From the BANYA to ESTONIA to the RUSSIAN FOREST

It's been a busy two weeks! Traveled:

I. FROM THE BANYA (Wednesday Oct 20)
Banya (Баня) - Russian steam bath/sauna/public bath house; definition taken from Wikipedia.
Yes! I went to the Russian banya with three friends after our classes last week. It probably doesn't sound very appealing, but it's very Russian so I wanted to try it... and I enjoyed it! It was super cheap - 35 rubles, so about a dollar - and way hotter than I imagined. There are three rooms - a room for changing (sort of like a locker room), a room lined with (curtainless) showers and a very small (freezing) pool, and the banya itself. The actual banya was a small dark wooden room with an opening for wood and hot water and stairs up to one small bench. We only stayed in the actual banya for about 5-10 minutes at a time, then went out to jump in the cold pool or stand under a cool shower. At the top of the banya stairs, it was so hot it almost felt like I had a sunburn. Side note: eat lunch before going. After two runs, I started to feel like I was going to pass out, so I showered and went outside. But leaving the banya, I felt like a million dollars. It makes sense that Russians would have discovered the cure to feeling cold to the bone a long, long time ago. Hooray for the Russian banya!

II. TO ESTONIA (Friday Oct 22 - Sunday Oct 24)

What a beautiful, cold little country! Our whole group took a bus to the capital, Tallinn, for the weekend and it was so great! There was snow on the ground when we arrived, PEOPLE SPOKE ENGLISH TO US and were so friendly, and we got to enjoy some Western cuisine like bacon, scrambled eggs, and leafy salad. Other highlights: a walking tour of the Old Town, a bus tour of the city, free time wandering the cobblestone streets connected to the City Hall square, the Baltic Sea, the Castle in Narva. On Saturday, a bunch of us found our way to Old Town and exchanged some rubles into kroons. Heather, Andy, Hanna, Allison, and I lunched at Olde Hansa - a dark, candlelit, tapestry-decorated medieval restaurant. It was the best! They had cinnamon beer and honey beer in the coolest mugs, I ate the most delicious mushroom soup, and Andy ordered bear meat. So fun. I bought myself the cutest pair of hand-made Estonian mittens. The only downside was I felt kind of sick Friday night :(. But Tallinn is an awesome city. It was such a great vacation weekend, and now I've been to Estonia!

 III. TO THE RUSSIAN FOREST (Friday Oct 29 - Sunday Oct 31)
We went on a weekend retreat to a campground in the woods with some Russian students from our university. Driving through the woods (about 2hrs north of the city) was a little creepy, since it gets dark here at about 5:30pm. The camp itself was ok - it was very Soviet and the residence halls were very stark, but it was kind of fun that way. It was really cool to meet and talk with Russian students our age! There was an icebreaker, we were invited to have some tea in one of the rooms with some Russians we met through that, and there was a discoteka (dance party) both Fri and Sat nights, which was actually pretty fun! Saturday morning we also had a discussion with the Russian students about NATO, which was interesting, as I'm sure you can imagine. Otherwise there was a lot of cold fresh air, a lot of talking and hanging out, and a lot of kasha (Russian breakfast porridge, kind of like oatmeal or cornmeal). This time the beet salad had a raw fish sitting on top of it. I did not partake.

Happy Halloween, Americans! Last night my group carved up a pumpkin to look like Cheburashka (I hope pictures will follow!) and won some chocolate, so we did celebrate a little. Russians don't celebrate Halloween really but they've heard of it and find it pretty interesting (my host mom at dinner asked if we did anything for it!) Obviously I missed celebrating Halloween on FRANKLIN STREET this year, but as far as second place goes, I think the middle of a creepy Russian forest is not bad.

MOSCOW NEXT WEEKEND AND SCOTLAND AFTER! For now, I have three exams and a thesis proposal so I better get going.
Пока!
Emily

"A Poet in Russia is More Than a Poet"

My art class goes to museums on Thursdays, which is pretty awesome, and today at the Russian Museum (which displays works only by Russian artists) we learned about Ivan Aivazovsky.

The Wave

       This painting is, first of all, really cool. It shows the struggle between man and nature, and man (obviously) is taking a beating and will soon be swallowed up by nature, which is massive compared to little man.
       Anyway the interesting thing is that Aivazovsky, who lived in the 19th century, did such a good job on his seascape paintings that he received a longstanding position in the Russian Navy - "Painter to the Staff" - and could wear the naval ministry uniform. The Russian Navy sent him a squadron of ships on the tenth anniversary of his artistic career. As our art teacher put it, "Can you imagine this happening in any country other than Russia?"
       When our civilization teacher asked about the national character of the US, we talked about longstanding political documents like the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and we were very proud of our national texts. During the seventy years under the USSR, though, only two Russian leaders neglected to write a constitution under their own name. A very different climate. For this reason, the national text of Russia is literature: Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Akhmatova, Gogol. Political ideas are greeted with suspicion in Russia, and for good reason. Ideas in literature, however, have united the Russian people and built a national character. The upshot of this is that Russia finds art and literature very important, and I think the reverse is true for most of America. I'm not saying we have to send ships to artists on their birthdays or whatever. But as an American student who values music and art, I hope our educational system moves more in the direction of the Russian system. Art and literature should be revered in schools, not cut out of them.

Снег! (Snow!)

I forgot to mention- there have been snow flurries! Last Tuesday (Oct 12) I saw them for about fifteen seconds but no one believes me. This past Friday (Oct 15), however, I stood in snow flurries while waiting for the bus to school. They got stuck in my eyelashes and no one can deny it was snow!

So October 14 was one day late this year. Our professor Leonid said he remembers only four or five times during his life that it hasn't snowed in Petersburg on October 14th and that this was one of them. Don't be sad, Russia - you were only one day off!

It is freezing (literally). I think it is all downhill from here!

Эмили

Oh Romeo

Russian Ballet!!!!!
Last night, we went to the Mikhailovsky Theater to see Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, which was perfect because I love the play and couldn't wait to go to the ballet! It was WONDERFUL. We were in the cheap seats ($13, the i-love-russia price), so think fourth-tier balcony on extreme stage right. I went with Meryem and Heather, and it turned out we were in a three-chaired box, which was cute. We even had our own little door! We were right above the pit orchestra, which was really neat (and the music was dark and eerily beautiful!) If it seems too good to be true, that's because it was a little bit.

Because we were above the ceiling of the stage, we could not see the deepest part of the stage. No problem most of the time. However - and I still can't believe this is true - we couldn't see the death scene. Juliette was on her slab in the deepest part of the stage, and we just couldn't see her (the ceiling was blocking her). Heather could see Romeo's thighs, I could see his ankles, and poor Meryem couldn't see anything at all! We waited and enjoyed the music until, first, Romeo dropped to the floor and we could see him again. Shortly after she danced around, we waited knowingly and Juliette also fell next to him. It was fun though, and knowing the story (pretty well, mom :]) made everything much more illuminating!
Fun fact - Prokofiev originally had a happy ending, but there was an uproar and the premiere was postponed so he finally rewrote it, keeping Shakespeare's original end.

A side note:
This maybe should have been obvious, but, even though the ballet was beautiful, I realized so clearly that what I love most about Romeo and Juliet is the dialogue!! I missed it so, so much and it just wasn't the same! After Tybalt stabbed Mercutio, Mercutio danced/writhed around nicely... but it just wasn't the same without "A plague on both your houses! They have made worms' meat of me." Which, of course, I said to myself.
Romeo looked quite pained and gallantly scooped up his blade and ran toward Tybalt, but I definitely found the motion lacking without Romeo yelling "Mercutio's soul is but a little way above our heads... Either thou, or I, or both must go with him!" So I silently thought it for him! Anyway, bravo Prokofiev! 

More to come!
Эмили

I Can See Russia From My House.

So today it struck me that I lucked into a really, really excellent living location!
My art class took a walking tour (in the freezing, windy rain) about Dostoevsky's life, and we walked past my house. Why? Because Dostoevsky lived around the corner from me!!!! In Crime and Punishment (or, as my art teacher says, The Crime and The Punishment) the main character Raskolnikov also lived here! There is a monument to Dostoevsky on my street under his old apartment window which I walk past and mentally try to translate every day, so I had an idea. But anyway it is so cool. I'm reading the Crime and the Punishment now, which is even cooler.

I can see my house from here!

I live a five minute walk from the only tri-line metro station in the city, so it is very convenient to get around. This location where the metro is used to be the Hay Market (now it is Сенная Плошадь) and happens to have two malls; a Мак Доналдс (McDonalds), a Teremok, a Chainaya Lozhka, AND a Carl's Jr; lots of pirogee and flower stalls; street musicians; a theater ticket stand; and lots of people walking around at night so I don't feel unsafe.
It takes me about twelve minutes to walk to Nevsky Prospekt, the main shopping/dining/cavorting/bus-catching street, and Gostiny Dvor. There are very famous theaters, museums, and churches on this road, so lots of times I don't have to take the metro after all. It also takes me under ten minutes to walk to St. Isaac's Cathedral, about fifteen to the Hermitage and the Neva, and probably way less to get to the Mariinsky Theater because my metro stop is the closest metro stop to the theater (I will let you know when I see Prokofiev's Cinderella ballet there in November!) I live really close to the Bronze Horseman statue, the Admiralty, and plenty of other famous things, which is still surreal to me.
I'll stop boasting now. I just realized today that, although I've come to love where I live, I certainly take it for granted sometimes. That's all!
До скорого,
Emily

Russian Superstitions

1. If you whistle indoors, you will lose all your money. Which is apparently of concern to everyone else as well, because I whistled a little when I came out of the shower once and Lena (host's daughter) came RUNNING, no lie, to tell me that I mustn't whistle in the house. Unfortunately I forget sometimes, but I am working on it.

2. Spiders on the wall mean good luck.  There was one on the wall during class, but I'm not sure yet how luck factors into ethnic studies.

3. It always snows on October 14 (except when it doesn't). The date is always predicted to bring the first snowfall to St. Petersburg. I'm eager to find out if it will be true - let you guys know on Thursday!

4. Don't give someone an even number of flowers, because those are for the dead. I had about eight people remind me of this before I brought five small yellow flowers to the apartment in thanks last month.

5. If you're unmarried, don't sit at the corner of a table or you will stay that way!

6. Speaking of marriages, on some occasions when I pass wedding parties I hear everyone shouting "Gorka, gorka!" and then they count as the bride and groom kiss. I just figured out recently their shouts mean "bitter", and historically (or perhaps still) the guests pretended the wine was bitter and the couple has to kiss as long as possible to make the wine sweeter!

7. Don't get your haircut while a family member is in danger. Historical story- Yeltsin's wife apparently got a haircut to signal to the nation that he was fine after his bypass surgery!

8. Background story: The floor of our school is made of stone, and it gets pretty cold. But there aren't enough chairs/couches for half of us, so sometimes we sit on the floor during lunch or between classes. Once I was sitting on the [cold] floor with several other girls, and one of the Russian women directors came up to us and made us stand up, because she insisted the cold floor would freeze our ovaries. Well anyway, we stood up pretty fast.

These are all the superstitions I have personally come across so far in my semester (or at least the ones I can think of). I have a feeling more are to follow, so keep reading!

До свидания,
Эмили

Пожалуйста, в гардероб!

"Please, to the cloakroom!"

Sunday morning I volunteered for two hours at the Hermitage museum!! For those of you who are less familiar with St. Petersburg landmarks, the Hermitage is a huge art collection spanning several buildings. The main building is the Winter Palace (see below):

If you aren't instantly reminded of Anastasia or the Romanovs, shame on you because they lived here!

Anyway, my job was to make sure no man, woman, or child entered the ticket checkpoint wearing a coat or backpack. With basically no training and a very small collection of  relevant vocabulary, a friend and I very seriously tried to persuade Russians and foreigners to go drop off their things in the cloakroom. This would be a very boring job in America, but I found standing in the pretty lobby of a very famous museum trying to communicate in Russian fun. More fun - English-speaking tourists!! I could switch to English like it was nobody's business, and I recognized that look of relief on their faces because I often have it on my own. Less fun - getting asked follow-up questions in any language, which I either didn't understand or didn't know the answer to. Where IS your excursion leaving from? CAN you take strollers in? Um, sorry, what? I asked one lady nicely to take her coat to the cloakroom, and she challenged me, asking "Почему (why)?". WHY?! Come back next month and I might have more than a one-word answer for that question. Ridiculous.
Also, a group of young Russian males found it hilarious that we were working at the Hermitage and we didn't speak Russian fluently. Thanks.

Today I went back, hoping for something a little more low-key. I got a nice tour of the backrooms, charming hole-in-the-wall archaeology restoration lab, less charming smoke-break stairwell, and 2ft x 2ft elevator, before being told there was not enough work for all seven volunteers, so I volunteered to leave. Not to worry, the Hermitage will be here for more weeks... and so will I!
Спокойной ночи!
Эмили

Aggression & Protection

We got tickets to the СКА (St. Petersburg) v. Спартак (Moscow) hockey game Thursday night. For three more dollars than we paid last time, Rowan got us tickets down in the lower level, which seemed like a great idea. It started at 7, but my art class didn't get out until 6 and I had to run home, switch stuff, and haltingly explain the situation to my host mother before leaving, so I got there last and entered the stadium by myself.

I have more-or-less gotten used to seeing scary militsiya with weapons everywhere, in the streets and even in the hockey stadium, but imagine my surprise/mild terror when I found my section (section 208) and was greeted by these guys: 

photo by Michael Holderreed =]

Yep, that's my section entrance behind them. First thought - WHERE THE HECK ARE WE SITTING? followed shortly by ROWAN?!! Turns out that the 208-209 mid-section was where the Moscow fans were seated, and (just guessing here) the militsiya expected trouble. Well anyway they let me in after a through search of my bag, and we really did have awesome seats aside from the Moscow fans next door flipping us off after every goal from both sides (and of course CKA male fans flipping them off back).

It was a great game! CKA won 3-2, and to keep it exciting Moscow almost came back in the last two minutes but good ol' Nabokov kept us in good shape.


At the end, the scary SWAT guys lining the Moscow section held them back until the entire rest of the stadium had cleared, to prevent fights from breaking out. My first thought as an American - Can they really do that? But on second though, if they are taking it so seriously, maybe they have to.


 So a short note on aggression in Russian society -
In Soviet times (and probably still today), men in villages away from the center met typically on Sunday evenings and recreationally fought each other, to blow off steam or anti-State frustration perhaps. Sometimes there were rules and sometimes not. Like fight club. Our teacher Leonid says aggression has become part of the male mentality - guys always have to be ready to defend themselves. I don't know if it is because Russia has had a tough history, or has a tough climate, or something about Communism, but I don't think this aggression can be denied. He also drew parallels to speech mannerisms and shoving on the metro.

And conversely, protection -
Speaking of a rough history, Russian government has been far from stable. Instead of expecting the State or rule of law to protect them, Russians protect themselves. To get to the apartment, I have a magnetic key to open a heavy iron gate from the street. I pass through a courtyard where residents park their cars and approach a huge red metal door, which I unlock with a second magnetic key. I climb two flights to the big, thick iron padded door, which I unlock by means of a very long and fat key. Trust me, no one is getting through that door. Sometimes I can't even get through that door.

I don't know quite what to make of this yet, but I don't think of it as a horrible thing. It seems like Russians have adapted to what life is for them, and it works. I can't look at Russia and make judgments based on life in America, because this isn't America. Russia has its own past, characteristics, and its own future. I wonder what it will be!
Спокойной ночи (goodnight)
Эмили