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!
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
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. ;)
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. ;)
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
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!
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!
Monday, May 14, 2012
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.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
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!
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!
Saturday, May 12, 2012
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. :)
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. :)
Friday, May 11, 2012
"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!
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!
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