General Update

Some of you have asked what Russians think about Americans, and what they have to say about the election and those kinds of things.  These are questions that commonly come up when I meet strangers and engage in conversation with them.  There is no standard answer, some have approached our group and told us that they simply don't like Americans, but this is not common, however others, although they might not agree with the American government, which I don't either on a lot of issues, don't seem to have any problems with Americans themselves. Common questions are what do you think about Russia's relationship with America, who did you vote fore in the presidential election, what do you think about Russia's conflict with Georgia, so on and so forth. I usually just answer honestly. 

I think Russia and America's relationship obviously isn't very good right now for several reasons, namely Bush's plan to put a missile defense system in Eastern Europe and NATO's involvement in Eastern Europe. First off I don't understand the need for the U.S. to have a missile defense system in Eastern Europe. Bush says it is to protect our European Allies from a possible attack from rouge states such as Iran, Syria and North Korea. I think we could come up with a better strategy for accomplishing the goal of protecting our European Allies, such as simply selling a missile defense system to  interested European buyers and strengthening disarmament policies on those rouge states.  Nevertheless, the missile defense system sends the wrong message to the Russians, they think the system is to target Russian missiles and defense sites. Plus Russia feels like it should be the one protecting its backyard, not the U.S. And I kind of agree. The U.S. surely wouldn’t be happy with Russian putting a missile defense system in some Latin or South American country to protect it’s allies such as Venezuela and Cuba from a possible attack for the U.S. We, the U.S., should first worry about our own national security interests and threats, and right now I don’t believe those above mentioned rogue states pose such a threat that needs a missile defense system in Europe. But that’s just my opinion. However it will be interesting to see how things will change, if at all, when Obama takes office.

Most Russians that I have talked with supported Obama.  And they too are curious to see whether relations will improve as a result of his election.  I think they will.  As for the Georgian issue, I’m not sure why the U.S. is so supportive of a country with a lunatic for a president.  I mean I understand the geopolitical interests the U.S. has in supporting the development of democracy and wanting an ally in that region of the world, but Saakashvilli isn’t very democratic from what I’ve read and heard about him. But that is something you never hear about in American media. Such as how Saakashvilli has increased authoritarianism in Georgia, how he harasses, intimidates, and even arrests his opponents and accuses them of being corrupt and allied with Moscow, how the judiciary freely admits that they are forced to judge based not on principles of justice and fairness, but on the commands of the prosecutor’s office, or how he sent riot police to gas and beat protesters at anti-government rallies in 2005 and 2007, not to mention low levels of press freedom and a slew other issues.  I also don’t believe most Americans know the whole story of how the conflict unfolded, mainly because Western media doesn’t portray those aspects, they simply play Russia as the aggressor and leave it at that.  But like I said I’m interested to see how things might change when Obama takes office.  I think Bush has created a bad reputation for America in the rest of the world, and I hope Obama and the new administration can change that.

Yes Cindy I did take that picture. I don't really miss ice tea that much, and as far as cold beer and saturday football, I really really miss college football.  Cold beer is no problem here, I mean the temperature is below freezing here anyway, so the beer is always cold.  Instead of drinking cold beer and watching American football, we drink cold beer and watch European football (soccer). It all balances out! And for those crazy mom questions, Katya is a Russian student that was assigned to me, she's not a girlfriend, haha, we just hang out and speak Russian together.  It's a program created so American and Russian students can become friends and can work on their English and Russian.  I'm definitely going to get dad a traditionally Russian hat, even though he'd probably never wear it. They are cool souvenirs anyway. I'm not sure if they are coming to visit though? I wanted them to, but I haven't heard anything. Do you know something that I don't know Cindy?...

I went snow skiing in Siberia for fall break! What did you do?

We had our fall break this past week and as you can probably tell from the title of this entry, it wasn't your typically fall break. Yes it's true, I went snow skiing in Siberia, but that is only a fraction of the story.  

The weekend started with the whole group taking a trip to Moscow, which was one of the scheduled excursions of our program.  Moscow is an interesting city, but I had been there before and wasn't as excited as everyone else was.  Moscow has been ranked the most expensive city in the world for three straight years.  Home to 74 billionaires, more than any other city in the world, Moscow's capital is 42% more expensive than America's most expensive city, New York. Official data for Moscow reports a population of 10.4 million people, however unofficial daytime estimates are between 12 and 17 million people.  Moscow is quite different than St. Petersburg.  I think of Moscow as strictly business and St. Petersburg as more artsy and cultural, and definitely more beautiful.  But Moscow has its astounding attractions too and it is well worth visiting.  Moscow is an interesting place to visit, but I would much rather live in St. Petersburg.  

On Sunday afternoon me and three others set out on a long and interesting journey to say the least.  We boarded a train from Moscow to Irkutsk, a 2,609 mile trip.  That translates into 84 hours on a train. Take a minute and try to imagine what that must have been like. You'll never truly understand until to do it.  The car we were on had about 50 people in it I believe.  There weren't private cabins either, just bunks grouped in fours. It's hard to explain how the car was set up.  Just imagine a car with about 50 bunks in it grouped in fours with four beds on one side and two on the other side with a small hallway down the middle. Of course there wasn't much room or privacy for that matter, not to mention no way to shower and the small and quite disgusting bathrooms.  And this was for 3 and a half days, 84 hrs.  It sounds like it would be a miserable experience, however I have to say that I really enjoyed it.  It wasn't that bad, unless you're one of those who has lots of needs.  We stopped in numerous cities along the way and saw the beautiful Russian countryside between Moscow and Irkutsk.  By the way, Irkutsk is the biggest city in Siberia near beautiful Lake Baikal, which is the largest freshwater lake and deepest lake in the world.  Some people were on the train with us the whole way, some even longer, while others got on for a day or so and got off along the way.  We met several interesting people during they trip, which provided excellent opportunities to practice our Russian.  Such occasions involved us invited people to play cards with us and trying to explain to them how to play the game.  And in return they tried to teach us some Russian card games.  We met some extraordinarily nice people on the train, I was a bit surprised at their hospitality and willingness to help us when we didn't understand something or were confused about how something worked.  And of course they were very intrigued about why four American students were on a train headed for Siberia.

After 3 and a half days on the train, when we arrived in Irkutsk we were all ready to get off the train and to see something different.  We took about a three hour bus ride to a town on the southwest corner of Lake Baikal called Baikalsk.  It was dark when we got there so we really couldn't see much at all, just that were was a lot of snow outside and that it was very very cold. The temperature got down to -19 C, which is about -1 degrees fahrenheit.  It started to snow pretty heavily not long after we checked into our rooms, and when we woke the next morning about a foot of fresh powder topped the base that was already there.  The town of Baikalsk is very small and is located in the mountain right on the lake. It scenery was amazing.  Our hotel was right at the base of a ski resort so on our first full day we decided to go skiing, which turned out to be the best decision I think we made on the whole trip.  The skiing was perfect. None of the slopes were groomed and we skied on fresh powder up to our knees all day.  The view of the mountains, the town, and the lake from atop the mountain when we were skiing was enchanting, quite possible the view I have ever witnessed.  I tried to capture it with a photo, as you can see from the the first picture, but the photo really doesn't do any justice to the actual view. You had to stop for a minute on the mountain and really take it in, looking around appreciating natures beauty.  You can probably tell from the second picture that I wasn't very prepared for a ski trip.  I had no ski pants and I had to ski in my jeans and two layers of long johns. I was certain that after one run my legs would be soaking wet, or frozen, and I would be miserable. However, the snow was really dry, probably because it was about -11 C at the time, and skiing in jeans was no problem, except for the strange looks I got from all the Russians there, but I didn't care. Everything was incredibly cheap too.  Renting skis and a lift ticket from 10-5 together only cost $50. The places I've been skiing in America $50 would barely get you a lift ticket for half a day.  The hotel was crazy cheap too, roughly $15 a night and it wasn't a shabby place either, quite comfortable.  We were in Baikalsk for two days and in Irkutsk for one day until we flew back to St. Petersburg on Sunday.  The whole trip was amazing, well worth it.  I always tell people that if you only go to St. Petersburg or to Moscow you don't see the real Russia.  Those are important parts of Russia, but in order to see the real Russia you have to travel in between, and after taking an 84 hr train ride 2,609 miles across Russia from Moscow to Irkutsk, I think i've seen the real Russia more so than before.

Tallinn, Estonia

We went to Tallinn, Estonia this weekend.  It was amazingly beautiful! Tallinn is an old medieval style city. The people there were really nice and the scenery was picture perfect. That is about the only exciting thing that happened lately.  Nothing has changed, I'm still really busy all of the time.  My Russian class is getting hard and I have to study a lot to remember all of the different cases and grammar rules, not to mention the twenty different Russian words there are for one English word.  But its all good.  My brain just aches everyday after class, so many things to remember.  My other classes are pretty bad actually, I'm not a fan of them.  History is terrible every time, Ethnic studies is interesting when the teacher is prepared and actually teaches instead of telling stores, and civilization is usually boring, but we have the occasional interesting discussion.  But I don't really care about those classes anyway, I'm only here to learn Russian.  

I've been volunteering teaching english at a local institute of foreign languages. It's fun, I enjoy talking with the students and helping them with their English.  And in return I get to practice my Russian, and meet interesting people. I usually go there at least twice a week, but sometimes three. Teaching, well it's not really teaching, they just like to have a native speaker, takes up a lot of my time during the week.  But I don't mind it because I get to do my homework and study were there are Russians to help me, plus they are really cool people. I also have a conversation partner that I'm supposed to meet once a week, but we're friends and we usually hang out whenever we have time.  Her name is Katya and she's a student studying tourism and hotel management.  I like her she's really fun to hang out with and she teaches me a lot of Russian.  

I'm having trouble finding time to write in my blog. I literally stay busy all day everyday.  I have to make myself write in it, but there is always something to do.  So sorry if I'm not updating very often.  I think it would be a good idea if you, whoever is reading, would comment and ask questions, or give me some ideas of what you would like me to write about.  There are so many things going on all the time, I don't know what you are interested in hearing about.  So if you have questions about something you've been wondering about, just ask. I'm open to all questions, whether its about my daily routine, politics, culture, people, places or whatever you can think about.

This Time of Year

Fall in Russia is gorgeous! The city is beautiful all year round, but the changing colors of the leaves this time of year adds to its beauty.  St. Petersburg is full of parks, in the city and just outside the city.  So it is easy to see the colorful fall leaves all over the city.  You can usually find people playing in leaves at any nearby park, they love to make hats out of the leaves and wear them around the park.  I think most people back home have a really gray view of what Russia might look like to them.  I want everyone to see how beautiful it really is.

Newspaper Articles

Just a couple of updates....

I've read some interesting articles in the St. Petersburg Times lately.  I'll post a link to two of them so everyone can read them if they want.  They are really interesting.  The St. Petersburg Times is printed in english twice a week and the articles are written by mainly russian journalists, so its an interesting perspective.  The first article is titled "Museum Shows Georgian War Trophies."  They have items on display such as captured Georgian rifles, uniforms, and photos of dead Georgian soldiers in the streets and victories Russian tanks.  I think this is pretty repulsive.  First of all I don't think there should even be such a thing a "war trophies." The article quoted a Russian who was visiting the exhibit with his son saying, “I wanted to show my son this... He has to see how strong and powerful the Russian army is.  It was not the aggressor but it still won.” Most Americans probably don't know that Georgia actually launched the 1st offensive, even though the Russians were gathered on the border clearly prepared for an encounter with the Georgians.  Not to mention when the conflict did occur, the Russians pushed much farther into Georgian territory beyond South Ossetia.  The article made me think about what Americans would say if we had a museum displaying war trophies from Iraq.  I'm sure some responses would be much like this Russian's response, but I think the majority would be outraged by it.  Not sure though, what would your response be to

such a museum in America?

Here is the link:

http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=27101

The second article talks about the large number of abortions in Russia, the statistics are shocking.  I know abortion was a problem in Russia, but I didn't really know the extent of the problem.  If you didn't already know, Russia has a major demographic problem, the number of Russians is decreasing year by year.  Theoretically if this was to continue there would eventually be no more Russians.  It's a big problem for Russia.  So much that Russia declared this year the year of the family.  Last week fire inspection authorities raided two buildings that were going to host a gay and lesbian film festival in St. Petersburg and declared them unsafe, resulting in the festival not taking place.  I believe that is partly related to the whole year of the family concept.  Certainly gays and lesbians don't fit in with the whole family concept.  Anyway, you should read the article, it is well worth it.  And I'd love to hear some comments.

Here is the link:

http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=27240

You'll probably just have to copy and paste the link into your browser....mom just ask missy or kim how to that!

Peterhoff

This weekend we went to Peterhoff, Peter the Great's imperial palace.  It is rated as the 3rd greatest wonder of Russia, and it was pretty spectacular.  Peter modeled the grounds after Versailles and some people say it is fairly similar.  Peterhoff is full of gardens and fountains and statues, along with Peters palace overlooking the Gulf of Finland.  So far Peterhoff has been my favorite "tourist" attraction I guess you would say. Different from some of the cultural things I've experienced while I've been here.

Top:  Peter's Palace in background with statue of Samson ripping open the jaws of a lion in the foreground.

Left:  Cool picture of one of Peter's small cabins across from a pond on the grounds of Peterhoff.

Weekend trip to Novgorod!

I know it's been a while since I've updated, but I've been really busy.  There isn't really much down time around here. Plus the only place I have a reliable internet connection is at school.  I always say that I'm gonna write at home and just post the next day when I get to school.  But that never happens either.  Usually when I'm at home I'm either eating, sleeping, or studying/doing homework.  The homework for my language class is usually quick and easy, however my ethnic studies class consists of a lot of reading.  It's usually really interesting stuff though, so its not bad.  The language class is starting to get harder.  Right now I still kind of remember what we are doing so its not that hard for me.  I'm learning a lot of new words and phrases, but we are just doing basic grammar. We are getting really close to stuff that I don't remember though, so its gonna get a lot harder!

This past weekend, the 13th and 14th, we took a trip to Novgorod.  Novgorod is a very old and historic city located southeast of St. Petersburg.  The picture is of the bronze monument to the millennium of Russia (1862) in the kremlin of Novgorod.  The statue highlights some of the most important figures of Russia's history.  It was a pretty intense monument.  Novgorod is full of beautiful old cathedrals.  There used to be over 200 churches there, but now I think the number is around 30.  Which is still impressive for a city with only a little over 200,000 inhabitants.  

I think the best part of Novgorod was the traditional Russian banya we went to.  Going to the Banya is part of Russian culture so we had to go experience it.  For those of you who are unaware of what a banya is, it's something like a bathhouse, or a sauna.  It was an exhilarating experience so I'm gonna walk you through it step by step.  So we got there and everyone bought a toga, a beer, and a couple of people bought the necessary birch twigs for everyone to share, I'll explain the birch twigs later.   So we went into the changing/lounge room to change into our togas.  There were several Russian guys just hanging out drinking beer or tea and talking about what guys normally talk about, women, the weather, news, women, and a little politics.  It was quite a site, lots of male bonding going on! After changing we moved to the next room where we soaked our birch twigs in hot water to soften them up and shower off a little.  Once our twigs were good and soft we made our way into the sauna.  This was the most intense sauna I've ever been in.  It was blazing hot! About five minutes at a time was all I could handle.  And to add to the intensity, this is where the birch twigs come in, the Russian men started beating us with the birch limbs in order to open up our pores.  Mind you we were all naked, it was an unusual experience to say the least.  But it was only awkward at first.  We went back and forth from the sauna to the shower room about two or three times before we went back out to the changing room to drink our beers, then it was back to the sauna.  To add to the intensity, as if the experience so far wasn't enough in itself, we went back in the sauna to get nice a toasty and then proceeded to run across the street and jump in the river! Let me just say wow! That's really the only word I can come up with when I think about it.  Needless to say the river was freezing!  It was probably about 40 degrees at the most outside at the time.  It was amazing though, it felt great.  Probably the most refreshing thing I've done in a while.  Walking back to the hotel was a struggle.  My body was so relaxed I could barely walk.  The whole experience was phenomenal. We all enjoyed it so much that we decided to start a banya club where we go to the banya every sunday or something like that.  So if you ever have a chance to go to a banya and jump in a freezing river, you should probably do it!

It's sunday night and I'm just finishing up a little homework for in the morning.  This is our last weekend of orientation and it was a busy one.  Saturday we to the train to Pavlovosk.  Pavlovosk is just outside the city.  It's where Catherine's son Paul lived I think.  It was a huge area, like a really really big park, with a palace in it of course, and lots of huge trees.   Oh and I can't forget about all the squirrels.  The Squirrels were awesome, they ate some nuts right out of my hand! See, I have a picture to prove it! I'm not gonna lie, I was a little scared.  But squirrels in Russia are a lot more friendly than American squirrels!  

Sunday was a long day too.  We had a scavenger hunt that took us all over the city in search of the most random objects.  It was fun though.  We were split into four groups and my group won! So CIEE is gonna pay for us to go out to a movie or something like that.  I probably wont understand anything though so I don't know how fun that'll be!  Aight well I've got a long walk home so I'm out.

School Stuff

So this is where I go to school! It's called Smolni Sabor, which just means Smolni Cathedral.  The building where all of my classes are is directly behind the cathedral.  It's pretty awesome as you can see.  Can you imagine going to school near a place like this? 

First week of School!

Wednesday - second real day of class.  Class is kind of annoying right now because I started with the beginning group with kids who had never taken Russian before.  Hopefully I can move up to the next group, the problem is that I haven't taken Russian in two years and my grammar is a little rusty! Regardless, I'll be in Russia for a year and I'm sure I'll learn a lot.  It's just frustrating right now because the kids in my group are just now learning the alphabet.  I thought I was gonna get put in an international group and just take Russian language classes, but that didn't work out.  So I guess I'm gonna have to stay where I am with the area studies program.  I'm sure things are gonna change in the next week, at least hopefully!  

My babushka (means grandmother, but its what I call my host mother) is really nice and sweet.  She cooks really well, which is important! She has a husband i think, but it has only been there one night so far so I'm not really sure what's up with that! She also has a daughter and a granddaughter who lives in Moscow, but for some reason they are somewhere in Africa right now, for vacation I guess.  Nevertheless, they are coming to visit us sometime in September.  It's really hard to understand my babushka, but its getting better by the day.  She usually has repeat things about five times before I understand the gist of what she's trying to say.  Her husband, my dadushka, seemed like a cool guy.  The one night he was home we drank beer and watched the St. Petersburg football team beat Manchester United.  It was a lot of fun! He is a HUGE fan! He was going crazy every time they almost scored, it was interesting!  

Technically we are still in our orientation for the program, but class has already started so we're starting to get in a groove.  So far I just get up around 7:00 and walk down the street to catch the number 46 bus to campus.  Traffic is crazy in the mornings, it takes around 30-45 min. on the bus to get to campus.  It's always a fun trip though, you never know what's gonna happen on the way.  The past two days after school we just walked around and explored the city.  It's a big city and we are finding new and interesting places to hang out each time we go out. It's cool because most of the other students in our group are really cool people.  

There will be much more later.