Spring 2012 (a bit late..)

(I accidentally saved this post instead of publishing it a few months ago, so I decided to post it now)

Wow, more than half a year has passed since my last post.  I am horrible at remembering to write anything here.  Well, in the last six months, a lot has happened in my Russian Adventure.  I recently finished my first year of teaching English.  I worked mainly with teenagers, and by the end of the year, I realized that I seem to be quite good with this age groups.  I had about ten groups of kids each week, and at the beginging things were quite a challenge.  Classroom control was difficult and kids were crazy.  In the end, the kids were still crazy, but controlable.  We developed such great relationships by the end of the year.  They made such great improvement.  It was so fun to read their final writing tests and see how much they had improved in the year. During the last week of lessons, some of my groups decided to have goodbye parties. The groups organized themselves and all brought cakes, cookies, chocolates and pies along with tea, juice and water to share with one another.  I can say that I taught them something new this year in the aspect of language, but they also taught me something.  Perhaps this is a bit cliche, but they taught me how to be a teacher.  They taught me patience.  They taught me that it is ok to make mistakes and that a good sense of humor can make most situations better.

This is where at taught English in Kupchino Region St. Petersburg

I remember my first few weeks of teaching.  Every time I walked into the classroom, I was nervous.  I didn't want to do anything wrong in my lesson.  I wanted everything to be perfect.  BUT, there was too much worrying going on, and all for not.  My kids were excited to come to my lessons.  They did not care if I made little mistakes.  They cared that I was there.  They wanted to tell me about their lives, and wanted to learn about mine.  We had lots of great conversations.  We decided to start every lesson with a great question to put a smile on every person's face: Why are you happy today? and If you aren't happy, what is something that makes you happy? By the time we were done with this, everyone was smiling, either about a nice walk in the park they had with their friends, or because they have a loving family, or because they had a birthday over the weekend.  Kids want to be happy.  They want to share happiness with others.  Sometimes it doesnt seem like it.  Sometimes you think they want to make your life miserable by not listening and being crazy teenagers, but they all just want to be happy.  When teaching a unit on personalities, we had to chose three words from the list that describe ourselves. I chose shy, friendly and maybe clever.  My students informed me that I was wrong, that I was not shy at all.  It is interesting how differently they see me than I see myself.  I always felt a bit shy, and not always so confident, but they saw me as a great, outgoing, friendly woman.

One of my 10 groups of Russian teenagers

At the moment, I am sitting in the Russian National Library, in a room filled with beautiful old books from the 1800's that I am not allowed to touch or photograph.  I came here with my great friend Lucinda.  She is writing her thesis on Dostevsky and needed to do some research here.  I thought this would be a good time to tell you about how excitingly beurotic Russia is.  This is the third day we've been here this week, and its Wednesday.  This is the first time there has been success.  Lu needed some very old books and journals for her research, so of course first day we come to the library.  I fill out all the intensive paperwork necessary to recieve a library card, only to find out we are not allowed to see any of the materials we need because you need a letter of explanation from the directory of your department at your university in able to read these materials.  So, we left the library and went to the office at the Uni where the director wrote the "explanation letter" Everything was in order after much waiting.  We headed back to the library, only to find that it happened to be closed because it just so happened to be the last tuesday of the month.  How lucky were we? So finally, Day three, we get into the library, have the proper document, and Ludcinda can order her materials, but then we have to wait a few hours while they search for them.  After a few hours, we return to the library where they say she can see some of the materials, but she must go to a special room, and I am not allowed in.
So, here I am, sitting in a beautiful old library room, with windows opening into Ekaterinskii Garden.  On all sides of me are old, warn, books and journals of faded browns and reds and blues.  The smell of dust and years of use, and the wind is jently blowing in through the beautifuly gated windows.   There is even a second level to this room with more books and beautiful railings.  If I could choose any place to sit and write or study, this would most definatley be the place.  

 Just outside the window are beautiful tall trees and a statue of Katherine the Great. Saint Petersburg is such a beautiful place.  Especially in the Summer.  Winter on the other hand is a different story.

Marshrutki, Avtobusi and Metropolitan Oh My! ~Transport in SPB

Transportation in this city is always an adventure.  This is my second time in St. Pete and I'm just getting the hang of it now.  It probably helps that I am forced to use many forms of transport every day because of my job.  I am a traveling English teacher.  Luckily I live in the center, which is pretty convenient, but still about an hour from most places I work.  Some days I travel on as many as 5 forms of transportation.  Lets take Monday for example.  I get picked up for my first lesson in an automobile which takes me to the north west corner of the city.  After this lesson, I must take a bus to the nearest metro.  I take the metro to the north central part of the city for my next lesson.  After this lesson I take the metro to the South central part of the city ( a place many Russians warn me about being the ghetto... and its true..) where I have to catch a marshrutka that takes me about 15 minutes to get to my final destination. I teach a few lessons here at an after school program and then have to take the hour long bus ride home.  I am lucky that I found a bus that goes directly from the middle of nowhere where I work, almost all the way home.  Only a ten minute walk from the bus stop!  At the end of the day, I just want to eat dinner and go to bed.  I think traveling is the most tiring part of my job.  But I am getting to know the city very well.

Now let me explain each of these methods of transportation.  They may sound familiar, but everything in Russia seems to have a special twist to it.

Avtomobili (cars):
Most of us have ridden in a car before, but let me tell you.  The SPb driving experience is something a little different than what I'm used to back in Minnesota.  In many places, there are no lines on the roads.  People just drive where they fit. Even if there are lines, if there is enough space between two cars, another car will join and fill in the gap. When in the car, I could usually roll down my window and touch the person in the car next to me. We're that close. Turn signals are almost never used, never.  Drivers do use their hazard lights to thank one another after being let in, or maybe cutting someone off. Ok, left turns.  I hate them in general. In America they cause me anxiety, but in Russia, they are something else all together.  There may be one left turn lane, but really, even if you are in the far right lane of a 3 lane road, why not make a left hand turn.  Even busses will make these crazy left turns.   The first time I road in a car here, I was quite frightened, and I've gotten less afraid, but I still don't think I would ever be able to drive a car here.

Avtobusi (busses)
Busses are a bit easier to understand.  I don't have much experience with American busses other than school busses, so I haven't got much to compare it to.  Sometimes the busses are so full you literally can't move your arms.  The conductor comes to scan your card but you cant even get it out.  Last week I was on a bus and the conductor couldn't even move.  He just gave up and everyone road for free for a few stops until enough people got off.  When the doors open people fall out.  It is the worst when you are standing next to the door because when it is closed you have space, but as soon as it starts to open, it needs to open to where you are standing, and this can cause some pain if you can't move.  I've been squished by a few bus doors so far.  On the way home, the bus is usually pretty empty so I can just sit and read, but during the day its a crazy house.  One day there was a crazy man shouting for the whole hour bus ride, and a big fluffy dog.  Lots of interesting conversations on that bus.

Marshrutki (taxi busses)

Marshrutki are special.  They are unlike anything I have experienced. They are vans, sometimes mini busses that are more like taxis.  It costs 30rubles and you have to tell the driver when to stop.  They follow certain paths, so it wont go wherever you want, but it will stop whenever you say.  This is the challenging part for me because you have to shout it so he can hear you, and I dont like speaking Russian loudly around lots of strangers.  I always hope that someone else will be getting off at my stop.  It usually happens that someone gets off there, if not I just walk a little from the next stop)) The drivers are a bit crazy, but I've not seen an accident yet.

Metro/Metropolitan (Subway):

Ok, this one is the easiest to understand of all.  We have 5 metro lines.  I live on the Red and Green lines.  The metro is really deep, so I always end up spending 3-5 minutes going up or down the escalator.  it moves pretty fast, but it goes forever! I like riding the metro.  Its a great place to people watch.  Always interesting people there!

The city is really cool.  Each region is so different from the others, I love traveling around.  Historic regions, industrial regions, stalin apartment regions, treeee regions, soviet regions.  Sometimes when you get off the metro you think you went back in time 50 years.  Other times you think you are in NY. Its fantastic!

And The Teaching Begins

This was my first week teaching full time.  I work at a place called DDUT which is an acronym for Dvorets Detskogo Unosheskogo tvorchstva, which translates to something like, Palace of Children's (Youth's) Creativity.  In DDUT, kids take dance lessons, drawing lessons, music lessons, language lessons, etc.  To get to this place, I must take the metro to the south end of the city, and from the metro I should take a shared taxi bus called a Marshrutka.  These marshrutkas are kind of like a bus, but also a taxi.  You must tell the driver to let you off... I am really bad at this, and have gotten off a stop early or late every time so far.  Someday soon I will master this method of transportation, but in the mean time I make sure to have extra time for traveling.  My classes are quite interesting.  I have children from age 11 to 18.  Boys around the age of 15 are uncontrollable! I tell my classes that I don't speak Russian, although that is not true.  They should only use English in our classroom, but they don't like this rule and speak Russian all the time.  It's funny.  Some of the classes try to trick me into speaking Russian, or prove that I understand them.  It's kind of a fun game, but they know that I understand some of what they say.

I have 10 groups, and all of about 15 students.  This makes for an interesting time trying to remember everyone's names.  Russians don't have as many names as Americans do.  I was actually told that during the soviet era, when a woman gave birth, she was given a list of names and had to choose only from that list.  Some popular names in my classes are: Andrei, Sergei, Sasha, Mihail, Alexandr, Anna, Katya, Julia, Nastya, Viktoria.  I have one class with lots of strange names in it, but these students have come from other countries or cultures.  I have Ilard, Darina Arkedi, Arseni, Galuna, Levan and some others.  It's going to be a fun year. For some reason they have a hard time saying my name.  Katie.  They call me Kate or Karrie.  It's fun.  Most of my classes are pretty good, but they are quite rowdy.  Maybe they will calm down once the classes get going.  One can hope, right?

Back in Russia

Ok, so I intended to write here a while ago, but as I still don't have wireless at home, its been a challenge. This means that I am going to post many things at the same time...  This city is amazing! I've been here for about a month and a half now.  The first 2 week, I stayed with my friend Andrei while I studied and searched for a flat.  He lives a in an area of St. Pete I had never visited before.   I am very lucky to have connections here and my host mom from my previous visit helped me find an amazing flat in the center of the city very quickly.

The flat.  Almost anything you could need is within a 10 minute walk from our flat.  The flat located at the corner of Mayakovskaya's Street and Nekrasov's Street.  Both Mayakovskaya and Nekrasov were writers.  I think I should probably read some of their works, as I’m living on their streets.   Surrounding the flat are many little shops and restaurants.  Directly across from my flat is a Pishechnaya, which is a little Soviet style donut shop.  The make little powdered sugar donuts and the best sweet coffee ever!  To the left is a nice Georgian Food restaurant (which we visit often enough for the woman to remember our favorite dishes).  Georgian food is delicious! Spiced meats cooked on the grill and our favorite Hachipuri, a cheesy bread sort of dish. On another corner we have a bakeshop where we get our bread and sweets.  Bread here is pretty cheap. Right next to our gate there is a meat shop which has a 10% Sunday discount! We also have a fancy little grocery store just next to the meat shop, but it’s a bit expensive so we walk the extra 5 minutes to go somewhere cheaper.  On the corner across from the bakeshop, there is a park dedicated to Mayakovskaya.  A large statue of his head sits there, usually covered in pigeons.  The park is quite small, but its always full of people.  They like to sit there and have a drink or chat.  We live in the city center, but about 10 minutes north from Nevskii Prospekt so its much quieter here.  Grass even lines our sidewalks so the dogs like to walk there. A cat lives in our courtyard.  He is a chubby calico cat that my flatmate named Wolverine.  Wolverine is fed by the people at the grocery store since their backdoor opens into our courtyard.  He gets lots of snacks from them and will never be hungry. We live on the third floor.  In order to get here you need 4 keys.  First the gate to the street, (which someone spray-painted “Blueberry” on, so we can always find our gate), then the steal door to the building and then two locks on the door to our actual flat. Very Russian.

Would you like a tour of the flat? Well if you open the door, you could see all the way to the other side of the flat.  It’s a long narrow layout.  Hang up your coat please and take off your shoes.  On the right is a large room with the toilet, bathtub and washing machine.  In Russia the toilet is usually in it’s own room, so this is a rather western bathroom.  The next room on the right is the kitchen.  It’s a bit small, but it has everything we need, and we like to sit there and chat and drink lots of tea. Just don’t use the electric tea kettle and the microwave at the same time please.  It could result in disaster!  If you continue down the hallway that stretches the length of our flat, the next room on the right is the living room.  It has a fold out couch and a T.V. with a dvd player and a radio.  This room has a big window that we like to sit in and relax listening to Russian Radio.  Continue down the hallway and there is a bedroom on the right where I sleep. Continue further and there is a small room that could either be a walk in closet or a very small bedroom.  We bought a bed and put it there.  It has a window and a radiator as well, so its livable.  Well, that’s our flat.  It’s pretty comfy and cozy. 
Life here is pretty good.  

Alie Parusa

I have never been in a city that enjoyed celebrating as much as Saint Petersburg. This city could be the holiday capital of the world. This spring we celebrated quite a few holidays, all with big festivals of sorts, concerts, shows, lots of people. On the 19th of June, we celebrated the holiday of Alye parusa, which means scarlet sails. This holiday is the day that graduates celebrate their accomplishment of finishing school. Concerts took place on both Palace Square and on Vasilevski Island late in the evening. The concert at Palace Square was for the graduates and the other concert was for the rest of the city, but the students in our program were lucky enough to get free tickets to the graduate concert. The stage was beautifully placed on the square with a giant chandelier and the palace as a backdrop. At the concert many musicians and groups performed including Serebro, Dima Bilan, Cirq di Sole and some others as well. We watched the amazing spectacle, standing in a sea of Petersburg’s youth, dancing and have a great night in this amazing city. After the concert, the sea of people migrated over to the banks of the Neva to observe the next portion of the night’s show. So many people were lined up along the banks, it was almost impossible to see the great Neva, people had climbed all the trees, climbed onto the tops of cars, and signs, anything climbable was climbed. We found a spot on the curb next to the hermitage museum. Luckily the first part of this show was in the sky. Music started playing and a beautiful firework show accompanied the Russian-pirate-esqu music. The firework show was spectacular, the sky was filled with bright flashing fireworks and lasers and then the moment everyone was was waiting for ----- off in the distance we could see the top of a ship. The ship slowly made its way down the Neva towards the palace bridge. The sails were bright red and people were standing in awe of this beautiful boat that floats on the Neva once a year. It was a beautiful night and a very jolly holiday.

ooops

So it has been a few months since I've blogged... Sorry about that. I have other entries, but I will add them later. This is the blog I did for my program.

Now that the weather has warmed up, and most of the snow has melted, or been shipped out of the city, St. Petersburg has once more evolved into almost a completely different city. I have found that with every season, the city has taken on a different personality. Now, as I stroll around the city, taking in its beauty, I see people everywhere; people of all kinds, of all ages, and of all social groups and from many different places. People dress in such a wide variety of cloths, there isn’t really a St. Petersburg style, anything goes. This city is very diverse, as many Russians have told me, “St. Petersburg is the New York of Europe”. Saint Petersburg is kind of a melting pot of people. We have a lot of people from different regions of Russia, as well as other countries. Every day, walking to school, or wandering around, I see hundreds faces. We don’t always think about these other people, they are just faces to us, but when we pay attention, we realize that each of those faces belongs to a person, a life, a story. Sometimes while I am on the escalator, descending into the underground world of the metro, I imagine the lives of the people passing me by on their way up to the surface. The older people captivate my thoughts as I daydream. They have lived through so much. I have a friend whose grandmother is in her 90’s. She lived during the time of the tsar, through the revolution, through the Soviet Union, and now into the 21st century and in the age of the Internet. She even knows how to send email.
Just by looking at these people, you would never know who they really are, and what their lives are like. I live in a building that is an apartment, but hotels are located on the lower levels. We have about five men who work at the door as the concierge for our building, and they are wonderful. The other day, I noticed an unfamiliar man sitting at the reception desk, so I introduced myself and started chatting with him. This man’s name is Vladimir and he is probably in his 60’s, with crazy black hair that only grows on the sides of his head. After a few minutes of chatting, he told me that he used to dance in the Mariinski Ballet. He had the lead in many productions such as The Nutcracker and Swan Lake, and he traveled around the world with the ballet. We chatted a while and he pulled out an album of photos from his days as a dancer. The photographs were amazing, and he was so happy to share them with me. Vladimir was also a film actor. He informed me that next Friday, if I tune into channel 1 at 21:30, I might watch a film in which he performed the lead role.
I do not understand how someone who used to be a dancer at the Mariinski and a movie actor ended up as my concierge, but this is just one more example of how people can surprise you here. I am glad that I got to know this man. He even invited me to go to the Ballet with him. Russians are interesting people full of surprises and secrets, and they will share their story, we just need to ask.

Москва!!!!!

I took the overnight train from St. Pete to Moscow on Wednesday night, and have now been in Moscow for 4 days. It is very cold here, around -20 degrees. I am wearing my long underwear right now. My first days here, I wandered around the city a bit, and went to a few museums. The Pushkin museum and gallery are amazing!! Picasso, Matisse, Degas, lots of neat stuff!! It felt good to be so independant and to figure things out on my own, and actually have to communicate with people in Russian, without anyone there to help me. I even managed to get lost (but i guess that doesn't take much effort in such a big city) and got directions from a babushka on the street. The metro in St. Pete has 5 lines. The metro in moscow has something like 12 lines. In one metro station I've been to, I was lost for 30 minutes! There was a restaurant in the metro!!! I thought I was at an airport. There is a city under Moscow, I call in Metrocity.

Yesterday I went to Arbot and wandered around, but it was very cold. After my hour commute there, I walked around for an hour, and was to cold to continue, so I went back to the apartment. The city is beautiful, and huge, but on my own, it's a little intimidating, and a little boring without someone to share it with. Luckily, today, I was greeted by my 2nd babushka. She picked me up this morning and we decided to go to the Kremlin. We spent the whole day exploring it! The snow was falling, and it was beautiful. The Kremlin is quite huge, and we did a lot there. First, she insisted on buying me souveniers to prove I was in Moscow, then we went to Church square, where there are 5 churches, dating back to the 13th century. They are beautiful!! We had a tour of the Palace Jewels, and of the Armoury, and wandered through Alexander park. I love babushkas, while we were on tours, she always pushed me to the front of the crowd and told everyone to be nice to me because I'm short. Wonderful. On our way home, we stopped and got cabbage and meat pies from a vendor outside the metro, only her pie was missing the cabbage, it was empty!! Poor babushka.

I wonder what kind of adventures I will have this week :) Merry Christmas!!!!

Semester is almost over.

My first semester in Russia is almost over. One more day of finals and then everyone leaves. Somehow I have survived 4 months living in Russia!! I think that is pretty sweet. So much has happened this semester, so many changes, in me and in Russia.

We have gone through three seasons already. When I got here, the city was beautiful and warm. The sun lit up all the beautiful old buildings and everything was lovely. Then came the rain, which was beautiful in it's own way. There is something beautiful about watching hundreds of people walk around with their little umbrellas. After the rain came the cold and no sun. I have not seen the sun in a very long time. The days are about four hours long, and not very light because of all the clouds. This is kind of depressing, but it gives me a better appreciation for the sun. Today it is snowing and beautiful. At night sometimes the sky clears up a little and i can see stars.

I have learned to eat many foods I would never have tried before. I am a big fan of Russian vegetable dishes! My babushka makes the best shi soup ever! and cabbage dishes.
I have also now made 2 pumkin pies. Not many Russians have ever tried pumpkin pie, so my tutor and I hosted a thanksgiving dinner party this week and made some traditional foods for her friends. That was very fun!!

I am becoming a lot more confident in my Russian speaking skills, though sometimes it is hard to talk in front of people becauseI know I am making errors, but for the most part, they are very patient. I have adventured to cafes, the post office, stores, and other places where I need to use my Russian, oh and school. School takes up a lot of time, and I am only allowed to speak Russian there.

This is my life. It is interesting to think that this is my life. I live in Russia. I am surrounded by people who speak a different language. I love it!!

Soon, I will be going to Moscow and having an adventure there on my own. This will be a challenge, but I hope a fun challenge!

Gogol Bordello!!!

Last night I saw Gogol Bordello in concert!!!! Russian concerts are very much like American ones. Crazy people, good music. I TOUCHED the VIOLIN PLayer. So before the concert started, my friends and I made our way to the front of the crowd and there was happening a fight! These two seemingly drunk men started hitting eachother and then I thought it was over, but the big one hit the little one and the little one spun around and his face was covered in blood. He splattered blood all over my friend's face and arms. It was really gross!!! But after that, other than the moshing going on around us, the concert was so wonderful! Eugene and the electric violin player changed my life!! If you don't know who Gogol Bordello is, check out their song Start Wearing Purple. So great!!!

Баня!!! and Thanksgiving!!!

The banya is an important part of Russian culture, and this week, I got to take part. Every week, we(the students in my program) go on an excursion. Often we go to museums, or concerts. This week, we went to the banya. The banya is kind of like a sauna. We were divided into two rooms. One for the girls and one for the guys. In each room, there is a steam room where the temperature gets up to 190 degrees f, and a room with a very cold pool. In the steam room, you can sit around and talk, and after a few rounds of steaming and jumping into the fridged water, you hit one another with birch branches. The whole experience is very relaxing. It is supposed to be very healthy, but then again, i think everything in Russia is supposed to be healthy(according to Russians). Everything my host mom makes for us to eat is "ochen polezno!" (very healthy), and pretty much everything in russia is "ochen polezno". For a snack we eat curded cheese mixed with sour cream and a few tablespoons of sugar, and apparently it is very good for me... we'll see about that.

Thursday was Thanksgiving, and as you probably know, Russians do not celebrate this holiday. My American friends and I got together for a big feast that we all helped prepair. We were able to find/creatively create foods that resembled typical Thanksgiving dishes, and it was amazing! My job was the pumpkin pie. I went to the Vegetable market and found fresh pumpkins and all the seasonings i needed. The market is a really neat place because there are so many different people there selling their products and most of them are really friendly. Whenever I asked for a product, they wanted to learn all about me-where i study and why I study Russian. That is a very popular question that I still don't know how to answer- "why do you study Russian???" I just do...

The pumpkin pie turned out so well!! It might be the best I ever had. That may be because the sense of acomplishment having found all the ingredients, and maybe because it reminded me of family thanksgivings, but it was great! We also had an interesting version of green bean casarole, and some buttermilk biskuts, minus the buttermilk, stuffing, turkey, cranberries and cookies. A feast indeed.

So, I had something really interesting to share with you all, but my mind has gone blank as I am sitting in a cafe and the people across from me are hardcore making out, and i can here it!!! EEwwww!

Ok, well I have something to say I guess... This week my friend took me to a Cossack festival. I then gave a presentation to my class about Cossacks. They have a very interesting culture. I really enjoyed their dancing and acapella singing. They use really neat harmonies! Below is a clip of them dancing...dont mind the red banister in the way :)

Last week, my friend Losha took me with him to the Master Hitchhiker's Guild of St. Petersburg meeting. There I met tons of nice people who have hitchhiked around Russia and Europe. At their meetings, they discuss safe ways to hitchhike, how to do it properly, and talk about their adventures. All the people there were very friendly, and have offered to show me around St. Petersburg, and the surrounding areas. At the meeting I met a girl named Katya, and she invited me to a concert the next night. My friend and I went on an adventure to find the concert, which ended up being in a tiny library across the Neva. We had to cross the Neva on a very long bridge, that didn't seem the safest. The wind is very strong on the Neva, and whenever a tram drove accross the bridge it shook so hard i thought it was going to crumble into the river.

Last Friday I went to the opera Rusalka(the mermaid) by Dvorak. This might be the best opera I have been to. The cast was half ballarinas and half singers. It was beautiful to watch and to listen to! My friend and I bought cheap tickets, so we were in the back row, but luckily he still had his school bag with so I sat on his dictionary so I could see over the people in front of me. Our dictionaries are so useful! I used it to see the opera, and then durring the intermissions, we used the dictionary to translate the story line in our program.

Last night my group went to see the opera Traviat after I visited the doctor. Now I can say I have been to the hospital on three continents! what an achievment... The opera was nice. At intermission we bought overpriced, but delicious strawberries, and then enjoyed the second half of the opera. I think it is wonderful how much music and art there is in Petersburg.

12.10.09
Today was the first snow of the year!! And tomorrow I will buy winter shoes. Converses are not going to work here in the wet cold winter. The snow is beautiful, but wet and it doesn’t really stay snowlike for long before it turns to slush and finds all the holes in my old warn convs. The streets are wet and cold now, but looking out my window on the 5 ½ floor, the rooftops are all still white with the fresh snow. When we saw the snow falling out the window in class, all of us ran out into the court yard and played in our first Russian snow. It was glorious.

Living on the 5 1/2 floor as I do, I get quite a work out every day hiking up and down the stairs, as the lift is under construction right now. My building has, possibly, the smallest lift in the entire world. It is difficult to fit two people in it, my host dad and I tried that out, and it was slightly awkward. I can never seem to get the giant metal lift door open, but luckily I live in a hotel building and we always have a doorman. I have become friends with a few of the doormen. My favorite is Mikial. He is probably in his late 40's and he is good to practice my Russian with. Sometimes I go sit in the entry way and try to have conversations with him because he seems bored most of the time.

Speaking Russian

Russian is a beautiful, but complex language. I’ve learned that at this point, as long as I have the vocab, people will at least understand and the grammar will come with time. Someday I hope to get the grammar down. Russian uses many words from other languages, but I’ve noticed insane amount of English words. I’m sure there are many from other languages as well, but seeing as English is my language, those are the words I notice. Anyways, So many Russian words are English words spoken with a Russian accent or modified slightly so that they can write it with the Cyrillic alphabet. If the word is a verb, they add ovats to the end of it. Sometimes when people are talking to me, I’ll understand everything except the word that is taken from English and they will have to repeat it over and over, and then out comes the dictionary and then I feel dumb because it is exactly the same in English as Russian. Maybe I just expect it to be something different? For instance, my tutor was telling me about her dog and I told her I didn’t understand what kind of dog it was, but it was a Dalmatian, and she was saying Dalmatian the whole time, but I didn’t catch on. This also works the other way, when I hear words that I think are cognates, but really mean something very different. This has caused me a bit of confusion in class.

The sites

The weather has been beautiful the last 2 weeks, with some scattered showers of course, but this weekend was just perfect! The sun shown all weekend and it was nice and warm, perfect for sight seeing. A friend took me around Petersburg and it was like we went back in time. First stop was an old camera store where I purchased a Soviet Camera and film to take some real Russian photos. Then we headed to the Church on Spilled Blood, Peter and Paul's Fortress, The eternal flame, and then a used book store and a Russian donut shop. On beautiful days in Russia, you can't walk through the city without seeing bridal parties taking pictures in front of ever Russian monumnet or famous lanscape. On Saturday I saw at least 14 brides running around in their beautiful dresses, one in a pink dress. They all take hot pink limozines to the different sites. Its pretty cute.
In the evening I went to a French film festival. When I got the tickets, I did not realize that it started at 12midnight. Three French films between midnight and 7am. My friend Cameron came with me and we helped eachother stay awake. The first two films were in French with Russian subtitles and I could understand them for the most part, but the third movie was very strange, and started at 4:30am and was dubbed over in Russian and I had no idea what was going on the whole time. It was in a really neat building though... Most of the buildings in the center are pretty neat though. They are beautiful! At night I am taked back by how beautifuly lit they all are. It will be interesting to see what this all looks like in the winter.

Rain

I never thought my dictionary and my umbrella would be my best friends. I take them both with me wherever I go and use them constantly. - Note to self- buy waterproof attractive shoes. I’m pretty sure the summer is over and the rainy season has begun. I enjoy the rain enough, but when my socks and shoes are soaked the whole way through, it creates a little discomfort. Russians don't seem to mind having wet feet in their high heals and flats.
Walking on crowded sidewalks with an umbrella is another art I have not yet mastered. It is much harder to pass people when you are playing bumper cars with their umbrellas. I am somewhat surprised to see so many bright and decorated umbrellas. Bright and colored everything for that matter. Coming to Russia, I was expecting everything to be dark and monotonous. People do wear black, but hot pink seems to be another favorite for Russian tops. The buildings are colorful and the streets are filled with colorful stands selling colorful flowers. Every so often while walking on Nevsky, there are people dressed in circus tent looking pants and handing out little papers. I’ve never accepted them, but they these people add a nice pop of color to the city.

Moving In

Sunday morning Katie Miller joined Jasmine and me as we ventured to the цветы stand at the metro near the hostel. After a few extremely awkward moments of trying to figure out what kind of flowers to get, and how many-knowing of course that Russians consider it bad luck to have even numbers of flowers, or anything really. I bought my host mom 3 gerber daisies. She has them now in a vase on the kitchn table. We were all so nervous to meet our families, but I feel like I had a little bit more reason to be worried because I have about the least Russian on the trip. I honestly feel like I have never before learned any Russian. Hopefully in the next few months things will get better and I will be able to understand what Tatyana and Dasha are saying to me.
The are very patient with me. Luckily, one of their favorite topics of conversation happens to be music. Tatyana plays piano and knows lots of famous musicians. Dasha plays the Didgeradoo, which is super cool. She is 22 years old as well and has lots of friends that have been over. I find them a bit intimidating. We live on the 6th floor of what I first believed to be a hotel. Above the door hangs a sign that says Hotel Anabel, but that is only part of the building.
We live up on the 6th flood, which is 112 stairs up, not that I counted... From my window I can see the Hermitage museum and some churches that are all lit up at night. I'd say I'm pretty lucky to live here with these nice people. Last night when I arrived home for the day, I finally met my host father, who had been missing the first few days. He had been in the forest picking mushrooms. The entire kitchen was filled with mushrooms. If you know me, you know that I do not eat mushrooms-ever! But I ate an entire bowl of Mushrooms and onions all cooked up together. I can't say it is my favorite food, but I ate it all. Today when I arrived home from school, Dasha and I had supper, and guess what it was---Mushroom soup! I am pretty sure we will be eating mushrooms for every meal for the next week at least! As long as I get to eat my blini for lunch I'll be ok. They are delicious creps filled with different things, my favorite is cabage and eggs with a little sour cream. ochen vkustvy! They are sold like fast food in many places near my school, but all made fresh! And inexpensive also.

Finally Here!

28.08.09
Traveling always takes a lot out of a person, but especially when the travel leads to the unknown. The feelings of excitement and nervousness have taken over at the moment. Time is something I have a hard time comprehending. We haven’t really slept since yesterday morning, which is now according to my watch 36 hours ago, but in reality is only 28. Still, this is long time to go without sleep in a stress filled situation. Two plane rides, a bus ride, and many long and heavy luggage hauls, we made it to the dormitory where we will spend the next day before we get our host families, which is much nicer than I anticipated. After an hour of waiting in line to ride the elevator with only ourselves and our luggage-because the elevator was too small to hold any more- we made our way to the little rooms with the tall ceilings. After a brief hour of shower and rest, we made our way to the streets of Peterburg to explore and exhaust ourselves in the new city we shall call home.

Getting ready

Hey everyone, I just set up this blog so that while I spend the year in Russia I can keep you updated. The packing has begun and the nerves have started up. Thanks to a great rummage sale I now am the owner of my very own American Tourist suitcase. Now all I need to do is figure out what to put in it. I leave in just under 3 weeks for the lovely St. Petersburg. This year is going to be exciting for sure, going to a new place with new people and a new language. I am looking forward to all the experiences and opportunities I will have in the next 10 months. Feel free to leave comments and questions in the blog! Do Svidaniya-until we meet again.