Медвежонок = little bear. aka the President.

Again, another week rap up (I'll get better at this, I promise)

The beginning of the week was pretty basic: went to class, pronounced words wrong, talked about who we would like to meet if we could meet anyone (my answer was Robert Plant :P), and the such.

On Monday, Sveta (Света), who is a friend of Anya's, offered to take some of us on a tour of where she worked. She is a writer for a St. Petersburg finance newspaper. I was excited to see how a newspaper usually worked (never been to a newspaper office before, only seen some on television).

After a 15 minute walk, a 10 minute bus ride, and another 10 minute walk, we were there. What's really cool is that it is situated at a "business center;" the office for Microsoft was right next door. Walking inside, it looked like I stepped into an Ikea showroom. Everything was colorful and made out of that Ikea styled wood. They even had multiple fish tanks all over (with ridiculous amounts of exotic fish...and some sharks?). After a quick tour we all gathered in a conference room and discussed the development of technology in the world and how that affects news reporting and the development of businesses (from contraptions to facebook). They even told us that if we would like to, we could write articles about budding businesses at Yale and they will publish them in their paper. Sweet.

Tuesday, Olya (Оля), another friend of Anya's, offered to take some of us to the top of the St. Isaac's Cathedral (Исаа́киевский Собо́р), the largest Russian Orthodox church in the city. It is absolutely magnificent in all senses of the word. For the past two weeks, it's been surrounding me: we can see it directly accross the Neva from our university (pictured), we pass by it constantly to get to other National landmarks, sit in the parks around it, and when Eunju and I were stuck because of the bridges, we chilled around it for a while. As a class we are not going to see it, which is really a shame, but we were free to go see it whenever we would like. I wanted to go to the top of the church since I first saw it, so I jumped at the opportunity to go with Olya.

From here, you can see every point of the city. It's amazing.

Nicholas I Monument from above. St. Issac's sits right between Nicholas and Peter the Great (the Bronze Horseman). Funny story: originally, this statue was going to face the other way, away from St. Issac's in order to face the governmental building. However, it would seem as if Nicholas was sticking his butt in Peter's direction (his statue at least), and they couldn't have that. So the plans were changed and Nicholas switched around.

The Neva River and the Admiralty (former Naval base-> now Academy)

The city (lovely shot of the Russian flag if you squint)

One of the many statues surrounding the top of the Cathedral (reminds me a little of "Don't Blink," haha Doctor Who)

The Hermitage (left) and Alexander's Column (right)

After leaving the Cathedral, we bought ice cream and sat in a park facing the Neva along with the Bronze Horseman.

Peter in all of his glory

View of St. Isaac's from where we were sitting

And then on Wednesday we took as nice old trip to the Russian Museum. Originally it was the Mihailovsky Palace, though it was later turned into a museum and opened to the public in 1898.

Here we saw mostly religious paintings (what we are currently studying in our culture class), such as icons from the 14th century, to more modern pieces of the early 1900s. Me being the art fanatic that I am, took notes and will be looking up my favorite pieces soon. Our guide was wonderful. He not only explained the history of the artist and the pieces, but also different aspects of the piece itself (technique, images, etc), what he believed they reflected, and how they related to the time period. He made me toy again with the idea of maybe majoring in something arty.

You needed to buy a special pass to take pictures inside, so I only have pictures of the outside.

A statue of Pushkin in a park in front of the museum aptly called "Art Park" (it's surrounded by theaters and museums).

Our class walking to the museum

"State Russian Museum"

One of the lions protecting the museum. These lions (along with sphinxes) can be found all over the city, in many different forms. They are a sign of power. However, Lewis Carroll described the lions during his visit as 'playful kittens with big balls of yarn.'

And the rest of the week entailed of us getting ready for our camping trip this past weekend (I'll do a whole blog post on that....I'm coming, I'm coming!). I had to buy a backpack for the trip, given that my bag broke this week and my хозяйка didn't have one (though considering I think she's going on 70, that's not too much of a surprise). The thing is with russian stores, everything is specialized - everything. There is no one stop shopping store a-la Walmart to supply all your needs. Luckily there is a sport's store at the metro station near my apartment, so I was able to grab a backpack there. I feel like my russian reaches its best when I have to buy obscure necessities like an internet router or a backpack, but absent when I'm ordering lunch at a restaurant. I guess the process of learning russian takes a detour? Может быть.

Also, while at the store I swear I heard another song by this guy on the intercom (someone showed me this back in New Haven. Worth the watch). Possibly the only black rapper in Russia.

I'll come back soon with a new update on camping this past weekend. Even while sick, I'm so happy I went. Rural Russia is much different from the hustle and bustle of St. Petersburg.

Пока!

--Н.И--

And now for something completely different

...Also known as the one where Natalie squeals a little about the German

National Team.

I know this isn't really relevant to Russia, but I did watch the game while

in Russia, and Russians actually like soccer (except for my хозяйка, joy).

I'm just so happy that Germany won :D. And it was 4-1, so even if the

second English goal was counted (which, personally, it should have been),

Germany still would have won.

Plus, how can you look at this and not smile...

Пока!
--Н.И--

For future reference, it's the other bridge

So I thought I would give a quick run down of my Saturday night. Interesting story.

Saturday, we spent most of the day at Peterhof (amazing amazing amazing) and when we got back we were all exhausted. Except most people had plans to go out that night. I thought, "well, what the heck. I haven't gone out at all yet because I was sick, and I am in St. Petersburg..." I decided to join the group of people going with Allen and Jon-Michael. Their хозяйка (hostess) was planing on taking people out bar/club hopping. It was actually a lot of fun, especially during the White Nights when it's still light out. We moved from a pretty basic bar to one that played spanish-inspired russian music (my favorite one), to one that looked like it belonged in a coming-of age foreign film (weird graffiti and art on the walls, neon lights, lasers, etc), to the last one hidden in the basement of a building where you have to squeeze between a fence to get into (oh, you know it). All pretty fun.

Some people wanted to head back around 1:30 am, so some of us decided

to walk them home. See, Eunju and I live on the island, while the bars and most of the homestays for people are on the mainland. The bridges to get to the island go up at 1:30 am to allow ships to pass through (the Neva River is HUGE), but there is one that comes down at 2:45 am until 3:10. That gives us a little window to cross the bridge and go home. Eunju and I were already planning on staying out past the bridges going up and then crossing over during that window. Since we had time to spare, we hung out at a cafe with Panos, and then wandered around the Hermitage taking pictures. It was actually kind of dark at this time (the sky was a lovely, deep, dark sea blue), but there were plenty of tourists around.

As we sat by the bridge, waiting for it to come down we met a group of 4 kids from Dartmouth, also waiting for the bridge. Talking, we realized that the bridge should have come down a while ago. So we asked a bridge security officer about the situation. He told us that this bridge actually doesn't come down until 4:55 am. Though the bridge "over-there" is down right now, but will go up in 5 minutes. ... We were waiting at the wrong bridge. Crap.

We ran to the other bridge (me in heels. darn Russian women always wearing heels) and made it there in time to watch it go back up. With us on the wrong side of the river.

(Note: Not my picture. Will upload one once I steal one from Eunju :P)

Soooo. We had time to kill until 5 am. Wonderful. We wandered around St. Petersburg, seeing the sights all glorious in the actual darkness, passing the chocolate museum, as well as the vodka museum. Stopping at a hotel to use the restroom, we decided to hang out in their lobby until it was time to head back.

We left the hotel at around 4:45, walked to the bridge, and made it over safely :D Then, we headed in the direction where most people live. I live on the other side of the island, so I left them at one point to go to the metro. It didn't open until 5:30, and my train didn't actually get there until 6:01. By that time a guy hit on me and creepily stared at me until the last possible minute before he missed his train. As I was walking from the station to my apartment, another guy asked me to have some champagne with him (at least they're classy?? but it was 6 am....welcome to Russia, again). I was then paranoid the rest of the way home. But my хозяйка did not wake up. Bed time: 6:45 am. So much win.

It just reminds me of what Julia Titus (my former professor) told me when she found out where I'll be living: I should not walk home by myself, or I'll be mistaken for a lady of 'quesionable character.' Duly noted, Julia, duly noted.

My first night going out in St. Petersburg? Not too bad. Had an unwelcomed adventure, but it was fun :D

Пока!

--Н.И--

Finnish vending machines, Business Lunch, Swans, rain rain rain

Hey! I'm in Russia! Eeeeeeee

And as mentioned before, I have a lot to cover in a short amount of time (a weeks worth of adventures, oh my!) so let's get to it :D

The plane ride from JFK to Helsinki was nice. It was my first

overnight/overseas flight. I sat next to a girl who recently graduated from Brown and was now working at developing plane engines. Cool beans. I also finally watched Avatar on the plane, and was in the middle of watching "Men Who Stare at Goats" when my headphones broke. Sad times. But so many cute, blonde children; make me happy :D

Once we landed in Helsinki, we

had about an hour until our next flight. Morgan and I spent most of it running around the airport, taking pictures of everything in Finnish that we could find.

(The one of the vending machine wont upload onto my laptop, so you'll have to settle with the Arrival board. Yay Finnish!)

We also met this girl who was going to St. Petersburg to work on research (I think she was from UNC?) Her name is Natalya and she is from St. Petersburg. She gave us her number and told us that she wants to hang out some time. A good start...

The flight from Helsinki to St. Petersburg was really short. Maybe even shorter than the flight from Philly to New Haven. But as we flew over we could see all the bright colors from the buildings and you could see every one's face just light up. It was unbelievable.

Welcome to St. Petersburg! We all piled into a bus/van which took us around the city dropping everyone off at their hosts' places. I ended up being the last person to be dropped off, which was a good and a bad thing. Good, because I got to see more of the city and see everyone's hosts. Bad, the anticipation was just too much. My host is a nice, elderly lady, my guess around 60-70 years old (she has a 40 year old son). She works as a greeter at the Mariinsky Theater (which means she might be one of the hissy ladies our professor warned us about) and all and all seems very nice, except for the fact she frequently mentions the Perestroika and refers to St. Petersburg as "Leningrad". She treats me as a 6 year old, which I actually love because I never lived with my grandmother. However, she doesn't let me watch futbol, telling me to go to bed early instead. That just wont fly with me XP

After settling in, she made me lunch and then took me around the island so I could see where everything was mostly situated. My summer suitemates and I gave ourselves tasks for the summer: We must find good-looking foreign men. Unfortunately, I haven't seen too many Dimitri's or Sergei's (as the Russian ones will be called), but there was one, in a Naval uniform of course, sitting on the bus with us. My Hazaika (host mother) agreed.

We came in during the Scarlet Sails celebration. This is a celebration for the last day of school for Peterburgians, and with the White Nights, it's a all day/night party. I went to bed :) but I did notice that almost everyone was wearing leather jackets. HA a way for me to fit in.

I also realized that a lot of other Hazaikas know who I am, except I'm only known as "The Bulgarian." That could either work to my disadvantage (they expect me to be able to speak Russian) or advantage (they know who I am and invite me to things - Sam's hazaika told him she didn't want to go see Swan Lake and said that he should instead give her ticket to me. The ballet was at the Mikhailovsky Theater and was amazing, sadly I didn't have my camera).

Also, as I was unpacking I realized my shampoo exploded in my suitcase and seeped through the bag I put it in. Just imagine me trying to explain how my shampoo bottle exploded in my bag and got all over my clothes, in Russian, as soon as I get there. I asked her if I could buy her some chocolates in thanks for washing my clothes. She said no chocolates, but that I should buy her apples. So I spent the next couple of days looking for a place that sells good apples.

And I discovered a super-market! You guys must have no idea how excited this makes me feel, but an actual super-market! It's like any old grocery store back in the states (apparently not too common here), and is only 15 minutes from my apartment. What I absolutely loved was that they had an entire aisle of chocolates/cookies (for tea, which we have every night. Best thing ever - can we start having "Tea Times" next year?) and next to that was, what I thought at first, an aisle of water bottles. On second glance, I realized it was an entire aisle of vodka. Both sides. It's insane. A good sized bottle of vodka comes out to be 6 US dollars here. About as much water...

Classes are not too bad, a little slower paced than they were in New Haven. We have two professors for our Language class: Rita (who was like a TA back in New Have) and Natasha (who was a professor at St. Petersburg University). Rita works with us on grammar while Natasha makes us work on conversation and Pushkin readings. Along with that we have culture class, with Professor Firtich (he has SUCH a Russian look), which is more like a literature class with city excursions mixed in. (Firtich with Anya at the Pushkin Museum)

He really is just as sweet as a teddy bear. And we are all in love with his voice.

The Pushkin Museum: it's the actual apartment Pushkin lived in while in St. Petersburg, and it was where he died when he was mortally shot during a duel. Pushkin is such a large part of the Russian community and identity; he is everywhere. There even is his bust in my room.

Apparently, one of Firtich's relatives helped start this museum (his family is all over the St. Petersburg cultural scene. It's all in the beard). We took a tour through the house (where we couldn't take pictures) where they told us Pushkin's basic background and little tidbits on his family. The main focus of the tour was to describe the duel and how Pushkin died. (yay little Russian children! So cute)

We also visited the Composer's Union on Friday, where we were treated to various performances (which included some piano pieces by Papa-Firtich, who also one of those in charge of the Composer's Union - see? Everywhere.). The style they all played (except for one woman who played a piece by Tschikovsky) was "avant-garde." It's a strange style which included, at least for Papa-Firtich, banging the piano and yelling "Da-Da!" We ended the concert with champagne and chocolate. I left early, in order to get everything sorted out with my internet, but apparently soon after I left my class played a game with my professor entitled "No one leaves until all the alcohol is gone." Firtich must have drank 5 bottles of champagne. Yup. Russia.

Well, whether that is true or not, Firtich was not with us the next day on our trip to Peterhof. For those who don't know, Peterhof is a small island out in the Baltic Sea that held the Summer Palace for the royals. It's now just one large museum. And absolutely gorgeous. The inside is mostly done in Baroque style during the 18th century. It's an extremely elaborate decorative style that includes covering almost everything in gold designs and sculptures. During the second world war, the palace was held under siege and burnt badly. Most of the furniture, paintings and decorations were moved before the siege, and the palace was restored as best as it could be from those samples and pictures taken before. I can't imagine being one of those people rushing furniture out, knowing that a siege was about to occur. (I haven't uploaded my pictures yet, but here's one from online)

We were allowed to wander the island after the tour for about an hour. The garden is extremely large, filled with fountains, statues, and chinese inspired mini-houses. Though it started raining as we were walking, so we entertained ourselves with games of Connections (a guessing game, kinda like 20 questions).

So that's an extremely extremely quick rundown of the past week. Hopefully later I can make some posts of just pictures, especially of Peterhof, once I get them uploaded.

And now off to week two!

Пока!

--Н.И--

Aliiiiive. And with internets?

I'm baaaack! Missed me?

So BAM. I'm not dead :D. I just now got internet, so I'm connected to the world again!

The actual process of me getting internet is an exciting one (for me at least). So I think I’ll just make one post about that…

See, my host is a wonderful older lady, I'm guessing between 60 and 70 years of age, who lives in a very traditional Russian home. So that means no internet. Which should be fine, except the area where I live has no cafes nearby with WiFi. That's makes keeping up with things very difficult. But the Russians have the wonderful thing called a Yota, which is like an antenna you plug into your USB drive and it allows you to access internet from mostly everywhere in the city.

Our kind guide and assigned friend, Anya, took us to an electronic store to buy this Yota. However, the Yota for Macs is different, and I didn't have enough money with me at the time. So begins Natasha's venture to get a Yota:

I managed to grab a trolleybus from the University to Nevsky Prospekt (the main street), get off at relatively the right stop (a little early, but oh well), and find the right store. While inside, I was able to explain to the saleslady, in Russian, that I needed a Yota, but one specifically for Macs, and a monthly internet card for 900 rubles. And I was able to catch her owing me more money in change than she gave me. Yeah. I was pretty proud of myself as I walked down Nevsky towards the metro.

The silly thing is, in order to use the Yota for Macs, you need to first download a program off the internet. So....you need internet in order to download something which will let you use a device to give you internet access. Um. Right.

Eunju and I ended up wandering around Bolshoui (Big) Prospekt looking for somewhere with WiFi (as I said, there are no places with WiFi on our island). We managed to find a hotel with WiFi and the service lady was very nice (love you, Marco Polo hotels). Sitting outside the hotel, Eunju was able to get the program saved on my laptop (love you, Eunju). We also figured that Russians must not usually sit on sidewalks because we kept getting strange looks...

So, for future reference, I can now properly buy a internet router in Russian. Unfortunately that wasn't taught in class.

Next post will be about more interesting, Russia stuff :D

Пока!

--Н.И--

Introductions and Final Night on US soil

I figured some introductions are in order, at least before I fly off to the other side of the world. I had meant for my intro post to be my first one (which seems natural), but I was just too excited when the housing assignments came out. But, hey, as the children's poem goes: Second is the best.

So, welcome to my blog! Or, Здравствуйте! as I will soon get used to saying. My plan is to chronicle my trip, hopefully sealing it to memory, and to also allow my friends back at home to check in on what I'll be doing :D To be fair, this is my first blog. And past experiences trying to maintain diaries have failed tremendously. My hope is that this will be my one English reprieve, and it will motivate me to maintain it. And also take pictures (I'm not that big of a picture taker either.....I'm such a horrible tourist, and I live in Orlando!).

I've been in New Haven for the past 3 weeks, and I have to say it's been beautiful. It was pretty hot the first couple of days, but after some rain it became very nice outside.
I ended up living in Trumbull College, in the potty-court (a place every Yalie should check out). I have to say, besides the horrible phone reception and finicky internet access, it wasn't too bad. Though it did make me extremely excited to move into Calhoun next year :) I stayed in a suite of six, and we actually got really close within these few weeks. Two of them are going to Italy (plus one more adopted suitemate), one is going to Jordan, and two others are also going to Russia (making 3 of us). I'm actually going to miss them all.

The New Haven portion of the program has been intense. Language class from 9-12 every day, and a Russian Literature class twice a week. In addition to that, most of us went to 'русский стол', where we would all gather together for lunch and speak only in Russian. It got to a point when I would say 'извините' and 'спасибо' to the dining hall workers. XP Though I have been loving the Literature course. So far we've read works by Pushkin, Gogol, and Dostoevsky. Lovely, dark, wonderful stuff.

And this past week has only gotten more exciting with the beginning of the World Cup! Point of Note: I'm a HUGE futbol fan, so there will be comments on games within these posts. And I get excited. Can't. Wait.

Tonight, is my last night here on US soil. It's such a strange feeling: It'll be my first time outside of the states since my family came here 18 years ago. I have no idea what I'm doing, or what I have to expect. It'll be an adventure on it's own :D. We leave New Haven around noon, fly out from JFK around 6 and arrive in St. Petersburg at 11 on Saturday morning.

And my day, of course, will start at 7:30 tomorrow morning with the Germany-Serbia game (see what I said about the futbol? but to be fair, it is Germany), and it will be looong.

So, this is where I'll check out, watch the rest of my Doctor Who (who knows when I'll be able to watch it abroad. The horror!), and head to bed.

And I just want to say, I miss you all! See you on the other side.

Пока!

--Н.И--

No longer homeless!

So after sitting by, watching my friends who are going to Italy receive their host assignments, go through the turmoil that is calling said families for the first time, and planing out where they will travel their first days there, I finally got my assignment!
As of 10:08pm Wednesday night, we know where will live (given that we leave Friday morning, we found out only a week after everyone else)! Some might consider this as cutting it close. I think not. Slavic Department for the win!
Julia Titus always said that Russians are 15 minutes late to everything (that's when Nick stopped showing up on time to class...), so why not apply that to this situation?

I'll be staying at Novosmolenskaya naberezhnaya, 1/1252, which really means nothing to you. :P Try google-mapping it. I still don't know if I'm looking at the right street:



So "B" is roughly where I'll be staying and "A" is the university. Seems close, right? Well, it's an hour walk or a 30 minute bus ride, apparently. My mornings are just going to be wonderful XP
My biggest problem is that I think I'm on a completely different island than the rest of the class. Um. See that bigger piece of land on the lower right? That's where the main part of the city is and where most people will be staying.
I'm just really curious to see how things will turn out. Constantine's words: "So the outside of the apartment buildings are nice, and the inside of the apartments are nice. It's the in-between you should be worried about. The entry-ways are old and dark, and homeless people like to live in them. Just make sure you come home at night with a buddy." Riiiight. So. Where's my buddy? My thought is that if that area was dangerous, Anya (one of our 'paid friends' - I'll get to that in a later post) wouldn't put me there all on my lonesome....right?
Morgan's advice? Maybe there will be a well-built policeman living across the street who would be all willing to take me домой. We can only hope.
Though, it does overlook the water, which should be gorgeous, especially during the White Nights (:D).

I'll be staying with one Irina Leonidovna Petrova. My impression? Her first name is the same as my highschool art teacher. Win? Also, she works at the Mariinsky Theatre, which actually got me really excited. I want to see a plethora of shows while I'm there, and she will be just the person to ask. Her job could really be anything, though, from the janitor to a director. I'll find out soon enough. (Hopefully, at least. Language barrier and all that).

Well, it's now 1:30 am and I have my last test in the US (for this summer at least) tomorrow. Better get my sleep on.

I leave you with this gem, from Morgan (as she calls it, existential angst): Garfield Minus Garfield

Пока!

--Н.И--