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!