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!
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