"Dream a little dream of Russia" Louis Armstrongov

So here we are, my last couple of days here in St. Petersburg. I'll probably be posting still when I get back to the states, at least to cover what I skipped (MOSCOW) and put pictures up.

Last weekend was clearly a dream. Friday we had a Dostoevsky tour. Now this tour wasn't a regular old writer's tour which entails us walking around their house (like it was for Pushkin and Tolstoy).

Instead, we walked around the part of town where Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment" takes place. Dostoevsky also rented several apartments in this area. The tour guide took us through the novel, pointing out places were scenes happened or could have happened (such as the event - don't want to ruin it for you guys, just know it's the event).

[To the left you can see how someone painted Raskolnikov (the main character) on the wall of an alleyway. This city has so much character and personality, it amazes me. ]

Of course, this tour included us walking through eerie alleyways, seeing a room that just HAS to be some sort of torture chamber (there honestly is no other explanation - check out the 'window' below), and being yelled at by a German (and thanks to Tobi, I now know some German curse words. Sweet.)

Creep-tastic.

Also, there was graffiti along the walls of many of the places that we visited that related to the book, in both English and in Russian. It was pretty cool, a way for people of the past to connect with us - we all came here with the same purpose in mind.

After our tour, I went to see "Swan Lake" at the Mariinsky Theater. I understand I already saw it at the Mihailovsky Theater, but it is "Swan Lake" and it is the Mariinsky. It made no sense not to go.

[The theater from outside]

To be fair, I like the production, as a whole better at the Mihailovksy. There was just more life to it. But the girl who played Odette (Anastasia Kolegova) in the Mariinsky production was AMAZING. Her lines were so strong and fluid. Ahhhh it was beautiful.

[The inside of the Theater]

[The first act of "Swan Lake", also know as "Natalie being a bad girl and taking pictures during a performance"]

Saturday we took a tour of all the Religious places in St. Petersburg. I got to our meeting spot about an hour early, and I spent that hour in the large bookstore next to where we were meeting. It's call Дом Книги and is a pretty large bookstore (Borders-sized). It's famous because apparently this is where they used to make the Russian sewing machines? Something along those lines.

Anyways, the religious tour took us everywhere: from visiting churches for various Christian denominations, to more Orthodox churches (where we had to wear head-scarves), a Synagogue, a Buddhist temple, and even a Mosque (it was gorgeous, but we were unable to go inside. Sad. Here's a picture of the main door at least, so you guys can get a sense of it).

After this tour - which took about 3-4 hours - the group of us who were going to the Mariinsky Theater again that night (I was such a theater buff that weekend) headed to McDonalds for dinner. I know, ugh McDs, but I broke my boycott for a little bit to try how Russian's did it. It wasn't too bad. I also learned what a McGangBang was. You take a chicken burger and put it all in the middle of a double cheese burger. I tried a bite. It was pretty good, but I could feel my arteries shudder after that. :P

So that night we saw an opera: Eugene Onegin, which is based off a short story by Pushkin, I believe. It was my first opera. I had figured that since my mother went to a Conservatory for opera singing I should probably check some out. I really enjoyed it. The story was simple, realistic, and beautiful. The set design was amazing and the man who played Onegin had a wonderful voice.

[here is a shot of Lensky, another main character, and the absolutely gorgeous set (my favorite was the fall set, but I don't have any pictures of that).]

The schedule of all the shows and concerts at the Mariinsky

We had gone with my friends' hazaika to the opera, and she took us out to a couple clubs afterwards. We spent most of our time at 'red door', which I have mentioned before. It is shaping out to be my favorite club. It is very low-key; not too many people know of it. It doesn't even have an actual name. I feel that something like 'red door' would work out pretty well in New Haven, at least for the artsy and hipster crowd (I refused to combine the two, especially since I used to always consider myself 'artsy'). Apparently, another friend's hazain (male hazaika) DJed there the night before. Pretty cool. The music that night was the best: 70s - 90s music mash ups, from Billy Idol to U2. My kind of music. Yeah baby.

Later we went to another club where the hazaika's friend was DJing. It's call the "Laundrymat" and actually works as a laundry mat during the day. Those resourceful Russians.

Their hazaika also let Sam and I spend the night, so we wouldn't have to deal with more bridge escapades. She called a gypsy cab to take a group of us to her place. For those who don't know, a gypsy cab is where you stick your arm out and any rando who needs a few extra rubles will pull up and drive you wherever you need to go. Pretty sketchy if you don't know what you are doing. Apparently, my friends' hazaika always says the same thing "200 rubles. It's not far," even if it is far. Love her. So the 5 of us piled into the three available seats and we were off.

The next day was pretty chill, but maybe one of my favorite days here. We didn't really have a plan. A group of us just started wandering the side streets off Nevsky. We found this amazing park, bought ice cream, and just relaxed in the shade. I didn't realize such calm places could be

found so close to the crazy center of St. Petersburg. We also found a giant souvenir market (or рынок) where we proceeded to haggle with the kiosk owners. It was actually a lot of fun, and I managed to pull off being a Russian, or at least not an oblivious American. I didn't buy anything, though. The plan is to give our friend, Allen, a list of what we want and he will buy it for us. He is actually Russian, so he definitely gets the better deals. Plus, if we buy things in bulk we get better prices. We Yalies are savvy fools.

[The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. During sunset. It's given this name because this is where Czar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881. Every corner of this city has some historical significance. It feels so strange to be living here, right where all these moments happened.]

So there was my beautiful dream, only to be disrupted by school the next day. Darn.

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--