In the Footsteps of Tsars

Today was awesome!

This morning, after a bowl of porridge and another cup of tea, Marina and I took a fifteen-minute walk to the Metro. The Metro in St. Petersburg is amazing. To enter each station, you must first take a five to seven minute escalator ride beneath city. This is necessary because of the salt marsh on top of which the city was built… in order to ensure structural stability, the engineers had to dig extremely deep until they hit bedrock. The subway itself is very loud and very crowded. Every two minutes a train arrives, and departs forty seconds later. This reliability makes it the most popular means of transportation among the residents of the city. I have never been on another metro before, so I have no way to gauge the speed we were traveling relative to other systems, but we were moving extremely fast. Much faster than I was expecting.

We met the group at Kazan Cathedral. Upon first sight of it, I was immediately taken back by how beautiful the building was. The other CIEE students and I spent a few moments exchanging stories of our first night’s with our host families before walking to Palace Square to go ice skating.

The Winter Palace is another beautiful building. At one point, it was the home of all Russian emperors, but after its siege during the 1917 revolution it was converted into a museum. In the middle of the massive courtyard overlooked by the palace stands the worlds largest free standing Granite Structure, Aleksander’s Column, which commemorates the Russian defeat of Napoleon’s attempted invasion. Many Russians are terribly offended that an ice skating rink has been erected in such a historically significant location, and as of this post, there Russian high courts have order that it be removed. Although I agree that it should not be located where it is, I must admit that it was absolutely amazing to skate amongst the decorated facades of Russia’s imperial palace.

For the record, I am a terrible ice skater and felt like a fool for most of the hour-and-a-half we were there, but I am pleased to say that I only fell down five times. Regardless, it was great fun to watch most of the other people skid around on the ice in a wobbly manner similar to my own. I use the word most because there were some incredible skaters there. They even had several professionals taking newbies by the hand and leading them around the ring. By the end of our time on the ice, a steady snow was falling. This moment was uniquely Russian and will never be forgotten.

During the afternoon the CIEE students met at a café and shared чай и пирог (tea and pie). In Russian, there is a special word for when two or more groups meet to have a discussion—собеседники (so-be-sed-ni-ki). After speaking with Roma, I do not think there is a good English equivalent.

Anyway, at the café I met three Russian students who spoke English very well. One of them in particular, Slava, shares many of my interests. We chatted about the U.S. and Russian elections, computers, our countries’ respective roles in the world, the differences between our Universities and much more. The time just flew by, and at some point during our conversation all of the other CIEE students had bid farewell to their Russian counterparts and went home. Slava and I spoke for over three and a half hours. When it came time to leave, he and I (along with two of his friends), exchanged email information.

I cannot begin to explain how excited I am by this development. The sort of conversation that I had with Slava was exactly what I came to Russia for. I was so nervous that my inability to speak the language would isolate me and make it impossible to meet the locals. But now, I have renewed confidence that the exchange of ideas that I had hoped would take place is 100% possible.

34F

I was so nervous to meet my host family. We finished our initial orientation Friday morning and immediately returned to the hotel to check out and head home. When I got back downstairs, Roman was waiting for me. He was very courteous and speaks English well. After the housing coordinator formally introduced us, I lugged the life raft outside and waited while he pulled around his car.

Driving in St. Petersburg must be insane. There are way too many cars on the streets. When Peter the Great planned street map of the city, he had no idea the sort of chaos he was creating. The Prospekts (Avenues) are very wide and stately, the Ulitsas (Streets), on the other hand, are very narrow. From above, the layout of the roads looks fairly organized, but when you are actually in a car, it seems like you are driving through a tangled mess. Additionally, so much slush and mud gets flung up onto the windshield, you need to drive with the wipers on constantly and use the cleaner every thirty seconds.

I have no idea how Roman does it each morning. Between the masses of cars zigzagging every which way, the darting marshutkas, the long slow avto-bus (bus), and the ancient tramvai (wire trams), you are risking your life as soon as you put the key in the ignition.

Roman graduated from university last year with a degree in applied mathematics. For some reason, that sounds a lot more impressive than political science. He seems mellow, but is very kind. His English is excellent... we had no difficulty understanding each other at all. I feel much more comfortable with the knowledge that if something goes terribly awry he will be able to understand what I am saying. He loves American rap (especially Eminem and DMX) and has played basketball his whole life.

The ride to our apartment was long, but only because of traffic. I was intimidated at first because the outside of the Soviet-era building we live in seemed very dated. After an elevator ride to the 15th floor and a lesson on how to use my absolutely awesome apartment key (see picture) Roman took me to my (his old) room. On the inside, the apartment is wonderfully comfortable. I immediately felt like I was at home. There is a kitchen (with a couch on which Roman sleeps), a bedroom for Marina, and a kitchen. The hall is arranged in a T-shape, with the entrance being at the base of the T, a room off of each end of the cap of the T (Bedroom left, Kitchen right), and my room being directly at the top of the stem (opposite the entrance hall). I was not expecting the room I am staying in to be nearly as spacious as it it, and I was surprised by the beautiful view of the courtyard and surrounding buildings. When I arrived, lunch was waiting for me on my desk. After Roman went back to work, I snacked, unpacked and took a much needed nap.

Marina arrived home while I was sleeping. She is an economist by trade, and speaks very little English. When I woke up, I heard her preparing dinner in the kitchen but did not want to invade her space. Eventually, she knocked on my door and introduced herself. I really surprised myself...I actually took part in a multiple sentence dialogue in Russian, just as I have been studying. Furthermore, she knew exactly what I was saying! Marina is middle aged and has a very pleasant smile. When I could not understand what she was asking, she did not seem frustrated at all but instead tried to speak slower and/or in very broken English. Recently though, we have been using an enormous Russian/English dictionary to make conversation easier. Everything about Marina is warm and motherly, from the way her glasses sit on the tip of her nose to her friendly laugh.

We ate an enormous dinner together, interspersed with dialogue and explanations of how to say things like soup (soop), lemon (lee-mon), and spaghetti (spa-gett-i) in Russian. Haha, I felt very confident for a few minutes. Then she taught me butter (mas-lo), bread (Hchleb), and chicken (Koo-reet-sa) and I was once again lost in a language that seems a lot more complex than is necessary (for instance, a male cat, like Max, is a кот, whereas a female cat is a кошка). In time, I imagine I will get the hang of it. Dinner was very good and consisted of tea, bread, a fish soup, pasta, and chicken. I am quickly becoming a tea drinker, primarily because I know it has been boiled and I really do not like coffee.

During dinner, we watched the Russian version of Wheel of Fortune and I was amazed by the differences. First, instead of winning luxurious things like vacations and cars, the contestants play for modest items such as kitchen appliances. The woman I saw was hoping for an old refrigerator. Unfortunately, she did not win. The game is unfair to say the least...you are allowed to ask for three letters, and then you only have a few seconds to figure out what the three totally unrelated words were. Only one letter came up on her board, and she had no choice but to make a wild guess.

I am feeling very optimistic about the coming weeks. I do not think it will be difficult at all to live with my host family. They are so pleasant to be around and very tolerant of my lack of Russian language skills. They have hosted a foreign student each semester since Roman was very young (Marina whipped out a photo album after dinner to show me). I am very comfortable in my surroundings, and very pleased to be in the home of such kind, openhearted people. Tomorrow, Marina will teach me how to use the metro, and then I will have lunch and go ice-skating on Palace square.