Only in Russia

I should know by now that anything and everything I do in Russia is a new adventure. I brought my application to the Hermitage expecting to drop it off and have an interview or a conversation about scheduling. I was immediately photographed and asked to work that evening. I finally understood that a preview of a new sculpture exhibit by Antony Gormley was being held in the evening after the museum had closed.  I was instructed to stand outside the gates of the Museum, welcome guests, and check for their invitations. For a split second, I was delighted because interacting with and assisting people is work I really enjoy; I also had a fantastic experience doing that this summer (Thanks Kajsa!). I was jarred back to reality when I realized I overlooked one important detail: I needed to speak Russian. I was able to think of two useful Russian phrases that I kept repeating over and over, “Good evening, do you have an invitation?” and “Thank you, please proceed to the museum”. However, I was completely useless when trying to explain that the museum was closed and that an event was taking place. I was even more helpless when someone would ask me a question or ignore my request to see their invitation and kept walking. Even if I understood the question, I didn’t have the information or the Russian words to help! The other girl with me accidently asked a policeman for his invitation, and she got the death glare of the century! What a frustrating yet wonderful night.
We were then brought up to the exhibit and were able to look around. I ended up chatting with Antony Gormley’s brother about the peculiarities of Russia and about museums in general. It was comforting to have one conversation of the night that was not in broken Russian, and he and his brother were lively and congenial!  When I got home, I did some research and found out that this is the first time a living artist has had an exhibit in the Hermitage Museum. How fortunate I am to have opportunities like this even if some of the art displayed horribly confused me.

Bananas Galore

My Russian family is home from the dacha! I think my host mom was happy to see me and liked the present I brought her from Valaam. They brought pounds and pounds of mushrooms back. She changed my sheets and let me wash my clothes, so I am content. I also no longer have to microwave cold meals everyday. Considering the fact I have never had a microwave, I am especially happy about this turn of events. Every time I used it I was terrified that I was going to blow up the whole apartment!

I had the funniest conversation with my host brother, Grisha, today. He walked in wearing a Yankees cap, and I told him they were my favorite team (turns out he doesn’t like any team, just loves baseball in general). I tried explaining to him for about ten minutes that my great-great-great-great grandfather’s cousin invented baseball, but he just looked really confused and shrugged and nodded a lot (I wasn’t about to explain that now it is considered just a “legend” because who believes that anyways? Not me!). This was frustrating because if I was able to explain it successfully I think he would have found it very interesting. I then gave him postcards of the Baseball Hall of Fame and told him that it was located in my town. He found that much more exciting. At least I tried.

Over these past few weeks, I have found my interactions in public fascinating. Sometimes, people will come up to me and ask me directions in broken English. More frequently, however, they will address me as “devushka” and ask directions in rapid Russian. I am flattered that they think I am a local, but I feel sorry for them for picking me to ask for directions. I am often with my friend Tanya who lives a few minutes away from me and is a heritage speaker. Whenever I am with her, we are addressed in Russian. But today I went by myself to чайная ложка to get my weekly dose of Lox and Cream Cheese and before I opened my mouth, the waiter said “one minute please” and handed me an English menu. How can I look local to some and so foreign to others?

In other news, my classes at the university are fascinating, but the work is extremely tedious. It will take me hours to do homework that is meant to take fifteen minutes. Each class is 1 ½ hours long and to pay active attention to every Russian word for such a long period of time is challenging and discouraging. If I zone out for a second, I am lost for the next ten minutes (often I am confused anyways). I really don’t have a lot of challenging homework, but it takes me SO long to complete what I have. Right now, I feel like my Russian has gotten worse. I am horribly confused with grammar because I am not used to their style of teaching, and their examples are terribly unclear. I find myself often resorting back to my poorly-scribbled notes from last year, which are much easier to understand. I think it will get better with time. This week was already better than the last. 

On my way back from class today, I found this wonderful Russian gem. 

A banana vending machine. No joke. It only sells bananas. It is also refrigerated at a temperature of 12.5 degrees Celsius. I have never been a banana fan, but this machine made me want to give them a second chance. Here are a few of banana animations on the side of the machine. 

I had to take a picture because I knew no one would believe me! Russia never ceases to amaze me.

"Cheese of Philadelphia"

Well, I lasted almost two weeks in Russia without being sick. On the bright side, I don’t feel like doing much of anything besides writing a blog post!

This weekend, we had an excursion to the island of Valaam. We took a ship overnight on Lake Lagoda (the largest lake in Europe) to the islands. Here is the view of the lake from my window.

What an incredible place! First, we went on a tour of the sketes and then took a smaller boat to the island with the monastery. The tour was more like a hike through the woods, and we would come upon a church or a farm or a monk’s living quarters almost out of nowhere. I would love to live somewhere like this one day.

This is the iconostasis of the Church of the Resurrection on the first island. 

This is one of the buildings that housed monks. There were flower beds all around!

All of our tours were in Russian, and I barely understood what our tour guide was saying unless she was explaining something extremely simple. It proved to be extremely frustrating because I was very interested in the details.  I had heard of Valaam all my life but never realized how special of a place it is. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the monastery, but I took a quick picture of the outside.

 The main church was incredible! The basement church had beautiful icons including the Valaam icon of the Mother of God.  The Upstairs Church was covered in stunning light frescos. It felt a little like Jordanville, which was so nice. I think the overall feeling of tranquility and calmness on the island is captured in this snapshot of a monk that I took as we were leaving.

 It was a refreshing and relaxing trip in general, and it was wonderful to get away from the city and the cigarette smoke for a few days. 

In other news, I have officially been here for two weeks! For almost half of that time, my host family has been at the dacha (usually a little hut or house in the countryside). However, they never told me they were going. But when food was left on the table mysteriously for me and I heard snoring every morning, I realized that one of the brothers was still at home. There is a chance they told me they were going, and I just didn’t understand. My host mom will talk to me for hours on end about her friends, her family’s history, and her back problems. However, since I only understand a minimal amount I do a lot of smiling and mimicking of her emotions and then zone out for a few minutes at a time. However, I am really glad she talks with me because any exposure to the language is good. 

Since I am under the weather, I tried to find some comfort food to make myself feel better and was surprisingly successful! If you know me at all, you know that my absolute favorite food is a bagel with cream cheese and lox. Yesterday, I found a restaurant that sold blini with lox and cream cheese (cream cheese is IMPOSSIBLE to find in Russia). The cream cheese was called “cheese of Philadelphia”, and I was immediately overjoyed. Oh, the little things I miss. Most things that I can’t find I have just learned to live without. Unfortunately, there is one thing I am having trouble without and that is looseleaf, college rule paper. It sounds silly, but it is impossible to find. All my notebooks are tiny (pamphlet sized) and have graphing paper inside. I sat down to do my homework and memorize my vocabulary and did not know what to do without paper. I think I will just buy printer paper, but it isn’t the same. Considering  that this is the biggest thing I have to complain about, life is pretty good! :)

Gypsy Cab or Metro? I'll take the Metro

There are a few types of transportation available in St. Petersburg. There are trams (which are public busses that have a set schedule and itinerary though there is no schedule EVER available to look at online or at the stops). There are cabs and gypsy cabs (gypsy cabs are basically bored men who drive around the city in beat up cars offering cheap rides to people).  There also are marshrutkas, which are minivans that have specific routes. There are no signs saying “marshrutkas stop here”. You just need to know. However, I don’t know these things yet so I am sticking with the metro. Thankfully, according to my host mom, it is the fastest transportation option for me, and there are three metro lines about a minute walk from my apartment. 

In New York City, the metros are filthy, poorly lit, and never on time. They always have water dripping from the ceiling and graffiti on the walls. It’s so different in Russia. The underground stations are well-lit, beautiful, and safe. Unlike America, they are extremely prompt. My host brother took me to school on the first day to show me the way. We barely missed the first train, so I asked him how frequently they run. He looked at me like I had six heads for asking that question and about one minute later another one arrived! At every line, there is a huge board listing what stations have passed and which are next so it is virtually impossible to get lost (YAY!). 

There are some definite downsides to riding metro. Because it is so prompt, the doors are open for a very short period of time. People pile off and pile on and shove and push violently in the process. In the mornings especially, it is so busy that there is a good chance you won’t get on or off if you do not strategically place yourself by the entrance/exit (today my arm got stuck in the door!). I know this is true in NYC and DC as well but it is ridiculous in St. Pete’s. Today, someone shoved me so hard my shoe fell off! It was hanging over the edge between the ground and the train. I barely grabbed it before it fell off. Since it is so crowded, it is a common place to be pickpocketed so I am always very paranoid about my belongings.

Since the trains must travel below the canals, they are far underground. At almost every metro station, there is a three minute, yes three minute, escalator ride to the trains. Here is a picture of the ride up that I took very sneakily one day.

In the mornings, I get off at Chernishevskaya, a very popular station. Since the escalators are the only way to get in and out of the metro, the crowds of people who line up seem to me like herded cattle stuck in a raging mosh pit. I stood back and took a picture of the crowd this morning. All those people are trying to get on the two tiny escalators! I had to take pictures very subtly because not only does that target me as a tourist ready to be pickpocketed but also it is illegal to take pictures on the metros in Russia!

Yesterday, a woman at the metro made my day! Usually on the streets and in public situations, people never ever, ever, ever smile, and I have learned to put on a “metro face” in public. Yesterday, I tried buying a metro pass for the month. I was trying so hard to remember how to decline the number with the right noun etc etc and was miserably failing. I was about to give up when the woman started smiling and giggling because I was trying so hard. I was SHOCKED. She was then extremely helpful and made useful hand motions and spoke very slowly. I was so excited that someone smiled! I was so happy that it didn’t even bother me last night that the drunk man was singing on his balalaika again outside my window on the canal all night.

So Glad I Bought a Camera

I was hoping to add pictures to my last post but never got a chance. Here are a few pictures from my first few days!

This is my university in Smolny. It was originally founded in 1764 as a school for noble women.

This is St. Isaac's Cathedral. It is the largest cathedral in the city. Ironically, in Soviet times, it was turned into a museum of atheism. It is now open for services only on major feast days, but one can pay to climb the stairs to the top and look out on the city.

Here is the Hermitage-my favorite place so far!

Finally, here I am standing next to a statue of Zeus in the Hermitage.

Finally have internet

September 2

I finally have a chance to write a blog post! I just moved into my host family’s apartment a few hours ago, and jet lag and my babushka’s loud voice are prohibiting me from sleeping.

My first international flight went very well. I sat next to a German 7^th Day Adventist Pastor, and we both tried speaking together in Russian. All went smoothly until I arrived in Moscow. We arrived around 8:10, and my transfer flight left at 9:40. I had to go through passport control, reclaim my baggage, get a new boarding pass, and go through security, which I thought would be no problem. By the time I found the correct line for my boarding pass it was 920, and the woman at the desk yelled at me saying I had to pay more for my baggage (of course I didn’t understand her AT ALL). I had to go to a separate office to pay, then find an ATM to change rubles, pay 1600 ruble fine –which is ridiculous, find some other lady to pay her, get back in the original line, and prove to this woman that I paid. Needless to say, I got on the plane about two minutes before takeoff carrying my shoes and belt from the security checkpoint.

After landing in St. Petersburg, we stayed in a hotel called “Park Inn” by Ramada (not very Russian, eh?). They served the exact same meal for all meals! Until yesterday, I didn’t even feel like I was in Russia because we spent most of our time in the hotel, which was on the outskirts of the city. Yesterday, we went on a city bus tour of the city and saw the most popular sites of St. Pete’s.  I can’t wait to explore the sites from outside a bus! The weather here varies by the minute. One moment it is sunny and the next raining very hard.

As I mentioned, today I was dropped off at my host family’s apartment. I met a man named Grisha who brought me to this tiny door on a side street. He brought me to a elevator covered in graffiti, which only fit one person at a time. When I reached the fourth floor, an old lady Lubov (Grisha’s mother) met me and kindly invited me in. My room is MUCH bigger than I imagined-twice the size of my single at school. They gave me five hangers for my clothes and the biggest key I have ever seen in my entire life for the apartment. I have two big windows and a view of the canal right outside. Grisha speaks some English and told me he works in “show bizness” for a music band. After he left, Lubov explained to me in Russian that she used to teach Russian language and literature for many years. She then told me her family’s whole history (how her grandson is the 7^th generation to live in St. Petersburg). She also told me ALL of her friends and their occupations and was really proud that she had two friends in America. She is the nicest lady but speaks so quickly and is missing front teeth both top and bottom so it makes it very difficult for me to understand her. I was so exhausted that I just smiled and said “da” “xorosho” and sometimes didn’t bother explaining that I didn’t understand. The only thing I think I understood was that I am in her old room and if I eat cereal or kasha I have to flush it down the toilet. It is now around 1:30 am, and she is watching Russian TV loudly and talking on the phone to a friend about me (but I have no idea what she is saying!)

September 3-

Today we went to the Hermitage! With my студенческый билет (my student ID), I can get into almost any museum for free (We were still harassed by the employees for being Americans). What an incredible place! To think that one family would live in such a huge palace and only for part of the year. Every room was more spectacular than the last. I took about 400 pictures and only saw about 1/3 of the museum. There is everything from Michelangelo statues and Rembrandt paintings to icons and furniture of the palace. One of my favorite parts was the Ancient Greek and Roman section where the Classics Major inside of me started geeking out. Through CIEE, I also have the opportunity to volunteer there this semester!

After our excursion, we ate our first Russian blini! I could eat it all the time. My host brother Grisha met me to take me home and showed me around. I live ten minutes walking distance from St. Isaac’s Chapel, Nevsky Prospekt (the main street in the city), Gostini Dvor, Kazanski Cathedral, the Church of Spilt Blood, Hermitage, and the Russian Museum-all the main attractions of the city. My window overlooks a canal and in less than a minute I can walk to Sennaya Ploshad, a square with three metros, supermarkets, McDonalds (which is very popular here and healthier), Subway, FOUR shoe stores, sushi bars (also very popular in St. Petersburg), and almost anything else I could possibly need.

I like my host mom more and more every day. She served me dinner today but didn’t stay to chat because she was absolutely dying to watch an American romance movie in Russian. The dinner, borsht and bread, reminded me of Jordanville trapeza. Lubov is very patient when I don’t understand something (which is more than not) and tries explaining what she is trying to say in a different way. I think my Russian will greatly improve by speaking with her.

Tomorrow I have my placement exam. Hopefully, I will remember most of my grammar and place with my classmates from UofR. That's all for now!