Saturday, for some odd and purely Russian reason we had class again! I fail to see the point of having a 4 day weekend if we have to make up our Friday classes the next day. I did not mind however as I had lectures for my two elective history classes and I enjoy that professor and his style of lecturing in addition to the contents of the class. At lunch I had a chance to go out and buy a new pair of dress shoes, both to wear here and to replace my ones at home (from freshman year of high school!) After class, it was time to get dressed up and go out to the Mariinsky Concert Zal (Hall) for a night of Russian orchestra with all Russian composers!
The hall itself is only 5 years old and quite impressive, and smaller then I would have thought for a city the size of Saint Petersburg (maybe 500 seats). The concert was very good with a few different Russian (or perhaps European?) details. Instead of receiving a program when walking into the theater, it is necessary to buy one, however at 30 rubles (1 dollar) it was silly not to! Additionally, at the end of the show the crowded started to clap in unison and that seemed to be a signal of some kind because at that point the conductor recognized the first chair of each section to bow independently. I thought it was a nice gesture and a fitting ending.
After the concert when we emerged from the concert hall still thinking of music and art, there was some nice snow falling it was just a small magical moment (or maybe movie scene).
The next day myself and a group of my friends decided to finally go to the central history museum of the Russian Navy. It was quite an interesting place to visit, with most of the exhibits consisting of models of famous or important ships of Russia’s past. They had an interesting small but seaworthy ship on display, and after a bit of translation we realized that it had been personally built by Peter the Great for educational reasons and is in fact the first ship of the Russian Navy!
The Soviet Navy portion of the museum was full of patriotic posters and venerations of the rile Sailors played in the revolution(s) of 1917. Interestingly, almost all the paintings on the wall where of sailors heroically charging up beaches or costal bluffs, and none of them had sailors actually sailing! In the room devoted to World War II, their example of an American ship was a model of tiny patrol boat which was placed next to a massive modern Soviet battleship; of course we do the same thing in US museums.
Once again a Russian museum failed to let me spend money in their gift shop/bookstore. All of them sell the same generic Russian souvenirs and have very little having to do with the contents of that museum. They need to work on merchandising like American attractions! (Or maybe we have just taken it too far?) Regardless it was a fun place to visit on a very cold day with lots of snow.
I have another short week this week, on Thursday we are leaving bright and early for Finland and Estonia. I am still not sure what there is to do in either of these places but it will be fun to add two more countries and two more national capitals to my ever growing list of places I have been.
Until then I will remain here trying to not be cold and to enjoy the snow!
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