Sesame Street does Russian Food!

I know I liked Sesame Street when I was little, and I like Russia now so when I recently became aware of the existence of this video, I found it amazing!

Except of course none of those dishes originate Russian.  They are Chinese, Ukrainian or late Russian (Really French), but have become associated with Russia over time.  Enjoy.....

Small Places in a Big City

First of all, the Biggest and Best news for a while: I saw the SUN today!  It still exists despite its two week absence and my growing doubts of its existence in Russia.

THE SUN !!!!

Over the last few days, myself and some of my friends have decided to visit some of the smaller, less well known attractions of the city.  The biggest advantage to living in a city like St. Petersburg for 15 weeks instead of just visiting it or staying short term is you have a chance to see all the tourist attractions but now we are able to expand out and see less famous (but by no means less interesting and beautiful) sights in the city.  Here are four such places:

Alexander Nevsky Monastery is named after a heroic figure of Russian Medieval history (and one of my favorite Russians) and is one of the building complexes in the city.  While most of the complex was off limits (it is still a functioning monastery) we were able to see some parts of it and the surrounding parks and older neighborhoods.  It is also the burial place of many famous Russian cultural figures including Dostoevsky, Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov and has a famous bakery.

Smolny Cathedral is one of several large cathedrals in the city of Saint Petersburg, but I found it to be different from all the other Russian churches I have seen so far.  It was designed by an Italian architect named Rastrelli who also designed some of the other great imperial structures in Saint Petersburg. Inside of the cathedral is not a church, instead it is a concert hall but the best feature by far for us is the bell towers.  

After a flight of stairs…

And another...

And another...

 AND ANOTHER.....

We reached the top and where able to get a breathtaking view of the city despite the rain and general dreary November weather.  While it was an amazing and breathtaking view, I can only imagine what it would look like on a clear summer day.  Here are just a few of the amazing pics I was able to take, including some with a new perspective on sights I have visited before.

Buddhist Monastery   On a bit a whim, while looking at our city maps we spotted a dot labeled Buddhist Temple and we decided to go check it out.  With Russia not being known for its embrace of eastern religions and Buddhism not known for its practitioners in Northern Europe we were intrigued.  It turned out to be both a monastery and temple for Tibetan and Russian Buddhists.  The building was quite impressive, albeit with some modifications to the normal architecture to account for Russian weather and tastes and a few other small touches that marked it as a Russian building. I wish I would have been able to spend more time inside of it then I did, but the incense smell inside was too overwhelming for me so I was not able to see it all.

Recreation Island is one of the smaller islands in the Neva River Delta (what St. Petersburg is built on).  It is both a nice park (one of literally dozens in the city) and it has a zoo, carnival games and a lovely place to view the Gulf of Finland.

In other news:

On Wednesday I caught myself saying “oh well its ONLY 43 degrees outside not too bad…”  Now I suppose it’s a good thing to be used to the temperatures associated with winter in Russia, but as a good Southern California boy I should not be used to this whole “Fall/Winter” thing.

And finally, tomorrow we are going to the first of our theatrical events with a classical music concert of Russian composers in the city’s brand new concert hall.  It should be fun to get dressed up and go out to, and this will be a good introduction since music is a universal language while Russian opera, on the other, hand needs just a BIT of translation.  Until next time!

Dostoyevsky lived Here!

I would first like to note: this is the 50th post on my blog and that I have now lived (and thrived) in Russia for over 2 months!

This past Sunday, we went on one of the most low key, and yet quite informative and interesting excursions yet.  Our first stop was the restored final apartment of Fyodor Dostoyevsky which is laid out just like the day he died and also has a museum to cover his life and works.  Hopefully you know who Dostoyevsky is, but if not here is a quick bio:

He is a Russian writer and orator known for his novels, short stories and essays written about normal people in his contemporary (mid 1800s) Russia, most often set in Saint Petersburg.  His most famous works are Crime and Punishment, Brothers Karamazov, Notes from the Underground, and The Gambler.

Touring the apartment was interesting, more from the perspective it offered on the lives of the Russian middle class life in 1880 then on anything related to him as an author.  Our tour guide did draw some very interesting parallels between events of his life and those of his works and noted the sources some of the major symbols and themes he repeatedly uses.

After this we went on a walking tour of one of the formerly worst parts of town, but is now one of the nicest and best preserved parts of this city.  Interestingly for a work of fiction, the plot of Crime and Punishment involves actual buildings, streets and bridges that exist to this day.  However they are encoded in the book and it requires some careful consideration and consultation with a street map (or a guide who has done it), but it all works out!  It was quite interesting to see the streets, still quite similar looking to how it was 150 years ago.  The biggest clue is that the event of the novel (a triple homicide carried out by a man who thinks that he is a superior person and allowed to get away with such things to further his own ambitions) occur in this area is that the apartment Dostoyevsky lived in at the time was along the route between the main characters apartment and the scene of the murder.

The man himself!

We where even able to count the steps from the murder’s apartment to scene of the crime, 720 is listed in the book and one of my friends counted his steps and got the same number! 

Translation:
In this home between 1864-1867 lived Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky
Here he wrote "Crime and Punishment"

Scene of the Crime!

Our quotient of fictional crime scenes fulfilled for the day, we withdrew to a very good Russian restaurant and had fried black bread, pelmeni and mors (Russian dumplings and cranberry juice)!

It was a good day!  This week is going to be a short one with only 3 days of class since Thursday and Friday are holidays for the “Day of National Unity” and Saturday we are going to a classical Russian music concert at a downtown theater!

Day of National Unity! = 4 day weekend!

Planet Neptune

Question of the day:  What language do seals at a Russian aquarium speak?

Today we decided to get out for a bit and see the “Planet Neptune” Oceanarium, Russia’s first aquarium.  I of course wanted to see what a Russian Aquarium looks like and with the current weather (in the 30s with snow or rain) an indoor attraction seemed the best option.  This, interestingly, was the first time I have had to pay for admission to an attraction in Russia with my own money.  Russians really like their students, and with my national student ID card I have been able to get into every museum I have gone to in the entire city free of charge!  It is also the first purely for profit aquarium I have ever been to; all the others have associated research and education institutions.  This one was on the bottom floor of and the entire basement of a shopping mall.

Nevertheless I was quite impressed by the aquarium’s assortment of fish from all over the world some rather innovative exhibits involving deep sea fish and a tunnel through a 1 million liter tank.  I had never seen most of the fish and other sea creatures names in Russian and that might have been the most fun part of the experience.

Sadly the only really Russian portion of the aquarium was the tank of black sea sturgeon and explanation about them being endangered because of the demand for (now illegal) black caviar. They also had a decent sized tank containing 3 seals who where wrestling and entertained us for the better part of 45 minutes (and I think where worth the price of admission on their own).  

Overall, this was a fun little outing, I think that I need to go on more little excursions like this, after class and back in time for dinner.  There are still so many things to see in this amazing city and I only have so many free days and weekends left to see them!

Oh the History, it is a Changin’

Yesterday we went on an excursion to the Museum of the Political History of Russia.  Every week our excursion groups get smaller but this one was just silly.  We met downstairs on Saturday morning, and had a grand total of 5 ready to go (out of 22 who still live in the dorms)!  Needless to say we proceeded out into the winter wonderland outside our door (see below) and onto the metro for our journey into the city center. 

Museum of the Political History of Russia is an interesting place with as much of a past as most of its exhibits.  It began in 1919 as a museum of the 1917 revolutions (there where 2) and every since it has changed name, content and editorial opinion with every new change in Russian history.  As my history professor here says; “Russia is the only country on earth with an uncertain past….”

The museum itself is located in the building the Bolsheviks used as their HQ during the February revolution and is full of artifacts and stories from the entire Communist and modern phase of Russian history.  There were quite a few historic items and trinkets used by or important to political leaders of Russia’s past and they even had a special exhibit of Russian and American political cartoon.  Additionally our tour guide was an actual historian who works in the affiliated institution to the museum and in addition to knowing quite a bit about the exhibits, she also added plenty of editorial opinions that are uncommon from normal tour guides but where quite amusing  to us.

Oh and they had this nice photo opp:

In other news: I saw my first legitimate snowfall in Russia on Friday night and most was still on the ground by midday Saturday.  In fact t times it was coming down quite hard and had covered the grass, trees and cars, but oddly not on the streets.  Every day since I have gotten back, it has been in the 40s during the day and the 30s or high 20s at night.  But don’t worry; this CA boy has enough gloves, hats, scarves, jackets, wool socks and sweaters to stay warm.  I won’t let this “winter” or “seasons” thing get to me!  I also can’t believe that in 2 weeks we are going to be going to Finland and Estonia and November is almost upon us.  Time is flying by; I have been in Russia for 8 weeks already!

I would be remiss to not mention that tonight is my last night as a teenager, and while I did go out and have  fun to mark this occasion with my friends last night, I do wish I was home to celebrate it with old friends and family.  While I am having great fun here, I of course miss everyone back home and look forward to returning home to see you all. (and to see the sun once again would be nice too)

(For the record I am still doing things here in St Petersburg, but the majority of my blogging energy has been going to catching up with my fall break adventures.  Those are much more interesting then everyday life in the frozen North!)

Back in Saint Petersburg!

Both my time with my friends in Moscow and my adventures in France with mother where amazing!

Thousands of miles , hundreds of pictures and many fun times and new memories later I have returned "home" (for lack of a better word) to St. Petersburg.  I have retuned to a colder St. Petersburg
which has experienced snow recently, but I have not seen it yet.

I have quite a few pictures, experiences and stories to share on my blog and I will endeavor to post as much of it as possible as soon as possible over the coming days.  I will endeavor to post them so they will appear to have been posted at the time the events really happened.  So  please check back often over the next few days as I try to turn my notes, ticket stubs and pictures into some rendering of the thrill filled week I have had.

Au Revoir Paris! Привет Санкт-Петербург!

Woke up and had another amazing French breakfast, I am going to miss them in St. Petersburg, and we once again set out on the streets of Paris.  The weather is, for the first time on my entire vacation, overcast but still a nice day and much warmer then it is back in Russia.

Today’s main attraction is the Museum of the French Army located in the invalid’s palace in the very center of the city.  While we originally thought it would be an interesting way to spend a morning, it turned out to be quite a large place and took up the best part of the day, and quite an enjoyable day it was.

We first went to their special exposition…. About the history of the Russian Imperial Guards, from of all places…. the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg!  I have therefore come to the conclusion that I will never be able to escape Russian culture, language or artifacts as it seems to be following me around everywhere I go now!  

They had quite well planned any laid out exhibits on the history of fighting in and by France from the very early medieval period until the post war era.  It was most certainly history with a French slant however; the worse thing I noticed was about the Americans showing up late to WWI and with “only” around a million soldiers mobilized in 9 months.   The best exhibit, in my opinion was the large collection of items, exhibits and digital battle recreations revolving around Napoleon and his era.  But I suppose it is to be expected since he is one of, if not the biggest figure in French history and it was time of pride and glory for France.

They had a very modern (and almost brand new) exhibit on the life and career of Charles de Gaul.  In fact I think this is what museums in the future will be like.  Every person in the exhibit has a set of headphones and as you move to different places it automatically plays audio associated with where you are.  They had touch screens everywhere, projections on the walls, floors and ceilings and presented a quite impressive multimedia and interactive experience.  But once again the French slant on history was slightly annoying, basically implying that it was his inspired leadership and speeches on the radio that won World War Two with very few references all of the other events.  But I did learn a lot about him and his very distinct French way of life and governing.

The complex also has a cathedral which contains the burial places of Napoleon and the most famous and successful Marshals of France.  It was quite ornate, the facades and statues around his tomb with images depicting him in an almost Roman god like matter with marble and gold everywhere.

After that we went to Luxembourg Park, a landscaped European park and the location of the French Senate building.  That sitting in t he park and strolling around that part of town  pleasant way to wind down the final down the final daylight hours I had in Paris.  Just one final stop before going back to the hotel and dinner, the small Statue of Liberty on an island in the Seine River.  I wish I knew more about the story of this statue as I am sure it is interesting, considering the Statue of Liberty was a gift to the US from France and designed by a Frenchman.  

I find it hard to believe that it has only been a week since I left Saint Petersburg via midnight train.  Tomorrow all I have to look forward to is a very early flight and a return to Russia.  My vacation, and the time spent with my mom, has been amazing and I have added more lifelong memories to go along with those of my amazing semester in Russia.

And now, back to Russian adventures!

On deck for the second half…. Russian Opera, Classical Concert, Ballet, Finland, Estonia, more palaces, Hermitage and Russian Museum revisited, city zoo, return to Peter and Paul Fortress, and plenty of other historic, interesting and distinctly Russian places!

Париж, 2-й день! (Paris, Second Day)

Today is our day to explore the wonders of the Louvre Museum!  Now earlier I mentioned my no museums rule for the trip, however I decided to apply that to only Strasbourg because there was never a chance I would pass up a cultural treasure like the Louvre.  Just because I have been to 3 other of the top art museums in the world in the past months (Hermitage, Russian State Museum and Tretyakov Gallery) does not mean I should pass up opportunity to see possibly the best art museum in the world.  So we set off once again by foot, this time taking a lovely walk along the lovely tree lined walkway along the Seine River and took our time to get there while enjoying a pleasant Parisian morning.

River walk

French National Assembly

Louvre's Grounds

After getting into the actual museum building, through the very ugly pyramid, we decided to get the 2 most famous pieces of art there out of the way so we could enjoy the rest of the day in the less crowded parts of the buildings.  So after obligatory viewings of the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo we were all set to see what I really wanted to see.

I was able to see some of my favorite paintings including; Liberty Leading the People, Raft of the Medusa, and Napoleon Crossing the Alps.  We also toured the extensive Egyptian (including a room with just sarcophaguses), Mesopotamian and the foundation of the building where the medieval castle on that location is still partially visible.  In the basement they had a modern Russian art exhibit.  Yet again I can’t get away with not seeing and hearing Russian for a single day in France!  The Louvre is a truly massive place and no human could possibly cover all of its exhibits in an entire day.  I was happy t have gotten to about 1/3 of the rooms there and I saw all of the major portions of the collection I had hoped for, mostly skipping 17-19^th century European paintings since that is what most of the Hermitage’s collection is and there are only so many of those a person can take in a limited time!

Liberty Leading the People

Can't Escape Russian!

Mummy Stockpile!

After a solid morning and early afternoon of art and culture, we once again set out in the city with the eventual goal of reaching the Notre Dame Cathedral.  After some obligatory sightseeing there and on the island around it, as well as a little souvenir shopping, we where hungry and had to decide on a dinner place.  My family tends to be a big fan of the Hard Rock Cafe and its locations all over the world, while I know it would have been better to go to a real French restaurant, I could not resist the temptation to get some legitimate American food.  It was a nice restaurant with some fun rock artifacts and good food. (I had macaroni and cheese, not much of that in Saint Petersburg!)

Creator/Creation

On the way back we had another chance encounter with an amazing sight of the city at night.  We were on the Chaps de Mars at around 9pm and where taking a few of the obligatory night pictures of the Eifel Tower and its searchlights, when at exactly 9pm the real show started.  Hundreds of individual bulbs placed all over the tower flickering on and off is quite a sight.  Not sire if I would necessarily call it a pretty sight, it would be quite annoying to live near or see every day which is why they do it for only 5 min at a time.  But it was certainly quite a sight and one that is truly impossible to capture in a picture and will be a lasting image I keep from the city.

Night in Paris

Next, in the thrilling conclusion to this epic tale: one more full day in Paris, followed by the monumental task of departing a city besieged by labor actions!

[Yes the title is in Russian.  However, since I saw, heard and thought about so much Russian in Paris I feel it is a fitting title]

Long Day’s Journey into [and around] Paris

High Speed Rail!

Today we got up early and have another amazing breakfast at the hotel After a bit of “fun” getting the actual tickets for our train (we had an online reservation number but the automated machines did not like it) and a short lesson in the illogical numbering of French train platforms we were all set to go.  Thankfully the disruptions caused by the strikes did not affect the long haul trains of France and we where speared the pain of attempting to find a new way to get to Paris. 

The French train is a bit different then the Russian train I have been on (notwithstanding the difference with a train with sleeping cars).  Half the seats face forward and half backwards, so we where facing backwards during the entire ride to Paris.  In addition the train left 8 minutes late from the station, so once again France is shown up by Russian efficiency (that’s really quite sad).  However, this 2ish hour train ride is much less stressful then a 45 min flight, which was our only other option to get back to Paris.  I renew my argument in favor of high speed trains in CA and the rest of the US as a perfect way to replace 1-3 hour flights in style and comfort!

On the train I took the opportunity to finish addressing my postcards to be sent home with mom, and mailed from the US {by the time of this posting you all should have received them}, and also to fill out my absentee ballot.  As a quick aside REMEMBER TO VOTE November 2^nd and if you are in Irvine Vote for Beth Krom!

The countryside was quite interesting as we passed though farmland and small villages.  Every village or small town we passed had a beautiful, huge church in the middle and most of the trip we were surrounded by vast fields of corn.  Overall it was a very pleasant journey, but what we arrived to in Paris was not…

As I mentioned before the national transport unions where on a continuing strike the entire time we were in France and they had chosen to use the Paris Metro (and the line we needed to use the most) as the main focus of their demonstrations.  Long story short, we made a one stop metro trip and had to get out and find a taxi to take us the rest of the way.  But we made it to the hotel around 1pm and were ready to begin touring the city.  And tour we did!

Convoy of National Police off to Confront Protesters

Because of the transit strike we resolved to walk everywhere in the city.  This meant that we would not be able to make it out to Versailles, but I am not too torn up about that.  In Saint Petersburg I have had the privilege of seeing amazing palaces and many formal gardens, so I have the general idea of what it looks and feels like.  That, and how could it ever compare to Peterhof??

After a quick lunch we proceeded to preview as many of the major sights of Paris as possible, both to stretch our legs and to plan what we wanted to do over the course of the next few days.  Of special note is the Cleopatra’s Needle monument near the Louvre museum and at the end of the Champs-Elysees.  There are four ancient Egyptian obelisks all moved around the same time to Paris, New York, London and Rome.  And in the course of my travels over the last 4 years I have now seen them all!

With darkness coming and both of us exhausted from 5 hours of constant walking we returned to the hotel and yet another amazing dinner at a nearby restaurant.  Next up our exploration of the Louvre and Notre Dame Cathedral.  But first a few pictures from the day’s exploration: 

The Air France Castle