Блог 10
AHHH!
Sorry I'm so late- yet again! I swear that for once it was for good reason. I
had a grand old time these last two weeks and actually tried to be productive!
I'm so very proud of myself. On top of that, SPRING! Rain and beauty and birds
and green grass. The rivers have melted, and, as I said last time, the sun is coming
up EVEN earlier and going down EVEN later. It's still not down at 11:00 p.m. as I am writing this. School is
picking up as we are nearing the end of the semester, and I turned in a paper for politics, had a test in
culture and am preparing for the finals that are to come. I'm so very close to
being done. So- here's what I did while I was busy not writing this blog.
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| The view off Pushkin's back porch... |
Our
program took us on a weekend trip during the May holidays to a little town
about four hours south of St. Petersburg called Pskov. Every time we do
something as a group we meet at a place called Kazansky Sobor which is a very large cathedral in the middle of St.
Petersburg. I made it there on time, but of course, I am an idiot and forgot my
passport. To be fair, my thinking was- we aren't leaving the country, so why
would I bring it? Well hotels won't let us check in without it- that's why. So
I ended up having to call a taxi and take it all the way back to my apartment
and then to a metro stop on the very edge of town which ended up being
annoying, expensive, and was a big time waster. Fortunately for me, four other
people forgot theirs as well, so we still would have been stuck waiting if not
for me.
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| Pushkin's grave |
So
after a four hour long bus ride full of cranky college students we got to our
hotel that really, almost reminded me of being in the mountains at home- just without the mountains. Our hotel was similar to some of
the mountain lodges in Colorado except for the lack of pine trees and more
birches but it was open and quiet and calm. It was in this sleepy place called Pushkinsky gori which is where one of
Pushkin's houses was, and one in which he spent a lot of time in exile. I found out my host mom and her ex husband ran a hotel out there, which is very adorable.The
tour was very cool and beautiful because there was a lake and a windmill….. it
was lovely. We went on long walks through the forest, sat on our balconies
talking, reading, knitting, and generally existing. Despite the terrible
planning of our program, this trip was well done. I will say though, that one
poorly planned part was that of the banya
situation.
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| Looking like a gypsy woman next to a monk with Sarah. |
Russian
banyas are public bath houses that are gender
separated, and are basically steam rooms and then you beat each other with
giant leaves and jump into a pool when it gets too hot. They are naked, of
course, and I have yet to partake. I hope to go to one this week. Anyways, the
poorly planned portion was the fact that the banya had an outdoor pool.
In full view of all the hotel rooms. So our CIEE students reserved the banya just for us and had time for the
guys and time for the girls. I wish I had known that sitting on the back porch
would put me in plain view of the men running out of the steam room and into
the pool. That was unfortunate and not something you can unsee…
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| The walls of a fortress from the roof that we weren't supposed to be on. Oops. |
Anywho…
We went to a gorgeous monastery with real authentic monks on Russian Easter,
and were invited up to the Holy Hill by a monk. That is a very rare opportunity
for anyone, and more than that I even got a picture with the monk. It's kind of
a rule that you don't photograph them but he jumped into the picture, so we
figured it was ok. We also drank out of this stream that granted different
things depending on which part you drank from. One was wealth, another health,
etc. Again- it was simply lovely.
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| The stream that granted luck, I think. |
This
week was very fun because we had another short week and a 4 day weekend, which
I am currently enjoying. On Wednesday we went to a real professional Russian
football game, for the St. Petersburg team, Zenit.
They played the team from Dagestan which was kind of
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| The group of students that went to Zenit! Ian, Billy, Anna, Bianka, Emily, Kaitlyn, Agne, ME, Chris, Jessica, Kristi and Jared. |
frightening because of the
massive numbers of riot police. They had to put riot police and empty seats
between the fans of the two teams for safety and they were lining the streets. I think/hope this is because riots are common, but part of me thinks it's due to the racist chants being shouted at the away team... Some crazy person gave the fans fire or flares or something because suddenly
the other side of the stadium was on fire, clearly an organized event, but
still odd considering how dangerous they obviously think their fans are. Unfortunately
we lost the game one to nothing, but the constant singing and cheers and things
like that were really fun to try and match.
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| The away team fans surrounded by riot police. |
Thursday
was a big day here. May 9th is Dien
Pobiedy or Victory Day, when all of Russia celebrates their victory over
Germany. There are military parades, veterans marches, beer everywhere,
children waving flags, and lots of other very large, blatant examples of
Russian/Soviet strength. Chris and I watched a parade and went to the Russian
Museum, which I have already been to, but it was still amazing and beautiful
and a great day. After that we went back to my apartment to watch the firework show
off my sixth floor balcony. The fireworks were shot off from Peter and Paul
Fortress, which I can see from my balcony and Alexa, Chris and I had a pretty
nice night with wine and a view and the sun and a breeze. Life is good.
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| Flares and fire at the Zenit game |
Other
than that, I'm being eaten alive by mosquitoes. I keep forgetting that St.
Petersburg is a swamp but my 30+ bug bites are attesting to the fact. I have 15
on one arm alone and three on my face…There's one mosquito in my room and we
are having an ongoing battle, and he's obviously winning. It'll be great to not look like
I have the
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| Victory Day fireworks off my balcony. To the right of the dome in the left is a far away spire. That's the fortress. |
chicken pox, but if that's the worst of my problems, I think I'll
survive. I'm mostly just preparing for Bijan's arrival to St. Petersburg which
will be on May 19th and will make my life that much better! I have a bunch
planned for while he's here, but I also have to study for finals. Oh well. That's all I've got for you today. I'm sure
there's more but that'll come in my next blog. The next one will be in about
two weeks and will be my final travel blog. I really enjoy writing for you guys
so I may keep writing about something else, in a different blog. Well, I'll let
you know next time. Lastly, sorry for the bad camera quality. I lost my camera charger, so all these are from my phone. Thanks again, guys!
If you listen to my links, or even if you don't,
this one is by far my favorite. It's heart-breakingly beautiful to me so I hope
you think so too. The title is Не Для Меня, Not for Me. It's about soldiers
singing about how the coming spring, the beautiful woman, the rivers, gardens,
Easter, etc are not for them. For them is the piece of lead, the tears, the
white body, etc. It's very beautiful so if you choose to watch any of these,
let it be this one. Have a good week, everyone, and Happy Belated Victory Day.
Thanks Alexa for introducing me to this song.
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