So I have been in St Petersburg for exactly 3 weeks and already it feels like home. A home where I do not understand most of what people say, where I cannot always read the signs, and where the clothes/food are slightly foreign to me, but still a home. I felt this way when I was in Wales two years ago, but that was different. I was with family and the main language was English. Here, I knew only one person, and her barely at all, and my Russian ability was (still is) poor. Yet already, things have become routine and "normal". And my Russian has improved a lot. Still needs loads of work though.
I have met some Russians; truthfully, this was the main reason for this exchange. I wanted to improve my Russian through meeting people and by being surrounded by Russian. The classes and the academic side are less important to me as I could get that in Canada or the US. The people that I have met are through language groups on Facebook and from friends of friends. While it is a bit sketchy to meet up with people from the internet, so far its has turned out well.
I do not even know where to begin describing my trip that is not even half over. I think that I will begin by writing about different aspects of my every day experience. Lets see how this goes! Also, if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask!
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Things I see part 2
So I totally saw the sun rise over the Hermitage---at 4:30am. This is at the park right next to it.
Sunrise!
Backside of the Hermitage
St Petersburg at night--Looking over a canal
Okay. A story on this bird. We (my roommates and I) have been trying to photograph this crazy looking bird for a while. Its huge, intimidating, and walks like a boss. It kind of looks like a pigeon cross bred with a crow. We are still not sure exactly what it is. Do you know?
Church of Spilled Blood. We stopped by quick in front of it, but I need to go back and see more.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
This is what I see everyday. Jealous?
Hey all, will get a real post soon. Life have become crazy in its normalcy and routine. Schedules have been set, and all is "normal". Sending lots of love!
All of these pictures are what I have seen just walking around and exploring. If there is no caption, its because I have no idea where this was, or what it is!
More photo posts will be coming. I am getting an "internal error" message from blogger when I tried right now.
Sitting outside the Hermitage, watching people go by. NBD.
All of these pictures are what I have seen just walking around and exploring. If there is no caption, its because I have no idea where this was, or what it is!
More photo posts will be coming. I am getting an "internal error" message from blogger when I tried right now.
Fire next to the Hermitage
Seen on Nevsky Prospekt on Victory Day (May 9th)
Sitting outside the Hermitage, watching people go by. NBD.
The people in my group!
The contrast between something so foreign (Sony) and something very Russian (ballet advertisement)
Yes, there is Pizza Hut. Sigh.
This picture should be first, but oh well. The first Russian sign I saw on the way home from the airport!
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Things I Have Learned....Or need to learn
1. Must learn how to use a squat toilet. Enough said.
2. Buying groceries without knowing whats a good price is hard. But what is even harder is having no idea what the label says.
3. Because of above, must bring Russian/English dictionary to the supermarket, no matter how stupid you look.
4. Be prepared for the cafeteria lady to get very mad if you give her a big bill---even though the atm gives you a 1,000 or even 5,000 ruble bill and you need to break it somehow.
5. You will not fit in with the clothing style---St Petersburg is like going back to the late 80's, early 90's with mullets galore, in addition to tights with shorts which is something that I have not seen in YEARS.
5a. Most of the women wear high heels. There is no way that I will wear 4 inch stilettos on my walk to and from the metro no matter how much I stand out.
5b. Its hot. Its sunny. Yet everyone is still wearing their winter jackets. I will not fit in, but I will have a lovely tan and be comfortably warm and not boiling.
Other then that, I am having a lovely time. It has been hard and frustrating at times, but I know that I am already learning so much each time that I struggle to order meat at the deli, or ask for tea from the cafeteria lady. Today, I successfully got lunch from the cafeteria! But when I asked for milk with my tea, I got a response that I could not make heads nor tails of, so I just gave up on that part. She is scary anyway. So I almost successfully got lunch. Close enough.
Oh and I had my first two classes today. My teacher is very friendly and older, but she does not speak much English. She would use French to explain some things, which worked for the other two students in my group, but not me. Our class is only three people so I feel a lot more comfortable than I did in University, even though that class was fairly small as well. Its also nice that we have been grouped together by skill.
When I get better internet (Sunday I think), I will post some pictures for y'all.
2. Buying groceries without knowing whats a good price is hard. But what is even harder is having no idea what the label says.
3. Because of above, must bring Russian/English dictionary to the supermarket, no matter how stupid you look.
4. Be prepared for the cafeteria lady to get very mad if you give her a big bill---even though the atm gives you a 1,000 or even 5,000 ruble bill and you need to break it somehow.
5. You will not fit in with the clothing style---St Petersburg is like going back to the late 80's, early 90's with mullets galore, in addition to tights with shorts which is something that I have not seen in YEARS.
5a. Most of the women wear high heels. There is no way that I will wear 4 inch stilettos on my walk to and from the metro no matter how much I stand out.
5b. Its hot. Its sunny. Yet everyone is still wearing their winter jackets. I will not fit in, but I will have a lovely tan and be comfortably warm and not boiling.
Other then that, I am having a lovely time. It has been hard and frustrating at times, but I know that I am already learning so much each time that I struggle to order meat at the deli, or ask for tea from the cafeteria lady. Today, I successfully got lunch from the cafeteria! But when I asked for milk with my tea, I got a response that I could not make heads nor tails of, so I just gave up on that part. She is scary anyway. So I almost successfully got lunch. Close enough.
Oh and I had my first two classes today. My teacher is very friendly and older, but she does not speak much English. She would use French to explain some things, which worked for the other two students in my group, but not me. Our class is only three people so I feel a lot more comfortable than I did in University, even though that class was fairly small as well. Its also nice that we have been grouped together by skill.
When I get better internet (Sunday I think), I will post some pictures for y'all.
Monday, May 9, 2011
First day in the new city
So much to say. I still cannot believe that I am in Russia!
It was a good flight to St Petersburg as I had a row to myself. When I landed, it was super sunny and hot out.
Hee hee I am writing this and trying not to fall asleep...
And then things went downhill a bit. I have never been in a situation where I cannot communicate. Sweden so far has been the closest to it, but even then I knew that most people spoke English. I had a driver meeting me at the airport, and while he was very nice, he spoke little English. We could not communicate. I felt like I was mute and deaf. We went to hand gestures, but that still could not pass on enough information. There were three students who had not landed on the earlier flight, and he was asking me if I knew anything, but the language barrier kept the communication from happening. He called a number, handed me a phone and told me to speak English. The woman on the phone asked me if I knew where the other students were, but I did not know. I came to Russia really not knowing anybody.
We waited and waited but no one showed up. He gave up, and we headed to the van. The drive to the dorm was in broken English and Russian. My two years of studying the language gave me little help in the real world. It was still a nice drive though.
We get to the dorm, pass the guard and I try to understand what the woman in control of the keys was saying. We make it work, even though I do not know half of what she said. We (me and the driver) head to the teeny tiny elevator and head up, up, up to my new home. We get in and I meet my roommate who had just woken up from a nap. The kitchen is alright, the toilet strange, and our room large enough to house the two of us. We were still waiting for the other students who would have the other room in the apartment/dorm. We talked, settled ourselves in and I found out that she is American as well, taking advantage of the Canadian school system just like me. Went to bed and woke up in the middle of the night to our other roommates/program mates moving in. They had missed their flight because of delays and did not get in till after mid night. Talked a but, and headed back to bed.
Today, Monday, has been absolutely crazy. All of us, us four girls and one guy that are in our program, headed downtown to Nevsky Prospekt. It was easily an hour walk, but as it is a national holiday the streets were crowded and it took much longer. We wandered there and back in 7 or so hours, our feet aching and tired. We stopped at a store, and bought a lot of things as our apartment/dorm was not fully furnished. Afterwards, we made a lovely dinner of spaghetti with meat sauce. I am the youngest by at least two years and in some ways it shows. I think I am the only one who has not lived alone, and it was strange for me to buy my own groceries. In addition, I was unsure of what things should cost, as everything was in rubles and cheaper (or more expensive) than in the US. My goal is to live on less than 80 dollars a week, but this week more than that has been spent (and by week I mean two days). Then again, I have bought a lot of basic things that will last me the two months, such as shampoo, lotion and so on.
After dinner, we took our wine and beer down to the beach right outside of our dorm---its the gulf of Finland. It was full of trash, but we saw the sun go down over the water and it was beautiful, even with all of the broken glass and cigarette butts. Tomorrow morning we have our placement tests so lets see how that goes. I have a feeling (and kind of am hoping) that I will be placed in the beginner class. My Russian skills can more be described as the lack thereof, and I am worried that I will be put in a class that is toooo challenging.
But that will be tomorrow, and I am quite exhausted so I am heading to bed. Will keep you updated on how tomorrow goes!
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Photos! Stockholm Round 2
While lost, I still managed to take pictures
My favoritest cat ever! Been woken up to the feel of a cat sleeping on my thigh.
Like I said, runes everywhere.
So sunny and beautiful!
More runes
Old church with crazy trees around it
Look! Even a rune stone in the church!
Sun when we got there
Stockholm---Note the bunny hot air balloon
Sun just before we left
Jet lag, Ya know
(Thought that I had beat the jet lag until yesterday when I slept in till 3:00pm, and right now its 4:40am and I have been awake for a little over an hour)
Where to begin! So much has happened the last few days its hard to imagine writing it all down.
From the beginning though:
I left Minneapolis Tuesday morning and it was a nice 38/3 degrees out. Flew into Charlotte, NC and had a 6 hour lay over. Then the flight was delayed 2 and a half hours--we were now leaving at 9:00pm. No big deal.
We boarded at 9pm, and then sat. And sat. And sat some more. Our flight did not take off till 3:30 in the morning as we had one problem after another. First, our door would not close all the way. This problem took a good three hours, maybe a bit more. Then, a woman on the plane had a major panic/anxiety attack and had to be take off the plane (we had just started to taxi too!), so we turned around and did that, only to be told that our crew's time had expired and we needed to wait for a new one. This is around 1:30am, and we are all tired and cranky and quite hungry. The wait time for a new crew? 2 hours, if not more.
Everyone got fairly angry, but the captain said that we could leave the plane BUT we would have to reboard as a large group, and not individually get back on the plane. In addition, he made sure to add that all of the food places in the airport had closed, and that if we wanted food, we had better stay on board. I stayed, ate, and fell asleep. I woke up briefly to note the time we took off, but I was asleep again before we even got in the air. We were 9 hours late to London, and thank goodness that I had a 13 hour layover, though my plans to head into London proper were ruined.
The one main positive of that whole voyage is that I met the most wonderful woman. She made the whole experience tolerable. She was my seatmate, and we had lovely talks about just about everything. She told me all about southern cooking, laughed hard and called me a Yank when I said that I consider Indiana to be part of the South, and was just lovely company. She was on her way to visit her sick daughter in London, and was really not pleased about the delay in getting to see her.
Got to London safe and sound after that, and then just hung out at the airport for a few hours while I waited for my next flight. Flew RyanAir to Stockholm which was kind of a funny flight. Every ten minutes, flight attendants came down the aisle selling all sorts of things. They even sold smoke-less cigarettes on board! I was quite amused. Sat next to a Swedish girl who was quite funny, and we had a nice time.
Finally got to Stockholm at 11:30pm, and was met there by a friend from high school who did an exchange at South my senior year. I have been staying at her house since I arrived in Stockholm and have had a great time. Her family has been lovely, and my friend, Helle, has been doing a great job at showing me around.
The first day here (Thursday), I went to her high school. What I still find strange is that even though she is 6 months older then me, she is just graduating from high school, yet I have had 2 years of university already. They start school later here, and her year at my high school did not count for her, so she had to repeat a year.
Her high school is so different than mine was. People wandered the halls, came in late, had small class sizes, had WINDOWS!!! which was pretty awesome if you know my high school, and overall just had a much more relaxed feeling. Their cafeteria was really good too, better than that of my university even. Side note: I love bubbly water!!!!!!!
I have had a lot of fun just people watching, as people dress so different here, and hair styles are also not like those that I am used to. I have seen very few girls with hair that is shoulder length or shorter---it makes my short hair stand out quite a bit! Guys wear cardigans, big '70s style glasses, and a decent amount have long hair. Another note--Everyone is fairly thin. There are a few exceptions, but they are that, exceptions. Very strange for me.
On that first day, Helle and I also went into Stockholm, which is where the pictures from the last post are from. As you can see, it was cloudy and it was a bit chilly. Still, it was nice and we had a good time. That evening it was her school's talent show and that was quite fun to see. I had the house to myself afterward for a bit but went to bed fairly early.
Friday was another fun, busy day (though a bit stressful but I will get to that soon enough). Went to Helle's school again, but I had plans to meet up with a friend in Stockholm. We were to meet at the McDonalds inside of T-Centralen, the central station. I managed to train/subway to Stockholm with no problem, but could not find the McDonalds. After finally figuring it out that I had to follow the underground path there, and then go up a floor, I found it. However, I did not find my friend. The McDonalds was packed with a huge line coming out of it. Here is the part of the story that is my fault. I had understood that we were meeting outside of McDonalds but I found out much later that my friend was waiting inside for me. Well, I looked and looked and could not find him. Then I got the brilliant idea that he might be waiting at the entrance outside of the McDonalds. I head outside, but there is construction in the way. After this, I just get lost.
I go in search of a phone, but when I find one, I learn that I need a phone card. Lots more stumbling around random streets until I find a place that sells me a phone card. Then I cannot find another public phone (not sure how I found the first one) and I realize that I do not have his phone number on me. So then I search for an internet cafe, or somewhere with wifi so that I can get his number off facebook. About an hour later, I get to a 7-11 that doubles as an internet cafe. Get his number, but then am back at square one: Where can I call him from? By this time, its 1:30pm, an hour and a half after we were supposed to meet. I am stressing out and I feel bad that I made him wait around for me. Head to a post office and they let me use their phone. I call, but then.......he doesn't pick up.
I basically just gave up then and managed to find t-centralen again and subway-ed/train-ed my way back to Helle's school. I find out from her that he waited until 1:30 or a bit after for me---I feel so terrible!!! He and Helle were texting back and forth trying to figure out what had happened to me and what to do next. I made it there and back safe, but my plans completely failed. How did people live without cellphones??? This day made me appreciate mine so much more.
That night, it was one of Helle's friend's birthday. We had dinner at his house, and then we all headed to Stockholm and went to a bar which translated, is "The Farm". It was 80's pop and synth night so of course it was good. Had a nice time just sitting back and listening to all of the Swedish being spoken around me. It was really chill, and reminded me of a pub in Winnipeg, just much smaller.
Saturday was not much of a day. My jet lag caught up with me and I only woke up because Helle's mother came to make sure I was okay and not passed out unconscious on the floor or something. The time? 3:00pm. I slept for 13 hours, and as Helle was at work, no one woke me up to do stuff. Had a nice dinner though, and we went for a short historical drive where I saw some rune stones and an old church. Thats one thing about Minnesota and the US in general--We do not have much preserved history. The oldest building in Minnesota is Fort Snelling, which is from the mid 1800's. These rune stones that are all over are from the 1100's. I passed buildings which were originally built in the 1500's. I reflected about this when I was in Wales two summers ago, but I was reminded once more while I was here.
Last night I went with Helle to a sunset viewing slash picnic slash hangout slash I-don't-Know-what thingy. It was beautiful. We were on a big rock lookout where we could see the sun set over the water, and could see lots of Stockholm as we were pretty high up. It got cold pretty fast when the sun went down so we headed to a packed cafe for a bit. Came home, went to bed and woke up 3, maybe 4 hours later. Once again, jet lag you have gotten the better of me! Which is how this post has finally been written. Its 6 am here, but I have been awake since a bit after 3am and have been on and off writing this post. Heading to Russia this afternoon which is pretty dang exciting. Random embarrassing thing: tried to check in for my flight to Russia on Friday afternoon as you can check in up to 22 hours before. It did not work and said "Could not find passenger" which worried me. Called them, and they could not figure out the problem until the operator noted that I did not leave until Sunday, and not Saturday like I have been thinking for the last month. Oops. So had an extra day in Stockholm, even if I spent most of it sleeping.
Sorry for the ridiculously long post! The next one will probably be photos, and then the next will be coming from Russia.
Where to begin! So much has happened the last few days its hard to imagine writing it all down.
From the beginning though:
I left Minneapolis Tuesday morning and it was a nice 38/3 degrees out. Flew into Charlotte, NC and had a 6 hour lay over. Then the flight was delayed 2 and a half hours--we were now leaving at 9:00pm. No big deal.
We boarded at 9pm, and then sat. And sat. And sat some more. Our flight did not take off till 3:30 in the morning as we had one problem after another. First, our door would not close all the way. This problem took a good three hours, maybe a bit more. Then, a woman on the plane had a major panic/anxiety attack and had to be take off the plane (we had just started to taxi too!), so we turned around and did that, only to be told that our crew's time had expired and we needed to wait for a new one. This is around 1:30am, and we are all tired and cranky and quite hungry. The wait time for a new crew? 2 hours, if not more.
Everyone got fairly angry, but the captain said that we could leave the plane BUT we would have to reboard as a large group, and not individually get back on the plane. In addition, he made sure to add that all of the food places in the airport had closed, and that if we wanted food, we had better stay on board. I stayed, ate, and fell asleep. I woke up briefly to note the time we took off, but I was asleep again before we even got in the air. We were 9 hours late to London, and thank goodness that I had a 13 hour layover, though my plans to head into London proper were ruined.
The one main positive of that whole voyage is that I met the most wonderful woman. She made the whole experience tolerable. She was my seatmate, and we had lovely talks about just about everything. She told me all about southern cooking, laughed hard and called me a Yank when I said that I consider Indiana to be part of the South, and was just lovely company. She was on her way to visit her sick daughter in London, and was really not pleased about the delay in getting to see her.
Got to London safe and sound after that, and then just hung out at the airport for a few hours while I waited for my next flight. Flew RyanAir to Stockholm which was kind of a funny flight. Every ten minutes, flight attendants came down the aisle selling all sorts of things. They even sold smoke-less cigarettes on board! I was quite amused. Sat next to a Swedish girl who was quite funny, and we had a nice time.
Finally got to Stockholm at 11:30pm, and was met there by a friend from high school who did an exchange at South my senior year. I have been staying at her house since I arrived in Stockholm and have had a great time. Her family has been lovely, and my friend, Helle, has been doing a great job at showing me around.
The first day here (Thursday), I went to her high school. What I still find strange is that even though she is 6 months older then me, she is just graduating from high school, yet I have had 2 years of university already. They start school later here, and her year at my high school did not count for her, so she had to repeat a year.
Her high school is so different than mine was. People wandered the halls, came in late, had small class sizes, had WINDOWS!!! which was pretty awesome if you know my high school, and overall just had a much more relaxed feeling. Their cafeteria was really good too, better than that of my university even. Side note: I love bubbly water!!!!!!!
I have had a lot of fun just people watching, as people dress so different here, and hair styles are also not like those that I am used to. I have seen very few girls with hair that is shoulder length or shorter---it makes my short hair stand out quite a bit! Guys wear cardigans, big '70s style glasses, and a decent amount have long hair. Another note--Everyone is fairly thin. There are a few exceptions, but they are that, exceptions. Very strange for me.
On that first day, Helle and I also went into Stockholm, which is where the pictures from the last post are from. As you can see, it was cloudy and it was a bit chilly. Still, it was nice and we had a good time. That evening it was her school's talent show and that was quite fun to see. I had the house to myself afterward for a bit but went to bed fairly early.
Friday was another fun, busy day (though a bit stressful but I will get to that soon enough). Went to Helle's school again, but I had plans to meet up with a friend in Stockholm. We were to meet at the McDonalds inside of T-Centralen, the central station. I managed to train/subway to Stockholm with no problem, but could not find the McDonalds. After finally figuring it out that I had to follow the underground path there, and then go up a floor, I found it. However, I did not find my friend. The McDonalds was packed with a huge line coming out of it. Here is the part of the story that is my fault. I had understood that we were meeting outside of McDonalds but I found out much later that my friend was waiting inside for me. Well, I looked and looked and could not find him. Then I got the brilliant idea that he might be waiting at the entrance outside of the McDonalds. I head outside, but there is construction in the way. After this, I just get lost.
I go in search of a phone, but when I find one, I learn that I need a phone card. Lots more stumbling around random streets until I find a place that sells me a phone card. Then I cannot find another public phone (not sure how I found the first one) and I realize that I do not have his phone number on me. So then I search for an internet cafe, or somewhere with wifi so that I can get his number off facebook. About an hour later, I get to a 7-11 that doubles as an internet cafe. Get his number, but then am back at square one: Where can I call him from? By this time, its 1:30pm, an hour and a half after we were supposed to meet. I am stressing out and I feel bad that I made him wait around for me. Head to a post office and they let me use their phone. I call, but then.......he doesn't pick up.
I basically just gave up then and managed to find t-centralen again and subway-ed/train-ed my way back to Helle's school. I find out from her that he waited until 1:30 or a bit after for me---I feel so terrible!!! He and Helle were texting back and forth trying to figure out what had happened to me and what to do next. I made it there and back safe, but my plans completely failed. How did people live without cellphones??? This day made me appreciate mine so much more.
That night, it was one of Helle's friend's birthday. We had dinner at his house, and then we all headed to Stockholm and went to a bar which translated, is "The Farm". It was 80's pop and synth night so of course it was good. Had a nice time just sitting back and listening to all of the Swedish being spoken around me. It was really chill, and reminded me of a pub in Winnipeg, just much smaller.
Saturday was not much of a day. My jet lag caught up with me and I only woke up because Helle's mother came to make sure I was okay and not passed out unconscious on the floor or something. The time? 3:00pm. I slept for 13 hours, and as Helle was at work, no one woke me up to do stuff. Had a nice dinner though, and we went for a short historical drive where I saw some rune stones and an old church. Thats one thing about Minnesota and the US in general--We do not have much preserved history. The oldest building in Minnesota is Fort Snelling, which is from the mid 1800's. These rune stones that are all over are from the 1100's. I passed buildings which were originally built in the 1500's. I reflected about this when I was in Wales two summers ago, but I was reminded once more while I was here.
Last night I went with Helle to a sunset viewing slash picnic slash hangout slash I-don't-Know-what thingy. It was beautiful. We were on a big rock lookout where we could see the sun set over the water, and could see lots of Stockholm as we were pretty high up. It got cold pretty fast when the sun went down so we headed to a packed cafe for a bit. Came home, went to bed and woke up 3, maybe 4 hours later. Once again, jet lag you have gotten the better of me! Which is how this post has finally been written. Its 6 am here, but I have been awake since a bit after 3am and have been on and off writing this post. Heading to Russia this afternoon which is pretty dang exciting. Random embarrassing thing: tried to check in for my flight to Russia on Friday afternoon as you can check in up to 22 hours before. It did not work and said "Could not find passenger" which worried me. Called them, and they could not figure out the problem until the operator noted that I did not leave until Sunday, and not Saturday like I have been thinking for the last month. Oops. So had an extra day in Stockholm, even if I spent most of it sleeping.
Sorry for the ridiculously long post! The next one will probably be photos, and then the next will be coming from Russia.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Photo Post First---Stockholm
What Helle and her friends thought were important Swedish words to know. Haha
First ride on a subway system ever!!
Talk about advertising! There were H&M's on every street.
Most of the buildings looked like this.
Beautiful old shopping mall.
Row of cherry (I think?) trees that were still blooming.
Lion statue! Not quite sure where this was.
In front of the palace. The Guard did not seem too pleased when I took a photo of him.
I love, love, love these narrow roads. We spent a decent time wandering through them.
Cobble stone roads
Random ambulance, but I thought that this looked pretty.
More of these narrow roads!
Beautiful old church we stumbled upon.
Inside the church
More of the church
See above comment
I was lifting my camera high to take a picture of the buildings/streets and this guy raised his hand to wave his way into the picture. I smiled.
I will write about my trip later, but at the moment I am a bit jet lagged and tired after our lovely is busy day. But I am having a great time so far, and am so grateful that Helle and her family let me stay at her house. I leave on Saturday, so I still have some time here.
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