Back in the States

So I made it back safely and after a night in London and a VERY long flight, I am in my room in California. I am slightly jet lagged, but happy to not have to lug a suitcase around anymore. But I miss Russia terribly. I had such an amazing time there and I cant wait to go back to see the city and my friends again. Many thanks to AIFS for keeping us safe and happy while we were there and to the Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship for making this trip possible. I hope many more people can benefit from this amazing scholarship so that students can continue to experience new cultures as I did. 

Last week in Russia :(

I cant believe how quickly this semester went. I really am not ready to leave, and tomorrow is going to be a sad day. This week, however, has been wonderful. We had Monday off because of Victory day. There was a parade downtown, but I missed it because I was studying for finals. Tuesday I had two finals and then I had to study for my last final on Wednesday. Right after my last final, I went downtown and enjoyed the beautiful day. I met some Australian tourists, who were very nice and then I sat in a park for a bit. Then I volunteered in the Archaeology department at the Hermitage again. This time I got to work with bones, which was really cool! The women who worked there were showing me different specimens and explaining their significance. They also offered me coffee and tea during our break and we talked about politics (mainly the upcoming elections in both countries), economics, Russia vs. America, and lots of other interesting topics IN RUSSIAN! I was very proud of being able to say all of this in Russian. I am now very grateful to my conversation teacher, who taught us all this vocab. After they kicked me out  because we were done for the day, Esther and I went to our favorite Cafe and then walked around the city until we met up with our friend who took us around the city to a few places we hadnt been. It was very pretty.

It is truly amazing how long the days are here. It doesnt get dark until about 10 or 11. Seriously, I took this next picture close to 10 pm:

Still light outside! Also, the streets are still decorated from Victory Day.

 And I took this one a little after 10, and it is STILL very light! Its actually quite nice because you can get a lot more done.

 The next day Esther and I went to the Hermitage for the last time and saw the rest of the exhibits so we have officially seen every single room of one of the largest museums in the world! We were quite proud, then we went to St. Isaacs, and I climbed to the top and saw a panoramic view of the city!

Then we went for a lovely walk and ended up at the Naval museum and then I went to Peter and Paul fortress, which is one of the first places we went to when we got here, so it seemed right to go back.
    After that was the boat trip that AIFS took us on, followed by our goodbye dinner. It was really fun and a great way to end out our semester.
    Today we received our certificates of graduation as well as our transcripts. We said bye to the professors who were there and then Stephanie and I went on a lovely walk and said our goodbyes to downtown St. Petersburg. There were a few festivals/concerts downtown. I imagine there are even more in the summer, which makes me wish even more that we could stay! Tomorrow we leave, and I cant believe how wonderful this semester has been.
     

Peterhof

Ok I'll try to keep this short, since the pictures will do most of the explaining. Today AIFS took us to Peterhof, which was absolutely stunning. We had a private bus, which took 1.5 hours. The entire time, we thought it was going to rain and we lamented the bad weather, because we knew the fountains would be so much more beautiful in the sun. When we got there, we saw the palace, which was gorgeous, and waited for the main fountain to be turned on. As they turn on the amazing fountains, music plays. And the whole ordeal is magical. First of all, everything is GOLD

 Once the water turns on, it gets even more spectacular.

They gave us a few tours of the area, including the bath houses, which were super elaborate and looked very relaxing (I want one). Then we had free time, so I took a walk by the Gulf, where I saw a man standing in the wind in nothing but his underwear. Apparently this is common, and it is considered sunbathing, which is odd because it was still cloudy and at that point. Speaking of weather, though, the day ended up being beautiful, despite the yucky morning and reports that predicted heavy rain. By the time I was on my way back along the beach to return to the park, the sun was out and I was warm in my raincoat.
       I then walked around the park and was stunned by how amazing it was. I wish I could go back. There were fountains and trees everywhere. Everything was so clean, elaborate, and overwhelming to the senses. The nature at the park was also beautiful!

In summary, EVERYONE SHOULD SEE THIS PLACE! I had never heard of it before this program, and it is now near (if not at) the top of my list of most amazing places I have ever seen. It made me realize how lucky I am to be studying abroad with AIFS, which takes us on such amazing excursions and I am grateful for the Gilman scholarship, which allowed me to go on this amazing trip. So really, if you are even remotely near here, go see the fountains, but make sure they are on (aka dont come in winter). Also, bring me, because I definitely want to go back someday. 

Volunteering at the Hermitage!

As I mentioned before, I've been volunteering at the Hermitage, which is the main museum here. Whereas last time I greeted people at the entrance, which means I definitely have “hello” and “please take your coat to the cloak room. It is required” down. Although that was fun, and I got a lot of language practice, this past Tuesday was even better because they let us go to the Archaeology department. Even getting there is an amazing experience. You enter the museum feeling special with your volunteer access badge, which lets you (among other things) cut in line, enter where no one else can, and give off the impression that you know what you are doing.  They take you through some exhibits, past these tapestries through a door that says in big scary Russian letters DO NOT ENTER. You then go up a small sketchy spiral staircase with pipes randomly about, through a door that requires an access key (someone had to let us in…we weren’t THAT special).

We then were introduced to the staff and got situated at our work bench. They then put a bunch of pottery fragments in front of us, gave us some instructions, and left us on our own. We couldn’t believe that they were giving student volunteers such liberties with such important archaeological specimens. We felt so professional and quite special to be able to work with pieces from the HERMITAGE! We stayed almost an hour after our shift had ended, and we enjoyed every second of it. They kept asking us if we wanted to go home, and we kept refusing. I would like to brag that Esther and I are beasts and got through so many specimens and they at least acted impressed! When we finally did rip ourselves away (it is finals week), we went to find the lady who worked there to tell her we were leaving. She was in a room full of tools made from stone, bone, and wood. We spent about half an hour drilling her with questions about all the tools, where they were found, how old they are (REALLY old!), what they were used for, etc. She was very nice and answered all our questions. She also let us hold/touch/inspect anything we wanted, which was amazing! I was so happy and felt so fortunate to have the opportunity to gain the kind of archaeological experience that some students dream of by just signing a piece of paper and bringing a copy of my passport. I mean, how cool is it to say that you handled/catalogued specimens from the HERMITAGE museum?! We are going back as soon as we can. I wish I had started earlier! 

Novgorod!

Last Saturday we went to Novgorod, which is 3.5 hours away by bus. We had a nice tour and learned a bit about the history of the city. It has been bombed and destroyed, but it is still there. There were a ton of churches, monuments, and even a beach: 

Ra-Ra-Rasputin, fajitas, and more

Starting off with an amazing interior of the Hermitage

So last Saturday (I am a little behind, sorry) we went to Yusopov's palace, where Rasputin was killed. About half the tour was concentrated on that fateful night, and they even had recreations of the events. Unfortunately, we could not take pictures, but the palace was beautiful. The second half of the tour was all palace interior and we even got an impromptu a capella performance from four very talented men. They sang to demonstrate the excellent acoustics of that particular room. They would have sounded wonderful in a cardboard box, but the acoustics were in fact wonderful. In the palace was a theater. A legit theater. How cool would it be to have a mini Mariinsky theater in your house. Well, technically palace, but still, I was impressed.
    On Tuesday, Austin, Ester, and I went back to the Hermitage to do part II of our attempt to conquer the entire museum! We made some progress, and saw some amazing art. They have two whole rooms of Picasso paintings and a room of Matisse, and a wall full of Kandinsky! This museum is amazing. More on that in a later post.

One of my favorites

      This week I started experimenting with food, because I am getting tired of what I have been eating, so I made fajitas. I know this sort of undermines my attempt to immerse myself into the Russian culture, but they tasted so good. I also made guacamole, which was inspired by my suitemate, who had made it earlier in the week. The habaneros here are actually pretty spicy, which was a pleasant surprise. 

       On Thursday I went to a special Russian Club event that teaches you about Kyrgyzstan and we got to eat some traditional food, which was delicious. A lot of people went, and I had a great time. Friday, we had a field trip for my St. Petersburg class to the musical instruments museum. It is one of the largest musical instruments museums in the world and has lots of cool exhibits like the largest flute in the world, old Russian horns, the precursor to the piano, and a cool instrument that is essentially a bunch of large wine glasses that turn and dip into water so you can run your fingers along the rims and make music out of 'that wine glass noise.' I hope you all know what I am talking about. Anyways they also have a station where you can hear what all of the instruments sound like. Ok Novgorod  and Hermitage volunteer work next time! 

Out a random window. I love this city.

Finland/Estonia

Ok sorry this took so long. Anyways if you want the short version, Finland and Estonia were amazing! There, now you don’t have read the rest of this post :). But really, I loved them both, for different reasons. Ok where to start? We took a BOAT to Finland. AIFS described it as a ferry, but this thing was a cruise ship! It was an overnight ferry (cruise) so we had 4 to a room and I was with my normal suitemates. The rooms were pretty nice and the beds were comfy. A bunch of us stood on the deck for HOURS watching the boat (cruise ship) crash into the ice floating on the Gulf of Finland and we saw a gorgeous sunset.

After the sunset, we realized we had lost sensation in most of our bodies, so we went inside. The boat had plenty of entertainment from casinos to restaurants, a club, a café, a sauna, a movie theater, a performance room, and probably lots of other things that I never saw. The next morning we got a complimentary breakfast and then we got off the boat and were in FINLAND! I was expecting very stern customs officers who would drill me on my reasons for being there, but instead my customs officer smiled at me and asked if I would be doing a lot of shopping in Finland. That pretty much sums up how awesome the people were in Finland. We got a quick tour of Helsinki by a very nice Finnish lady and had an amazing salmon lunch. Then went to our hostel, which was really nice and very close to the gulf of Finland. This is important because later that day two of my suitemates and I SWAM IN THE GULF OF FINLAND!!

It was amazing and SOO much fun! It was cold (duh) but I would do it again in a heartbeat. It wasn’t even that cold when we got out, even though we swam among floating pieces of ice. The rest of the day was spent walking around Helsinki and hanging out in a restaurant/bar called iguana. This place will be important later. We also went to an Ice bar, which was really interesting.

       

     The next day we got up at 5 to go to Tallinn. Tallinn is quite possibly one of the cutest places in the world. We went to the old city, which is straight out of a medieval movie. Mom, if you are reading this, it is pretty much what you wanted Solvang to be. Anyways all the streets were cute, all the buildings were beautiful, and all the people were nice. I cant comment on Estonian food, but the coffee was good. Oh and they had roasted almonds, kind of like what they have in NYC but WAY better and probably cheaper. Anyways we pretty much had the day to wander around the city and it is small enough that you can go around the entire city in about an hour so we just strolled in the sun. That night we went back to Helsinki. 

  The next morning was our last in Helsinki, к сожалению. We went to the modern art museum, which was amazing and they had a special African exhibit, which I very much enjoyed. Then we went back to Iguana, where Jake and I attempted to win an eating competition where you have to eat a very large, very spicy pizza by yourself and then you get your name on their wall of fame. I should say that I attempted, and Jake succeeded. He did a great job, whereas I only finished half. It was a very large pizza. After that, we went back the dock and got back on our cruise ship and sailed (not literally) back home. I slept the entire way back. 

 

Russian Ballet anyone?

Not surprisingly, Russian ballet is even more amazing than one would expect. We all got dressed up and went to the great мариинский theater to see Le Corsaire. For those of you who know me, you know that I clearly know nothing about ballet, so I can’t comment too much on technique (they all looked really great to me), but the show was Amazing! I hardly believed that the figures onstage were human beings, because they were too graceful and beautiful to be mere mortals. The costumes and set pieces were so elaborate and the inner technie in me marveled at the lights and sound. All the dancers were wonderful and flawless (as far as I could tell) and I still cant believe that I was lucky enough to see it.

Bows (the only time we were allowed to take pictures). Picture courtesy of Anna

The theater was amazing!

The next day we had a field trip for my St. Petersburg class. We went to the Library, which has tens of millions of books and a paper catalogue system that requires several rooms. The interiors are gorgeous and they have special rooms for manuscripts, historical artifacts such as the first book printed in St. Petersburg, and famous people’s libraries. I also went with some friends to an abandoned (sort of) lot with some very old-looking, creepy buildings. If I were a film major, I would make it a lifelong goal to shoot a movie. Here are some pictures:

Next post will be about our AIFS excursion to Helsinki, Finland and Tallinn, Estonia! 

City Walks, Orchestra, and Salsa, oh my!

I have been doing a lot of walking this week, mainly because the weather has been nice. I also love walking downtown and I have found this amazing cafe on невский проспект (the main street in the center of the city), near the Hermitage. The prices are very reasonable, their pastries are amazing, and the ambiance is great for doing some work. On Thursday a friend and I went downtown for lunch and then went to the Russian museum again. Here is my favorite painting :

The museum closes pretty early so we headed home at around 6. On the way home, we passed by a protest that people were having near a major metro station (the one we needed). They were chanting "its our city!" in Russian. It didnt look like a huge protest, nor did it look violent, but it was interesting to see (from a distance!).
  On another note, I am still loving my classes! In our conversation class, we are discussing sociological problems. We discussed the criminal justice system here, drug problems, and the moral debate about the death penalty. All in Russian, btw, which is thrilling and I am really proud that we are able to carry out conversations/debates about such complex topics in Russian. This week we are discussing medicine, which means I should probably get around to learning all the body parts, because right now my anatomy vocab is limited.
    On Saturday AIFS took us to see a classical orchestra (so I got to see two this week!) and they were also amazing. They had one opera singer who looked like a stick in a dress, but she had one of the most powerful voices I have ever heard. The conductor looked like he was having a great time, and unlike last weekend's performance, he talked to us between songs. That night it was my friend's birthday party. I met her at one of the interclub meetings I have been going to in order to meet more students in the dorms and practice my Russian so we went Salsa dancing. It was a lot of fun, and I really want to go back sometime soon! Well this week we have a Russian ballet to look forward to as well as a possible jazz club outing for another friend's birthday!

delayed pictures and events

I have been keeping myself pretty busy this week. This past weekend I got to see the Pushkin's apartment and St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra play because Kelcey's mom plays the violin for them. They were so wonderful and the performance was really great! AIFS is taking us to an orchestra this weekend too, so I get two in a week! Yesterday we went to the Russian museum, where the AIFS art history class goes every week. It was really nice, and fairly small, so we were able to see the whole thing in a few hours. Later that night, I went to another grocery store, which has an international foods section so I was able to make tacos last night! They were really good. Today after class, I went back to the Hermitage, the huge museum that in theory takes years to go through. We were there until they closed and we saw one very small section of one floor! We did, however, see the new Spanish exhibit, which was great. We plan on going back often to see how much of it we can see. They started to talk to us about end-of-the-semester business, which is making me realize how quickly this semester has passed and how soon the end is. I really will be sad to leave, and I still have so much to do and see. If there is anything that you have heard about St. Petersburg that you think would be enjoyable, leave a comment and I will try my best to go check it out. Anyways here are the very delayed pictures from spring break:

In the red square in Moscow

Although it was closed, we got to see the outside of Lenin's mausoleum 

                                                        

It is good luck to throw a coin over your shoulder, sort of like a dry wishing well

Tiger at the Russian circus

Norway landscapes are breathtaking, and the entire country is beautiful, from what I could tell

Again, Norway is beautiful!

Spring break part 2

Hey sorry it took me so long to do part 2, we had midterms and I got caught up studying. Anyways where was I? Oh so the train ride back to Oslo from Bodo was beautiful. We had gorgeous weather (again) and we were sad to be leaving Norway....Until we got to Barcelona. We got there in the afternoon and we wandered around the city for a bit before we went to Nidhi's dorm (where we were staying). We saw La Sagrada Familia and took lots of pictures (coming soon!). There was so much sun, which made me so happy. Then we met up with Nidhi at her place (which is amazing) and she and I went out for tapas. I had forgotten how wonderful tapas in Spain were! Later we went to a bar to celebrate St. Patty's day for a bit and then we walked back to her dorm. It was wonderful to walk around without a coat.
   The next morning I caught a morning train to Tarragona. It was so wonderful to be back. Not much had changed and the best part was seeing my host parents waiting for me at their flat. Words cant describe how happy I was to see them. We walked around the city a little bit and then had a delicious seafood lunch! As they did when I was with them in high school, they fed me very well. We had delicious Tarragona seafood, amazing Spanish ham, and STRAWBERRIES! We caught up for 3 hours and surprisingly, we had a seamless conversation (I thought I would have forgotten all my spanish). They told me I was always welcome to come back because it was my home too. I was so sad to leave them again, but I hope to be able to return soon. I also met up with Nina, the director of IH (the program through which I went to Spain in high school) and met her adorable daughter Emma. It was so great to see old family and friends, but in the afternoon I had to go back to Barca. One day was not nearly enough. Also, we lucked out and got the first sunny day in a week. And it was REALLY sunny!
    Anyways the next morning we had to get up at 4am to catch a bus to the airport to fly to Oslo to fly to Tallinn to take a bus to St. Petersburg. Immigration was way less painful than I thought it would be and even though I miss Spain terribly, it does feel good to be back home. 

Moscow-Tallinn-Oslo-Bodo-Oslo-Barcelona-Tarragona-Barcelona-Oslo-Tallinn-St. Petersburg

...no joke, thats what we did. I have spent more time on a train in the past week than I have in a very long time. Surprisingly, though, I am not that tired. We got back last night at around 11. I made a simple dinner (I didnt have much food left...need to go to the store today), unpacked, cleaned up, and then went to bed. But as for the trip, it was absolutely amazing. I still cant believe that it happened and that it was only 1 week.
      So the trip started in Moscow. They took us on an overnight train, which was really nice. We did a lot of touring around the red square and the downtown area and we went to see the circus. The second day we went to the Kremlin. Unfortunately, we had to leave after that because we had to catch our train to Tallinn. I barely got to see Moscow, which is really sad, and I hope to be able to spend more time there. I can say that the people there were SO nice. I had heard that people were a bit colder and meaner in Moscow, but I experienced the opposite. Also, more people spoke English and they seemed to have more western things like Starbucks. Anyways we took a 15 hour train ride from Moscow to Tallinn. I actually slept a lot, so it didnt feel that long. They gave us tea and there were extra seats so we could spread out and lie down across several seats. It was an overnight train, and we happened to get to the border at some ungodly hour, like 4 am or something like that. Doing immigration while half asleep is never a good idea. They were very strict and took our passports, migration cards, visas, and registrations, which made me nervous because AIFS has been stressing to never part with them if we want to return to Russia after the break. They asked several questions about our travels and our stay in Russia, but eventually we made it. We were in Tallinn for a few hours then we flew to Oslo, where we waited in a ghost town called Rygge (seriously, I ran around looking for people, and EVERYTHING was deserted) until we could go to the train station, which was incredible. I found a place with thai food and talked to the owners (in broken Thai) for a bit. I even got some spicy Thai food which made my tongue rejoice! We were amazed at how different Western Europe is from Russia. Everything just seemed nicer, the fruit was fresh, everyone spoke English, and (of course) prices skyrocketed. We then spent the next day on various trains to Bodo (pronounced Buda) and the scenery was beautiful. Side, note, it looks like this will be a long post so I will do a separate one for pictures. Scenery in Norway is in a league of its own. EVERYTHING was beautiful.
   When we got to Bodo, we were met by Kelcey's friend's boyfriend Martin. He drove us back to his apartment, where we showered and chilled for a little bit. We sort of helped make dinner, which was an amazing salad, homemade pasta with some of the most amazing sauce I've ever had, and bread. Dinner was extraordinary, especially since we had been eating instant noodles and snack foods on the trains. Martin and Hanna were so nice, as was their friend who joined us for dinner. It was so great to talk to them. They were so welcoming and warm, even though we had just met and I hope to meet them again. Martin plays for an orchestra that sometimes travels and I told him that he should try to make it to SF! We went for a night hike to try to see the norther lights, but it was too cloudy. The hike was still really nice though. The next morning, we went on a 2 hour day hike, which was EXTRAORDINARILY GORGEOUS! Wait for the pictures. We had to stop every 5 mins to marvel at our surroundings and take pictures. After the hike, we went back to the apartment and had lunch (fishcakes, bread, and another salad, which had avocado) and talked with Martin a bit. We were about to leave, and he let us make salmon sandwiches for the train ride back. We were so grateful and the sandwiches were delicious. Then we began the day long journey back to Oslo to fly to Spain. Ok wow this post is a monster. I'll continue it in another because there is still a lot to say. 

On my way out

Hey all, we leave for Moscow tonight, and from there I leave for Norway (then later Barcelona) for spring break, so expect many pictures when I get back next Sunday. Until then!

I sat in a park downtown and watched the sunset, which was gorgeous 

масленица

масленица is a wonderful Russian holiday when people come together to celebrate and eat blini. Blini are like crepes, and by like, I mean they are. We literally cannot tell the difference. So on Sunday, we all went to Pavlovsk (which is about an hour away) to celebrate масленица! It was really fun and gorgeous. They gave us a tour of the palace there and then gave us 4 hours to enjoy the festivities. I had an amazing time and it just so happened that the trip coincided with my birthday, and I was so glad to be in the middle of a Russian festival (especially one so focused on eating). 

Even without the festival, it still would have been a great excursion because the area was so beautiful

Kids on sleds EVERYWHERE!

AMAZING шашлик. We had to stand in line forever, but it was completely worth it

Yes, that is a reindeer. 

I love Russia

This was a straw doll that represents winter and cold so during масленица they burn it to represent the end of winter

So many people

Towards the end of the burning. Afterwards, we had to run to make it to the meeting point on time. It wasnt necessarily far, but we had to trudge through thigh-high snow, so I was exhausted.

I really could not have asked for a better way to celebrate my birthday and I'm so glad that our program took us there. I found a recipe for blini, so I may attempt to make them sometime soon. Oh and sorry I didnt take a picture of my blini, I ate it too quickly. But really, they are just crepes. And they are delicious. 

кладбище

...is the word for cemetery in Russian. It would have been  helpful to know when Aleks and I decided to look for the particular cemetery where Dostoevsky was buried, as we got a little lost, but did not know the word for "cemetery".
       So on Tuesday we decided that we wanted to go on our own little excursion and we had both heard of a small cemetery attached to a monastery off of the green line. We decided to check it out and the one little excursion ended up spanning two days. So on the first day, we got there and wandered a bit, only to find that the cemetery with the famous people closes at 5, and we had arrived a little after then. Wanting to make the most of our journey, we wandered around the smaller cemetery, which ended up being beautiful. We wandered around and then found a church, which was the highlight of my day. We  had to cover our heads (luckily we both had scarves on) but we got to see one of the most beautiful churches I have even been in. It was a functioning church, so we obviously couldnt take pictures, but the interior was truly breathtaking (Talisa, you might have melted a little). Everything was so intricate and colorful and the CEILINGS were magical.

The smaller cemetery

The outside of the Church, which does not do justice to the magnificent inside

grave

So today (Wednesday), we went back, since we had more time in the afternoon. With our student cards, admission was really cheap (50 rubles, which equates to a little under $2) and we marveled at this amazing cemetery:

Dostoevsky. Literally, he is buried there.

Where Tchaikovsky is buried. You can see his name in Russian behind me

                            

                                                  I think snow makes everything prettier, especially snow this wonderful

So the excursion was a success. We had a great time, saw some famous people's burial sights, and got to see an amazing monastery, church, and cemetery. After that, I went for a very lovely walk until it got dark, then I came home and made dinner. 

Menshikov's palace

Its officially the first day of spring! We can actually tell, because it is much warmer. The sad part of this story is that we are still in the negatives, but I swear, its pretty warm here. So I've been a little slow about posting, but I also dont want to do one long post about all the events I've been doing for the past week so I'm limiting this post to Menshikov's palace. I'll do the rest on another post.
    As some of you know, I am taking a course about the culture and history of St. Petersburg. Since we have the rare opportunity to actually be in the city we are studying, we get to go on excursions every couple of classes. Our first one was to Menshikov's palace, which is supposedly not open to the public, which is pretty cool. I paid for a photo pass, so I went a little crazy with the pictures. Here are just a few:

A group of us from the St. Petersburg class

A very cool-looking desk inside Menshikov's palace

There were several rooms that were completely made of porcelain, even the ceilings! 

As Sam said, "to prove that we were actually here!"

A really awesome seashell cup that Menshikov used to drink out of. It was supposedly his favorite

Russian ceilings are absolutely incredible.We spend most of our tours looking up.

Again, beautiful ceilings 

Our view on the way back home after the museum. Leaving St. Petersburg is going to be so hard