Today we went to Peterhof. Having finally bought an umbrella yesterday (Saturday), the weather has since been perfect. It is a marvelous place, a giant park filled with fountains and a large palace. It was a great trip, but a little sad because it was one of our main excursions at the end of our trip last year and there were a lot of memories. I walked around a bit where we walked on the beach and in the water, and remembered Alex's shoes floating in the water like boats, as they were completely waterproof, and Alex and I skipping rocks (and he got me in the knee with one). Fumiko and Tanya wading in the water, and Fumiko finally falling and getting soaked, and Tanya continuing to facilitate this. Anna taking a dip in the fountain and then hurriedly leaving because she was worried about the would-be fine. Fortunately my new camera has a vastly improved battery life; throughout most of the day trips last year it would die about halfway through. One might guess that, having been to Peterhor last year I wouldn't take too many pictures this year, but no. I took another 100-150 or so I think.
After Peterhof we finally had the excursion from Monday that was canceled. I decided to go even though it was most of the same stuff I'd seen last year, but it ended up being worth it as we went up to Smolny Cathedral which had a nice view (though not as nice as St. Isaac's). I didn't know that the cathedral was never actually used as such; one of the builders committed suicide near the end of its construction. It's now used only as a concert hall.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
First week - Saturday 6/30
For today, there was a choice between a Rock Festival (Окна Открой) and some sort of Medieval Festival in another town a few hours away. The Medieval Festival sounded interesting if only to see the town, but I really didn't want to get up early, and decided to go to the rock festival. This turned out to be more interesting that I expected, as it was interesting to see this part of Russian life and culture. After we left the rock festival (there were 5 of us) we hung out in the park and drank some champagne and such. I reawakened my ice cream gluttony, eating 7 throughout the day. Total cost: oh, about $5. We hung out near the Mosckovskiy metro station (a large monument to Lenin stands there, and there are fountains and such; it was from here that we took a van to Tsarskoe Celo last year). I also checked out the 'monument to the defenders of Leningrad' or whatever it's called, which is a large monument to the 3-year siege of Leningrad during World War II. I was happy to finally see this, as I'd merely gone past it in travels last year.
NB: the mullets are unisex, by the way
NB: the mullets are unisex, by the way
Monday, July 9, 2007
First week - Friday, 6/29
It was decided that on Fridays, in lieu of a lecture, we'd have an "airing of grievances" in English. The best part of this was as follows:
Andrew: "That first lecture, the economics one, that Nikita Maslennikov--"
Anna Maslennikova: "Yes, he is my husband"
Andrew: "--was absolutely great, I enjoyed it a lot!"
This was of course the lecture that I mentioned from Monday which no one really understood very well. After the laughter died down we more seriously discussed the difficulties including grammar, which evidently was a difficulty for all the groups.
After the meeting we had a tour around Peter and Paul Fortress, and inside the Peter and Paul Cathedral, which was nice, as it was something I didn't get to see very much (except insofar as it's a large landmark, visible from most of the city), and after the tour we went to a concert there by a male choir which I enjoyed. It was actually in a room inside the fortress wall (it was moved, to hilarious effect, at the last minute). It was packed, and as I left, they handed out these small laminated placards (the size on the order of a few postage stamps) which read "АНТРАКТ" / "ANTRAKT" in Latin and Cyrillic. I thought this was the name of the choir, until next week when we were at the theater, when I asked someone how to say "intermission," and, you guessed it, it's "antrakt" is Russian, at which point I realized that it was probably a reentrance ticket. Why they felt the need to write the Russian word in the Latin alphabet, rather than giving the English word, is beyond me.
Andrew: "That first lecture, the economics one, that Nikita Maslennikov--"
Anna Maslennikova: "Yes, he is my husband"
Andrew: "--was absolutely great, I enjoyed it a lot!"
This was of course the lecture that I mentioned from Monday which no one really understood very well. After the laughter died down we more seriously discussed the difficulties including grammar, which evidently was a difficulty for all the groups.
After the meeting we had a tour around Peter and Paul Fortress, and inside the Peter and Paul Cathedral, which was nice, as it was something I didn't get to see very much (except insofar as it's a large landmark, visible from most of the city), and after the tour we went to a concert there by a male choir which I enjoyed. It was actually in a room inside the fortress wall (it was moved, to hilarious effect, at the last minute). It was packed, and as I left, they handed out these small laminated placards (the size on the order of a few postage stamps) which read "АНТРАКТ" / "ANTRAKT" in Latin and Cyrillic. I thought this was the name of the choir, until next week when we were at the theater, when I asked someone how to say "intermission," and, you guessed it, it's "antrakt" is Russian, at which point I realized that it was probably a reentrance ticket. Why they felt the need to write the Russian word in the Latin alphabet, rather than giving the English word, is beyond me.
First week - Wednesday, 6/27
Wednesday
Today we were going to watch a film with Polly Gannon, but the sound wouldn't work. Our cultural excursion of the day was to "watch"/listen to Verdi's Requiem at the philharmonic. I like Mozart's better but I nevertheless enjoyed it; it's very different to listen to music by oneself than to sit and listen to it performed). After that, I walked around a bit near the dorms where I lived last year, eating dinner at the bliny place where the same two guys still worked. It was bittersweet to see the familiar sights/people but being there just by myself.
Random note: the mullet is strangely in style here now
Today we were going to watch a film with Polly Gannon, but the sound wouldn't work. Our cultural excursion of the day was to "watch"/listen to Verdi's Requiem at the philharmonic. I like Mozart's better but I nevertheless enjoyed it; it's very different to listen to music by oneself than to sit and listen to it performed). After that, I walked around a bit near the dorms where I lived last year, eating dinner at the bliny place where the same two guys still worked. It was bittersweet to see the familiar sights/people but being there just by myself.
Random note: the mullet is strangely in style here now
First week - Tuesday, 6/26
Today we started our Russian-language classes; they run from 9:30 to about 1:15 in two 1:30 sections (пары). My first class was grammar; this went well, as everything was in Russian in spite of the fact that about half the group doesn't know any grammatical terms in Russian. We spent about 10 minutes figuring out that we were talking about adjectives (the teacher doesn't speak English, but rather only Russian and German, so we had to talk around everything that was unclear). I didn't learn much grammar (I'm quite familiar with adjectives by this point) but at least it was good practice in listening and speaking. We were given a handout on participles to read for the next class, so that at least held some promise. Of course, the handout (evidently from a textbook) was only mildly useful, as the excerpt explained everything about participles (types, endings) except when to use which type, which was kind of the important part.
The second class was phonetics, which was fairly interesting. We were given a booklet of songs (Не фонетика - песня! / "Not phonics - songs!"), each of which goes over some sort of phonetic device; this one was called "Shi-Zhi-Zhi". We listened and sang it to the tune of the teacher playing the guitar. The chorus goes "A zhuzhi zhuzhat: zhu zhu zhu zhu zhu" (The beetles are buzzing: zhu zhu zhu...etc) and so on. For me though, the hardest thing is rolling the "r" in various places.
After lunch, John Bailyn gave a lecture on Russian which was fairly interesting, and went over some interesting interactions between various letters vis-a-vis softness/hardness (e.g. in English: due vs. do have soft/hard 'd' sounds), and spelling rules.
After this lecture we watched a film (introduced by Timur, who introduced many films last year), called "Man with a moviecamera" which was a silent film which was sort of about everyday life. When that finished we split off and went to various restaurants; I went with the Sbarro group, not surprisingly.
Writing the English takes enough time, so I'll just skip the Russian journal entries
The second class was phonetics, which was fairly interesting. We were given a booklet of songs (Не фонетика - песня! / "Not phonics - songs!"), each of which goes over some sort of phonetic device; this one was called "Shi-Zhi-Zhi". We listened and sang it to the tune of the teacher playing the guitar. The chorus goes "A zhuzhi zhuzhat: zhu zhu zhu zhu zhu" (The beetles are buzzing: zhu zhu zhu...etc) and so on. For me though, the hardest thing is rolling the "r" in various places.
After lunch, John Bailyn gave a lecture on Russian which was fairly interesting, and went over some interesting interactions between various letters vis-a-vis softness/hardness (e.g. in English: due vs. do have soft/hard 'd' sounds), and spelling rules.
After this lecture we watched a film (introduced by Timur, who introduced many films last year), called "Man with a moviecamera" which was a silent film which was sort of about everyday life. When that finished we split off and went to various restaurants; I went with the Sbarro group, not surprisingly.
Writing the English takes enough time, so I'll just skip the Russian journal entries
First week - Monday 6/25
On Monday we took a placement exam, obviously to determine into which groups we would be divided. Last year's test was a short one, maybe an hour or so (if that), but this one was a fairly grueling 3 hours, with 130 questions, including 3 listening sections (given via short video clips). Participles (причастие) were the last things we looked at (but only briefly) in class at home, but they were the main thing I remember not knowing here; it felt like half the questions involved them. The room was also hot, so all-in-all it was quite exhausting.
After that we had lunch, which was tough because they just brough a soup, salad and main dish (no choice) and I am very picky. This it "бизнесс-ланч" ("business lunch") is offered to us every day after morning classes (пары) but I've stopped bothering and go to another cafeteria in the building.
After lunch, we had a lecture given by Nikita Maslennikov, who had given a lecture last year in English (the "cannonball" lecture, if you were there). This year he gave a lecture on economics. It was in Russian: fast, terse, Russian, with lots of economic terms. This was hopeless for me to understand (and few others had much better luck). I was already sort of worn out from the test, and this didn't help. After that we were to have an excursion around the city but that didn't play out due to rain.
We're "obliged" (recommended) to keep a Russian journal, so here is that rendition of the day's events:
Сегодня мы написали эксамен, который был очень трудный. Вообше я знал мало о причастиях. Я очень устал, но после обеда (который мне не очень понравился, потому что, я, к сожелению - разборчив), у нас была лекция на русском языке по экономике. Этого было очень трудно понимать. Я очень устал. У нас было бы эксурсия, но она не состоялась, потому что, шёл дождь.
After that we had lunch, which was tough because they just brough a soup, salad and main dish (no choice) and I am very picky. This it "бизнесс-ланч" ("business lunch") is offered to us every day after morning classes (пары) but I've stopped bothering and go to another cafeteria in the building.
After lunch, we had a lecture given by Nikita Maslennikov, who had given a lecture last year in English (the "cannonball" lecture, if you were there). This year he gave a lecture on economics. It was in Russian: fast, terse, Russian, with lots of economic terms. This was hopeless for me to understand (and few others had much better luck). I was already sort of worn out from the test, and this didn't help. After that we were to have an excursion around the city but that didn't play out due to rain.
We're "obliged" (recommended) to keep a Russian journal, so here is that rendition of the day's events:
Сегодня мы написали эксамен, который был очень трудный. Вообше я знал мало о причастиях. Я очень устал, но после обеда (который мне не очень понравился, потому что, я, к сожелению - разборчив), у нас была лекция на русском языке по экономике. Этого было очень трудно понимать. Я очень устал. У нас было бы эксурсия, но она не состоялась, потому что, шёл дождь.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
To Russia...
It seemed that once we left the ground at Frankfurt, our group turned on the "Russian switch"; up until that point no one had really been speaking any Russian to each other but from that moment on, we were Russian-only, even among ourselves.
Saturday evening, we arrived at Pulkovo. In contrast to last year, we did indeed have a jetway, as opposed to simply stairs on the tarmac, but there were many familiarities. I missed the exhiliration that I had last year when we were approaching the airport, remarking at the incredible changes that had transpired in the last 10-20 years such that it was even possible to be in this strange land with which we had been enemies for so long. This year seemed more routine.
There was the same familiar 4-note chime followed by announcements over the PA system, but in contrast to last year, the line to customs was shorter and the weather more cool. Anna Maslennikova and Julia Vorobiova, some familiar staff from last year, met us at Pulkovo, although this time it was only in Russian. Те же люди, другой язык. My luggage fortunately made it this time, and rather than the rickety van to some archaic, beat-up dormitory, we had a large coach bus taking the group to the "Petro Sport Hotel" which was pretty luxurious by any standard. Keys were not a problem, no one was living in my spot, the bathrooms weren't repulsive, I didn't need to take dysfunctional elevators; it was all so banal in a way. We had phones this year, either from home or purchased for us, and SIM cards waiting as well so we were all able to call each other (more-or-less) as opposed to banging on iron doors, 9 floors away.
We had dinner at the hotel, and breakfast on Sunday morning (a buffet), and after that we had an orientation (in Russian) and then checked out and met our families. Mine is a single woman, on the young side of middle-aged, with a young daughter who is away for the summer in Moscow. We chatted over some wine (in Russian; she doesn't speak English anyway), and then bought some breakfast for me (cereal) and had some dinner (frozen pizza). Trying to understand all the Russian has been very difficult, as I've had very little practice and have (apparently) a small vocabulary. My room is fairly large and comfortable, having been recently remodeled. I have a sofa/bed. One point of amusement for the Russian speaking among you, is that the bathroom's toilet paper (which exists, by the way), is of the brand "Мягкий знак," the logo of which is indeed "ь".
Last year I lived on Vasilievsky Island, where the university is located, about 20 minutes by bus, the stops for which were conveniently across from the dorm and university. This year I live across the Neva on the mainland (well, actually another small island off the mainland). It's about 35 minutes on foot, as unfortunately the only bus route that goes in the right direction is about 15 minutes away from the apartment and 10 minutes away from the university, so it's not worth doing. The first week saw heavy rain, and I didn't have an umbrella, so that was unpleasant.
I go across the Lieutenant Schmidt bridge, which is still being reconstructed (there is a parallel bridge right next to it, which I think is only temporary, as they can't afford to close the bridge entirely). This is the western bridge, which has four large towers, for those went last year. At first this was really difficult since crossing the streets to reach it was treacherous as there is no traffic stop. Now it's less difficult as I can walk across the bridge that the cars are not driving over.
It's been interesting to see the results of the many constructions that were in progress last year, such as the Neva-facing facade of the Hermitage, and some roadwork on the university embankment, which now has a median which one can walk on or stop on when crossing the street.
It's been very busy, as we have Russian classes each day, plus lectures in Russian, plus other cultural programs, but I'll talk all about all that.
Saturday evening, we arrived at Pulkovo. In contrast to last year, we did indeed have a jetway, as opposed to simply stairs on the tarmac, but there were many familiarities. I missed the exhiliration that I had last year when we were approaching the airport, remarking at the incredible changes that had transpired in the last 10-20 years such that it was even possible to be in this strange land with which we had been enemies for so long. This year seemed more routine.
There was the same familiar 4-note chime followed by announcements over the PA system, but in contrast to last year, the line to customs was shorter and the weather more cool. Anna Maslennikova and Julia Vorobiova, some familiar staff from last year, met us at Pulkovo, although this time it was only in Russian. Те же люди, другой язык. My luggage fortunately made it this time, and rather than the rickety van to some archaic, beat-up dormitory, we had a large coach bus taking the group to the "Petro Sport Hotel" which was pretty luxurious by any standard. Keys were not a problem, no one was living in my spot, the bathrooms weren't repulsive, I didn't need to take dysfunctional elevators; it was all so banal in a way. We had phones this year, either from home or purchased for us, and SIM cards waiting as well so we were all able to call each other (more-or-less) as opposed to banging on iron doors, 9 floors away.
We had dinner at the hotel, and breakfast on Sunday morning (a buffet), and after that we had an orientation (in Russian) and then checked out and met our families. Mine is a single woman, on the young side of middle-aged, with a young daughter who is away for the summer in Moscow. We chatted over some wine (in Russian; she doesn't speak English anyway), and then bought some breakfast for me (cereal) and had some dinner (frozen pizza). Trying to understand all the Russian has been very difficult, as I've had very little practice and have (apparently) a small vocabulary. My room is fairly large and comfortable, having been recently remodeled. I have a sofa/bed. One point of amusement for the Russian speaking among you, is that the bathroom's toilet paper (which exists, by the way), is of the brand "Мягкий знак," the logo of which is indeed "ь".
Last year I lived on Vasilievsky Island, where the university is located, about 20 minutes by bus, the stops for which were conveniently across from the dorm and university. This year I live across the Neva on the mainland (well, actually another small island off the mainland). It's about 35 minutes on foot, as unfortunately the only bus route that goes in the right direction is about 15 minutes away from the apartment and 10 minutes away from the university, so it's not worth doing. The first week saw heavy rain, and I didn't have an umbrella, so that was unpleasant.
I go across the Lieutenant Schmidt bridge, which is still being reconstructed (there is a parallel bridge right next to it, which I think is only temporary, as they can't afford to close the bridge entirely). This is the western bridge, which has four large towers, for those went last year. At first this was really difficult since crossing the streets to reach it was treacherous as there is no traffic stop. Now it's less difficult as I can walk across the bridge that the cars are not driving over.
It's been interesting to see the results of the many constructions that were in progress last year, such as the Neva-facing facade of the Hermitage, and some roadwork on the university embankment, which now has a median which one can walk on or stop on when crossing the street.
It's been very busy, as we have Russian classes each day, plus lectures in Russian, plus other cultural programs, but I'll talk all about all that.
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