My New Home

These are pictures of my new homestay. It's a nice quaint apartment, but ever since the heat turned on, it's really hot. I bought a fan, but with the typical Russian craftmanship it makes the strangest sounds. Irina Victorevna, my host mother, comes into my room every time the fan is on and tells me to turn it off because the sounds it makes are too strange. It's cold outside, hot inside. This is Russia.

My crazy keys:


Irina Victorevna's room, with my clothes drying.
My room (I have plants!):

Summer Gardens

Yesterday I went around exploring the downtown of St. Petersburg as it is already getting cold. It was a wonderful fall day and the leaves were everywhere. The summer gardens are absolutely beautiful and one could spend hours there, days there! Mostly there are just statues, but the lines of trees are just right.

Peterhof

Last weekend, I went to Peterhof. Peterhof is the summer palace of Peter the Great. There are over 200 fountains (I think) and there are even trick fountains! It was a magical place that I loved a lot. Here are some pictures.

Shoes, Shoes, Shoes!

Shoes are big in Russia.

Everybody loves shoes in Russia.

SHOES!

The way you can tell a foreignor from a Russian is by their shoes. Russians all wear very nice and fancy shoes all the time. Even if they are running errands or walking their dog, they will be wearing very nice shoes.

If I am wearing sneakers, I get many stares a day. I see people start looking at my face, then watch their eyes move all the way down at stare at my sneakers. A good, hard, long stare too. But when I am wearing nice shoes, no one pays attention/they think I am Russian.

The only women that do not wear high heels are the babyshki. Otherwise, the shoes are very black, very shiny, and very high for women. I don't know how they make a whole day, though; there are so many manholes and uneven sidewalks it is hard to walk down the street.

And the men all wear fancy European booties. The only person I ever saw without nice shoes was a crazy homeless woman. Shoes are very important here.

I am okay with this, it just gives me an excuse to buy more shoes!

Banya

While in Novgorod, I went to the Russian banya. The banya is very similar to the Finnish sauna.

First you go in, buy your viihta and your banya time and if you want a toga. You go and undress, then soak your viihta, and go into the sauna. This sauna had a high set of stairs and only one bench. Most of the woman stood on the stairs or at the very top. Then to the side there seemed to be a stove that a woman came in and was making it hotter. I couldn't see what she was doing because I didn't have my glasses on!

Afterwards you run into the river, shower, sauna, river, shower, sauna, then cold and hot shower.

When we showed up, there were a bunch of naked old Russian women staring at us and laughing at us. Once I took off my glasses, it was a lot easier to be comfortable because I really couldn't see anything at all.

The women were very nice and showed us what to do. When in the sauna, the babyshki made me bend over and they hit me vigorously with the vihta. Two vihtas simultaneously; it felt pretty good. Then I knew I had to run into the river. But instead of having a private entrance, you had to exit the banya complex, run across the road, and then run down a hill. Once I got to the street I realized there was a group of 5 Russian men who were very curious and stared at us the whole time! How embarrassing.

Back inside the banya, a babyshka told me to throw an ice cold bucket of water over my friend's head. Then the babyshka made this screaming noise and threw her arms up in the air, telling us that it was good for the soul to scream.

It was a nice, cleansing time and I am going to try to find a banya near my apartment in St. Petersburg. I recommend all people try the Russian banya!

Service

My camera is finally fixed! I just had to send it to the only "certified" service in St. Petersburg, sign a contract in Russian, and wait two weeks. All for the low price of 1,000 rubles.

This service was very shady. It was in a large industrial building and on a huge scary door there was this little sign that said "Service". When I went in there were many people waiting with the strangest kinds of electronic devices. Pretty much anything electronic that could break people took there to fix.

Now all I need to do is get my computer to a place with wi-fi, which has been pretty difficult so far...

More photos

Restoration:

Restoration, Restoration, Restoration.

The eternal flame of Novgorod.

Babushki are everywhere in Russia.

Novgorod

Over the weekend I went to Novgorod.  Novgorod is one of the oldest towns in Russia.  The earliest mention of it in history is about 894.  At one point in time, there were over 200 churches.  Now there are only about 30 churches.  Novgorod also used to be bigger than Paris and London during the Medieval Era.  

Now it is a small city with many many beautiful churches.  There is also a river and forestry around.

Here are some of the pictures that my friend David took with his camera:

Gypsy cab

Today I took my first gypsy cab ride. In Russia there are many different types of public transportation not in America.

Metro – There are maybe five or six different metro lines in St. Petersburg . The metro stops running at midnight and at 11:55 PM everyone races in and tries to get into the metro. There are metro cards, but mostly everyone uses tokens. Also, the metro stations are extremely beautiful. Marble walls, gold detailing, even statues. But it is prohibited to take pictures inside of the metro. Otherwise, the militsia will escort you away. . .

Marshrutka – This is like a public taxi. This is a van that has a set route, which you can see on the map. However, there are no set stops for this bus. So if you want to get on, you have to hail the bus like you would a taxi. But when you get in there are many other people on there. When you want to get off, you have to yell to the driver to stop. I have not tried this alone yet because I am afraid I will be stuck on it forever. Also, when you get on you pass your money to the front and the passengers pass your money back to you.

Gypsy Cab – Real cabs in St. Petersburg are very expensive and need to be called in advance. Most people use gypsy cabs. A gypsy cab is a regular car with a regular person that just wants to make some extra money. So if you want a ride, you hold your hand down low and a regular car will pull over. Then you have to negotiate the price. Once you settle on a price, you enjoy the ride. However convenient these seem, they are not very safe. A woman should never get into a gypsy cab alone at night. And one should also never enter a gypsy cab if there is already another person in the cab.

St. Petersburg also has busses, trams, trolleybuses, and electrichkas; which are all some type of glorified bus.

In my gypsy cab ride, when I went to get in the door was stuck and it had to be opened from the inside. Then when it came time to get out, the handle fell off in my hand! However, I did make it safely home with my friend Anna.

Pictures of the Apartment

A friend let me borrow their camera for a few days. So here are the only pictures I have...

One of the many apartment buildings:

My old kitchen:

The couch that I used to sleep on:

The view from outside my (old) window:


Part of my old room:

Living Arrangements

I have finally been moved! Last Tuesday at 10:30 PM Sergei and Irina Borisovna showed up at my apartment to help me move. However, the only night that the elevator doesn’t work happens to be the night that I have to move. So I lugged my heavy suitcase, backpack and some odds and ends down nine flights of stairs. Which really meant that I pushed my suitcase down a flight, then picked it up, and then pushed it down again. When I finally got to the bottom, I could hear Sergei and Irina Borisovna calling to me to let them in to help. However, when I was in the middle of the apartment building I couldn’t hear them! Sergei said that luggage was not for woman’s hands, it was for man’s hands. I am okay with this philosophy.
I now live on Vasilevsky Island. This is an older part of St. Petersburg that was included in the original design scheme of Peter himself. There are many cafes, restaurants, and clothing stores near where I live. There is also a park and a fitness center. Also, I live near another student so I do not have to come home alone every night.

My new host family consists of one woman named Irina Victorevna. She is about 50 – 60 years old and has two grown children and grandchildren. One of her daughters lives in St. Petersburg with her family. The other daughter lives in London with her own family. Irina Victorevna asks a lot of personal questions and loves to watch t.v. all day long. She thinks many things about me are extremely strange and I get the impression she thinks I am a dunce.

She spent last weekend at the dacha. 75% of all Russians have dachas, so there are many different kinds (dilapidated, well built, in the middle). Her dacha is in the forest and she picks mushrooms and berries. She makes a jam out of the berries and apples that she picks every Sunday. Tonight for dinner I had some of her delicious mushrooms.

Serious Guns

I went to the mall yesterday in my attempt to fit in with the culture here.  If someone looks only slightly different, people will stare for long, long, long periods of time.  For example, I have some white sneakers.  Russians don't wear sneakers.  Every time I wear these shoes, I can see people eyes start at my face and gaze all the way down to my shoes and just stare at the shoes.  So I went to the mall; I don't like being stared at.  

The mall (called "Grand Canyon") was very large.  It was about 80% female clothing/shoe stores.  All of the female clothing stores basically sold the same exact styles in the same price range.  There were many shoe stores also.  But every shoe store had the same exact shoes as the last store, which slight variances in price.  Now I know how Russians all get to look the same.  

Leaving the mall I saw a little market set up by the metro.  People were selling used socks, pantyhose, underwear, clothes.  There were also fake guns, tools, and a lot of mushrooms.  I tried to buy a large t-shirt that said 'River Rafting' with weird 80s cartoons, but the woman wouldn't bargain with me.

I did end up buying a pair of shoes at a store.  However, in order to buy the shoes I needed to show my passport.  Russians have two types of passports.  An internal passport used within the country and an external passport used when they travel around the world.  Russians need to carry their internal passport on them every single day (as the police can stop them at any time and "request" to see their documents).  In this passport it has all types of information.  The town you were born, where you work, name and age of spouse, name and ages of children, everything.  As a foreigner I am no exception and am required to keep my passport on me at all times.  

Today on my way to school I saw a large group of soldiers from Somali walking down the street.  I saw them last week also.  Near where my bus picks me up I also saw another van.  Hiding inside of the van was a man with an AK-47 looking quite the mafia type.  Regular criminals on the street don't have guns here.  But when someone has a gun, it's a Serious Gun.  

In my attempt to stay safe, I have decided to use my hand sanitizer spray as a pseudo mace.  Yesterday a man was definately following me.  I decided to take my hand sanitizer out and swing it from my hand to try to make it look like mace.  I think it worked because he backed off after he thought I had mace.  

I'm being safe, I promise.

First Day of School!

Today was the first day of school. In Russia, September 1 is a holiday. On this day all of the school children bring flowers to their teachers. So I saw a lot of flowers on the metro.

My campus is beautiful. I will try to put pictures up once I have a camera that works. My classes are in the Smolny Campus of St. Petersburg State University. Next to my building is the beautiful Smolny Cathedral.

Riding the metro to the campus was crazy! I thought I knew how to handle city rush hour, I have been in New York's rush hour and I take the train every day during Chicago's rush hour. But Russia's rush hour is insane. There were probably 500 people pushing hard to get down one tiny escalator. I thought I was going to be trampled! It was like that at every station that I had to transfer at. The other interesting thing about the metro is how deep it is. When you get into the metro, you ride the escalator down to the train. The escalator goes so fast and is extremely steep. It probably takes about 10 minutes to ride the escalator down, whereas in Chicago it takes maybe one or two minutes to walk down the stairs.

The other thing that has surprised me is how cold it is. Everyday it gets colder and colder. From the day I got here it was chilly. Everyday since then has been getting progressively colder. Today I believe it was 0 degress Celsius in the morning. In other words, very cold. And it is only just September!

The women here all look like supermodels (the young women that is). All the women wear very heels, tight and revealing clothing, a lot of makeup, and most have very very long straight hair. I have heard the women dress up more because they feel there is a small number of good men in their city and they must do as much as they can to attract men.

Tomorrow I will go to the Peter and Paul Fortress.