Saint Petersburg is Thawing...Somewhat

It has been nearly two weeks since I have last written a post. I suppose I will start with the long week that I experienced previous to the one that just ended.

When you are used to going to school for five days each week for the last sixteen years of your life, adding another day on is brutal.  This week was hard for me.  I realized, after watching a couple quintessential American films dubbed in Russian, that I was a tad bit homesick for America as a whole, and for Missoula especially.  I feel no love lost for Russia, I am still enjoying my time here, but it is only natural to feel a pull towards home.  Not only did I have six days of school, I also worked this week on sending out applications and resumes for potential jobs this summer.  This week I also encountered the frustration of being cheated out of 200 rubles at a supermarket near school.  I am not going to dive into the details of it, I have moved on, I know it is not something worth stewing over.  My time here in Russia is too short to do that.

When the weekend finally rolled in, however, I welcomed it.

On Saturday, I took part in a mandatory excursion to Peter and Paul Fortress.  The Peter and Paul Fortress  is the original point upon which Saint Petersburg was founded.  Peter the Great founded Saint Petersburg in 1703 and construction of the fortress began shortly thereafter. Within the fortress walls there is the Peter and Paul Cathedral which contains the remains of many tsars including Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, and most of the Romanovs.  No building in Saint Petersburg is allowed to be built taller than this cathedral.  There is also a prison where Dostoevsky, Lenin's brother, the Decembrists, and other revolutionaries and intellectuals were held for a period of time at some point in their lives.  While there, we had the opportunity to hear a cannon go off at noon, and as our student director so nicely described it, it is like a "firework exploding in your face." It was very loud.  I am going to have to return on a nice day to capture better pictures and perhaps a video of the cannon going off.  In the mean time, here are a few pictures taken from the excursion.

Aerial view of Peter and Paul Fortress and
the Artillery Museum (top right) courtesy of Wikipedia.

Prison cell.

Burial site of Peter the Great (on the right).

Peter and Paul Cathedral

Following the excursion, a bunch of friends and I went to have lunch at a very nice, reasonably-priced cafe not far from the fortress.  Then, we decided to visit the Artillery Museum and with our student IDs, we were able to get in for free.  The building that houses the museum was built in 1849 - 1860, and was originally used as an arsenal.  The museum has over 600 pieces of artillery and military vehicles, not to mention uniforms, flags, and small arms dating back to the medieval period.  It was interesting to explore and I will definitely have to return to it.  

On Sunday, I wandered along the Fontanka River off of Nevsky Prospect.  It was a beautiful day, and once again, I took plenty of photographs.  I finally was able to get a good shot of Gostinyy Dvor', is a very large department store along Nevsky Prospect.  It is very high-end and out of my price range - but it certainly is a beautiful building.  I remember one of the first photographs I saw of Saint Petersburg when I first became interested in Russia was a picture of Gostinyy Dvor, under the colonnades. (You will have to forgive me, I do not know the correct architectural term).  At the time, I remember thinking to myself how cool it would be to go there and get a picture of it myself.  I finally did on Sunday and it filled me with joy.  Walking along the Fontanka, I thought about how nice it was to be in Russia, and how it has been a dream of mine to go for quite some time.  Here are some pictures that I took:

Gostinny Dvor

The shot I have wanted to take for a long time at Gostinny Dvor

Fontanka River

A side note: tonight, during dinner, my host mother insisted that I put sour cream on all of my food.  

Salad, potatoes, soup, chicken, and bread.  Yes, all of it.  I happen to enjoy sour cream and happened to enjoy all of these combinations, especially with soup.  Sour cream is serious business here in Russia: my host family goes through a carton of sour cream every two days.  Last night, I also happened to converse with my host mother for over an hour! It is very satisfying to be able to actively use my Russian and talk about things that are more complex and abstract.  

I can say that nothing especially out of the ordinary happened this week, except for the fact that I now prefer taking a marshrutka (a shared taxi on a fixed route) to school than the metro, and that I see the barest hints of spring throughout the city.  This week I was finally able to see some grass! The ice in the canals is starting to break up, and I can hear birds! The temperatures have been chilly, but pleasant in the upper 20s and mid 30s.  Of course, Saint Petersburg is not in the most ideal of locations built on a swamp off the Gulf of Finland six degrees below the Arctic Circle and because of this, the city experiences weather similar to that of Seattle: precipitation and lots of it.  The parks and paths and sidewalks are a mess of puddles and mud.  The sky is usually gray. It is getting light around 7:30 in the morning and getting dark around 8:30! Spring is coming - slowly but surely.  

In a week, I will be in Moscow.  Then, following that, spring break begins and it is off to Tbilisi, Georgia and Kiev, Ukraine!