Their Friend's Couch

Good morning!

Yesterday, i woke up, ate breakfast, and then we set out for the Russian Emperors' summer palace a few blocks away.

On the way, i commented on the number of residences that these people had, and Anatoli said that because Estonia was part of the empire, they liked to stay here sometimes and they had to have somewhere nice to stay! I wondered why they couldn't have just stayed on some friend's couch.

The palace was beautiful anyway. It was much smaller than any of the St. Petersburg palaces, but it was quaint. The ballroom was magnificent, again. There was a guide speaking English in there, so we stayed and listened a while. He talked for a half hour! In one room! He did say, though, that that ballroom is considered the most original imperial palace ballroom, because like I said before, the other palaces were purposely ruined during the siege of Leningrad.

We browsed the art gallery inside, and then the gardens. It was all very nice.

After that, we went up the hill to the Estonian president's office. There was some hullabaloo afoot, so we hung out awhile to see what was up. It turned out that the Maltese president was visiting and would be exiting any time now! So, we waited. I got pictures of both presidents!! Pictures which I still can't upload to Facebook. Grrrr.

After that excitement, we walked to a monument commemorating a ship that sunk in a battle during WWI. It's called "the mermaid" and I have no idea why, because it has an angel on top... It was pretty though, and commissioned by Nicholas II. I'm tellin you, these Tsars are hard to get away from.

Then we made the long walk home, and I took a nap!

We woke up in time for dinner, so we walked to Old Town and ate at a Caucasian restaurant. We are just eating our way across the northern Middle East! I like it! I had kabobs, cous cous, grilled corn, and bread with housemade butter. Sooo good.

Then we went walking for a lookout, because it was getting kinda close to sunset. We found some, and on the way, happened upon a little cafe (kohvik in Estonian) and decided to get dessert there! We had a traditional Estonian dessert of which I forget the name. It was ground up seeds and flour in a soup thing of cream, pears, and beer. Sound gross? It wasn't actually!

After our dessert, we decided to stay for a magic show! We went out and walked around a little, but then we came back. It was like a children's theater inside the kohvik, and the magicians were so funny! I'm glad we went. :)

After that, the sun was down, so we pretty much came straight back. A couple of our group was going to the airport last night, so we bid goodbye to them and went to bed!

Today we're going to the Estonian museum of Russian and German occupation. It should be interesting! Then I have to pack and make sure my suitcase isn't too heavy!

I can't believe we leave tomorrow!!

Helsinki!

Hello! I am going to try to get this all down before we leave for the day!

Yesterday morning, we got on our ferry, but not before some panic and sprinting to the gate. It was exhausting! But I could have done without the guys yelling at us to hurry up. It was raining and really windy.

After that, I was a little grumpy, so I read my book on the ferry. The ferry was really nice though! It was like a cruise ship exactly, only the bottom three floors were for cars! There were not regular seats, so we found a spot on some couches at the front of the boat and I read my current book (Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen) for the two hour trip.

Then we were in Helsinki! From the docks, it honestly didn't look very pretty. We got off the bus to town and instantly were famished. Anatoli said the living cost in Helsinki is very high, so we decided to go to McDonalds. I had my first-ever Big Mac, and the meal was about $8. Phew. It was good though, and then we set out for a famous church.

Now the streets looked prettier. The architecture is heavier here, with a lot of stone and granite. Pretty!

It was only a few blocks away, so it was close! I forget the name of the church now, but the statue out front was of Russia's Alexander II (Mom, intertwine!). It was a pretty place, and we needed to find it because Titus and Michael were meeting a friend there later to spend the night.

After that we went to the Finland national History museum. It was really cool and Finlandy! I'll tell you more upon seeing you, but I'm trying to hurry here! It was free for students though, so pretty cool! And all the captions were also in English and Swedish.

After that, it was already 5! We went to a famous fish market in the other side of town for dinner. We had pan roasted salmon, vegetables, I had reindeer sausage, and little fishies that may have been kippers. It was delicious! Reindeer sausage was my favorite thing!

After that, I bought some Finnish strawberries. They're famous, and I've heard from more than one source that I have to buy them. I decided they would have to be my souvenir from helsinki, because I didn't see anything else I liked, and they were 6€ a pint!!!

They were worth it though. Best strawberries I've ever eaten.

In the corner of the market, the president of Finland's house stands! Anatoli poked fun at it, because it's noticeably smaller than the Swedish embassy. We also saw the changing of the guard there! It was nothing near as ceremonious as we saw in Moscow, but it was still cool! Fun fact: Finnish police don't even carry firearms. Only the swat teams, if that tells you anything about Finnish culture.

Then, the boys went to meet their friend, and some if us set off in the direction of a church that was blasted out of solid rocks!!! It was a little hard to find, being mostly underground and all, but we found it and it was awesome! We didn't stay long because there was a concert going in inside, but woe saw it.

Then, we decided we needed some ice cream. One always needs ice cream, I think. So we got some and some tea (i will miss that when I'm home. Hot tea is available everywhere here, even fast food places).

After that, it was time to head back already!! We caught the bus to the boat, the boat to Tallinn (eerily we were about half the passengers in a huge ship). I finished my book, and we played different card games. I want to play Euchre when I get home, no one here knows it!

Then we came home and crashed at about 1am. Oh! And I found a daddy long legs spider in my room! I tried to get it out, but it ran away and is now probably planning my murder.

I am sadly ready to come home. I miss everyone. I have had the time of my life here, but with only two days left, it's hard not to think about how close I am to seeing everybody! Don't think I haven't enjoyed or been grateful for this amazing trip, because I really have and am!

Today we are going to the museum of the occupation of Estonia. It should be really interesting!!

Lots o' Stairs

Today we explored Old Town!

We first had our last class in one of the boys' rooms. It was about discussions, deliberations, an debates. I wish we could learn more social studies methods!

Then we set out for Old Town which is just a couple minutes from our hotel. It was so cool! Similar to yesterday's area, but even older! It was really quaint. There was a big stone wall around the oldest part of the city which used to be used as protection. We went in some really old Lutheran churches, one of which used to be the tallest building in the world! Granted, it was built in the 15th century, but that's still pretty cool! So, obviously we wanted to go to the top of it (what other use is there for tallest-building-in-the-worlds?). The staircase was so tiny and cramped! There were over 200 steps (Nicholas counted, but I forgot to ask the total). It was such a beautiful view!! We walked around on the tippity top roof part. It was creepy because there was a door out onto the roofing, but there was only a guard rail added on in modern times, so you really used to be able to go out on the roof, and there was not too much room for error up there, even with the rail! Anatoli said that the designer of the building was famous for his steeples, and one day when he was fixing the roofing, he fell and died!

None of us did though. So we climes back down the stairs and hit the bricks again. We walked down a lot of little streets. It was all so cute!

We went to the museum of Estonian history, which was super cool! All the exhibits had English subtitles and it was really modern! There were a lot of interactive exhibits and even a room devoted to how history can be interpreted in different ways! Estonia is a really cool place. They were part of the Russian empire, then independent, then taken over by bulsheviks, then independent again in 1921, then taken over by a dictator named Pats, then conquered by the Soviets again after WWII until 1991.

It was all really fascinating. After than museum, we walked to a part in the city wall where you could go up in some of the towers. On the way, there was a huge dance recital going on! There were boys and girls of all ages, and it was about the cutest thing I've ever seen. It was mostly Russian dances, but there was also a group that did flamenco and another that did hip-hop! It was awesome. I saw a group if little boys that did Cossack dancing; that was definitely my favorite.

Then we went to the wall. Anatoli was trying to communicate with the Ickes lady, but he wasn't having much luck until Titus suggested he speak Russian. It worked perfectly! It was hilarious because he had been trying to use English, and the lady was speaking Estonian, but they both spoke Russian, so it all worked out. We all climbed a lot more stairs and we were on top f the city wall! Anatoli started yelling to us in Russian, saw our confused faces, and repeated himself in English. Haha it must be so confusing to switch languages all the time! We went up and down in 3 different towers and walked around a pretty good part of the wall for a while. The view was really cool, because you could see the old village, but in the background you could see all the modern high rise buildings.

After that, we came back to the hotel, and Julie and I at at a Azerbaijani restaurant. It was delicious! we had Pahlava for desert, which was similar to baklava, and equally delicious.

After that we decided to rent bikes! It Was only 2€ an hour, so we took them out to the beach on the north side of town on the Baltic Sea! It was a really pretty bike path, and we pedaled along on our grandma-style city bikes. It was great! The weather stayed fine today (we've heard that the day often starts in sun and ends in rain, but not today!).

Then we got some candies at the grocery store and came on back to the hotel.

Tomorrow Helsinki!!!!!

Ice in my drink!!

Good afternoon to you! It's been a great first day in the city of Tallinn! Let me tell you about it...

So we gathered at 11 for Anatoli to take us to breakfast. We went to a fast food place called Hesburger. It was very similar to McDonald's, and I got a chicken wrap with fries and a coke. To my very pleasant surprise, my coke came with ice! In Russia, and most of Europe, they don't serve iced drinks and even the "chilled" drinks are usually lukewarm. Dunno why. But I never really knew how awesome ice in your drink was until I didn't have It for two weeks. Mmm iced coke.

So, after Hesburger, we went a'walking towards Tallinn's old town. It's only a few blocks from our hotel. It was so charming! It's an actual real-life medieval town! All the roads were cobblestone and all the buildings were super old! The main municipal building (now a museum) was built in the 1400's! It was so cool, and it was way older than anything I've seen before. I took some pictures, but I'll take more and try to upload them tomorrow.

This week they're having a festival about the city's age or something (am I not hitting these cities at precisely the right time??) so they were having a demonstration of the city bus system in a square in the old town. It was kind of hokey, but they had all the old models of buses out on display, so it was kind of cool. Also, the square that they were on used to be the main public square during Soviet times, so the puppet government would stand there and receive ideological parades and preside over other official events. Hopefully we'll learn more about Estonian/Russian relations while we're here. So far, I know it has been, and continues to be, a tense relationship.

After walking around, we went to Tallinn University to meet some administrators and hear about the university. It was really cool and they were super nice! They told us all about their international programs and summer school programs. They boasted several programs offered in English, which was a cool concept that was new to me.

A few different women spoke to us about different aspects of the university. Kea has been president of the international student club for three years. She knows 5 languages pretty well. We all told her how impressive that was and she said something that sounded really profound to me. He suggested that because Estonians are from such a small country, and Estonian is such a different language, they feel like it's their responsibility to learn as many foreign languages as they can. Isn't that cool? I wish The whole world had that attitude! Especially Americans, some of which feel it's the rest of the world's duty to learn English, even though it's only the native language of a handful of countries. Oh, how I wish I knew more languages! I guess I have to learn. ;)

After the university, we came back to the hotel a chilled for a bit. Then Julie and I headed out for a mini-excursion. We went to exchange currencies, and we found a Tex-Mex place! We've both been craving Mexican food, so even though it was slightly pricey, we went for it. Suffice it to say, it was worth it. We also went to a little craft fair that was going on and I bought some super-thick 100% wool socks. They are cozying my feet as we speak.

Then we went to the grocery store to get some snackies. I got items including, but not limited to, the following: strawberry aloe vera green tea, blue cheese flavored nuts, pear soda (duh), bacon flavored crackers, pretzels, and hard candies. The store was really fascinating, and because a lot of the labels were in English, it was fun to go around and look at all the weird stuff!

Then we came back here and now I'm going to bed! Surely I'll dream of mooses and ice in my drinks. :)

Goodbye Russia, Hello MOOSE!

Okay! Here is the story of our last day in St. Petersburg and our bus trip!

I got up at 10ish and started packing up my stuff. I didn't bother worrying about weight this time because we were taking a bus and there was no limit. But, my God, it was heavy! I'm going to have to be very creative in order to get all my gifts back home to everyone! It can be done, though, I'm convinced of that.

At noon, Anatoli came to the hostel. We had to check out of our rooms by then, but we still left all our luggage at the hostel so we didn't have to carry it around town. We walked across a bridge and came to the lane of museums again. We decided to go to the zoological museum, because it was only $2 and we had 7 hours to kill! It was pretty cool inside. There were stuffed animals from every corner of the planet. It was intense. I always get kind of depressed in these kinds of museums, because all the animals had to die for us to look at them! I like to tell myself that most of them died of natural causes, haha. There was a blue whale skeleton, a panda, all kinds of birds and insects, pretty much anything you can think of. The big draw was that they had one of the only actual wooly mammoth bodies in the world! It was found in Siberia and is now displayed in the museum. The trunk was broken off, and Anatoli told us that a dog on the expedition had chewed it up! I bet that would have been terrible to see after finding something so crazy-rare!

After we wandered around the zoological museum for an hour and a half, we went out on the streets to wander! We were like a group of vagabonds looking for things to do. We went to a traditional Russian restaurant to eat lunch. It was pretty good, I had fried potatoes with chicken in a skillet-y thing, but the portion was really small. Also a weird thing I noticed is that in Russia (and now Estonia), the wait-staff brings the food as it's ready and won't wait for everyone's dishes to be served. Once 3/4ths of us had our food, the others told us to go ahead, so we did! But, Julie's food didn't come until like 15 minutes later, so we were already done! I don't really know why they do that, because it makes everything so awkward, and everyone gets impatient at some point.

After lunch, we went to check if the summer gardens were open; they were! The summer gardens were started when St. Petersburg was founded, so it was their birthday too! They were packed with people. Peter I's first summer residence was in the gardens, and they have always been public domain. They were super-green, with not many flowers, but a few fountains and a carp pond (that was original to 1703!). We moseyed around a while, but the crowd was huge and oppressive, so we took off for bigger and better things: Donuts!

Anatoli told us about this Russian donut place, so we decided we had to go. They were soooooooo good. They were exactly like beignets except they were round with a hole in the middle rather than pillow-shaped. They were every bit as good, and were served the same way! They were so cheap too, like 12 Rubles for one donut (about 40 cents). We had our fill, and by then it was time to go back to the hostel to meet our bus that took us to the bus (ha).

We took our last metro ride to get home. It was sad! The metro is SO NICE and clean and easy to navigate. It made visiting the city super easy. I'll miss it!

We got back the hostel, lugged our luggage downstairs (whew!) and waved goodbye! It was sad too. We had made a lot of friends there and learned a lot about Russian culture that we couldn't have if we had stayed in a traditional hotel.

So the bus dropped us off at the big-bus station, and we were 2 hours early! Luckily there was a cute little park there, so we sat, played Fool, and walked around the area. I went to a Russian McDonalds! It was exactly the same as the ones everywhere, which was a little surprising, a little disappointing, and a little comforting all at the same time. haha.

So, our bus came and, man, was it swanky! It was a double decker, and each seat had much more leg room than the buses we've taken on band trips (I was steeling myself for another one of THOSE nights). The top floor, front row seats weren't taken, so a few of us went up there. It was super cool! Kind of scary because we were set a little in front of the driver, so it always felt like we were going to hit stuff.

We rode in style for about 3 hours enjoying the view of the Russian countryside before we came to the Russian exit customs. Not many countries have exit customs, but Russia does. They want to make sure that you're not smuggling out things or running from the law. It was uncomfortable because they obviously singled out our Chinese students. They asked them specifically for their passports and visas. We were a little offended, until Anatoli explained that because they're Chinese citizens, they need visas to go to Estonia, and they wanted to check their visas to make sure they could get INTO Estonia, because if they couldn't, they would have to go back to Russia. There was still some racial profiling that went on, because they asked them for their passports at first just based on looks, but I guess I understand why they had to do it.

At this point it was 1am, and I was groggy. After we made it out through Russia's border (Yay!) we traveled across no-man's-land to the Estonian border to go through THEIR customs. Anatoli said that it would be better because they don't make you get off and take your luggage in, but they did for us! We all got off, had to open all our bags, and present our passports. Everything was fine, though, and I got an Estonian stamp in my passport! Yay!

After we made it past the border, I wasn't really sleepy because I had taken just long enough a nap before the border to make me energized. I sat back up in the front seat ("The pilot's seat" as Anatoli said) and watch the sun come up. It was GORGEOUS! There were patches of fog low to the ground, and we were above them looking down into the fields. I took some pictures, but they were through the dirty bus window, so don't expect much. It was so beautiful.

After a half hour or so, we saw something on the road ahead. At first I thought it was a deer, but it was a MOOSE!!!! I've been dying to see one for years, and it happened so suddenly! It was a cow, and she ran across the road and away before I could get out my camera! It was awesome! Moose!!

After that, I was in a weird state between sleeping and waking until we arrived in Tallinn. Inna was waiting for us (she had left the previous day with her father). We took the trolley-thing two stops with our luggage to our hotel and dragged the bags up 3 flights of stairs.

Luckily, all of our hotel rooms were ready even though we were 6 hours earlier than the normal check-in. I was so happy! Our room is really nice compared to St. Petersburg, and we have our own bathroom with shower! So I took full advantage of that and then went to sleep directly. We were only allowed to sleep for 3 hours, and then Anatoli came to collect us.

So far today we haven't done much, but I'll tell you about it and what Julie and I see when we walk around later this evening to get dinner. I hope I can upload pictures soon, but right now it's being really uncooperative!

Radio Babies in Jars

Hiiiii!

Sorry for the gap in posts, but last night proved too late for me to keep my eyes open and type! I'll tell you about the past two days:

First, we had our last day of class in school 53. We were there on the day of their end-of-the-year festivities, known as Last Bell. Accordingly, all the kids were squirrellier than normal. Our lunch was exceptionally good too. We had chicken noodle soup, a rice pilaf with chicken and a sweet roll. It was soo good! The only draw back was that we had that thick, pink drink again. Blech.

After lunch, Anatoli offered to take us to the street right across the river where a bunch of museums are. Only 3 of us wanted to go, so we headed out and decided to go to the anthropological museum. It was really cool! It had displays of ancient and modern cultures from every continent at least. The weirdest part was a collection commissioned by Peter the Great himself. It was a bunch of malformed fetuses! I swear I'll have nightmares for weeks! And by a bunch, I mean at least a hundred; conjoined twins, brain hemorrhages, and all matter of bodily disfiguration. At first it was fascinating, but after about two rows of displays, I was very done with it.

So, after the museum, we came back to the hostel and took a nap for as long as we could, because we knew we would be out until 5am. Anatoli's friend Valentine was taking us out for a "vodka party." So, I slept until about 8 and then chatted with Andre about movies and other things.

We set out on our walk at about 11:45, stopping at Valentine's favorite view of the city, "the most beautiful view in all of Europe, must be." It was gorgeous. He helped me take some blur-less nighttime photos (which I will upload to facebook as soon as the internet is working a little better)! Then, we walked around the Hermitage, which was also lit up beautifully. There, we saw a saxophone player who had a blind in front of him so you couldn't see him. Valentine told us that this man is a very famous player who had played for all the Russian Presidents. Now that he was retired, the Governor of St. Petersburg pays him some money to play in the Palace Square. He doesn't like to be recognized, so he puts the blind up in front of him! Weird, huh?

Around 1:20, we went to a coffee shop to watch the bridges draw up. There were a LOT of people out just to watch the event! There are 13 or so that are drawn every night, and there's a gap of 10 minutes between each bridge's drawing, so that if you miss one bridge, you can hurry to the next if you absolutely need to get to Vasilyevsky Island (where our hostel is). It was really cool! We watched two go up, and then we went walking for the clubs.

Valentine took us to Nevsky Prospekt, the main drag in town, and down some back alleys until we came to the club, called Radio Baby (do you get the "before & after" in the title of this post now??). We went in, and my eyes are burning just typing about it. I should have assumed that Russian bars would be smokey, but it was a lot of smoke. We all took a shot of vodka with lemon (for 5 bucks! haha) and it started to be a little much for me. I haven't been feeling the best, and that much smoke would floor me on a good day. I had to go outside, and soon Anatoli and Inna came out with me. I apologized for putting them out, but Anatoli said he was honestly looking for a good excuse to leave the club. We walked around Kazan Cathedral (very preferable to clubbing in my opinion, haha) and waited for Valentine to let us know that they were done. They were about 20 minutes later, and we met them and walked around to another club, Punch. I decided to not even go in this one (I felt like I should try it at first, but I felt better once people said that it had been even smokier than Radio Baby). Anatoli, Inna, and I walked around again, this time down Nevsky for a while. I felt a little lame, but I just don't like clubs! They feel boring to me in the U.S. unless you're with the ideal people, and it was no different in Russia. I'm glad I tried it though! Plus, it was nice to talk to Inna more. Fun fact: she told me that her mother and grandmother told her when she was little to never sit on a rock, because if girls sit on rocks, something bad happens to them. Don't know what, but I risked it, haha).
We met them in a cafe (in Russian, kaфe) after they were done with Punch, which was a little longer, and it was 5:00 am! The time had gone really fast! The sun had risen at about 3:30am, while we were walking on Nevsky.

The sun was still rising when we walked back over the bridge, though, and it was really pretty. We got back inside, I took a shower, and then (as Grandma would say) fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.

Today! I woke up around 11, but then I read my current book (Mansfield Park, Jane Austen) until about 4pm. It was nice to relax again, especially with this dumb cold. At 6, Julie and I went down the block to a Georgian restaurant. It was recommended to me to eat in one while in Russia, so we had to do it. It was DELICIOUS. By far the best food I've had in Russia. I had a little roast whole chicken stuffed with nutpaste and mushrooms, with a yogurt sauce and fried zucchinis and eggplant. It was soooooo good. Julie had shish kebabs, and we split a napoleon for dessert. Mmmmmmmm.

Then, we came back here, and I skyped with Mom and Pat (and almost Dave, but I forgot that he was one hour off Eastern time, whoops). Then, Julie and I walked across the bridge to watch a fireworks show in honor of St. Petersburg's 309th birthday! They were great fireworks! We walked back just now at 11:15, and the sun was JUST setting. It's really cool to be able to be out that late without it being dark at all.

Tomorrow at noon, Anatoli is taking us out to go to some celebrations for the city's birthday. We have to check out of the hostel at that time, but we'll leave our luggage and come back for it before we go to the bus station at 8pm. Then we're going to Tallinn!!

It's so weird that we're already leaving St. Petersburg. It's been an amazing, beautiful city. I'm sad to be leaving what feels like so soon, but I'm excited to move on to Estonia and Finland, and also ultimately to be back home. That won't stop me, though, from continuing to have a great time abroad! :)

A Challenge for You

Hello, all!

Today in class, we talked about how to deal with controversial topics that will inevitably come up whilst we're teaching social studies. It was really interesting and valuable information. Sometimes I'm in a good mood for debate, but others I'm just feel to exhausted to argue or I feel like it's futile. Today was a mix of both, so I kept silent for most of the discussion, only adding a comment when it was fully formed. I like debates like that because you always seem like you're the smartest, haha.

After lunch, we were free all day. I have been feeling pretty tired the past week, so I stayed in and finished my current book, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It was a pretty good read, but I prefer the original version. It also convinced me to start reading the lesser known Jane Austen novels.

At about 5:30, Julie and I went to look for the post office, but didn't find it. We did find a supermarket, however, so we got fixin's to make stir-fry and fried rice. It was delicious!

After dinner, we played some cards with Andre. He taught us a new game that involved holding a matchstick in between your teeth. It was fun! We also played Fool, of course.

Sadly, I haven't heard back from Mikhail since his first response, and our time is winding down here in St. Petersburg (2 days only!), so I'm afraid we won't get to see him again.

We met a young girl, Guli (Yoo-lee), staying in our hostel. She was so excited to know we were from America, and she wants to study English there. She said that she doesn't like Russia, because everyone here is so grumpy and everyone in America is so polite and friendly. That's a pretty big opinion to live up to, but I think you guys are up to the challenge. :)

Петерго́ф

Today we took a trip to Peterhof (spelled in Cyrillic above)! It's a town outside of St. Petersburg a little ways on the Gulf of Finland (part of the Baltic). The town houses the summer palaces of all the Tsars through Catherine II, starting with Peter the Great (hence the Peterhof).

One the metro ride, Anatoli drew our attention to the fanciness of a few stops. They were gorgeous and extremely decked-out, with chandeliers and marble and glass cut to look like crystal. He said this was a good example of Stalin's taste for decoration and the Soviet effort to make the metros extremely attractive unlike those evil Americans' grungy public transpo stations. I thought that was interesting (I took a picture for evidence).

Waiting in line for the palace tour was kind of an adventure. There were several solicitors with souvenirs speaking in limited Mandarin, Spanish, French, and English. It was quite an impressive display of linguistics. Plus, we saw Anatoli's temper really tested, because the line was pretty much a blob, and the lady in control of entrance was basically just picking groups at random to enter. Note: It was funny because Anatoli kept yelling at her in English, even though she only spoke Russian. He couldn't tell me why he spoke in English when he was angry. Perhaps because he might get more sympathy? Dunno.

They didn't allow any pictures inside, and they were actually watching, so I didn't get any pictures of the palace, which was a bummer. Several of the rooms were baroque style, with the gold leafed accents on all the walls. Most impressive, though, was the many types of silk wall paper. There were at least 8 different kinds.

The palace was part of the area occupied by Nazi troops during the Siege of Leningrad, so the palace was blown up and abandoned before the troops arrived. Those that cared for it saved samples of every different type of silk wall paper and it was reproduced after the war.

The palace was beautiful, but the real attraction was the gardens. We arrived just as they were turning them on, so we witnessed the fancy pomp that went with it. They played a song that was about St. Petersburg over the speakers, and turned the fountains on little by little. There were so many beautiful fountains, you guys. I tried to take pictures of as many as I could, but I know I missed several. And OMG the tulips! May really is the best time to visit St. Petersburg, because there are so many tulips everywhere, and they were so beautiful. The gardens were all gorgeous.

There were several smaller palaces on the grounds, including Peter the Great's favorite, Mon Plaisir. It was RIGHT on the ocean front and had such a beautiful view, it's no wonder he loved to spend time there.

We took a bazillion pictures with all the pretty sights, and moseyed our way through the gardens. After about 2 hours, we had walked by MOST of the fountains. We headed back via bus.

This evening, a few of the others and I went for sushi at a Japanese place across the street. It was good! I have only had sushi once before, but I really liked it! It had crab this time. The sushi place was attached to a liquor store (yeah, we thought that was weird too) so we bought one bottle of vodka to share between 7 of us. It was not tasty. I've heard that vodka is a lot better in Russia, but it still tasted like vodka. We played a lot of Fool.

Now I'm ready for bed! Be sure to look at the pictures from today (posted in a few minutes) because the pictures rather than the blog will be the most amusing today! :)

Nighty night.

Fancy

Today ended up being kind of uneventful, so that's why you'll finally find the promised post about our fearless leader, Anatoli!

We went to class and talked about procedures, methods, strategies, and techniques. It involved one awesomely long example of why we need to us primary sources as much as possible. It involved King Henry VIII of England, and how he took it on the word of his royal portraitist that his potential wide was a beauty, only to meet her and find that she was plain and elderly. We all had a good laugh over it, mostly because we were all in that goofy stage of tired where everything is hilarious.

Then we had lunch and boarded the metro to go to the Summer Gardens. On the way, we saw a hated statue of Alexander III looking pretty stout on a pretty stout horse. Then we walked through the Field of Mars, where Pail would have his troops assemble at 5 am every morning.

When we got to the gardens, they were closed for renovations. Bah. I hope we can make it back a different day, because they looked pretty from the outside!

So we went to the Siege Museum. On the way we went in a cathedral that was built to honor the Russian Naval victories. There was a prayer ceremony going on, with a priest chanting in beautiful Russian. It was really cool.

So then we made it to the Siege Museum. There was some mix up with the docents, and for a minute or two, we thought that they were going to close too! Our luck held out, though, and we went through the exhibits. There was a lot of cool equipment and a lot of sad pictures about the massive starvation. The most interesting thing for me was the propaganda that was displayed. It was SO similar to U.S. propaganda of the same time. Try even planted the equivalent of Victory Gardens, though in Leningrad it was out of sheer need of something to eat.

After the Siege Museum, we walked over on of the bridges back to our island and took a metro to Sportivnaya, of course getting ice cream on the way. Then Julie, Nicholas, Amanda, Andy, and I went to a cafe to grab some dinner. It was tasty, plus I had cheesecake. I may have had too many sweets today... Oh well! As Grandma would say, I'm on vacation! :)

Then we played cards with Andre ( fool, of course) and we taught him what the word "fancy" means. It was also quite an adventure when he described his favorite food to us, cottage cheese ("but it's not cheese! What does 'clumpy' mean? No, I promise to you it's not like cheese, it's like milk")

It's been a good day, week, and trip. It's starting to move faster now. We leave for Tallinn in only 5 days!

Anatoli Mikhailovich Rapoport

Update: Anatoli liked my post! He did say, however, that he would never personally identify himself as Russian, but he would say he's Jewish. He is not religious, though, and labels himself agnostic.

I asked Anatoli's permission to write about him, and he said "of course! Maybe I'll be famous someday!"

Anatoli was born in Odessa, Ukraine, when it was part of the Soviet Union. He was Russian, and his family was not particularly religious. However, they were racially Jewish. At that time, citizens of the Soviet Union had to register and hold an official state ID. On his ID, Anatoli was Jewish. Also, his last name was recognizable Jewish.

In Russia, most students try to go to college or university in their home towns because it is cheaper and closer to their families. However, in that time, there was still a lot of Antisemitism, and it was common for institutions to "discreetly" discriminate against Jews. For example, Anatoli's friend who was very gifted in math "failed" the entrance exam to his hometown university. He was Jewish. So, he went instead to a trade school in his hometown even though he was very smart. Because of this discrimination, Anatoli had to leave Odessa and travel to Tula (150 miles outside of Moscow) for his schooling.

There, he met his wife, Inna Abramova. They got married, and she took Anatoli's last name. Anatoli had to serve his mandatory military duty, so Inna moved to St. Petersburg (all this is kind of hazy for me, so it might not be exactly right). While Anatoli was away, Inna had a terrible time finding any work. Why? Because of her last name; Rapoport. On her passport, she was racially Russian, but her last name was enough for people to discriminate. She was running out of money, and Anatoli had to send her his stipend ("It was, like, peanuts! Nothing!") and her parents helped her too. They were worried they would have to get a divorce on paper to solve the problem. But, eventually, she decided to take her maiden name back. Also, Anatoli insisted that all his children take her last name so there was no chance of troubles like they had had.

Note: I had asked Anatoli why he and Inna's names were different, but he said he had to save the story for our lesson on multiculturalism. It was a long wait, but worth it! I had no idea that this kind of prejudice lasted so long.

When Anatoli was out of the army, he lived in St. Petersburg with Inna, and they had two children. It was still Soviet Russia, and Anatoli doesn't remember it very fondly. He described waiting in line for hours to receive the allotted food for his family. Every time he tells us, he remembers exactly what they could get (I don't remember the exact numbers, so this is and example): 5 grams of bread, 50 grams butter, some milk, and TWO bottles of vodka--"Doesn't matter if you are baby; you still get TWO bottles!" He also said that they bought a dog, a boxer, in hopes that it would provide some protection on the dangerous city streets.

He remembered how people often used a barter system. A shoe salesperson would keep the best shoes for himself, and trade them to get the better pants, or towels, etc. "We were so unlucky as teachers, what do we have to trade? Nothing!" He also remembers bringing home a lot of extra food in their suitcases when he and Inna visited his parents in Odessa.

Note: It took me a long time to work up the nerve to ask Anatoli if he like communism. When I did, he said, "I wondered when someone would ask me!" He said that he wouldn't describe Soviet Russia as communist, because communism is an ideal situation. He said he certainly didn't like having to wait in line, and no one was happy about that. When I said, "Communism might work if the world was perfect," he said, "Yeah, if everyone loved their neighbors and all that, but everyone thinks, 'I want to eat NOW!'" I guess that's the point.

So, in 2000, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Anatoli got an offer to travel to America. He said that his friends would talk about "MAYBE traveling to England, but United States was like, 'yeah, right, who would let us go there?") So he did it. While he was here, someone at Purdue offered for him to stay and finish his schooling. He thought at the time that he was way too old at ~40 to go to school. He said after 35, NO ONE in Russia goes to school any more. But he decided to stay. And he stayed until today! He said part of the reason that he stayed was because Russian teachers are paid just ridiculously low wages. I can't remember the exact number, but when I ask Anatoli again, I'll let you know. It's not nearly enough to live on. -

Now, he's a newly-minted associate professor (he gave us his new business cards, haha) of curriculum and instruction at Purdue. His daughter still lives in St. Petersburg with her Russian husband, and they just had a baby! His son went to college at Illinois State, and now he lives in Bloomington and teaches.

And he lived happily ever after! (hopefully) :)

P.S. He knows everything about all kinds of history. It's crazy. He knows American history better than most Americans and he didn't even grow up here! But don't tell him this, because he would probably get an unbearably smug look on his face.

P.P.S Inna has a very interesting story too, but I haven't gotten to talk to her very much. Her father fought in the Battle of Stalingrad and still lives today! I'm REALLY hoping I get to meet him when we leave for Tallinn, Estonia, his (and Inna's) home country. Her grandfather and his family lived in Leningrad during the seige. Her uncle died of starvation (at age 10) during the seige, and her grandfather worked in a munitions factory and wasn't allowed home to see his family but one day a week.

Boats and Moats

So, we wake up at 11 for class, and not minute before. We walked to school and talk about assessments. It wasn't boring, but we're all still pretty sleepy, so we only have class for an hour and a half.

Then we return to the hostel to prepare ourselves for a boat canal tour! We decided to go today because the weather was warm and it can be chilly on the boats. It wasn't chilly, however. I roasted on the 1 hour tour because our boat wasn't open to the air! It was still fun, though, to see the city from the canals. Fun fact: Peter the Great originally wanted St. Petersburg to be just like Venice, with canals instead of streets. He didn't consider, though, that Venice is in a Mediterranean climate and St. Petersburg is pretty much Polar. Unsurprisingly, the canals froze the first winter, foiling his plans.

After the boat tour, we walked one block to Mikhailovsky Castle, home of Tsar Paul. Paul was the hated son of Catherine the Great and a conspirator in her death. He only ruled for 4 years before his own assassination, maybe at the hands of his own son, Alexander I (makes you thankful for me and Dave, eh Mom and Dad?)

He built this palace in the name of Saint Michael and surrounded it by a moat, making it a castle. He was a weirdo, take my word for it. He had the castle painted a pinkish color because that was he color of his favorite mistress's gloves. He wished to build back up the Russian military, so he adopted German methods. This was in the 19th century. He also instituted a mandatory, city wide bed time of 8 pm. EIGHT. If there were lights on in your house, you had charges brought on you, and some people were banished to Siberia. For not obeying their bed time. He also had all the troops arrive at his castle at 5am (they'd probably be well rested by then!) to do drills in his courtyard. Weirdo.

So, we walked around the grounds of his house and then walked through a park and got some (surprise!) ice cream. Mine had walnuts this time. Mmmm.

Then, we took the metro back to Sportivnaya and I commenced updating all of you on Moscow!

Today we have class and then a mystery adventure. It's supposed to rain. :/

I'll make a post tonight, and then I'll be back on schedule!

P. S. Fun fact: in Russia, you can't flush toilet paper. You have to throw it in the trash can. It took a little getting used to.

In Moscow, the sites visit you!

We're back! Now it's time to try and remember everything; here goes nothing!

We went to the train station at midnight. The metro system closes here at 12:00, so we had to set out a little early. On the way, we saw plenty of party people, haha. There was even a bus labeled "Party Bus," with music blaring out of it. Don't know what they were celebrating, but it looked fun!

Got to the train station, and it looked pretty much like a train station. This is the longest I've ever ridden on a train and the only time on a train with sleeper cars. It was really cool! The beds folded down from the walls, and the seatbacks folded down on the benches for the lower beds. 4 people to each car. I felt like Harry Potter!

My compartment was me, Julie, Xinyue, and Anatoli. We stayed up until about 2 am playing my new favorite card game, Fool. Anatoli has been playing since he was a little boy, because apparently Fool is to Russia as Euchre is to Indiana. He was really good, needless to say, and he didn't lose one game that night. I did! Haha.

Before we went to bed, the attendant lady came around and took our orders for breakfast (included in the price!). I ordered an omelet and sausage. It was funny, because the attendant didn't speak any English, so Anatoli was worried that the boys' car hadn't been able to order any food. The attendant told him in Russian that they had ordered pancakes. We were all really amazed that they had managed to order food in Russian! Anatoli went to see how they had done it, and they told him that the attendant had come in, that they had told her that they didn't speak Russian, so she just smiled and left! So I guess "I don't speak Russian" means "Pancakes, please!" hahaha good thing they all wanted pancakes anyway. :)

So we went to bed and I read for awhile and slept pretty well! We arrived in Moscow at 9:40ish, disembarked, and set out onto the streets! It was super hot. At 10:00am, it was 75. We went to find a Metro Station. The map of this metro system was like a spiderweb compared to St. Petersburg. (Fun fact: Moscow's official population is 11,000,000 and change--3 million more than NYC--but the actual population is much larger, because a lot of migrants from other countries and other areas in Russia live in Moscow, but aren't registered residents). We took the metro to the Kremlin stop and got off.

SO, this whole trip, I've been confused as to what the "Kremlin" is! I thought the style of the tops of the cathedrals (like Church on Spilt Blood), but then I found out it is sort of a center of government. So I was curious to find out. When we arrived, it was a huge wall (turns out that's what "kremlin" literally means) and there was a huge area inside containing 4 cathedrals and a bunch of buildings! So we went to the ticket office, and (prepare yourself) the Kremlin was CLOSED. CLOSED! Anatoli was furious. He said that Sunday is the main day for tourists, and that the Kremlin is closed every Thursday so it can stay open on weekends. The reason they gave us was that the President's residence was closed that day, and since the Kremlin is part of his residence, it closed too. Isn't that lame?! It seems that this kind of thing happens a lot, though, because we saw another poor guy in line who said he had tried to go yesterday, but it was closed, and open only half a day the day before that.

So that took a lot of wind out of our sails, especially since that was the main site to see in Moscow. However, the Armory Museum portion of the Kremlin WAS open! Hurrah! But only 89 tickets are available at specific times for that, so we stood in line and rushed in. We made it! While we were waiting in line, we met a husband and wife from the Phillipines who were visiting and only spoke English, so they were asking Anatoli how to use the metro. Also, we met a pair of sisters from America. One lives in Florida and the other in Grand Rapids, Michigan! She knew exactly where Plymouth was because she used to live in South Bend!!! Also, her coworkers are huge Purdue fans, so she was really excited to go back home and tell him that she met us! It was crazy!!

Okay, so it may sound like a terrible start, but the Armory is actually the main museum inside the Kremlin. It houses all the gifts and regalia of Russian Leaders since before even the time of Peter the Great. We saw the Faberge eggs, crazy-ornate things of every nature, and some really amazing gold, silver, and jewel work. It was really awesome, and I only took a couple pictures, because I had to dodge the docents (shhh).

We wandered through that for a couple hours with our mouths hanging open (or was that just me?) and then we tried to sweet talk our way on to the rest of the Kremlin grounds. The guard was having none of that, though, so we went back outside the big walls.

Then, we went to a park area pretty close and decided to eat some lunch. It was pricey! We ate at Sbarro Pizza, and mine was ~600 Rubles, or 20 bucks! It was delicious though. Everyone ate a ton because they had spent so much to get it, and once we were done, we were all kind of hazy. Note: A Michael Jackson concert from the 90's was playing on several big screens in the restaurant!

Then we went to watch a changing of the guard at the Soviet Tomb of The Unknown Soldier. At this point, it was nearing 85. Luckily, there were a lot of tourists in Moscow, so I didn't feel as dorky in my running shorts and t-shirt. There is NO way I could have dressed the way the Russian women dress that day. The tomb was pretty cool, and we waited for about 20 minutes for the guard to change. Their marching style looked extremely taxing, especially on this hot day. It was really similar to the changing of the guard at the tomb in Arlington National Cemetery, so it was really cool to see the same ceremony in two very different settings.

After that, we went to Red Square. Guess what! It was CLOSED. Well, sort of anyway. They had it blocked off with fences, because there's big festivities in a few weeks that they need to get it all spiffy for. We could see all of it, but we couldn't stroll around it, which was a bummer. Oh well! I was starting to get the feeling that tourists from America didn't matter very much to the sites of Moscow. That's probably how it should be.

So, we walked through a mall (which turned out to be a historical mall built during the 19th century! Anatoli said during Soviet times, everyone would come to that mall to get anything of quality, which was hard stuff to find). On the other side was St. Basil's Cathedral! It was gorgeous! It was rather smaller than I pictured in my head, but it was still worth every mile of train ride! We went inside, but NO pictures were allowed (and I actually heeded the rules this time). This cathedral is 450 years old; it deserves some respect!

Fun (maybe that's a bad word to use) Legend: Ivan the Terrible is the one who commissioned the cathedral in 1555. After the architects finished the plans, Ivan IV had their eyes taken out so they'd never be able to create something that looks the same. They don't call him "The Terrible" for nothin'!

It was strange inside (there are pictures on the internet if you search for them). There was no cavernous sanctuary like all the other cathedrals we've been in. It had a lot of small rooms and winding passage ways. It was really cool, and it'd be an AWESOME place to play sardines if we wouldn't be trampling over 450 year old floors. The walls were painted rather than mosaic, but they were beautiful anyway.

After we roamed the church, we left to walk to the current seat of Russian Orthodoxy, a cathedral (surprise!). It was really pretty, white with gold domes. One the way there, we noticed a TON of bikes on one of the roads by the river. We think they might have a program where they shut down the streets once a month or so and let people bike there. There were all manner of people from super-intense spandexy guys to little girls with handle bar tassels. It was cool!

We also saw a gargantuan monument to Peter I on the river. "What? I thought Peter I founded St. Petersburg! Why is it in Moscow?" Well, I'm glad you asked. :)

Apparently this monument-maker guy (Tsereteli) was really "in" with the Russian government (still is) and had done several projects around Moscow. He decided to make a "beautiful" monument to send to America for the 500th anniversary of Columbus' discovery in 1992. So, he built this GIANT (500 feet!)
statue of Columbus standing on a comparatively tiny boat with GIANT sails and sent it to the U.S. We basically said, "Oh, that's so nice.... thanks, Russia..." and then didn't put the statue up anywhere. Who knows where it is! So, this Tsereteli guy was really mad! He made an extremely similar statue of Peter I standing on a tiny ship to commemorate 300 years of Russian Navy. He then presented it to St. Petersburg to display. They said, "Uhhh, thanks but no thanks. We have no where to put it!" So he ended up putting it in Moscow because he had such connections with the government that they didn't care what he did. Anatoli said that Moscuvites abhor the ugly statue and want it to be gone forever. It was pretty funny lookin' and so BIG!

See? No monument needs to be that big.

So, we get to the Cathedral. It's really pretty, but not as impressive because it was finished in the 1990's. We try to go in, but you're not allowed to wear shorts! I guess we should have seen that coming, but still it was kind of lame. So, the panted ones of our group went inside and told us what it was like. Apparently, it was "pretty".

After that, we walked on a pedestrian bridge near the cathedral and chilled for a while. It was a really pretty view.

Then, we meandered back to our train station, stopped at a shopping mall for dinner, sat and waited. We were only like 30 minutes early to our train, and the waiting room had beautiful window decals that looked like stained glass. It was like a sauna in there though, so we were glad when our train got ready for boarding. Same compartment configuration as the night before, and we played Fool again. This time, Anatoli was Fool once! It was a big occasion. Then we settled in for a 6 hour nap.

We arrived back in St. Petersburg at 5:00am. We had to wait 20 minutes for the metro station to open, but it was cool to see Nevsky Prospekt, one of the busiest streets in town, dead quiet. We made it back to the hostel and I immediately took a shower and then went to bed for 4 hours.

To Be Continued... :)

Divo Ostrov

Hello, America! :)

Today has been a relatively uneventful day after this week full of activity!

First, I woke up at 7:00am Russia-time to Skype with Katie because she's getting married TOMORROW! The plan was to talk with her, Cassie, and Erin on Saturday night (Sunday night here), but we're leaving on a night train to Moscow at 12:40am, so unless I have wi-fi on the train, I won't be able to! It was good to see her before she becomes Mrs. Quinn, but one of the saddest things about going on this trip is missing her wedding. I do not regret it though, and she was happy to know that. :)

Then I Skyped with Mom! And THEN I Skyped with Dad! I was nice to be all caught up with everyone (I just got done Skyping with Grandma!).

Then I went back to bed until 11:30! haha

Julie and I had brunch, and then we headed out to the metro to go to the Divo Ostrov theme park! On the way, we noticed that a lot of people were headed toward the same destination. We weren't surprised, because it's Saturday and the weather is gorgeous. But then we got there and it was PACKED!

It's hard to explain, but Divo Ostrov is park of a larger park that is HUGE. About the size of Central Park. So in the non-amusement part of the park, there was a sort of festival going on with food tents and craft vendors all along the main trail. It was cool! I got some potholders with traditional Russian design on them for mom and grandma for only 100 Rubles ($3)!

Divo Ostrov was really strange, haha. The name was in "Disney" font, there were a few Disney themed rides like the Teacups (from Beauty and the Beast) and Thunder Mountain. But there were also Dreamworks characters like Puss 'n Boots walking around! PLUS, there was a Star Wars alien-fighter ride with Yoda in front.

We were lost at first when we went to buy tickets, but after bothering some other patrons, we found a guy who could translate part of the information. The ride names were translated into English, but not the prices of tickets. Go figure. As it turned out, you paid per ride you went on, but they gave the option of an all-day pass. The all-day was 1500 Rubles (~$50) so we decided to just buy tickets for a few rides.

We rode on the Rocket, which was awesome! It was held up by wires (check the pictures), and the rocket spun you around and turned you upside down. Then, we rode the Thunder Mountain equivalent, which was fun too! Then, we rode Storm, which was nuts! Earlier this week, Julie had seen a video posted by her friend of a "scary amusement park ride" and we saw that it was in St. Petersburg! So obviously, we hunted for it. It was wild, but not as scary as it appears in the video. All in all, I would say we hit the biggest rides.

After the rides, I bought some cotton candy (possibly my favorite edible substance --I don't think it counts as food). It was great! We watched a show that was going on; they were having some sort of talent show, but then it turned into an eating contest? We were confused, haha. But it was fun!

Then we left Divo Ostrov and walked the main trail, perusing the vendors. We saw some extremely beautiful Russian pastries, but they were like 12 and 13 dollars apiece! We went with a truck called "Grandma's House" (except in Russian) and got some pastry for like 1 dollar. It probably wasn't as good, but we got the idea.

We sat on the bank of a pond for a while and watched the rides in the park and the paddle boats in the pond. It was surprising how peaceful it was to hear people scream on the rides, haha.

After some lazing around, we caught the metro back to our Sportivnaya, and since we've been doing a whole lotta nothin'.

Anatoli is coming to collect us at 11:00pm to take us to the train station! I may not be able to post tomorrow night unless the train has wi-fi, so I'm sorry in advance if I don't! I will take notes in my journal and post two posts the next day, though.

P.S. Tomorrow it's supposed to be 82 degrees in Moscow!

P.P.S. Weird fact: On all the escalators in the Metro stations I've been in, the handrail has moved faster than the stairs part, so your hand keeps moving farther away from you and you have to move it back every so often. Why?!?

Fool

Today was a strange day, weatherwise and otherwise.

It was pouring when Anatoli arrived to get us, so we fought our way to school through the rain/wind mix. We've been so lucky the last 3 days with sunshine that I think we deserved to get a little wet. Anatoli said one year, they had 3 weeks of straight rain and 40 degree weather. No thank you. On our way we encountered a not-so-sober gentleman who said something to us, but we just ignored him partly because he was noticeably drunk and party because we were speed-walking in the rain. Anatoli later said he was asking us if he could have our umbrella. Oops. haha

We had class again. Today was on lesson plan objectives and how to write them. It's a very practical class for me! I'm taking a ton of notes. I do feel bad for those who aren't social studies majors, because it's a really practical class rather than a survey or something more general.

Then, we had lunch in the cafeteria. It was really yummy today! Beef/potato stew and beets. I like beets!

We came back to the Hostel (interesting fact: our hostel is called Base Camp because the owner, Viktor, is a mountain climber!!! Like he has a real ice pick thingy hanging in the reception area. Pretty cool guy.) We rested for a bit, and then we gathered to go to the Russian Museum because it had stopped raining! A lot of people didn't want to go, actually. Only four of us wanted to. People said they were tired, they didn't care for art, they wanted to go other places that weren't as touristy. That's fine, but I want to see EVERYTHING, so I might as well go as many places as I possibly can with Anatoli because he knows EVERYTHING about St. Petersburg. Plus, I feel like you have to start with the touristy places, because there's usually a good reason they're so popular. Alas, I was right! Love it when that happens. ;)

The Russian Museum is housed in Mikhailovsky Palace on Arts Square on the main island of St. Petersburg. We took the same Metro route to the Arts Square (surprise! Our ballet theatre was on that square too). In front of Mikhailovsky palace is a monument to Pushkin with his arm extended to the side. There are always birds on him! I don't really know why, because a lot of the statues have their arms out. Mystery! There were actors portraying Peter the Great and his wife (forget her name) walking around and taking pictures with people for money. This guy was especially awesome because, as we walked by, a liter bottle of Coca-Cola fell out from under his jacket. I laughed out loud at him and he said, "Well! Sorry." It was a funny moment.

The museum is art produced by Russians. It's all really lovely. It was absolutely vital to have Anatoli there, though, because most of the pieces were only famous in Russia. It went chronologically too, which was nice, because we got a great review of Russian imperial history while we looked at beautiful portraits. We had some good discussions about the truth of Bible stories, too (I'll talk about it in my Anatoli post. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten). So we walked through the museum with Anatoli telling us how he had seen the painting in all his textbooks and telling us about the Russian movies made about some of the scenes. It was pretty awesome, and I finally feel like I can speak with authority on the Tsars' history after that overview. I'm really glad I went, and I'm really thankful that Anatioli was willing to take us even though only 4 wanted to see it.

After that, the sun was out!! Julie and I walked to the same market that we went to the other day and I finished out my souvenir shopping! I got a lot of things!! Also, I've tested out packing them in my backpack for the flight back, because I know if I put them in my suitcase, I'll be overweight (the heavy bag fee is $85!!). So heavy backpack it is! Then, we ate dinner in an outdoor sports bar. Very tasty! And we watched Lazio v Inter Milan soccer match. I love soccer announcers in foreign languages, and Russian did not disappoint at all. GHOUUUUUULL!!! :)

This evening we've all pretty much just lazed around. We played a lot of cards, and tonight the one of the people who work behind the reception desk, Andre, played with us! We've all been talking with him a lot, because he also loves to practice English and he's around our age, a little older. He says he wishes Anatoli brought more trips, because he only gets to speak English 1 time a year! We played 99, Egyptian Rat Screw, and then Andre taught us a Russian game called Fool. It was kind of like Hearts, but meaner. It was really fun! We've decided to play again on Monday and Tuesday night.

And now, here I am! Tomorrow we have a free day (rest day for poor Anatoli). Julie and I are going to go back to the amusement park that we saw! I really want to ride the rocket ride! :)

How you spent this week?

Today was probably our longest day yet; I am really tired. But I WILL write in this journal every night because I don't want to forget anything that happened!

First, I got up at 7 and skyped with Pat. He is going on a three-day backpacking trip with his brother and some friends in Tennessee. Pray he doesn't get attacked by a bear. I think he'll be okay though, there has to be at least one person that runs slower than him. ;)

Then Anatoli got here at 9:30 for us to go to Pushkin, a town a little ways out of St. Petersburg where the Tsar's summer homes are. We took the metro to Moscovsky, one of the longest streets in town. We stopped at the Victory Monument, a monument made to honor WWII soldiers and the inhabitants of the city (Leningrad). It was a really cool monument, but eerie because they played classical music around the square. It made it more somber. Inside the mini museum, they played every so often a short melody. Anatoli said that this melody would proceed all public announcements to citizens of Leningrad during the siege. It was chilling; a simply melody. I could barely imagine how living in Leningrad during that time felt. Anatoli said his wife's grandfather worked in a shell factory during the siege, and he wasn't allowed to go home except one day a week. He hated that because he constantly feared that his children were starving to death during the week. 1 million people died merely of starvation. That's a lot of death. Period.

After the monument, we caught a bus to Pushkin. The bus was nice, but it was HOT today. Like 80. And no one wears shorts, let alone tank tops with shorts. So I left my cardigan on. I honestly don't know how the women dress how they do; always nice with high high heels. Crazies. But Pretties.

First, we went into Catherine Park. It was huge! It was the grounds of Catherine Summer Palace. There was a lake and a lot of out-buildings for inhabitants and visitors to use. The inside of the palace was gorgeous. Interesting fact is that before the siege of Leningrad, the caretakers of the palace took all the important artifacts and moved them to inland Russia, and burned-out the building! The structure still stood, but they wanted to ruin it, so the Nazis wouldn't do that job for them. Check out the pictures, it was reallllly pretty, but not much to really talk about in this blog.

Next, we walked through another park to the palace of Tsar Nicholas II (and Anastasia, Frannie!!). It was completely different, having been built much later. There were a lot of artifacts that belonged to the family. It was really cool; it actually looked like a home, unlike the other palaces which were just insanely ornate.

After that, we looked around for a restaurant, but a lot of us were impatient, so we just caught the bus back to Moscovsy Prospekt and ate at Pizza Hut. It was actually really good and different from the U.S.! I had a baked pasta. One of the most challenging things about being here is that I have no idea where we should eat. Anatoli doesn't have ANY favorite restaurants in St. Petersburg (isn't that weird?) and obviously I have no idea what I'm doing. So when we get hungry, we basically wander the streets, go into restaurants, look at the food and the price, and decide if we want to eat there. It's really exhausting, plus every time we do this, I'm hungry (obviously) so I'm not exactly in a fine mood. It'd be nice to just go to a regular place, but I do want to try as much as I can! It's a tough situation, haha.

After Pizza Hut, we came back to the Hostel to rest for an hour or so. Then, Anatoli came back and we went to see Swan Lake!!! It was SO GOOD! Beautiful music and dance. Loved it. Anatoli said that there may be tickets to lesser known ballets for 10-15 bucks; if that's true, I definitely want to go again. I love it because it's only music, so the language barrier doesn't exist!

Now, I'm back at Hostel-Home. I got an email from my new friend Michail, and hopefully he's going to meet up with us next week so we can meet his girlfriend and his school friends! His email was really funny with the grammar struggles. At the end of the email, he asked, "How you spent this week?" He's a really nice guy, and he seems really interested in showing us around his city! I really want to make friends here, so I can start my international web of connections. ;)

This post is pretty straightforward only because I'm literally too wiped to elaborate much. I'll make sure I elaborate more in later posts! Good afternoon to you all, good night to me!

Slappy Jab

Short post tonight (maybe, we'll see how it goes) :)

Today we had class again. It was really interesting again. Today we started in on unit planning, so I'll spare all of you those details, haha. With lunch today, we had traditional Russian pea soup and a mixed shredded meat dish (Anatoli said, "Oh! It's like, what's that American dish called? Sloppy Job, Slappy Jab, or something? Oh, Sloppy Joe!") hahaha. We also had a traditional drink that was pink, fruity, and thick. It was thickened with corn starch. Not super thick, but kind of Pepto-Bismol-y. It tasted great, but the goopy thing was a little hard to get over.

After lunch, we went to the Hermitage museum!! It houses the largest art collection in THE WORLD!!! It doesn't not have the largest display of art because they only display 7% of the artifacts in the museum, which is absolute madness because Julie and I were there for 4 hours and only saw about half of the displayed art! Art isn't really my biggest interest area, but I still wanted to see all the big pieces and get a good feel for the vastness of the collection, so that's what we did! We saw 2 Da Vinci's; there are only 10 known paintings of his in the world! We saw Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Renoir, Van Gogh, Monet, Matisse, and a bunch of other artists that I'm not cultured enough to recognize. The paintings were gorgeous, a lot of them weren't covered by any barriers, so you could see them really well. I think Rembrandt was my favorite; his were really dark and gloomy, but seemed the most real. The place was crawling with tourists, but Anatoli said that it was absolutely empty compared to what it will be during tourist season (June-July).

Then we walked around the Palace Square (between the Hermitage, which used to be the Tsar's Winter Palace, and the old Military Headquarters) It was beautiful, and the weather was really fine today. There stands a huge pillar in the middle of the square called Alexander Column. It's built to honor Tsar Alexander I, but also all the troops that fought in 1812 in the Napoleonic Wars. Fun fact, Tchaikovsky wrote "1812 Overture" in honor of this battle as well, even though a lot of Americans think it's an American tune about the War of 1812. Silly Americans. :)

We rode the subway during rush hour to get back home after the Hermitage, but it actually wasn't that bad and I didn't see any crime still!! (Knock on wood). So far, St. Petersburg has been lovely and friendly to us (except that one ice cream lady, haha).

Tomorrow we're going to the town of Pushkin (not to be confused with the poet) to look at the palace of Catherine the Great! I'm not that familiar with it, so I'll be sure to soak up everything tomorrow and spill it all back out to you. :)

Also, I'll remember to put my battery in my good camera! Today I packed my camera, but left the battery on the charger. :( Good thing my iPod has a halfway decent camera or else I'd have to go back to the Hermitage to get pictures! It was free for students, but that was a lot of walking and standing and admiring. Hard work, you know. ;)

A Fool Who Chases a Wise Man

All my days are starting to run together and it's harder to write about one specific day anymore because I remember things I want to write about other days! One of these days, I need to write a post all about Anatoli, because he needs a whole one to himself. Someone remind me!

Today we had class again. We discussed teaching social studies in a multicultural setting. It was really interesting! I actually debated one point (surprised?) when we read a quote from a famous historian about multiculturalism. It was an excerpt from "The Disuniting of America" by Arthur Schlesinger and the full article can be found online, but my link-poster isn't working for some reason, so I'll just post the URL: http://academics.eckerd.edu/instructor/griggscm/pel/Intro_Am_Civ_00/schlesi.pdf

Basically, it questioned the motives of trying to teach a less Eurocentric history, claiming that changing the curriculum was an attempt to raise "minority self-esteem." I, frankly, thought this was farce. I think that teaching a Eurocentric history has served for hundreds of years to raise OUR cultural self-esteem at the expense of any other participants in history (EVERYONE), and to continue that way would just as wrong as changing it to be more truthful/culturally fair. Anatoli discussed the example of the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving with the class, and we talked about whether it was right or wrong to idealize Thanksgiving for elementary students. I honestly don't know how I would answer the question, but I couldn't rightfully say that it's wrong to teach the truth. Whether it's appropriate for young children to teach the whole, ugly truth is a harder question. I know one thing, though: I wish that what we were taught in elementary school WAS the truth and then we wouldn't have to discuss this question!

Sorry to bore you with the class portion of my trip, but this course isn't just a vehicle to Russia for me, it really will apply to my career, someday very soon!

So, after class, we had lunch in the cafeteria. The food is okay, not great. It's nice to get to try some traditional Russian food, but I'm sure that it still fits the "school food" mold and shouldn't be considered fine Russian cuisine (especially since it only costs 55 rubles, $2, haha). Today it was a meatball, julienned beets, and mashed potatoes. Not too bad.

Then, we went to St. Isaac's cathedral. Oh my gosh you guys, these cathedrals. I realize that I'm raving about them and it might be getting excessive, but they deserve it. Some people in our group appreciate them, but once they've seen a few, they're ready to leave. I could stay for hours! Every cathedral (3 so far), they've had to find me and tell me everyone else was ready to leave. ALL of them are so beautiful. God is SO there. It sounds cheesy and I know all the art work is man made, but it's an eerie feeling. The paintings and mosaics are so numerous. The ceilings are so high. It's so wonderfully quiet and cavernous. There's so much to see and yet only One to see. I can't describe it any better, I'm sorry. You'll just have to see it for yourself. :)

After we left St. Isaac's, we walked behind it to a smallish park where the most famous monument in Russia stands. It's called The Bronze Horseman (even though it's not made of bronze; Pushkin wrote a poem about the statue titled "The Bronze Horseman," so the name stuck). It was commissioned by Catherine the Great because she didn't like the other statue built to honor Peter The Great. It was pretty cool, he looked tall and proud, pointing forward, trampling on a snake, and standing high on a rock (that was all one piece of rock, huge!). We took some pictures, then everyone bought some ice cream (following Anatoli's example of course).

Then we walked around the side of St. Isaac's to a similarly smallish park in the front, where a statue of Tsar Nicholas I stands. Tsar Nicholas was NOT popular, and it's funny, because Russians have a rhyme (which rhymes in Russian, but not English) that says that "A Fool who chases a Wise Man is stopped by St. Isaac's" or something similar. It's like this because Nicholas I is on a horse in facing the front of the cathedral and Peter the Great is behind the cathedral facing away, so St. Isaac's is blocking the chase. When the Bulshevik's pretty much trashed all the Imperial monuments, they left this one not because they liked Nicholas I, but because the statue was so unique. It features Nicholas astride a horse that's rearing on two legs. So there are only two points of contact for the statue, making it unstable. However, the head of Nicholas I and the head of the horse are hollow, making it lighter. (The Bronze Horseman's horse is also on two legs, but the tail touches the trampled snake, making 3 points of contact).

We also saw the seed bank that Vavilov the Russian agriculturalist put together (still the largest in the world) before WWII. It was even kept and guarded during the siege of Leningrad, when over 1 MILLION people starved in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad). The scientists inside the seed bank starved trying to stop hungry people from breaking in and eating the seeds. They needed that bank because they hold many many different hybrids that can be bred with newly discovered hybrids to make even better plants. We learned about that in Ag Econ 250 this last semester, so it was really cool to see it in person so soon!

Also there was the house where Ras Putin was killed/drowned in the canal outside. I don't know much about him, but apparently he was very hard to kill. They tried to poison him with cyanide in the pastries, then they shot him with a rifle, then they hit him over the head. None of it worked, so they finally drowned him in the canal.

After our adventures with Anatoli, we took the metro two stops past our Sportivnaya to a humongous park. We will definitely go back, so I'll write about it another time. This is long enough. :)

I'm having an amazing time here, but I'm starting to miss people from home, so I would love it if you could let me know if you're still reading this blog so I know you're here with me!

Assassination, Putin, and Crying Mary

Today we had class! Only for two hours, and it's all about what I love (Social Studies and Teaching) so I didn't mind. Plus, it was in the Russian grade school (shoot! forgot to take pictures again) so it's still an adventure when we go there. We discussed and learned about the history of education for 2 hours.

After that, we took a trip back to the hostel to drop off the projector and our backpacks, and then set out on another excursion! It was a gorgeous day outside, 60 degrees and not a cloud in sight. We made our first foray into the St. Petersburg Metro! It's the deepest in the world, with one station being 128 METERS under the surface. It has to be so deep because of all the waterways in St. Petersburg. For your viewing pleasure, here is a map of the city:

As you can see, pretty much all major parts of the city are separated by water, so getting around can be tough. We're staying on the same island as Peter and Paul Fortress, top middle in this map. Today we took the metro to the main part of St. Petersburg, the bottom of this map.

First, we went to the Church on Spilt Blood. It was built to commemorate the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1886ish. The story is a good one, so bear with me. When he was young, Alexander visited a gypsy fortune teller. She told him that he would survive 7 assassination attempts in his lifetime, but be killed by the 8th. On the day he was killed, he was mortally wounded by a bomb thrown by the assassin. He assured doctors that he would survive, because this was only the 7th attempt on his life. What he didn't know at the time was that just before the bomb was thrown, a shot was fired at him, but missed, that being the 7th attempt. So, the bomb killed him, the 8th attempt just as prophesied.

I can't even relay to you how breathtaking this cathedral was, but OMG look at the pictures. It's relatively new (1907) and in a pseudo-classical Russian style. St. Basil's Cathedral, in Moscow, is in Classical Russian style (we'll be going there this weekend! Yay!). The outside of this cathedral was beautiful, but the best part was in the inside. Almost every inch of the place was covered in mosaics. With tiny pieces, too! At most an inch square each, the pieces. There were biblical scenes, icons, portraits, everything was in mosaic. At the altar, there were iconostases, groupings of icons in gilded metal. It was amazing. We wandered around gaping at the beauty for about 20 minutes, and then we left. There were a lot of tour groups, as this is understandably one of the most visited sites in St. Petersburg.

After that cathedral, we went to a souvenir fair set up across the street. They had all the best touristy things, especially Matrushka Dolls (Nesting dolls). Haggling was accepted there, so I tried my best and actually Anatoli said I didn't do a bad job; high praise, believe me. I got several souvenirs, but I need to go back probably because I didn't have a lot of rubles left by the time we got the market. It was so obviously geared towards tourists. Most vendors spoke English and took credit cards and U.S. dollars. I did a pretty good job of sounding like I was almost out of money though. My favorite purchase is one set of 10 nesting Matrushkas that are painted to look like famous Russian leaders (they had EVERYTHING, Harry Potter, Obama, Dora the Explorer, etc.). Mine have Putin, Madvedev, Yetsin, Gorbachev, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Stalin, Lenin, Tsar Nicholas II, and Tsar Peter the Great in progressively smaller dolls. I love them! (shhh I also got Pat a set). I think they will be great in my classroom!

After the market, I got ice cream (it really is delicious everywhere!) and we walked to Kazan Cathedral, one of the most famous in St. Petersburg (again, look at the facebook pictures, here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3726269711534.2162403.1119647653&type=1. In the Cathedral, there is an icon that is said to have been found in the Kazan countryside a long time ago, with tears coming from the Virgin Mary's eyes. Since then, the icon has been in Kazan Cathedral, and people come from all over to worship at it. There was a sizable line when we were there. We walked around and looked at the many other icons in the cathedral. I put down my camera and stood for a long while to just soak it all in. I hope that it worked. :)

Tomorrow we have class again, and then we're probably off on another adventure. Anatoli found tickets for us to Swan Lake later this week. CAN'T WAIT.

Niet, Niet, Niet

Big day! I'm forcing myself to write this because I don't want to forget anything.

First, in the hostel.

We're staying in a hostel, which means anyone can stay here and we share common kitchen and bathroom, with separate bedrooms. For the past few days, we've been interacting with some fisherman staying next door. They are friendly, but speak very little English. They invited us (Julie and I) to drink and talk with them last night. We did. They were all really nice. There were three older men (I only remember 1 name, Serge, who was a fisherman), a younger (25) guy who is from Siberia and worked in a snowboarding shop, and today one of the older men had his son (Michail) over, who is training in a military cadet school and is about our age. The younger guys speak functional English, and the young man tonight is actually still over there talking to Titus and Michael (from our group). He is very curious and told us he is enjoying practicing his English because he's never interacted so long with Americans before. Julie and I left, because both nights, Michail's father has been very insistent with the shots, haha. Last night, we took 3 each. In Russia, the culture is that if there is a group around the table, everyone at the table drinks, no one sits out a round. So after 3, we extracted ourselves and tried not to be rude. I was worried that they were offended, but tonight they invited us back, so I guess they weren't! I was skyping with Mom and Dave when Michail's dad came in and vehemently asked us to join them again. Tonight, Michail was there and he defended us a little, because he said he too did not like to drink much. We had 1 shot each of vodka and 1 of whiskey, which I guess is becoming more popular. Also interesting is that after 10pm, buying alcohol is illegal. However, that didn't stop any of the guys from running to the corner liquor store and buying more anyway. I wanted to stay and talk with Michail, but his father would not let up with the insistence that we take more shots, so we left while he was out smoking, haha. We definitely will never forget the word for "No" (Niet). We asked Michail if there was a more polite way to say "No," but he said that "Niet" is all the politeness you need. He said that he finds that Americans are always very worried about offending everyone, and we try too hard to be polite. I can see that, haha. We still told Michail to apologize for us because we don't mean to be rude, but he said that he also wanted to apologize to us for his father's rudeness. They're honestly all harmless, although judging by their scars, they can choose when not to be harmless. Michail was a little more discreet, and he gave Titus his email, so the four of us may try to hang out with him again before we leave. He was telling us about his school, his home (Orenburg, South near Kazakhstan), the date that he had earlier when he and his girlfriend went to see an American Johnny Depp/Tim Burton movie (dunno which one), and the way his friends and peers talk about America. A lot of Russians think that America is what is shown on MTV (they have it here too). We assured him that we all hate MTV, haha. He talked a lot of patriotism, how it seems that Americans have it and Russians lack it. He said that a lot of young Russians want it to be different, not like Putin wants it to be different, but more modern and Western. We assured him that not everyone in America thinks it's the best, and we told him about the phrase "The grass is always greener on the other side." His English was really very good for never having interacted with native speakers, but he told us that his friends' was better.

Now, for the excursion of the day.

We went first to the Russian Military History Museum. It was massive. MASSIVE. Look at the pictures on facebook, but even they don't show the scale of this place, there were about 100 tanks, missiles, and trucks out on the front lawn, and then they had full exhibits in the buildings too. Anatoli said he really wasn't interested in the military, so we mostly wandered by ourselves. It was really interesting and I took a lot of pictures. It was really evident that Russia truly is both Asian and European. There were medieval knights in armor with lances and swords, but there were also 16th century cannons with Chinese technology and oriental carvings. It was more than fascinating.

After the museum, which we sped through because only 4 in our group are interested in that sort of thing (but trust me, we dawdled as long as we could without causing our own personal uprising), we went to a place called Peter's Cottage. It was the first building built as part of St. Petersburg in 1712, and Peter the Great lived there. It was a wooden building inside an outer brick building built later to protect the cabin. Pictures weren't allowed inside (they cost 100 rubles, $5, per picture), but I still took 1. My camera died tonight, so I'll put them up later.

Then we walked to a ship called Augusta. It is the most famous ship of the Russian fleet because it signaled the Bulshevik Revolution in 1917. It also survived the Russo-Japanese war in 1904, which was a pretty big feat because the Japanese fleet pretty much destroyed the Russian fleet. They were charging admission to the inside of the boat because I guess some anarchists tried to vandalize it in October. Anatoli said it was silly to pay, so we just wandered around the deck and took some pictures and then left without going inside.

Then we walked back to the hostel around 2:15, Julie and I took a 2-hour nap, and then we went out walking again. This time, we walked across the canal to the Hermitage museum. We just went outside it because we're going there as a group later this week. It's beautiful. Then we tried buying some ice cream, but the vendor was an older woman and she got really frustrated. She was saying something about we had to buy 3 or something, and then she finally just put our ice cream back in the freezer and walked away. So we left. It kind of rattled me because that was the first time someone had not been really nice to me, but I can see that it would be really frustrating to have some silly girl not know what you're saying. I did think she was a little grouchy, though. Anyways, I'll have to take Anatoli with me to get ice cream next time, which won't be a problem, because he's addicted to it and gets it everywhere. When someone asked him where to get the best ice cream in St. Petersburg, he said, "Where? Everywhere!"

Tomorrow we have class, and then we're going to a market to buy souvenirs. Sorry if this blog is a little longer than you were expecting! :)

Good night!

History-Lover's Paradise

Pretty sleepy tonight, so I'll make this one quick.

Went to Peter and Paul Fortress today, which was built when St. Petersburg was founded in the early 18th century. It's an island, and on the island was a beautiful cathedral, a prison, a mint for Russian currency, and a museum. The cathedral was amazing. Inside, all the Russian Emperors were buried, from Peter I to Nicholas II. The magnitude of the history I was seeing was hard to grasp, because there was no security or really any regulations much at all. It was beautiful though. I posted all the photos to Facebook.

We also toured a prison, which was pretty prison-like.

The weather was pretty weird today, starting with rain, then glorious sub, then ridiculous wind. We walked about a mile to the fortress through a cute park that had scale miniatures of all the famous buildings in St. Petersburg.

We had pizza for lunch, and it was delicious.

Pretty much, I'm just in heaven here because there is so much history to see. Anatoli is forcing us to space it out, but I really just want to sprint from museum to cathedral to palace all over the city.

Tomorrow we're heading to the Russian Military Museum and another museum that I'm not sure what its theme is. I'm sure it will be worth going to though. :)

"Hello, America!"

Today was an awesome day!

Started off by waking up and eating breakfast in what I would describe as a crepe restaurant. People definitely stared at us when we walked in, and Anatoli had to help us order our food, but it was delicious! I had a ham, cheese, and mushroom crepe. There were some hockey players sitting across from us that looked kind of intimidating, so I didn't risk glancing their way too often, haha.

After breakfast, we walked to the school that Anatoli used to work in. There was a guard at the front. Because of a fairly recent bombing of a Russian school by Chechnyan rebels in southern Russia, there is heightened security around all Russian schools, and this guard didn't look like someone we wanted to tango with. He was friendly, though, and we went in to wait in the lobby where there was a group of 5 or so students aged 14-16ish.

I just have to say that I LOVED the Russian students. They were so alike and different from their American peers. The ones in the lobby stared obviously at us and giggled, and when I smiled at them, they giggled more. When we looked away, one of the goofier ones yelled, "Hello, America!" We laughed and smiled, not yet knowing the Russian for even "Hello" (I know it now, by the way, pronounced "Dob-rah-deen"). We took a tour of the building and saw several more students. There were fourth graders in the hallway (they turned the corner and then one came back, looked at us, and ran to tell his friends "Americans!") and some hockey players near the cafeteria (go figure, haha). They were less-reserved than American students, but equally as squirrelly. One group kept peaking into our classroom while Anatoli was speaking, and he went to the door and started in English, "Excuse me, we're having class..Oh!" and then finished his admonition in Russian. They were adorably curious, as American students would be about weird-looking strangers from other countries!

In Russia, Anatoli said, sports aren't really part of the school system. The athletes train with city-wide programs and then sometimes go to special schools for their classes/sports. At this school, they had a special class of students for athletes of all kinds who took classes together. In general, in Russia, students stay with one class per year, even in secondary schools, where they do have separate classes per subject (Chemistry, English, History). There are also only 11 grades, all the time in the same building. Students graduate at 17, and THEN they may apply for colleges, not before graduation, like we do.

The library was really small compared to U.S. school "media centers." They usually only have a few hundred books, plus encyclopedias. They also still use religion in schools, always Orthodox, even though there is not an official state-sponsored religion.

Also, this school used to be very large, 1200 students in one building. But now, it has only 350. Anatoli said that when he taught, the surrounding area had a lot of multiple families sharing apartments with separate sleeping areas, but common kitchens and bathrooms. Now that Russia is on the rise economically, a lot of families moved out of the shared apartments and got their own places in different areas, so that neighborhood is much less populous, thereby making the school smaller too. It was all really interesting.

Also in the school, students (especially young ones) were dressed up. Like, I saw a second grader in a three-piece suit. The 10th and 11th graders were wearing jeans, but they still looked pretty spiffy! They teach English in the schools, but a lot of the students and even non-English teachers were not fluent. All the classrooms had smart boards (advanced even in America!) and were relatively small. Anatoli told us that this was a comparatively nice school for St. Petersburg.

We went into a second grade classroom to say hello. The teacher told the students in Russian who we were, and asked if any of them knew any English. The sweetest girl raised her hand, and said perfectly, "My name is Sasha." I just wanted to hug her, but I'm pretty sure that would be frowned upon, haha. I could not even attempt to say the same phrase in Russian, so she was one up on me for sure.

After the tour, we had class for an hour. We were all pretty tired still and so was Anatoli, so it was extra-short. From now on, we'll go for 2 hours every week day.

Since it was raining pretty hard, we walked to the bank to exchange currency. In Russia, you have to have extra-crispy American bills to exchange, or they won't accept them. Luckily, I had sufficiently crispy bills.

Then we went to the grocery store. It was so fun! I got some yogurt, apples, cheese, bread, Pear-flavored soda, pomegranate juice, cherries, and some kind of chocolate cookie. Oh, and chicken soup mix. We'll be cooking a lot of our own meals to save money while we're here. The boys on the trip got spaghetti and marinara sauce and had it for lunch. It was good, but definitely not Ragu or Prego, it had a decidedly Russian taste, haha. By the way, Pear soda is like my new favorite thing.

Then we went back to the hotel to relax. Anatoli left us, and I took a nap for 2 hours. It stopped raining! So, Julie and I decided to go out and walk around (Not far, Mom and Grandma. :) We just went on our street and one block over and only during the day time, which incidently is until 10:30pm here, haha). We went to change more money for Julie, on a search for a 3-pronged converter for my computer charger, and to grab some dinner. I took a ton of pictures on the street, but I put them on facebook because it takes a lot longer to upload them on to my blog page.

We walked about 2-3 miles, over one of the bridges (we're staying on an island in St. Petersburg that is actually closed off from the rest of the city at night because they draw all the bridges from 1:30am-5:00am), and back to our hotel by 9:00pm.

So far, all the people I've met have been extremely nice. In the computer store, none of the employees spoke English well at all, but we mimed to one of the guys, and he found us exactly what we needed! Also, the waitress at our dinner restaurant knew no English, so we pointed at what we wanted, and she was really nice! We tipped her when we left, and she said "Thank you". By the way, the word I've used most in Russian is "Thank you" which is pronounced "Pass-ee-bah". I feel like I'm saying it right, because they nod and say something that sounds like gibberish but feels like they mean "you're welcome" haha.

Tomorrow, we start our sight-seeing with a trip to Peter and Paul Fortress and the neighboring military museum. Pumped for that! Ask questions if you want to know more about anything and see the pictures on facebook! Starting to miss everyone; have nice days wherever you may be! :)

P.S. My mind is State-side tonight because in a few hours, Pat will be graduating from Purdue! He's too humble to say so, but he's graduating with a double-major honors diploma and a 3.96 GPA. I'm so proud of him, and everyone should pat him on the back (physically or virtually)
for such an outstanding achievement!