Aug 23, 2009 - St. Petersburg the Great

Not surprisingly, it rained the night I had to find the train station at 11:30pm. Fortunately a New Zealander from the hostel was headed out at the same time so we wandered around in the dark rain together. I was very happy to find my compartment on time. My cabinmates were probably horrified by my dripping heaps of stuff but they were very nice to me regardless. We tried to talk in a mix of my very limited Russian and their limited English, which was sweet, but I was relieved when everyone was ready for lights out. The train was...

Aug 16, 2009 - Hermitage part 2

On Thursday, July 23rd, Boris, his friend Ilya, and I went to the Hermitage for the day. Since you pretty much have to be on line for an hour before the museum even opens to get in at a reasonable time, a girl who works in the International Relations Dept at Finec, Natasha, stood on line for us while we got breakfast. It was very nice of her to do, since she saved us probably hours of waiting. We stayed at the museum longer than we expected, and I think we saw almost everything I was interested in seeing, and then some. There was a special...

Aug 16, 2009 - Jazz on the Riverboat

On Wednesday the 22nd, we went to the Usupov Palace in the morning, had an economics lecture in the afternoon, and took a boat trip in the evening. The boat went along the Neva River and through the Gulf of Finland, and featured a jazz band. The band was quite good, and I even saw some of the members later on in my trip at another jazz show. The weather was beautiful, and I have attached some nice photos. -AM

Aug 7, 2009 - The Hermitage, part 1

On Sunday the 19th Dr. Smirnova and I went to the Hermitage for a few hours in the morning. We saw mostly palace interiors, which are as amazing as the art inside the museum, some ancient Siberian artifacts, and tours of the Gold and Diamond Rooms. These are special tours that cost extra and get booked up for the day very quickly. The rest of the museum was free for me as a student, but we still had to wait on line for tickets. I can really say just that it was a madhouse. The museum opens at 10:30, and there’s one entrance for everyone...

Aug 7, 2009 - Canal Tour

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of the second week we had pretty intensive economics lectures, but Tuesday evening we took a tour of the canals. A second year student at Finec named Julia joined us. Julia works for the Dean of the Linguistics school and is studying English, so her boss let her come to practice her English. The ride was very nice, and the views were great, but much of the information was old. By this point in the trip, I already knew many of the landmarks they pointed out. I did learn, however, that St. Petersburg is made up...

Jul 30, 2009 - LAST DAY!

Today is my last day and I am so sad! I know I've been really slow with updating the journal, but I want to take the time to write really good entries. I'll continue after I get home until I'm done. I've also been taking lots of notes as I go along (the only thing my blackberry has been good for over here), so I'll be posting entries not just about excursions but about some observations. I have taken hundreds of photos, so I'm writing captions for them as soon as I upload them to my computer, and I'm sorting through them several times to...

Jul 27, 2009 - Music in St. Petersburg!

Being such a small group has had mostly advantages, although some disadvantages. One of the advantages is that our schedule is pretty flexible, and we can do some things that weren’t initially planned. So, even though these events were not part of the official itinerary, I will write an entry on the different musical events Boris took me to. On July 15 we went to a club nearby to see a band called EleFUNt Groove. They were a local band that happened to be performing for free, and both Boris and I enjoy funk and groove, so we went. They were...

Jul 27, 2009 - Russian Folk Show

On the 17th in the evening we went to a Russian folk performance. The show was in the home theater in the former palace of a Grand Duke (I forget who). It’s an understatement to say it was pretty nice. The imperial aristocracy definitely knew how to live in style. The show featured an a capella quartet, a traditional band who played in the background, other kinds of singers, and many traditional folk dancers. I have a background in dancing (Irish folk dancing, among other kinds) so naturally the dancing were my favorite parts, but I really...

Jul 26, 2009 - The Church on Spilt Blood

On July 17 we went to the Church of the Spilt Blood (or sometimes translated as "Church of the Savior on the Blood" or "Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ") which is a really beautiful church just up the road from FinEc. It is built in the traditional Russian style, although it is larger and not as old as St. Basil's in Moscow. It was only reopened to the public in 1997 and is still undergoing some exterior restoration work. It was built to honor Tsar Alexander II, who was assassinated on the spot of the Griboedov Canal embankment...

Jul 26, 2009 - St Isaac's Cathedral

St. Isaac's is the highest point in St. Petersburg, and is one of the most beautiful buildings. After class on the 16th we went inside and climbed up to the colonnade. The climb was not exactly pleasant, least of all the last bit which was outdoors (I am not a fan of heights), but the view was spectacular. Around the colonnade were speakers projecting audio in Russian. Boris said that it was just naming some of the sights that were visible, but that the commentary was not objective. In between the facts were little bits about how great St....

Jul 24, 2009 - The Ethnography museum

Back to going in order. On Wednesday the 15th Dmitry took us to the Ethnography museum in the morning. I got the impression that he has been to this museum several times because he gave us the tour himself and was able to answer all of our questions. I really liked this museum because it separated artifacts by region and time period. It was interesting to get a visual idea of how people lived, because before this trip I had read some Russian literature and was a little confused about the descriptions of the home. In Chekhov's short story...

Jul 23, 2009 - St Petersburg - Day 3

Have had a lazy day without too many activities today, yet my feet are aching and I have seen and done loads... We let ourselves sleep as late as possible, yet Iris woke up at 6 o'clock and I woke up at a more sensible time (around 9 o'clock). Part of the morning was spent packing all of our stuff and putting it in storage at the hotel at a decent price of 40 rubles. Breakfast was decent, served by a few mummy looking ladies, and I'm starting to enjoy drinking tea saving a few calories. Started by timing ourselves walking to the station so...