Saturday, March 31, 2007
3-31-07
3-31-07
6 days since I last wrote an entry. This does not mean that I’ve been some kind of blob of inactivity, however. Quite the contrary. Instead, what happens is that I’ll get home and say to myself, “Oh, I only did X today, that’s not really worth writing a whole blog entry about.” But the problem comes when 6 days later you’ve got a pile of Xes to write about. So let’s see if I can piece together everything that I’ve done this past week.
Monday, I just took the bus home. Marina was out when I got home about 4ish so I just read and do the things I needed to do, freeing up Monday night for me to go to Kofe Haus after dinner and post the last two entries and photos.
On Tuesday, we went to Subway because it was Tuna Sub day. Then Hannah, Mattison, Becky, and I walked over to St. Isaac’s Cathedral and went up into the Colonnade. St. Isaac’s is the tallest building in central St. Petersburg; so on a sunny day it provided some amazing views. It was kind of smoggy, though. We then wandered over to New Holland, an island formed by the canals near St. Isaac’s. Then we wandered some more, eventually ending up at home for dinner with Marina.
Wednesday’s always an awkward day, because there are only 7 people in the program who don’t have an afternoon class. This past Wednesday the “Where to get lunch after school” situation was complicated even further by the fact that 4 of the seven people were at the Russian Museum for their Analitika class. (Gazeta doesn’t go on field trips, it would seem.) So Hannah and I just decided to take a marshrutka to Subway, because it was Italian BMT day. Subway two days in a row sounds excessive, but the sandwich of the day is such a fantastic deal we can’t turn it down. We had a near-disaster on the marshrutka, though. Before getting on, I said to Hannah, “Hey, can you pay for me? I’ve only got 500s.” You see, on a marshrutka, the driver makes the change himself while driving. So if you’ve got a super large bill (In this case, the marshrutka ride was 17 rubles—an inappropriate price to use a 500 ruble note on), the driver will get super upset at you. Hannah says, “Oh, yeah, sure, no problem.”
Then we get on the marshrutka and Hannah looks in her wallet and realizes that she, too, only has 500s. Panic. Luckily, there was a businessman next to us who had 5 100 ruble notes. Paying with 100 rubles for 34 rubles is much more reasonable. We then had nothing to do so we wandered down Nevsky a bit and ended up at Café Max to check our email.
Thursday was a short day, and Marissa, Mattison, and I went after school to the football stadium to check out ticket prices. Saturday (today) there’s a huge match between Zenit, the St. Petersburg team, and Spartak, a Moscow team. I wasn’t particularly interested in going to a match where there’s a certain chance of violence, but I wanted to check the prices for the game in early May against a team that ISN’T from Moscow. Of course, the stadium does not sell tickets for future games. That would make far too much sense.
We then wandered over to the Artillery Museum. Inside, we looked at lots of cannons and display cases full of guns. There was also an arts and crafts station where you could color your own little soldier, so we did that. Mattison’s colorblind, so his ended up being a little Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat-ish. We drew a crowd to watch us color. I’m also pretty sure that we’re in a bunch of pictures that a mom kept taking of her son coloring. Whatever, I’ve got my little paper soldier, Pierre Kennard. Outside, they have old Soviet artillery that you can climb up on. So, of course, we did. Something about coloring just makes you feel like you’re 6 years old again.
Yesterday, our original plan was to go see the second half of Paragraph 78. We instead went to a concert put on by Jarlath, one of our coordinators. It was a good time. The other highlight: Dinner at Carl’s Jr. Now, I know that that sounds kind of gross. I mean, it’s a Carl’s Jr. But you must understand—they have free refills. They are the only place in this country that has free refills. They also have free WiFi, so we might be going there after classes on Tuesday for lunch.
Today, we went to Kronstadt. Kronstadt is an island in the Finnish Gulf, designed by Peter the Great to be St. Petersburg’s first line of defense in case of a naval attack. The attack never came, and a city of 50,000 has grown up on the island. We took the long marshrutka ride (there’s a bridge) out and the wandered around in the sun on the coast for a while. After some wandering, we found a Chinese restaurant and had a horrible lunch with rude service, the taste of which could only be washed out with ice cream. So we had some of that. Katie’s guidebook said that there was a fortress worth seeing, and it took us forever to figure out which bus to take to get there. We got off where the conductor on the bus told us to, and we followed her directions, but we ended up just wandering through a housing project and then ending up in a scary field that looked like the perfect place to dump a body. So then we came home.
I think I’m going to take my laptop into the city and use the WiFi at QuoVadis. It’s cheaper than Café Max’s. But who knows what I’ll actually end up doing.
6 days since I last wrote an entry. This does not mean that I’ve been some kind of blob of inactivity, however. Quite the contrary. Instead, what happens is that I’ll get home and say to myself, “Oh, I only did X today, that’s not really worth writing a whole blog entry about.” But the problem comes when 6 days later you’ve got a pile of Xes to write about. So let’s see if I can piece together everything that I’ve done this past week.
Monday, I just took the bus home. Marina was out when I got home about 4ish so I just read and do the things I needed to do, freeing up Monday night for me to go to Kofe Haus after dinner and post the last two entries and photos.
On Tuesday, we went to Subway because it was Tuna Sub day. Then Hannah, Mattison, Becky, and I walked over to St. Isaac’s Cathedral and went up into the Colonnade. St. Isaac’s is the tallest building in central St. Petersburg; so on a sunny day it provided some amazing views. It was kind of smoggy, though. We then wandered over to New Holland, an island formed by the canals near St. Isaac’s. Then we wandered some more, eventually ending up at home for dinner with Marina.
Wednesday’s always an awkward day, because there are only 7 people in the program who don’t have an afternoon class. This past Wednesday the “Where to get lunch after school” situation was complicated even further by the fact that 4 of the seven people were at the Russian Museum for their Analitika class. (Gazeta doesn’t go on field trips, it would seem.) So Hannah and I just decided to take a marshrutka to Subway, because it was Italian BMT day. Subway two days in a row sounds excessive, but the sandwich of the day is such a fantastic deal we can’t turn it down. We had a near-disaster on the marshrutka, though. Before getting on, I said to Hannah, “Hey, can you pay for me? I’ve only got 500s.” You see, on a marshrutka, the driver makes the change himself while driving. So if you’ve got a super large bill (In this case, the marshrutka ride was 17 rubles—an inappropriate price to use a 500 ruble note on), the driver will get super upset at you. Hannah says, “Oh, yeah, sure, no problem.”
Then we get on the marshrutka and Hannah looks in her wallet and realizes that she, too, only has 500s. Panic. Luckily, there was a businessman next to us who had 5 100 ruble notes. Paying with 100 rubles for 34 rubles is much more reasonable. We then had nothing to do so we wandered down Nevsky a bit and ended up at Café Max to check our email.
Thursday was a short day, and Marissa, Mattison, and I went after school to the football stadium to check out ticket prices. Saturday (today) there’s a huge match between Zenit, the St. Petersburg team, and Spartak, a Moscow team. I wasn’t particularly interested in going to a match where there’s a certain chance of violence, but I wanted to check the prices for the game in early May against a team that ISN’T from Moscow. Of course, the stadium does not sell tickets for future games. That would make far too much sense.
We then wandered over to the Artillery Museum. Inside, we looked at lots of cannons and display cases full of guns. There was also an arts and crafts station where you could color your own little soldier, so we did that. Mattison’s colorblind, so his ended up being a little Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat-ish. We drew a crowd to watch us color. I’m also pretty sure that we’re in a bunch of pictures that a mom kept taking of her son coloring. Whatever, I’ve got my little paper soldier, Pierre Kennard. Outside, they have old Soviet artillery that you can climb up on. So, of course, we did. Something about coloring just makes you feel like you’re 6 years old again.
Yesterday, our original plan was to go see the second half of Paragraph 78. We instead went to a concert put on by Jarlath, one of our coordinators. It was a good time. The other highlight: Dinner at Carl’s Jr. Now, I know that that sounds kind of gross. I mean, it’s a Carl’s Jr. But you must understand—they have free refills. They are the only place in this country that has free refills. They also have free WiFi, so we might be going there after classes on Tuesday for lunch.
Today, we went to Kronstadt. Kronstadt is an island in the Finnish Gulf, designed by Peter the Great to be St. Petersburg’s first line of defense in case of a naval attack. The attack never came, and a city of 50,000 has grown up on the island. We took the long marshrutka ride (there’s a bridge) out and the wandered around in the sun on the coast for a while. After some wandering, we found a Chinese restaurant and had a horrible lunch with rude service, the taste of which could only be washed out with ice cream. So we had some of that. Katie’s guidebook said that there was a fortress worth seeing, and it took us forever to figure out which bus to take to get there. We got off where the conductor on the bus told us to, and we followed her directions, but we ended up just wandering through a housing project and then ending up in a scary field that looked like the perfect place to dump a body. So then we came home.
I think I’m going to take my laptop into the city and use the WiFi at QuoVadis. It’s cheaper than Café Max’s. But who knows what I’ll actually end up doing.
Monday, March 26, 2007
3-25-07
3-25-06
Well, it would certainly seem that Spring Break gave me a burst of energy. This past week, I’ve crossed off two things on my “Have to do” list, and by the end of today, I will have crossed off four things on my “Want to do” list.
Friday, after classes, Hannah, Kate, and I wandered around Nevsky for a bit before organizing a group excursion to see TMNT. That’s right, a group of 20+ intelligent students studying abroad in St. Petersburg, Russia, went to see the new animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. We had a good time. The Russian dubbing didn’t even bother me after a while, although we were all a little confused on some of the finer points of the plot. Give me a break, it was confusing and full of holes, and I’m sure that if I were to see it in English, I’d be confused, too. After that we went to a pub called Liverpool and listened to a Beatles cover band for a while. I came back here and was out like a light.
Yesterday morning I slept in and then met up with Hannah, Kate, Becky, Hillary, and Tappert and we went to the Piskaryovskoe Cemetery. It’s the cemetery where the people who died during the Nazi blockade were buried, or more realistically, dumped. It’s quite intimidating and heavy. There’s just anonymous mound after anonymous mound, marked only with a year and whether they were civilians or military. In another section, there are individual graves of soldiers who died. There’s also a large monument with a sad-looking Mother Russia. The eeriest thing about the cemetery, however, is that music is constantly piped in through loudspeakers everywhere on the grounds. Just eerie.
Then we went back into the city and met up with Mattison and visited the graveyards at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery. Both were cool. One was packed and fun to just wander through and look at the unique memorials. The other contained the gravesites of Dostoevsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Glinke, Borodin, Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky. I took lots of pictures. Mussorgsky’s had a stone piano carved into it. Rimsky-Korsakov’s was the most unique. In a cemetery full of largely dark stones, or statues with angels, Rimsky-Korsakov’s was a large white Celtic cross.
We wandered now Nevksy before splitting up. Kate, Hannah, Hillary, and I went to Café Max to check our email, and then to Teremok for dinner. We ended up staying there for just two hours talking, drawing the ire of the cleaning girl.
Then, this morning, I dawdled around in my pajamas and read (I really need to make a list of everything I’ve read while I’ve been here) before meeting Hannah at Dostoevskaya Metro station. We got a little lost but then found the Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic. Very cool, but as most of the placards weren’t translated (And my knowledge of exploration vocab is not a strong area), I feel like I could’ve gotten way more out of it. But nevertheless, it was interesting and we had a good time.
Then we took our own sweet time (At least in Mattison’s opinion) to get to the Zoological Museum to meet up with Mattison. The Zoological Museum is largely just stuffed animals in glass cases, but it was a good time. It was fun to see familiar animals (What kind of museum has a stuffed St. Bernard? Or a Spaniel?), and it was cool to see some of the museum’s highlights, such as the skeletons of a blue whale and a wooly mammoth.
After that, I came back here, had dinner, and called Bloomington and home. The weather for the week ahead looks good, so we’ll probably be staying fairly active. I just hope that I eventually get around to posting this and the other entry sitting on my desktop, it’s frustrating. But at the same time, I don’t want to waste this wonderful weather. I’ll have to find some kind of middle ground, I suppose. Maybe I’ll go to Kofe Haus some evening and put up with horrible service. We’ll see.
PS: As I’m posting this, this might be my best coffee house visit ever. I think that has to do with a couple of things. First, I was able to secure a single table in a corner. Second, this corner is right by the entry station for the waitresses, which means that when I need to pay, they can’t ignore me. Third, the staff that’s usually here (Namely Yellow Sweater Girl) appears not to be here, except for one waitress. Maybe I should become a Monday night regular!
Well, it would certainly seem that Spring Break gave me a burst of energy. This past week, I’ve crossed off two things on my “Have to do” list, and by the end of today, I will have crossed off four things on my “Want to do” list.
Friday, after classes, Hannah, Kate, and I wandered around Nevsky for a bit before organizing a group excursion to see TMNT. That’s right, a group of 20+ intelligent students studying abroad in St. Petersburg, Russia, went to see the new animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. We had a good time. The Russian dubbing didn’t even bother me after a while, although we were all a little confused on some of the finer points of the plot. Give me a break, it was confusing and full of holes, and I’m sure that if I were to see it in English, I’d be confused, too. After that we went to a pub called Liverpool and listened to a Beatles cover band for a while. I came back here and was out like a light.
Yesterday morning I slept in and then met up with Hannah, Kate, Becky, Hillary, and Tappert and we went to the Piskaryovskoe Cemetery. It’s the cemetery where the people who died during the Nazi blockade were buried, or more realistically, dumped. It’s quite intimidating and heavy. There’s just anonymous mound after anonymous mound, marked only with a year and whether they were civilians or military. In another section, there are individual graves of soldiers who died. There’s also a large monument with a sad-looking Mother Russia. The eeriest thing about the cemetery, however, is that music is constantly piped in through loudspeakers everywhere on the grounds. Just eerie.
Then we went back into the city and met up with Mattison and visited the graveyards at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery. Both were cool. One was packed and fun to just wander through and look at the unique memorials. The other contained the gravesites of Dostoevsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Glinke, Borodin, Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky. I took lots of pictures. Mussorgsky’s had a stone piano carved into it. Rimsky-Korsakov’s was the most unique. In a cemetery full of largely dark stones, or statues with angels, Rimsky-Korsakov’s was a large white Celtic cross.
We wandered now Nevksy before splitting up. Kate, Hannah, Hillary, and I went to Café Max to check our email, and then to Teremok for dinner. We ended up staying there for just two hours talking, drawing the ire of the cleaning girl.
Then, this morning, I dawdled around in my pajamas and read (I really need to make a list of everything I’ve read while I’ve been here) before meeting Hannah at Dostoevskaya Metro station. We got a little lost but then found the Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic. Very cool, but as most of the placards weren’t translated (And my knowledge of exploration vocab is not a strong area), I feel like I could’ve gotten way more out of it. But nevertheless, it was interesting and we had a good time.
Then we took our own sweet time (At least in Mattison’s opinion) to get to the Zoological Museum to meet up with Mattison. The Zoological Museum is largely just stuffed animals in glass cases, but it was a good time. It was fun to see familiar animals (What kind of museum has a stuffed St. Bernard? Or a Spaniel?), and it was cool to see some of the museum’s highlights, such as the skeletons of a blue whale and a wooly mammoth.
After that, I came back here, had dinner, and called Bloomington and home. The weather for the week ahead looks good, so we’ll probably be staying fairly active. I just hope that I eventually get around to posting this and the other entry sitting on my desktop, it’s frustrating. But at the same time, I don’t want to waste this wonderful weather. I’ll have to find some kind of middle ground, I suppose. Maybe I’ll go to Kofe Haus some evening and put up with horrible service. We’ll see.
PS: As I’m posting this, this might be my best coffee house visit ever. I think that has to do with a couple of things. First, I was able to secure a single table in a corner. Second, this corner is right by the entry station for the waitresses, which means that when I need to pay, they can’t ignore me. Third, the staff that’s usually here (Namely Yellow Sweater Girl) appears not to be here, except for one waitress. Maybe I should become a Monday night regular!
3-22-07
3-22-07
It’s spring, officially now. Mila and Nathan brought pirogies in for us to eat in celebration, Russian-style. Yesterday was the first day that I wore my lighter-weight coat. I had a fun surprise in the morning. When I was leaving the apartment, I put my hands in the pockets of the coat and found a nice little gift from the last time I wore the coat. And when was this? Early Christmas break, when it was unseasonably warm, Mom and I went to CVS to find replacement bulbs for the Christmas lights. So in my pocket was one of the burnt-out bulbs that we brought along to match the bulb type. It made it all the way to Russia with me. I’ve been carrying it around as something of a good-luck charm. Also, when I have an idea I can hold it over my head and say, “Ding!” And don’t think I haven’t done that.
Today it reached 50 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s kind of mind-blowing. Hannah and I ate blini from a Teremok stand OUTSIDE today. Wow. It’s been a fast transition to spring. Kind of a pity that I won’t be able to wear my new hat anymore. But rest assured, the first day next fall that it gets cold enough to wear a hat, BAM! I’m busting out the earflaps. You’ve been forewarned.
It’s been a busy week, I guess. Busy seems to imply stressful, which it hasn’t been, despite being the first week after break (Which usually just sucks on principle), having a grammar test today, and a gazeta test tomorrow. Yesterday, Hannah, Marisa, and I went to Moika 12, the museum of Pushkin’s last apartment, the one in which he died. The apartment itself was quite normal, the most interesting part of the museum being Pushkin’s death mask and a lock of his hair. Morbid, but interesting.
Today the three of us plus Kate went to the Dostoevsky Museum. Also situated in his apartment, but since he changed apartments every three years, it’s not like it’s where he died. The most interesting thing for me was they had a hat of his. No one else was as entranced by that hat as I was, but it was cool. Both he and Pushkin doodled in the margins a lot. Perhaps it’s a sign of greatness? Although, in comparison, my doodles are quite lame.
The plan for this weekend is really quite up in the air. I mean, I’ve still got 14(!) things on my list of “Want to do” as opposed to things that remain on my list of “Have to do.” If the weather’s nice, I’ll probably try some kind of grand cemetery day, visiting the one at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery and the one for the people who died during the blockade of Leningrad. There was also some talk about visiting the site of Pushkin’s duel. All three of those in one day might be morbid, but since they’re all outside, they’re good activities for sunny days. If it’s rainy, I might check out the Museum of the Arctic or the Museum of Zoology or the Rimsky-Korsakov Flat Museum.
It’s not as if there’s nothing to do in this city. Ooh, maybe there’s a football match this weekend? That would also be worth checking out. I’ve learned my lesson about going to the Hermitage on the weekend, maybe I can stop in there tomorrow after classes. The one problem with that place is that it’s so dang hard to find some things. I’m pretty sure there’s only one staircase to the third floor, where the 20th century art is, and I have yet to find it. So next time I will go, guide book in hand, and attempt to find that lone staircase.
Really, there’s nothing else about which I could write. I’ve decided that I’m never going to have borscht again once I get back to the States. Or cabbage. Ever. But I suppose that’s not really news. Time continues to tick by, quickly and slowly at the same time. This has become all the more obvious with the changing seasons.
As of now, I’d much rather look forward to enjoying spring, and the promise of grass and leaves. That’s all it is right now, you see. A promise. Despite the warm weather, the city’s “green spaces” are just muddy right now, for the most part. What grass there is is dull and lifeless. I realize now that the snow was serving an important purpose, too—keeping the dirt down. Walking along a busy street is like torture on your lungs, the combination of exhaust and dust. We took a bus today to the Dostoevsky Museum and the air inside was almost unbearable. It was the first time in my life I could feel every breath go down my chest into my lungs, hot and gritty. Hannah opened a window and stuck her head out, but it didn’t help much. Even when the bus was moving, the air felt stagnant. Luckily, it’s not like this everywhere.
Maybe this weekend’s activities should be focused on avoiding this kind of crap. We’ll see.
It’s spring, officially now. Mila and Nathan brought pirogies in for us to eat in celebration, Russian-style. Yesterday was the first day that I wore my lighter-weight coat. I had a fun surprise in the morning. When I was leaving the apartment, I put my hands in the pockets of the coat and found a nice little gift from the last time I wore the coat. And when was this? Early Christmas break, when it was unseasonably warm, Mom and I went to CVS to find replacement bulbs for the Christmas lights. So in my pocket was one of the burnt-out bulbs that we brought along to match the bulb type. It made it all the way to Russia with me. I’ve been carrying it around as something of a good-luck charm. Also, when I have an idea I can hold it over my head and say, “Ding!” And don’t think I haven’t done that.
Today it reached 50 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s kind of mind-blowing. Hannah and I ate blini from a Teremok stand OUTSIDE today. Wow. It’s been a fast transition to spring. Kind of a pity that I won’t be able to wear my new hat anymore. But rest assured, the first day next fall that it gets cold enough to wear a hat, BAM! I’m busting out the earflaps. You’ve been forewarned.
It’s been a busy week, I guess. Busy seems to imply stressful, which it hasn’t been, despite being the first week after break (Which usually just sucks on principle), having a grammar test today, and a gazeta test tomorrow. Yesterday, Hannah, Marisa, and I went to Moika 12, the museum of Pushkin’s last apartment, the one in which he died. The apartment itself was quite normal, the most interesting part of the museum being Pushkin’s death mask and a lock of his hair. Morbid, but interesting.
Today the three of us plus Kate went to the Dostoevsky Museum. Also situated in his apartment, but since he changed apartments every three years, it’s not like it’s where he died. The most interesting thing for me was they had a hat of his. No one else was as entranced by that hat as I was, but it was cool. Both he and Pushkin doodled in the margins a lot. Perhaps it’s a sign of greatness? Although, in comparison, my doodles are quite lame.
The plan for this weekend is really quite up in the air. I mean, I’ve still got 14(!) things on my list of “Want to do” as opposed to things that remain on my list of “Have to do.” If the weather’s nice, I’ll probably try some kind of grand cemetery day, visiting the one at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery and the one for the people who died during the blockade of Leningrad. There was also some talk about visiting the site of Pushkin’s duel. All three of those in one day might be morbid, but since they’re all outside, they’re good activities for sunny days. If it’s rainy, I might check out the Museum of the Arctic or the Museum of Zoology or the Rimsky-Korsakov Flat Museum.
It’s not as if there’s nothing to do in this city. Ooh, maybe there’s a football match this weekend? That would also be worth checking out. I’ve learned my lesson about going to the Hermitage on the weekend, maybe I can stop in there tomorrow after classes. The one problem with that place is that it’s so dang hard to find some things. I’m pretty sure there’s only one staircase to the third floor, where the 20th century art is, and I have yet to find it. So next time I will go, guide book in hand, and attempt to find that lone staircase.
Really, there’s nothing else about which I could write. I’ve decided that I’m never going to have borscht again once I get back to the States. Or cabbage. Ever. But I suppose that’s not really news. Time continues to tick by, quickly and slowly at the same time. This has become all the more obvious with the changing seasons.
As of now, I’d much rather look forward to enjoying spring, and the promise of grass and leaves. That’s all it is right now, you see. A promise. Despite the warm weather, the city’s “green spaces” are just muddy right now, for the most part. What grass there is is dull and lifeless. I realize now that the snow was serving an important purpose, too—keeping the dirt down. Walking along a busy street is like torture on your lungs, the combination of exhaust and dust. We took a bus today to the Dostoevsky Museum and the air inside was almost unbearable. It was the first time in my life I could feel every breath go down my chest into my lungs, hot and gritty. Hannah opened a window and stuck her head out, but it didn’t help much. Even when the bus was moving, the air felt stagnant. Luckily, it’s not like this everywhere.
Maybe this weekend’s activities should be focused on avoiding this kind of crap. We’ll see.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
3-18-07
3-18-07
This is going to be a long blog entry. I’d really rather not have to write it, but it’s obviously been a busy past week. Just know that it’s as painful for you to read it all (If you make it all the way through) as it is for me to write it. My original plan was to call home first and talk to my parents about the trip, so that way after that I would have everything that we did organized in some kind of fashion. But Marina’s on the phone. So now I’m just grappling, trying to figure out where to start. I looked at my pictures for some help, but they start in Stockholm, so I guess I’m on my own. We’ll do this chronologically.
Woke up early Monday morning, showered, finished packing, and ended up being a little late meeting Hillary and Becky at the train station. There was a large group of loud American college students who also looked like they were going to be on the same train as us. Turns out, they were. It also turns out they’re all from Ball State. Apparently the school of Architecture has a special program where students visit 23 countries in like 100 days and study the varying styles of architecture. We found this out because we shared a cabin with a girl on the program, who just happened to be from Yorktown. Small world, I know.
Easily the best part of the train trip was when we crossed the border. I had been joking with Hillary and Becky that I thought crossing the border was going to be like that scene at the end of Roger Rabbit when the wall breaks open and you see into Toon Town. A big cartoon sun, smiling animals singing to us, that kind of thing. Well, I was close. We crossed the border and the clouds parted, the sun came out, and a gigantic rainbow stretched across the horizon, no lie. We just kept looking out the window and laughing, it was so nice to get out of Russia.
Arrived in Helsinki and had an expensive Happy Meal before finding the Viking Line ticket office and purchasing our ferry tickets. We had like two hours to waste, but luckily we found a coffee shop with internet and got drinks and hung out there for a while. Unfortunately for Becky, Helsinki is a city that loves its cobblestone—streets, sidewalks, the whole deal. This was a problem because she had a rolling suitcase and we were all starting to go insane from the noise she was making by the time we got to the ferry terminal.
I should take a moment to describe the weather when we got into Helsinki: Icky. Thought it had been sunny at the border, there was low cloud cover and a dense mist in the air in the city, which made walking incredibly uncomfortable. We were all happy to get inside the terminal and into our cabin aboard the ferry.
“Ferry” is what they call it, but it’s technically a cruise ship that they’ve put on ferry duty. This means there’s a variety of restaurants and the like to keep passengers busy. We opted for the cheapest tickets. We were below the car deck, and partially below the water line. We were in steerage, aka: The first to go.
The cabin was small but comfortable. It was depressing, however, that they put curtains on the wall with only a blank white wall behind them. We kept them shut. (On the way back to Helsinki, however, there was a poster of a coastline behind the curtains, so we kept them open.) The sea wasn’t frozen, of course, but there were big chunks of ice floating in it, which we watched for a while from one of the upper decks, and then felt by leaning up against the wall by Hillary’s bed. I’m telling you, we were way down there.
Food was overpriced but we were hungry, so we ate. The ship is lined with slot machines, so after dinner I decided to rid myself of some Euro change. Before extinguishing my meager change, I won 40 Euro. It was all in change, of course, so everyone around me noticed as it piled in the collection tray, clanging and ringing like bells. It was awesome. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to duplicate that. Luckily, I was wearing my hoodie, so I had somewhere to pile all my winnings. Throughout the course of the night, I would jingle them, much to Becky and Hillary’s chagrin.
The next morning, we sent Becky to check what the weather was like. She came back with bananas and the news that there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and it was gorgeous. We dressed quickly and went out onto the chilly and windy sun deck. We were working our way through the Stockholm archipelago, and Becky was right, it was gorgeous. It was so refreshing to be out in the sun and breathing clean, fresh air.
We arrived in Stockholm and, after some wandering, found our hostel and checked in. I think the next part of my tale is best told by me, as written at night in my bed at the hostel in the Hello Kitty notebook I got with my Happy Meal in Helsinki. It’s probably illegible to anyone but me.
I am writing this in the darkness of my bed in our hostel in Stockholm. Somehow I managed to get the one bed without a reading lamp. No matter. Perhaps it’s for the better as it disguises my Hello Kitty! Travel diary. So, Stockholm. Freaking amazing. I really don’t think it’s just the transition from cloudy, dirty St. Petersburg in March that makes this city so appealing but that doesn’t hurt.
As the boat arrived in Stockholm yesterday morning, we watched from the sun deck. The coast was like the coast of Maine. Rocky, with lots of islands, and dense pine forests. Gorgeous. Literally, the sun hasn’t stopped shining in Stockholm. Well, I suppose at night, but tonight I made a stunning revelation. I saw stars. STARS! I haven’t seen stars since Repino. At first I could see only one, but then I just kept seeing more. It didn’t compare to a field in Jay County or the shore of Lake Monroe, but it was really special.
Stockholm on the whole is special. The architecture is beautiful, accented by the city’s archipelago nature, such that anywhere on the water provides a Kodak-worthy vista. We keep finding places to just sit and watch the view in front of us and talk. The conversations aren’t deep or soul-searching, they’re of the usual type we’d have in St. Pete, but there we’d be having them inside Chaynaya Loshka. Here we’re having them at City Hall on the water’s edge or sitting on craggy rocks on one of the smaller islands watching cruise ships come in.
And the people—my God. All so friendly. So many of the speak such good English it’s humbling. And, creepily, all of them have American accents. In Russia, I’m used to British English if I get English at all. But my God, so many of these people sound like they’re from the Midwest or something. It’s crazy.
They certainly don’t look like it, though. Everything you’ve heard about the Swedes is true. They’re all gorgeous. Okay, maybe not all. But everyone’s faces are elegant and symmetrical. It’s kind of intimidating. It’s also weird to see so many old people. Well, in Russia there are plenty of pensioners, of course. But old Swedes are living it up. It’s great!
What’s also great—DIVERSITY. Sweden has a large immigrant population and, quite frankly, it’s refreshing. Despite Russia’s vast borders, its population seems monotone. So—what have we been up to besides absorbing the happiness that surrounds Stockholm? Lots of shopping, I bought a hat with ear flaps, but don’t worry, it’s tasteful. Hillary and Becky both bought coats, too.
Morning—Continuing from where I left off. We’ve wandered the city a lot, especially Old Town—Gamla Stan. Its quaint shops and narrow streets are like something out of a Disney movie but without the cheesiness. It was in Old Town that we found the restaurant Taco Bar. Good Lord, I’ve gone too long without Mexican food. So tasty and served with a smile. Can’t get much better. We also visited City Hall (Where the Nobel Prize Ceremony is held) and the Vasa Museum. The Vasa was a 17th century warship that sank in the harbor on its maiden voyage. In the 60s it was raised and a museum built to house it. It’s an impressive sight, but I fear it was too dark for my pictures. We’ll see when I upload them later.
The plan for today consists of the historical museum and IKEA—quite Swedish. Unfortunately, I have seen no mention of the Swedish Chef anywhere. This country should take more pride in one of its most important cultural exports. I did hear “Dancing Queen” in the 7-Eleven yesterday, so at least I’ve had SOME kind of ABBA encounter in this country. They need a statue or something. I think I’m going to recommend that tomorrow, our last day, be spent in the large city park on one of the islands…
And that’s where it ends, quite ominously (Drums in the deep, anyone?). A few comments on things I wrote: Discussing Stockholm’s beauty and how it relates to its physical nature, I really got the feeling that Stockholm was a city IN nature, as opposed to St. Petersburg, which merely has nature in the city. A park here and there, a river, etc. The canals, such a defining characteristic, are manmade. Perhaps because of Peter I’s careful planning of how the city was to begin, it hasn’t organically grown around its environment in the way that a city like Stockholm has, leaving its natural elements exposed and beautiful.
My pictures from the Vasa Museum are quite dark, but you can make them out. The historical museum was interesting but I wanted more from it, the exhibit on the Vikings felt stunted. That said, I do want to check and see if IU offers some kind of Viking history class. IKEA was great, we had some tasty Swedish meatballs.
On our last day we didn’t go to the city park, mainly because we were all just so tired. We didn’t take public transportation a single time in Stockholm (Other than IKEA’s free bus to and from the store), so that meant a lot of walking. Sleeping in a room with 7 other people generally doesn’t make for a good night’s sleep either. So reluctantly, we sailed away from Stockholm Friday night, and from the sundeck we saw a sundog, as if Stockholm was saying goodbye to us.
Didn’t win anything in the slot machines that night, and then the three of us watched downloaded episodes of Grey’s Anatomy on Becky’s computer and got all caught up before falling asleep. Woke up without enough sleep as we were coming into Helsinki. The weather was exactly as we had left it, but this time with snow. We took the tram to the Olympic Stadium, where our hostel was located, but it was slower than I thought and I was running late.
You see, my father has friends who live in Helsinki and I had communicated with them via email and was going to spend some time with them during my time in Helsinki. Denis was to meet me at the hostel at 11, we arrived at the hostel at 10 til. They had lost my reservation so it took some time to check in, and Denis arrived mid-check in, so he had to wait a bit.
Then when all that was sorted out, I went with Denis back to his and Salla’s apartment. We ate and talked about all kinds of things—their two year-old daughter, culture shock, taxes, and technology. Salla made a delicious chicken pie and I filled myself up. I’m sure Becky and Hillary preferred Stockholm, as it was sunny there and warm. But in those few hours in Denis and Salla’s apartment, I was more comfortable and more at home than I had been in a long time—Russia tends to always put me on my guard. It was nice to have a little taste of home half a world away. I was absolutely exhausted from traveling, but I really had a great time.
Denis made sure I got my train ticket and knew how to get from the hostel to the train station before dropping me off back at the hostel. Becky, Hillary, and I went out for dinner and then watched the most recent Grey’s Anatomy and went to bed early. Unfortunately, not everyone else in our dorm did. I’m not sure what the girl next to me was doing. It sounded like her luggage consisted of plastic bags within plastic bags, and she had to riffle through each one to find something. Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep before waking up at 5am to get on the train back to St. Petersburg.
The train ride passed without incident. Although, when I got back into St. Petersburg, I had sudden heartburn. I think it was the warm, fuzzy feeling that had carried over from Denis and Salla’s hardening into something sharper and more Russian. It’s tiring to be on your guard all the time, but I’ve gotten used to it. I’m sure I’ll have a great deal of reverse culture shock to deal with when I get back home, but that’s not til May. I suppose that’s actually rather soon, 7 weeks away, in fact. It’s weird how it sounds like so long and so short at the same time. What I do know right now is that I have a grammar test on Tuesday (LAME!) and since I finished both my books (One from the CIEE library, the other from an amazing Science Fiction bookstore in Stockholm), I’ve got nothing else to do.
I guess this entry could’ve been more painful. Let’s hope for an uneventful week so that I can settle back into my routine.
This is going to be a long blog entry. I’d really rather not have to write it, but it’s obviously been a busy past week. Just know that it’s as painful for you to read it all (If you make it all the way through) as it is for me to write it. My original plan was to call home first and talk to my parents about the trip, so that way after that I would have everything that we did organized in some kind of fashion. But Marina’s on the phone. So now I’m just grappling, trying to figure out where to start. I looked at my pictures for some help, but they start in Stockholm, so I guess I’m on my own. We’ll do this chronologically.
Woke up early Monday morning, showered, finished packing, and ended up being a little late meeting Hillary and Becky at the train station. There was a large group of loud American college students who also looked like they were going to be on the same train as us. Turns out, they were. It also turns out they’re all from Ball State. Apparently the school of Architecture has a special program where students visit 23 countries in like 100 days and study the varying styles of architecture. We found this out because we shared a cabin with a girl on the program, who just happened to be from Yorktown. Small world, I know.
Easily the best part of the train trip was when we crossed the border. I had been joking with Hillary and Becky that I thought crossing the border was going to be like that scene at the end of Roger Rabbit when the wall breaks open and you see into Toon Town. A big cartoon sun, smiling animals singing to us, that kind of thing. Well, I was close. We crossed the border and the clouds parted, the sun came out, and a gigantic rainbow stretched across the horizon, no lie. We just kept looking out the window and laughing, it was so nice to get out of Russia.
Arrived in Helsinki and had an expensive Happy Meal before finding the Viking Line ticket office and purchasing our ferry tickets. We had like two hours to waste, but luckily we found a coffee shop with internet and got drinks and hung out there for a while. Unfortunately for Becky, Helsinki is a city that loves its cobblestone—streets, sidewalks, the whole deal. This was a problem because she had a rolling suitcase and we were all starting to go insane from the noise she was making by the time we got to the ferry terminal.
I should take a moment to describe the weather when we got into Helsinki: Icky. Thought it had been sunny at the border, there was low cloud cover and a dense mist in the air in the city, which made walking incredibly uncomfortable. We were all happy to get inside the terminal and into our cabin aboard the ferry.
“Ferry” is what they call it, but it’s technically a cruise ship that they’ve put on ferry duty. This means there’s a variety of restaurants and the like to keep passengers busy. We opted for the cheapest tickets. We were below the car deck, and partially below the water line. We were in steerage, aka: The first to go.
The cabin was small but comfortable. It was depressing, however, that they put curtains on the wall with only a blank white wall behind them. We kept them shut. (On the way back to Helsinki, however, there was a poster of a coastline behind the curtains, so we kept them open.) The sea wasn’t frozen, of course, but there were big chunks of ice floating in it, which we watched for a while from one of the upper decks, and then felt by leaning up against the wall by Hillary’s bed. I’m telling you, we were way down there.
Food was overpriced but we were hungry, so we ate. The ship is lined with slot machines, so after dinner I decided to rid myself of some Euro change. Before extinguishing my meager change, I won 40 Euro. It was all in change, of course, so everyone around me noticed as it piled in the collection tray, clanging and ringing like bells. It was awesome. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to duplicate that. Luckily, I was wearing my hoodie, so I had somewhere to pile all my winnings. Throughout the course of the night, I would jingle them, much to Becky and Hillary’s chagrin.
The next morning, we sent Becky to check what the weather was like. She came back with bananas and the news that there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and it was gorgeous. We dressed quickly and went out onto the chilly and windy sun deck. We were working our way through the Stockholm archipelago, and Becky was right, it was gorgeous. It was so refreshing to be out in the sun and breathing clean, fresh air.
We arrived in Stockholm and, after some wandering, found our hostel and checked in. I think the next part of my tale is best told by me, as written at night in my bed at the hostel in the Hello Kitty notebook I got with my Happy Meal in Helsinki. It’s probably illegible to anyone but me.
I am writing this in the darkness of my bed in our hostel in Stockholm. Somehow I managed to get the one bed without a reading lamp. No matter. Perhaps it’s for the better as it disguises my Hello Kitty! Travel diary. So, Stockholm. Freaking amazing. I really don’t think it’s just the transition from cloudy, dirty St. Petersburg in March that makes this city so appealing but that doesn’t hurt.
As the boat arrived in Stockholm yesterday morning, we watched from the sun deck. The coast was like the coast of Maine. Rocky, with lots of islands, and dense pine forests. Gorgeous. Literally, the sun hasn’t stopped shining in Stockholm. Well, I suppose at night, but tonight I made a stunning revelation. I saw stars. STARS! I haven’t seen stars since Repino. At first I could see only one, but then I just kept seeing more. It didn’t compare to a field in Jay County or the shore of Lake Monroe, but it was really special.
Stockholm on the whole is special. The architecture is beautiful, accented by the city’s archipelago nature, such that anywhere on the water provides a Kodak-worthy vista. We keep finding places to just sit and watch the view in front of us and talk. The conversations aren’t deep or soul-searching, they’re of the usual type we’d have in St. Pete, but there we’d be having them inside Chaynaya Loshka. Here we’re having them at City Hall on the water’s edge or sitting on craggy rocks on one of the smaller islands watching cruise ships come in.
And the people—my God. All so friendly. So many of the speak such good English it’s humbling. And, creepily, all of them have American accents. In Russia, I’m used to British English if I get English at all. But my God, so many of these people sound like they’re from the Midwest or something. It’s crazy.
They certainly don’t look like it, though. Everything you’ve heard about the Swedes is true. They’re all gorgeous. Okay, maybe not all. But everyone’s faces are elegant and symmetrical. It’s kind of intimidating. It’s also weird to see so many old people. Well, in Russia there are plenty of pensioners, of course. But old Swedes are living it up. It’s great!
What’s also great—DIVERSITY. Sweden has a large immigrant population and, quite frankly, it’s refreshing. Despite Russia’s vast borders, its population seems monotone. So—what have we been up to besides absorbing the happiness that surrounds Stockholm? Lots of shopping, I bought a hat with ear flaps, but don’t worry, it’s tasteful. Hillary and Becky both bought coats, too.
Morning—Continuing from where I left off. We’ve wandered the city a lot, especially Old Town—Gamla Stan. Its quaint shops and narrow streets are like something out of a Disney movie but without the cheesiness. It was in Old Town that we found the restaurant Taco Bar. Good Lord, I’ve gone too long without Mexican food. So tasty and served with a smile. Can’t get much better. We also visited City Hall (Where the Nobel Prize Ceremony is held) and the Vasa Museum. The Vasa was a 17th century warship that sank in the harbor on its maiden voyage. In the 60s it was raised and a museum built to house it. It’s an impressive sight, but I fear it was too dark for my pictures. We’ll see when I upload them later.
The plan for today consists of the historical museum and IKEA—quite Swedish. Unfortunately, I have seen no mention of the Swedish Chef anywhere. This country should take more pride in one of its most important cultural exports. I did hear “Dancing Queen” in the 7-Eleven yesterday, so at least I’ve had SOME kind of ABBA encounter in this country. They need a statue or something. I think I’m going to recommend that tomorrow, our last day, be spent in the large city park on one of the islands…
And that’s where it ends, quite ominously (Drums in the deep, anyone?). A few comments on things I wrote: Discussing Stockholm’s beauty and how it relates to its physical nature, I really got the feeling that Stockholm was a city IN nature, as opposed to St. Petersburg, which merely has nature in the city. A park here and there, a river, etc. The canals, such a defining characteristic, are manmade. Perhaps because of Peter I’s careful planning of how the city was to begin, it hasn’t organically grown around its environment in the way that a city like Stockholm has, leaving its natural elements exposed and beautiful.
My pictures from the Vasa Museum are quite dark, but you can make them out. The historical museum was interesting but I wanted more from it, the exhibit on the Vikings felt stunted. That said, I do want to check and see if IU offers some kind of Viking history class. IKEA was great, we had some tasty Swedish meatballs.
On our last day we didn’t go to the city park, mainly because we were all just so tired. We didn’t take public transportation a single time in Stockholm (Other than IKEA’s free bus to and from the store), so that meant a lot of walking. Sleeping in a room with 7 other people generally doesn’t make for a good night’s sleep either. So reluctantly, we sailed away from Stockholm Friday night, and from the sundeck we saw a sundog, as if Stockholm was saying goodbye to us.
Didn’t win anything in the slot machines that night, and then the three of us watched downloaded episodes of Grey’s Anatomy on Becky’s computer and got all caught up before falling asleep. Woke up without enough sleep as we were coming into Helsinki. The weather was exactly as we had left it, but this time with snow. We took the tram to the Olympic Stadium, where our hostel was located, but it was slower than I thought and I was running late.
You see, my father has friends who live in Helsinki and I had communicated with them via email and was going to spend some time with them during my time in Helsinki. Denis was to meet me at the hostel at 11, we arrived at the hostel at 10 til. They had lost my reservation so it took some time to check in, and Denis arrived mid-check in, so he had to wait a bit.
Then when all that was sorted out, I went with Denis back to his and Salla’s apartment. We ate and talked about all kinds of things—their two year-old daughter, culture shock, taxes, and technology. Salla made a delicious chicken pie and I filled myself up. I’m sure Becky and Hillary preferred Stockholm, as it was sunny there and warm. But in those few hours in Denis and Salla’s apartment, I was more comfortable and more at home than I had been in a long time—Russia tends to always put me on my guard. It was nice to have a little taste of home half a world away. I was absolutely exhausted from traveling, but I really had a great time.
Denis made sure I got my train ticket and knew how to get from the hostel to the train station before dropping me off back at the hostel. Becky, Hillary, and I went out for dinner and then watched the most recent Grey’s Anatomy and went to bed early. Unfortunately, not everyone else in our dorm did. I’m not sure what the girl next to me was doing. It sounded like her luggage consisted of plastic bags within plastic bags, and she had to riffle through each one to find something. Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep before waking up at 5am to get on the train back to St. Petersburg.
The train ride passed without incident. Although, when I got back into St. Petersburg, I had sudden heartburn. I think it was the warm, fuzzy feeling that had carried over from Denis and Salla’s hardening into something sharper and more Russian. It’s tiring to be on your guard all the time, but I’ve gotten used to it. I’m sure I’ll have a great deal of reverse culture shock to deal with when I get back home, but that’s not til May. I suppose that’s actually rather soon, 7 weeks away, in fact. It’s weird how it sounds like so long and so short at the same time. What I do know right now is that I have a grammar test on Tuesday (LAME!) and since I finished both my books (One from the CIEE library, the other from an amazing Science Fiction bookstore in Stockholm), I’ve got nothing else to do.
I guess this entry could’ve been more painful. Let’s hope for an uneventful week so that I can settle back into my routine.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
3-11-07
3-11-07
I have returned from Moscow. I’m pretty tired after the train ride and then napping this morning, but there are things to be done. Namely, write and post this, post some pictures, send some emails, and meet Becky and Hillary at the supermarket to do some pre-trip shopping. But it’s not really fair to Moscow to gloss over my trip, so I’ll do my best to get everything down.
Wednesday night, we all met at Moscow Station at 9:30 and hung out til about 10:30 when we boarded our train. I was in a cabin with Ruby, Lael, and Michelle. The train got going and our cabin quickly became the place to be. Not in any kind of loud, boisterous way, just simply that we had about 8 people in there at any given time, having random and entertaining conversations. It was great; we had a really great time. Only downside was that we didn’t get in “bed” til 3:30ish. Not much of a bed, of course, as it’s just a padded bench. I was also grossed out by the blanket, so I used my coat as a blanket and froze the whole night.
Luckily, that wasn’t too long to be cold, as we woke up at 6 to prepare for getting into Moscow at 6:30. We were like zombies, it was pretty bad. We had all slept in our clothes and felt disgusting. Once we got off of the train, we boarded a bus that took us to the Hotel Cosmos. It’s a hotel outside of the center of the city with a, surprise, space theme. The theme’s pretty loose, but it’s because it’s right across the street from the Cosmonaut Museum and Cosmonaut Monument. The hotel also had a large statue of Charles DeGaulle in front of it, simply because the architect who designed it was French and French people used to stay there.
The hotel itself was quite large, 25 stories and shaped like a gentle arch. Hannah and I roomed together and within the first minute discovered the window opened and that kopeks look like they’re floating when you drop them out of the window (Onto a roof, no one was there). We could also see Becky and Hillary, who were farther along the arch. Whoa, I just realized I’m totally getting ahead of myself—we didn’t check into the hotel until after our excursion.
So the hotel doesn’t start check-in til 7, and since we arrived before then we couldn’t check in. So we just took advantage of the hotel’s large breakfast buffet and all laughed way too hard because everyone was slaphappy. After breakfast, we turned our passports into the front desk and wrote our room numbers on our bags so that they’d get sent up. We then got on a bus and began our city tour.
First thing we all noticed right away—Moscow’s BIG. It actually feels like a city. In St. Petersburg, for the most part, everything is close together because of geography and the way the city center was planned in the 18th century. Moscow’s got wide streets and tall buildings of the type you just can’t find in St. Petersburg. Of course, we have large Stalinist apartment buildings, but they’re not in the city center. In the end, this SAT-style analogy best describes the difference: LA is to San Francisco as Moscow is to St. Petersburg.
Our first stop was Red Square. Here’s my chance to put on my nerd cap and explain that, originally, the name of the square was meant to be “Beautiful Square” but that use of the adjective shifted to only mean Red. I’m sure the Communists loved it, too. We all snapped pictures of St. Basil’s, the Kremlin Walls, and Lenin’s Mausoleum. We also went into Éìå, the large store on the square.
Then we went to the Church of the Assumption, a large and pretty church. It was only recently reconstructed, after having been destroyed during the Soviet era. There was a footbridge there that also provided nice views of the Kremlin. Then we went to a park where we had a nice view of a monastery. At this point of the tour, I was barely awake, so I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that I can't remember the name. From looking at my map 've got it narrowed down to one of two—Novospassky or Novodevichy. I'll figure it out. The lastly, we went up into the hills to see the terrifying building that is åÉì, the state university of Moscow. We had a nice view over the expanse of the city, giving us a chance to see just how gigantic it really is.
Then we returned to the hotel and had free time the rest of the day. A couple of us went to the grocery store across the street and bought food for lunch there. We had a little picnic in Hannah’s and my room and watched BBC World. Our original plan had been to go to the Pushkin Art Museum that afternoon, but we were all really pooped. Instead, looking out the window we could see some interesting-looking buildings and a really big Ferris wheel. So we decided to check those out instead.
Hannah, Becky, Hillary, Kate, Lael, Mattison, and I wandered over to a large Soviet triumphal-looking arch and entered what, if memory serves me correctly, was called BBK, but I have no idea what that stood for. Essentially, it’s kind of like a large market. 20 or so large pavilions where businesses or individuals can rent space to sell their wares. The area itself is like it’s some kind of World’s Fair grounds. Lots of large, imposing buildings and fountains and the like. There was also an Aeroflot plane and a rocket, too. We had a good time just wandering and not exercising our brains. Katie joined us at the rocket, and we went to the Ferris wheel.
It was a huge Ferris wheel, but it had really neat views of the city at sunset. For dinner, we went to McDonald’s because it was close and almost all of us got McFlurries and McNuggets for dinner, because we’re cool like that. We were all so tired that once one person suggested something, it was the only thing we could think of. That night, we all relaxed in Hillary and Becky’s room, watching Biathlon on EuroSport, and eventually watching two episodes of Lost that Katie had downloaded.
The next day everyone was dragging so we were a little late setting out to the Kremlin by way of the legendary Moscow Metro. Struck me as very similar to the St. Petersburg Metro, just more palatial. At the Kremlin, we went into all of the churches, saw the giant cannon and giant bell, and went to the Armory Museum. The Armory Museum has cool things like ambassadorial gifts to the tsars, Catherine the Great’s coronation gown, the crown of Monomakh, imperial carriages, and the thrones of the tsars.
Then we had a free afternoon, so we went to the Pushkin Museum. It has 20th Century foreign art. It was really, really amazing. Found a Van Gogh I had never seen before but really, really like. It was also a fairly easy museum to do, you know you’re seeing everything and you don’t get lost or confused (I’m looking at you, Ermitage). After the Pushkin, we wandered down to a Metro stop, but on the way stopped to get ice cream. We’ve all discovered the joys of ice cream in cold weather. We all ate our ice cream in front of a big statue with Engels and watched something amazing. We had noticed a stray dog near the ice cream booth, and watched a lady feed him a hot dog. This scruffy little guy then went over to one of the crosswalks and essentially began to act as a crossing guard. He would stand next to the people waiting to cross, and when the light changed he would go out in the middle of the street and wait until the last person was in the street and follow them to the sidewalk. If cars got too close to the people waiting to cross, he would chase after them and bark. It was great and I think Becky and Kate took videos of it on their cameras.
Then Kate and Lael went to go to the circus. It didn’t really hold much appeal for me, so Hannah, Hillary, Becky and I made our own interesting plan. Mattison split off because he was leaving Saturday afternoon and wanted to see the Tretyakov before he left. So we just got on the Metro, the brown line, the one that’s a ring around the city, and just rode it. We got off at every stop and took pictures of things like the mosaics and decorations. It was freeing because you can’t take pictures in the St. Petersburg Metro.
Then we wandered the Old Arbat, a pedestrian street. At this point it was dark and it set a nice mood. There were some street musicians and at first Hannah and I thought they were singing, “I love Lucy! I love Lucy!” But it turned out they were singing, “I love people! I love people!’ It would’ve been much better if it were Lucy. Mattison met up with us and the 5 of us looked for a place to eat. Mainly just to find a place to get off of our feet. We stopped outside of a pub called Plotnikov’s Pub and were looking at the menu outside when an old British gentleman appeared behind us and said, “Go in! Go in! It’s the best pub in the city! Try the Kilkenny!” Looking at the menu, it really wasn’t that bad price-wise. So we went in and tried the Kilkenny and had really good food but it was probably more than we should have spent. It’s okay; everyone’s allowed a splurge.
After dinner, we slowly made our way to Red Square, which is absolutely beautiful at night. Then we got back to the hotel and watched speed skating until we fell asleep. Saturday we went to a large souvenir fair, and I managed to pick things up for three people. I really should’ve gotten a fourth, but it’s not exactly like I’ll be unable to get it here. At the very least, wandering around there confirmed what I want to get everyone—well, except for two people. They’re causing problems. After the souvenir fair, we went to the new Tretyakov and saw Russian 20th century art. There were hits and misses, but I saw a couple of things I really liked.
Then we went back to the hotel and packed up. Hannah, Kate, Lael, and Rachel Eve left for Riga, and Becky, Hillary, Katie and I got on the train back to St. Pete. Katie was in another wagon, and the three of us were accompanied by an Asian girl studying at a different university in St. Pete. We were all pretty tired, but we encountered a problem. I shut the door to go to bed, but then Hillary had to get out, but we couldn’t open the door. The four of us banged on the door until our neighbor came and opened it, and we showed him how you couldn’t open it from the inside. He went and got the train employee in our car. This guy was somehow magically able to open it when none of us could. We just set the other lock that prevents the door from being opened more than 3 inches and didn’t shut the door all of the way.
Then we got in this morning and had planned to go to McDonald’s for breakfast but it was closed, so we went to Kofe Haus. Then Hillary and I went to Café Max for an hour of internet time (I wanted to give Marina a chance to sleep in). I got back here about 8:30, and slept til 11. I just ate breakfast at about 12:15, so I won’t need lunch. I’m going to try to get a hold of Hillary and Becky so we can get our shopping done. We leave for Helsinki tomorrow morning at 8. I’m going to do my best to write things down that I want to post about over the next week, but we’ll see how that goes.
I have returned from Moscow. I’m pretty tired after the train ride and then napping this morning, but there are things to be done. Namely, write and post this, post some pictures, send some emails, and meet Becky and Hillary at the supermarket to do some pre-trip shopping. But it’s not really fair to Moscow to gloss over my trip, so I’ll do my best to get everything down.
Wednesday night, we all met at Moscow Station at 9:30 and hung out til about 10:30 when we boarded our train. I was in a cabin with Ruby, Lael, and Michelle. The train got going and our cabin quickly became the place to be. Not in any kind of loud, boisterous way, just simply that we had about 8 people in there at any given time, having random and entertaining conversations. It was great; we had a really great time. Only downside was that we didn’t get in “bed” til 3:30ish. Not much of a bed, of course, as it’s just a padded bench. I was also grossed out by the blanket, so I used my coat as a blanket and froze the whole night.
Luckily, that wasn’t too long to be cold, as we woke up at 6 to prepare for getting into Moscow at 6:30. We were like zombies, it was pretty bad. We had all slept in our clothes and felt disgusting. Once we got off of the train, we boarded a bus that took us to the Hotel Cosmos. It’s a hotel outside of the center of the city with a, surprise, space theme. The theme’s pretty loose, but it’s because it’s right across the street from the Cosmonaut Museum and Cosmonaut Monument. The hotel also had a large statue of Charles DeGaulle in front of it, simply because the architect who designed it was French and French people used to stay there.
The hotel itself was quite large, 25 stories and shaped like a gentle arch. Hannah and I roomed together and within the first minute discovered the window opened and that kopeks look like they’re floating when you drop them out of the window (Onto a roof, no one was there). We could also see Becky and Hillary, who were farther along the arch. Whoa, I just realized I’m totally getting ahead of myself—we didn’t check into the hotel until after our excursion.
So the hotel doesn’t start check-in til 7, and since we arrived before then we couldn’t check in. So we just took advantage of the hotel’s large breakfast buffet and all laughed way too hard because everyone was slaphappy. After breakfast, we turned our passports into the front desk and wrote our room numbers on our bags so that they’d get sent up. We then got on a bus and began our city tour.
First thing we all noticed right away—Moscow’s BIG. It actually feels like a city. In St. Petersburg, for the most part, everything is close together because of geography and the way the city center was planned in the 18th century. Moscow’s got wide streets and tall buildings of the type you just can’t find in St. Petersburg. Of course, we have large Stalinist apartment buildings, but they’re not in the city center. In the end, this SAT-style analogy best describes the difference: LA is to San Francisco as Moscow is to St. Petersburg.
Our first stop was Red Square. Here’s my chance to put on my nerd cap and explain that, originally, the name of the square was meant to be “Beautiful Square” but that use of the adjective shifted to only mean Red. I’m sure the Communists loved it, too. We all snapped pictures of St. Basil’s, the Kremlin Walls, and Lenin’s Mausoleum. We also went into Éìå, the large store on the square.
Then we went to the Church of the Assumption, a large and pretty church. It was only recently reconstructed, after having been destroyed during the Soviet era. There was a footbridge there that also provided nice views of the Kremlin. Then we went to a park where we had a nice view of a monastery. At this point of the tour, I was barely awake, so I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that I can't remember the name. From looking at my map 've got it narrowed down to one of two—Novospassky or Novodevichy. I'll figure it out. The lastly, we went up into the hills to see the terrifying building that is åÉì, the state university of Moscow. We had a nice view over the expanse of the city, giving us a chance to see just how gigantic it really is.
Then we returned to the hotel and had free time the rest of the day. A couple of us went to the grocery store across the street and bought food for lunch there. We had a little picnic in Hannah’s and my room and watched BBC World. Our original plan had been to go to the Pushkin Art Museum that afternoon, but we were all really pooped. Instead, looking out the window we could see some interesting-looking buildings and a really big Ferris wheel. So we decided to check those out instead.
Hannah, Becky, Hillary, Kate, Lael, Mattison, and I wandered over to a large Soviet triumphal-looking arch and entered what, if memory serves me correctly, was called BBK, but I have no idea what that stood for. Essentially, it’s kind of like a large market. 20 or so large pavilions where businesses or individuals can rent space to sell their wares. The area itself is like it’s some kind of World’s Fair grounds. Lots of large, imposing buildings and fountains and the like. There was also an Aeroflot plane and a rocket, too. We had a good time just wandering and not exercising our brains. Katie joined us at the rocket, and we went to the Ferris wheel.
It was a huge Ferris wheel, but it had really neat views of the city at sunset. For dinner, we went to McDonald’s because it was close and almost all of us got McFlurries and McNuggets for dinner, because we’re cool like that. We were all so tired that once one person suggested something, it was the only thing we could think of. That night, we all relaxed in Hillary and Becky’s room, watching Biathlon on EuroSport, and eventually watching two episodes of Lost that Katie had downloaded.
The next day everyone was dragging so we were a little late setting out to the Kremlin by way of the legendary Moscow Metro. Struck me as very similar to the St. Petersburg Metro, just more palatial. At the Kremlin, we went into all of the churches, saw the giant cannon and giant bell, and went to the Armory Museum. The Armory Museum has cool things like ambassadorial gifts to the tsars, Catherine the Great’s coronation gown, the crown of Monomakh, imperial carriages, and the thrones of the tsars.
Then we had a free afternoon, so we went to the Pushkin Museum. It has 20th Century foreign art. It was really, really amazing. Found a Van Gogh I had never seen before but really, really like. It was also a fairly easy museum to do, you know you’re seeing everything and you don’t get lost or confused (I’m looking at you, Ermitage). After the Pushkin, we wandered down to a Metro stop, but on the way stopped to get ice cream. We’ve all discovered the joys of ice cream in cold weather. We all ate our ice cream in front of a big statue with Engels and watched something amazing. We had noticed a stray dog near the ice cream booth, and watched a lady feed him a hot dog. This scruffy little guy then went over to one of the crosswalks and essentially began to act as a crossing guard. He would stand next to the people waiting to cross, and when the light changed he would go out in the middle of the street and wait until the last person was in the street and follow them to the sidewalk. If cars got too close to the people waiting to cross, he would chase after them and bark. It was great and I think Becky and Kate took videos of it on their cameras.
Then Kate and Lael went to go to the circus. It didn’t really hold much appeal for me, so Hannah, Hillary, Becky and I made our own interesting plan. Mattison split off because he was leaving Saturday afternoon and wanted to see the Tretyakov before he left. So we just got on the Metro, the brown line, the one that’s a ring around the city, and just rode it. We got off at every stop and took pictures of things like the mosaics and decorations. It was freeing because you can’t take pictures in the St. Petersburg Metro.
Then we wandered the Old Arbat, a pedestrian street. At this point it was dark and it set a nice mood. There were some street musicians and at first Hannah and I thought they were singing, “I love Lucy! I love Lucy!” But it turned out they were singing, “I love people! I love people!’ It would’ve been much better if it were Lucy. Mattison met up with us and the 5 of us looked for a place to eat. Mainly just to find a place to get off of our feet. We stopped outside of a pub called Plotnikov’s Pub and were looking at the menu outside when an old British gentleman appeared behind us and said, “Go in! Go in! It’s the best pub in the city! Try the Kilkenny!” Looking at the menu, it really wasn’t that bad price-wise. So we went in and tried the Kilkenny and had really good food but it was probably more than we should have spent. It’s okay; everyone’s allowed a splurge.
After dinner, we slowly made our way to Red Square, which is absolutely beautiful at night. Then we got back to the hotel and watched speed skating until we fell asleep. Saturday we went to a large souvenir fair, and I managed to pick things up for three people. I really should’ve gotten a fourth, but it’s not exactly like I’ll be unable to get it here. At the very least, wandering around there confirmed what I want to get everyone—well, except for two people. They’re causing problems. After the souvenir fair, we went to the new Tretyakov and saw Russian 20th century art. There were hits and misses, but I saw a couple of things I really liked.
Then we went back to the hotel and packed up. Hannah, Kate, Lael, and Rachel Eve left for Riga, and Becky, Hillary, Katie and I got on the train back to St. Pete. Katie was in another wagon, and the three of us were accompanied by an Asian girl studying at a different university in St. Pete. We were all pretty tired, but we encountered a problem. I shut the door to go to bed, but then Hillary had to get out, but we couldn’t open the door. The four of us banged on the door until our neighbor came and opened it, and we showed him how you couldn’t open it from the inside. He went and got the train employee in our car. This guy was somehow magically able to open it when none of us could. We just set the other lock that prevents the door from being opened more than 3 inches and didn’t shut the door all of the way.
Then we got in this morning and had planned to go to McDonald’s for breakfast but it was closed, so we went to Kofe Haus. Then Hillary and I went to Café Max for an hour of internet time (I wanted to give Marina a chance to sleep in). I got back here about 8:30, and slept til 11. I just ate breakfast at about 12:15, so I won’t need lunch. I’m going to try to get a hold of Hillary and Becky so we can get our shopping done. We leave for Helsinki tomorrow morning at 8. I’m going to do my best to write things down that I want to post about over the next week, but we’ll see how that goes.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
3-5-07
3-5-07
Not much exciting has happened, but I feel the need to begin this blog post with a letter.
Dear Russia,
You’re on notice. Seriously. I’ve dealt with the mean babushkas, the creepy smelly guys on the Metro, getting pushed and prodded in giant crowds, eating foods that do horrible things to my body, crappy weather, inconsiderate waiters and cashiers, and probably a million other things. But today just crossed the line. You stole candy.
Today I received two pieces of mail. One was a postcard from Emily, sent a month ago. The other was a thick, padded envelope from Maggie, also sent a month ago. I can deal with the amount of time it’s taking mail to get here. It sucks, but I’m dealing. When I picked up Maggie’s envelope, I noticed that one side of it had been ripped open. Where inside there was supposed to be bar of Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate, as Maggie had promised me in January, there was only the letter, which began, “Behold! American chocolate!”
My chocolate was taken from me. Now, I’m not certain where in the system this happened, but I’m more than willing to bet it was your guys instead of mine. Who does that?!? As much as it sucks for me, now I have to email Maggie and say, “Hey, you know how you put so much effort into sending me that chocolate? Yeah, I didn’t get it.”
You’re lucky I’m leaving for a while. When we get back, we’re starting anew, got it? After travel week, the amount of time remaining is a few days more than the amount of time I’ve been here before travel week. So it’s a chance to make a whole new impression on me. Spring’s coming, isn’t it? Let’s work on this. Just know that you’re on notice.
Sincerely,
Sally
Well, that letter explains the mood I was in this afternoon. I’ve got a cold, the weather’s crappy, and some Russian ate my Hershey’s Special Dark. Luckily, it’s almost travel week. In my mind, I think I’m picturing as some sort of sunny, happy land of smiling blond people who want nothing more than to make you feel comfortable. Of course, the weather there isn’t much different than it is here, but I’m hoping people’s attitudes will be better. Maybe because of the public health care system.
Today after classes, Becky, Hillary, and I went to Kofe Haus to go over the last couple things about our trip. We also discussed that while in Stockholm we need to find some kind of decent Mexican restaurant. Even a freaking Taco Bell at this point. I had a brainstorm and we realized that, should we become desperate, we could use Armenian lavash as a tortilla and make ourselves some kind of TexMex dish. We’ll see.
Sunday was pretty much a waste, compared to Saturday, at least. I went to Kofe Haus in the morning and had the same waitress who always seems to ignore me even when I’M THE ONLY PERSON IN THE RESTAURANT AT 10 IN THE MORNING. After that I had lunch at Subway and intended to go to the Russian Museum, but it was closed for a while for some kind of private party. Whatever. Then I went to Café Max and wandered Nevsky. I was hoping to see if a movie I wanted to see was playing, but movie times here always seem to be as inconvenient as possible. The weather’s been gloomy and alternating between rain and snow but things haven’t frozen yet so everything’s muddy or slushy.
If it wasn’t for this head cold, I’d probably be taking everything in stride, but it’s really just pushed me over the edge. It’s stressful enough to have a cold; it’s more stressful to have to hide it from Marina. I’m not going to take my chances with any of her home remedies—I’ll treat it just like I’d treat it at school, I’ll pass on the mustard paste, thank you very much.
The next two days before Moscow look incredibly bland, but Moscow should be fun. Red Square! Rotting Lenin! Cheap souvenirs! And then, after that, our Scandinavian Adventure! Here goes nothing!
Not much exciting has happened, but I feel the need to begin this blog post with a letter.
Dear Russia,
You’re on notice. Seriously. I’ve dealt with the mean babushkas, the creepy smelly guys on the Metro, getting pushed and prodded in giant crowds, eating foods that do horrible things to my body, crappy weather, inconsiderate waiters and cashiers, and probably a million other things. But today just crossed the line. You stole candy.
Today I received two pieces of mail. One was a postcard from Emily, sent a month ago. The other was a thick, padded envelope from Maggie, also sent a month ago. I can deal with the amount of time it’s taking mail to get here. It sucks, but I’m dealing. When I picked up Maggie’s envelope, I noticed that one side of it had been ripped open. Where inside there was supposed to be bar of Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate, as Maggie had promised me in January, there was only the letter, which began, “Behold! American chocolate!”
My chocolate was taken from me. Now, I’m not certain where in the system this happened, but I’m more than willing to bet it was your guys instead of mine. Who does that?!? As much as it sucks for me, now I have to email Maggie and say, “Hey, you know how you put so much effort into sending me that chocolate? Yeah, I didn’t get it.”
You’re lucky I’m leaving for a while. When we get back, we’re starting anew, got it? After travel week, the amount of time remaining is a few days more than the amount of time I’ve been here before travel week. So it’s a chance to make a whole new impression on me. Spring’s coming, isn’t it? Let’s work on this. Just know that you’re on notice.
Sincerely,
Sally
Well, that letter explains the mood I was in this afternoon. I’ve got a cold, the weather’s crappy, and some Russian ate my Hershey’s Special Dark. Luckily, it’s almost travel week. In my mind, I think I’m picturing as some sort of sunny, happy land of smiling blond people who want nothing more than to make you feel comfortable. Of course, the weather there isn’t much different than it is here, but I’m hoping people’s attitudes will be better. Maybe because of the public health care system.
Today after classes, Becky, Hillary, and I went to Kofe Haus to go over the last couple things about our trip. We also discussed that while in Stockholm we need to find some kind of decent Mexican restaurant. Even a freaking Taco Bell at this point. I had a brainstorm and we realized that, should we become desperate, we could use Armenian lavash as a tortilla and make ourselves some kind of TexMex dish. We’ll see.
Sunday was pretty much a waste, compared to Saturday, at least. I went to Kofe Haus in the morning and had the same waitress who always seems to ignore me even when I’M THE ONLY PERSON IN THE RESTAURANT AT 10 IN THE MORNING. After that I had lunch at Subway and intended to go to the Russian Museum, but it was closed for a while for some kind of private party. Whatever. Then I went to Café Max and wandered Nevsky. I was hoping to see if a movie I wanted to see was playing, but movie times here always seem to be as inconvenient as possible. The weather’s been gloomy and alternating between rain and snow but things haven’t frozen yet so everything’s muddy or slushy.
If it wasn’t for this head cold, I’d probably be taking everything in stride, but it’s really just pushed me over the edge. It’s stressful enough to have a cold; it’s more stressful to have to hide it from Marina. I’m not going to take my chances with any of her home remedies—I’ll treat it just like I’d treat it at school, I’ll pass on the mustard paste, thank you very much.
The next two days before Moscow look incredibly bland, but Moscow should be fun. Red Square! Rotting Lenin! Cheap souvenirs! And then, after that, our Scandinavian Adventure! Here goes nothing!
Saturday, March 3, 2007
3-4-07
2-4-07
I’m going to try to write this entry as fast as possible, but there’s a lot of ground to cover and I don’t want to miss anything. So this might seem a little disjointed.
The reason I’m writing this as fast as possible is because I really want to escape the apartment. When I got home last night, I noticed the apartment smelled kind of weird—like wet plaster. Marina came into the foyer and explained that the pipes in the wall above the toilet room had burst/leaked and water had leaked into the apartment by means of seeping through the ceiling. It had puddled in (Wait—MS Word says puddled isn’t a word? Whatever) the toilet room, the bathroom, the area in the kitchen next to these rooms, and a little bit in the foyer. She had cleaned it up and called an inspector to come the next (this) morning. She was pretty pissed, as this has happened before, and she just had remodeling done in September to fix some previous damage.
Well, today while she was making breakfast, it started again. I think it might have stopped by now, but it was dripping pretty steadily for a good long while. It was like having a rain cloud in the bathroom, that’s how constant the water was. Marina just came in and told me that if tonight they turn the water off to fix it, she’s going to have me stay at a friend’s place for the night. They have a little dog. Okay, terrifying. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. I don’t much fancy a sleepover.
So anyway, yesterday. My original plan was to go to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery with Hillary and Becky. But when I told Marina about this, she pointed out that because the weather’s so crappy, the cemetery is going to be one big mud pit. So plan scratched. Instead, I decided I’d just go to the Russian Museum, which I still haven’t been to. I don’t know why, but every day I decide I’m going to go there, something else comes up. Well, yesterday was no exception, and in grand fashion.
While on the Metro, I noticed a sticker saying something along the lines of, “Not going to the elections? Come to us! Rally for those who disagree! Ploshad Vosstaniya, 12pm!” There’s a hammer and sickle on it, and I figure it’s probably related to the 90th anniversary of the February Revolution. So then I get out of the Metro on Nevsky, and parked all along the canal are just trucks and trucks full of police officers in full-on riot gear. This seems odd to me, as the rally is taking place down at Ploshad Vosstaniya (Uprising Square), which is a good 15 minute walk away from Gostiny Dvor.
Because Hillary’s just gotten out of the shower, I decide to go meet up with Becky at a Kofe Haus to wait for her, and then all of us will go to the Russian Museum together. Becky’s texted me to say she’s in a Kofe Haus down closer to Ploshad Vosstaniya, so I start walking that direction. It’s not long before I realize that, just past Anchikov Bridge, Nevsky Prospekt is actually packed with people, marching in my direction. I cross the bridge and get out my camera.
I started taking picture as they were coming towards me, and then as they swallowed me up, I just started walking along with them and taking pictures. It was funny, they were chanting things, but it would take me a while to figure out, in Russian, just what they were saying. My brain would try and convert it into English. Example: They were chanting “Eta nash gorod!” which means, “This is our city!” My brain converted it into, “Let them march forward!” Anyway.
So at one point there’s a small group of police trying to block the street, but the crowd just avoids them by using the passages under the street. When we get to Gostiny Dvor, we realize that, down where I had gotten out of the Metro earlier, there’s a line of police stretching across the entire street, blocking it. So the crowd just gathers around the steps of the bell tower, and people with megaphones start making speeches. I take this time to walk down to check out the line of police. It’s three people thick, all decked out in riot gear, arms linked Red Rover-style.
So then I go back to where the rally has reestablished itself and take a few more pictures. There are police around, but for the most part they’re just sitting there. I don’t know what cued it, but a handful of police just kind of charged into the crowd, swinging at some guy. I’m willing to bet they were acting out of line, as no other officers followed them, and the ended up kind of surrounded by the crowd. It was crazy, they were pushing a guy, and this other guy came up and tried to pull them off, but then he got pushed away. So the guy that tried to help is just standing next to me, he’s been pushed back into the crowd. One of the cops looks up and sees him, comes over to him, smiling and laughing, and then pulls his hat down over his face and hits him.
But they were forced back out of the crowd pretty quickly. The crowd was furious, chanting “Fascists! Fascists!” So things calmed down for a bit, then some guy with a megaphone that everyone was really excited to see started making a speech, but the police came up to take him down. When they were up on the stairs, people who had the long wooden sticks that the flags had been on started trying to hit the cops. A lot of the people waving these sticks were babushkas. So most of the cops really took it in stride, smiling when they realized that there was a woman half their size down there tapping them on the helmet with a stick.
There was more pushing and scuffling with the police. It really seemed like it was just a couple of them who couldn’t control themselves, for the most part the police seemed really chill about it. Then obviously the order came that the street needed to be opened up for traffic, so the police linked arms and shoved everyone out of the street. The only problem with this is that on the sides of the street there are these stupid little decorative chain things (Also probably to stop people from parking on the sidewalk). I was just pissed because when I got pushed into that, the back of my jeans got muddy.
So then the police just lined the streets for like the next hour to make sure nothing happened. I just stood around, waiting for Becky, and listened to a couple of hilarious old women just chew out some of the cops. The cops were taking it all in stride, for the most part.
I met up with Becky outside Gostiny Dvor, and then we met up with Hillary, and then went to Papa John’s. Oh my God, probably the best pizza I’ve ever had. And cheese sticks. And nice, big drinks. Unfortunately, the idea of “free refills” has not carried over into Russia. Anyone who’s been with me in a, say, Outback Steakhouse, knows that I abuse free refills to death. It’s been hard to drink my Diet Coke in moderation. Hannah joined us for dinner as well.
We then met up with Lael, and walked from Papa John’s by Cherneshevskaya down to Nevsky, which is actually a pretty long walk. We then met up with Kate and went to a bar called Fidel’s with pictures of Fidel Castro everywhere and free pretzel sticks and hung out the rest of the night. Then I came back here and called the States.
It’s only 10am, but I really am going to go to Kofe Haus soon. To post this, to post some pictures of the rally, and to have a nice, big apple juice. I’m betting it’ll feel really good on my throat.
I’m going to try to write this entry as fast as possible, but there’s a lot of ground to cover and I don’t want to miss anything. So this might seem a little disjointed.
The reason I’m writing this as fast as possible is because I really want to escape the apartment. When I got home last night, I noticed the apartment smelled kind of weird—like wet plaster. Marina came into the foyer and explained that the pipes in the wall above the toilet room had burst/leaked and water had leaked into the apartment by means of seeping through the ceiling. It had puddled in (Wait—MS Word says puddled isn’t a word? Whatever) the toilet room, the bathroom, the area in the kitchen next to these rooms, and a little bit in the foyer. She had cleaned it up and called an inspector to come the next (this) morning. She was pretty pissed, as this has happened before, and she just had remodeling done in September to fix some previous damage.
Well, today while she was making breakfast, it started again. I think it might have stopped by now, but it was dripping pretty steadily for a good long while. It was like having a rain cloud in the bathroom, that’s how constant the water was. Marina just came in and told me that if tonight they turn the water off to fix it, she’s going to have me stay at a friend’s place for the night. They have a little dog. Okay, terrifying. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. I don’t much fancy a sleepover.
So anyway, yesterday. My original plan was to go to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery with Hillary and Becky. But when I told Marina about this, she pointed out that because the weather’s so crappy, the cemetery is going to be one big mud pit. So plan scratched. Instead, I decided I’d just go to the Russian Museum, which I still haven’t been to. I don’t know why, but every day I decide I’m going to go there, something else comes up. Well, yesterday was no exception, and in grand fashion.
While on the Metro, I noticed a sticker saying something along the lines of, “Not going to the elections? Come to us! Rally for those who disagree! Ploshad Vosstaniya, 12pm!” There’s a hammer and sickle on it, and I figure it’s probably related to the 90th anniversary of the February Revolution. So then I get out of the Metro on Nevsky, and parked all along the canal are just trucks and trucks full of police officers in full-on riot gear. This seems odd to me, as the rally is taking place down at Ploshad Vosstaniya (Uprising Square), which is a good 15 minute walk away from Gostiny Dvor.
Because Hillary’s just gotten out of the shower, I decide to go meet up with Becky at a Kofe Haus to wait for her, and then all of us will go to the Russian Museum together. Becky’s texted me to say she’s in a Kofe Haus down closer to Ploshad Vosstaniya, so I start walking that direction. It’s not long before I realize that, just past Anchikov Bridge, Nevsky Prospekt is actually packed with people, marching in my direction. I cross the bridge and get out my camera.
I started taking picture as they were coming towards me, and then as they swallowed me up, I just started walking along with them and taking pictures. It was funny, they were chanting things, but it would take me a while to figure out, in Russian, just what they were saying. My brain would try and convert it into English. Example: They were chanting “Eta nash gorod!” which means, “This is our city!” My brain converted it into, “Let them march forward!” Anyway.
So at one point there’s a small group of police trying to block the street, but the crowd just avoids them by using the passages under the street. When we get to Gostiny Dvor, we realize that, down where I had gotten out of the Metro earlier, there’s a line of police stretching across the entire street, blocking it. So the crowd just gathers around the steps of the bell tower, and people with megaphones start making speeches. I take this time to walk down to check out the line of police. It’s three people thick, all decked out in riot gear, arms linked Red Rover-style.
So then I go back to where the rally has reestablished itself and take a few more pictures. There are police around, but for the most part they’re just sitting there. I don’t know what cued it, but a handful of police just kind of charged into the crowd, swinging at some guy. I’m willing to bet they were acting out of line, as no other officers followed them, and the ended up kind of surrounded by the crowd. It was crazy, they were pushing a guy, and this other guy came up and tried to pull them off, but then he got pushed away. So the guy that tried to help is just standing next to me, he’s been pushed back into the crowd. One of the cops looks up and sees him, comes over to him, smiling and laughing, and then pulls his hat down over his face and hits him.
But they were forced back out of the crowd pretty quickly. The crowd was furious, chanting “Fascists! Fascists!” So things calmed down for a bit, then some guy with a megaphone that everyone was really excited to see started making a speech, but the police came up to take him down. When they were up on the stairs, people who had the long wooden sticks that the flags had been on started trying to hit the cops. A lot of the people waving these sticks were babushkas. So most of the cops really took it in stride, smiling when they realized that there was a woman half their size down there tapping them on the helmet with a stick.
There was more pushing and scuffling with the police. It really seemed like it was just a couple of them who couldn’t control themselves, for the most part the police seemed really chill about it. Then obviously the order came that the street needed to be opened up for traffic, so the police linked arms and shoved everyone out of the street. The only problem with this is that on the sides of the street there are these stupid little decorative chain things (Also probably to stop people from parking on the sidewalk). I was just pissed because when I got pushed into that, the back of my jeans got muddy.
So then the police just lined the streets for like the next hour to make sure nothing happened. I just stood around, waiting for Becky, and listened to a couple of hilarious old women just chew out some of the cops. The cops were taking it all in stride, for the most part.
I met up with Becky outside Gostiny Dvor, and then we met up with Hillary, and then went to Papa John’s. Oh my God, probably the best pizza I’ve ever had. And cheese sticks. And nice, big drinks. Unfortunately, the idea of “free refills” has not carried over into Russia. Anyone who’s been with me in a, say, Outback Steakhouse, knows that I abuse free refills to death. It’s been hard to drink my Diet Coke in moderation. Hannah joined us for dinner as well.
We then met up with Lael, and walked from Papa John’s by Cherneshevskaya down to Nevsky, which is actually a pretty long walk. We then met up with Kate and went to a bar called Fidel’s with pictures of Fidel Castro everywhere and free pretzel sticks and hung out the rest of the night. Then I came back here and called the States.
It’s only 10am, but I really am going to go to Kofe Haus soon. To post this, to post some pictures of the rally, and to have a nice, big apple juice. I’m betting it’ll feel really good on my throat.
Icicles
I "enhanced" the two pictures of the icicles because they were really dark. Now you can see them better, but the colors are funky.
3-2-06
3-2-07
Welcome, March!
Man, oh man, does it ever feel like a whole new month. Today while we were in Moskovskiy Railway Station, the big board said the temperature was zero degrees. Icicles are melting like crazy. For the past couple of days, the sidewalks on both sides of my street were blocked off by red tape and signs that said, “Warning! Danger Zone!” This meant I would walk down the center of the street, giving me a good perspective on just how big the icicles were. Now, I’ll post some pictures, but you really can’t get a sense of how big they are from the pictures. But by my rough estimation, the one right by our entrance was about two meters across and at least a meter long. They’re also wicked thick.
Well, they were. I got home today and there was barely any sign of the once grand icicles. Many of them fell, some simply melted. The past two nights, I’ve been woken up by the sound of falling icicles. It reminded—haha, another just fell—me of the ice storm two years ago. Anyway, in St. Petersburg, the thaw has begun. It sounds like it’s raining outside, but really it’s just the drips from the icicles. While walking on the sidewalk, you get soaked as if you were out in the rain, because water is dripping from everything. From the tops of the buildings, from windowsills, from awnings, and from signs. Everything had an icicle on it, so now everything’s its own little rain cloud.
And, of course, now that spring is on its way, it would seem that I’m getting sick. Just a sore throat at this point, but with me that’s always a sign of things to come. If I’m lucky, it’s just what a couple of other of people have had, just a run-of-the-mill cold, lasting no more than a week.
Of course, it’s very important that this cold not last too long. Because, wouldn’t you know it, travel week is almost here. Next Wednesday night we board the night train to Moscow, and after Moscow travel week begins. I suppose since today we bought our tickets back from Moscow (We’re leaving the night before everyone else), the trip is official enough to discuss.
We’re in Moscow from the 8th to the 10th. Then on the night of the 10th, Becky, Hillary, and I are taking the night train from Moscow back to St. Petersburg, arriving here the morning of the 11th, naturally. The 11th will be a very useful day. I expect to shower, upload pictures from my camera, repack, and—fingers crossed—get online to post about Moscow.
Then, Monday morning, the three of us board a train to Helsinki. We arrive in Helsinki about midday. We’ll have time to relax, buy our boat tickets, and get a meal. What’s that, you say? Boat tickets? Well, I suppose in this case, the correct word would be “ship.” That’s right, Monday night we get on a ship—technically a cruise liner—bound for Stockholm from Helsinki. We spend the night on the ship, arriving in Stockholm Tuesday morning.
We’re then spending Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights in a great hostel right in downtown Stockholm with free pasta and a free sauna. I’m really looking forward to it. Brandon, one of the students who was here last semester, visited Stockholm in the fall, and had an absolutely amazing time. We’re going to paint that town red.
Then, Friday night, we board the same ship, this time headed for Helsinki. We spend Friday night on the ship before arriving in Stockholm Saturday morning. We’ve got a whole day in Helsinki, and then we’re staying that night in a hostel built into the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki. Lastly, Sunday afternoon, we get on a train back to St. Petersburg, getting in Sunday night.
So that’s why I’m hoping I’m not getting too sick.
Today we had our essay for Civilization due. It was lame. None of us really minded having to write the whole paper in Russian. I mean, that’s what we’re here for, obviously. But our teacher was incredibly vague about what exactly the theme was supposed to be. Luckily for everyone in this 7-person class, when each of us read our papers out loud, she was thrilled with us. Had there been one clunker, it might’ve ruined it for the rest of us. I wrote mostly about Russian food—the desire to have grease or butter or sour cream with everything. Haha, sorry, Emily. Looks like I’m not going to be able to fit in that bridesmaids dress come June, because by then I’m going to be 500 pounds.
Maybe because it’s Friday, but everyone was in a crazy mood today. I came close to tears from laughing in every single class today. Twice it was at myself. Firstly, in Gazeta, when I was trying to eat a pretzel (Not really a pretzel, it’s more of a poppy seed ring thing…whatever), and I was crunching so loudly that I was disturbing the class. I was trying so hard to be quiet, it was a disaster. It didn’t help any when, by the time I finished mine, Hannah had started on hers, so I got to hear just how loud I was. Every time I would think I would regain my composure, I would hear Hannah crunch and see her shaking from silent laughing out of the corner of my eye. At least our teacher was nice about it.
Then, in Phonetics, I was just confused. The word for dense is „ÛÒÚÓÈ. But when our teacher was trying to explain to us what it means, she used the example "Dense Soup." She also used the example "Dense Forest," but I didn't hear that. So I thought «ÉÛÒÚÓÈ ÒÛÔ» was soup made from goose, because the Russian word for goose is, logically, „ÛÒ. So when she said, “What does it mean?” I said, in Russian, “Oh, soup made from goose.” She laughed at me. “Goose forest? What is a goose forest? A forest where only geese live?” Me: “Maybe?”
So, perhaps, when retold, the story is not as funny as it was at the time. Looks like tomorrow some of us will be visiting the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, which includes a cemetery with the graves of Tchaikovsky and Bulgakov and other famous Russians. For now, as I am, inexplicably exhausted at only 9:20, I think I’m going to read a little bit more of the book I checked out yesterday (John le Carre’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and fall asleep. Hope everything is well with all of you.
Welcome, March!
Man, oh man, does it ever feel like a whole new month. Today while we were in Moskovskiy Railway Station, the big board said the temperature was zero degrees. Icicles are melting like crazy. For the past couple of days, the sidewalks on both sides of my street were blocked off by red tape and signs that said, “Warning! Danger Zone!” This meant I would walk down the center of the street, giving me a good perspective on just how big the icicles were. Now, I’ll post some pictures, but you really can’t get a sense of how big they are from the pictures. But by my rough estimation, the one right by our entrance was about two meters across and at least a meter long. They’re also wicked thick.
Well, they were. I got home today and there was barely any sign of the once grand icicles. Many of them fell, some simply melted. The past two nights, I’ve been woken up by the sound of falling icicles. It reminded—haha, another just fell—me of the ice storm two years ago. Anyway, in St. Petersburg, the thaw has begun. It sounds like it’s raining outside, but really it’s just the drips from the icicles. While walking on the sidewalk, you get soaked as if you were out in the rain, because water is dripping from everything. From the tops of the buildings, from windowsills, from awnings, and from signs. Everything had an icicle on it, so now everything’s its own little rain cloud.
And, of course, now that spring is on its way, it would seem that I’m getting sick. Just a sore throat at this point, but with me that’s always a sign of things to come. If I’m lucky, it’s just what a couple of other of people have had, just a run-of-the-mill cold, lasting no more than a week.
Of course, it’s very important that this cold not last too long. Because, wouldn’t you know it, travel week is almost here. Next Wednesday night we board the night train to Moscow, and after Moscow travel week begins. I suppose since today we bought our tickets back from Moscow (We’re leaving the night before everyone else), the trip is official enough to discuss.
We’re in Moscow from the 8th to the 10th. Then on the night of the 10th, Becky, Hillary, and I are taking the night train from Moscow back to St. Petersburg, arriving here the morning of the 11th, naturally. The 11th will be a very useful day. I expect to shower, upload pictures from my camera, repack, and—fingers crossed—get online to post about Moscow.
Then, Monday morning, the three of us board a train to Helsinki. We arrive in Helsinki about midday. We’ll have time to relax, buy our boat tickets, and get a meal. What’s that, you say? Boat tickets? Well, I suppose in this case, the correct word would be “ship.” That’s right, Monday night we get on a ship—technically a cruise liner—bound for Stockholm from Helsinki. We spend the night on the ship, arriving in Stockholm Tuesday morning.
We’re then spending Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights in a great hostel right in downtown Stockholm with free pasta and a free sauna. I’m really looking forward to it. Brandon, one of the students who was here last semester, visited Stockholm in the fall, and had an absolutely amazing time. We’re going to paint that town red.
Then, Friday night, we board the same ship, this time headed for Helsinki. We spend Friday night on the ship before arriving in Stockholm Saturday morning. We’ve got a whole day in Helsinki, and then we’re staying that night in a hostel built into the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki. Lastly, Sunday afternoon, we get on a train back to St. Petersburg, getting in Sunday night.
So that’s why I’m hoping I’m not getting too sick.
Today we had our essay for Civilization due. It was lame. None of us really minded having to write the whole paper in Russian. I mean, that’s what we’re here for, obviously. But our teacher was incredibly vague about what exactly the theme was supposed to be. Luckily for everyone in this 7-person class, when each of us read our papers out loud, she was thrilled with us. Had there been one clunker, it might’ve ruined it for the rest of us. I wrote mostly about Russian food—the desire to have grease or butter or sour cream with everything. Haha, sorry, Emily. Looks like I’m not going to be able to fit in that bridesmaids dress come June, because by then I’m going to be 500 pounds.
Maybe because it’s Friday, but everyone was in a crazy mood today. I came close to tears from laughing in every single class today. Twice it was at myself. Firstly, in Gazeta, when I was trying to eat a pretzel (Not really a pretzel, it’s more of a poppy seed ring thing…whatever), and I was crunching so loudly that I was disturbing the class. I was trying so hard to be quiet, it was a disaster. It didn’t help any when, by the time I finished mine, Hannah had started on hers, so I got to hear just how loud I was. Every time I would think I would regain my composure, I would hear Hannah crunch and see her shaking from silent laughing out of the corner of my eye. At least our teacher was nice about it.
Then, in Phonetics, I was just confused. The word for dense is „ÛÒÚÓÈ. But when our teacher was trying to explain to us what it means, she used the example "Dense Soup." She also used the example "Dense Forest," but I didn't hear that. So I thought «ÉÛÒÚÓÈ ÒÛÔ» was soup made from goose, because the Russian word for goose is, logically, „ÛÒ. So when she said, “What does it mean?” I said, in Russian, “Oh, soup made from goose.” She laughed at me. “Goose forest? What is a goose forest? A forest where only geese live?” Me: “Maybe?”
So, perhaps, when retold, the story is not as funny as it was at the time. Looks like tomorrow some of us will be visiting the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, which includes a cemetery with the graves of Tchaikovsky and Bulgakov and other famous Russians. For now, as I am, inexplicably exhausted at only 9:20, I think I’m going to read a little bit more of the book I checked out yesterday (John le Carre’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and fall asleep. Hope everything is well with all of you.
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