Hi folks! I am writing this post only a few hours before I am due to leave Russia and four before I am due to be home. A few weeks ago I was pretty excited and ready to go home but last weekend it hit me that I may never be back here and I will probably miss everything about it here, so now I am sad. Although I am glad I will be back home for Christmas. I just kind of wish now that I could come back here in January. Anyway, here are a few of the noteworthy things I have done in the last few weeks, trying to make the most of it. :)
Jewels at the Mariinsky Theater: We went to see the ballet "Jewels" at the famous Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. It was I believe the first "abstract" ballet, meaning that there is no real story, just dancing. But the dancing was beautiful. It was broken into three parts: Emeralds, Rubies, and Diamonds. Emeralds was pretty but once Rubies came up, and then Diamonds, everyone had forgotten about poor Emeralds. I also found out that our RD, a former ballet dancer, used to be one of the stars of this show, which I found to be completely awesome. Anyway, Emeralds was very classical, both in music and style. Rubies, however, was very unorthodox for ballet and featured more modern sounding music, which I think is why it appealed to everyone so much. Diamonds, once again, was very classical, but the male soloist is apparently one of the best dancers in the world. I don't know much about ballet, but I thought he was phenomenal. It was absolutely beautiful. At the end, everyone was discussing which, between Rubies and Diamonds, they liked better. I personally think I liked rubies better. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to show you either of the ballet or the theatre because I left my camera on the bus that night. :(
The next night, I went to a Zenit match. Zenit is the soccer (but really, football) club of St. Petersburg. It was quite an experience. The game ultimately ended up being a tie, but it was a lot of fun just to go and hear angry Russians (they were especially angry that night because the were playing Anzhi, which is from Dagestan, in Chechnya. Given that the relations between Russia and Chechnya are not the best, it made for an interesting game with the fans. However, I got to learn some cool cheers. My favorite is синий, белый, голубой (blue, white, light blue). These are the colors of the team. A bunch of people from AIFS ended up going so we took advantage of the opportunity. I also bought a jersey and a scarf, which I didn't need to but I love their colors. And here are a few pictures:
Jewels at the Mariinsky Theater: We went to see the ballet "Jewels" at the famous Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. It was I believe the first "abstract" ballet, meaning that there is no real story, just dancing. But the dancing was beautiful. It was broken into three parts: Emeralds, Rubies, and Diamonds. Emeralds was pretty but once Rubies came up, and then Diamonds, everyone had forgotten about poor Emeralds. I also found out that our RD, a former ballet dancer, used to be one of the stars of this show, which I found to be completely awesome. Anyway, Emeralds was very classical, both in music and style. Rubies, however, was very unorthodox for ballet and featured more modern sounding music, which I think is why it appealed to everyone so much. Diamonds, once again, was very classical, but the male soloist is apparently one of the best dancers in the world. I don't know much about ballet, but I thought he was phenomenal. It was absolutely beautiful. At the end, everyone was discussing which, between Rubies and Diamonds, they liked better. I personally think I liked rubies better. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to show you either of the ballet or the theatre because I left my camera on the bus that night. :(
The next night, I went to a Zenit match. Zenit is the soccer (but really, football) club of St. Petersburg. It was quite an experience. The game ultimately ended up being a tie, but it was a lot of fun just to go and hear angry Russians (they were especially angry that night because the were playing Anzhi, which is from Dagestan, in Chechnya. Given that the relations between Russia and Chechnya are not the best, it made for an interesting game with the fans. However, I got to learn some cool cheers. My favorite is синий, белый, голубой (blue, white, light blue). These are the colors of the team. A bunch of people from AIFS ended up going so we took advantage of the opportunity. I also bought a jersey and a scarf, which I didn't need to but I love their colors. And here are a few pictures:
A bunch of Americans trying to blend in with the Russians
Sometimes I see the Western influence of Russia (Pepsi?)
A couple days later, two friends and I decided we wanted to see some famous dead people. We went to Alexander Nevsky Monastery, near the center of the city to see the graves of famous Russians. Among them are names most Americans have heard of: Tchaikovsky, Dostoeyevky, Mussorgsky, and Lomonosov. It was kind of cold so we just kind of went to see the graves and left. However, as I may have mentioned when talking about Moscow, if you were an important person in Russia, your grave was probably designed to be much more elaborate than a famous American's grave. Here are the two most famous:
Dostoeyevsky
Tchaikovsky
Later that week, I went to see the Nutcracker. Being in Russia, where they really love their ballet, and with the holiday season approaching, it only seemed appropriate to go see it. Apparently I went to see it when I was little but I have no memory of that. However, it was fantastic. I was surprised at how much the music (composed by Tchaikovsky) I actually recognized, especially in the second act. I also realized I love this music and it does in fact make for great holiday music. Also the tickets were super cheap, only 380 rubles, which is somewhere between $12 and $13. Our seats were on the top balcony but we could still see everything absolutely fine. I am so glad I ended up going to see it. :) Here are the dancers taking their bows in their super colorful costumes:
The next day was Thanksgiving. It was my first ever Thanksgiving not being with my family. But it was all good. That day in Russian class we were talking about Thanksgiving traditions and the Macy's parade. Talking about the Macy's parade kind of made me want to be home. However, AIFS arranged for us to have Thanksgiving dinner. In downtown St. Petersburg, there is a restaurant owned by an American that is kind of a place where many ex-pats go to hang out. It is probably the only place in Petersburg that you are more likely to hear English than Russian, which is refreshing once in a while. Anyway, that is where we all went for our Thanksgiving dinner. And it was traditional Thanksgiving food: turkey, gravy (that everyone initially thought were mashed potatoes), mashed sweet potatoes, corn, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. And then for dessert we all got a slice of pumpkin cheesecake. It was all fantastic and we all just sat around talking there for a few hours.
The next day (that week was a busy week), we went to the Большой Зал (Big Hall) to see a philharmonic concert. To be honest, the idea of a philharmonic concert didn't much appeal to me because I can watch the performers but there isn't necessarily much visual appeal to concerts. However, I ended up quite enjoying it. The first act was music from Tchaikovsky, mostly the music from Swan Lake. I saw Swan Lake, the ballet, earlier in the semester and the music was wonderful but in this concert, there were more performers so it was a lot more epic sounding and they were able to do a lot more with the music. I had a flashback on that day to high school and the days of band, and I missed it. Anyway, the violin soloist played wonderfully and I think you all need to see the hall because it also was beautiful.
A few days later, we went to Baltika Brewery. Baltika is a truly Russian beer and this brewery, just north of Petersburg is both the largest brewery in Europe and the largest in Russia. We got a tour of the factory and saw all the different rooms that the beer goes through, from actually making the beer, to packaging, to shipping. Baltika is also apparently licensed to distribute other famous beers from other countries. After the tour, we had a tasting session where we all got to taste a few of the beers that they produce. I am not a fan of beer so I didn't have much but it was still a really cool experience.
For the last excursion I went on with AIFS, we went to the suburb of Pushkin, named after the famous poet. This town also goes by the name of царсое село (Tsar's village). There we got to see Catherine's palace, which was the summer residence of the Tsar's. The Palace was very cool but I have seen a lot of palaces this semester, and other than one thing, it didn't stand out to me compared with any of the other palaces. That one thing is the Amber Room, which is sometimes referred to as the eighth wonder of the world. It is a room made entirely out of amber, and that was a legitimately awesome room. After the tour, we got to explore the park around the palace, much like when we went to Pavlovsk earlier in the semester. The park had all sorts of cool pavilions, including one that looked like it came from a cartoon about stereotypical China, if you ask me. I will let you be he judge here:
After that, we all got super preoccupied because we saw the squirrels and the birds. These squirrels were like no squirrels I had ever seen before because they had very pointy ears. Another thing that separated them from American squirrels was their willingness to come up to people. My one friend actually had a squirrel climb up him onto his arm for a few seconds, which I thought was awesome. I ended up feeding them and a few birds:
The next day, the English class I have been helping out with took us to the Russian State Museum as a thanks for helping them out throughout the semester. I had never been before and it is all Russian art. I am not a huge art person but I really enjoyed this. The teacher of the class gave the tour to all of us in English (she is Russian but speaks perfect unaccented British English), so that the students could practice their Russian and so we could get an education in Russian art. After, they took us all to a Russian pie place that was supposedly the best in Petersburg, and I believe it. They treated us to our pie as we then tried our skills in Russian with them. As we were getting ready to leave, they gave us all presents to remember them by, including spoons in a Russian style, a DVD of Soviet cartoons, a book about the Tsars, and a card to us, in Russian. As I now have the Russian version of Facebook, I plan on keeping in touch with most of them because they were all so nice and it is beneficial for everyone's language skills. :)
And now, finals are over, grades are back (all good), and I am due to leave Russia, although I really wish I was coming back next semester. :/ But I know I will be back eventually. :) However, I will write one more time, once I am back in America just to reflect on the trip. До свидания!
A few days later, we went to Baltika Brewery. Baltika is a truly Russian beer and this brewery, just north of Petersburg is both the largest brewery in Europe and the largest in Russia. We got a tour of the factory and saw all the different rooms that the beer goes through, from actually making the beer, to packaging, to shipping. Baltika is also apparently licensed to distribute other famous beers from other countries. After the tour, we had a tasting session where we all got to taste a few of the beers that they produce. I am not a fan of beer so I didn't have much but it was still a really cool experience.
For the last excursion I went on with AIFS, we went to the suburb of Pushkin, named after the famous poet. This town also goes by the name of царсое село (Tsar's village). There we got to see Catherine's palace, which was the summer residence of the Tsar's. The Palace was very cool but I have seen a lot of palaces this semester, and other than one thing, it didn't stand out to me compared with any of the other palaces. That one thing is the Amber Room, which is sometimes referred to as the eighth wonder of the world. It is a room made entirely out of amber, and that was a legitimately awesome room. After the tour, we got to explore the park around the palace, much like when we went to Pavlovsk earlier in the semester. The park had all sorts of cool pavilions, including one that looked like it came from a cartoon about stereotypical China, if you ask me. I will let you be he judge here:
After that, we all got super preoccupied because we saw the squirrels and the birds. These squirrels were like no squirrels I had ever seen before because they had very pointy ears. Another thing that separated them from American squirrels was their willingness to come up to people. My one friend actually had a squirrel climb up him onto his arm for a few seconds, which I thought was awesome. I ended up feeding them and a few birds:
The next day, the English class I have been helping out with took us to the Russian State Museum as a thanks for helping them out throughout the semester. I had never been before and it is all Russian art. I am not a huge art person but I really enjoyed this. The teacher of the class gave the tour to all of us in English (she is Russian but speaks perfect unaccented British English), so that the students could practice their Russian and so we could get an education in Russian art. After, they took us all to a Russian pie place that was supposedly the best in Petersburg, and I believe it. They treated us to our pie as we then tried our skills in Russian with them. As we were getting ready to leave, they gave us all presents to remember them by, including spoons in a Russian style, a DVD of Soviet cartoons, a book about the Tsars, and a card to us, in Russian. As I now have the Russian version of Facebook, I plan on keeping in touch with most of them because they were all so nice and it is beneficial for everyone's language skills. :)
And now, finals are over, grades are back (all good), and I am due to leave Russia, although I really wish I was coming back next semester. :/ But I know I will be back eventually. :) However, I will write one more time, once I am back in America just to reflect on the trip. До свидания!
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