One last post to let everyone know I made it safely back to the US. I actually arrived on Wednesday night, but the wireless internet wasn't set up until a couple of days ago, and there was an incident with my laptop involving a glass of apricot juice.
Anyway, thanks for following along!! It was quite the adventure. And now I move on to find even more adventures. Feel free to send me an email or give me a call!
Monday, May 28, 2007
Monday, May 21, 2007
heading out
Time to pack up the computer and head out to find a taxi and then a plane. What a crazy adventure this has been!!! Looking forward to seeing all of you in person back in the land of burritos and air conditioning...
:)
:)
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Russian BBQ
Once again, Kiev didn't happen. This time there wasn't enough interest and the timing was just plain horrible. I kind of wish I got to go to Kiev, but I guess this means I'll just have to come back to this part of the world and visit some other time!
Today was pretty awesome, though. It was Dima's birthday, and he invited the group out to his cousin's dacha a bit west of Moscow. (A dacha is like a summer cottage, but it's more like a small nice-ish house-type thing with a small yard that is by definition in a particularly un-useful location.)
It went something like this. This morning I met with my physics professor one last time to get my final homework back. There was no final or anything...he just told me that I don't think physically about problems very well and instead just try to use math and formulas. Interesting assessment that I don't quite agree with, but I do see where he's coming from.
Then around 11:45 I headed to the metro to meet people at the metro stop Fili, and it took nearly an hour to get there all told. We hurriedly bought tickets for the "electrichka" (electric train) and crammed into an already-full HOT train car. It was 80 degrees today, all day, and not only does Russia not believe in air conditioning, it apparently doesn't believe in deodorant either. Whew. So that was a long, hot, sweaty 40+ minute standing train ride.
When we finally got off the train around 2pm, we were clearly outside Moscow. You can tell because there are individual (albeit typically small and run-down) houses, a pothole-ridden road with no form of public transportation, and piles of litter in boggy areas on either side of said road. So we set off walking...for at least 30 minutes. In the hot sun. We go through the most random alleys and fenced-off areas. It's like suburbia America only poor, and everyone has crappy fences and no one has garbage collection.
Anyway. It's about 2:30 by now and we encounter a couple walking towards us who turns out to be Dima's cousin's parents, the owners of the dacha we're headed to! They lead us the rest of the way. Their plot of land is small but cozy in a very Russian sort of way. The grass is unruly and smattered with dandelions. The dacha itself has light green cheap siding and is two stories, but quite small, probably 1.5 to 2 times the size of the Krislocks' summer cabin on Spirit Lake. There is a small backyard with what looks to be a garden and a tree, as well as a brown building that we learn houses two things: a toilet and a BANYA!! (go google that right now if you don't know what it is. basically a 100C+ steam room followed by a freezing cold shower, but that doesn't begin to describe it.)
It was a 100% Russian afternoon. I didn't go in the banya myself because I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt...only three of the guys did it since it wasn't awkward at all to just sit around soaking wet in their boxers afterwards. We played durak (Russian card game). We played darts. They played badmitton with a whiffle ball while I tried to read a book and kept getting pelted with the whiffle ball. There were about 12-15 people in total, half of which were Russian friends of Dima's cousin, so there was very much a language split but it made the whole thing even more authentic. Then we had a BBQ using coal (not charcoal) which smelled gross, but cooked the chicken just fine. There was authentic black bread, homemade vinegret, and some kind of weird Korean carrot dish that prompted the Russians to get the English words "Korean" and "carrot" confused much to everyone's amusement.
After a fantastic time, most of the American group headed out around 6pm, and I only got back to my room at 8:30. Now I am eating a ridiculous amount of chocolate ice cream and just relaxing, because I'm exhausted. This was the first time in MONTHS I'd actually been out in the sun! So I kind of feel like you do after a long day at the beach, just exhausted from having gotten so much sun, even though it wasn't nearly enough to get tanned or burned.
Just one more full day in Moscow. Shall include packing and possibly a trip to Gorky Park to ride roller coasters. I keep noticing little things I'm going to miss or little things I'm looking forward to, but never consciously enough to take note. Jenna says she misses three things: customer service, mexican food, and pedicures. Couldn't have said it better myself, though pedicures probably woudn't be #3 on my list.
And now for some pictures (warning - there are a lot!):
Today was pretty awesome, though. It was Dima's birthday, and he invited the group out to his cousin's dacha a bit west of Moscow. (A dacha is like a summer cottage, but it's more like a small nice-ish house-type thing with a small yard that is by definition in a particularly un-useful location.)
It went something like this. This morning I met with my physics professor one last time to get my final homework back. There was no final or anything...he just told me that I don't think physically about problems very well and instead just try to use math and formulas. Interesting assessment that I don't quite agree with, but I do see where he's coming from.
Then around 11:45 I headed to the metro to meet people at the metro stop Fili, and it took nearly an hour to get there all told. We hurriedly bought tickets for the "electrichka" (electric train) and crammed into an already-full HOT train car. It was 80 degrees today, all day, and not only does Russia not believe in air conditioning, it apparently doesn't believe in deodorant either. Whew. So that was a long, hot, sweaty 40+ minute standing train ride.
When we finally got off the train around 2pm, we were clearly outside Moscow. You can tell because there are individual (albeit typically small and run-down) houses, a pothole-ridden road with no form of public transportation, and piles of litter in boggy areas on either side of said road. So we set off walking...for at least 30 minutes. In the hot sun. We go through the most random alleys and fenced-off areas. It's like suburbia America only poor, and everyone has crappy fences and no one has garbage collection.
Anyway. It's about 2:30 by now and we encounter a couple walking towards us who turns out to be Dima's cousin's parents, the owners of the dacha we're headed to! They lead us the rest of the way. Their plot of land is small but cozy in a very Russian sort of way. The grass is unruly and smattered with dandelions. The dacha itself has light green cheap siding and is two stories, but quite small, probably 1.5 to 2 times the size of the Krislocks' summer cabin on Spirit Lake. There is a small backyard with what looks to be a garden and a tree, as well as a brown building that we learn houses two things: a toilet and a BANYA!! (go google that right now if you don't know what it is. basically a 100C+ steam room followed by a freezing cold shower, but that doesn't begin to describe it.)
It was a 100% Russian afternoon. I didn't go in the banya myself because I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt...only three of the guys did it since it wasn't awkward at all to just sit around soaking wet in their boxers afterwards. We played durak (Russian card game). We played darts. They played badmitton with a whiffle ball while I tried to read a book and kept getting pelted with the whiffle ball. There were about 12-15 people in total, half of which were Russian friends of Dima's cousin, so there was very much a language split but it made the whole thing even more authentic. Then we had a BBQ using coal (not charcoal) which smelled gross, but cooked the chicken just fine. There was authentic black bread, homemade vinegret, and some kind of weird Korean carrot dish that prompted the Russians to get the English words "Korean" and "carrot" confused much to everyone's amusement.
After a fantastic time, most of the American group headed out around 6pm, and I only got back to my room at 8:30. Now I am eating a ridiculous amount of chocolate ice cream and just relaxing, because I'm exhausted. This was the first time in MONTHS I'd actually been out in the sun! So I kind of feel like you do after a long day at the beach, just exhausted from having gotten so much sun, even though it wasn't nearly enough to get tanned or burned.
Just one more full day in Moscow. Shall include packing and possibly a trip to Gorky Park to ride roller coasters. I keep noticing little things I'm going to miss or little things I'm looking forward to, but never consciously enough to take note. Jenna says she misses three things: customer service, mexican food, and pedicures. Couldn't have said it better myself, though pedicures probably woudn't be #3 on my list.
And now for some pictures (warning - there are a lot!):
 |
| 05-2007 |
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
one week?
I've got less than that much time left here, and it's a little odd!
Today was my first "last thing" - I went to my last Chamber Orchestra rehearsal. Got pictures with the group and they gave me a CD of the concert I played in. That was one thing that worked out SO well...count on music to bring it all together when nothing else does. Here's the picture -
Yeah, so, for some reason half the people aren't completely in the picture and the other half aren't smiling. Oh, Russia. Anyway, this is most of the Chamber Orchestra I've been playing with all semester - there are probably a half dozen not in the picture. Of note: the guy next to me who you can't see is Andrei, a fellow violist. The other violist wasn't at rehearsal tonight, her name's Inna. Also Sasha, the head of the group, is the guy on the right with his violin.
Also today, going chronologically backwards just for kicks, I ate a quick lunch at the cafe. And since I knew what I wanted, I just told the waitress when she brought me the menu: caesar salad with chicken, broccoli soup, and peach juice. (I swear I still can't quite say "peach" right, it's kind of annoying, but they didn't have any so I asked for apple instead, which I *can* say.) Then out comes my salad. You never know what order they'll bring stuff in. A few minutes later, she brings me my apple juice and...a plate of blini with cream, peaches, and jam. Uhhhh that is not broccoli soup. But I didn't say anything because (a) I was in a hurry, (b) I'd had this before and it was quite good, albeit dessert-y, and (c) I didn't want to admit I had apparently ordered blini when I thought I ordered soup. The words are nothing alike. Half of me wonders if the waitress just decided to play a joke on me to see how I'd react. At any rate, the moral: it's back to pointing at menus.
I also learned that Russians can't handle digital cameras. You'd think with random tech stores at every third metro stop selling digital cameras back to back, many Russians would own digital cameras or at LEAST have seen one and maybe even used one before. But good heavens, when I asked for a picture with my physics prof this morning I swear it was about the end of the world. (It wasn't easy at orchestra either, but that was nothing compared to this.) I gave my camera to a woman professor who always comes into the room we have class in towards the end to set up for her lab. They had to babble in Russian for at least 30 seconds to figure out "look at the screen and push the button." And then it took her two tries because of the slight flash delay. Oi. Here is the result -
Me with Sergei Nikolaevich Gorshkov, my Thermal Physics professor.
And now it's time for bed pretty soon, because the rest of this week will continue to be busy and I still have no idea if I have weekend plans or not. So it goes. :)
Today was my first "last thing" - I went to my last Chamber Orchestra rehearsal. Got pictures with the group and they gave me a CD of the concert I played in. That was one thing that worked out SO well...count on music to bring it all together when nothing else does. Here's the picture -
Yeah, so, for some reason half the people aren't completely in the picture and the other half aren't smiling. Oh, Russia. Anyway, this is most of the Chamber Orchestra I've been playing with all semester - there are probably a half dozen not in the picture. Of note: the guy next to me who you can't see is Andrei, a fellow violist. The other violist wasn't at rehearsal tonight, her name's Inna. Also Sasha, the head of the group, is the guy on the right with his violin.
Also today, going chronologically backwards just for kicks, I ate a quick lunch at the cafe. And since I knew what I wanted, I just told the waitress when she brought me the menu: caesar salad with chicken, broccoli soup, and peach juice. (I swear I still can't quite say "peach" right, it's kind of annoying, but they didn't have any so I asked for apple instead, which I *can* say.) Then out comes my salad. You never know what order they'll bring stuff in. A few minutes later, she brings me my apple juice and...a plate of blini with cream, peaches, and jam. Uhhhh that is not broccoli soup. But I didn't say anything because (a) I was in a hurry, (b) I'd had this before and it was quite good, albeit dessert-y, and (c) I didn't want to admit I had apparently ordered blini when I thought I ordered soup. The words are nothing alike. Half of me wonders if the waitress just decided to play a joke on me to see how I'd react. At any rate, the moral: it's back to pointing at menus.
I also learned that Russians can't handle digital cameras. You'd think with random tech stores at every third metro stop selling digital cameras back to back, many Russians would own digital cameras or at LEAST have seen one and maybe even used one before. But good heavens, when I asked for a picture with my physics prof this morning I swear it was about the end of the world. (It wasn't easy at orchestra either, but that was nothing compared to this.) I gave my camera to a woman professor who always comes into the room we have class in towards the end to set up for her lab. They had to babble in Russian for at least 30 seconds to figure out "look at the screen and push the button." And then it took her two tries because of the slight flash delay. Oi. Here is the result -
Me with Sergei Nikolaevich Gorshkov, my Thermal Physics professor.
And now it's time for bed pretty soon, because the rest of this week will continue to be busy and I still have no idea if I have weekend plans or not. So it goes. :)
Monday, May 14, 2007
the weekend
Unfortunately, the Kiev trip was cancelled at the last minute because Irina is sick. So it looks like I may not make it to Kiev, though there's still a possibility we might go next weekend. The only thing is, my plane ticket home is on 5/21 departing Moscow at 2:20pm, so depending on the timing of trains and how long it takes to officially "check out" of this country, that may be cutting it close. Stay tuned as always.
So I had a rather unexpected lazy weekend! That doesn't mean it wasn't welcome, though. To start, Politology didn't happen on Friday when the professor simply didn't show up. I was already planning to meet Laura that afternoon to go to a souvenir market, so I did, and just as that adventure began I wound up text messaging half a dozen people about rescheduling Politology for next week. Oi. And then it started to rain. The good news was, I got a few things at the market and then Laura and I ate at му-му! All in all not a bad Friday (minus the waking up early for a class to be cancelled part).
Then Saturday was the grayest, gloomiest day you've ever seen. I slept until 1pm or so and ate a leisurely meal at the cafe while doing a bit of homework and reading. Then I wrestled with my computer for a while and Skyped Mike, Dad, and Lynne for a total of about 3 hours. Yep, that was Saturday.
Today, Sunday, was looking to be similar to Saturday except the weather was nice! Around 5pm, Laura texted me asking if I wanted to join her on a boat tour of Moscow. This seemed pretty random, but hey I'm all for random things, so off I went. It was great! It really helped tie Moscow together in my mind, since when you travel everywhere by metro you don't really get a good idea of where stuff is relative to other stuff. We went along the Moscow river from Kievskaya metro station all the way to Proletarskaya, weaving our way through the center of the city. Took a ton of pictures that I'll eventually post online. That took a good 2 hours (not including finding each other, finding the place where the boats left, and buying tickets - another hour or two) and then it was 9pm. We were starving, so back to metro Universityet we went and into the Ramstore mall for dinner. I had Rostik's KFC (a chain vaguely associated with KFC but not as good, though their "zinger" sandwich isn't bad) and she had a piece of pizza and blini from Teremok. A very excellent afternoon/evening.
Soon I'm heading to bed, because tomorrow I actually need to get stuff done. In the next week there's a lot to accomplish, and a fair amount going on. I need to complete my astronomy research, do some homework for Thermal Physics and Russian Language, and come up with a presentation for Russian Studies Seminar. Nothing's scheduled for Monday, but that should keep me busy. Then I have two class on Tuesday plus I'm going to go to orchestra to tell everyone thank you and good bye. There's a make-up Politology class scheduled for Wednesday and I'll probably also have my last astronomy research meeting that day. In addition to the normal two afternoon/evening Thursday classes, Peter Scherpelz's Dad will be in Moscow and I'm meeting him for a late lunch. Friday will bring my final Politology class. I also need to do laundry and pack sometime, which could be complicated if I try to go to Kiev. Whew.
I suppose you could say this is the beginning of the end...pretty crazy! Part of me wonders "where has the semester gone?!" but the other part remembers February. :) For now, bedtime.
So I had a rather unexpected lazy weekend! That doesn't mean it wasn't welcome, though. To start, Politology didn't happen on Friday when the professor simply didn't show up. I was already planning to meet Laura that afternoon to go to a souvenir market, so I did, and just as that adventure began I wound up text messaging half a dozen people about rescheduling Politology for next week. Oi. And then it started to rain. The good news was, I got a few things at the market and then Laura and I ate at му-му! All in all not a bad Friday (minus the waking up early for a class to be cancelled part).
Then Saturday was the grayest, gloomiest day you've ever seen. I slept until 1pm or so and ate a leisurely meal at the cafe while doing a bit of homework and reading. Then I wrestled with my computer for a while and Skyped Mike, Dad, and Lynne for a total of about 3 hours. Yep, that was Saturday.
Today, Sunday, was looking to be similar to Saturday except the weather was nice! Around 5pm, Laura texted me asking if I wanted to join her on a boat tour of Moscow. This seemed pretty random, but hey I'm all for random things, so off I went. It was great! It really helped tie Moscow together in my mind, since when you travel everywhere by metro you don't really get a good idea of where stuff is relative to other stuff. We went along the Moscow river from Kievskaya metro station all the way to Proletarskaya, weaving our way through the center of the city. Took a ton of pictures that I'll eventually post online. That took a good 2 hours (not including finding each other, finding the place where the boats left, and buying tickets - another hour or two) and then it was 9pm. We were starving, so back to metro Universityet we went and into the Ramstore mall for dinner. I had Rostik's KFC (a chain vaguely associated with KFC but not as good, though their "zinger" sandwich isn't bad) and she had a piece of pizza and blini from Teremok. A very excellent afternoon/evening.
Soon I'm heading to bed, because tomorrow I actually need to get stuff done. In the next week there's a lot to accomplish, and a fair amount going on. I need to complete my astronomy research, do some homework for Thermal Physics and Russian Language, and come up with a presentation for Russian Studies Seminar. Nothing's scheduled for Monday, but that should keep me busy. Then I have two class on Tuesday plus I'm going to go to orchestra to tell everyone thank you and good bye. There's a make-up Politology class scheduled for Wednesday and I'll probably also have my last astronomy research meeting that day. In addition to the normal two afternoon/evening Thursday classes, Peter Scherpelz's Dad will be in Moscow and I'm meeting him for a late lunch. Friday will bring my final Politology class. I also need to do laundry and pack sometime, which could be complicated if I try to go to Kiev. Whew.
I suppose you could say this is the beginning of the end...pretty crazy! Part of me wonders "where has the semester gone?!" but the other part remembers February. :) For now, bedtime.
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
victory day
Today is Victory Day, and dang do Russians know how to celebrate holidays! I went out to run errands today and all the buses had little flags on them like during the previous holidays. There was a guy carrying a huge Russian flag and waving it like mad as he crossed the street near the metro stop. And outside Ramstore, there was a military band playing!
Just now, about 20 minutes ago, there were fireworks VERY close by, the entire main building was shaking and resonating. I looked out my window but unfortunately it doesn't face in the proper direction. So, I ventured outside to get a better view of the fireworks, and saw they were coming from at least two places - one probably near Victory Park and the other RIGHT on the other side of the main building! It was a little chilly and I didn't have time to walk all the way to the other side of the main building before the show stopped (remember this building is HUGE, it's probably at least a mile to walk around the whole thing). Still, the sound was amazing, and I could see some fireworks over the top of the building and from the other direction.
The streets I can see are still wall to wall with traffic, honking, and people are shouting excitedly. On hindsight this makes sense since the university is relatively close to Victory Park and I guess all 15+ million people decided to go there tonight. Dang. The US seriously needs to step it up a notch when it comes to holidays.
Just now, about 20 minutes ago, there were fireworks VERY close by, the entire main building was shaking and resonating. I looked out my window but unfortunately it doesn't face in the proper direction. So, I ventured outside to get a better view of the fireworks, and saw they were coming from at least two places - one probably near Victory Park and the other RIGHT on the other side of the main building! It was a little chilly and I didn't have time to walk all the way to the other side of the main building before the show stopped (remember this building is HUGE, it's probably at least a mile to walk around the whole thing). Still, the sound was amazing, and I could see some fireworks over the top of the building and from the other direction.
The streets I can see are still wall to wall with traffic, honking, and people are shouting excitedly. On hindsight this makes sense since the university is relatively close to Victory Park and I guess all 15+ million people decided to go there tonight. Dang. The US seriously needs to step it up a notch when it comes to holidays.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
back from St. Petersburg
...or Санкт-Петербург as it is actually called.
Unfortunately I'm now sick. Headache, throat, cough, exhausted, the works. Not too terrible but enough to prevent me from going to class this morning. We'll see about the afternoon.
But aside from getting me sick, the weekend was great! We left on Friday night (technically Saturday morning) on a 1:30am train. Oh man, overnight trains. My only other serious train experience was a 40-hour Amtrak stint back in the US. While that was pretty much the worst thing ever, some elements of this were worse and some were better. +beds to sleep on. -the bathroom. That pretty much covers it. Isn't it illegal for train toilets to just flush onto the tracks in the US?? Well...not here. There's a reason they keep the bathroom locked for the first 20-30 minutes.
Anyway, we got to St. Petersburg around 10:30am Saturday. I slept all right and was immensely thankful for the silk travel sheets given to me by Joan and Mary!! It was waaaay too hot in the little compartments, and I was with Irina and two random Russian guys. Fantastic.
We set out straightaway for the hotel so we wouldn't have to haul all our stuff around. (I packed everything into my backpack and a new shoulderbag I bought recently, plus a plastic bag to hold some snacks and souvenirs.) For some reason all the трамвайs weren't running so we had to take a bus which was a bit more of a pain but worked out okay. The hotel was...nothing special. We each got a bed, there were two beds per room. I made use of my silk travel sheets yet again. The towels were a joke and the TAP WATER...dang...I'll never complain about Moscow water again! This stuff was brownish and smelled bad.
Anyway, we also ate breakfast/lunch in here somewhere before finding the hotel. A random fast food blini place. Once we had checked into the hotel, we set off to be tourists! St. Isaac's cathedral and the colonnade, the Hermitage museum, dinner, another cathedral where they were having a service, a boat tour, and finally back to the hotel. It stays light so late there!! The cathedrals were amazing and it was neat to see an orthodox service taking place. Chanting echoes magnificently in the huge cathedral, and there was a choir up in a loft in the back. The Hermitage was HUGE, there was no way to do it justice in three hours, but it was free for students and really neat. The boat tour went along a bunch of canals and out onto the main river. If it hadn't been bitterly cold I would have enjoyed it a lot more, but oh well. At that point it was 9 or 10pm and the sun was just beginning to think about setting.
We got up Sunday and had a complimentary breakfast in the hotel after a less-than-lovely shower. (The main problems - the terrible water and really dimly lit bathroom.) This breakfast wasn't nearly as good as the one we'd had in Suzdal, but it wasn't bad either. Omelette/quiche type thing (bland but ok), bread with butter, cheese, and salami, and a roll with odd honey. I asked for apple juice instead of tea and they charged me 20 rubles, sigh. We headed out around 11am. First stop was a church/cathedral called "Savior on spilled blood" (it's more natural sounding in Russian). It's similar to the famous St. Basil's Cathedral on the outside, and inside everything is in mosaic. The sheer quantity of cathedrals is enough to blow you away - to say nothing of the care and detail put into them!
Next we went to a market and spent quite a while poking at souvenirs. I got some neat stuff. Next we ate lunch at Subway. It was fantastic, unlike the Subway I went to in Moscow that was basically terrible. I had an Italian BMT and a chocolate chip cookie. Yay! Anyway, we were going to take a boat to Peter and Paul's Fortress followed by a palace and gardens located in Petergof, a small town just outside St. Petersburg. But it started raining and for some reason the boats weren't going there that day, so we instead took the metro and got on a bus for at least an hour that took us all the way to Petergof! En route we had a very random discussion about 9/11 and US government conspiracies, led mostly by Nick and Jack. The gardens were huge and beautiful. However, spring hasn't quite gotten that far north yet (we're talking 60 degrees latitude), so nothing was in bloom and the fountains were still turned off. We all got a chance to touch the Gulf of Finland (huzzah!) and had a nice leisurely time strolling around. A nice contrast to Irina's typical breakneck walking pace.
When we got back into St. Petersburg, it was getting on towards dinnertime, probably 8 or 9pm. We walked around a bit until finding a restaurant probably best translated as "Fat Friar's Pub." They had Russian food and tons of beer and little else, so everyone except for me and Jack got beer. We ate and chatted for quite some time since our train didn't leave until 1:30am and there wasn't much else to do. Around 11:30 we headed out, though, and walked all the way to the train station. It was finally mostly dark outside, and not too cold. We sat in a pizza place until 1am when they closed, eventually got on the train, and showed up in Moscow 10:30 Monday morning.
I forgot to say - "we" included just Irina, Jeff, Jack, Celina, Nick, and me. David went with his Russian girlfriend Olga to St. Petersburg a few days earlier and they did their own thing, though we randomly ran into them twice. Dima, Felix, Laura, and Jenna opted to also go up early and do thehir own thing, but we met up on the train back. I think Jessica is in Prague for some reason. Jill stayed in Moscow because she's training to run a marathon I think. I'm not sure what Alex is up to, and that about covers it.
Now I should see about eating something and hopefully getting un-sick. This coming weekend we're planning a similar weekend trip to Kiev, only we'll leave and return a bit earlier/later since it's a little farther away. It would be nice if I wasn't sick for that, and it would also be nice if I could do my physics and Russian homework as well as my astronomy research and go to class without coughing up a lung.
As always, stay tuned. And for those of you who managed to read this far, here's a link to photos from the weekend.
Unfortunately I'm now sick. Headache, throat, cough, exhausted, the works. Not too terrible but enough to prevent me from going to class this morning. We'll see about the afternoon.
But aside from getting me sick, the weekend was great! We left on Friday night (technically Saturday morning) on a 1:30am train. Oh man, overnight trains. My only other serious train experience was a 40-hour Amtrak stint back in the US. While that was pretty much the worst thing ever, some elements of this were worse and some were better. +beds to sleep on. -the bathroom. That pretty much covers it. Isn't it illegal for train toilets to just flush onto the tracks in the US?? Well...not here. There's a reason they keep the bathroom locked for the first 20-30 minutes.
Anyway, we got to St. Petersburg around 10:30am Saturday. I slept all right and was immensely thankful for the silk travel sheets given to me by Joan and Mary!! It was waaaay too hot in the little compartments, and I was with Irina and two random Russian guys. Fantastic.
We set out straightaway for the hotel so we wouldn't have to haul all our stuff around. (I packed everything into my backpack and a new shoulderbag I bought recently, plus a plastic bag to hold some snacks and souvenirs.) For some reason all the трамвайs weren't running so we had to take a bus which was a bit more of a pain but worked out okay. The hotel was...nothing special. We each got a bed, there were two beds per room. I made use of my silk travel sheets yet again. The towels were a joke and the TAP WATER...dang...I'll never complain about Moscow water again! This stuff was brownish and smelled bad.
Anyway, we also ate breakfast/lunch in here somewhere before finding the hotel. A random fast food blini place. Once we had checked into the hotel, we set off to be tourists! St. Isaac's cathedral and the colonnade, the Hermitage museum, dinner, another cathedral where they were having a service, a boat tour, and finally back to the hotel. It stays light so late there!! The cathedrals were amazing and it was neat to see an orthodox service taking place. Chanting echoes magnificently in the huge cathedral, and there was a choir up in a loft in the back. The Hermitage was HUGE, there was no way to do it justice in three hours, but it was free for students and really neat. The boat tour went along a bunch of canals and out onto the main river. If it hadn't been bitterly cold I would have enjoyed it a lot more, but oh well. At that point it was 9 or 10pm and the sun was just beginning to think about setting.
We got up Sunday and had a complimentary breakfast in the hotel after a less-than-lovely shower. (The main problems - the terrible water and really dimly lit bathroom.) This breakfast wasn't nearly as good as the one we'd had in Suzdal, but it wasn't bad either. Omelette/quiche type thing (bland but ok), bread with butter, cheese, and salami, and a roll with odd honey. I asked for apple juice instead of tea and they charged me 20 rubles, sigh. We headed out around 11am. First stop was a church/cathedral called "Savior on spilled blood" (it's more natural sounding in Russian). It's similar to the famous St. Basil's Cathedral on the outside, and inside everything is in mosaic. The sheer quantity of cathedrals is enough to blow you away - to say nothing of the care and detail put into them!
Next we went to a market and spent quite a while poking at souvenirs. I got some neat stuff. Next we ate lunch at Subway. It was fantastic, unlike the Subway I went to in Moscow that was basically terrible. I had an Italian BMT and a chocolate chip cookie. Yay! Anyway, we were going to take a boat to Peter and Paul's Fortress followed by a palace and gardens located in Petergof, a small town just outside St. Petersburg. But it started raining and for some reason the boats weren't going there that day, so we instead took the metro and got on a bus for at least an hour that took us all the way to Petergof! En route we had a very random discussion about 9/11 and US government conspiracies, led mostly by Nick and Jack. The gardens were huge and beautiful. However, spring hasn't quite gotten that far north yet (we're talking 60 degrees latitude), so nothing was in bloom and the fountains were still turned off. We all got a chance to touch the Gulf of Finland (huzzah!) and had a nice leisurely time strolling around. A nice contrast to Irina's typical breakneck walking pace.
When we got back into St. Petersburg, it was getting on towards dinnertime, probably 8 or 9pm. We walked around a bit until finding a restaurant probably best translated as "Fat Friar's Pub." They had Russian food and tons of beer and little else, so everyone except for me and Jack got beer. We ate and chatted for quite some time since our train didn't leave until 1:30am and there wasn't much else to do. Around 11:30 we headed out, though, and walked all the way to the train station. It was finally mostly dark outside, and not too cold. We sat in a pizza place until 1am when they closed, eventually got on the train, and showed up in Moscow 10:30 Monday morning.
I forgot to say - "we" included just Irina, Jeff, Jack, Celina, Nick, and me. David went with his Russian girlfriend Olga to St. Petersburg a few days earlier and they did their own thing, though we randomly ran into them twice. Dima, Felix, Laura, and Jenna opted to also go up early and do thehir own thing, but we met up on the train back. I think Jessica is in Prague for some reason. Jill stayed in Moscow because she's training to run a marathon I think. I'm not sure what Alex is up to, and that about covers it.
Now I should see about eating something and hopefully getting un-sick. This coming weekend we're planning a similar weekend trip to Kiev, only we'll leave and return a bit earlier/later since it's a little farther away. It would be nice if I wasn't sick for that, and it would also be nice if I could do my physics and Russian homework as well as my astronomy research and go to class without coughing up a lung.
As always, stay tuned. And for those of you who managed to read this far, here's a link to photos from the weekend.
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| St. Petersburg |
Friday, May 4, 2007
headed north
First and foremost, some pictures:
A typical scene at Плошадь Индиры Ганди. Only the trolleybus broke down for some reason and people had to push it. How many Russians...? :)
Me at Tema Bar - my drink has a starfruit slice!! It was appropriately called "around the world," and it was delicious.
With Katie at Tema bar - yet another Mudders in Moscow rendezvous
More recently at the "iron curtain" party. Russian hats!
At the orchestra concert - the room where we put all our cases and stuff. (I'll hopefully be getting pictures from other folks of the actual concert...since I was playing in it I couldn't take any myself.)
Fellow violist Andrei makes some last minute bowing changes. (That's my viola on the table, along with the baroque bow I've been borrowing.)
We're headed to St. Petersburg sometime this evening...rumor has it we're leaving at midnight, but that has yet to be confirmed. I'm 90% packed. We'll (probably) take the train tonight, be there Saturday, spend that night in a hotel, be there Sunday, and come back to Moscow on another train Sunday night that arrives into Moscow bright and early Monday morning. I'm excited to see yet another place that isn't Moscow!
Gotta make this short because I'm hungry! But my astronomy research is going quite well - I put in a ton of time on that since returning from Vladimir and Suzdal and will be able to produce some kind of light curves in the time I have left. So, that is pretty neat. Thermal Physics continues to go well, though we haven't gotten to chapter 7 yet and I'm afraid a fair bit of that material is important. Oh well. I was the only one to show up to Russian Language yesterday (and there are now four of us in that class). Apparently a fair number of the group has started traveling independently, and a bunch of them are already in St. Petersburg! Once again, silly me for staying in Moscow and doing schoolwork. Aside from that, though, I had a fantastic time May 1 meeting up with Snezhana and another student who apparently goes to CMC, Natasha! We ate at му-му (yes!) and walked around the city center and I bought a nice green bag that says (unobnoxiously) "Mission for peace" on it. Finally I have the tote bag/purse I've been wanting since March.
Time for food and with luck I'm off for an adventure in St. Petersburg!
A typical scene at Плошадь Индиры Ганди. Only the trolleybus broke down for some reason and people had to push it. How many Russians...? :)
Me at Tema Bar - my drink has a starfruit slice!! It was appropriately called "around the world," and it was delicious.
With Katie at Tema bar - yet another Mudders in Moscow rendezvous
More recently at the "iron curtain" party. Russian hats!
At the orchestra concert - the room where we put all our cases and stuff. (I'll hopefully be getting pictures from other folks of the actual concert...since I was playing in it I couldn't take any myself.)
Fellow violist Andrei makes some last minute bowing changes. (That's my viola on the table, along with the baroque bow I've been borrowing.)
We're headed to St. Petersburg sometime this evening...rumor has it we're leaving at midnight, but that has yet to be confirmed. I'm 90% packed. We'll (probably) take the train tonight, be there Saturday, spend that night in a hotel, be there Sunday, and come back to Moscow on another train Sunday night that arrives into Moscow bright and early Monday morning. I'm excited to see yet another place that isn't Moscow!
Gotta make this short because I'm hungry! But my astronomy research is going quite well - I put in a ton of time on that since returning from Vladimir and Suzdal and will be able to produce some kind of light curves in the time I have left. So, that is pretty neat. Thermal Physics continues to go well, though we haven't gotten to chapter 7 yet and I'm afraid a fair bit of that material is important. Oh well. I was the only one to show up to Russian Language yesterday (and there are now four of us in that class). Apparently a fair number of the group has started traveling independently, and a bunch of them are already in St. Petersburg! Once again, silly me for staying in Moscow and doing schoolwork. Aside from that, though, I had a fantastic time May 1 meeting up with Snezhana and another student who apparently goes to CMC, Natasha! We ate at му-му (yes!) and walked around the city center and I bought a nice green bag that says (unobnoxiously) "Mission for peace" on it. Finally I have the tote bag/purse I've been wanting since March.
Time for food and with luck I'm off for an adventure in St. Petersburg!
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