Pskov! (God bless you!)

Wow! I can't believe that I've been in St. Petersburg for a month already. We're already starting to get a taste of the (in)famous chilly St. Petersburg weather and strong wind. Most of my time is taken up with class and homework, but I've settled in nicely and am trying to find the time to get out and meet people. Besides our daily Russian language classes, I'm taking a course on language change and dialects of Russian at St. Petersburg State University. Every Wednesday before class, I meet with two Russian students whom I met the first day of the class, Olya and Sonya. We chat for half the time in English and the other half in Russian, so we both have a chance to practice. Mostly we've talked about humor and politics, so it's a great way to relax, joke around, and ask questions that don't usually come up in class. Being with my host family is like that too. They always explain jokes and figures of speech to me, which is a great way to learn. Besides that, I'm looking into finding clubs to join in St. Petersburg. I checked out an ultimate frisbee club and the rock climbing classes at the university, so hopefully one of those can fit into my schedule. A few other Flagship students and I have decided to make a tradition of going to the Hermitage, the largest museum in St. Pete, on the first Thursday of every month, when it is free for everyone. While the weather is still nice enough to do so, I've been running in the parks near our house too, which is a sure-fire way to get chased by dogs that are never leashed (and get a lot of weird looks, even though my host family assures me that it is totally normal to go jogging in the park)! In short, I'm keeping busy!

A few weeks ago we went on a group 'excursion' to Pskov, a small city near to border with Estonia. Despite the fact that I can't say the name 'Pskov' with a straight face (it sounds like a sneeze), the city is completely enchanting. It is stuffed to the brim with churches and there is a 'kremlin', a fortress, with a recently renovated cathedral in the center of the city. We had an excellent guide who showed us around both the city and the nearby Pechory Monastery. I don't remember exactly how many churches were in the city, I think about 35 something, most of which were built in the 16th and 17th centuries. Incredibly, the churches in Pskov and the monastery all survived communism relatively well, although some did fall into disrepair and the central cathedral was re purposed as a museum of science (with an atheist bent) under the Soviet Union. The cathedral is a church again and we managed to crash a wedding there on our visit. Whoops!

The view from our hotel room window of the cathedral.

Taken from the bridge crossing the river, the cathedral peeking out from the kremlin.

Oh hi everybody, nice wedding, nice church - I'm just gonna take some pictures, don't mind me...

The path in the fortress leading up to the cathedral.

View of the locks on the bridge across from the kremlin. It's a Russian tradition for a couple to put a lock on a bridge, then throw away the key when they get married.

The city is struggling to keep the churches in good condition, mostly because the population is simply to small to support that such a large number of churches, so the congregations are very small. On the other hand, the churches and the monastery do draw a lot of tourism, including pilgrims, to the region. 

Where is Pskov? Do not be deceived by how close together St. Pete and Pskov appear to be - that's actually a 4 hour bus ride!

As far as the monastery goes, I am positive whatever the guide said was totally fascinating, because she was excellent, but I was feeling really sick and didn't retain any information from the trip. The place was very pretty though - a walled fortress built into a ravine, with, I believe, 11 churches, some dating back to the 15th and 16th centuries, built into the caves of the ravine. Not only were the buildings gorgeous, but the gardens and grounds were obviously carefully tended, since the monastery is supposed to look as close to heaven as possible. 

The view of the monastery from outside its walls. 

A number of churches on the monastery grounds, built sharing walls. 

The spires of the church that were visible from outside the monastery.

To wrap up this post, I've got a great story about riding the streetcar from my apartment en-route to our group trip to the Russian museum. Of course, I've mentioned babushkas in some past posts from Ufa, but this is another babushka story. All the seats were full, so I was standing on the streetcar, minding my own business, and this older lady carrying a bunch of bags gets on. She heads straight to where I was standing next to an older couple and asks us in typical babushka fashion if we could let her set her bags down and lean against the window, "Dear, sweet, nice people, would you let me stand here...."So of course we let her by. She stands right next to me and just starts talking. At first I had no idea what to do - such a deer in headlights - I didn't know if she had asked me a question or what. So I just nodded and didn't say anything, figuring she would just go sit down when people got off at the next stop. No such luck. She talked to me for the full 40 minutes we were on the streetcar together. Between the noise of traffic and how quickly she was speaking, I didn't catch most of what she said. I think I said two words the whole trip, just replying when she asked me where I studied. Luckily, we had just passed the university, so I just said "Right here." I think she was talking about her son, but I couldn't figure it out, because the name kept changing, first Ivan, then Aleksiy. The whole exchange was hilarious and totally surreal, especially considering that people don't usually talk on the public transportation in Russia and certainly not with strangers- I've ridden on subway cars in total silence for more than 20 minutes here! I don't know what I would have done if she had actually started asking me questions... This is why I love travelling - you think you're finally getting used to the culture, figuring out how to navigate the public transportation, not smile in public, give exact change to cashiers in stores, etc., then something entirely unexpected happens, just to make sure your week isn't boring! 

Happy Day of Knowledge (or Why I had to go to school on a Saturday)

So I have safely and happily arrived in St. Petersburg. I've been here about a week, but our classes just started today, Saturday. Wait what? Yes, on Saturday. As per Russian tradition, the first of September is always the first day of school. Actually its considered a holiday - День знаний, literally "Day of Knowings," but "Day of Knowledge" sounds so much better. So we had our first day of class. Since my communication level is equal to that of a five year old, I felt like I fit right in with all the kids, accompanied by their parents, carrying flowers to their teachers on the first day of school. Class was pretty uneventful. We met our teachers and made up some silly skits, much like kindergarten. Unlike kindergarten, we already have homework.  

"Best wishes for the holiday"

To get everybody up to date, I just started the Flagship program in St. Petersburg, Russia. A full academic year in a city where the average annual temperature is only 40 degrees F? Are you crazy? Yes. In all seriousness, I am really looking forward to the upcoming year. I really enjoy language learning and I'm thrilled to be traveling again. Also, St. Petersburg, "the Venice of the north", is a gorgeous city. I plan on staying warm and learning a lot. 

I have a wonderful host family, who I'll be staying with for the whole year. My host mom, a former master gymnast, teaches physical therapy and calisthenics at a university and my host dad is an engineer from Moldova. They're lovely - very patient and ready to answer my many questions (what's this? what's that called? where is this? is it safe to eat this? can I go jogging in the park? is it possible to buy this?...).They also have two daughters (and a granddaughter) who live in St. Pete as well and come to visit a lot, so there are people closer to my own age around as well. Friends of my host mom have been visiting from Moscow this week, so the house has been busy, which is great. I've had lots of practice chatting. And eating, so much eating. This summer I was cooking mostly vegetarian dishes and eating a lot of Indian style foods - light, spicy dishes. Russian food is so different - heavy, usually fatty and more bland, with meat. And a lot of food at that! I had to explain to my host family the difference between what Americans consider healthy and what Russians consider healthy eating. They sort of laughed and told me that I would have to eat like a Russian in order to stay warm in the winter. However, they were very excited when I offered to cook Indian food. I brought spices with me, but I think I'm going to have to lay off the spicy for their sake. Since my host mom and her friends only get together a few times a year, I have also had a lot of practice drinking wine and champagne, practicing an essential skill in Russia, making toasts. 

My new home

To be quite honest, the highlight of my first week here, besides just walking around the city, has been talking about food and eating with my host family. In general I love trying new foods and learning how to cook new things. Also, I know enough vocabulary to carry on an intelligent conversation about cooking, while still learning new words and phrases. The problem in Russia is that if you say you like something, the host usually produces seeming never ending amounts of said dish for you to eat. 

Like I said, I spent a lot of time just strolling around the city as well.  Here's some of what I saw: