St. Petersburg Days 7 & 8

Day 7—St. Petersburg WWII
Friday, November 19th, 2010
Wow I was getting pretty tired by this day. Eight days for a trip is really long and especially when everyone of those days is filled with intensive sightseeing excursions. Today’s theme was all about WWII. After this day I realized that I knew nothing of the extent to which WWII affected Russia. I had never taken a history class that ever gave the proper amount of attention to Russia and WWII. I feel that I missed out on a lot but now considered myself very knowledgable on the subject. I just wish though that I hadn’t been as surprised as I was by the devastation that took place. The first place we went to was the massive cemetery both for military casualties and civilian. This cemetery was nothing Arlington but instead it was rows of massive grave sites. There was not an individual marker for every life but instead just raised mounds of earth marked with a single headstone. It was chilling to think of the thousands of people buried just below. During the siege of Leningrad they had to use dynamite to make the graves because the ground was too frozen to use shovels. Each section was about 20 ft wide and maybe 45-50 feet long, and then possibly 100 or so sections. The cemetery holds 600,000 people all buried in these mass graves. To make matters worse we visited in November when literally everything was dead. The grass was snow covered, trees bare without leaves, and rose bushes trimmed back to shrubs, which created quite a sterile atmosphere. More Russians died during the siege of Leningrad than the US lost in every war combined. We went to the siege museum after leaving the cemetery. It could have been done really well and could have been a really moving experience but instead it was cheesy and looked cheaply done. One of the most distributing things about the war was the so called “heartbeat of Leningrad.” During the siege when the heat, running water, and public transportation were all gone the local radio station played a metronome to tell the civilians that the city was still under Soviet control. The constant sound of a metronome slowly ticking back and forth back and forth I feel would have drove me insane. It was an eerie noise when then played it for us the museum. Of course since it was the last night in Russia Grace and I went out and bought a 5 Liter job of beer. The night was really fun since we were all staying together in a hotel.

Day 8 – St. Petersburg The final day
Saturday, November 20th, 2010
The last day in St. Petersburg began with a trip to the monastery founded by Peter the Great. We visited a place within the monastery where they restore old icons and paint news ones for newer churches. Then we stood in line for 45 minutes waiting of fresh baked bread, baked by monks. The bread was indeed worth the wait, it was fantastic!

At the monastery we toured a small cemetery where famous writers, aritist, and other contributors to Russian culture were buried. That afternoon before the train departed we had free to explore the city for ourselves. 3 of us went souvenir shopping and then just rested for the remainder of the afternoon. Once on the train Taylor, Sam, Grace, and I all watch Dr. Zhivago. I had never seen Dr. Zhivago or read the book but still I thought it was a wonderful movie.

St. Petersburg Days 5 & 6

Day 5—St. Petersburg
Wednesday, November 17th, 2010
The morning began with a tour of Dostoevsky’s apartment. The tour was alright but I’m not sure I enjoyed it the most out of our group. I’ve never read anything that Dostoevsky wrote and he owned many apartments scattered across the city so it wasn’t very interesting looking at his stuff for me. After the apartment we headed to a Russian food market that was really interesting. I am still very curious as to how a country with such a cold climate can have such an abundance of fruits and vegetables. They were selling all sorts of veggies, fruits, nuts, pickles, cheeses, candies, and meats. The meat section was very entertaining, I say my first whole cow tongue laid out in an open air meat counter. I’m not really sure what the regulations are in Russian for selling food because on my walk home from the metro there are many people selling meats and cheeses out of the trunks of their cars, so possibly no real regulation. Anyway back to St. Petersburg, I gave a couple of my friends and my professor a lesson on the different cuts and which are better. Whenever I share farm knowledge most people think it’s pretty funny, they never would have guessed that “meat judging” was a real activity.
After the market we went to the Russian Art Museum. The first half of the tour was really good. The second half of the museum was the modern part, which is what our tour guide taught at one of the local universities. I’m not a very big fan of modern art to begin with so having a tour guide that discussed each picture in depth wasn’t exactly my definition of a good time. The same tour guide which is another good friend of the Kollman’s took us to an artist’s studio after the museum. They studied together in college. Most of what the artist is painting now is too modern for my taste and mostly consist of shapes with various textures. However, at some point in the 90’s he had a “Equine” collection that was just breathtaking. At the end of his talk about being an artist he showed us some of his sketches. There was this beautiful picture of a horse but I couldn’t bring myself to buy it because it was pretty pricey and I don’t see myself collecting Russian art anytime in the future. A couple other students did buy sketches though so it was a successful evening.

Day 6—St. Petersburg
Thursday, November 18th, 2010
I started my morning with a GASP! SNOW… the first real snow I’ve seen in Russia! Thursday was an early morning but totally worth it! We started at 9am, which for college students is like 5am in the real world. We took an hour long bus ride to outside of St. Petersburg to see a palace built by Elizabeth I and added on later by Catherine the Great and other Russian leaders. When we got off the bus we of course frolicked in the snow and all temporarily reverted back to our childhoods. One funny thing was this small street band consisting of 4 brass instruments. I know a trumpet and tuba for sure and them maybe a baritone but that’s not important. What is important is that when were walking to the palace they were standing on a street corner and upon realizing they were American they played the star spangled banner, when the saints go marching in, and some confederate army tune. It was really a surreal moment to hear a Russian band play the star spangled banner in the snow in the middle of the Russian country. Well at least I thought it was pretty funny.
The palace has been restored to it’s original grandiose nature but only after many years of work and a lot of money. During the siege of Leningrad, during WWII, the Nazi’s used this beautiful palace for barracks. When they left they set off a huge air bomb in the middle of the palace destroying most of the rooms and burning what was left after they had looted. So almost everything is a restoration. However some pieces were originals. The elderly women who worked in the palace when the Nazi’s were taking it over were packing up pieces as fighting was taking place at the other end of the palace. It must have been quite a sight to see these women trying to save a sense of national pride. Also this is the palace where the famous Amber room is. It was quite an impressive room, however they would not let us take any pictures of this room because of some sort of chemical reaction that takes place within the stones. Please look up the myths that surround the Amber room if you get a chance it’s quite an interesting story. The Russian’s certainly had a thing for gold, which our tour guide constantly reminded us of, “if it looks like gold, then it IS gold.” Everything is covered in gold leaf. SEE PIC BELOW:

After that palace we went to Paul I’s palace which was pretty much trumped by Elizabeth’s but still really beautiful in it’s own right.
That evening we attended the ballet to see the performance of Don Quixote!!! Just like in Moscow we all got really dressed up in our formal wear. However this time was more fun because we were staying in a hotel together instead of home stays spread across the city so some of us girls got ready together and had champagne prior to going. It was a really special to get to bond with the girls in my group. Here in Moscow there are 18 Stanford students but in places like Oxford there are closer to 40 Stanford students. On the boys from the Oxford program said he didn’t even know everyone in his programs name!!! I think and hope that several of us from this trip will remain close friends forever. The ballet was really awesome! It was such a beautiful performance and really quite funny! To keep in line with being furthered cultured that evening, us already cultured Americans chose to eat at the always classy fine dining establishment that is Carl’s Jr. Moscow has Burger king and McDonalds but St. Petersburg has the only Carl’s Jr in Russia. Even though it wasn’t first class dining the company I kept was and so the dinner was more than excellent.

St. Petersburg Days 3 & 4

St. Petersburg—day 3 Day of Murder
Monday, November 15, 2010
Today we started off by visiting the largest private palace in St. Petersburg and possibly the most famous (at least in my mind) because Rasputin was killed in this mansion!!! If you don’t know the story about Rasputin you should look it up because it’s really interesting! In a few words though he became too influential with Nicholas II’s family and wife and so the upper class semi-royals had him murdered. However, Rasputin wouldn’t die. Rasputin was poisoned with cyanide, shot in a basement then crawled out onto the street and finally thrown into a frozen river. It was already creepy enough to see the actual spot where Rasputin was shot but to make matters worse they had these life size wax figure of the men involved in his murder, including Rasputin himself so things became extra creepy.
After leaving there we headed to St. Isaac’s Cathedral. St. Isaac’s is a beautiful cathedral with a huge dome that we were able to go up to the top of and see out above the whole city! It was actually a very nice view and not unbearably windy at the top of dome.
To finish out the day of murder we visited the Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood. The church was erected to remember Alexander II who was killed by a terrorist attack. The church was built on the exact spot on which he died. One section of the floor is roped off and has a gazebo built about it to reveal the exact cobblestones on which he was killed, thus spilled blood cathedral. Apparently the story goes that Alexander II was riding along the canal in his carriage when a bomb was thrown under his carriage. The horses and other staff that were traveling with him were injured very badly but of course being a Tsar Alexander exited the carriage, unharmed, and continued walking along the canal. As he walked along another terrorist from the same group threw a bomb under Alexander II’s feet killing him there atop the cobblestones on which the church is now built.
After leaving the cathedral and finishing our very long day I started on my evenings of firsts. For dinner I had beef stroganoff for the first time! It was really really good but unfortunately it was not served on a bed of noodles, which I was told in the traditional way. Come to find out though later in that same week that NO where in Russia is Beef Stroganoff served on noodles, guess I will just wait to eat it again until I get back to the states. After dinner I watched Moulin Rouge for the first time with a bunch of other people in the group. It is a really good movie…surprised I hadn’t seen it before then.

Day 4—St. Petersburg
Tuesday, November 16th, 2010
The mansion we visited first in the morning was painstakingly boring. Not only way the tour guide not very good by providing extremely irrelevant information but it also had to be translated by our own tour guide into English which takes FOR-EV-ER! Oh I guess I forgot to mention that the entire time we were in St. Petersburg we had our very own group tour guide. She is a licensed tour guide that the Kollmann’s (my professors) have used several times and are very good friends with. Our tour guide teaches advanced English to Russians so her English is very good and it was incredible about how much she knew about EVERYTHING and EVERYWHERE we went in St. Petersburg. So if the tour was ever less than thrilling, (which it was one other time) it absolutely wasn’t her fault. She was a very good tour guide.
After the museum of boringness and a quick lunch we headed to the Museum of Curiosities. This was by the coolest museum I have ever been too. The day ended much differently than it began! Peter the Great started this museum because he was into collecting oddities and anthological artifacts about different cultures. Peter the Great was definitely an odd man, which is evident from this museum. We started the museum with a tour of North American Indian tribes costumes and cultural practices. This was a very interesting collection of artifacts. They have the largest collection of California Indian woven baskets in the entire world! To say the least the history of Native tribes in North America wasn’t exactly what I expected to see but I enjoyed it. There were also tons of costumes and artifacts from India and China but there’s oh so much more…. Such as… Dead babies! Peter the Great had this extensive, EXTENSIVE collection of preserved fetuses in jars from the 18th century. Some of the babies were normal fetuses and some were used to illustrate the different stages of birth but the largest and most disturbing collection was the display of birth defects. There were so so so many babies with awful defects such as Cyclopes, joined legs, missing limbs, twins joined at various body parts, giant heads, and others that I can’t even describe. Some of the kids in our group were so grossed out that they could not stay in the room.
That night we went out to a couple bars and took part in the Russian traditional of Vodka drinking.

St. Petersburg Days 1 & 2

St. Petersburg Day 1 & Housing
I’m back to Moscow for 4 days before heading to Cairo, Egypt for Thanksgiving break. Wow St. Petersburg was quite the trip!!! The entire group of 18 Stanford students spent 8 days in St. Petersburg touring around various museums and learning about the heavily influenced European city of St. Petersburg. We left on Friday the 12th, on an overnight train and arrived Saturday morning about 7am. I had never traveled on an overnight train but I have to say it was actually pretty fun. It was an enjoyable experience regardless of the sweltering heat on the train.
On the first day in St. Petersburg the housing assignments for next winter at Stanford were posted on the Internet. So shortly after arriving there were a lot of mixed emotions running through the group. FINALLY though lady luck was on my side and I received GREAT housing!!! I’m really excited to be living in Terra for the remained of my junior year at Stanford. Terra is a cooperative house in the Cowell cluster of houses. Tridelta is also in the Cowell cluster so I will be living right next to Tridelt!!! The cooperative part of Terra means that all the students cook and clean. I am required to cook 1 meal every two weeks. (So start sending in your recipe ideas!!!) Also we have clean the house every so often. Even though this living situation won’t be a “cushy” as having a chef and janitor to take care of me I am excited about the change of pace and the challenge and cooking for such a large group. ALSO another big part of Terra’s image on campus is that they are the Gay and Lesbian community house. Of course not everyone who lives in Terra is homosexual but many of the members from the Gay and Lesbian community at Stanford choice to live there. I am excited about living in Terra because I will learn more about a community of people that I previously did not have that much knowledge about; I am looking forward to learning about the struggles of a the community. I definitely received the best housing out of the juniors here in Moscow and the best housing for me personally because I could find myself isolated in an apartment off campus away from Tridelt and the center of campus. I have no doubt that my peers will be able to handle if not even flourish in such living conditions but for me personally I am really happy with where I drew to live. For the remainder of the day we took a bus tour around St. Petersburg to familiarize ourselves with the city. Indeed St. Petersburg is a very beautiful city but not a very traditional Russian city.

St. Petersburg—Day 2 The Hermitage
First I need to give credit for Ms. Grace Jones because I am reviewing her blog while writing mine. Grace is much more organized than me and was able to post everyday from St. Petersburg. I’m using her blog as a crutch (to sort out the days on which we visited what places) because in line with my procrastinator tendencies I am trying to recall the jammed packed 8 days spent in St. Petersburg from my desk in Moscow. Thank you Grace for keeping track of both of our lives.
Anyway on Sunday November 14th we spent the whole day visiting the Hermitage. The Hermitage is the largest museum in the world by number of exhibitions, 3 million to be exact. Several buildings make up the Hermitage but the most famous of course is the Winter Palace. This beautiful winter green palace sits along the river and even without the impressive artwork that it houses it as a building alone is a work of art. Grace did the math and it would take you 69 days to see the whole museum if you looked at every exhibition for 2 seconds!!!! Fortunately we only stayed at the museum from 10:30-4:30, which is still a considerable about of time, but nothing compared to everything we missed seeing. However I wouldn’t trade what we did see for what we missed because I saw some very famous art and was very impressed by it all. I saw works by Da Vinci, Michael Angelo, Raffael, Donatello, Picasso, Monet, Van Gough, Rodin, and last but not least the largest collection of Rembrandt paintings in the world! On our way back to the hotel several of us broke off from the group and visited the Kazan Cathedral. This massive Russian Orthodox cathedral is unlike anything I have ever seen. On the first day on our bus tour when I saw this building my breath was literally taken away. The cathedral is similar to Roman architecture but since I have never seen any Roman architecture in person I was shocked at the effect this massive building had on me. I was eager to visit the building up close and thoroughly enjoyed getting to go inside the cathedral. I never would have thought that a building would have had that effect on me but now it has only made me want to visit more famous examples of ancient architecture all over the world.
I can’t wait to see what I think of the pyramids!!!!!!!!!
Jean

Preparing for globe trotting in November!!!

Sorry about taking so long to post again but as always I’ve been busy busy busy! Things in Moscow are still great! I can hardly believe that it is already November but it’s true that time does fly when you’re having fun. This past weekend we went to the US Embassy for a Halloween party thrown by the US Marines. It was a pretty fun party and good to be around other people in costumes. Us crazy Americans got some pretty strange looks on the metro in our costumes. After the Marine party I went to meet up with my friend Oleg and his friend at a party thrown by some people in their rotary club. I attended a rotary meeting last week with Oleg and Masha so I already knew several people at the party.

On Friday our two American professors, Jack and Nancy Kollmann, had everyone over to their apartment for dinner. It was very nice to have a home cooked meal in the company of Americans.

I’m not homesick yet but I’ve starting to notice things about America that I do miss.

I miss:

·      ICE in my drinks

·      Clean water

·      Dr.Pepper

·      Mexican food

·      Dryers

·      Good milk

·      The radio

·      Driving

·      People smiling back at me when I smile at them 

November will most likely pass as quickly if not faster than October did because I will be spending such a small amount of time in Moscow. Here is a rough schedule of my travel plans for the month of November. This week I will be going to Istanbul, Turkey for 4 days starting Wednesday night. Then back to Moscow for 3 days then off to St. Petersburg for 8 days!!! Back to Moscow for 4 days then during Thanksgiving break 6 of us are heading to Cairo, Egypt!!!! Obviously I am very excited about seeing all of these places and can’t wait to get started! 

Cheers! -Jean Margaret