BTW... I'm back

I realize that I've been neglecting this blog, but with good (semi-decent?) reason.

I'm now back in the U.S. and traveling every which way, trying to figure out academics, and the summer work situation. :-p

I do still have additional pictures that have not yet been posted, hopefully I will get them up sometime.

Weather

I went to the Dacha this weekend, it was about 75*F and sunny the entire time I was there. I now have tan.

Today it is snowing and sunny, and snowing...


I don't understand this country.

Going to the Dacha

I'm going to the dacha this weekend with Tanya and Seryosha. It's located in Demyansk (about an hour south of Novgorod). I'll be back early monday morning. Something for which I am very glad as according to our coordinators they best way to describe tomorrow's celebration is "a city-wide mash-pit." I don't think that sounds like fun. I'm all up for grilling shashlik and having a relaxing weekend away from the city.

In other news, Medvedev' is now president of Russia. We watched the inauguration on the news lat night. It was interesting to watch, though I kept being distracted with the thought of "wow that's a cool crane shot... I wonder how they got a camera up there?" and other videography perspective issues.

The inauguration is significantly smaller - in terms of number of people invited- than a U.S. presidential inauguration. Putin spent most of his speech reflecting over his term as president - according to Tanya it was a very sentimental speech and she found it moving. Medvedev then gave a short speech regarding his plans for his presidency - he then summed it up with a long thank you to "his dear friend Vladimir Vladimivitch Putin." I don't think Putin's role in Russian politics is at all going to lessen with his new role as "former-president."

Oh reporters - get it right!

I just read a news article in the "International Herald Tribune" regarding Medvedev's inauguration set for today. I can't argue with the politics as there is a lot to them that I don't understand. What I do have a big problem with is this:

"The Kremlin then plans to mark the occasion on Friday with a military parade in Red Square of a sort not seen since the Cold War, complete with flyovers of strategic bombers and rumbling columns of tanks"

Umm.... this is NOT about Medvedev's Presidency. Friday is Victory Day - perhaps the biggest holiday in Russia, it is a day celebrating the end of WWII. While it is going to be bigger this year and does bring back the Parades from the Soviet Era. I've seen the troops rehearsing - this isn't about Medvedev' or a return to communism. This is about celebrating and honoring the soldiers and the country that fought for years to prevent fascist Germany from taking Russia. There are Soviet symbols, not so much because they are Soviet, but because those are the symbols of the era in which Russia triumphed against the odds set against her.

Let's give the country props for trying to show that it is finally stabilizing, and not condemn patriotic spirit that many western nations lack. Accurate reporting and looking at a calendar would be nice on the part of the western media.

Cinco De Mayo

I celebrated Cinco De Mayo by eating elk, what about you?

I have now returned from my journey to the south-west of Petersburg.

The drive to Pushkingory was very long. We left at 8am on Thursday and did not arrive until close to 5pm. My ipod yet again died, and not due to battery failure, so I shall have to figure out what is wrong with it. Hopefully it is something I can fix before leaving Russia as a couple days worth of plane flights with out music may drive me slightly insane.

Usually the drive to Pskov is a little under 6 hours, however as this weekend was a holiday, we spent the first 3 hours of our trip making it to 20km outside of Petersburg. Everyone was heading for the dacha, thus traffic was the worst I have ever seen. We then still had to drive to Pskov, and the near two hours beyond that to our hotel in Pushkingory.

Russian highways also somewhat bewilder me, as there seems to be few traffic laws that apply. If you can drive somewhere you may, if there is a pot-hole, you may pass on the right, the left, or swerve crazily around it. There are lots of pot-holes once you get away from Petersburg, as it seems very few drive the roads here with the exception of freight-transit.

For me, once we actually arrived, the trip was fairly pleasant. I greatly enjoyed the fresh air, and the green, open country-side. We went to the Monetary where Pushkin and his relatives are buried, and were then given free time to wander the small town. Thankfully there was a produkti near the hotel as I think all of us found the quality of food served at the hotel restaurant to be lacking.

On Friday we spent a lot of time on the bus as we drove into Pskov, and the out to Izborsk for our tours of the day. Pskov is a very old city, having recently celebrated its one-thousand and one hundredth birthday. The city is likely even older than this as its “birthday” is counted off of the date it is first mentioned in the Chronicles. It was the Princess Olga of Pskov who was to become the first Christian in Russia and her grandson, Vladimir the Great, who was to Baptize Russia.

Izborsk, is an even older Settlement close to the Estonian border and these lands have changed hands many times between Russia, Germany, Estonia, and the Lithuanian Duchy. According to our guide at least 127 wars have been fought on the lands surrounding Pskov. Its position as a fortress in what was once the frontier of Russia gave rise to this city’s historic importance. Pskov itself has only been taken twice, once in 1240, and during WWII.

The old fortress at Izborsk still stands, with its walls built in the 10th century and rebuilt in parts in the 14th. I wish I would have gotten more pictures of this day as the region is very picturesque. However I was stupid. I brought extra batteries with me, but left them in the hotel room, and not in my purse so when my camera started to die I ended up with issues. Still despite the face my batteries started to die, and where dead by the end of the day I did manage to get some nice shots of Izborsk, the monestaries we visited, and Pskov, as well as get new batteries for the next day’s excursions to the Estates of Peterskoe and Mikhailovskoe. Belonging to the Hannibal (Pushkin’s great-grandfather) and Pushkin families. Both estates were very beautiful but I wish we had had more free time to explore on our own.

After eating lunch in Pushkingory we headed home. This time we realized that the bus has Tvs that are attached to a DVD player and a hadful of students had brought a film or two to watch on lap-tops in the hotel so we had entertainment. It was still a long ride – we left at 3pm and did not make it back to Petersburg until after 11pm, but we were significantly more entertained.

I have spent a large portion of today (Sunday) sleeping and doing homework – and entertaining Muza. She was left at home this weekend by herself, and is in a mood to be compensated for her abandonment.

Pictures shall be up shortly. (106 photos added by Ed at 10:30 am PDT 4 May 2008. See Pskov gallery. Note that the web server is having issues as of 4 May - which will hopefully be cleared up soon).

Easter Sunday

It seems very strange for me to think that this last weekend, was my last weekend in Petersburg. Next weekend I'll be in Pskov, weekend after that at Tanya and Seryosha's dacha, and in just one weeks time beyond that I'll be leaving for the United States.

Though I unfortunately have a bit of a head cold I've spent this last weekend trying to absorb as much as I can of the city. It makes me sad to think that soon I will be leaving it.

I want to come home, there is much that I miss about the U.S. - I just didn't expect that I would feel such a sense of loss over leaving Russia.

To me it seems as though I finally started to figure out this country only a few weeks ago, and now I have such little time to savor it. Perhaps it is the knowledge that so soon I will be gone that makes my time here so precious.

The big things I know I will remember. It's all of the little details that I've been trying to imprint on my mind in the hopes I will not forget them.

One of those little details comes from something I heard over and over again before I left for this country. That Russians are a very cold people, at least on the street, and because of this on the road on the metro their faces are like stone.

I thought that when I first came here. But after the months of living here, I realize that this is not true. I can look at another passenger on the bus, or metro, see some one on the street, and the faces are not alike to me. One only needs to take a moment to pay attention and it becomes obvious who is having a good day, who is worrying, who is upset, who is day-dreaming, and who is happily in love. Perhaps in public the Russian people are not as openly expressive as Americans, but emotions are not fully hidden.

Saturday I spent the day at Pushkin (Tsarskoe Selo) with other American students. While I am not particularly fond of the Catherine Palace - it is far too gaudy (especially in respect to the Yusopov Palace that I visited on Sunday) for my tastes- however the grounds were pleasant. Combined with a sunny warm day it was a wonderful way to pass the time.

Sunday started off with Easter and the traditional greeting "S Praznikom, Kristos Voskrese" - "Celebrate, Christ is Risen." We had a treat of Kulich with breakfast - kulich is a kind of bread made only for Easter. I sort of learned how to make it on Friday when a group of us went to Nathan and Lumilla's for this purpose, but I went home before it was done, feeling tired. It is a rather elaborate process.

We also cracked "perchki (?)" or easter eggs before breakfast. There is some sort of a game associated with the cracking of the eggs that I didn't quite follow, as I apparently beat Seryosha at it and later in the day, Olya beat Dima after carefully selecting her egg as a "winner". All of them were amused by my explanation of an American easter egg hunt. They thought it sounded like fun for children but I could tell they really weren't certain what the point is... then again I really don't know why we hide eggs and chocolates for kids to find either. It really has nothing to do with Christ's resurrection.

Here easter is much more centered around religion, and around remembrance as Tanya explained to me a few days ago that often people go to the cemeteries to remember loved ones with flowers.

There were a lot of flowers and ribbons decorating the cemetery in Pushkin when we drove by it on Saturday.

I am finding that speaking Russian has it's pluses and draw backs and is certainly cause for an amusing story or two.

I went to the Yusopov Palace on the Moika sunday afternoon. I'd tried going to the one on the Fontanka a few weeks ago, however that is apparently now a building somehow affiliated with SPbGU and not a museum.

As one is required to take an audio-guide with them trough the museum I decided to go with an English language guide just so I could get more out of it, and because I was worried the quality of player would not be great. For some reason the idea of wandering through yet another palace with a crappy recording in Russian while my ears are plugged up form my head cold just didn't seem appealing.

I managed however to create great confusion at the ticket office. The tourists in front of me were not native English speakers but also apparently didn't speak Russian. So they got along with broken English and were given audio-guides in the language they wanted.

I came up and asked for a student ticket in Russian and showed my studiencheskiy billet. Normally this gets me the foreign student price, however the woman responded with "You are a Russian citizen?" I told her "no"... to which she had to take my ID to look at it, before handing me a student ticket with the "Russian Federation" price. I then asked if I could have an English language audio-guide which confused her. "You speak Russian... you want Russian language."
"Yes I speak Russian, but I'd like to listen in English. Could I please have English? it would be better/easier for me than Russian."
"You speak Russian but you want to listen in English?"
"Yes"
"Oh, I understand, good practice."

So I guess with a head cold my accent is less or something and so I'm now a Russian student studying English....

I was also mistaken for being a Russian when I went to Savior on Spilled Blood and sent (once again with a Russian fed ticket) on a Russian language tour of the cathedral.

On my way back to the metro to go home I had a woman ask me for directions, I didn't hear her and asked "where?" She gave a pause and looked me up and down before asking "I'm sorry, but are you not Russian?" I sadly shook my head and said "No, I'm sorry." She gave a sigh and walked off.

Before heading home I stopped at a kiosk to buy ice-cream. It's the cheap kind that comes in the plastic packaging - sort of like the kind one can buy at Costco or some place like that in the states. Still it tastes good. I think ice-cream - even the cheap kind- is made with real cream here so it has a very satisfying flavor.

I walked along Nevsky with my ice-cream cone in hand and realized how much I've begun to feel at home in this country. I tried to picture myself wandering down-town Seattle with an ice-cream cone as my leisurely Sunday afternoon pursuit and failed. As much as I am going to miss this city and miss the people that I have come to know, I am also realizing that there is much that I have yet to explore in my own country and in the cities where I live. If I can learn this much about a completely foreign city in 3 months, I really ought to improve my knowledge of Seattle and Spokane.

I wish that there were some way to make the two countries closer together. Though they are half a world apart by geography, I can no longer make them half a world apart in my mind.

[Four new photo albums have been added to the photo gallery. Due to how they were transferred, we do not currently have the information text that describes each photo. Hopefully we can fix that after Gwen returns home ... Ed]