about a quarter of a million, but feels like a small town with beautiful churches and a river running through the middle. Its full name is ‘Novgorod the Great’, which is how our tour guide usually referred to it. She was obviously incredible knowledgeable about the city and its history, but she tended to talk non-stop and not really differentiate between things we needed to know and completely random facts, so by the end of the trip we were missing our Petersburg tour guide quite a bit. We learned a lot though, for instance Novgorod was once one of the main cities of the Hanseatic league (German trading organization), and it has so many churches because pretty much anybody with the money could commission a church. One was built in celebration of a son being born, another honored a family anniversary. It helps explain why there are squares in Novgorod with three or four churches right next to each other. Many are today used for storage.
One of the most important churches for Russian Orthodoxy is located in Novgorod, that of St. Sophia. It has incredibly old icons and wall paintings inside (one from the twelfth century is believed to be the oldest in the country) and the entire church has a much more eastern feel. There are icons of course in the front and every inch of the walls and ceiling was covered with frescoes. It was incredibly beautiful and certainly a very different type of church. Across from the cathedral is the ‘millennium of Russia’ monument. Erected in the late 19th century, it is essentially a crash course in Russian history up to that point. (It was noted that that means it is free of Soviet influence, which is an interesting and rare perspective in this country.) There are writers, warriors, scientists, and rulers on the monument – our history professor told us there are more than 130 figures represented. One of the scenes at the top includes a man holding a broken idol under a cross, symbolizing the importance of the conversion of the country from paganism to orthodoxy. Alexander Nevsky and Peter the Great are of course two of the most recognizable figures on the monument. We were exhausted at this point from the never-ending explanations of our guide and the early morning start, so it was a good thing we were headed back to the hotel for dinner.
I was at the ‘segregated table’ while at the hotel, our affectionate name for those of us who were either vegetarian or couldn’t eat certain things, I was asked more than once whether I was Jewish because I couldn’t eat pork. We had fish instead, and it was very good, the first time I’ve had fish here I think. Jarlath stood up to inform us that if we wanted, we could go with him to a Russian bathhouse – banya – after dinner. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but then Kelly, Sarah, Vika, and Melissa came over to ask if I wanted to go and I thought it sounded fun so away we went to fetch our towels. Before we left Irina Borisovna, our resident coordinator and the most helpful and knowledgeable person, gave us a cute lecture about how we would be ‘banya sisters’ when we got back and to make sure we cover our heads with scarves on the walk back so we didn’t catch colds. When we got there, we paid about 5 dollars each and were immediately shown the ropes by the Russian babushkas who were incredibly entertained by the nervous American students who had just walked into their banya. They showed us how to shower, then run quickly into the steam room – where it was so hot you pretty much couldn’t breathe on the top level – and hit each other and yourself with birch branches, then run back out into the main room and jump into a cold shower or just dump a bucket of cold water on yourself and your friends. One woman even turned a faucet sideways and we ran through it like a sprinkler, which caused the babushkas to roar with laughter. After repeating this process a few times, it was time for the banya to close. Irina Borisovna stuck her head back in to make sure we were all putting scarves on and took our picture outside the banya with all of us and the guys too. It was only 9 when the banya closed so we got blini and chai (crepes and tea) at a café and then bought some wine in a store and hung out in one of the girls rooms talking and reliving the banya experience until about 2 in the morning, at which point we realized that we had to get up rather early so we crashed.
Sunday we started the day with an incredible breakfast buffet then headed to St. George’s monastery, one of the oldest in the country. It is one of the places where you can almost taste the real lives of the people who lived there, it looks like a place that was lived in and has a feel of added sincerity almost. There were a couple of monks walking around, apparently about 20 still live there, and their long robes were both familiar and somehow different from what I am accustomed to, like much in Russia I suppose. After walking through the monastery we went to a village of wooden buildings set up to resemble how most Russians lived in the 19th century. Absolutely gorgeous and simple architecture, and many of the buildings didn’t have many nails in them at all. There were also local artisans working carving and weaving birch pieces into various shapes. I got into a conversation with a cute German woman who was there with a tour group after I smiled at something she said jokingly. So that made me happy, and the rain held out for the most part. After wandering around the village, we headed to the kremlin (center fortress) of Novgorod where most of the historical things are to have lunch in a restaurant in one of the oldest towers in the wall. It specialized in ‘historic Russian cuisine’ and was very good! Though, once again, pork was on the menu so I had mushrooms in a cheese-cream sauce and thick cut french fries rather than the main dish – which I was fine with since the mushrooms were delicious and we were on our third course at that point. The day had turned rather chilly and windy so we headed out a little early, about 4 pm, for the long bus ride back to St. Petersburg. Arrived home nice and tired and with plenty of homework to do, but with a new perspective on Russian history and life outside of the city.
One of the most important churches for Russian Orthodoxy is located in Novgorod, that of St. Sophia. It has incredibly old icons and wall paintings inside (one from the twelfth century is believed to be the oldest in the country) and the entire church has a much more eastern feel. There are icons of course in the front and every inch of the walls and ceiling was covered with frescoes. It was incredibly beautiful and certainly a very different type of church. Across from the cathedral is the ‘millennium of Russia’ monument. Erected in the late 19th century, it is essentially a crash course in Russian history up to that point. (It was noted that that means it is free of Soviet influence, which is an interesting and rare perspective in this country.) There are writers, warriors, scientists, and rulers on the monument – our history professor told us there are more than 130 figures represented. One of the scenes at the top includes a man holding a broken idol under a cross, symbolizing the importance of the conversion of the country from paganism to orthodoxy. Alexander Nevsky and Peter the Great are of course two of the most recognizable figures on the monument. We were exhausted at this point from the never-ending explanations of our guide and the early morning start, so it was a good thing we were headed back to the hotel for dinner.
I was at the ‘segregated table’ while at the hotel, our affectionate name for those of us who were either vegetarian or couldn’t eat certain things, I was asked more than once whether I was Jewish because I couldn’t eat pork. We had fish instead, and it was very good, the first time I’ve had fish here I think. Jarlath stood up to inform us that if we wanted, we could go with him to a Russian bathhouse – banya – after dinner. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but then Kelly, Sarah, Vika, and Melissa came over to ask if I wanted to go and I thought it sounded fun so away we went to fetch our towels. Before we left Irina Borisovna, our resident coordinator and the most helpful and knowledgeable person, gave us a cute lecture about how we would be ‘banya sisters’ when we got back and to make sure we cover our heads with scarves on the walk back so we didn’t catch colds. When we got there, we paid about 5 dollars each and were immediately shown the ropes by the Russian babushkas who were incredibly entertained by the nervous American students who had just walked into their banya. They showed us how to shower, then run quickly into the steam room – where it was so hot you pretty much couldn’t breathe on the top level – and hit each other and yourself with birch branches, then run back out into the main room and jump into a cold shower or just dump a bucket of cold water on yourself and your friends. One woman even turned a faucet sideways and we ran through it like a sprinkler, which caused the babushkas to roar with laughter. After repeating this process a few times, it was time for the banya to close. Irina Borisovna stuck her head back in to make sure we were all putting scarves on and took our picture outside the banya with all of us and the guys too. It was only 9 when the banya closed so we got blini and chai (crepes and tea) at a café and then bought some wine in a store and hung out in one of the girls rooms talking and reliving the banya experience until about 2 in the morning, at which point we realized that we had to get up rather early so we crashed.
Sunday we started the day with an incredible breakfast buffet then headed to St. George’s monastery, one of the oldest in the country. It is one of the places where you can almost taste the real lives of the people who lived there, it looks like a place that was lived in and has a feel of added sincerity almost. There were a couple of monks walking around, apparently about 20 still live there, and their long robes were both familiar and somehow different from what I am accustomed to, like much in Russia I suppose. After walking through the monastery we went to a village of wooden buildings set up to resemble how most Russians lived in the 19th century. Absolutely gorgeous and simple architecture, and many of the buildings didn’t have many nails in them at all. There were also local artisans working carving and weaving birch pieces into various shapes. I got into a conversation with a cute German woman who was there with a tour group after I smiled at something she said jokingly. So that made me happy, and the rain held out for the most part. After wandering around the village, we headed to the kremlin (center fortress) of Novgorod where most of the historical things are to have lunch in a restaurant in one of the oldest towers in the wall. It specialized in ‘historic Russian cuisine’ and was very good! Though, once again, pork was on the menu so I had mushrooms in a cheese-cream sauce and thick cut french fries rather than the main dish – which I was fine with since the mushrooms were delicious and we were on our third course at that point. The day had turned rather chilly and windy so we headed out a little early, about 4 pm, for the long bus ride back to St. Petersburg. Arrived home nice and tired and with plenty of homework to do, but with a new perspective on Russian history and life outside of the city.
Peter and Paul Fortress
First of all, realized I have yet to really say thank you for reading this random collection of thoughts and experiences, it really does make me feel like the miles between us are less meaningful. So thank you!
Its hard to believe I’ve been in St. Petersburg for almost three weeks (and by the time I post this it will have been more than three weeks). Time has already started to accelerate and I imagine its only going to get faster. This past week especially has been an absolute whirlwind. We ended last week with an excursion to Peter and Paul fortress, the birthplace of St. Petersburg. It is on one of the many islands, Petrogradsky, and is home to the cathedral which serves as the final resting place for every emperor (meaning tsar since Peter I) except one of the Russian Empire. We lucked out and had absolutely gorgeous weather, and our favorite tour guide came to meet us! It was our third tour with her (city bus tour, trip to Pavlovsk, and now Peter and Paul Fortress) and we have discovered we are absolutely spoiled by her. More on that later. Anyway, the fortress was essentially used for a detention center for prisoners, it was too ‘inconvenient’ (to plagiarize our tour guide) to communicate with the island in the 18th and 19th centuries so it was never really the center of the city. It did house some rather famous prisoners though, writer Dostoyevsky and some of the Decembrists included.
The cathedral was beautiful, though as our guide explained it looks much more like a European cathedral than a Russian or Orthodox one. This was largely due to the fact that Peter wanted everything in his ‘Window to the West’ to be as European as possible. Also in the cathedral is an exhibit explaining the discovery of the bones of the members of the ruling family, the Romanovs, after the revolution and their ceremonious return to the cathedral in the fortress. They are buried in a special room. I loved seeing the church, of course, and the prison was very interesting too. Our guide took us into the ‘punishment cell’, which was a tiny and completely enclosed room, and turned off all the lights on us without warning – which caused a bit of chaos. After the tour I went up with Adam and Tom to the ‘Neva panorama’ walk along the top of the fortress walls to take some pictures of the mainland side from across the river and take advantage of the sunshine and warm temperatures. We spent some time wandering the main area of town until after dark, but had to be up early for Novgorod the next day so most of us had a relatively quiet night.
Its hard to believe I’ve been in St. Petersburg for almost three weeks (and by the time I post this it will have been more than three weeks). Time has already started to accelerate and I imagine its only going to get faster. This past week especially has been an absolute whirlwind. We ended last week with an excursion to Peter and Paul fortress, the birthplace of St. Petersburg. It is on one of the many islands, Petrogradsky, and is home to the cathedral which serves as the final resting place for every emperor (meaning tsar since Peter I) except one of the Russian Empire. We lucked out and had absolutely gorgeous weather, and our favorite tour guide came to meet us! It was our third tour with her (city bus tour, trip to Pavlovsk, and now Peter and Paul Fortress) and we have discovered we are absolutely spoiled by her. More on that later. Anyway, the fortress was essentially used for a detention center for prisoners, it was too ‘inconvenient’ (to plagiarize our tour guide) to communicate with the island in the 18th and 19th centuries so it was never really the center of the city. It did house some rather famous prisoners though, writer Dostoyevsky and some of the Decembrists included.
The cathedral was beautiful, though as our guide explained it looks much more like a European cathedral than a Russian or Orthodox one. This was largely due to the fact that Peter wanted everything in his ‘Window to the West’ to be as European as possible. Also in the cathedral is an exhibit explaining the discovery of the bones of the members of the ruling family, the Romanovs, after the revolution and their ceremonious return to the cathedral in the fortress. They are buried in a special room. I loved seeing the church, of course, and the prison was very interesting too. Our guide took us into the ‘punishment cell’, which was a tiny and completely enclosed room, and turned off all the lights on us without warning – which caused a bit of chaos. After the tour I went up with Adam and Tom to the ‘Neva panorama’ walk along the top of the fortress walls to take some pictures of the mainland side from across the river and take advantage of the sunshine and warm temperatures. We spent some time wandering the main area of town until after dark, but had to be up early for Novgorod the next day so most of us had a relatively quiet night.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Random Thoughts Part I
I'm on my way to class but wanted to share some very random thoughts...will post again early next week after our excursions to Peter and Paul Fortress tomorrow and Novgorod this weekend.
Keep remembering things about the past couple days that I should have included...for example, when we got off the plane we were greeted by a lady holding what looked like a ray gun or something. It was a heat scanner, apparently they're extremely worried about the swine flu so if you have a fever you are immediately suspect. Luckily no fever here.
Next random piece of information, apparently my veins were really hard to find today because it took him 3 tries to draw the blood for the HIV test. Not so fun having band-aids on the inside of both your elbows, but he was funny about it saying "welcome to Russia" and things.
Something else that is interesting, the metro is really deep here, the deepest in the world supposedly, which means that the escalator ride alone can take 2 minutes. And in that amount of time, depending what day and time of day it is and where you are, you can see some incredible displays of pda. Apparently 2 minutes is much too long to simply talk to each other, couples young and old get nice and friendly on the ride down and back up the metro escalators.
Keep forgetting to tell you - but the health insurance that OU made me buy is apparently really great (its what one of the guys who works here has) and they have direct pay with a clinic called Euromed where all the doctors speak English and are Western trained etc. So in case something does happen there won't be any worries, its just down the street from school I guess.
Mosquitos kind of like Guatie, they wake you up by buzzing in your ear.
Saw a woman with a big Newfoundland dog today trying to get it to do something that it wouldn't do, and it was bigger than her so it wasn't moving. I felt kind of bad for it since it was such a big dog and I'm sure it lives in the apartments since no one here has houses, but it was just a very funny sight.
Thanks for making it to the end of the randomest of posts so far. See you early next week! Love - b
Keep remembering things about the past couple days that I should have included...for example, when we got off the plane we were greeted by a lady holding what looked like a ray gun or something. It was a heat scanner, apparently they're extremely worried about the swine flu so if you have a fever you are immediately suspect. Luckily no fever here.
Next random piece of information, apparently my veins were really hard to find today because it took him 3 tries to draw the blood for the HIV test. Not so fun having band-aids on the inside of both your elbows, but he was funny about it saying "welcome to Russia" and things.
Something else that is interesting, the metro is really deep here, the deepest in the world supposedly, which means that the escalator ride alone can take 2 minutes. And in that amount of time, depending what day and time of day it is and where you are, you can see some incredible displays of pda. Apparently 2 minutes is much too long to simply talk to each other, couples young and old get nice and friendly on the ride down and back up the metro escalators.
Keep forgetting to tell you - but the health insurance that OU made me buy is apparently really great (its what one of the guys who works here has) and they have direct pay with a clinic called Euromed where all the doctors speak English and are Western trained etc. So in case something does happen there won't be any worries, its just down the street from school I guess.
Mosquitos kind of like Guatie, they wake you up by buzzing in your ear.
Saw a woman with a big Newfoundland dog today trying to get it to do something that it wouldn't do, and it was bigger than her so it wasn't moving. I felt kind of bad for it since it was such a big dog and I'm sure it lives in the apartments since no one here has houses, but it was just a very funny sight.
Thanks for making it to the end of the randomest of posts so far. See you early next week! Love - b
Sunday, September 6, 2009
The Catholic Ex-Pats of St. Petersburg
6th September
Its Sunday night, and its been a rather incredible day. Started off with a torrential downpour – I was soaked from the waist down except for my Wellington boots which continue to be the best money I ever spent – on the way to the metro to head into town for Mass. After Mass I was planning to introduce myself to a few of the people who seemed to be regulars, but there was no need. They immediately came up to me after Mass and said, where are you from and how long will you be here etc. after realizing that I was going to be a regular at Mass. One of the choir members, Kenneth, asked me to join the choir so in two weeks I will be showing up early to practice with the choir, though its very informal. I would go next week, but we are going to be on an excursion to Novgorod. After introducing themselves, a couple of the ex-pats invited me to their weekly coffee gathering after Mass. So we walked across the street and pushed some tables together in a corner of a coffee bar. I think there were four couples and four or five kids, a couple of the women are teachers at the international school while most of the men work at the consulate. Two are in the military, and one is here on a scholarship that is rather similar to the Boren so we had a good discussion. They were all interested in whether I wanted to join the foreign service and had some amazing stories to tell. One of the couples is older and have been in the foreign service for more than 40 years. Another couple are actually German! And she is incredibly nice so we are going to talk in German as much as possible. They have a daughter that they’d like me to meet and talk about college things with, I think she’s starting to look into various universities. Everyone was incredibly nice and interested in what I was doing and what my impressions of the city were. The older couple is headed back to the United States in a few weeks, St. Petersburg was only a temporary posting, and offered to take anything I wanted to mail back with them. I might take them up on it if they are still here in two weeks. It was a wonderful morning, we had coffee for about an hour and a half and it was absolutely lovely, when we all split off they all said ‘see you in two weeks, have fun in Novgorod’, I can’t wait to see them all again.
After coffee with my new favorite ex-pats it was almost time for the scavenger hunt that had been cancelled last week due to rain. Well we started it today, but about an hour in we got an SMS from Jarlath saying it was cancelled because they didn’t want us getting sick. So Tom, Wesley, and I went to the Cathedral of the Spilt Blood – with a detour to the extremely fancy bathrooms of the extremely expensive Grand Hotel Europe on Nevsky. The Cathedral was absolutely gorgeous, more mosaics than I think I’ve ever seen in one place. Pictures will hopefully be up soon, though of course I cannot do the real thing any justice at all with my little camera. And now its time for bed, up early to head to school to hopefully skype with the parents and brother! Then class all day. I’m working on a list of random notes about St. Petersburg life that should appear up here very soon, and head to facebook to check out all the new pictures! As always, please please please comment and email and tweet and whatever, I absolutely love love hearing from all of you!! All the best - B
Its Sunday night, and its been a rather incredible day. Started off with a torrential downpour – I was soaked from the waist down except for my Wellington boots which continue to be the best money I ever spent – on the way to the metro to head into town for Mass. After Mass I was planning to introduce myself to a few of the people who seemed to be regulars, but there was no need. They immediately came up to me after Mass and said, where are you from and how long will you be here etc. after realizing that I was going to be a regular at Mass. One of the choir members, Kenneth, asked me to join the choir so in two weeks I will be showing up early to practice with the choir, though its very informal. I would go next week, but we are going to be on an excursion to Novgorod. After introducing themselves, a couple of the ex-pats invited me to their weekly coffee gathering after Mass. So we walked across the street and pushed some tables together in a corner of a coffee bar. I think there were four couples and four or five kids, a couple of the women are teachers at the international school while most of the men work at the consulate. Two are in the military, and one is here on a scholarship that is rather similar to the Boren so we had a good discussion. They were all interested in whether I wanted to join the foreign service and had some amazing stories to tell. One of the couples is older and have been in the foreign service for more than 40 years. Another couple are actually German! And she is incredibly nice so we are going to talk in German as much as possible. They have a daughter that they’d like me to meet and talk about college things with, I think she’s starting to look into various universities. Everyone was incredibly nice and interested in what I was doing and what my impressions of the city were. The older couple is headed back to the United States in a few weeks, St. Petersburg was only a temporary posting, and offered to take anything I wanted to mail back with them. I might take them up on it if they are still here in two weeks. It was a wonderful morning, we had coffee for about an hour and a half and it was absolutely lovely, when we all split off they all said ‘see you in two weeks, have fun in Novgorod’, I can’t wait to see them all again.
After coffee with my new favorite ex-pats it was almost time for the scavenger hunt that had been cancelled last week due to rain. Well we started it today, but about an hour in we got an SMS from Jarlath saying it was cancelled because they didn’t want us getting sick. So Tom, Wesley, and I went to the Cathedral of the Spilt Blood – with a detour to the extremely fancy bathrooms of the extremely expensive Grand Hotel Europe on Nevsky. The Cathedral was absolutely gorgeous, more mosaics than I think I’ve ever seen in one place. Pictures will hopefully be up soon, though of course I cannot do the real thing any justice at all with my little camera. And now its time for bed, up early to head to school to hopefully skype with the parents and brother! Then class all day. I’m working on a list of random notes about St. Petersburg life that should appear up here very soon, and head to facebook to check out all the new pictures! As always, please please please comment and email and tweet and whatever, I absolutely love love hearing from all of you!! All the best - B
Am I a typical American?
“Are you a typical representative of America?” Essay for Russian Civilization Class
I am not sure I can answer whether I am a typical representative of America or not, because I am not sure how to define a “typical” American. That is one of the things I love about America; its incredible diversity of people, places, and experiences. The size of our country, its large population, and the peculiar circumstances of its relatively recent creation make it a place unique in all the world. People of seemingly innumerable ethnic, linguistic, religious, and cultural heritages can also identify themselves as American.
In this way I suppose I am a typical American. I am from a mixed ethnic heritage but I can trace my ancestors back to the Mayflower. I am largely the result of the freedoms and constraints that exist in the country where I grew up. By some statistics, however, I may not be considered a typical American. I have studied more languages and spent more time outside the country than the “typical” American, which I like to think has expanded my perspective. I may not always agree with the “official” or “typical” stance of my country, but I am still an American.
I do not claim to know where the boundary between “typical” Americans and “atypical” representatives of America lies. I am, however, the sum of the opportunities America has given me, and the result of what I have been able to make of them. In this respect, I think I have quite a bit in common with many of my fellow Americans.
I am not sure I can answer whether I am a typical representative of America or not, because I am not sure how to define a “typical” American. That is one of the things I love about America; its incredible diversity of people, places, and experiences. The size of our country, its large population, and the peculiar circumstances of its relatively recent creation make it a place unique in all the world. People of seemingly innumerable ethnic, linguistic, religious, and cultural heritages can also identify themselves as American.
In this way I suppose I am a typical American. I am from a mixed ethnic heritage but I can trace my ancestors back to the Mayflower. I am largely the result of the freedoms and constraints that exist in the country where I grew up. By some statistics, however, I may not be considered a typical American. I have studied more languages and spent more time outside the country than the “typical” American, which I like to think has expanded my perspective. I may not always agree with the “official” or “typical” stance of my country, but I am still an American.
I do not claim to know where the boundary between “typical” Americans and “atypical” representatives of America lies. I am, however, the sum of the opportunities America has given me, and the result of what I have been able to make of them. In this respect, I think I have quite a bit in common with many of my fellow Americans.
Adventures continue..
4th and 5th of September
One week of classes down, the rest of the semester to go! Classes have gone really well so far, I am definitely growing more comfortable with pronunciation and reading and the civilization, history, and ethnic studies courses are going to definitely add to my perspective on this incredible country. Add to all of that the experiences we are having around the city and it is going to be an absolutely incredible year here.
For instance, today Dan found a Mexican restaurant combined with a Japanese restaurant. So of course we had to give it a try, and the quesadillas were surprisingly good! So I can now say that I’ve been served Mexican food in St. Petersburg, Russia by a woman wearing a kimono. Tonight we went to an Irish bar, had an expensive but delicious Guinness and spent the night talking mostly to Kelly and Sarah. There were about 8 or 9 of us at the bar, and it was a great night for what I wanted, to just relax and talk over a beer and not worry about how we were going to get home since we went out early enough to take the metro back at midnight. Then Adam and I walked Sarah home, our island is pretty safe but at night we’ll definitely always try to drop people off as close to their door as possible. I can smell breakfast, which is good because we should probably leave in like 20-25 minutes to head to Pavlovsk, a palace and park south of the city. It doesn’t look like its going to be too nice of a day though, so we’ll see how much time we actually spend their taking pictures and such. I’d like to relax tonight, but there is talk of dance clubs so we’ll see how I’m feeling. Hope all is well out there beyond this cyberspace in the rest of the world!
Pavlovsk was a lot of fun, it was raining the whole time but the interior of the palace was gorgeous (sorry, no pictures because I would have had to pay extra and I figure I’ll get a great picture book of the area with professional pictures instead) and we had our same tour guide from the bus tour who speaks great English and seems to know absolutely everything about everything. Tom and I wandered around the grounds a little bit after lunch but the rain had us leaving a little earlier than we otherwise might have. No issues on the train ride back to town, now its time for a nap and some homework!
One week of classes down, the rest of the semester to go! Classes have gone really well so far, I am definitely growing more comfortable with pronunciation and reading and the civilization, history, and ethnic studies courses are going to definitely add to my perspective on this incredible country. Add to all of that the experiences we are having around the city and it is going to be an absolutely incredible year here.
For instance, today Dan found a Mexican restaurant combined with a Japanese restaurant. So of course we had to give it a try, and the quesadillas were surprisingly good! So I can now say that I’ve been served Mexican food in St. Petersburg, Russia by a woman wearing a kimono. Tonight we went to an Irish bar, had an expensive but delicious Guinness and spent the night talking mostly to Kelly and Sarah. There were about 8 or 9 of us at the bar, and it was a great night for what I wanted, to just relax and talk over a beer and not worry about how we were going to get home since we went out early enough to take the metro back at midnight. Then Adam and I walked Sarah home, our island is pretty safe but at night we’ll definitely always try to drop people off as close to their door as possible. I can smell breakfast, which is good because we should probably leave in like 20-25 minutes to head to Pavlovsk, a palace and park south of the city. It doesn’t look like its going to be too nice of a day though, so we’ll see how much time we actually spend their taking pictures and such. I’d like to relax tonight, but there is talk of dance clubs so we’ll see how I’m feeling. Hope all is well out there beyond this cyberspace in the rest of the world!
Pavlovsk was a lot of fun, it was raining the whole time but the interior of the palace was gorgeous (sorry, no pictures because I would have had to pay extra and I figure I’ll get a great picture book of the area with professional pictures instead) and we had our same tour guide from the bus tour who speaks great English and seems to know absolutely everything about everything. Tom and I wandered around the grounds a little bit after lunch but the rain had us leaving a little earlier than we otherwise might have. No issues on the train ride back to town, now its time for a nap and some homework!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Beginning the routine..
1. September
I just ate hot pink soup. Delicious hot pink soup with beets and onions for dinner that my host mom made. It was colored that way from the beets, I would assume, and I’m not even lying when I say it was really good. I have definitely liked Russian cooking so far, and nothing has bothered my stomach either which is great. It seems to be a very simple and traditional style of cooking and eating, like a different kind of comfort food. Even what I had for lunch at school – like a big baked pirogie filled with cheese – was pretty good, and ridiculously cheap. Which is another thing, food prices can really be anywhere on the spectrum. I don’t think my host family has a lot of money, despite the really nice interior of the apartment, which is completely fine of course they have been nothing but nice and extremely helpful, its just an observation. Nathan (the academic director here) told us about one girl a couple of years ago who worked out that the amount of money she spent on bagels and coffee in the morning almost every day each month back in the United States was equal to her host mom’s salary for a month as a doctor in St. Petersburg. It is definitely a different world.
A world in which it also doesn’t matter how much you make, or if its raining or icy, you still have to wear stilettos if you’re a woman. Just an observation!
Classes started today as well, I think I’m in a good group and will become more comfortable with the base of language that I have and learn much more vocabulary and some more important grammar points. Everyone in my group seems really nice and both of the teachers that I had today were great and very accustomed to working with international students. I am also glad that I’m doing the Area Studies this semester where all my electives will be in English and then the Language Program in the spring with electives in Russian. I think it will be really helpful to build my comfort level with the language and then really intensify it in the spring, I’m excited to be spending the whole year here!
Today we found a great café where I had some ice cream and a couple of the guys got cake and coffee, and spent about 15 minutes trying to come up with the English for ‘konditerei’ in German, because the word in Russian is very similar. (The word is confectionary, in case you were wondering.) And then we walked around a little and went into a big mall to the internet café, where I posted from. It is such a big group of people that this group of guys I was hanging out with for the afternoon was totally different from the group of girls I spent most of yesterday afternoon with. A couple of the guys live very close to me and found an Irish pub not too far away, which is fun because we hadn’t found any bars really by us. So we’ll see what we get up to this weekend!
The rest of this week, though, we have a trip to the Hermitage and then classes. Saturday we have an excursion for most of the day. Busy already!
2. September
So no trip to the Hermitage today because we don’t have our student cards yet and apparently its really expensive to get in without them – its free for students. But we still walked around and took pictures because the weather was absolutely gorgeous. I didn’t have class until like 11:40 so Pasha and I had breakfast before he went to school (my roommate was already gone) and then I got ready and headed out to take the metro and walk to Smolny. I’ve decided when its really nice out I’d rather do that because the walk is gorgeous, through some pretty streets and a park, and even past the German and Austrian embassies which is of course very exciting for me.
I only had one class today, ‘ethnic studies’ with the academic director of the program here, Dr. Longan. He has a really broad base of knowledge and it looks like the class is going to be really interesting, even if he does seem to go off on quite a few tangents. Then we had choir class which was really cool! The teacher is adorable and I was very happy about how much I understood when she was explaining why choir was beneficial and giving us instructions. Today we learned ‘Kalinka’, which is a very traditional Russian folk song that is many centuries old. Choir is once a week and I am definitely looking forward to it.
After class some of us went to a peroshki place (they are like big dumplings, usually baked) because we hadn't had time between class, a meeting about ID and visa things, and choir. They were absolutely delicious!! Then we took the metro to Nievsky and took some pictures in the great weather before walking over to palace square to take pictures of the outside of the Hermitage even if we couldn't go in today. There were lots of tourists milling around and it was great just to stand and talk in the sunshine.
On the bus on the way home it was so crowded that we were passing our bus fare to other people to give to the controller. (Note about the public transport; it will get you where you want to go, but its not run particularly efficiently, there are controllers on every bus who you pay and the metro is ridden by using tokens or cards, its not the best system but I guess it works.) There was some confusion because Sarah and I paid together and the controller wasn't sure who had paid and we thought she kept asking us to pay but she was actually talking to a woman behind us who was trying to find her card in her purse. I must have looked like I didn't understand and I couldn't see the controller to see if it was me she was talking to but two girls next to me asked me 'sprichst du Deutsch?' (which means do you speak German?) and then they explained in German what the woman wanted because they could see the hand gestures she was making and who she was pointing at. So it all got worked out with no trouble and I got to speak German with a couple of German tourists! I am loving learning Russian and really feel like I've adjusted pretty well to living here but the place in the world where I feel most at home is still absolutely the German speaking world. I guess Russia has plenty of time to try and change all that though…
We had delicious eggs and onions and potatoes for dinner plus cucumber salad and spicy rice noodles and carrots that were absolutely wonderful. We got our host mom to try peanut butter and jelly that Rosa brought and the buckeyes that I brought because we discovered she had never had peanut butter before. So dinner time was really fun, and now we're headed over to see Nicole who lives with our host mom's mom.
Our host grandmother has an apartment overlooking the gulf of Finland, and our host mom made sure we were there in time to watch the sunset over the water. It is an absolutely beautiful view. Apparently the penthouse apartment in the building costs over 3 million dollars, it is a beautiful newer building with all kinds of security and beautiful balconies. Our host grandma grows all kinds of vegetables on her balcony which was very fun to see. We are getting more and more comfortable with our host mom and Pasha and its going to be really fun this weekend when we learn to make blini! Our host mom was also telling us about a really good Georgian restaurant that we will have to go to together which would also be really fun. Well now its late and I'm exhausted. Three classes tomorrow then I think I'll check out some guidebooks in dom knigi (house of books), then madre and padre are going to call before they head out on their big adventure! Love you all, I love seeing your comments and facebooks and tweets so please keep them coming, it helps the distance not seem nearly as far. I wish all of you could be with me here, but since you can't be just keep the comments coming ☺ All my love - beth anne
I just ate hot pink soup. Delicious hot pink soup with beets and onions for dinner that my host mom made. It was colored that way from the beets, I would assume, and I’m not even lying when I say it was really good. I have definitely liked Russian cooking so far, and nothing has bothered my stomach either which is great. It seems to be a very simple and traditional style of cooking and eating, like a different kind of comfort food. Even what I had for lunch at school – like a big baked pirogie filled with cheese – was pretty good, and ridiculously cheap. Which is another thing, food prices can really be anywhere on the spectrum. I don’t think my host family has a lot of money, despite the really nice interior of the apartment, which is completely fine of course they have been nothing but nice and extremely helpful, its just an observation. Nathan (the academic director here) told us about one girl a couple of years ago who worked out that the amount of money she spent on bagels and coffee in the morning almost every day each month back in the United States was equal to her host mom’s salary for a month as a doctor in St. Petersburg. It is definitely a different world.
A world in which it also doesn’t matter how much you make, or if its raining or icy, you still have to wear stilettos if you’re a woman. Just an observation!
Classes started today as well, I think I’m in a good group and will become more comfortable with the base of language that I have and learn much more vocabulary and some more important grammar points. Everyone in my group seems really nice and both of the teachers that I had today were great and very accustomed to working with international students. I am also glad that I’m doing the Area Studies this semester where all my electives will be in English and then the Language Program in the spring with electives in Russian. I think it will be really helpful to build my comfort level with the language and then really intensify it in the spring, I’m excited to be spending the whole year here!
Today we found a great café where I had some ice cream and a couple of the guys got cake and coffee, and spent about 15 minutes trying to come up with the English for ‘konditerei’ in German, because the word in Russian is very similar. (The word is confectionary, in case you were wondering.) And then we walked around a little and went into a big mall to the internet café, where I posted from. It is such a big group of people that this group of guys I was hanging out with for the afternoon was totally different from the group of girls I spent most of yesterday afternoon with. A couple of the guys live very close to me and found an Irish pub not too far away, which is fun because we hadn’t found any bars really by us. So we’ll see what we get up to this weekend!
The rest of this week, though, we have a trip to the Hermitage and then classes. Saturday we have an excursion for most of the day. Busy already!
2. September
So no trip to the Hermitage today because we don’t have our student cards yet and apparently its really expensive to get in without them – its free for students. But we still walked around and took pictures because the weather was absolutely gorgeous. I didn’t have class until like 11:40 so Pasha and I had breakfast before he went to school (my roommate was already gone) and then I got ready and headed out to take the metro and walk to Smolny. I’ve decided when its really nice out I’d rather do that because the walk is gorgeous, through some pretty streets and a park, and even past the German and Austrian embassies which is of course very exciting for me.
I only had one class today, ‘ethnic studies’ with the academic director of the program here, Dr. Longan. He has a really broad base of knowledge and it looks like the class is going to be really interesting, even if he does seem to go off on quite a few tangents. Then we had choir class which was really cool! The teacher is adorable and I was very happy about how much I understood when she was explaining why choir was beneficial and giving us instructions. Today we learned ‘Kalinka’, which is a very traditional Russian folk song that is many centuries old. Choir is once a week and I am definitely looking forward to it.
After class some of us went to a peroshki place (they are like big dumplings, usually baked) because we hadn't had time between class, a meeting about ID and visa things, and choir. They were absolutely delicious!! Then we took the metro to Nievsky and took some pictures in the great weather before walking over to palace square to take pictures of the outside of the Hermitage even if we couldn't go in today. There were lots of tourists milling around and it was great just to stand and talk in the sunshine.
On the bus on the way home it was so crowded that we were passing our bus fare to other people to give to the controller. (Note about the public transport; it will get you where you want to go, but its not run particularly efficiently, there are controllers on every bus who you pay and the metro is ridden by using tokens or cards, its not the best system but I guess it works.) There was some confusion because Sarah and I paid together and the controller wasn't sure who had paid and we thought she kept asking us to pay but she was actually talking to a woman behind us who was trying to find her card in her purse. I must have looked like I didn't understand and I couldn't see the controller to see if it was me she was talking to but two girls next to me asked me 'sprichst du Deutsch?' (which means do you speak German?) and then they explained in German what the woman wanted because they could see the hand gestures she was making and who she was pointing at. So it all got worked out with no trouble and I got to speak German with a couple of German tourists! I am loving learning Russian and really feel like I've adjusted pretty well to living here but the place in the world where I feel most at home is still absolutely the German speaking world. I guess Russia has plenty of time to try and change all that though…
We had delicious eggs and onions and potatoes for dinner plus cucumber salad and spicy rice noodles and carrots that were absolutely wonderful. We got our host mom to try peanut butter and jelly that Rosa brought and the buckeyes that I brought because we discovered she had never had peanut butter before. So dinner time was really fun, and now we're headed over to see Nicole who lives with our host mom's mom.
Our host grandmother has an apartment overlooking the gulf of Finland, and our host mom made sure we were there in time to watch the sunset over the water. It is an absolutely beautiful view. Apparently the penthouse apartment in the building costs over 3 million dollars, it is a beautiful newer building with all kinds of security and beautiful balconies. Our host grandma grows all kinds of vegetables on her balcony which was very fun to see. We are getting more and more comfortable with our host mom and Pasha and its going to be really fun this weekend when we learn to make blini! Our host mom was also telling us about a really good Georgian restaurant that we will have to go to together which would also be really fun. Well now its late and I'm exhausted. Three classes tomorrow then I think I'll check out some guidebooks in dom knigi (house of books), then madre and padre are going to call before they head out on their big adventure! Love you all, I love seeing your comments and facebooks and tweets so please keep them coming, it helps the distance not seem nearly as far. I wish all of you could be with me here, but since you can't be just keep the comments coming ☺ All my love - beth anne
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Internet Cafe-Style
I'm still here...don't have my laptop with me so we went to check out an internet cafe, this one is really inexpensive and has a usb cord so in the future I'll put my blog and pictures on my flash drive and post here if the internet at the apartment or university isn't cooperating! Always good to have a back up plan. There's also a sbarro pizza in here, for when I have that craving :) Russian food so far has been great though, due in large part I'm sure to the fact that my host mom is an awesome cook! I have nothing to compare it to really, but everything she has made has been really good!
Classes went well today, tomorrow I have an ethnic studies class and then choir (don't laugh, apparently its really good for your phonetics), and then we will go to the Hermitage. Its supposed to be a nice day, so we'll see! My internet is about to run out, will hopefully post pictures Thursday since I don't want to bring my laptop tomorrow probably if we're going to the Hermitage after class. Love to all!
Classes went well today, tomorrow I have an ethnic studies class and then choir (don't laugh, apparently its really good for your phonetics), and then we will go to the Hermitage. Its supposed to be a nice day, so we'll see! My internet is about to run out, will hopefully post pictures Thursday since I don't want to bring my laptop tomorrow probably if we're going to the Hermitage after class. Love to all!
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