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. ;)