В Санкт-Петербурге

St. Petersburg! Our hostel is awful, but a quick walk around the city and White Nights makes everything worth it. We made it to St. Petersburg at 6:10am yesterday. The train ride was 12 hours and really not too bad. Much better than I was expecting since we had sleeper cars...then again my standards of living are significantly lower now. The taxi drove a few of us around the city, just to see a little bit of it before getting to our hostel. We were in a pretty nice area driving down a side street, smiling at each other, thinking to ourselves, wow, we got a place to stay in this area? Finally some relaxing, clean, comfortable living! And then we reach the end of the street...and then we turn onto a main street, and then we turn onto a side alley...and then we see where we are Actually living. Great. Grafitti, broken beer and vodka bottles. The alley smelled like pee and sewage. It was gravely disappointing. Tatiana was extremely upset...she was told it was a nice place and the reviews do say it's nice. Like I said, the city makes it worth it!

We carried all our luggage in, only to be told that we couldn't check in until 1pm. I suppose that's normal...but we were all so tired. They let us put our luggage in the office and we walked around St. Petersburg and took pictures for the remaining 6 hours until we could check in. Once 1pm came around we finally got to see our rooms. Fortunately, what I imagined was so horrid that, even though it's still pretty bad, I wasn't too disappointed. I guess. It got a little difficult listening to everyone complain so much, though. It is what it is! Complaining only makes it worse. I tried to meet some other people staying in the hostel, but they're a little strange. There is also constantly blaring top 40 music in the hallways. Strange! Still, I'm okay with it. I'm in a room with Andy and Berenice. Andy keeps me sane; thank goodness he's on this trip. We all took naps and then went out to see what the deal is with this whole White Nights thing. What a night. The streets are closed down, everyone's happy and smiling (seeing smiling Russians is rare). The three of us started at an English pub and then walked around/bar hopped for a little while. We then went to the street that looks out over the Volga. Lanterns were floating into the sky, the bridge was lit up. Great view. At 1:30 am, the fireworks began. I hate to say it, but 4th of July has Nothing on this firework show. They lasted until 3am (yes we were out the whole time). The sun had barely set, and it was beginning to rise again. Words can't really describe, and the pictures don't do it justice...but here they are anyway:

Our hostel.

They hadn't had WiFi in 12 hours...can you tell? I've never in my life met a group of people so constantly glued to their phones. It actually drives me completely nuts.

Picture credit to Andy on that last one. I was too much in awe to take my own. Really though, the entire sky was filled with these fireworks. I promise you've never seen anything like it. Got back to the hostel around 3:30am. Worth it.

Coyotes, Rabbits, and Bears Oh My!...and Stag.

Of course my last night in Moscow had to be unforgettable. As advised, I've completely stayed out of trouble so far. Haven't been drinking, haven't gone to night clubs, etc. It's been a classy, sophisticated trip. We went to the ballet last week, the opera this week. I didn't particularly enjoy the ballet, though. It was a modern ballet of The Little Mermaid, and I would like to have seen a classic. The singing and the music in the opera was beautiful. We watched the Opera Eugene Onegin. It's about a playboy who leaves his socialite life to care for his dying uncle in the countryside. Here's a run-on sentence that will make my mom cringe to sum it up: Onegin comes to the countryside, he meets Tatiana, she falls madly in love him, he kinda likes her too but says he wouldn't be good for her because he likes to fool around, he flirts with her sister, his best friend is in love with said sister, he gets super jealous, challenges Onegin to a duel, his best friend dies in the duel, Onegin leaves, comes back years later, visits a general friend of his, turns out this general married Tatiana, Tatiana is gorgeous and rich, so now Onegin wants her back and is madly in love with her (go figure), she stays loyal to the general despite still loving him, Onegin is miserable, the end. I really want to read the book. Since we were all dressed up for the Opera, Berenice, Andy, and I decide to try this great restaurant that we heard serves bear meat. Bear meat is soooo great.

Anyway, back to my last night. So we started off the night by going back to Чемодан (Chemodan). I started off with the white mushroom soup with Siberian Stag. Wow Stag is great. Russia really does meat well. We had the Macedonian wine, too. Yummy. Andy invited an old family friend and his wife to join us. They have lived in Moscow for three months. His wife knew some great places we could go after the restaurant. However, Berenice and I wanted to go to White Rabbit (a rooftop bar/restaurant) first to get a picture of the sunset. The sunsets here are absolutely beautiful. So we wandered off while they finished dinner. Unfortunately, we didn't quite make it in time for the sunset, but we still got a great view! The cocktails weren't half bad either. After, we met up with Laurel, Andy, and his friends at Bar Coyote. Yep, a coyote ugly bar in Moscow. What a fun place!!  It is so hilarious hearing all the Russians yell out the chorus of popular American songs, knowing they have No clue what they are saying or what it means. I met some pretty cool people there, too. I met two really nice girls, who completely lit up when I said I was from Los Angeles. They "dream" of visiting California. I swear, they all say the same phrase, "I dream of visiting America!". I got to practice my Russian, they got to practice their english. And...remember how I said I'd kept it classy? Well...it is a coyote ugly bar and it was about time to let loose. So, yes, Berenice, Laurel, my new Russian comrades, and I went on the bar and danced. It's a perfectly normal thing to do in such a place!! And so much fun. The men were very respectful and polite, too. I'm really going to miss that when I get back to America... We danced and talked and all of a sudden we left the bar and it was bright outside. Oh, why hello there 6 in the morning. Time to go home. It was truly a great last night in Moscow. That memory is going to make me miss it here a little bit more than I originally would have.

The ballet...pictures weren't really allowed obviously.

Ballet again...I couldn't get a good picture of the opera. We had pretty bad seats and an awkward angle.

Also forgot to mention that we went to a student recital at the Scriabin Museum. Really brought back the memories of all the recitals I performed in...

Stroll around Moscow

It's been a little while since I last posted. This last week has been fairly busy for me between our excursions, my midterm and then my final. Not sure why they decided to have our midterm the week before our final, but oh well! The final went well. I had to write 5 pages (in Russian of course) in 2 hours on the development of large cities, the problems/benefits of immigration and comparing Putin's stance vs. Obama's stance on illegal immigration. I also had to talk about pollution and social ecology, comparing Moscow and Los Angeles on how the cities are fixing the problem of pollution. Kind of random topics...but it went well I think.

I'm all packed up and ready to go to St. Petersburg! I am so thrilled to head there, because it's the one time of the year that Белые Ночи (Beliye Nochi)/ White Nights will be occurring. St. Petersburg is the northern-most city in the world, and 2am won't look any different from 2pm. During this time there are festivals, concerts, etc. Should be a great week with no class to worry about! Since I was studying so much this week, I'm afraid there won't be much in the way of educational/historical enlightenment in my blog post. There will, however, be pretty pictures.

This is the statue at the Memorial Museum of Astronautics. I didn't go in the museum.

Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. I didn't go in here, either. They have a very strict dress code...no jeans I guess. It was just as pretty from the outside, though! The church was built under Alexander I after Napoleon retreated. Stalin wanted it demolished (USSR was officially Atheist) and changed to the Palace of the Soviets as a monument to socialism. That plan backfired due to a lack of funding. The professional demolition crew refused to blow it up, so Stalin's henchmen, unskilled in the art of demolition, attempted to do it themselves and failed miserably. In 1990 it was rebuilt.

View from the cafe some of us sat in while a few others went in the Cathedral.

This statue was originally a 'gift' to America. It was Christopher Columbus. However, seeing as it is potentially the ugliest monument of all time, America said no thanks. So Russia took it, removed Christopher Columbus' head and replaced it with Peter the Great's. Peter the Great wasn't a huge fan of Moscow. Muscovites aren't huge fans of this statue.

Russia's version of Paris's lock bridge. Really cute. Newlyweds come to 'lock their love' and throw the key over the bridge into the water.

P.S. Remember Sasha from a few posts ago? We got married! You may call me Katya Neverova now.

It was kind of funny seeing this lock, though. Even though Sasha and Katya are pretty common Russian names...and I did joke a lot about getting married here since I'm known as such a Slavophile amongst friends.

How is it that when you pack to leave, somehow nothing fits in the luggage that fit perfectly fine before??? It's like all my things have expanded... The mysteries of life.

Suzdal! Bugs, Banya, and Beauty

This past weekend we took a little trip to Suzdal. Beautiful, quaint town. It was so great getting out of the city for a little while. Fresh air, nature, good food, and banya!!

Banya is a Russian tradition, a way of relaxing and get rid of all the toxins by sweating in a sauna (a lot) and drink tea (except in our case it was champagne). So a small group of us went to Banya, not everyone. We get our own little cabin. One room is the sauna, but the whole cabin is very warm. Next to the main sauna room, there is another room with a shower and a giant tub filled with icey-cold water. The first step is to get into the sauna until you can't handle the heat anymore. I was dripping. You then get out, exfoliate your body with a sugar scrub and then rinse down in a luke-warm shower. After, you get back into the sauna. Sweat again. Profusely. Get out when you feel like you're about to pass out, jump into the icey-cold water. It feels amazing...words can't describe. Next, you get back in that damn sauna. Except this time, Tatiana (the head of the USC Russian department/excursion leader for the trip/most amazing professor I've ever had) grabbed a small bucket of water to throw into the coals of the sauna. The steam was unbelievable. I thought I was cooking, and it burned my throat and nose to breathe. We had to bend over with our heads in our laps to even breathe. I know this sounds unbearable. Three of us couldn't handle it, and we jumped into that heavenly ice cold tub. It gets to about 200 degrees (93 C). We took a break and sat outside the sauna room for a little while. The next step is to take a small bunch of leafy birch tree branches (they smell wonderful). This is the massage part. You sprawl out on the sauna bench and another person lightly pats your body with the birch branches. The patting gradually gets more...aggressive, I guess you could say. It's supposed to improve circulation.

As uncomfortable as the process occasionally became, my body has never felt so relaxed. Especially after 5 hours of traveling. It was fantastic to be a part of a completely Russian (literally everyone in Russia does this) tradition. I want my own banya in my house! Afterwards, we went upstairs and looked out the deck of our cottage, drinking champagne. It's also a tradition to make a wish after toasting to a new experience. Champagne went to our heads a little fast, considering what we had just done...great bonding experience. I also had my first B-52 with my professor that night... yum.

The next day we went to Nevsky Monastery (for men). The grounds were beautiful. Walking through town was beautiful, too. There were horses pulling carriages and little sidewalk markets. I had the best beef stroganoff. Which reminds me, I've never mentioned the juice here. Why do we not have such juice in America?? When they say fresh squeezed, it is honestly fresh squeezed. Right there. I got apple juice one time, it was like drinking a green apple. The grapefruit juice is fantastic, too.

My one complaint would be the insects. We were all eaten alive, despite an ample supply of bug spray. Bugs aside, I loved this trip.

Медовуха (midovucha)/home-brewed honey beer is also delicious.

The little pond that braver souls jump in after sitting in the banya (two in our group did it)

Entrance to our banya cabin.

The view from our porch at the banya.

The main building to rent Banyas.

Tatiana leading us into town.

Prison for Old Believers within the Nevsky Monastery.

Our group sans me!

Lots of butterflies in the monastery's garden.

Hello from a tree...

Mom and Bev will appreciate this.