Better late than... well... you know...

Блог 5

          So just what I thought would happen, happened! I committed myself to publishing on Sundays and here we are on a Tuesday… Anywho- this will be a very eclectic post so I hope you can all follow my weird and random train of thought!

Vegetable casserole, chicken and beef soup.

      This week was more of the usual but with some fun additions! Wednesday I took a Georgian cooking class and learned how to cook goodness knows what. We made pirogi which are pies in which you take dough and wrap it around a giant ball of egg and cheese 

Our lovely cooking class,

(mostly cheese) and then roll it out so the cheese stays in the middle but the pie is, you know, pie shaped. Then bake it and it becomes delicious and melty. We also made a beef soup with onions and chili peppers and tomatoes, a chicken dish that tastes very similar to my dad's chicken cacciatore, and a vegetable casserole which was the most unique of all. It was layers of grilled zucchini with a sauce made out of chili, garlic and walnuts that were put through a meat grinder. Super easy to do at home if, you know, you happen to have a meat grinder lying around... I am thinking of going to the Russian cooking class on Friday and learning how to make borscht. The cook that taught us was a classic large scary man who spoke no English and either thought we were ridiculously stupid, or absolutely hilarious. We like to hope it was the second.

Cheese Pirogi!

          Thursday was my friend's birthday so we started the evening at none other than the lovely SPB and moved on to ladies night at a very large, noisy, bright club called Club Metro or some such nonsense. A giant neon building with three floors of dance floors, smoke and bars. It was fun but maybe not something I ever want to repeat. I did hang out with some Russian people (finally) and it was a generally good night all around. Friday was International Women's Day, which is a much bigger deal in Russia than anywhere else ever. Vosmova Marta (Eighth of March) is Women's Day and not only did we get the day off school, but every woman in a person's life receives flowers. I bought my real and host mothers flowers (though received none myself- harrumph) and took a true "women's day" and stayed in my pajamas while watching Gone With the Wind with Alexa… While I may have missed partying it up on the holiday, like  my host mother did, I decided to take a personal day. I stand by my choice.

Дворец Юсуповых на Мойке,
literally the Palace of the Yusupovs on the Moika

          Saturday morning was excellent because I took a tour of one of the most amazing and extravagant palaces in Russia, the Yusupov Palace. This palace is famous for many reasons, the main one being it was where Rasputin was murdered by the owner, Felix Yusupov. Now if you're like me or anyone else who grew up in the 90s, Rasputin was a crazy Russian magician or religious wise-man or something voiced by Doc from Back to the Future who was trying to kill Meg Ryan while John Cusack tried to save her. Meanwhile Angela Lansbury and Bernadette Peters are looking for Meg Ryan in Paris… 

The room in which Rasputin was shot with helpful
yet creepy wax figures.

Apparently that's not quite the story. Rasputin was a very religious man that got in very close with the last of the royal family, the Romanovs right before they were killed, partially because he had some way of helping Prince Alexei with his hemophilia, which he inherited from his mother (women only carry the gene but men have the issues) who in turn inherited it from her maternal grandmother, Queen Victoria. Rasputin spent a lot of time with the royal family and the three daughters of the Czar which many people resented and found suspicious. Many nasty rumors flew around and many believed he had too much influence for someone with basically no noble blood or heritage. Long story short, Felix and a bunch of others tried poisoning him and failed, shot him and failed, shot him again and threw him in a frozen part of the river. Rumor says that he was found with water in his lungs which means he was alive after two gun shots. This can't be confirmed because Empress Alexandra didn't let them autopsy him, and the train in which his body was being transported was burned to the ground.
          Anyways, the Yusupov Palace is the most extravagant place ever. The Yusupov family had a long history of diplomacy, Nicolai Yusupov was high up in government under at least four Czars including Catherine the Great, Paul I and Alexander I. They were one of the richest families in all of Russia, but when the revolution happened in the early 20th century, Felix and his wife had to leave the country and all of their possessions and moved to France. Well, almost all. They took the jewelry and two Rembrandts. Among the jewelry was the very famous La Pelegrina pearl that, after the family sold it in France, was eventually given to Elizabeth Taylor. They were so rich that when designing the palace they had different styles for each room. One room would be baroque, another in gorgeous Moorish style, the next French. The palace has a personal theatre which makes it one of the most extravagant palaces in Europe. There are rooms devoted entirely to their musical instrument collection, imitation wood, real pear tree furniture, ballrooms, a billiard room with weirdly perfect acoustics, and a gorgeous library that used to have thousands of books! It was amazing. If ever in Petersburg, I highly recommend a tour.

The amazing private theatre!

          Today (Tuesday) I had two tests, one largely on the architecture of St. Petersburg (who, what, when, where, for whom) and the other… well I'm still not sure what that quiz was on. I also found out that I have the best host mom ever. When she hears me coughing she makes me milk and honey, even in the middle of the night… At least I thought it was milk and honey but then it was warm milk and butter… Gross. This upcoming week should be very fun and we are currently preparing for Travel Week which will be AMAZING and I can't wait to tell you all about it. No spoilers, though, because it gives me less to write about when the time comes. Trust me- you will all be jealous!