Congratulations to all of the new graduates of Oberlin College!
This past week has been crazy and this week will get even crazier. I need to write a paper in the next two days, go to Moscow, come back and pack, and get on an airplane to go home.
If you want to hear about all of the fun things I've done in my final two weeks in Russia, you'll have to contact me once I'm back in the States (which you should do anyways).
My schedule:
June 1st-7th : Philadelphia
June 7th-12th: Pittsburgh
June 12th-end of summer: Aspen, CO.
Let me know if you'll be in any of those places!
Also, look at the youtube videos for the Eurovision entries from Spain, France, and Latvia...they're hilarious. Obviously, Russia won!
Thanks for reading my blog this semester and I look forward to seeing all of you soon!
Monday, May 26, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
1 down...4 more to go!
So, I just finished my first final, which went pretty well I think. I just have 3 more Russian language finals (most of which will be incredibly easy) and one paper to write in English. Then I'll be done!
I only have 2 more weeks to go here, which is actually making it really hard to get through. The fact that I'll be home in 2 weeks makes me much more focused on getting home than on enjoying my last weeks here. But, on the other hand, there are lots of great things coming up: Backstreet Boys concert, possibly another trip to Moscow, going to Petergof to see the fountains, etc.
Not much has been going on lately because we've just been working hard. This weekend I went to a modernized version of "La Traviata" (kind of strange), a cemetery where more famous people are buried (like Tchaikovsky, Dostoevsky, etc.), and a monastery (where we had a tour led by the meanest monk possible. He got really mad at other tourists taking pictures of him and started complaining to us about the "savages from the West." Needless to say -- a bit awkward). I also visited the Armenian Church with an Armenian friend of mine. In my opinion, it was much nicer than the Russian Orthodox churches I have seen so far. It seemed a lot less intimidating and cluttered; there was also a service going on which was very beautiful.
This past week I had one experience with the Russian lack of understanding of the word "tolerance." We had actually discussed in school how Russians do not understand that word at all, so when it was announced as my conversation topic for the discussion club, I did not expect great results. It fully lived up to my expectations. Russians think that tolerance is simply patience. One girl said that she once saw a history textbook from America, and it didn't say that Russia won WWII (Russia thinks they won WWII and will not take any other explanation). She said that was intolerant of America.
Also, St. Petersburg won the European cup in soccer! Go Zenit!
Congrats to those of you who have already graduated!
I only have 2 more weeks to go here, which is actually making it really hard to get through. The fact that I'll be home in 2 weeks makes me much more focused on getting home than on enjoying my last weeks here. But, on the other hand, there are lots of great things coming up: Backstreet Boys concert, possibly another trip to Moscow, going to Petergof to see the fountains, etc.
Not much has been going on lately because we've just been working hard. This weekend I went to a modernized version of "La Traviata" (kind of strange), a cemetery where more famous people are buried (like Tchaikovsky, Dostoevsky, etc.), and a monastery (where we had a tour led by the meanest monk possible. He got really mad at other tourists taking pictures of him and started complaining to us about the "savages from the West." Needless to say -- a bit awkward). I also visited the Armenian Church with an Armenian friend of mine. In my opinion, it was much nicer than the Russian Orthodox churches I have seen so far. It seemed a lot less intimidating and cluttered; there was also a service going on which was very beautiful.
This past week I had one experience with the Russian lack of understanding of the word "tolerance." We had actually discussed in school how Russians do not understand that word at all, so when it was announced as my conversation topic for the discussion club, I did not expect great results. It fully lived up to my expectations. Russians think that tolerance is simply patience. One girl said that she once saw a history textbook from America, and it didn't say that Russia won WWII (Russia thinks they won WWII and will not take any other explanation). She said that was intolerant of America.
Also, St. Petersburg won the European cup in soccer! Go Zenit!
Congrats to those of you who have already graduated!
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Moscow for real
Moscow and St. Petersburg are big rival cities -- kind of similar to Pittsburgh and Cleveland if I think about it. People in Petersburg will go into long tirades about all the bad things about Moscow if you even mention the city. So, I headed into this trip with a fairly negative expectation about what I was getting into. I expected Moscow to be dirty, overcrowded, boring, etc. Instead, I was greeted by a completely different city.
First of all, it takes about 7 hours on the train to get to Moscow. We went on an overnight train, which was an experience to begin with. I've never really traveled by train and I kind of enjoyed it. We had compartments for 4 people, with a bed for each. It was fun to hang out and travel with my friends on a Russian train. It even sounds like an interesting experience.
The train got into Moscow at 6 am and we headed straight to where we were staying (a dormitory for the blind...it had a central location). We had a few hours to sleep and then we were off. The first thing we did was meet up with our old man guide for our first walking tour. Instead of taking us to Red Square first (which we actually couldn't do because it was Victory day and the military parade was going through Red Square -- invitation only), we went into the botanical gardens of Moscow State University. They were beautiful! Moscow, to begin with, is already tons more green than St. Petersburg. The city has made an effort to create tons of parks and green spaces, which makes it very appealing. While the parks in Petersburg were created for the royalty (so they are gated in and sometimes hard to access), every time Moscow took down a set of circular walls surrounding the city (3 times), they replaced that space with parks. So, you can actually walk all around the city by walking through these strips of park. After that, we went to Red Square and did more of a walking tour around the center.
In general, Moscow is a lot more of an American like city than St. Petersburg. The metro system is incredibly complicated (but therefore useful, unlike the one here), the city is cleaner, and generally fairly efficient. It almost felt like we were in an entirely different country because we had this picture of a Russian city in our minds from our Petersburg experience, and this was totally different. It's more expensive, but definitely somewhere I would prefer to live over Petersburg.
Other highlights of the weekend: a circus performance (of course! I was also notified of the mouse circus that performs in Moscow. If I make another trip there, I'm going to try to get tickets. It sounds like something not to be missed), a sculpture garden that contained old Soviet sculptures that have no homes anymore (lots of Lenins and Stalins), and going to a cemetery where tons of famous people are buried (Yeltsin, Khruschev, Shostakovich, Gogol, Chekov, Rostrapovich, Kabelevsky, Skriabin, etc.). The cemetery was incredible because the gravestones were so creative and unique. There were tons of Russians walking around and laying flowers at graves.
We also went on a tour of the Kremlin, and I visited one of the synagogues and the Contemporary History museum. That museum was actually really overwhelming and full of Russian pride. Despite the fact that Medvedev was only inaugurated a week ago, his portrait was front and center.
One of the best things was the fact that a restaurant where we ate a lot forgot to order food for vegetarians so we got to order from the menu! We found a great American tasting sandwich.
In conclusion, I really loved Moscow and was kind of disappointed to come back here. I'm hoping to make another trip (mostly because Lenin's mausoleum was closed and I feel like I can't leave Russia without seeing Lenin), but who knows what will happen. Possibly we just enjoyed Moscow so much because we're about ready to return to the States. It definitely made us realize the things we'll appreciate.
Only three more weeks to go!
P.S. My friend Katie was talking with her host mother last night about Putin. Her host mother expressed how great Putin is and how everyone loves him. When Katie said that many people in the U.S. don't like him, her mother said "that's because you have too much propaganda in America." We thought it was funny.
First of all, it takes about 7 hours on the train to get to Moscow. We went on an overnight train, which was an experience to begin with. I've never really traveled by train and I kind of enjoyed it. We had compartments for 4 people, with a bed for each. It was fun to hang out and travel with my friends on a Russian train. It even sounds like an interesting experience.
The train got into Moscow at 6 am and we headed straight to where we were staying (a dormitory for the blind...it had a central location). We had a few hours to sleep and then we were off. The first thing we did was meet up with our old man guide for our first walking tour. Instead of taking us to Red Square first (which we actually couldn't do because it was Victory day and the military parade was going through Red Square -- invitation only), we went into the botanical gardens of Moscow State University. They were beautiful! Moscow, to begin with, is already tons more green than St. Petersburg. The city has made an effort to create tons of parks and green spaces, which makes it very appealing. While the parks in Petersburg were created for the royalty (so they are gated in and sometimes hard to access), every time Moscow took down a set of circular walls surrounding the city (3 times), they replaced that space with parks. So, you can actually walk all around the city by walking through these strips of park. After that, we went to Red Square and did more of a walking tour around the center.
In general, Moscow is a lot more of an American like city than St. Petersburg. The metro system is incredibly complicated (but therefore useful, unlike the one here), the city is cleaner, and generally fairly efficient. It almost felt like we were in an entirely different country because we had this picture of a Russian city in our minds from our Petersburg experience, and this was totally different. It's more expensive, but definitely somewhere I would prefer to live over Petersburg.
Other highlights of the weekend: a circus performance (of course! I was also notified of the mouse circus that performs in Moscow. If I make another trip there, I'm going to try to get tickets. It sounds like something not to be missed), a sculpture garden that contained old Soviet sculptures that have no homes anymore (lots of Lenins and Stalins), and going to a cemetery where tons of famous people are buried (Yeltsin, Khruschev, Shostakovich, Gogol, Chekov, Rostrapovich, Kabelevsky, Skriabin, etc.). The cemetery was incredible because the gravestones were so creative and unique. There were tons of Russians walking around and laying flowers at graves.
We also went on a tour of the Kremlin, and I visited one of the synagogues and the Contemporary History museum. That museum was actually really overwhelming and full of Russian pride. Despite the fact that Medvedev was only inaugurated a week ago, his portrait was front and center.
One of the best things was the fact that a restaurant where we ate a lot forgot to order food for vegetarians so we got to order from the menu! We found a great American tasting sandwich.
In conclusion, I really loved Moscow and was kind of disappointed to come back here. I'm hoping to make another trip (mostly because Lenin's mausoleum was closed and I feel like I can't leave Russia without seeing Lenin), but who knows what will happen. Possibly we just enjoyed Moscow so much because we're about ready to return to the States. It definitely made us realize the things we'll appreciate.
Only three more weeks to go!
P.S. My friend Katie was talking with her host mother last night about Putin. Her host mother expressed how great Putin is and how everyone loves him. When Katie said that many people in the U.S. don't like him, her mother said "that's because you have too much propaganda in America." We thought it was funny.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Moscow preview
So, I just had a fantastic weekend in Moscow, but our train got in at 6:30 this morning so I'm kind of exhausted and can't think straight. Therefore, I will post tomorrow when it will hopefully make more sense. I just wanted to let my loyal readers know I haven't forgotten them (i.e. Caitlin Seeley).
Monday, May 5, 2008
A week with my family...
So, I took the past week off of school and spent it touring with my family. It was really nice not to have to go to school, but it felt very strange to be in the mass of tourists that have suddenly appeared in Petersburg. The main streets are twice as crowded as normal, because not only is the weather nicer (so more Russians go outside), it's the beginning of tourist season. I can definitely tell why, though. Right now, I sun sets at about 11 pm...which is the craziest feeling. Your day lasts much longer than it normally would, because you don't realize it's getting late. I went to an evening ballet performance with my family (a modern dance-ish version of Cinderella -- I actually really liked it!), but when we exited the theater, it felt as if we saw a matinee. It's really an interesting experience to have elongated days.
Other than that, I don't have much to note from the past week. I saw a lot of things I had already seen, saw some new things (a battleship, Mendeleev's apartment/office, the geological museum), and ate much better food then normal. Thursday was May Day, and we actually witnessed a demonstration. First, the angry labor unions walked by, with signs demanding better wages and pensions. Next, came Putin's party, complete with his youth league marching with flags with his face on them. That was a little creepy. Then, came the socialists, the communists, and then some angry people yelling about death wearing black. Not quite sure who they were.
The thing that really struck me in the past week was how much I've adjusted to life here. Until my parents commented on how dirty the city was, I had forgotten. I think the demonstration only struck me as being out of the ordinary and a little scary because my family was there and looking at everything from a different perspective. I'm not sure if it's good or bad that I've become numb to some of the more depressing/disturbing signs of life in Russia.
In other news, the Pussycat Dolls were staying in my parents hotel in St. Petersburg. They saw them celebrating post-concert in the lobby.
To all those at Oberlin, enjoy your last week of school!
Other than that, I don't have much to note from the past week. I saw a lot of things I had already seen, saw some new things (a battleship, Mendeleev's apartment/office, the geological museum), and ate much better food then normal. Thursday was May Day, and we actually witnessed a demonstration. First, the angry labor unions walked by, with signs demanding better wages and pensions. Next, came Putin's party, complete with his youth league marching with flags with his face on them. That was a little creepy. Then, came the socialists, the communists, and then some angry people yelling about death wearing black. Not quite sure who they were.
The thing that really struck me in the past week was how much I've adjusted to life here. Until my parents commented on how dirty the city was, I had forgotten. I think the demonstration only struck me as being out of the ordinary and a little scary because my family was there and looking at everything from a different perspective. I'm not sure if it's good or bad that I've become numb to some of the more depressing/disturbing signs of life in Russia.
In other news, the Pussycat Dolls were staying in my parents hotel in St. Petersburg. They saw them celebrating post-concert in the lobby.
To all those at Oberlin, enjoy your last week of school!
Monday, April 28, 2008
Island adventures...and my family arrives
Once again, by the time I begin to update my blog, I've forgotten most of what happened during the previous week. Basically, last week was passover. In some ways, Passover in Russia was much easier than in the States. I expected it to be horrible, but since I was the only person I knew keeping Passover, I wasn't talking about it or complaining about it with anyone. Also, there is barely any corn syrup in Russian foods so I didn't have to worry about avoiding it. So, Passover was over before I knew it.
Saturday, the weather was so nice and although my friends were once again heading to the banya, I decided to go off on an adventure of my own. I thought about going to a museum, but I couldn't imagine spending all day inside. So, while looking through my "Lonely Planet" tour book, I found a three hour walking tour around these really nice park-like islands. It started on Kammeny island, which is basically where the rich of the rich Russian population lives. It was actually incredible to see. The houses were like mansions (some designed in new, over-the-top styles, and others which were restorations of the original architecture) -- each one with its own security guard. All the cars driving around were BMWs or SUVs with dark-tinted windows. It was like being transported to the subarbs, although these inhabitants were most likely politicians, organized crime, or some combination of the two.
After exploring that island, I crossed the bridge and payed the minimal fee to enter Yelagin island -- the park island without any cars. It was an incredible place to be when the weather was getting nicer. There were Russians everywhere -- walking around, picnicking in the grass (never thought I would see Russians sitting on the ground), playing volleyball, paddleboating, etc. There was even an army band which played music for the old ladies to dance to; this music ranged from old Soviet marches to the chicken dance. (I got a fantastic video from that one!) I stopped in an old summer palace for a little bit, but I mostly spent my time just sitting along the lakeside and reading, which felt really relaxing compared to my usual life of running all over the place. Eventually, I crossed off of that island and stopped by the Buddhist temple. I'd never been to a Buddhist temple before, and somehow I happened to stumble upon the end of a service. This service involved a lot of singing, banging of cymbals, and other things. I wasn't quite sure what was going on, but it was interesting. The temple was beautiful -- so colorful, I was surprised by the presence of a Buddhist population in St. Petersburg. It seemed small, but strong. After that, I headed back home, but it was definitely one of the most enjoyable afternoons I've had in this new, nice weather.
Sunday, was also a fantastic day, as I had convinced two of my friends (well, one didn't need to be convinced) to go see the Moscow circus with me. Since February, I had seen advertisements for this show, so I knew I needed to see it. First of all, the circus h ere is held in the actual "circus" building, not a tent. The building had very pretty architecture, but once you went inside, it seemed more like a circus tent (especially because of the strong animal scent). Overall, I enjoyed the show. The acrobats were fantastic, though some of the animal acts were lacking (specifically the goat act and the hedgehog act, animals that we personally saw no special talents in. The hedgehog's act was that he could pop balloons by walking into them. Hmm...) . The circus also featured a boxing kangaroo and a bear act, while although the idea of circus bears seemed depressing, they could actually do some incredible tricks. My Russian circus experiences are expanding every day...
After that, I broke Passover, and walked around Peter and Paul Fortress with Katherine where we saw someone almost run into the Neva in his boxers. From there, we met our group for the performance of "Master and Margerita" we were going to see. If you've read that book, you know it's really confusing (but great), but this staging of it was weirder than we could ever have expected. The first 15 minutes were silent, and to all of our knowledge, had nothing to do with anything in the book. We stayed for the first act (an hour and 45 minutes!) and decided to split. It was nice to experience a Russian play, but with the craziness of the play, plus us not understanding the Russian fully, we decided it would not be worth our time to stick it out.
From there, I went to pick up my parents. They arrived safely, but sadly, their luggage did not. We're still waiting on that luggage to arrive -- hopefully it will tonight. It's been fun having them here: staying in a hotel, getting to show off my knowledge about the city, etc. Today we walked around, climbed St. Isaac's Cathedral to see the spectacular view, and went to the Russian museum. It'll be a very busy week. Ok, well I guess we're heading to dinner now!
Hope you're all enjoying spring!
Saturday, the weather was so nice and although my friends were once again heading to the banya, I decided to go off on an adventure of my own. I thought about going to a museum, but I couldn't imagine spending all day inside. So, while looking through my "Lonely Planet" tour book, I found a three hour walking tour around these really nice park-like islands. It started on Kammeny island, which is basically where the rich of the rich Russian population lives. It was actually incredible to see. The houses were like mansions (some designed in new, over-the-top styles, and others which were restorations of the original architecture) -- each one with its own security guard. All the cars driving around were BMWs or SUVs with dark-tinted windows. It was like being transported to the subarbs, although these inhabitants were most likely politicians, organized crime, or some combination of the two.
After exploring that island, I crossed the bridge and payed the minimal fee to enter Yelagin island -- the park island without any cars. It was an incredible place to be when the weather was getting nicer. There were Russians everywhere -- walking around, picnicking in the grass (never thought I would see Russians sitting on the ground), playing volleyball, paddleboating, etc. There was even an army band which played music for the old ladies to dance to; this music ranged from old Soviet marches to the chicken dance. (I got a fantastic video from that one!) I stopped in an old summer palace for a little bit, but I mostly spent my time just sitting along the lakeside and reading, which felt really relaxing compared to my usual life of running all over the place. Eventually, I crossed off of that island and stopped by the Buddhist temple. I'd never been to a Buddhist temple before, and somehow I happened to stumble upon the end of a service. This service involved a lot of singing, banging of cymbals, and other things. I wasn't quite sure what was going on, but it was interesting. The temple was beautiful -- so colorful, I was surprised by the presence of a Buddhist population in St. Petersburg. It seemed small, but strong. After that, I headed back home, but it was definitely one of the most enjoyable afternoons I've had in this new, nice weather.
Sunday, was also a fantastic day, as I had convinced two of my friends (well, one didn't need to be convinced) to go see the Moscow circus with me. Since February, I had seen advertisements for this show, so I knew I needed to see it. First of all, the circus h ere is held in the actual "circus" building, not a tent. The building had very pretty architecture, but once you went inside, it seemed more like a circus tent (especially because of the strong animal scent). Overall, I enjoyed the show. The acrobats were fantastic, though some of the animal acts were lacking (specifically the goat act and the hedgehog act, animals that we personally saw no special talents in. The hedgehog's act was that he could pop balloons by walking into them. Hmm...) . The circus also featured a boxing kangaroo and a bear act, while although the idea of circus bears seemed depressing, they could actually do some incredible tricks. My Russian circus experiences are expanding every day...
After that, I broke Passover, and walked around Peter and Paul Fortress with Katherine where we saw someone almost run into the Neva in his boxers. From there, we met our group for the performance of "Master and Margerita" we were going to see. If you've read that book, you know it's really confusing (but great), but this staging of it was weirder than we could ever have expected. The first 15 minutes were silent, and to all of our knowledge, had nothing to do with anything in the book. We stayed for the first act (an hour and 45 minutes!) and decided to split. It was nice to experience a Russian play, but with the craziness of the play, plus us not understanding the Russian fully, we decided it would not be worth our time to stick it out.
From there, I went to pick up my parents. They arrived safely, but sadly, their luggage did not. We're still waiting on that luggage to arrive -- hopefully it will tonight. It's been fun having them here: staying in a hotel, getting to show off my knowledge about the city, etc. Today we walked around, climbed St. Isaac's Cathedral to see the spectacular view, and went to the Russian museum. It'll be a very busy week. Ok, well I guess we're heading to dinner now!
Hope you're all enjoying spring!
Monday, April 21, 2008
Happy Passover!
After a week of gray, rainy, chilly days, the sun is finally out. Hopefully this time it will stay. I talked to my host mom about the weather and mentioned that I wanted it to be sunny for when my family is here next week. She looked to the ceiling of our kitchen and prayed for good weather. Maybe that will work, who knows...
Once again, not much noteworthy happens during the week. I can't actually remember anything worth mentioning. This weekend, though, was the beginning of Passover. Earlier in the week I found the kosher food store, located next to the synagogue, and bought a box of matzah and some other kosher for passover food items. Generally, my diet isn't going to be very affected at home, as I mostly eat soup, potatoes, and eggs anyways. In explaining the holiday to my host mother, I just said it is "Jewish easter" and this fast is similar to their lent. That's basically how Russians see Passover. This morning, she told me all about an article she had read in some newspaper about Passover, and she explained to me how matzah is made.
For the first seder, I went to a student seder at the orthodox synagogue. It was the first time I was inside the synagogue and it is absolutely gorgeous. I'll have to go back again when it's not a holiday so that I can take pictures. The seder itself was fine, but slightly sub-par. Since it was a student seder, there were maybe 10 round tables filled with students. An Israeli led the seder in Russian, but as soon as we got to the festive meal part, he said goodnight, and we skipped the second half of the seder. But, I had two of my friends with me so we just enjoyed the free food. Most of the seder was in Russian, because I actually don't think so many Russians are familiar with, or can read Hebrew. Probably half of the students at the seder weren't raised in a Jewish home. It was a nice start to Passover, nonetheless.
Afterwards, it was my friend's birthday party so we all headed towards her house. Now that spring has begun, the bridges between the islands that make up St. Petersburg raise in the middle of the night. So, if you are on an island you don't live on, and the bridges go up -- you're stuck. So, I spent all of Saturday night at my friends house, leaving for home on the first metro -- 5:30 am Sunday morning. It was my first night doing the typical Russian stay out all night thing, although I'm not sure if that even counts because I was in an apartment, not in a club. Baby steps...
Sunday I woke up late, because I went to bed at 6:30 am. But, the day looked beautiful so I decided to get out of the house. First, I stopped by the Russian museum for an hour to check it out. Normally, I don't enjoy art museums but I actually really liked this one. It only has art by Russian artists, which I thought was interesting to look at; there are a lot of historical paintings. Also, they had a cool exhibit of Russian folk art -- toys, dolls, wood carvings, pottery, etc. I'll definitely go back in the future. The museum felt a little stuffy because it was so nice outside, so I got off the bus early on the way home and walked along the Gulf of Finland for an hour or so.
Sunday night, I attended second seder at the house of Alexander Lvov, a professor of Judaism at the European university in St. Petersburg. There were tons of people crowded around a small table, including a professor from U Mich, who was actually Heather Hogan's PhD advisor (Russian history professor at Oberlin...small world). The seder was mostly in hebrew this time, and extremely long. It didn't start until almost 11; I think we ate close to 1 am. I was exhausted, so I didn't talk extensively to people, although what I did hear seemed interesting. It's been very strange having passover not at home though, it's made me more homesick than usual.
One of the things that struck me at these seders were how things I associate with Jewish traditions might just be American Jewish traditions. Like food, for example. I'm used to having matzoh ball soup at seder. In Russia, you are still eating Russian food. Both seders had beet salad, pickles, and other traditional Russian dishes. The second seder involved a lot of hard liquor -- also something that's not as common in America.
Well, this week should be exciting. I have tickets to see Eugene Onegin tomorrow night, and this weekend I'm planning on going to the circus, and see the play of "Master and Margerita." My family flies in Sunday night and they'll be here all week, so I can't promise a blog update next Monday. Check anyways though.
Ok, enjoy the end of April! Wow, I can't believe it's here already.
Once again, not much noteworthy happens during the week. I can't actually remember anything worth mentioning. This weekend, though, was the beginning of Passover. Earlier in the week I found the kosher food store, located next to the synagogue, and bought a box of matzah and some other kosher for passover food items. Generally, my diet isn't going to be very affected at home, as I mostly eat soup, potatoes, and eggs anyways. In explaining the holiday to my host mother, I just said it is "Jewish easter" and this fast is similar to their lent. That's basically how Russians see Passover. This morning, she told me all about an article she had read in some newspaper about Passover, and she explained to me how matzah is made.
For the first seder, I went to a student seder at the orthodox synagogue. It was the first time I was inside the synagogue and it is absolutely gorgeous. I'll have to go back again when it's not a holiday so that I can take pictures. The seder itself was fine, but slightly sub-par. Since it was a student seder, there were maybe 10 round tables filled with students. An Israeli led the seder in Russian, but as soon as we got to the festive meal part, he said goodnight, and we skipped the second half of the seder. But, I had two of my friends with me so we just enjoyed the free food. Most of the seder was in Russian, because I actually don't think so many Russians are familiar with, or can read Hebrew. Probably half of the students at the seder weren't raised in a Jewish home. It was a nice start to Passover, nonetheless.
Afterwards, it was my friend's birthday party so we all headed towards her house. Now that spring has begun, the bridges between the islands that make up St. Petersburg raise in the middle of the night. So, if you are on an island you don't live on, and the bridges go up -- you're stuck. So, I spent all of Saturday night at my friends house, leaving for home on the first metro -- 5:30 am Sunday morning. It was my first night doing the typical Russian stay out all night thing, although I'm not sure if that even counts because I was in an apartment, not in a club. Baby steps...
Sunday I woke up late, because I went to bed at 6:30 am. But, the day looked beautiful so I decided to get out of the house. First, I stopped by the Russian museum for an hour to check it out. Normally, I don't enjoy art museums but I actually really liked this one. It only has art by Russian artists, which I thought was interesting to look at; there are a lot of historical paintings. Also, they had a cool exhibit of Russian folk art -- toys, dolls, wood carvings, pottery, etc. I'll definitely go back in the future. The museum felt a little stuffy because it was so nice outside, so I got off the bus early on the way home and walked along the Gulf of Finland for an hour or so.
Sunday night, I attended second seder at the house of Alexander Lvov, a professor of Judaism at the European university in St. Petersburg. There were tons of people crowded around a small table, including a professor from U Mich, who was actually Heather Hogan's PhD advisor (Russian history professor at Oberlin...small world). The seder was mostly in hebrew this time, and extremely long. It didn't start until almost 11; I think we ate close to 1 am. I was exhausted, so I didn't talk extensively to people, although what I did hear seemed interesting. It's been very strange having passover not at home though, it's made me more homesick than usual.
One of the things that struck me at these seders were how things I associate with Jewish traditions might just be American Jewish traditions. Like food, for example. I'm used to having matzoh ball soup at seder. In Russia, you are still eating Russian food. Both seders had beet salad, pickles, and other traditional Russian dishes. The second seder involved a lot of hard liquor -- also something that's not as common in America.
Well, this week should be exciting. I have tickets to see Eugene Onegin tomorrow night, and this weekend I'm planning on going to the circus, and see the play of "Master and Margerita." My family flies in Sunday night and they'll be here all week, so I can't promise a blog update next Monday. Check anyways though.
Ok, enjoy the end of April! Wow, I can't believe it's here already.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Midterms and Pskov
The sun has disappeared completely from St. Petersburg and has been replaced by gray skies and rain. Great. I can't wait until the weather reverses. Although I guess I'm not missing that much -- I heard Oberlin was hit by snow yesterday.
This past week hasn't been very interesting. I had midterms for my two Smolny courses, both of which were extremely ridiculous. For my politics class in English, we had to write an essay entitled "30 years after WWII: my view." For my world music class, we had to listen to 12 different pieces of music and pick what country we thought they were from. One student convinced our teacher to write the possible countries on the board, and when we noticed we had only studied 2 out of the 6, the teacher replied "this is more a test of your musical intuition." Needless to say, this has not been an extremely academically challenging semester.
Yesterday, I returned from an overnight in Pskov, a small Russian town south of St. Petersburg. It was an excursion with my group and while I didn't enjoy all of the sightseeing, it was fun to simply hang out with the entire group -- something that hadn't happened for a while. Pskov is a pretty old city and we did a walking tour of it in the rain, which was unpleasant. The next day we went to Izbork, an even smaller city, where we saw old churches and fortresses. It was actually kind of incredible because it really felt like we were looking at ancient Russia. Most of this part of Russia was swamp land, which was extremely apparent where we were. Standing in these ruins looking at the murky ground made us feel like we were in Ancient Rus', possibly trying to ward off a Mongol attack. Then, we went to a monastary near by, which in my opinion, looked slightly like Disneyworld. Sorry for the lack of pictures in the past month, I'll try to have some new ones up by the end of this week.
Other than that, not much has happened. Friday night I was left home alone (my host mom was very afraid that in 24 hours I would starve, so she cooked about 3 days worth of food for me). It was kind of nice to feel like I had my own place, so I invited some friends over and we made real American chocolate chip cookies. They were delicious and my host family really enjoyed them as well.
I think the craziest part of our trip to Pskov was simply riding our bus on small Russian roads for hours at end. They were possible the worst roads I have ever traveled on. And the worst outhouses I have ever had to use.
Ok, well I'm going to go try to find the kosher store so that I can buy some matzoh to eat next week. I wish everybody a happy Passover (if you are celebrating it), and if not, have a good week!
Hannah
This past week hasn't been very interesting. I had midterms for my two Smolny courses, both of which were extremely ridiculous. For my politics class in English, we had to write an essay entitled "30 years after WWII: my view." For my world music class, we had to listen to 12 different pieces of music and pick what country we thought they were from. One student convinced our teacher to write the possible countries on the board, and when we noticed we had only studied 2 out of the 6, the teacher replied "this is more a test of your musical intuition." Needless to say, this has not been an extremely academically challenging semester.
Yesterday, I returned from an overnight in Pskov, a small Russian town south of St. Petersburg. It was an excursion with my group and while I didn't enjoy all of the sightseeing, it was fun to simply hang out with the entire group -- something that hadn't happened for a while. Pskov is a pretty old city and we did a walking tour of it in the rain, which was unpleasant. The next day we went to Izbork, an even smaller city, where we saw old churches and fortresses. It was actually kind of incredible because it really felt like we were looking at ancient Russia. Most of this part of Russia was swamp land, which was extremely apparent where we were. Standing in these ruins looking at the murky ground made us feel like we were in Ancient Rus', possibly trying to ward off a Mongol attack. Then, we went to a monastary near by, which in my opinion, looked slightly like Disneyworld. Sorry for the lack of pictures in the past month, I'll try to have some new ones up by the end of this week.
Other than that, not much has happened. Friday night I was left home alone (my host mom was very afraid that in 24 hours I would starve, so she cooked about 3 days worth of food for me). It was kind of nice to feel like I had my own place, so I invited some friends over and we made real American chocolate chip cookies. They were delicious and my host family really enjoyed them as well.
I think the craziest part of our trip to Pskov was simply riding our bus on small Russian roads for hours at end. They were possible the worst roads I have ever traveled on. And the worst outhouses I have ever had to use.
Ok, well I'm going to go try to find the kosher store so that I can buy some matzoh to eat next week. I wish everybody a happy Passover (if you are celebrating it), and if not, have a good week!
Hannah
Monday, April 7, 2008
The weather is getting warmer!
Finally, it seems that the snow has stopped. My host mother says you can never be too sure -- it could snow in June here! But, I'm hoping for the best. It's been so nice to wear light jackets, sneakers instead of boots, etc. The downside is that the weather is great that I spend entire days walking around the city. Which isn't so bad, except it takes a lot of time away from doing homework and stuff like that. Also, the fact that it stays light so late at night has not helped my sense of time. I walk around until 9 pm and don't notice because it looks like 4:00 outside! And that's only going to get worse...soon it will be light at 2 am!
This past week, the orchestra I've been playing with had a concert. We had mostly been practicing tango music, but it sounded pretty empty, so I was a little confused. At the dress rehearsal (which was also the first time I heard that we were playing a concert), the conductor came out with an accordion. I guess he's a semi-famous accordionist and all the music we were playing was for him to solo with. My friends insisted on coming to my concert even though I told them it probably wasn't worth it. We were all in for a surprise because I didn't realize that the concert was a tribute to the accordion and had about 20 different groups performing. There were more accordions there than I had ever seen in my life. My friends had to sit through about 2 hours of listening to groups of accordions playing all kinds of music. I was shocked backstage as I watched 30 people walk in a line past me with accordions and balalaikas (Russian traditional instruments).
Another exciting moment of this week was that the olympic torch relay came through St. Petersburg! I went out to a corner where it was supposed to pass and waited for hours with hundreds of people. All in all, the torch went by very quickly, but it was worth the shared experience. It's not every olympic season that I'm in a city where the torch is going to pass through. It was interesting to see so much enthusiasm for the Olympics that are being held in China, when most Russians have such strong prejudices against the Chinese.
Yesterday, we had a group trip to see the opera "Ruslan and Lyudmila" with music by Glinka. It's based on a Pushkin poem, which is supposed to be enjoyable, but the opera was about 5 hours long and extremely boring. It was my first time in the Mariinski theater, though, and I was very impressed.
I'm sorry these entries have been getting shorter...I think I'm just getting busier!
This past week, the orchestra I've been playing with had a concert. We had mostly been practicing tango music, but it sounded pretty empty, so I was a little confused. At the dress rehearsal (which was also the first time I heard that we were playing a concert), the conductor came out with an accordion. I guess he's a semi-famous accordionist and all the music we were playing was for him to solo with. My friends insisted on coming to my concert even though I told them it probably wasn't worth it. We were all in for a surprise because I didn't realize that the concert was a tribute to the accordion and had about 20 different groups performing. There were more accordions there than I had ever seen in my life. My friends had to sit through about 2 hours of listening to groups of accordions playing all kinds of music. I was shocked backstage as I watched 30 people walk in a line past me with accordions and balalaikas (Russian traditional instruments).
Another exciting moment of this week was that the olympic torch relay came through St. Petersburg! I went out to a corner where it was supposed to pass and waited for hours with hundreds of people. All in all, the torch went by very quickly, but it was worth the shared experience. It's not every olympic season that I'm in a city where the torch is going to pass through. It was interesting to see so much enthusiasm for the Olympics that are being held in China, when most Russians have such strong prejudices against the Chinese.
Yesterday, we had a group trip to see the opera "Ruslan and Lyudmila" with music by Glinka. It's based on a Pushkin poem, which is supposed to be enjoyable, but the opera was about 5 hours long and extremely boring. It was my first time in the Mariinski theater, though, and I was very impressed.
I'm sorry these entries have been getting shorter...I think I'm just getting busier!
Monday, March 31, 2008
Arabian restaurants and the cat circus
So this past weekend was fairly eventful, I would say. Despite trying to get student rush tickets to the opera twice - and failing both times - I managed to have quite a large number of interesting Russian experiences.
Friday night, after a failed attempt to see Carmen, I went with two friends to a restaurant called "1001 nights." Obviously, a slight middle eastern theme. My one friend had tried to go with her family the week before, but they were closed. We walked in, and had to go through 5 rooms before we found anyone that gave us any hope that this was a functioning restaurant. The entire complex was decorated like middle eastern/arabian buildings. The walls were painted to resemble light stone, with light blue decorations everywhere and fake pools of water. The restaurant itself was huge -- there were 2 banquet tables for 14 people each, and many more smaller tables. We were the only people there. We had to assume that it was a front for some sketchy Russian business, but even if it was, the food was great. After a week of meals consisting only of cabbage and potatoes, spicy eggplant was a nice change. We were thoroughly enjoying our empty restaurant until this guy came out with a microphone and welcomed us ladies to the restaurant. I guess he had been hired as the entertainment, but we were the only people there. So, for the next 40 minutes, he sang, just to us. We heard Arabian and Russian pop songs, plus some jazz standards. It was extremely awkward to sit there with a restaurant performer staring at us the entire time, but once again, the food was good.
Our weather is starting to get really nice -- today for the first time I wore a fleece to school instead of my huge down coat. Saturday was an especially sunny day, so I went for a long progulka (stroll) by myself. Along my walk, I stopped in the Nabokov's apartment (not so interesting, most of the exhibit was of his butterfly collection) and in Rimsky-Korsakov's apartment (more interesting, but still quite small. There are concerts sometimes held in Rimsky-Korsakov's apartment, so I'm going to look into maybe attending on of those.
But! The most exciting part of this past weekend was going to the famous Moscow cat theater! I am a big fan of circuses in general, so the idea of the cat circus seemed incredible to me. It wasn't as enticing to my friends, but I found a few who I could convince to come with me. First of all, I was a little embarrassed to go to a box office and ask for tickets to the cat circus. But, it's an extremely normal thing for Russians. My host mother said "Oh, that's a good thing to see. It doesn't come around here all the time." I guess Kuklachov's cat circus is often abroad doing international tours. I would suggest youtubing some clips to get the full effect.
All in all, it was an enjoyable circus. Sometimes the cat's trick seemed to be sitting. For example, a clown would balance on something with a cat on his head. But there were some really impressive cat tricks, like cats tightroping, or climbing across a rope upside down. My favorite was the cat that could traverse tightropes with just it's front legs -- basically by hanging by it's armpits. That was cool. I'm really glad that I got a chance to see this very pivotal part of Russian culture. It's not everyday you can go to the cat circus.
Friday night, after a failed attempt to see Carmen, I went with two friends to a restaurant called "1001 nights." Obviously, a slight middle eastern theme. My one friend had tried to go with her family the week before, but they were closed. We walked in, and had to go through 5 rooms before we found anyone that gave us any hope that this was a functioning restaurant. The entire complex was decorated like middle eastern/arabian buildings. The walls were painted to resemble light stone, with light blue decorations everywhere and fake pools of water. The restaurant itself was huge -- there were 2 banquet tables for 14 people each, and many more smaller tables. We were the only people there. We had to assume that it was a front for some sketchy Russian business, but even if it was, the food was great. After a week of meals consisting only of cabbage and potatoes, spicy eggplant was a nice change. We were thoroughly enjoying our empty restaurant until this guy came out with a microphone and welcomed us ladies to the restaurant. I guess he had been hired as the entertainment, but we were the only people there. So, for the next 40 minutes, he sang, just to us. We heard Arabian and Russian pop songs, plus some jazz standards. It was extremely awkward to sit there with a restaurant performer staring at us the entire time, but once again, the food was good.
Our weather is starting to get really nice -- today for the first time I wore a fleece to school instead of my huge down coat. Saturday was an especially sunny day, so I went for a long progulka (stroll) by myself. Along my walk, I stopped in the Nabokov's apartment (not so interesting, most of the exhibit was of his butterfly collection) and in Rimsky-Korsakov's apartment (more interesting, but still quite small. There are concerts sometimes held in Rimsky-Korsakov's apartment, so I'm going to look into maybe attending on of those.
But! The most exciting part of this past weekend was going to the famous Moscow cat theater! I am a big fan of circuses in general, so the idea of the cat circus seemed incredible to me. It wasn't as enticing to my friends, but I found a few who I could convince to come with me. First of all, I was a little embarrassed to go to a box office and ask for tickets to the cat circus. But, it's an extremely normal thing for Russians. My host mother said "Oh, that's a good thing to see. It doesn't come around here all the time." I guess Kuklachov's cat circus is often abroad doing international tours. I would suggest youtubing some clips to get the full effect.
All in all, it was an enjoyable circus. Sometimes the cat's trick seemed to be sitting. For example, a clown would balance on something with a cat on his head. But there were some really impressive cat tricks, like cats tightroping, or climbing across a rope upside down. My favorite was the cat that could traverse tightropes with just it's front legs -- basically by hanging by it's armpits. That was cool. I'm really glad that I got a chance to see this very pivotal part of Russian culture. It's not everyday you can go to the cat circus.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Sorry it's late!
Things have been getting busier and busier, so I apologize for the lack of blog updates. This week is our midterms week for Russian as a second language classes, which on top of being a bit sick, has not made for a fun time. I think everyone is getting sick though, because the weather is so wacky. It was warm for a little bit, but the past two days, there have been giant snowstorms in the morning, and then sunny, clear afternoons. It’s almost April! I really hope the snow stops soon . . .
My normal life has also become extremely busy. It kind of feels like Oberlin, where I don’t come home until 10 or 11 every night. One night a week I am now helping with an English discussion club at the Jewish community center. There are about 15-20 people who show up for this club, and another American girl who helps out with me. Every week there is a different topic that the participants find out about beforehand so that they can practice vocabulary if they want. This past week, our topic was “careers.” Working at the discussion club basically involves sitting around for an hour and 45 minutes talking about the topic, which has its ups and downs. I don’t know how they do it, but I think it would be extremely hard to get a group of Americans to sit still for that long and talk about one topic, but the Russians have great powers of concentrations. I, on the other hand, find myself getting a little bored. But, it has its benefits. The participants are all different ages, so sometimes the things they say are really interesting. Last week there were 3 girls who are freshmen in college, who talked about how they are extremely patriotic people and never want to work anywhere except for Russia. This surprised not only myself, but the other Russians there, because most people want to work abroad for the money. My other job for this discussion club is to bring in some Jewish elements to the discussion. About 70% of the people have some Jewish connection, but people don’t really know much about Judaism so I try to add some interesting tidbits into the conversation.
I also joined a small string orchestra in the university. The orchestra itself is pretty bad, but the people are so nice that I keep going. Like any Russian club, there is a break in the middle of rehearsal that runs into more of a 45 minute tea and snacking time. After rehearsal, a bunch of girls go out for more tea and they have invited me along. They are all really friendly and it’s a great chance to practice my Russian. Last Thursday it was a girl’s birthday in the orchestra, and the break was extended to add room for cake and champagne. Needless to say, after that, no one wanted to rehearse more.
This past weekend I also met with the friends of one of my Russian teachers at Oberlin. The daughter, Mariam, is applying for college in the US and needs to practice her English. I went over to their house and they were so friendly. Her mother cooked a ton of food and was so excited to meet me. They are Armenians, not Russians, but have lived here for a really long time. I heard many stories about their lives, was invited to bring my entire family to Armenia to visit them, and asked so many questions about myself. From speaking to Mariam, it’s really obvious how well she would do in a US university. Her way of thinking just doesn’t match with the Russian educational system, which teaches people not really to think, but to repeat facts. She told me many stories about what her classmates say in history classes, and how she gets in trouble for trying to make them more open-minded. She also told me a story about how they were all supposed to pick what they wanted to do when they were in 8th grade, and how she got in trouble for changing her mind a few months later from wanting to do chemistry to physics. If Americans had to pick their profession in 8th grade, our world would be a very different place . . . This week I think I’m going to go to a museum with her on my day off, so we’ll spend half the time speaking English, and the other half speaking in Russian. I’m really looking forward to spending more time with her and her mother.
All in all, this past weekend wasn’t very exciting. But, Friday night I went to a birthday party for a friend at some night club. We didn’t want to stay out all night, so we took a gypsy cab home at 2:30 am. The conversation I got into with the driver was a great example of Russian personalities. It was the middle of the night and he starts asking me about the American primaries and who we want to win. After giving his opinions on the candidates (he thinks Hilary won’t win because she forgave Bill for his sex scandal, which made her look weak to the public), he went on to other topics: Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson, the benefits of racism. It was a pretty amusing ride home. Even though the gypsy cabs can be slightly sketchy, they are a great way to break into the mind of the normal Russian.
Well, I should get going – I have two midterms today! Other than that, I found out that I got into Aspen music festival for this summer, so I will be spending the summer in Colorado. Let me know what kind of plans everyone has for the summer!
My normal life has also become extremely busy. It kind of feels like Oberlin, where I don’t come home until 10 or 11 every night. One night a week I am now helping with an English discussion club at the Jewish community center. There are about 15-20 people who show up for this club, and another American girl who helps out with me. Every week there is a different topic that the participants find out about beforehand so that they can practice vocabulary if they want. This past week, our topic was “careers.” Working at the discussion club basically involves sitting around for an hour and 45 minutes talking about the topic, which has its ups and downs. I don’t know how they do it, but I think it would be extremely hard to get a group of Americans to sit still for that long and talk about one topic, but the Russians have great powers of concentrations. I, on the other hand, find myself getting a little bored. But, it has its benefits. The participants are all different ages, so sometimes the things they say are really interesting. Last week there were 3 girls who are freshmen in college, who talked about how they are extremely patriotic people and never want to work anywhere except for Russia. This surprised not only myself, but the other Russians there, because most people want to work abroad for the money. My other job for this discussion club is to bring in some Jewish elements to the discussion. About 70% of the people have some Jewish connection, but people don’t really know much about Judaism so I try to add some interesting tidbits into the conversation.
I also joined a small string orchestra in the university. The orchestra itself is pretty bad, but the people are so nice that I keep going. Like any Russian club, there is a break in the middle of rehearsal that runs into more of a 45 minute tea and snacking time. After rehearsal, a bunch of girls go out for more tea and they have invited me along. They are all really friendly and it’s a great chance to practice my Russian. Last Thursday it was a girl’s birthday in the orchestra, and the break was extended to add room for cake and champagne. Needless to say, after that, no one wanted to rehearse more.
This past weekend I also met with the friends of one of my Russian teachers at Oberlin. The daughter, Mariam, is applying for college in the US and needs to practice her English. I went over to their house and they were so friendly. Her mother cooked a ton of food and was so excited to meet me. They are Armenians, not Russians, but have lived here for a really long time. I heard many stories about their lives, was invited to bring my entire family to Armenia to visit them, and asked so many questions about myself. From speaking to Mariam, it’s really obvious how well she would do in a US university. Her way of thinking just doesn’t match with the Russian educational system, which teaches people not really to think, but to repeat facts. She told me many stories about what her classmates say in history classes, and how she gets in trouble for trying to make them more open-minded. She also told me a story about how they were all supposed to pick what they wanted to do when they were in 8th grade, and how she got in trouble for changing her mind a few months later from wanting to do chemistry to physics. If Americans had to pick their profession in 8th grade, our world would be a very different place . . . This week I think I’m going to go to a museum with her on my day off, so we’ll spend half the time speaking English, and the other half speaking in Russian. I’m really looking forward to spending more time with her and her mother.
All in all, this past weekend wasn’t very exciting. But, Friday night I went to a birthday party for a friend at some night club. We didn’t want to stay out all night, so we took a gypsy cab home at 2:30 am. The conversation I got into with the driver was a great example of Russian personalities. It was the middle of the night and he starts asking me about the American primaries and who we want to win. After giving his opinions on the candidates (he thinks Hilary won’t win because she forgave Bill for his sex scandal, which made her look weak to the public), he went on to other topics: Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson, the benefits of racism. It was a pretty amusing ride home. Even though the gypsy cabs can be slightly sketchy, they are a great way to break into the mind of the normal Russian.
Well, I should get going – I have two midterms today! Other than that, I found out that I got into Aspen music festival for this summer, so I will be spending the summer in Colorado. Let me know what kind of plans everyone has for the summer!
Monday, March 17, 2008
Can't come up with good titles.
So now, with only 3 more months to go, my life seems like it is starting to fall into place. This being my 8th semester of college, I’m more interested in exploring the community and opportunities available to me in St. Petersburg, rather than sitting in endless classes and writing papers.
This past week I had a meeting with a woman, Irina, at the JDC to talk about volunteer options for me this semester. Starting this week, I’m going to go help out with an English discussion group at the Jewish community center, for people who like to practice their English. Every week there is a different theme and the teachers plan activities and discussion questions for the meeting. All in all, it seems a lot like what I do at camp, so it shouldn’t be so hard. She’s also going to invite me to Jewish youth events for students my age, so that will be a good way to meet some Russian friends. She gave me a presentation about the JDC which was actually really interesting. I don’t know if I have mentioned this, but Judaism in this region has always been an ethnicity, not a religion. So, while people were forced to identify as Jewish, it held more of a negative connotation than the idea of a heritage they could actually embrace. Part of the JDC’s work in St. Petersburg is to get Jews active and affiliated with communities, but another part of it is to create a self-sufficient community. Irina showed me a statistic that over 60% of the Jewish population in this area is middle/upper class, so part of their work is to encourage these people to support the community so that they can have their own benefactors, instead of always using foreign ones.
This past Saturday I had lunch at the people’s house where I had dinner the Friday before. There, I got to meet some of these Jewish businessmen and other Jews in the community. Menachem and his wife always invite a wide variety of people to their house for Shabbat. This lunch included: me, a woman from Chicago who was here visiting, a couple from Canada (originally from South Africa) who were also visiting, 3 Russian businessmen, a secretary from the JDC (who was never an active Jew but saw an advertisement for a Jewish secretary 13 years ago and has been working there since), and a Jewish, Russian violinist who was very fun to talk to. It was an interesting combination of a traditional Shabbat meal and a traditional Russian one, with the men taking shots of vodka and toasting to various things. Everyone is excited to meet me and very thankful that I want to volunteer, even though I haven’t done anything yet.
Also this week I met with a new viola teacher, since I hadn’t really been enjoying my 1st one. This guy seems good, we’ll see how my next lesson goes. He’s a teacher in the conservatory and my lesson was actually in the conservatory this time. It was interesting to go inside the conservatory and observe the students and the environment compared to Oberlin’s. It definitely made me notice the lack of musical environment that I am in this semester (although I went to two orchestra concerts this weekend). The best thing about the lesson was that I got there by marshutka, which is a small minibus that runs on a more specific route, but is harder to take because it stops wherever you want it to, therefore you need to know where you want to go. But, I got to and from my lesson successfully, so now I am less afraid of that mode of transportation.
Tomorrow I am going to check out a string orchestra in St. Petersburg University that I might play with. Hopefully that will be good. All in all, I’m glad to be able to participate in things I’m interested in – I think it will really add to this semester.
This past week I had a meeting with a woman, Irina, at the JDC to talk about volunteer options for me this semester. Starting this week, I’m going to go help out with an English discussion group at the Jewish community center, for people who like to practice their English. Every week there is a different theme and the teachers plan activities and discussion questions for the meeting. All in all, it seems a lot like what I do at camp, so it shouldn’t be so hard. She’s also going to invite me to Jewish youth events for students my age, so that will be a good way to meet some Russian friends. She gave me a presentation about the JDC which was actually really interesting. I don’t know if I have mentioned this, but Judaism in this region has always been an ethnicity, not a religion. So, while people were forced to identify as Jewish, it held more of a negative connotation than the idea of a heritage they could actually embrace. Part of the JDC’s work in St. Petersburg is to get Jews active and affiliated with communities, but another part of it is to create a self-sufficient community. Irina showed me a statistic that over 60% of the Jewish population in this area is middle/upper class, so part of their work is to encourage these people to support the community so that they can have their own benefactors, instead of always using foreign ones.
This past Saturday I had lunch at the people’s house where I had dinner the Friday before. There, I got to meet some of these Jewish businessmen and other Jews in the community. Menachem and his wife always invite a wide variety of people to their house for Shabbat. This lunch included: me, a woman from Chicago who was here visiting, a couple from Canada (originally from South Africa) who were also visiting, 3 Russian businessmen, a secretary from the JDC (who was never an active Jew but saw an advertisement for a Jewish secretary 13 years ago and has been working there since), and a Jewish, Russian violinist who was very fun to talk to. It was an interesting combination of a traditional Shabbat meal and a traditional Russian one, with the men taking shots of vodka and toasting to various things. Everyone is excited to meet me and very thankful that I want to volunteer, even though I haven’t done anything yet.
Also this week I met with a new viola teacher, since I hadn’t really been enjoying my 1st one. This guy seems good, we’ll see how my next lesson goes. He’s a teacher in the conservatory and my lesson was actually in the conservatory this time. It was interesting to go inside the conservatory and observe the students and the environment compared to Oberlin’s. It definitely made me notice the lack of musical environment that I am in this semester (although I went to two orchestra concerts this weekend). The best thing about the lesson was that I got there by marshutka, which is a small minibus that runs on a more specific route, but is harder to take because it stops wherever you want it to, therefore you need to know where you want to go. But, I got to and from my lesson successfully, so now I am less afraid of that mode of transportation.
Tomorrow I am going to check out a string orchestra in St. Petersburg University that I might play with. Hopefully that will be good. All in all, I’m glad to be able to participate in things I’m interested in – I think it will really add to this semester.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Saturday-Monday
I don't know if I had mentioned that this entire past week (Sunday-Sunday) was the Russian festival of Maslenitsa. This is their version of Carnival, when they pig out of bliny (russian pancakes) until the beginning of Lent when they have to give them up. This is also the last remaining pagan holiday, so their are old pagan elements left over. The holiday also represents the end of winter, so at the end of the holiday, they burn a big straw doll to end winter and welcome the spring.
We had been told that there would be bliny everywhere, but truthfully, we didn't see them. Saturday afternoon, I set out with my friend Margo, wanting to find wooden bliny carts in parks and street corners everywhere. Sadly, we found none, and had to go to a restaurant and order bliny. Nice walk though...
Saturday night, I was supposed to go to a Mussorsky concert with my friend Katie who loves "Pictures at an Exhibition." It was performed at the Mariinski concert hall, which is very modern and actually not so nice inside. Also, the magazine we had read advertising the concert failed to mention that it wasn't the full orchestral version of the piece, so we listened to scenes of an opera, and a brass ensemble version of "Pictures" in a mostly empty auditorium.
Oh, Saturday was also International Women's Day, which means all the women get flowers and technically men are supposed to do all the work. As there are no men in my household, this didn't affect me.
Sunday was a bit more exciting. We had heard that there was actually an end of Maslenitsa festival on this island that is mostly a park. It's kind of far outside of town, but as we traveled further out on the metro and saw hundreds of kids also headed that way, we knew we were correct. The festival was crazy -- basically a carnival, but held in snow and freezing temperatures. There were stages with dancing, contests (like which woman can dance best with a broom, perfect to recreate gender roles the day after Women's Day), bliny eating contests, blacksmiths, etc. There were also rides, stands selling straw dolls to be burned, and kids on sleds everywhere. It was really fun to get to see, although we were so cold we couldn't stay until the doll burning. I have pictures of things, but my camera sadly isn't cooperating with my computer right now, but hopefully I'll fix it soon. It felt like a true Russian experience.
Today was fantastic! 40 degree weather and blue skies! I hung out with Katie on the icy, snowy waterfront near our house, basking in the sun in our down coats. Still fun. There were people walking all over the frozen water. It was so nice to have pretty weather, it made us very excited for the spring.
Also, forget to tell you the story my friend had about seeing a man hail an ambulance on the street. Turns out you can do that in Russia.
Ok, well I should go. I'm not sure if I'm addressing all the things that people are interested in, so if you have any topics you'd like me to cover, please, comment on my blog and let me know!
We had been told that there would be bliny everywhere, but truthfully, we didn't see them. Saturday afternoon, I set out with my friend Margo, wanting to find wooden bliny carts in parks and street corners everywhere. Sadly, we found none, and had to go to a restaurant and order bliny. Nice walk though...
Saturday night, I was supposed to go to a Mussorsky concert with my friend Katie who loves "Pictures at an Exhibition." It was performed at the Mariinski concert hall, which is very modern and actually not so nice inside. Also, the magazine we had read advertising the concert failed to mention that it wasn't the full orchestral version of the piece, so we listened to scenes of an opera, and a brass ensemble version of "Pictures" in a mostly empty auditorium.
Oh, Saturday was also International Women's Day, which means all the women get flowers and technically men are supposed to do all the work. As there are no men in my household, this didn't affect me.
Sunday was a bit more exciting. We had heard that there was actually an end of Maslenitsa festival on this island that is mostly a park. It's kind of far outside of town, but as we traveled further out on the metro and saw hundreds of kids also headed that way, we knew we were correct. The festival was crazy -- basically a carnival, but held in snow and freezing temperatures. There were stages with dancing, contests (like which woman can dance best with a broom, perfect to recreate gender roles the day after Women's Day), bliny eating contests, blacksmiths, etc. There were also rides, stands selling straw dolls to be burned, and kids on sleds everywhere. It was really fun to get to see, although we were so cold we couldn't stay until the doll burning. I have pictures of things, but my camera sadly isn't cooperating with my computer right now, but hopefully I'll fix it soon. It felt like a true Russian experience.
Today was fantastic! 40 degree weather and blue skies! I hung out with Katie on the icy, snowy waterfront near our house, basking in the sun in our down coats. Still fun. There were people walking all over the frozen water. It was so nice to have pretty weather, it made us very excited for the spring.
Also, forget to tell you the story my friend had about seeing a man hail an ambulance on the street. Turns out you can do that in Russia.
Ok, well I should go. I'm not sure if I'm addressing all the things that people are interested in, so if you have any topics you'd like me to cover, please, comment on my blog and let me know!
Jews in Russia
First of all, while the US has switched to daylight savings time, Russia has not, so we are only 7 hours apart for all of those who are dying to call me. Keep that in mind.
One big thing that has happened in the past few weeks is that I have started to explore the Jewish community in St. Petersburg. Two weeks ago I found the website for the Jewish community center here and saw that there is a reform synagogue housed there. I found this about an hour before Friday night services were supposed to start, so I trekked over there (about a 45 minute walk from my school) and found the building. The YESOD center, as it’s called, is a huge, gorgeous building, which was mostly financed by the Cleveland Jewish community. I got there but couldn’t quite figure out where services were located. So, like I would do in any synagogue, I found an old man wearing a kippah, and asked him where to go. He gladly directed me into this main room in the building. As soon as I entered, a woman who works with the congregation came up to me, asked me where I was from, etc. Everyone was so excited to have a young person visiting, especially from the states.
At the beginning of services, the Rabbi announced that there was a guest and started saying everything in both Russian and English (until someone told him that I understood Russian). In general, the service was a basic reform service, full with a keyboard player and a slightly out of tune cantor. It’s not really to my tastes at all, but it was nice to be in the community. There were probably about 20-25 people there, mostly older, but everyone who was there was really into being there. It was nice to see a congregation of dedicated people, even if most of them haven’t been practicing Judaism for very long.
After services, there was a small buffet of food (really popular with the older pensioners). One woman came over with a full plate of food for me since I was a guest, which I felt bad about eating, but did so as I was very hungry. I ended up talking to an American family (well, husband is American, wife emigrated to the US in 1989) who works with the US commerce department in Russia. They have been going to this synagogue for a few years and have really enjoyed it. In conclusion, I gave my name to people at the synagogue to get on their mailing address and hopefully be involved in the future.
Then, my parents found out that a friend from our synagogue is related to the person who is in charge of the FSU portion of the JDC (an organization that works with building diaspora Jewish communities). So, through this long chain I recently hooked up with the JDC in St. Petersburg. The representative had me over to his house for this last Shabbat, which was fantastic. They are Israeli, and the wife had cooked homemade everything: challah, gefilte fish, 10 different salads, chicken, meat, a non-dairy ice cream fantasy dessert, etc. We spent the night talking about everything; they told me a lot about their past 13 years of living in the FSU, from the days when the women in stores used abacuses to calculate the price total. They welcomed me back to their house at any time, and the husband is also going to arrange meetings for me with the heads of the YESOD so I can find volunteer opportunities, etc.
It’s been really nice to find a Jewish community because it’s a very easy place to fit in. Now I feel much more comfortable with the upcoming holidays, etc. It’s also nice to be making so many connections that might be useful for my future.
One big thing that has happened in the past few weeks is that I have started to explore the Jewish community in St. Petersburg. Two weeks ago I found the website for the Jewish community center here and saw that there is a reform synagogue housed there. I found this about an hour before Friday night services were supposed to start, so I trekked over there (about a 45 minute walk from my school) and found the building. The YESOD center, as it’s called, is a huge, gorgeous building, which was mostly financed by the Cleveland Jewish community. I got there but couldn’t quite figure out where services were located. So, like I would do in any synagogue, I found an old man wearing a kippah, and asked him where to go. He gladly directed me into this main room in the building. As soon as I entered, a woman who works with the congregation came up to me, asked me where I was from, etc. Everyone was so excited to have a young person visiting, especially from the states.
At the beginning of services, the Rabbi announced that there was a guest and started saying everything in both Russian and English (until someone told him that I understood Russian). In general, the service was a basic reform service, full with a keyboard player and a slightly out of tune cantor. It’s not really to my tastes at all, but it was nice to be in the community. There were probably about 20-25 people there, mostly older, but everyone who was there was really into being there. It was nice to see a congregation of dedicated people, even if most of them haven’t been practicing Judaism for very long.
After services, there was a small buffet of food (really popular with the older pensioners). One woman came over with a full plate of food for me since I was a guest, which I felt bad about eating, but did so as I was very hungry. I ended up talking to an American family (well, husband is American, wife emigrated to the US in 1989) who works with the US commerce department in Russia. They have been going to this synagogue for a few years and have really enjoyed it. In conclusion, I gave my name to people at the synagogue to get on their mailing address and hopefully be involved in the future.
Then, my parents found out that a friend from our synagogue is related to the person who is in charge of the FSU portion of the JDC (an organization that works with building diaspora Jewish communities). So, through this long chain I recently hooked up with the JDC in St. Petersburg. The representative had me over to his house for this last Shabbat, which was fantastic. They are Israeli, and the wife had cooked homemade everything: challah, gefilte fish, 10 different salads, chicken, meat, a non-dairy ice cream fantasy dessert, etc. We spent the night talking about everything; they told me a lot about their past 13 years of living in the FSU, from the days when the women in stores used abacuses to calculate the price total. They welcomed me back to their house at any time, and the husband is also going to arrange meetings for me with the heads of the YESOD so I can find volunteer opportunities, etc.
It’s been really nice to find a Jewish community because it’s a very easy place to fit in. Now I feel much more comfortable with the upcoming holidays, etc. It’s also nice to be making so many connections that might be useful for my future.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Adventures in Russia...
Ok, I thought I was done blogging for this week, but the most ridiculous thing just happened. I went with some friends to this café Dol’ka, which is near the dormitories where two of them live. This café has replaced our old favorite “Alyosha’s” which was basically the most miserable café in Petersburg. But, I had a soft spot for my month’s worth of memories in café Alyosha, and everyone had been trying to convince me to switch my loyalty to this new place. After tonight, we’ll have to see . . .
We arrived, sat down, ordered drinks, and pulled out our homework (which always looks awkward in café/bars). Next to us was a table of extremely drunk Russians. One of the women started staring at my friend Andrew and asked him to go outside with her. For some reason, he went, but ran back inside 5 seconds later after she had grabbed his neck and tried to make out with him. He literally had done nothing in this situation other than walk outside behind her.
5 minutes later, a really drunk guy comes up, runs into our table and tries to throw a punch at Andrew, who had apparently “called his sister a prostitute” (nothing of this sort happened). Another woman tried to convince him that that never happened, but for a good 10 minutes we thought we were in danger. He eventually left, only to come back again and try to start a fight once more. The same woman calmed him down again, and apologized to us for about 15 minutes, offering to buy us all ice cream.
10 minutes later, this guy comes back with two beers, apologizes to Andrew and gives him one. They clink glasses and drink. The rest of their party starts talking to us and apologizing profusely (they were very proud that they could say “I’m sorry” in English). Eventually, a different guy gets up and says he is going to dedicate a song to us, goes to front and starts singing karaoke to some song about friendship. From this, the night went downhill to my friend Natalie being serenaded, everyone up there dancing to the karaoke, and to a round of vodka shots for the table, with toasts to “understanding.” (Earlier one guy had given Andrew a shot of vodka, and when Andrew asked what they were toasting to [you don’t drink in Russia without a toast], the man thought for a minute and decided they were toasting to “the 8th of March, International Women’s Day.”
Basically, in an hour and a half, we quickly acted out an entire drama, from violence to friendship. I guess this is what happens in Russia on a Monday night . . .
We arrived, sat down, ordered drinks, and pulled out our homework (which always looks awkward in café/bars). Next to us was a table of extremely drunk Russians. One of the women started staring at my friend Andrew and asked him to go outside with her. For some reason, he went, but ran back inside 5 seconds later after she had grabbed his neck and tried to make out with him. He literally had done nothing in this situation other than walk outside behind her.
5 minutes later, a really drunk guy comes up, runs into our table and tries to throw a punch at Andrew, who had apparently “called his sister a prostitute” (nothing of this sort happened). Another woman tried to convince him that that never happened, but for a good 10 minutes we thought we were in danger. He eventually left, only to come back again and try to start a fight once more. The same woman calmed him down again, and apologized to us for about 15 minutes, offering to buy us all ice cream.
10 minutes later, this guy comes back with two beers, apologizes to Andrew and gives him one. They clink glasses and drink. The rest of their party starts talking to us and apologizing profusely (they were very proud that they could say “I’m sorry” in English). Eventually, a different guy gets up and says he is going to dedicate a song to us, goes to front and starts singing karaoke to some song about friendship. From this, the night went downhill to my friend Natalie being serenaded, everyone up there dancing to the karaoke, and to a round of vodka shots for the table, with toasts to “understanding.” (Earlier one guy had given Andrew a shot of vodka, and when Andrew asked what they were toasting to [you don’t drink in Russia without a toast], the man thought for a minute and decided they were toasting to “the 8th of March, International Women’s Day.”
Basically, in an hour and a half, we quickly acted out an entire drama, from violence to friendship. I guess this is what happens in Russia on a Monday night . . .
Classes
Finally, after 3 weeks of the normal semester, I’ve decided which classes I’ll be taking. First of all, I have 8 hours a week of Russian as a Second Language classes (RSL). RSL is comprised of grammar, speaking, phonetics, and mass media classes. They are generally enjoyable (although phonetics last week was embarrassing because I’m the only person in my class who can’t roll my R – oh well), but sometimes the homework can pile up.
I’m also enrolled for three classes in Smolny Institute. What’s interesting about my study abroad program is that we have this chance to directly enroll in classes. Smolny is an experiment for Russia, being its first liberal arts college, so the classroom experience that the students receive (small classes, discussion based, etc) that seems so normal to us is extremely new and surprising for them. It’s really interesting to be able to take these classes alongside Russian students; not only does it help with language acquisition, but it also gives you a better look into Russian academic life.
My first class is extremely hard – so hard that I’m auditing it. It’s called “Can Russia be a nation-state?” and is taught by two professors, one history and one political. These professors pride themselves on being like Western academics and teachers to the point where the classroom expectations are far beyond what anyone would ever expect in the US. There is a ton of reading, a lot of papers and tests (that I will not be taking), and DISCUSSION. Classes in Russia are 3 hours long with a 20 minute break. This class sometimes is a little awkward because the professors are so set on class participation, but for many students, this is the first time they are being expected to analyze and discuss concepts (a normal Russian education consists of reading and repeating facts). This will be a great class to audit – already from the readings I’ve done, class has become much easier to understand since I’m familiarizing myself with the vocab.
My second class is taught in English and there are actually no Russian students in it. It is taught by a Russian professor, (who talks like Mr. Bean, so sometimes I have problems paying attention) and is about the relationship between Russia and the US in the 20th century, focusing on international security concerns. It’s interesting, and the reading is in Russian, so that is an academic bonus, I guess. I was a little on edge about taking a class with just Americans, but it’s nice to have a normal classroom experience that I can participate fully in.
Lastly, I have just decided to take World Music. This class is enjoyable, the people in it are wacky, all in all, it’s a fun choice. I’ve actually only been to one class so far, but it looks like the teacher lectures for an hour and a half, and then we listen to music for the second section. This week we learned about Indian music and listened to the sitar for a while. I was surprised by how little Russians are accustomed to world music – the sitar was a completely new experience for most of them. It will be interesting to hear their reactions, (one kid asked “so, how do people actually listen to this?) and I’ll also be able to meet some music students this way.
So, those are my classes! It won’t be too stressful, but I think I’ll get plenty out of it to make this semester worthwhile.
I’m also enrolled for three classes in Smolny Institute. What’s interesting about my study abroad program is that we have this chance to directly enroll in classes. Smolny is an experiment for Russia, being its first liberal arts college, so the classroom experience that the students receive (small classes, discussion based, etc) that seems so normal to us is extremely new and surprising for them. It’s really interesting to be able to take these classes alongside Russian students; not only does it help with language acquisition, but it also gives you a better look into Russian academic life.
My first class is extremely hard – so hard that I’m auditing it. It’s called “Can Russia be a nation-state?” and is taught by two professors, one history and one political. These professors pride themselves on being like Western academics and teachers to the point where the classroom expectations are far beyond what anyone would ever expect in the US. There is a ton of reading, a lot of papers and tests (that I will not be taking), and DISCUSSION. Classes in Russia are 3 hours long with a 20 minute break. This class sometimes is a little awkward because the professors are so set on class participation, but for many students, this is the first time they are being expected to analyze and discuss concepts (a normal Russian education consists of reading and repeating facts). This will be a great class to audit – already from the readings I’ve done, class has become much easier to understand since I’m familiarizing myself with the vocab.
My second class is taught in English and there are actually no Russian students in it. It is taught by a Russian professor, (who talks like Mr. Bean, so sometimes I have problems paying attention) and is about the relationship between Russia and the US in the 20th century, focusing on international security concerns. It’s interesting, and the reading is in Russian, so that is an academic bonus, I guess. I was a little on edge about taking a class with just Americans, but it’s nice to have a normal classroom experience that I can participate fully in.
Lastly, I have just decided to take World Music. This class is enjoyable, the people in it are wacky, all in all, it’s a fun choice. I’ve actually only been to one class so far, but it looks like the teacher lectures for an hour and a half, and then we listen to music for the second section. This week we learned about Indian music and listened to the sitar for a while. I was surprised by how little Russians are accustomed to world music – the sitar was a completely new experience for most of them. It will be interesting to hear their reactions, (one kid asked “so, how do people actually listen to this?) and I’ll also be able to meet some music students this way.
So, those are my classes! It won’t be too stressful, but I think I’ll get plenty out of it to make this semester worthwhile.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Bannya!
It seems that I only do interesting things on the weekends now, so I’ll tell you about my weekend. Friday night, I had bought a ticket for an orchestra concert. There are two main orchestras in Petersburg, and I think I bought the ticket for the lesser of the two, so it'll be interesting to compare once I see the other one. It was a good concert, despite a bad cue from the conductor and the entire brass coming in early to the last chord of a Dvorak symphony. The tickets were extremely cheap, so I'll be sure to go many more times. The only thing that struck me as being odd was the clapping in unison that seemed to come out of nowhere when they demanded an encore by a soloist. I thought this might have been a remnant of Soviet style clapping, but my mom informed me that this is common practice across Europe at orchestra concerts.
Saturday was a really Russian day – I went to the bannya, or the Russian bathouse, for the first time! Going to the bannya is a very popular thing to do in Russia, and you can tell how often people go by how hardcore they are about it. Here's the process:
1. You go to the bannya, which is separated for men and women. We actually went to the bannya that Dostoevsky frequented, so that was a neat fact.
2. You strip down and go into the steam room, which has a wooden stove in it, so it's wet steam, unlike a sauna.
3. You sweat more than you have ever sweat before and sit there until you can't stand it anymore. This was like 6 minutes for me, and 20 minutes for the old Russian women.
4. You leave the steam room, take a warm shower, than immediately plunge into a freezing pool of water. Most people were complaining about this part, but truthfully it just reminded me of taking swim tests at camp, and the days when they made us swim when they really shouldn't have.
5. You repeat the proccess as many times as you want.
Eventually, after your body is getting used to the heat, you hit yourself with branches (with leaves), usually birch, oak, or pine. These branches have been soaking in hot water and help to exfoliate your skin. All in all, it’s a crazy process, but so relaxing and cheap, so I’m sure I’ll do it again. Definitely a cultural experience, though.
Sunday, I tried to go see a movie, but tickets get more expensive as the day goes on, and we didn’t want to pay 12 dollars to see a movie. Instead I hung around in cafes with my friend. We bought ice cream on the street for the first time, even though it was snowing outside. I didn’t think that would be a comfortable way to eat ice cream, but it was actually really good. The ice cream here is delicious – this will probably become a problem once the weather is warmer and we want to eat it all the time. We realized, though, that we walk a ton here, so eating ice cream once in a while isn’t so bad.
Sunday night, I went to Lenta for the first time, the mega-grocery store near my house. It’s basically like being in a Russian Costco or Sam’s Club. My favorite thing that I found was a large display of Heinz ketchup, including the popular Russian “spicy ketchup.” Look on my website for pictures.
We didn’t have school on Monday because of a holiday on Saturday. Saturday was “Day of protection of the homeland” which basically honors men and the military. I didn’t notice anything really happening for the holiday. It was explained to us that when a holiday falls on a Saturday, we have Monday off because people are still expected to be hung over. So, I imagine this was just a really big drinking weekend. But, having no school was very nice! I went back to the movie theater and got a cheaper ticket to see “Across the Universe”. There is one movie theater that shows American movies in English, just with Russian subtitles, which is much more enjoyable for us. The movie, if you haven’t seen it, is enjoyable, and directed by an Oberlin grad! The theater though, was so nice. I’ll definitely be going back to that one.
So, now I’m off to another week of school, albeit a short week, since I don’t have classes on Friday, either. It’s getting warm here, it was about 40 degrees yesterday, so I think my weather is much better than yours at home. Enjoy the cold!
Saturday was a really Russian day – I went to the bannya, or the Russian bathouse, for the first time! Going to the bannya is a very popular thing to do in Russia, and you can tell how often people go by how hardcore they are about it. Here's the process:
1. You go to the bannya, which is separated for men and women. We actually went to the bannya that Dostoevsky frequented, so that was a neat fact.
2. You strip down and go into the steam room, which has a wooden stove in it, so it's wet steam, unlike a sauna.
3. You sweat more than you have ever sweat before and sit there until you can't stand it anymore. This was like 6 minutes for me, and 20 minutes for the old Russian women.
4. You leave the steam room, take a warm shower, than immediately plunge into a freezing pool of water. Most people were complaining about this part, but truthfully it just reminded me of taking swim tests at camp, and the days when they made us swim when they really shouldn't have.
5. You repeat the proccess as many times as you want.
Eventually, after your body is getting used to the heat, you hit yourself with branches (with leaves), usually birch, oak, or pine. These branches have been soaking in hot water and help to exfoliate your skin. All in all, it’s a crazy process, but so relaxing and cheap, so I’m sure I’ll do it again. Definitely a cultural experience, though.
Sunday, I tried to go see a movie, but tickets get more expensive as the day goes on, and we didn’t want to pay 12 dollars to see a movie. Instead I hung around in cafes with my friend. We bought ice cream on the street for the first time, even though it was snowing outside. I didn’t think that would be a comfortable way to eat ice cream, but it was actually really good. The ice cream here is delicious – this will probably become a problem once the weather is warmer and we want to eat it all the time. We realized, though, that we walk a ton here, so eating ice cream once in a while isn’t so bad.
Sunday night, I went to Lenta for the first time, the mega-grocery store near my house. It’s basically like being in a Russian Costco or Sam’s Club. My favorite thing that I found was a large display of Heinz ketchup, including the popular Russian “spicy ketchup.” Look on my website for pictures.
We didn’t have school on Monday because of a holiday on Saturday. Saturday was “Day of protection of the homeland” which basically honors men and the military. I didn’t notice anything really happening for the holiday. It was explained to us that when a holiday falls on a Saturday, we have Monday off because people are still expected to be hung over. So, I imagine this was just a really big drinking weekend. But, having no school was very nice! I went back to the movie theater and got a cheaper ticket to see “Across the Universe”. There is one movie theater that shows American movies in English, just with Russian subtitles, which is much more enjoyable for us. The movie, if you haven’t seen it, is enjoyable, and directed by an Oberlin grad! The theater though, was so nice. I’ll definitely be going back to that one.
So, now I’m off to another week of school, albeit a short week, since I don’t have classes on Friday, either. It’s getting warm here, it was about 40 degrees yesterday, so I think my weather is much better than yours at home. Enjoy the cold!
Monday, February 18, 2008
This weekend
This past weekend was rather relaxed. Friday night, I stayed home and watched “Mean Girls” in Russian with Katherine. Saturday, I did a ton of reading. Right now, I am signed up for this class entitled “Can Russia be a Nation-State.” In Russian school systems, you don’t have to buy books, but instead get a “reader” at the beginning of the semester, which includes all the readings you have to do. The reader for this class is literally 5 inches thick, and they ran out, so I’ve been doing my reading on the computer, which is very hard. For Tuesday I have about 50 pages to read in Russian, and I’ve read 12 thus far. Oh well.
Saturday night, there was a party for people in our program that was held at the apartment of two of the girls. If you stay the whole year, you can rent an apartment the second semester, and they found an absolutely gorgeous one. The biggest living space I’ve seen in Russia thus far (other than the palaces of course). The party was really fun; it was great to get to meet some of the people from last semester. Also, Katherine and I took a gypsy cab home that had the best Russian driver we had ever encountered – he drove like a safe, American driver! The weather was getting pretty bad, so that was much appreciated.
It finally snowed a substantial amount, and is starting to get colder. Still, though, it’s not anything abnormal. Although, today I talked to a girl from Siberia, who told me about her -50 degree Celsius temperatures at home last year. Today, we trekked out in the snow to Dostoevsky’s last apartment. The tour was actually incredibly fascinating – the best tour guide we’ve had so far. It was interesting to see his apartment and hear about his life, especially since I’m reading “Crime and Punishment” right now. My goal is to finish it this semester and take the famed, but tourist-y “Crime and Punishment” tour in St. Petersburg.
After the museum, we had bliny at a restaurant. Bliny are like Russian crepes. But, they are absolutely everywhere – my host mother made them today and yesterday for breakfast, and then I had them again at this restaurant. Since the bliny overdose, I’ve been reading some more and getting ready for my second week of classes. It’s still shopping period, but once I’m sure of my classes, I’ll let you know about them.
Oh, a week or so ago I opened up the refrigerator and saw a coconut, which I thought was a little bizarre. Tonight, I was sitting in my room on the phone when I heard hammering for 5 minutes or so. My host mother opened my door and told me to come to the kitchen to eat coconut. Strangely enough, my first experience eating fresh coconut was in Russia. It’s a really interesting texture, but tasty. I didn’t know that people really just cut up coconut and ate it, though.
Ok, hope people are surviving the winter back home!
Saturday night, there was a party for people in our program that was held at the apartment of two of the girls. If you stay the whole year, you can rent an apartment the second semester, and they found an absolutely gorgeous one. The biggest living space I’ve seen in Russia thus far (other than the palaces of course). The party was really fun; it was great to get to meet some of the people from last semester. Also, Katherine and I took a gypsy cab home that had the best Russian driver we had ever encountered – he drove like a safe, American driver! The weather was getting pretty bad, so that was much appreciated.
It finally snowed a substantial amount, and is starting to get colder. Still, though, it’s not anything abnormal. Although, today I talked to a girl from Siberia, who told me about her -50 degree Celsius temperatures at home last year. Today, we trekked out in the snow to Dostoevsky’s last apartment. The tour was actually incredibly fascinating – the best tour guide we’ve had so far. It was interesting to see his apartment and hear about his life, especially since I’m reading “Crime and Punishment” right now. My goal is to finish it this semester and take the famed, but tourist-y “Crime and Punishment” tour in St. Petersburg.
After the museum, we had bliny at a restaurant. Bliny are like Russian crepes. But, they are absolutely everywhere – my host mother made them today and yesterday for breakfast, and then I had them again at this restaurant. Since the bliny overdose, I’ve been reading some more and getting ready for my second week of classes. It’s still shopping period, but once I’m sure of my classes, I’ll let you know about them.
Oh, a week or so ago I opened up the refrigerator and saw a coconut, which I thought was a little bizarre. Tonight, I was sitting in my room on the phone when I heard hammering for 5 minutes or so. My host mother opened my door and told me to come to the kitchen to eat coconut. Strangely enough, my first experience eating fresh coconut was in Russia. It’s a really interesting texture, but tasty. I didn’t know that people really just cut up coconut and ate it, though.
Ok, hope people are surviving the winter back home!
Random Notes
Notes on Russia from this past week:
1. We encountered the smelliest dog in the world this week on the bus. I guess people can bring their pets on public transportation (forgot to mention that). This man came on with his dog, which was actually really adorable so we all commented on that. Less than a minute later, the worst smell was infiltrating the air. Luckily, our stop was really soon. I guess if you realize how dirty and gross the city is, it’s only natural that dogs would smell the same. I can’t imagine owning a dog in St. Petersburg – having to take it out for walks in the dead of winter would basically cancel it out for me.
2. So, for weeks we had seen stickers in our metro station for the local goth club’s Valentine’s Day celebration. It was described as “dark, gothic, love night” so we knew we had to check it out. So, the night before Valentine’s day, I traveled to Artica with Katie and dared to enter Artica – internet café/gothic club. It was really ridiculous. To the left is a large internet lab, you walk further and there was a café/bar (there was a big soccer match that night so it was full of fans watching the TV), you go even further through a hall of dark, gothic photography (girls in black with daggers?) and you here some loud, thumping music. The people coming out of this club were fully decked out in gothic gear. But, as we weren’t, and it cost about ten dollars to go in, we promptly left. We’d like to say that we tried, though.
3. I’ve also really started to experience the Russian administrative system, or moreso, the lack of one. Nothing works smoothly here. Professors don’t show up for classes (I had one class that was cancelled this week, but at least there was a note – usually you aren’t that lucky), and nothing happens on time. For example, our school library was supposed to have moved into the other building a week ago. It hasn’t happened, because no one hired movers or bought boxes. It’s also supposed to be moving into the gym, because the library isn’t finished, but they can’t install shelves in the gym because of the floor! So, right now, our school’s library is completely inaccessible and in piles in the hallway. Welcome to Russia.
4. I have found a little bit of America in the coffee shop “Respublika coffee” or “Republic of Coffee.” It’s basically Starbucks; the logo is almost exactly the same. I went in this week and although it’s a bit pricy (they charged me extra for cream), it felt nice to be in an American-like establishment. So, I think I may try to get some work done there once or twice a week.
5. I’m not a big fan of having to wear slippers in the house (luckily, my room is a slipper-free zone because of the rug), but I do love house clothes. Basically, since your clothes are “dirty” from being outside, and you don’t do laundry that often, when you come home, you change into more comfortable clothing. It’s fantastic.
6. I’ve slowly started bonding with my host sister, well at least what I consider a next step. We’ve watched a lot of “mythbusters” dubbed in Russian, and also this other show where they test people who think they have ESP. But, she’s obsessed with the biathlon, which I find to be a boring sport, so I’ve had to sit through 3 or 4 straight days of watching the biathlon on TV. In more positive news, she defends me in arguments with her mother about how many potatoes I should be served, or how I never eat enough in meals.
1. We encountered the smelliest dog in the world this week on the bus. I guess people can bring their pets on public transportation (forgot to mention that). This man came on with his dog, which was actually really adorable so we all commented on that. Less than a minute later, the worst smell was infiltrating the air. Luckily, our stop was really soon. I guess if you realize how dirty and gross the city is, it’s only natural that dogs would smell the same. I can’t imagine owning a dog in St. Petersburg – having to take it out for walks in the dead of winter would basically cancel it out for me.
2. So, for weeks we had seen stickers in our metro station for the local goth club’s Valentine’s Day celebration. It was described as “dark, gothic, love night” so we knew we had to check it out. So, the night before Valentine’s day, I traveled to Artica with Katie and dared to enter Artica – internet café/gothic club. It was really ridiculous. To the left is a large internet lab, you walk further and there was a café/bar (there was a big soccer match that night so it was full of fans watching the TV), you go even further through a hall of dark, gothic photography (girls in black with daggers?) and you here some loud, thumping music. The people coming out of this club were fully decked out in gothic gear. But, as we weren’t, and it cost about ten dollars to go in, we promptly left. We’d like to say that we tried, though.
3. I’ve also really started to experience the Russian administrative system, or moreso, the lack of one. Nothing works smoothly here. Professors don’t show up for classes (I had one class that was cancelled this week, but at least there was a note – usually you aren’t that lucky), and nothing happens on time. For example, our school library was supposed to have moved into the other building a week ago. It hasn’t happened, because no one hired movers or bought boxes. It’s also supposed to be moving into the gym, because the library isn’t finished, but they can’t install shelves in the gym because of the floor! So, right now, our school’s library is completely inaccessible and in piles in the hallway. Welcome to Russia.
4. I have found a little bit of America in the coffee shop “Respublika coffee” or “Republic of Coffee.” It’s basically Starbucks; the logo is almost exactly the same. I went in this week and although it’s a bit pricy (they charged me extra for cream), it felt nice to be in an American-like establishment. So, I think I may try to get some work done there once or twice a week.
5. I’m not a big fan of having to wear slippers in the house (luckily, my room is a slipper-free zone because of the rug), but I do love house clothes. Basically, since your clothes are “dirty” from being outside, and you don’t do laundry that often, when you come home, you change into more comfortable clothing. It’s fantastic.
6. I’ve slowly started bonding with my host sister, well at least what I consider a next step. We’ve watched a lot of “mythbusters” dubbed in Russian, and also this other show where they test people who think they have ESP. But, she’s obsessed with the biathlon, which I find to be a boring sport, so I’ve had to sit through 3 or 4 straight days of watching the biathlon on TV. In more positive news, she defends me in arguments with her mother about how many potatoes I should be served, or how I never eat enough in meals.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Catherine II and my weekend.
The conclusion of this weekend is that Catherine II had very extravagant taste. Saturday morning, I woke up late and found my host sister (who still rarely talks to me) in the kitchen. So, for obvious reasons, I was caught off guard when she asked me if I had any plans for the day. I mumbled something about the possibilities of a museum or a ballet, thinking she was just trying to be polite. Instead, she said that she has a friend who is trying to practice her English, and that they had invited me and my friend Katherine to come with them on a day trip. Obviously, we jumped at the opportunity to leave the city for a little bit, so we got ready and waited for them to pick us up.
It turned out that it was Katya’s friend Masha’s husband (Anatoly), who needed to practice his English, but he was really embarrassed for most of the time, so we mostly ended up talking to Masha. Katya, even with her own friends, was quite silent. Driving in St. Petersburg is always scary, especially when there aren’t working seatbelts, but we made it to the town of Pushkin in a little under an hour. Pushkin is officially part of St. Petersburg, and it’s located southeast of the main city. It’s named Pushkin because the writer, Pushkin, was born there and spent a large portion of his life studying there.
But, the real tourist attraction in Pushkin is Catherine II’s summer palace. It’s located in a giant park, which is supposedly really beautiful in the summer, but was still enjoyable through the slush. The palace itself is immense and so ornate. The floors are all gorgeous wooden mosaics, so we had to wear silly blue plastic booties over our shoes so as not to scratch them. We took a tour in Russian through the part of the palace that is open for tourists (a small portion, that is still bigger than any normal person would ever need). The first room we went into was the gold-encrusted Great Hall. We went through multiple dining rooms, thematic color rooms, and eventually came to the famed Amber Room.
There has been a lot of controversy over this room. It was first believed to have been plundered by the Nazis, when all the gem mosaics were found missing, but later it was revealed that it was destroyed in a fire while under Red Army occupation. They were so worried about Stalin’s reaction to allowing a fire to reach the room, that they created the Nazi rumor. But, a few years ago, the room was reopened after years of renovation, largely sponsored by German funds. The room was incredible, and the only one that you aren’t allowed to take pictures in. So, sorry about that.
But, while we were there, we did run into a wedding! It’s a Russian tradition for the couple to go to various famous landmarks and take pictures there, and this couple chose to take pictures throughout the palace. It was kind of funny to see a bride and groom, groomsmen and bridesmaids all wearing blue booties. It’s good luck if you see these pictures being taken, and Katherine and I saw 3 this weekend – we’re hoping for a good week. I snuck some pictures of the bride and groom as well.
After the palace tour, we walked through the park some more, and saw the pagodas Catherine II had built because she wanted to bring a little bit of China to her estate. It’s actually incredible how much normal, everyday Russians know about their history. Masha, and especially Anatoly, were able to tell us so many stories about where we were. All in all, it was a great tour, nice to breath some fresh air, and very fun in general. They said that whenever we want to go somewhere else, they would love to take us to practice their English some more, so it looks like there will be more fun trips in the future!
Today, we went to the Hermitage with our group. Only 4 people showed up, which was a little awkward. I’m sure most of you know about the Hermitage, the giant art museum housed in an old palace. It’s actually 5 buildings that are connected, but the Winter Palace alone has 1057 rooms, so that’s just a preview to its size. Once again, the architecture was incredible, and as Catherine II lived here for a while, it was extravagant beyond belief. I’m not really into art museums at all, so while other people marvel at the Hermitage, I enjoyed looking at the building, and quickly glanced at some art. Truthfully, I don’t know how many times I’ll end up going back this semester, but at least I went once!
Ok, well tomorrow is the first day of classes! Wish me luck!
It turned out that it was Katya’s friend Masha’s husband (Anatoly), who needed to practice his English, but he was really embarrassed for most of the time, so we mostly ended up talking to Masha. Katya, even with her own friends, was quite silent. Driving in St. Petersburg is always scary, especially when there aren’t working seatbelts, but we made it to the town of Pushkin in a little under an hour. Pushkin is officially part of St. Petersburg, and it’s located southeast of the main city. It’s named Pushkin because the writer, Pushkin, was born there and spent a large portion of his life studying there.
But, the real tourist attraction in Pushkin is Catherine II’s summer palace. It’s located in a giant park, which is supposedly really beautiful in the summer, but was still enjoyable through the slush. The palace itself is immense and so ornate. The floors are all gorgeous wooden mosaics, so we had to wear silly blue plastic booties over our shoes so as not to scratch them. We took a tour in Russian through the part of the palace that is open for tourists (a small portion, that is still bigger than any normal person would ever need). The first room we went into was the gold-encrusted Great Hall. We went through multiple dining rooms, thematic color rooms, and eventually came to the famed Amber Room.
There has been a lot of controversy over this room. It was first believed to have been plundered by the Nazis, when all the gem mosaics were found missing, but later it was revealed that it was destroyed in a fire while under Red Army occupation. They were so worried about Stalin’s reaction to allowing a fire to reach the room, that they created the Nazi rumor. But, a few years ago, the room was reopened after years of renovation, largely sponsored by German funds. The room was incredible, and the only one that you aren’t allowed to take pictures in. So, sorry about that.
But, while we were there, we did run into a wedding! It’s a Russian tradition for the couple to go to various famous landmarks and take pictures there, and this couple chose to take pictures throughout the palace. It was kind of funny to see a bride and groom, groomsmen and bridesmaids all wearing blue booties. It’s good luck if you see these pictures being taken, and Katherine and I saw 3 this weekend – we’re hoping for a good week. I snuck some pictures of the bride and groom as well.
After the palace tour, we walked through the park some more, and saw the pagodas Catherine II had built because she wanted to bring a little bit of China to her estate. It’s actually incredible how much normal, everyday Russians know about their history. Masha, and especially Anatoly, were able to tell us so many stories about where we were. All in all, it was a great tour, nice to breath some fresh air, and very fun in general. They said that whenever we want to go somewhere else, they would love to take us to practice their English some more, so it looks like there will be more fun trips in the future!
Today, we went to the Hermitage with our group. Only 4 people showed up, which was a little awkward. I’m sure most of you know about the Hermitage, the giant art museum housed in an old palace. It’s actually 5 buildings that are connected, but the Winter Palace alone has 1057 rooms, so that’s just a preview to its size. Once again, the architecture was incredible, and as Catherine II lived here for a while, it was extravagant beyond belief. I’m not really into art museums at all, so while other people marvel at the Hermitage, I enjoyed looking at the building, and quickly glanced at some art. Truthfully, I don’t know how many times I’ll end up going back this semester, but at least I went once!
Ok, well tomorrow is the first day of classes! Wish me luck!
Friday, February 8, 2008
End of Intensive Russian, beginning of viola
I'm officially done with my intensive Russian program! I just finished my last class (actually one class was canceled today, which made us all extremely thankful). It feels good to be done with this 2 week portion of the program. Now, on Monday, our real semester will begin. Tonight we have a kick-off dinner, which is kind of a mixer to get us to meet some Russian Smolny students. We'll see how that goes. As I'm a vegetarian here, I always have to sit at a certain part of the table, and there are definitely not going to be any vegetarian Russian students, so I'll probably just end up talking to my friends.
Yesterday was a really exciting day -- I had my first viola lesson! I was really scared and nervous about meeting my teacher. I had a vision of Russian music teachers being really strict, totally focused on technique, and kind of not caring about the student at all. I also foresaw a problem because when I called him to confirm, he gave me more precise directions of where to meet him, and I had no clue what he said. All I knew was that I was supposed to go to the Philharmonic hall, and something about the number 3.
So, immediately after class yesterday I got on the metro to go further into town. I realized that it was the first time I had actually traveled anywhere by myself in St. Petersburg, and it felt quite liberating and natural. Not that I've been clinging to my friends or anything, but since my closest ones live a minute away from me, it's generally easier and more fun to do things together.
But, I arrived at the philharmonic hall, and was walking around outside, when I spotted a door marked 3. I was debating whether to enter when some guy came up to me, holding a viola case and said "Are you looking for me?" So, I found Andrei Dogadin, my teacher. We have lessons in a room in that building, and the lesson felt completely normal. I could understand basically everything he said in Russian, and he used a few english words as well. But, generally music lessons involve a lot of gesturing, singing, movement, demonstrations...so it's easy to communicate. It felt different in the sense that studying with any new teacher feels different; you have to adjust to their musical interpretations and how they teach. But, I feel like I got a lot out of it, we connected pretty well, and I'm looking forward to studying with him for the semester. After the lesson, we walked outside and talked while he smoked a cigarette. The conversation consisted mostly of him asking me if Ohio is a nice state (I said no), him asking me to rank music schools in the US (which I did incorrectly after I realized his son was going to one that I had not given the 1st ranking), and him telling me that I play very well, but need to analyze everything.
Other than that, things have been going pretty well. I found a stash of DVDs belonging to my host sister that are all American movies dubbed in Russian. I'm most of the way through "What Women Want" and I'm looking forward to watching them all. It's a nice way to compromise my yearning for American culture with some educational Russian learning.
My friend's boyfriend was commenting that whenever he talks to her, she doesn't rave about how fantastic Russia is, and how she's having the best time of her life, which are comments often heard from people studying abroad. We were thinking about that, and realized that Russia is not a place that people normally rave about. We're having a great time, but it's more of a learning experience than a "best semester ever" kind of thing.
Well, I'm going to go home and get ready for the weekend. Hope everything is great with everyone, and keep sending me e-mails!
Yesterday was a really exciting day -- I had my first viola lesson! I was really scared and nervous about meeting my teacher. I had a vision of Russian music teachers being really strict, totally focused on technique, and kind of not caring about the student at all. I also foresaw a problem because when I called him to confirm, he gave me more precise directions of where to meet him, and I had no clue what he said. All I knew was that I was supposed to go to the Philharmonic hall, and something about the number 3.
So, immediately after class yesterday I got on the metro to go further into town. I realized that it was the first time I had actually traveled anywhere by myself in St. Petersburg, and it felt quite liberating and natural. Not that I've been clinging to my friends or anything, but since my closest ones live a minute away from me, it's generally easier and more fun to do things together.
But, I arrived at the philharmonic hall, and was walking around outside, when I spotted a door marked 3. I was debating whether to enter when some guy came up to me, holding a viola case and said "Are you looking for me?" So, I found Andrei Dogadin, my teacher. We have lessons in a room in that building, and the lesson felt completely normal. I could understand basically everything he said in Russian, and he used a few english words as well. But, generally music lessons involve a lot of gesturing, singing, movement, demonstrations...so it's easy to communicate. It felt different in the sense that studying with any new teacher feels different; you have to adjust to their musical interpretations and how they teach. But, I feel like I got a lot out of it, we connected pretty well, and I'm looking forward to studying with him for the semester. After the lesson, we walked outside and talked while he smoked a cigarette. The conversation consisted mostly of him asking me if Ohio is a nice state (I said no), him asking me to rank music schools in the US (which I did incorrectly after I realized his son was going to one that I had not given the 1st ranking), and him telling me that I play very well, but need to analyze everything.
Other than that, things have been going pretty well. I found a stash of DVDs belonging to my host sister that are all American movies dubbed in Russian. I'm most of the way through "What Women Want" and I'm looking forward to watching them all. It's a nice way to compromise my yearning for American culture with some educational Russian learning.
My friend's boyfriend was commenting that whenever he talks to her, she doesn't rave about how fantastic Russia is, and how she's having the best time of her life, which are comments often heard from people studying abroad. We were thinking about that, and realized that Russia is not a place that people normally rave about. We're having a great time, but it's more of a learning experience than a "best semester ever" kind of thing.
Well, I'm going to go home and get ready for the weekend. Hope everything is great with everyone, and keep sending me e-mails!
Monday, February 4, 2008
Pictures
Ok, I can't figure out how to post pictures on my blog, so here is a site that has pictures on it.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Hannah.Levinson/StPetersburg
Also, I will generally be updating my blog on Mondays, so check then!
http://picasaweb.google.com/Hannah.Levinson/StPetersburg
Also, I will generally be updating my blog on Mondays, so check then!
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Weekend adventures...
So, I just woke up, it’s snowing, and there is snow sticking to the ground! That’s really exciting, because we haven’t really had snow since we have been here, so I have been inspired to write another blog entry.
I wrote my last one on Friday (even though I will have pasted it on Monday), so I guess I’ll talk a little bit about my weekend. Saturday, I went with my friend to visit another friend’s neighborhood, on the Petrograd Island. Our neighborhood is fine, it’s very residential and quiet, but we kind of saw what we were missing when we went to the Petrograd Side. There were cafes and restaurants everywhere, and lots of museums and cool places to check out. In my neighborhood, we have some casinos that are really sketchy, a karaoke bar, a club that is half internet cafe and half gothic club, and a sketchy café named Alyosha’s. We went to Alyosha’s once, but the second time we were about to go in we saw a giant bar fight break out, so we turned the other way.
But, back to Petrograd island. So, upon coming out of the metro station we saw the only Mosque in St. Petersburg, which is really pretty. Then, we started walking along one of the main streets because it was supposed to have really extravagant architecture, which it did. We stumbled upon a bust of Lenin, which are plentiful in this city, and then we decided that we wanted to find a museum. We settled upon visiting Kirov’s apartment. Kirov was a very important Soviet official, whose murder was used as the basis for Stalin’s show trials in the ‘30s. Needless to say, I was very interested in this apartment.
To start off, it was GIANT! This apartment was basically an entire floor of the building, over 10 rooms. If you think about how most people were living in communal apartments, it’s really ridiculous how much space the heads of government were keeping for themselves. Getting back to the museum, though, half of it is his preserved apartment, and the other half has been turned into a museum about him. There was also another floor that was a museum about Soviet life for children.
Kirov was really into game hunting, so there was dead game everywhere. Birds and foxes on every wall, and someone had even given him a polar bear rug as a present! The craziest thing was noticing how many portraits of Lenin and Stalin there were everywhere. Every room had at least 2 pictures of each of them hanging on the wall or on desks. It’s weirder when you think that Stalin was in that apartment a lot (I saw the table he ate at!), and would come in and see his face everywhere. I guess that’s what he wanted though . . .
Sunday, we had a group excursion to the Peter and Paul Fortress, which was built by Peter I as defense against the Swedes, but they never really had to use it for that, because they beat Sweden before they finished building the fortress. Mostly, it was just used as a jail for political prisoners, including Dostoevsky and Trotsky. We walked around the fortress a little bit, but it was really cold yesterday. We went into the main cathedral, where all of Russia’s pre-revolutionary leaders were buried. It was a beautiful cathedral, although it seemed more like a mausoleum inside, with all the tombs. We finished up that excursion with lunch at the vegetarian chain “Troitskii Most” which is really delicious! I’ll probably be frequenting that restaurant once a week.
Ok, well I need to get to school now. Though the streets are snowy, it doesn’t seem like people are driving any slower. Russians are crazy. Oberlin kids, have a great first day of classes – keep me updated!
I wrote my last one on Friday (even though I will have pasted it on Monday), so I guess I’ll talk a little bit about my weekend. Saturday, I went with my friend to visit another friend’s neighborhood, on the Petrograd Island. Our neighborhood is fine, it’s very residential and quiet, but we kind of saw what we were missing when we went to the Petrograd Side. There were cafes and restaurants everywhere, and lots of museums and cool places to check out. In my neighborhood, we have some casinos that are really sketchy, a karaoke bar, a club that is half internet cafe and half gothic club, and a sketchy café named Alyosha’s. We went to Alyosha’s once, but the second time we were about to go in we saw a giant bar fight break out, so we turned the other way.
But, back to Petrograd island. So, upon coming out of the metro station we saw the only Mosque in St. Petersburg, which is really pretty. Then, we started walking along one of the main streets because it was supposed to have really extravagant architecture, which it did. We stumbled upon a bust of Lenin, which are plentiful in this city, and then we decided that we wanted to find a museum. We settled upon visiting Kirov’s apartment. Kirov was a very important Soviet official, whose murder was used as the basis for Stalin’s show trials in the ‘30s. Needless to say, I was very interested in this apartment.
To start off, it was GIANT! This apartment was basically an entire floor of the building, over 10 rooms. If you think about how most people were living in communal apartments, it’s really ridiculous how much space the heads of government were keeping for themselves. Getting back to the museum, though, half of it is his preserved apartment, and the other half has been turned into a museum about him. There was also another floor that was a museum about Soviet life for children.
Kirov was really into game hunting, so there was dead game everywhere. Birds and foxes on every wall, and someone had even given him a polar bear rug as a present! The craziest thing was noticing how many portraits of Lenin and Stalin there were everywhere. Every room had at least 2 pictures of each of them hanging on the wall or on desks. It’s weirder when you think that Stalin was in that apartment a lot (I saw the table he ate at!), and would come in and see his face everywhere. I guess that’s what he wanted though . . .
Sunday, we had a group excursion to the Peter and Paul Fortress, which was built by Peter I as defense against the Swedes, but they never really had to use it for that, because they beat Sweden before they finished building the fortress. Mostly, it was just used as a jail for political prisoners, including Dostoevsky and Trotsky. We walked around the fortress a little bit, but it was really cold yesterday. We went into the main cathedral, where all of Russia’s pre-revolutionary leaders were buried. It was a beautiful cathedral, although it seemed more like a mausoleum inside, with all the tombs. We finished up that excursion with lunch at the vegetarian chain “Troitskii Most” which is really delicious! I’ll probably be frequenting that restaurant once a week.
Ok, well I need to get to school now. Though the streets are snowy, it doesn’t seem like people are driving any slower. Russians are crazy. Oberlin kids, have a great first day of classes – keep me updated!
Home and Classes
Ok, there are two main topics to cover in this blog entry: my host family, and classes. Basically, that’s all that has been going on in my life.
My host family, although I wasn’t so thrilled with them at the beginning, has turned into quite a lovely experience. The immediate family includes Tatiana, my host mother, Katya, her daughter, and Tosya, the rat. We live in a small apartment, only 3 rooms (the mom sleeps in the kitchen at night), but it is quite enough space to live in. But, because it’s so small, it has been a little difficult. Their computer is in what is now my room, so, when Danya, Tatiana’s 5 year old grandson, comes to visit and wants to play computer games, my room turns into a playroom. In some ways, that’s not bad, as I can speak more easily to Danya than to Russian people my age, but it gets a little frustrating.
But, I’m beginning to really bond with the mother, so it’s a much better experience. When she isn’t stuffing me with food (she is always making me try new things, often things I have eaten but don’t know the Russian names for. Like yesterday, when she slathered something on a piece of bread, told me to try it, and it turned out to be horseradish. Not a taste you want to be surprised with. But, she did make some tasty baked pumpkin the other day.), we have actually been having more conversations. Sometimes we watch bad Russian tv shows and talk about them, but today she told me a lot about her life, which was really interesting. She also asked me what my parents do (mom, it took me a really long time to try to explain the Alexander Technique in Russian). I actually felt like today I could carry on conversations with her and understand most of it, which is fantastic. Katya doesn’t really talk to me. I’m fine with that, although today I found out that she actually understands English. This occurred when a friend called me making plans to meet up, and she translated the conversation to her mother. What a spy . . . The rat stays in her room, so I barely see it. I’m also fine with that.
Classes are also going quite well. We have a slew of different intensive language classes every day. Sometimes grammar, which is taught by a lady who, I think, has gone crazy from teaching so many foreigners Russian grammar that she actually speaks more in sounds and motions than in words. Writing is an annoying but useful class, which involves writing an essay every night. We have speaking class, a class where we learn to interpret mass media, and today we had our first phonetics class! This was actually quite exciting, although if anyone walked in they would be really confused by the sight of a group of students making sounds for an hour.
Generally, things are going quite well. We had an excursion this past week to the Kuntskamera museum, which holds Peter I’s collection of malformed babies preserved in alcohol, and we have 2 more excursions to get in this week. I also have my first viola lesson this week, which I’m looking forward to, though half scared out of my mind. Having my viola has actually been a great thing, because practicing is a break from focusing on speaking and understanding Russian. Life, though, doesn’t seem so different. Even after 1 week, we are much more comfortable with transportation, I watch Scrubs every morning while I eat breakfast (dubbed in Russian), and today I bought a Russian Glamour magazine because Fergie was on the cover.
I’m happy to hear that people have been reading my blog, and pictures are coming soon!
My host family, although I wasn’t so thrilled with them at the beginning, has turned into quite a lovely experience. The immediate family includes Tatiana, my host mother, Katya, her daughter, and Tosya, the rat. We live in a small apartment, only 3 rooms (the mom sleeps in the kitchen at night), but it is quite enough space to live in. But, because it’s so small, it has been a little difficult. Their computer is in what is now my room, so, when Danya, Tatiana’s 5 year old grandson, comes to visit and wants to play computer games, my room turns into a playroom. In some ways, that’s not bad, as I can speak more easily to Danya than to Russian people my age, but it gets a little frustrating.
But, I’m beginning to really bond with the mother, so it’s a much better experience. When she isn’t stuffing me with food (she is always making me try new things, often things I have eaten but don’t know the Russian names for. Like yesterday, when she slathered something on a piece of bread, told me to try it, and it turned out to be horseradish. Not a taste you want to be surprised with. But, she did make some tasty baked pumpkin the other day.), we have actually been having more conversations. Sometimes we watch bad Russian tv shows and talk about them, but today she told me a lot about her life, which was really interesting. She also asked me what my parents do (mom, it took me a really long time to try to explain the Alexander Technique in Russian). I actually felt like today I could carry on conversations with her and understand most of it, which is fantastic. Katya doesn’t really talk to me. I’m fine with that, although today I found out that she actually understands English. This occurred when a friend called me making plans to meet up, and she translated the conversation to her mother. What a spy . . . The rat stays in her room, so I barely see it. I’m also fine with that.
Classes are also going quite well. We have a slew of different intensive language classes every day. Sometimes grammar, which is taught by a lady who, I think, has gone crazy from teaching so many foreigners Russian grammar that she actually speaks more in sounds and motions than in words. Writing is an annoying but useful class, which involves writing an essay every night. We have speaking class, a class where we learn to interpret mass media, and today we had our first phonetics class! This was actually quite exciting, although if anyone walked in they would be really confused by the sight of a group of students making sounds for an hour.
Generally, things are going quite well. We had an excursion this past week to the Kuntskamera museum, which holds Peter I’s collection of malformed babies preserved in alcohol, and we have 2 more excursions to get in this week. I also have my first viola lesson this week, which I’m looking forward to, though half scared out of my mind. Having my viola has actually been a great thing, because practicing is a break from focusing on speaking and understanding Russian. Life, though, doesn’t seem so different. Even after 1 week, we are much more comfortable with transportation, I watch Scrubs every morning while I eat breakfast (dubbed in Russian), and today I bought a Russian Glamour magazine because Fergie was on the cover.
I’m happy to hear that people have been reading my blog, and pictures are coming soon!
Monday, January 28, 2008
First week in Russia!!
Hello all from St. Petersburg! I decided to keep a blog instead of doing mass e-mails, because I know how annoying those e-mails can get. This way, I’ll send you guys the address once (maybe again if I think you’ve lost it), and then you can check it on your own schedule. I’ll try to write fairly often, but I can’t promise anything. I arrived here three days ago, but this is the first morning that I have woken up at my host family’s house – it certainly is a different experience . . .
Last Sunday, I met my program at Bard College for a not-so-thrilling 3 day orientation. Bard campus, if you’ve never been there, is a sprawling piece of land, but with nobody there (school had not yet started), and 2 degree weather (colder than St. Petersburg), there was not much to do. But, I guess it accomplished its goal. By the time we were ready to leave for Russia, we were very sick of just talking about living in Russia and were ready to go there. The flights were fine, although customs was a big pain. I had to declare my viola and it was a completely bureaucratic and painful process – actually just a Russian process. My advice to you is if you ever need to bring a musical instrument into Russia, bring documents, preferably in English and Russian, and a set of photos of it from every possible angle.
After arriving, we moved into a hotel in the center of the historic city, which was a great place to first get acquainted with life here. We spent the days attending more information sessions, getting our second HIV blood test, taking black and white pictures of people (only myself and one other girl had brought the right type of pictures with us –thanks mom and dad!), and doing some beginning sightseeing. We went on official tour of the Church of the Spilled Blood, which is a beautiful church built on the place where Tsar Alexander II was killed – search for a picture online. The mosaics inside the church are absolutely gorgeous, as is the outside of the church, but we had an extremely unenthusiastic Russian tour guide giving us a tour in Russian, so barely anyone could understand her.
Adjusting to life in Russia with the group wasn’t so bad actually, because it felt more like a vacation. We were simply traveling with our group, including the program staff. The food for vegetarians has surprisingly not been so bad, except for the meal that was all white – bland cauliflower, plain rice, and buttery potatoes. They eat so much here, though! Every meal usually includes a salad, a soup, a main dish, dessert, and tea. I’m usually not a big tea drinker, but yesterday I had 5 cups – you can’t refuse! Also, they don’t normally drink a lot of plain water. Host families think Americans are crazy for drinking so much water, but they always keep a pitcher around for their students.
The craziest experience so far was taking the metro during rush hour, which is like being in a vicious concert crowd. People literally push you (hard) in and out of the cars, and you are crammed in the car closer to people than you have ever been before. I also went to a Russian bar/club Friday night, which actually reminded me a lot of Oberlin – it was full of Russian hipsters, it felt kind of like the ‘sco.
Now I’ve moved into my host family, and I’m getting adjusted. For those of you who thought I was going to be living with a ferret . . . sadly, the ferret died a few months ago. But, they do have a pet rat! Things with the family are interesting, I’ll write about it later. All is good, though. Well, please e-mail me!
If you feel so inclined as to call me, my cell phone number (from the states) is 0-1-1-7-921-650-3889.
And, if you really like me and want to send some mail (although it takes 3-6 weeks to arrive in Russai), my address is:
Hannah Levinson
c/o Bryan Billlings
Bard-Smolny Program
Smolny College, SpSU
Lt. Schmidt Emb. 11, Office 416
199034 St. Petersburg
Russia
If you are really ambitious and want to send a package, don’t do the care of portion, make sure it ONLY says MY NAME. Russians are crazy like that.
Last Sunday, I met my program at Bard College for a not-so-thrilling 3 day orientation. Bard campus, if you’ve never been there, is a sprawling piece of land, but with nobody there (school had not yet started), and 2 degree weather (colder than St. Petersburg), there was not much to do. But, I guess it accomplished its goal. By the time we were ready to leave for Russia, we were very sick of just talking about living in Russia and were ready to go there. The flights were fine, although customs was a big pain. I had to declare my viola and it was a completely bureaucratic and painful process – actually just a Russian process. My advice to you is if you ever need to bring a musical instrument into Russia, bring documents, preferably in English and Russian, and a set of photos of it from every possible angle.
After arriving, we moved into a hotel in the center of the historic city, which was a great place to first get acquainted with life here. We spent the days attending more information sessions, getting our second HIV blood test, taking black and white pictures of people (only myself and one other girl had brought the right type of pictures with us –thanks mom and dad!), and doing some beginning sightseeing. We went on official tour of the Church of the Spilled Blood, which is a beautiful church built on the place where Tsar Alexander II was killed – search for a picture online. The mosaics inside the church are absolutely gorgeous, as is the outside of the church, but we had an extremely unenthusiastic Russian tour guide giving us a tour in Russian, so barely anyone could understand her.
Adjusting to life in Russia with the group wasn’t so bad actually, because it felt more like a vacation. We were simply traveling with our group, including the program staff. The food for vegetarians has surprisingly not been so bad, except for the meal that was all white – bland cauliflower, plain rice, and buttery potatoes. They eat so much here, though! Every meal usually includes a salad, a soup, a main dish, dessert, and tea. I’m usually not a big tea drinker, but yesterday I had 5 cups – you can’t refuse! Also, they don’t normally drink a lot of plain water. Host families think Americans are crazy for drinking so much water, but they always keep a pitcher around for their students.
The craziest experience so far was taking the metro during rush hour, which is like being in a vicious concert crowd. People literally push you (hard) in and out of the cars, and you are crammed in the car closer to people than you have ever been before. I also went to a Russian bar/club Friday night, which actually reminded me a lot of Oberlin – it was full of Russian hipsters, it felt kind of like the ‘sco.
Now I’ve moved into my host family, and I’m getting adjusted. For those of you who thought I was going to be living with a ferret . . . sadly, the ferret died a few months ago. But, they do have a pet rat! Things with the family are interesting, I’ll write about it later. All is good, though. Well, please e-mail me!
If you feel so inclined as to call me, my cell phone number (from the states) is 0-1-1-7-921-650-3889.
And, if you really like me and want to send some mail (although it takes 3-6 weeks to arrive in Russai), my address is:
Hannah Levinson
c/o Bryan Billlings
Bard-Smolny Program
Smolny College, SpSU
Lt. Schmidt Emb. 11, Office 416
199034 St. Petersburg
Russia
If you are really ambitious and want to send a package, don’t do the care of portion, make sure it ONLY says MY NAME. Russians are crazy like that.
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