Time to update again

This weekend was long…

Thursday night I went to a Russian-English conversation group. This was the first place that I have been truly annoyed with any one that I have met in Russia. My group’s discussion topic was supposed to be the “advantages of a university education” it turned into a discussion of “why this American girl is stupid and is going to abandon her family and hate her life because she is studying Russian.” All because of one guy. Once he left however the conversation became much more pleasant. One of the girls in the group is from Hungary, and is also an exchange student in Russia right now. She joined our small band of Americans on Saturday for our fun museum outing.

We went to the Ethnological Museum and the Kunstkamera inside. Most of the museum was interesting, the Kunstkamera was disturbing. The Kunstkamera was the first museum founded in Petersburg, and was the brain child of Peter I. It is a collection of everything ranging from insects, to a very large collection of deformed fetuses in jars.

Afterwards all of us wandered along the Neva and eventually made our way to St. Issac’s Cathedral. I SO wish I’d brought my camera. By the time we made it there it was late afternoon with a crystal clear sky, we bought the tickets that gave us access to the Kolonade. The kolonade is the highest observation point of the city. You walk around the top of St. Issac’s towering dome and view the city stretching out in all directions.

It was absolutely breathing taking, a bit nerve wracking because of the height, but beautiful. One of the other students made the comment that “if ever you feel like hating Petersburg, come up here on a sunny day and fall in love with the city all over again.”

After the trek up to the Kolonade and back down again, we started wandering the city and came across an Azherbijani restaurant. I will remember the name because I highly recommend it. Great food and the price really was not bad at all. Perhaps a little on the expensive side by Russian standards, but by U.S. it was quite cheap, especially considering the quality of the food. (Yummy!)

Saturday night I slept quite soundly. Sunday was long, and rather exhausting mostly because I did little besides homework, and one rather fruitless quest for an internet café that was a) open, b) sold wi-fi, and c) had no problems currently preventing the acquisition of said wi-fi. Internet is definitely an unpredictable and fickle creature here in Russia.

Also of note, I will be going to Ukraine for travel week. There is a group of students who were already planning on going, and had (conveniently for me) one of their number decide not to go so there is space for me. Plus it’s a group of people who I get along well with.

I’ll post/write more on my travel plans once I know more.

More photos from Novgorod

Churches in Novgorod, in what was formerly the merchant district.



Monument to the last 3 heroes to hold out against the Nazi invaders in WW II.


Kremlin. Hagia Sofia in center with Gold dome.


Crazy Russian men swimming in the frozen river.




The moat around the fortress walls.

So lots to write about from the last couple of days, that is if I can remember everything that has happened.

On Tuesday I went to choir again. Tuesdays are insanely long, but I really don’t want to drop choir, so I guess I’m just going to stick with crazy long days once a week.

Wednesday we had an interesting discussion in Conversation class. It was about stereotypes, American and Russian, especially the stereotypes we hold of each other. The American students came to the conclusion that many of the negative stereotypes of Russia come out of Cold War propaganda. Films from that era always have Russians as the “bad guy” and the U.S. guy as the hero. In Russia during that era the U.S. was not portrayed in film at all, not even as the bad character. It is said that some of the best Russian film is from the Cold War era because the country turned to internal issues and the eternal questions of life in Russia.

Also interesting to note, is that as much as people in the United States regard Russia as something of Enigma, so to is the U.S. How can we be both so puritanical, and have TV shows like those on MTV? How can we not have a national language? A shared national history, a shared ethnicity, a shared anything really, and still function as a single unified country?

Later (the reason why I am updating today instead of yesterday) we lost power at school. No one knew why but apparently it is just one of those things that happens here. Since this is an old school (buildings built during the reign of Elizabeth) we have large windows, unlike schools in the U.S. Thus for the most part it wasn’t an issue to classes continuing.

We also had representatives from the American Consulate in St. Petersburg come talk to us about safety in St. Petersburg. (Most of the lecture was geared towards protecting diplomats, and I think many of the issues that they talked about having happened in the past could have been countered if people had simply used a little common sense.) And about perusing careers in the Foreign Service.

Last night was also a big night for my host-family. Dima received his University diploma yesterday. He has an apartment, a car, a good job, and now his degree, both Tanya and Seryosha were understandably quite proud.

School is turning into a bit of a blur…. Classes, homework, and life, everything is in Russian for me. Which is good, but it also means that at times I feel as if everything is just one giant class. At least I’m learning.


Internet is being VERY flaky here right now, so I still won’t be able to add more pictures to my photo gallery.

Time for another update. I’ve now had my first non-orientation week. It was busy, but I’m starting to think that on most of my days I will have periods of free time.

I went to my first choir practice on Friday. It was long, but I enjoyed it. For the most part it felt as if I could have been in a choir in the U.S. At least when were singing. True I did have to sight read words that I’d never seen before. But if I was singing in French or Spanish I’d have to sight read words too. It was only during the “business” end of the choir, when the director was going over administrative details that I struggled a bit with the language. Thankfully a couple of other girls in the alto section were more than willing to help me figure out what was going on. Dorita is an exchange student from Germany, so she was able to relate well to my struggles, and is a bit of an inspiration to me as she speaks Russian very well after 5 months of being here, and was obviously able to converse with ease with others in the choir. Dasha was friendly, somewhat familiar with English and with American culture, and so was eager to talk to me, and willing to have patience when my grammar failed me and I’d have to stop for a moment to think of how I could phrase something and have the meaning come out right.

Yesterday I went to the Russian Museum with a group of other American students. I still have yet to find the main exhibition area after two visits, but the hall we ended up in yesterday was different from the one I’d been in before. I’m glad we got there when we did. They ran out of space in the Coat-rooms, and people had to wait for spaces to open up before they were allowed inside to by tickets by the time our group of students left.

We headed over to Termok for lunch. I really think this chain should open in the United States. They are a fast food restaurant with a simple concept. They serve 3 dishes, salads, soups, and blini. You can get just about any kind of salad, soup, or blini that you can imagine. Everything from a light veggie salad, to traditional borsht . I got a mushroom and cheese blini that was excellent.

I came back to my apartment and told Tanya about my dad over dinner. I think I’m going to have to ask her for recipes before I leave. She makes excellent soups! Soup is something that Russian cuisine has down well and it is definitely appreciated on a cold winter’s day.

After dinner their nephew – Lyona came over. I think he is about 17. He was pretty quiet though so I didn’t learn much about him.

Last night was also my first night watching reports on American politics on the Russian news. The focus is definitely on the democratic primaries. The Republican party was almost completely ignored. I think they had about 1 minute out of the 15 or so minute report. As far as I can tell from conversations with Russians, and from the point of view of the Russian American-Politics Analyst on the news last night, Hilary Clinton is the favored candidate from the Russian perspective. According to my conversation Professor, it is because Russia had good relations with Bill Clinton, and would like to see him again.

There was a lot of speculation by the analyst as to why Americans would support Obama over Clinton. Some of it might have been accurate, other statements I kind of had to wonder at. However I also struggled a bit with the language again and didn’t understand everything that the man was saying, so perhaps his argument did make more sense.

In any case it was interesting to watch.

Today is probably the first real snow we’ve had since I’ve been here. It’s not incredibly cold but it has been snowing since morning. As I’m writing this I can see a pair of bulldozer/tractor snow-plows driving down the street.

Novgorod

This weekend we went to Novgorod. It was a long trip. It takes about 2.5 hours to get to Novgorod. We left at 8am – in near darkness. The drive to Novgorod was quite uneventful, though I now have a better appreciation for the phrase “St. Petersburg and Moscow are not Russia.” The country side was open fields and forests of fir and birch tree.

We passed through towns that were barely more than a handful of ramshackle houses with out-buildings scattered behind them. The occasional dog wandering between buildings. I think most people slept on the bus. We were all tired.

Despite the name of “New City” Novgorod does not at all feel like a new city. In fact it was first mentioned in the Chronicles 859 and is implied to be an already established trade town at that point in time.

We drove into Novgorod a bit after 11 am. Coming into the city you drive through what looks like project housing. In fact most of the city is project housing from the 1950s. Meaning apartment buildings all about 5 stories high, plain concrete, with balconies that no longer look safe. The city was decimated by WWII; I think there were only about 50 homes left standing at the end of the war. Thus people needed places to live and the projects sprung up to fill that need. The outskirts of the town are more typical dacha style homes. Which aside from the carvings in the trim have the look of the older farm-style homes you see in many small towns in the U.S.

Our hotel was nice, and after the day of touring many of Novgorod’s churches and the Kremlin, we were content to go back to it, and many of us students spent the night enjoying our first real chance to hang out as a group.

The food at the hotel was good. Though I think more amusing was the entertainment at dinner. I wish I’d had my camera, but I was under the normal assumption that we would merely be eating dinner. There was a wedding reception being held in the same room as we were eating in. Thus live entertainment of the humorous variety was present. Michael knows the Ievan Polkka (this video? and this song? ed.), I think some other people at UW might as well. When we walked into the room it was being played and a group of 4 girls were dancing to it dressed as dairy maids. It is more amusing than the flash video and the original quartet singing combined.

My favorite places in Novgorod were the Hagia Sofia in the Kremlin. This church is one of the oldest churches in Russia that is still in use. The outside isn’t spectacular, as is the case with most churches, but the interior mosaics, and icons were beautiful. My other favorite was the out-door museum with wood churches and homes from the early 14th century.



I was also pleased with our guide for this section of the tour (on foot) as while he spoke Russian he was very understandable, and willing to make sure we knew what was going on. Or other guide spoke English but had a tendency to ramble and act as though we were all only 5 years old.

Unfortunately I didn’t write down my thoughts at the time I was there thus I am once again a bit scatter brained in my retelling of the tale.

Novgorod left me with mixed feelings. The town has a run down feel to it. But there are signs of new development and new homes being built.

"New rich" home


I think some of my impression was from the weather that had been warm enough to melt snow into sheets of puddle gray ice over mud, but was presently cold and gloomy.



These last couple days I have also been busy with school. On Monday I went to the Russian Museum in order to do research for my oral presentation in Culture class yesterday. I then ended up staying up too late talking to Tanya about wildlife of the U.S. and Russia. (Trying to explain moose and cougar took some effort), family sizes, (here it is uncommon to have more than 2 children, thus they think the U.S. with our average of 2 kids per family and sometimes more than two kids is strange), and about New York since there was a very interesting documentary on TV - with me explaining that New York is not the U.S. as a whole. I also had to try and explain that I had never been to New York because I probably live about as close to Vladivlastok as I do to New York. I don’t think she quite believed me, but I did get across the point that it is a great distance between Seattle and New York.

Yesterday (Tuesday) was very long. I left at the normal time and didn’t get home until 12 hours later. My classes were okay and after class I walked to Chernishevkaya metro with another student. I took the metro to Vasilevorstrovskaya to meet with Irina Borisevna, our extra-curricular activity liaison. She met with Kate and I and took us to the main SPSU campus.

We had the grand tour around many of the buildings. I also auditioned for the choir there and made it in! The Director was really quite nice, and I’m looking forward to rehearsals starting on Friday. I could have gone to rehearsal last night but Kate and I had to meet with Alexander Alexandrovich about tutoring English to Russian students. By the time we were done, choir practice had already started and I had yet to eat dinner, and didn’t know how long it would take to get home. I was also tired enough that I thought I was going to pass out. I hope the director won’t be annoyed that I didn’t come to the practice, but I honestly didn’t think it was going to be safe for me to go if I wanted to make it back to my apartment in one piece.

I made it back safely, though I think I know a shorter way to come back by than the one I took. I will try it on Friday.

Today has been slow. The bus made good time getting here and my classes went well, though I didn’t expect our debate over small vs. large cities to get quite as heated as it did in my conversation class. I kind of like it when we get going like that though because then you don’t think about the fact you are speaking Russian, and for the most part our grammar actually improves because we aren’t concentrating on the words but on the message we want to get across.


*Note: Photos will be up shortly in my gallery from the Novgorod trip.

Community

We've had snow the last couple days. Not a lot though, at least not in the city. Today was warmer so it has melted off of most of the road-ways.

I am glad that the weather is warmer, the bus is less packed when the weather is nicer. I 'm starting to feel like an old hand at this public transit thing. I am probably more confident using various forms of public transit to get around St. Petersburg than I am getting around Seattle. I've learned which spots you want to jump for on the bus, the metro and what seats to avoid in a marshrutka. I think the Russian spirit of patience when it comes to deplorable traffic is setting in. I stand in the snow and wait for the bus. There isn't the tension of wondering why the bus is late. The bus is always late. It will show up when it does. I will wait for it. Today I snagged a good seat on the way into school, and was quite content during the 40 minute commute. Often close to 20 minutes of this commute is getting from the stop at the Gorkovskaya Metro over the Troitsky Bridge. A rather short distance, but with horrible traffic back-log. Troitsky is one of only two bridges from Petrogradkaya Stora, where I live, into the "main" land of St. Petersburg, which is where my school is.

Last night we had pelmeni for dinner. I was happy, and I think my host-parents were surprised that pelmeni was a Russian food that I already knew and that I had prepared it for my family at home. I think they were also surprised that I like "grota" or buckwheat. The food may not have much in the way of spice here, but at the same time I've had it surpass my expectations after hearing of how "ick" Russian cuisine is.

After dinner, Seryosha expressed concern over the Tornadoes that swept though the Southern States. Russia's channel 1 had an anchor in Tennessee reporting on the devastation. I didn't realize that my host family, and that others here in Russia would care so much about a natural disaster in the U.S. I have come to find that there is an attitude here that people are people no matter what. Some good and some bad, but we are all human. Tanya definitely wanted me to communicate that idea to my friends and family in the United States after I'd told her that my parents grew up during the cold war. Russia is not bad. There are problems, but it a good country to live in. People are people. Not all Russians are bad, not all Russians are good. Not all Americans are bad, not all Americans are good. We are all human and we live in this same world, our world has problems but that does not make it a bad world.

I've been busy with classes this week. I even had a quiz yesterday. I don't know how I did. I didn't think that I did horribly on it, though I'm sure I could have done better. I think much of my language learning is coming just from being here in Russia. Trying to talk to my host family, and trying to interact with people.

Today we had a discussion about Russian mentality and Russian national spirit. It shed a little light on the issue of Putin's popularity in Russian. Russia has the attitude that they need a strong leader. Russia needs a strong hand. Putin, being former KGB has a strong hand and a long hand in the leadership of this country. Thus while the policies of the administration can be disagreed with his strength in an of itself lends to him being a "good" president. Russia is a circle. I guess you could think of it as a spoked wheel. The leader is the central hub that holds the spokes and thus the wheel together making it stronger. A central theme in mentality is this circle, circle of history, of family, and most importantly of community. Even the word “Mir” or “Earth/World” has a sense of this circle to it.

I don’t understand all this thought. I doubt that it is possible to do so. But I do feel as though I have gained a tiny peek via these discussion and lectures into Russia.

If any of you have questions about Russia feel free to e-mail them to me. Both my host family and my teachers are willing to discuss, and hold dialogue.

I am posting twice today

As you can guess from the fact I am posting twice today I have internet access again. I've been busy the last few days with school, Pavlovsk (which was beautiful by the way) and the scavenger hunt yesterday.

I've posted pictures of the trip to Pavlovsk in my gallery.

(If you wonder about the dim light in the St Petersburg area photos, St Petersburg is about the same northerly latitude as Anchorage, Alaska. It is dark in January and February because, well, it is dark! ... Ed)

An update, this time from notes.

An update, this time from notes. Somethings might be repeated. I’ve posted reverse chronological order to keep with blog entry format.


3 February 2008

I don’t think food has ever tasted so good. Today we had a four hour long scavenger hunt and coming home to a meal of fish, potatoes, and vegetables was wonderful. I also think that by the time I leave here I will have a mild addiction to mustard sauce. It isn’t the same thing as mustard, but it tastes really good.

Our scavanger hunt took us all over St. Petersburg taking pictures and collection various items. (Bottle of Kvas and tramvai ticket for example.)

Today I also made it to a grocery store. For bottled water, shampoo and the like. I felt proud of myself for finding the things I needed. I even bought the right kind of shampoo for my hair!

1 Feb. 2008

I shouldn’t have mentioned in my last blog up-date about it being so warm in St. Petersburg. February is the coldest month in St. Petersburg, and so with the first of the month the temperature dropped. Tomorrow we have a trip to Pavlovsk, I am fearing that it will be really cold.

Today we went to Petropavloskaya Krepost’. The tour was entirely in Russian. I was more than a little frustrated by this as the woman spoke faster than the news anchors on TV and I really wanted to understand what was going on. I could tell the lecture had a lot of information, but I could only get a few sentences here and there. Last night I was able to understand parts of the news broadcast, but I couldn’t understand this talk!

31. Jan 2008

Today has been a long day. I was tired to begin with, I swear that I nearly fell asleep on the busride into school today. Class was relatively easy, phonetics and grammar. Though I am going to have a lot of grammar homework.

The good news about today and why I am so tired right now was that right after lunch we went to the Hermitage. Wandered through several halls. My favorite, was, I think the exhibition of Old Russian Culture. It’s tucked away in a side gallery that I don’t think many tourists go to. It was nearly deserted when Stephanie, Julianne and I went through it.

Came home and talked some with Seryosha. I hope the two of us continue to improve on our communication. It is getting better. After dinner I watched a bit of TV. The news is difficult for me to understand because like in the U.S. news anchors speak very fast. I think I am getting the gist of what is being said however.

Today was interesting because there was a forum with the St. Petersburg Mayor. I managed to embarrass myself for not being able to remember the name of the Seattle mayor. I was able to explain a little about out state government though. While watching TV Musa decided that my lap is the place to sit. I can barely sit down anymore with our her trying to climb into my lap. Tanya has decided that Musa must –really- like me. She was joking that I’ve found myself a 4th cat in Russia and Musa will want to come home with me.

I hope Tanya isn’t too put out with me. We had the Russian version of Floyd’s Fish tonight. I thought I was really going to like it, but the fish didn’t taste like anything I’d ever had before. Tanya could tell I wasn’t quite as fond of it as her other cooking, and seemed really worried that I didn’t like it. I tried explaining that it wasn’t that I didn’t like it. It was just very different from what I thought it was going to taste like, and if I ate it again I would like it. I think I got the message across. It was rather difficult to explain and to explain tactfully at that.

Tact is something I dearly miss. In English I try to be quite tactful and polite in conversation. In Russian I don’t know the words and grammatical structures to be quite as polite. So much of what I say comes out with stronger intent than what I mean.

Good news is today, I was able to understand a man today when he came up to me at the bus stop with a question about the bus schedules. I wasn’t really able to help him much as I didn’t know the time for the bus he wanted. But at least I knew what he was asking me, and could attempt to help.

29 Jan 2008

I didn’t think that I would feel this tired. Perhaps what Caitlin said about learn a language is true – you need more sleep.

Today was my first official day as a student in Russia. I Just nearly wrote v Rossii. :-P I’ve been placed in the most advanced group for language classes. Only 3 spring semester students are in it, the rest are students who have already spent a semester studying in Russia. It’s a bit intimidating but if I can stay in this level I know I will learn a lot.

Today my classes were conversation, civilization, and culture. I can’t believe it was only 3 classes. I feel as if I spent so much more time in focused concentration. I guess the fact that we have 90 minute class periods here might have something to do with it. That and it was 3 classes of discussion and lecture entirely in Russian. I am amazed at how much I understood, particularly in my two lecture based classes. I still struggle with speaking though. Some of the struggle may just be in my head though as my host parents seem to think that I speak fairly well. Though we do have trouble communicating at times. Seryosha and I more frequently than Tanya and I. Still I was placed in the advanced group which must mean I did exceedingly well on the written exam. Today I had an oral interview with Nathan which went okay. It is to be used to record my improvement over the course of the semester.

28 Jan 2008

Today was the first day of “School” I took the bus in with Marina and Allegra. We Arrived early. I think I will usually take the bus because the extra time will allow me to get stuff done in the morning. Plus the other students had stories about the metro being “The March of the Penguins” this morning.

This morning we had a 90 minute written exam to determine course placement. Sometime else this week all of us will go through an oral interview with Nathan.

After our exam we had lunch and then went to get pictures taken for our Student ID cards and extended visa applications. After this a group of us went to Gostiny Dvor along Nevksy Prospekt and wandered around – sunny and pleasant temperature.

Coming home I took the metro for the first time alone. Thankfully at 4pm the metro isn’t yet too crowded though more people are there than on the weekends.

I think I’ve become Musa’s new friend as she greeted me at the door today when I came home. Right now she is sitting next to me only because I kicked her out of my lap.

Oh, a note about Chainaya Loshka. This may be a fast food joint but they sell fresh brewed loose-leaf tea. For a reasonable price even. It’s about $1 for a small pot – about the equivalent of a grande size tea/coffee in the states.