Ending the Week Tourist Style

Today marked the end of my first full week in Saint Petersburg. I think we’re the first group to come with UA and not lose (or get robbed of) anything for the whole first week. So three cheers for us! I don’t know about everyone else here, but I am flat out exhausted! I’ve done so much since Monday, it’s ridiculous. This morning we had to meet on Nevsky Prospekt next to the Kazan Cathedral (which they’re restoring right now, so most of it is covered in scaffoldings) because the school arranged for us to go on a tour of St. Pete’s by bus. So touristy of us. We saw a lot of things that I had already gone to see and gone inside of. We drove around, got off at some places for pictures and then went back to Nevsky Prospect, nothing too exciting. I got some good pictures and it helped us make a list of places we want to go back to and those we felt like we had seen enough of. We did see one cool thing later. On the west end of Nevsky prospect on the north side of the street there is a sign paint-stenciled onto the building warning the citizens of the city that when during an air raid in WWII, that side of the street is the most dangerous because the Nazi attacks would come from the south. The sign is still there (obviously) accompanied by a plaque stating that the notice is left there to commemorate all those who died during the siege of Leningrad. 

Saint Issac's Cathedral

The WWII bombing sign

Current Senate Building

Some poor soul got pulled over by the Russian police

Me across the Neva River from Peter and Paul Fortress

Afterwards, some of the girls and I headed back to Dom Knigi to look at books. I three more books: White Nights by Dostoevsky, a book of poems by Pushkin, and a collection of Anna Akmatova’s work. There were lots of colorful post cards by the door, so I might go back and grab a couple to send state-side. So everyone who wants one should email me your address for where you’ll be for the next few weeks and then be on the look out! After grabbing some food (during which a creepy Russian guy tried to get us to go out with him tonight) and munching on an extremely good piece of almond cake, I headed home to Primorskaya. I ride the metro like a pro now; I’ve even got my metro legs back!

And now I’m super tired, sitting at the kitchen table, drinking tea. Anna isn’t here and I have no idea where she is. Since she left me breakfast and showed me where it is, I’m assuming she went to the country to a dacha for the weekend. Everyone seems to do that here in St. Petersburg. It’s not like the city is hot or anything; I guess they just want to get away for a while. I’m trying to decide whether or now I want to go back down to Nevsky to meet some people at a bar  (ironically) called Dacha to have a few beers or not. I spent a decent amount of rubles today between the food and books. This first week has been a bit of a money sucker, but I kind of expected that: a few bigger purchases had to be made upon arrival (i.e. food, phone, metro pass, etc.). Hmmm, decisions, decisions…

Love to all!

Xoxo

P.S. Just a note to anyone who thinks I’m ignoring them on Facebook or whatever, I only have internet for an hour or so every couple of days when I venture down to the coffee shop. So be patient with me please!!!!

It's Russia, baby!

It’s been a slower past couple of days, and thank god because I’m a little overwhelmed with the whirlwind of a week that I’ve had. We finally got our student IDs yesterday, yay! They’re super official looking, like serious WWII era documentation looking. And we get to keep them, so I’ll be sure to bring it home with me so I can show it off! Yesterday was very chill. I had an advising meeting then we walked around the Cherneshevskaya area where we checked out a small botanical garden. Everyone was exhausted so we headed home after that. On my way back, once I was in Primorskaya, I went to the 24 hour produkti (mini-grocery store) by my apartment for the first time. I was low on rubles at the time, so I grabbed a loaf of brown bread, some OJ, and three apples. Since we generally eat lunch and dinner out on the cheap ($3-$6 a meal) and breakfast is provided, these are serving well as midday and evening snacks! And orange juice has never tasted better in my life. Seriously. I need to make sure I eat something green every once and a while because nothing grows here.

I finished watching a movie on Rossiya1 called Brigade, and I was pleasantly surprised. So I’m adding that to the list of movies I want to buy while I’m here (including East-West, Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears, and The Irony of Fate). The news is also a good way to wind down at night and also to practice my listening skills. I understand more and more every day; although my confidence in my speaking ability sometimes limits me. Like today when I ordered ice cream from a truck in perfect Russian and the lady didn’t understand me. FAIL. Ugh… But otherwise, St. Pete’s is great! The sun is staying up longer and longer. As I write this up, it’s 11:30pm and it’s just now twilightish. I’ve noticed that, as a result probably, the city starts the day later (around 10am) and stays open later (usually till midnight), with the exception of the 24 hour stores. I could get used to this. I like the later day idea. Unfortunately, I still have to get up at 7:30am to make it across town in time for my 10am class. Boo.

Today, after having lunch at the Smolny cafeteria, we ventured back down to Nevsky Prospekt, the west end this time. There along the beautiful rivers that run through St. Petersburg sits the Winter Palace and the Hermitage museum, which is actually part of the Winter Palace.  The Hermitage is a beautiful mint green colored building with wide accents and borders. It sits on a large square which has an obelisk thing in the middle and an arch on the opposite side. There were people everywhere, as well as horse-drawn carriages and rollerbladers. Apparently, skating is a big thing here in Russia. Anyways, with our student IDs, the Hermitage is FREEEEEE, which is awesome because a regular ticket costs 400 rubles (about $15). The Hermitage is three floors and each floor has two massive wings. So today we covered the eastern wing of the first floor, which is Ancient Egypt, Rome, and Greece. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but there was SO MUCH to see everywhere! They had statues from 300 BCE, jewelry, red-black Greek pottery, busts from Rome, Hellenic soldier helmets and weapons, various sarcophagi, Egyptian art, and even a mummy! So, of course, I was in heaven. And the rooms! Oh my god, the rooms themselves were absolutely beautiful!!!! The ceilings were so intricate and amazing, and each room had a different color scheme. The columns were mind boggling and the floors were stunning marble patterns, some in keeping with the Greco-Roman theme, others not. It was just amazing; there truly are no words to describe the beauty of the Hermitage. We wanted to hit up the west wing, where the Caucasus section was, but we ran out of time. I wish I had pictures of the inside, but they don’t allow cameras. 

The Hermitage

The reason I’m back so late tonight is because the university arranged for us to go see a performance of traditional Cossack dance and song. It was so cool! The academy that put on the performance was so talented and the costumes were gorgeous. I knew some of the songs too! The whole thing was just mind boggling and amazing to behold. I can’t even do it justice in this description! Just know it was wonderful and it was a good night! After the performance, I hopped the metro back to Primorskaya. Today was the latest I’ve ever been on the metro before (it was 10:15pm). After loads of people, including Kara, got off at Gostiniy Dvor, it was literally just me and about 40 Russian sailors/officers in my compartment. Primorskaya is on the Gulf of Finland and has a port super nearby, so I figured they must be up for duty. It’s probably the most hilarious metro ride ever, just the irony of it all! They were good guys, nice too, and they let me off the metro first before they poured off and took over the station. I’m sure this notion of me surrounded by Russian military men terrifies my mom (hi mom!) but I’m still alive and all is well!

And now I’m going to bed because it’s midnight here and tomorrow I have to be at Nevsky and Kazan at 10am because we’re going on an official bus tour of St. Petersburg as a group. I predict entertaining moments!

Love to you all! Xoxo

P.S. Wore a skirt today because we went to the theater. It was obscenely windy. You do the math.

Let's make a ploshad!

Today started classes. It was VERY intense. We did a review of verbal aspect, which I only learned this past semester so it was more like a crash course for me. Oi! After brain drain from 10 to 1, during which most of you reading this weren't even conscious yet, we went to the Smolny cafe to get lunch. They have a daily lunch special of soup, salad, pasta, and meat with chai (tea) for 100 rubles. Which is insanely cheap for the amount of food we got. I think that will probably become a daily thing just based on the location and the value. After lunch, we wrangled David, who's been taking care of us and in some more complicated situations, serving as our translator. He's also the guy we ask if we need to know where something is. He took us down to Nevsky Prospekt to buy cell phones from Beeline. As a result, I FINALLY have a cell phone. Took me long enough! If anyone wants the number, just let me know and we'll try to figure something out since it's an international St. Petersburg Number.

Believe it or not, this took up the better part of three hours and we had a unique experience with Russian  consumer bureaucracy. I won't even go into that, it's too much of pain in the ass. After dealing with the insanity of finding cell phones, Kara, Hannah, and I decided to go to a beer tent we had passed earlier on a tend off of Nevsky. It was ridiculously hot again today; too hot for how far north I am. Layers are definitely the name of the game here. Beer and water were bought for about 150 rubles, and we crashed at a table. A local beer that's decent easy to find on tap and relatively cheap (about $3) called Baltika 7 is quickly becoming our favorite. And might I add, for a vodka country, Russian beer is good! Worn out from the sun and all the walking (another 3 miles probably), we sat there for an hour talking and talking. We split up from there, hitting up the Ploshad Bosstokya metro for a way home.

And now I'm sitting in a branch of Coffee Haus by my apartment rapidly writing this before my battery dies because there are no plugs! I hope everyone is doing great in classes, in Europe, or elsewhere! hugs and kisses to all!

My. Feet. Hurt. So. Much.

I got up earlier this morning and made it to class with time to spare. We learned a few Russian folk songs then had a lecture (in English) about the political and cultural identity of Saint Petersburg. After class, the girls and I ventured to find this bar we heard of that was a haven for foreign students and had wifi. Unfortunately the place was a total dive when we found it, so we ate lunch elsewhere. The food was good and we had this beer that tasted like cherries. Only the Belgians could make something that good! A bunch of the guys joined us, bringing one of their Russian friends (Sonya), and we all had a beer together. Sonya was telling us about different Russian cultural things and I learned that he’s actually from the Caucasus, Kabardino-Balkaria to be exact. After a while, we decided to go down the Nevsky Prospect again with Sonya leading the way. After we met up with Sonya’s friend, we continued walking around Saint Petersburg. There were lots of police and the Russian version of SWAT everywhere today, more so than usual, and we never found out why. Lots of helicopters too. Strange…

We went to the largest bookstore in Russia, a three story branch of Dom Knigi (House of Books) where I bought a Russian language copy of Crime and Punishment for about 10 USD. After wandering around some more, we decided to go into an all purpose store in Park Kultury to get notebooks and pens for some people who didn’t bring any. After that, we went to the Church of Spilled Blood. It was absolutely stunning! There’s simply nothing in the states like the beauty of the Russian churches. It was insanely expensive to go in without out St. Pete’s student IDs (they get us in for free; we are getting ours tomorrow), so we opted to continue along our merry way. From there, we ventured to the Field of Mars (yes, like the Roman one). For being smack in the middle of a very busy and loud city, the field was very quiet. A big open space of well maintained grass surrounded by beautiful buildings served as our resting place for a while. Russian cities are full of monuments to World War II and the Revolution. In the middle of the Field of Mars, there was a marble circle with Russian inscriptions on the columns and an eternal flame in the middle, all dedicated to the revolutionary sacrifice of the people. 

Church of Split Blood

Field of Mars

After that, we crossed the street in between two mint green buildings and took a bridge across the Neva River to the Petrograd side. I thought I had seen everything in Russia (not really), but apparently people jet-ski on the Neva! Peter and Paul Fortress was just on the other side, so we crossed onto the mini island the fortress sits on and walked around to the Neva side. Another day I’ll pay to go inside, but I’m waiting for my student ID so that I get discounted rates. Apparently today was an unusually hot day for Saint Petersburg, probably 75-80 degrees F. Since it was colder this morning, we were all dying in the heat dressed like we were. Sitting in the shade of Peter and Paul on the bank of the Neva watching the barges and boats go by was awesome. After cooling down, we walked around Peter and Paul more to the Military Artillery Museum which shares the island. The museum itself was closed so we looked at the larger pieces of artillery displayed outside. Sonya is studying to be an engineer and to design and work with artillery weapons, so he was explaining the different pieces to us (in English because there was no way in hell we’d get that in Russian). Next thing I knew, everyone was climbing a WWII/early-Cold War era Soviet tank. Overjoyed at the prospect of climbing a tank and not giving a shit about seeming like a tourist at the time, I found myself on top of a green tank, grinning like a crazy woman. It was really fun and, honestly, for the first time here, I really had a good time. And that tells me I’m adjusting. 

Peter and Paul Fortress

The Green Building

Since it’s the start of White Nights (Byeli Vecheri) here in St. Petersburg, we didn’t realize that it was 8pm and we had yet to eat dinner. The sun reallyyyyy throws you off, whether you’re a native or not. So we walked up to the Petrogradskaya metro station and went to Chashkai i Loshka (Teacup and Spoon, the English makes no sense). Blini were on our minds and our new Russian companions seemed delighted by our enthusiasm for their suggestion of the legendary Russian food. Our spread was various, but I had two meat and potato filled blini with sour cream, one filled with bananas and chocolate, and a small pot of black tea. The blini were out of this world, and I only spent 172 rubles (approx. 6 USD). I think we were talking about going out to a club tomorrow night, and we were plotting locations on the handy maps they gave us yesterday. After dinner, at about 9:30pm, I caught the metro home (blue line to Gostini Dvor, switch to Green to Primorskaya, just like DC!) and now I’m ready to pass out. I’m sweaty, tired, and my feet hurt like hell, but I had such an awesome day! We literally walked from the top of NE St. Petersburg down to the southern part of Nevsky and back up further to the NW top of St. Pete’s. Map that, I’ll be it’s about 4-5 miles of walking. Just seeing the city and all the stunning architecture was worth the pain my feet will be in for the rest of the week! I’m starting to feel more at ease in the city, the metro is a piece of cake now, and I’ve been given the Russian stamp of approval for my manner of dress, so everything is going great!

I love and miss you all, and I should have a phone tomorrow, so be on the lookout for my phone number! In the mean time, shoot me an email or Skype message so I can read them when I get a chance to log on to the web.

Xoxoxo

P.S. I got placed into the middle of three groups for class. Yay!

So Much Russia!

Today was the first day of trekking to the university here in St. Petersburg, and since we all know I couldn’t find my way out of a box if I tried, it’s inevitable that I would get lost. And I did. Momentarily. I walked to Primorskaya Metro station (five blocks from my apartment, not far at all) and waved my pass at the turnstiles then hauled ass down the extremely long escalator (St. Petersburg has the deepest metro in the world because of the Neva River water table) to the arriving train. When I exited at the Mayakovskaya station three stops later, I took too much of a right turn onto the street. Instead of ending up on the east end of Nevsky Prospect (the main drag), I ended up on some godforsaken side street with people yelling at me in Russian to rent their taxi. Um. No. After I realized that my trolleybus couldn’t run on a street without tracks, I turned around and ventured down Nevsky to find my stop and my trolley came about 15 minutes later. All of this combined with a 10 minute chill stop somewhere underground on the metro and the not knowing where to get off the trolley (you try looking for a red brick building in a huge city) put me at Smolny at 10:30, half an hour late. I felt awful, but at least I was able to figure out where I was and didn’t wander aimlessly around St. Pete’s for hours. Which would have been completely possible seeing as how I still don’t have a cell phone (yet). Also, I wasn’t the last one there. Score.

At Smolny, we went over safety basics (How-Not-To-Act-American-101) then took our placement test, which comprised of oral, written, and multiple-choice reading questions. After that we went downstairs to eat. We had a standing lunch (so we could mingle and meet each other) of cheese, ham, bread, fruit, priyatniki (!!!), and some form of Russian strudel thingy. And Sprite. Of course! They wanted us to take the leftovers home with us, unfortunately since we didn’t know it was going to be a standing meal, few of us brought bags. From now on I am bringing a Ziploc with me everywhere. Free food is free food, no matter what country you’re in.

After we finished eating, a few girls and I ventured out into the Smolny-Liteyny neighborhood which pretty much consists of just Smolny Institute, Smolny Cathedral, a super expensive hotel, lots and lots of apartments, and the British Consulate. Good to know that if something ever happens at school, I can go see my British BFFs. Actually I think they’d shoot me if I tried to get into the consulate. It is Russia, after all. I’ve never seen so many police before in my life. They’re EVERYWHERE. The police presence here has two dimensions to it: you feel safe walking around and using the street ATMs because there’s police all around you, but the fact that the Russian police is so notoriously corrupt makes you nervous when they’re chilling on the corner or walking on the street near you. Today I had one following me so closely, I could have elbowed him in the chest. Needless to say, we have adopted the policy of shutting up when we pass the police because, yes, we do speak English when we’re out and about. Communication has to happen somehow, and sometimes you need more than rough Russian to get the point across. Plus it’s nice to speak English every once and a while because you spend all day operating at maximum capacity to process what is said to you in Russian.

We made our way down to Nevsky Prospect, which was beyond crowded. When people cross the street it’s like some sort of mass exodus. Who knows what we were originally looking for because we got caught up in the beautiful architecture and the canals that criss-cross St. Petersburg, and we ended up in a bar. Go figure. The place was much nicer on the inside than it looked on the outside, a surprise to be sure. You can never tell what a Russian restaurant is going to be like. I paid 150 rubles (approx. $5) for 500ml (approx. 17 ounces) of beer. Not bad considering the volume and the niceness of the restaurant. We’ve learned it’s better to spend a bit more on food and drink just for the sake of using the nice bathroom the restaurants provide. Public plumbing is an adventure I would prefer to avoid at all costs. After beer, we split up and wandered down Nevsky some more to find free Wi-Fi, which does exist in Russia contrary to popular belief. A local version of Starbucks, Coffee Haus, has free Wi-Fi and a good atmosphere. Our waitress was patient with us as we needed more time to read the menu and to construct our confusing Russian orders. Two blini (sour cream and Nutella) and a cappuccino later, I was a happy camper, tapping away at my iTouch that I linked into the heaven-sent Wi-Fi. We sat there and talked for about two hours, most likely pissing off the locals due to our use of English. But we were respectful, polite, talked quietly, and left a good tip so they can get over it. And we ordered in Russian, so there. I know that’s not a great attitude, but after the placement test, my brain was shot.

And now I’m back at the apartment (since 8pm). Anna Akimovna and I had tea and some sort of pastry when she came home. I believe she told me that she will be out of town tomorrow, which means I need to figure out how to cook the kasha (kind of like oatmeal, but sweeter and creamier) she left me. Tomorrow I’m leaving for class at 9:00 instead of 9:30 in hopes of getting there on time…which means I should probably get up at 7:30. Hеохота. We’re planning on going to a museum after class, but I want to stop and get a cell phone and St. Petersburg SIM card first.

I’m completely out of sync here because the sun doesn’t set till midnight and it starts to come back up again around 1:30am. Right now it’s 10:00pm and it looks like its 6:00pm. It really screws with your sense of being tired and makes it hard to sleep, but I do my best. Though I have to say, the fact that it’s still light outside when I come back at 9 or 10pm is comforting. I wouldn’t be nearly as at ease walking back alone in the dark, as no one else lives out by me. And it will be like that the whole time I’m here!

Oh well, time for sleep! Пока!

P.S. It looks like I’m going to have to get good at showering without a shower curtain. Thoughts?

Getting to Know Saint Petersburg

Today was my first full day in Saint Petersburg and even after getting twelve much needed hours of sleep, I’m completely exhausted. I love being back in a city and walking everywhere! The only problem here is that people speak so quickly (like I’m one to talk); sometimes I can’t understand them sheerly because of that. I’m finally unpacked, and I’m very glad that I packed for two seasons. Yesterday I wore my light wool coat and today I wore a sweater. It’s not that it’s cold here, but the temperature hasn’t risen above 65 degrees, which is awesome because the last week I was in Raleigh, it was in the high 90s. The weather calls for the 80s on Wednesday here but I’ll believe it when I feel it. I found an internet café near my apartment (29 Ulitsa Korablestroiteley, in case anyone wants to GoogleMap it) and it’s about 3 dollars an hour, so it’s doable for now.

I made the trek across Saint Petersburg (literally from one end to the other for me since I live on the Gulf of Finland) and found Smolny Insitute, where I’ll be taking classes. It is BEAUTIFUL! And apparently it’s near where Lenin and Bolshevik co. planned the Russian Revolution of 1917. Who knew? Classes start tomorrow and I pray I can find my way back the route we took today. St. Petersburg is a bit tiring, mostly because I constantly have to remember not to smile in public. Although, I’d have to say, the Russians are not as staunch as we paint them. I had a run-in with the Russian police today but only because I was lost in the metro station and couldn’t find the exit (which was so deceptive because the doors said “no exit”). I thanked him with a quiet “спасибо,” and he smiled (!!!!) at me. Whattttttt? We all know Russians don’t smile! (Ha, no, I’ve found that they’re actually very nice and warm people.) Also, drinking in public is everywhere! And I’m not talking the plastic-cup-to-go-cup way of New Orleans; I’m talking walking down the street drinking out of a can or bottle, brown bag not included. It lends itself to interesting moments.

Smolny Cathedral

my class building

Along this trek out to Smolny (also the name of the neighborhood), I changed American dollars into Russian rubles and got my hands on a metro/bus/trolley-bus card. I love having one again; it works exactly like a Smart Trip does in D.C.! I’ve also figured out how to plug all my stuff in since Russia uses a voltage output of 220 and the US uses 110. My computer and phone chargers both have converters built in which is very nice; everything else has to go through the converter. I still haven’t bought a phone, mostly because I can’t iterate to someone that I just want one to make calls and maybe receive/send texts. Just the basics, but I think I’ll tackle that on Monday since I have rubles now.

My host, Anna Akimovna, is great. She lives on the 8^th floor of a Soviet style building on the north-west end of Petersburg. Despite my repeated attempts to tell her that I don’t eat much, I have been constantly stuffed. And I’ve probably drunk enough tea to sink a small village. Ah, European culture. Nevertheless, the food is AMAZING and I’ve never seen so much to eat made completely from scratch. Different food has to be bought from different stores: from the fruit and veggies store, from the meat and fish store (with heads and eyeballs!), etc. And I had kasha for breakfast, so good! Tomorrow I have placement testing and orientation at Smolny, and I believe we have lunch afterwards as the abroad group. Starting then, I’m on my own for food other than breakfast.

Since St. Petersburg is essentially in the Arctic Circle, it would make sense that the days here would be long. Last night, the sun set at midnight. It follows that no one goes to sleep early here, and that assumption would be correct.

This is getting hugely long, and I’m sure I’ll have tons to relate after tomorrow too, including my first solo trans-Saint Petersburg venture, so I’m signing off now.

Love and miss you all!

P.S. Putin is on the news. I understand him. Haha, this has entertainment value it’s probably not meant to have. Oops!

P.P.S. Watching Russian news coverage of the capture of Ratko Maldic in Serbia and of the G8 Summit on Россия1 are equally amusing. As is how short Medvedev is. Ha.

P.P.S. North Carolina has pollen, St. Petes has those airborne white fluffy dandelion things. They’re EVERYWHERE.