Weekend update!

1. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SHOSTAKOVITCH! 

In honor of Dmitriy Shostakovitch's birthday on Saturday (Sept 25), the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra performed two of his works (From Jewish Folk Poetry; 11th Symphony). I like Shostakovitch already, and (fun fact) he was a native of St. Petersburg - so naturally getting to see his work performed on his birthday by a Russian symphony in St. Petersburg was A-mazing. It was performed in the beautiful Bolshoy Zal (see Bolshoy picture below). Our seats were not bad, especially considering we paid  $18!

I actually almost overslept it because my alarm did not go off to wake me up from my nap. I woke up at 6:40, and the concert started at 7! However the Bolshoy Zal is (apparently) a 20 minute jog away from my apartment! We were seated before the orchestra even came out and we didn't even have to wait; perfect timing.

2. HEY THERE, LENIN
Sunday afternoon, I went with Heather, Andy Huemmer and the rest of the Huemmers to the Russian Political Museum. First impression - this museum gave me the creeps. Second impression - there was a child having a birthday party in the basement there. Really, the Political Museum? Why?!
However, the building is pretty historical and there was some pretty neat stuff.

The building: was originally the mansion of Tsar Nicholas II's mistress, a prima ballerina. THEN it was the Bolshevik headquarters after they seized it in 1917 (see Lenin's office pic). It became the Museum of the Revolution in 1957, then renamed in the 1990s and filled with the true secret history of the Soviet Union, they say.

The goods:
Lenin's Office                                                                           Balcony where he gave speeches

The sign said this was Rasputin's bed frame, but
I am skeptical of pretty much anything with
Rasputin's name on it.

                                                                          Favorite. This portrait of Tsar Nicholas Romanov II was
                                                                          hanging in the Winter Palace when it was overtaken. The
                                                                         disfiguring scratches? Bayonet destruction from the rebels.

Quite a good weekend, if I do say so myself! It is getting rather cold here, so I need to buy a pretty serious winter jacket pronto. Hope everyone is enjoying seasonably-cool autumn weather in the States!
до скорого!
Emily

 

Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.

I ATE BEET SALAD FOR DINNER AND MY TEETH DIDN'T TURN RED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also it was not bad! I think the mayonnaise helped. Yay, Russia!

On Mushrooms

Russia isn't renowned for its cuisine, but in my opinion it should be famous for its mushrooms.

Russians love both the idea and the reality of going into the forest and picking mushrooms. We learned about the mushroom culture from Scott in Russian 102, and of course I believed him, but it is really funny to see this fascination in person, in Russia.

I have gotten behind, no joke, at least 10 different men and women in the metro transporting baskets or buckets of fresh mushrooms, probably from dacha to city apartment. It is almost a time clash to see baskets of mushrooms going up the metro escalators. Even better, I noticed my host babushka pickling mushrooms the other night. I asked her, in Russian, if the mushrooms were from the supermarket? No, she told me with emphasis, from the forest! Duh! Anyway, I've had two bowls of mushroom soup and they are DELICIOUS!

Just thought I'd share. Пока! -Emily

The Closing of the Fountains at Peterhof

Yesterday was awesome! We finally decided that morning to go to Peterhof despite the cloudy weather and some confusion over whether or not they were turning off the fountains that day. Mike, Peter, Heather, Erin, Meryem and I (we actually randomly met up with Max, Kathleen, and their Russian friend Sasha) took a marshrutka (cheap van-taxi with a pre-determined route) for $2 to Peterhof from a metro station. It took about an hour. The sun came out and walking around was really neat until we found out they closed the lower gardens, Grand Cascade fountain, and palace at 3 to prepare for the evening's light show and Ceremony of the Closing of the Fountains. And then it started raining.

We went to a cafe and got hot tea and french fries for a bit, and I finally decided to stay there for what ended up being 5 hours with Erin and Meryem for the light show. We killed time going into a nearby cathedral - which was great as always - and met up with Max, Kathleen, Mike, and Sasha. We paid $10 to get in, walked around the lower gardens, saw the Gulf of Finland, ate hot dogs, and got a sweet standing spot on the bridge closest to the back of the palace. Then we stood there for over 2 HOURS in the cold until it got dark and the light show started. But mixing English and Russian with Sasha was really fun, and it was so worth it.

The light show was AWESOME! It sounded like a live orchestra; there were ballet dancers and fireworks. The show was projected onto the back of the palace, and the announcer told a story as the show moved along. The fountains were dramatically turned on one-by-one, some to the tune of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. The whole show I kept thinking - I am so glad that I decided to come to Russia. Russia is so uniqure, so different, so elegant and contradictory. My experience has been nothing but surprises, and the combination of Russian classical music, Russian ballet dancers, and getting to know Sasha better, absolutely made my night!
                                                                                                                

There are Good People Everywhere

My friend Heather was on the metro going to the hockey game Friday. She heard a commotion, and it turns out some guy next to her had been about to take her phone out of her pocket. A guy sitting near them called him out on it and acted so he couldn't get away with it. Heather of course thanked him profusely. The pickpocket and his friend knocked the guy in the head on their way off the train, but the nice guy still winked at Heather when he got off at a later stop.

It is easy here to feel like everyone is indifferent and cold in public. Smiling and friendliness are reserved for close ones, and especially as Americans we often feel like we are annoying everyone with our loud English or mild confusion about new things in the city. But those experiences are not all we have to look forward to in Russia.

There are good people everywhere.

Adventures: Novgorod the Great (who is not, apparently, a person)

This weekend we went south to Novgorod for an overnight trip. There were, of course, some adventures.

First, I got to walk to Kazansky Sobor at 7:45am. This might not sound glorious to you, after all it is horrifically early, but the trek from my home stay to Kazansky is amazing. I follow the Griboyedova Canal towards the colorful Church on Spilled Blood, passing old Baroque-style buildings and the famous golden lion bridge. At 7:45am on a Saturday very few people are out, the temperature is nice and cool, and the sky is still pink from the sunrise. It might be totally silly to admit, but I think wearing only my backpack for the trip; knowing exactly where I was going; listening to Coldplay; and getting to approach such a fantastically old and bizarre cathedral made that walk the moment I most remember feeling really excited and happy to be studying here.

So the bus we took was a double-decked German-made bus. We sat on the second level, which was fun because the top of the bus was in a constant state of motion (swaying) which worsened whenever the driver changed lanes. Also Russian roads are notoriously awful, and someone put on a loud Russian musical film right after we pulled out of the cathedral, so sleeping was out of the question. More interestingly, our bus got pulled over by two MILITSYA (those scary-as-crap police officers) carrying AK-47s. We saw them walk over but then we couldn't see them anymore, and we started talking about whether or not they were seriously going to check all of our spravkas.... when suddenly one of the guys POPPED UP from the stairwell, baring his weapon, scaring the pee out of everyone... it got completely silent as he looked at us in silence and we looked back at him with really wide eyes. - Awkward ten seconds or so ensued - Then he was gone and we were moving again. Jarlath told us they were just stopping cars to look for a fugitive.
 
Ok so we finally got to Novgorod, and much to my surprise it was pretty large and modern but at the same time underpopulated and slow, like a small town; however it was not a city of picturesque little wooden houses or people in traditional dress walking around trading livestock (yea I know). Heather and I had our first taste of borscht (see documentation below) and it was delicious! I still am unsure what beets taste like and don't want to think about it too much.

We had a bus tour around Novgorod that involved a lot of getting out in the rain and walking around. There are so many churches; we probably saw 8 churches in two hours. There were at least 5 churches in one square mile near the fortress. I like churches, I really do. Especially beautiful Russian churches with onion domes and interesting histories (which are all muddled in my head now). But it is hard to distinguish in my mind or in my pictures between most of the small churches we saw. There was one church with a worn dirt path around it - women run around it three times to guarantee a happy family life and good marriages. Naturally Heather and I did three laps, just to be on the safe side. I, for one, am very excited about my future happy family life.

We went inside the fortress, which was cool. My FAVORITE PART, however, was without a doubt the Cathedral of Saint Sophia. That cathedral is my favorite place in Russia so far. Orthodox churches are incredible. They are much darker and more vertical than other churches, with lots of candlelight reflecting off colorful and gilded icons lining every wall and outwardly spiritual attendees bowing and kissing icons in a trance. There are huge ornamental chandeliers and murals on the ceiling, even.  After our tour guide moved on, a few of us stayed behind admiring, and after some time choir voices filled the church from somewhere hidden... it sounded like voices were coming from the ceiling... and a service started! There are no pews in Orthodox churches; everyone is free to walk about or stand. The priest was a wonderful singer, and they kept coming from the other side of the "gates of paradise" to complete the ritual and bless everyone in the church. It was so neat!
The next day we went to a monastery and a forest filled with replications of Novgorodian wooden houses and churches dating back to 1530. The bus ride home seemed to take forever, but it was neat to see rural parts of Russia. So much land. We're back in Petersburg, and it is high time for me to hit the hay. Sorry it was such a long blog, but I had a great time exploring a new part of Russia this weekend with some great people!
More to follow...
Пока! -Эmily

Yeah, I saw the Romanov graves today... no big deal

Today we went to Peter and Paul Fortress. The fortress itself was a big deal, of course, because it was the beginning of St. Petersburg, as well as later a really scary prison for dissidents. The best part, however, was getting to see the graves of Nicholas II and the Romanov family, Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, and a few other really important czars. They are buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.  Very, very, very cool.

                                ---->
        Heather in front of the Romanov graves, because  Nicholas II is her favorite











Tomorrow we are going to Novgorod pretty early, so I better get packing and sleeping. More later!
Пока!
Эмили

To the creepy shack in the middle of the motocross field!

And no, I'm not referring to Paul I's palace at Pavlovsk, although we did go there on Saturday too. Pavlovsk Palace is about 45 minutes outside of Petersburg by train (very old train. and it only cost about $1.30). The palace was gorgeous and the acres of surrounding gardens were even more beautiful. It was a "modest" palace - whatever that means, right? -given by Catherine the Great in 1777 to her son Paul. In Russia they tend to charge you to take pictures inside museums and palaces, so I don't have any pictures of the inside. Just think gilded furniture and zillions of rich oil paintings and deco. Very neat.

 A quick word on a Russian wedding tradition that has partly defined my Petersburg experience:


On their wedding day, brides and grooms and their wedding party travel to the most beautiful places in the area, usually with glasses of champagne, and take photos. I have not walked to or from school without seeing at LEAST three wedding parties. (Always at least one on a tree-lined street, one or two in the garden/park I cut through, and one or two in front of our beautiful Smolny cathedral.) Last week there were days that were freezing and pouring rain, but amazingly the wedding parties still arrive and take photos. What can I say, Russians are tough.


Anyway, we saw probably our 85th bride on these beautiful steps on the grounds of Pavlovsk, and I took a picture because it was so picturesque and neat. Note to self - get married near Pavlovsk.


Saturday night a bunch of us decided to go to the club where one of our CIEE directors (Jarlath) was DJing. The metro stop (Удельная) was pretty far away from the city center, in this very strange suburb with lots of Soviet block housing and wide prospekts. We went the wrong way immediately and eventually asked two Russians for directions. They sent us down this very dark and shady street of old warehouses (I'm telling you, very Soviet-feeling), to another prospekt. We walked for something like two hours, which was fine because it was a beautiful night and I was enjoying getting to know the ten or so people I was walking with. Anyway, we eventually started down another sketch road (with several protests from our end of things), cut through an impound car lot that was straight out of a Russian KGB spy film (I expected militsiya to pop out and open fire), cut across some go-kart tire-lined track, and stopped in front of this wooden shack that was clearly marked "Paintball Extreme". It was lit up, though, and it turned out to be the club. Success! The army-clad men were going to make us pay 200р though, even when we protested that we knew Jarlath, and it was already 11:15p and the metro closes at midnight. So we booked it to the metro station (pretty darn far) and entered at 23:56. The trains stop running at 0:30, but I'm close enough that I made it to my stop before they kicked me off. Others weren't so lucky.
Anyway that's my story about traversing through a very different and intriguing part of Petersburg to the creepy shack in the middle of the motocross field! What an adventure.

Happy Labor Day to all you Americans out there. In case you were wondering, Russia does in fact have a Labour Day (surprise!). It's just in May, so I had to go to class today. And now I have to go to bed. So goodnight all!

Пока!
Emily