St. Petersburg, Day 1

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Well, it is now 02:36 on Saturday, 14 June, and hopefully we'll get about six hours of sleep before waking up and starting our second day of exploring St. Petersburg. As this is the last leg of our journey, we are cramming in as many last-minute experiences as possible. Things are additionally hectic simply because of all the moving around we've been doing: last weekend, we were in a rural village; we returned to Vladimir for two days before leaving to spend two-and-a-half days in Murom, then went back to Vladimir, left on a night train, and arrived to St. Petersburg this morning (now, technically, "yesterday" morning). My phone was dead nearly all day today, and outlets in public to charge one's phone or other devices are hard to find. It's been another really packed day, as tomorrow will be. Sunday will be our final day in Russia, and we plan on staying up, taking a final tour, and experiencing the "White Nights"; we'll be out and about until probably 02:00, head back to the hostel, sleep (maybe), and be back out the door and on our way to the airport by 05:00.

Long story short, I may not be able to update this blog until I've actually left Russia. Nonetheless, I plan to keep notes for myself so that I can come back later and update with details and, hopefully, pictures. In the meantime, as usual, keep checking the latest photos HERE. :)

Murom, Day 3 & Night Train to "Peter"

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Murom, Day 2: "Ciągle Pada"

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Well, the title of this post is actually Polish, but it's still a Slavic language that gets across the message: "Still raining"!

It's kind of incredible that, up until Saturday, the only weather we'd really experienced during our time in Russia was beautiful sunshine--though, admittedly, we often complained because it was so hot. It's rained and/or stormed off and on since Saturday, but today was the worst of it yet. Walking to "school"--the Murom Institute of Vladimir State University--was like an agility course. After a full day of rain, this afternoon coming home was even worse. Huge puddles, more like ponds, formed everywhere, and it was a matter of jumping from rock to rock in order not to succumb to the rainwater and mud. Unfortunately, the only pair of tennis shoes I have are white, as I used my other tennis shoes to do volunteer work in and threw them out back in Vladimir. They're covered in paint, are torn up, and smell like wet dog. Now that I think of it, those are exactly the shoes I should've brought for this weather... :P

Anyway, this morning I woke up right before Emilia walked in to get me up for the day. We then had a huge, filling, delicious breakfast and watched the news before heading to her institute. We walked to the bus, where we met her mom, who was on her way to work but realized she'd forgotten something, so she'd had to come back.

The institute is about fifteen minutes away by bus. We got there, walked in, climbed the stairs to the second floor where the foreign language faculty is located, and met up with some of my group mates who were hanging out in the English language room.

We were introduced briefly to Rebecca, an English professor and the teacher of my host sister Emilia, who's from outside Little Rock, Arkansas. Emilia had told me about her American English teacher, but I didn't realize right away that she and this Rebecca were the same person. For a split second, I was thinking, "Wow, this girl's accent doesn't sound Russian at all!" Then it clicked: This is the American teacher. ;)

Our group then received a tour of the institute and got to see different rooms and facilities. It's a large building that was built in, I think, 1957. To be honest, I don't remember; they have this awesome museum we went into, but after yet another long day of being overwhelmed with information and experiences, I can't recall any specifics. I've got papers and a brochure from the institute, though, so the information isn't lost on me forever.

After a tour--which included a stop in this aforementioned museum and allowed us the opportunity to listen to an old Soviet love and battle song on an original record and phonograph from the period of World War II--we were led to a classroom, where 25 or so students and some teachers were sitting, awaiting our presentation to them about our lives and about our university.

For what seemed like two hours, the five of us talked about Vanderbilt and shared little tidbits of our lives with the Russian students, showing them pictures of Vandy thanks to an Internet connection and projector screen in the classroom, and answering the students' and professors' questions about anything and everything. This was the third time we've given such a presentation--twice at Vladimir State University: once to the history students and once to the foreign language [English] students--and at the end of this one we were each presented with a folder full of goodies by which we will be able to remember Murom and the Murom Institute fondly. It was really sweet, very thoughtful, and completely unexpected--just like so many other gestures of kindness we've received on this trip. We had a bunch of pictures taken, the American students and Russian students together, and for these pictures I grabbed my host sister, Emilia, who was in the "audience," and pulled her next to me. :)

We then took a break for lunch in the cafeteria (or canteen, as they called it) before beginning work in the afternoon on some materials for English lessons. Our assignment was simply to write up about a page-and-a-half on some given topic, using relatively simple sentences, and then to be recorded reading our sentences. I wrote on the topic of education in the US; others wrote on American sports culture, food and dining customs, travel, etc. This was really nothing for us, but we were thanked several times over and assured that we will now be part of the history of the institute. Apparently, Murom received a Peace Corps volunteer over ten years ago. He did many similar projects to help with English lessons, and much of what he created and recorded is still used in lessons. Maybe, ten years from now, our audio clips and writing samples will be helping a new generation of Russians learn English. :) While we were writing our sentences on the computer, a student from the institute--who just so happened to have been named, essentially, "Mr. Murom Institute" this past year--went around interviewing us individually on camera and with a little microphone. These interviews, too, will be used for educational purposes and shown, we're told, to thousands of students. Unfortunately, I was so tired today that I hadn't much good to say, so I'm sure my clip turned out pretty lackluster. This afternoon, I was so tired that I was afraid I'd pass out at some point. Luckily, somehow, I made it through the day. Thankfully, tomorrow, I can sleep in, as we don't have to meet up with the group until 11:30!

After all of this, we left the institute, went to a local center of culture, and received demonstrations of various aspects of traditional Russian life in Murom: dolls, samovars for tea, clay toys, decorative cooking tiles, and--of course, as has become our recent hobby apparently--swords and armor.

At this point, I was just barely keeping awake, and I was trying to hide my crankiness. It was interesting, but my tiredness was winning out.

When we left the center of culture (which I really did like and would've enjoyed more, had I been less tired), we set out by foot--half American students, half Russian students, plus David and some of the Russian teachers of English--for an excursion to some of the main sights of the city.

The weather was still dreary, so the umbrellas were out in full force, but we managed to slosh our way through the mud and make it from church to monastery to monument to park to monastery and back home successfully.

...

Dinner

Village (house of Irina's friend) to visit animals (incl. a turkey!)--ate strawberries off the plants!

Supermarket (mall + what we'd call a supermarket [a big grocery store]) (concept of "supermarket" just a few years old here, according to Emilia yesterday; today, this finally made sense to me--here, it's mostly just individual, family-owned markets; one for bread and pastries, one for pet food, one for purses, one for sports jerseys, one for fruit and vegetables, etc.; I like this system better than the more impersonal, corporatized "supermarket" experience, where you walk in one huge building and can get everything in the same place; sure, more convenient, but different experience; Russians/Europeans, by my observation, less concerned with convenience and speed, more concerned with whether things are sufficient and quality)

Home for ice cream, fresh strawberries, honeysuckle (thought it was blueberry; never had it before), chocolate-covered raisins, chocolate-covered plum candies; discussed politics, got host mom's opinions with Vladim's help interpreting English and Russian

First Doener Kebab sighting (memories/anticipation of Berlin!)
ChocoBoy (candy/cookies in store--funny name)
Fitness (best cereal ever--finally going to buy it again in Germany)
Learned: during Soviet times, the traffic lights used to be flipped; i.e., the order of the colors as they light up to convey message of whether to stop, go, or slow down; Murom older than Vladimir; hometown of guy who invented the TV, though he moved to America.

Murom, Day 1: "Back in the USSR"

All too quickly, 08:30 arrived, my alarm went off, [I hit snooze three times,] and for the last time I was rolling out of my cozy bed in the center of town in Vladimir. Lena had prepared a special breakfast for me--kasha (basically, oatmeal) with fresh fruit--plus a local yogurt and cup of coffee. I took some pictures whilst watching my morning episode of ГубкaБоб (Spongebob) and thinking about what the rest of our time in Russia would be like.

Lena called a cab, so I didn't have to roll my suitcase through the streets--it's been raining since yesterday afternoon--and off we went to the American Home. We had our final Russian lesson, which mainly consisted of me writing as much as I could think of in Russian and then giving it to Lena to correct. I keep writing one of the letters (э) backwards, and thereby creating my own letter of the alphabet. For three weeks of Russian, I'm pleasantly surprised with the amount of the language I've been able to pick up, even if my spelling is still not so good and my pronunciation is bad. I wrote more sentences than I thought I'd be able to write.

Before our lesson, I should mention that Lilly's host sister, Anastasia, who's 16, had come with her to say goodbye. Anastasia and I met the first night we were in Vladimir, when a "welcome" picnic was held at the American Home for us. Anastasia is so sweet, and we talked a lot and have kept in touch via Facebook since then, though we haven't seen each other. But today, we got a chance to talk for a few brief moments, and then it was time for lessons to begin. She's still in school for the year, so I guess she had to go to her lessons, too. She teared up saying bye, and we hugged several times. This was her first experience hosting/with Americans, she said, and she would miss us a lot. On Thursday evening, we'll have a goodbye party at the American Home, where I will have to say bye to Lena. Anastasia won't be able to make it, as she'll be out of town with her family, so this was the last time we will see each other--at least for now.

I've learned that I'm a more sensitive person than I previously recognized, and goodbyes of any sort are probably my biggest weakness; I'm absolutely horrible with goodbyes. But I managed to keep it together today, though I expect our whole group will have a tough time saying bye on Thursday; we've already talked about it and see it coming!

After our lesson, we joined together to sing a Russian folk song while Aleksey Leovich played guitar. Alternating stanzas were sung by us girls and then by the guys, and it was fun, but--again--sad. The melody wasn't particularly cheery, we were tired, and everything had that feeling of winding down.

We then had tea before heading to lunch at the Café Solyanka, where I had my favorite borsch in all of Vladimir a couple weeks back. They weren't serving borsch today, unfortunately, but I had a lot of other stuff, and it was all really good.

Following lunch, we walked to the bus station, directly across the street from the train station. We had about 45 minutes to burn before our bus boarded. Once we boarded the bus, it wasn't long until I fell asleep, and the next thing I knew it was about three hours later, and we were pulling into the driveway of the bus station at our destination. Just in time, I woke up to stumble out of the bus with my group, where we were greeted by three professors and a group of smiling students. We'd made it to Murom!

Here, we will spend through Thursday afternoon, helping out at the Murom Institute of Vladimir State University in the English department--working with students who study English and speaking about our experiences in Russia and our university back home.

My host is a really nice 18-year-old student named Emilia, and she uses Emily as her English name. :) Her mom is Irina, just like my host mom in Vladimir, her dad is Feodor, and her older brother is Vladim. Already, we have had many good conversations. Emilia's English is very good, and her brother studied English, German, and philology when he was in university, so his English is excellent as well, though he says he hasn't spoken English regularly in 6 or 7 years. Especially he talks a lot, which has been great, as we've already talked a lot about politics and society and stereotypes between Russians and Americans. I've learned a lot from Emilia and her family, and it's only been about 8 hours.

Also, after dinner, she and her family took me to their dacha out in the country about 20 minutes away. This "microplantation," as they called it, actually belongs to another family, I think, but here they plant all of the fruits and vegetables and flowers that they grow--which is a LOT! In Russia, we've learned that it's typical for every family to have or use a dacha. Food is home-grown, which explains why it's so much better and fresher than American food, which is filled with chemicals and often stays preserved on shelves for unnatural amounts of time. Emilia and her family took me to pick strawberries, which was so fun! I've never done this before, so I was taking pictures and running around, gleefully plucking berries. For them, this is just part of everyday life, so they found it amusing. Also, speaking of amusing, I don't know what it is, but both of my host moms have had the best laughs... maybe it's something about Russian women with the name "Irina," but they both have these amazing, hearty laughs that are impossible to hear without laughing, too--very jolly. :D

After picking a ton of strawberries, we loaded up the trunk, and Vladim drove us back home, where I got settled while the berries were washed. We then sat around eating a delicious dessert of fresh, crushed strawberries in condensed milk, which makes it sort of like a parfait, only not yogurty. Just sweet and really, really good. I can't describe it, and it was all gone before I could even think to take a picture. We then talked some more, laughed a bunch, and now it's time for bed. In the days to come, I'll try to take notes on some of the things that my host family says, particularly pertaining to politics and cultural differences and stuff, and then at a later time I can hopefully include these specific comments on my blog to share with anyone reading. After all, intercultural dialogue and greater understanding between people is the goal of this trip as well as one of the purposes of my personal blog.

It's off to bed for now, but one last thing--a teaser of sorts. I should mention that, when we were having a snack of tea and cookies right after I arrived here with my Murom host family, the regional news was on and, as part of the news program, my Vanderbilt group and the American Home were featured. This took place yesterday, and I'll wait until the clip is posted online before I say much more, but bottom line: we were on Russian TV! :D

Last Night in Vladimir

Well, this is it. Not "it it," as we still have a week left in Russia. But for the town of Vladimir, the time is nearing for us to say до свидания (goodbye). I already had to say bye to my sweet friend Глеб (Gleb), shy though he is and despite the fact that we barely spoke tonight because of the language barrier, and to Irina, my host mom. I spoke to her in Russian, using phrases that I committed to memory for the express purpose of saying goodbye, and she gave me a big hug, said a few words in German, and assured me that we will stay in touch via Skype and/or Viber and/or WhatsApp--various messaging platforms.

Speaking of goodbyes, last night I said bye to my host niece Sonya and to my host babushka after hours of hanging out. Again, we barely talked because of the language barrier, but Sonya and I played dolls for a long time, and then she started taking pictures of me and using an app on an iPad to give a makeover to the pictures--make-up, clothes, hair, glasses, hats, etc. She thought that was fun, but then I brought out my laptop and turned on the webcam, and from that moment on she was laughing nonstop for hours. Together, we must have taken over 200 pictures with various backgrounds and faces and camera effects. We even got some awesome pictures with Babushka.

Here's a bunch of pictures from our photo sessions, just because:

When Sonya and Babushka had to leave, I gave Sonya some candy, courtesy of Cracker Barrel, and a little booklet with games and puzzles to teach kids some facts about the US. It's in English, but the games are simple, and with the help of anyone in her family I figured she'd be able to get some enjoyment out of it (hopefully!) while also having a reminder of that weirdo American girl that stayed with her family for, like, three weeks during the summer. :P In addition to all the silly pictures we took together, I've also got this masterpiece as a souvenir, which Sonya made for me using Paint:

When we said bye, I was honored because Babushka gave a hug and the traditional three kisses (on the lips...!) to Lena, her mom Irina, and then to me. I wasn't expecting that at all, but I felt like I was really part of the family. :)

Anyway, back to today: This morning was the usual Russian lesson with Lena. It was fun, and I had a much easier time reading and writing than I expected. I think I did better than Lena expected, too, but I'm constantly babbling and making up words, apparently, which seems to amuse us both. After the lesson, we had a master class on painting the well-known матрёшка (matryoshka), or Russian nesting dolls. It was a woman, her husband, who helped with preparations and took pictures, and her daughter, who is our age and interpreted Russian to English for us. This woman has been painting and selling her dolls for 20+ years now, and though it was fun to try it out ourselves, it was also nerve-wracking, and most of us ended up getting significant assistance from the master of the matryoshka in order to make our dolls souvenir-worthy. At this activity, we were joined by a camera crew from the regional affiliate of national TV station Россия 1, who, it turns out, decided to do a story on our Vanderbilt group's service-learning trip to Vladimir. :D

Next, the group went to lunch, had about an hour and a half to eat and dry off from the torrential downpour--the first rain we've even encountered during our stay here in Vladimir!--before heading to a center of culture and arts that formerly served as the House for Officers, a government building where meetings, ceremonies, and performances were conducted. For about an hour, we were given a private demonstration of old Russian military outfits and gear, before being allowed to put on the heavy chain-mail, vests, gloves, and swords ourselves. We got to have sword fights, and all I can even say about this is that it was AWESOME. (I wish I could think of a less-commonly-used word, but the experience literally elicited awe.) Also, some sort of heavy metal music--pun possibly intended?--was playing in the background as we were having our sword fights, dressed up as knights, and at one point Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyrie" from his Ring of the Nibelung cycle was playing. It was incredibly EPIC--that's a better word. So many pictures to come... And, naturally, the camera crew joined us for this activity, as well.

Afterward, we finally had some long-coveted free time. I returned home, where Lena took a nap, and I got cozy, caught up on world news, listened to the radio, watched some interviews and clips from a documentary of Russian president Putin on Youtube, and also gave into temptation and napped for about an hour and a half.

I woke up to a very pleasant surprise: Gleb had come over! This morning, I'd asked Lena if it'd be possible to say bye to Gleb before I left town, and she said she didn't think so. Whether this was just her being sneaky and surprising me with a visit from Gleb in the evening, or whether he actually had plans that then got cancelled so that he was able to come over, I don't know. But I woke up, packed (sadly), and went into the hallway, where Lena told me that Gleb was here. I walked into the room where they were, high-fived Gleb, and we talked for a minute before Lena spoke the words I'd long been awaiting: "Wanna watch The Godfather?"

For the next three hours, Gleb and Lena and I watched The Godfather: Part I (in English, with Russian subtitles, as there isn't a Russian-audio version), one of my all-time favorites and the favorite movie of Lena's dad. It was really incredible to be sharing the experience of this movie with my contemporaries on the other side of the world where I previously would've never expected to even find people who knew this movie. File this under the "We're Not So Different After All" category. This was Gleb's first time seeing the movie and my first time watching it all the way through in a long while. I actually caught three or four details I'd never picked up on before, thanks in part to the [Russian!] subtitles.

When the movie was over, we relocated into the kitchen, where I ate dinner, and Gleb snacked. We talked a bit, watched what was on TV (Family Guy), and then got some pictures before Gleb left. Now, it's 01:30, and I'm in that odd in-between state of knowing I should go to bed, yet wanting so badly to stay awake even though I know I've got nothing to gain from it. I want to enjoy every minute I'm here, and staying up late makes the hours pass much more slowly than falling asleep and suddenly waking up 8 hours later does.

Tomorrow, we'll have our last Russian lesson at the American Home before the group departs Vladimir for Murom, a nearby city. There, we'll be helping at the Murom Institute of Vladimir State University, talking with students who concentrate on the English language. We'll each be staying with a new host family during the two days we're there. Then, it's back to the American Home in Vladimir just long enough to grab our bags on Thursday evening, and we'll turn right back around and leave Vladimir for St. Petersburg, where our group will stay in a hostel the duration of our time in Russia.

6-8 June: The Dacha (Village) Experience

UNDER CONSTRUCTION
 

Please check back later. In the mean time, click HERE to view the latest photos!

The Last Lecture (Or Something Like It)

The title of this post might actually be incorrect, but, regardless, it's sadly nearing the end of our time here in Vladimir, and--after breakfast of blini with Lena at the Café Dalee, our morning lesson, and an early break for lunch--our group sat for one of the final lectures we'll receive on Russian politics and society.

Professor Roman, from the Vladimir Presidential Institute, returned and spoke about US-Russian relations in the 21st century, which was so interesting! He talked for an hour and a half, and, though I probably yawned fifteen times--Week 3 is killer--it was a great presentation. Maybe when I get home to Nashville I'll type up my notes from the various lectures we've had and edit my posts to include some of the bullet points I jotted down.

For this lecture, as with other lectures, some Russian students joined us. Unfortunately, they didn't talk much, and it would've been great to hear their thoughts, but then again we weren't so talkative today either. The professor spoke about the transition period in Russia from Yeltsin to Putin, the transition periods in the US from Clinton to W. Bush and Bush to Obama, and the characteristics of Putin and Bush's relationship compared to the characteristics of Putin's relationship with Obama.

Largely as a result of the "personality cult" that's formed around the person of Putin, I find anything and everything Putin-related to be really intriguing. The man is an enigma, and it's really been eye-opening to see how culturally-relative media depictions are when it comes to a country's leader. That's something I didn't really notice during my time in Germany. But being in Russia at a time like this, with the Crimea and Ukraine conflicts, the differences are immediately apparent, and opinion on Putin is one of the first things that Russians ask and that I, as an American, ask Russians about.

...

 After the lecture, I gave the professor a sort of souvenir: a TIME magazine that I brought with me from home, which I got in the mail but--like every other issue--haven't had the time to read. Because of my own interest in the topic, because of his scholarly focus as a political scientist, and because of the discussions we've had during lectures on this theme, I thought he would find this issue particularly interesting, to see the latest in American print media's image of Russia and its president.

 

He liked this present, and we got a photo together. Our group then had a quick break before turning around and heading out on an excursion through town, which he led. It was really hot today, as it's been every day (85+ Fahrenheit), and honestly we walked the same path we'd walked before and saw mostly the same stuff we've seen several times now. But, it was generous of him to guide us and to take the time and energy to teach us (in English!) about the history of the city on foot.

Following the excursion, we went to McDonald's en route to a football (soccer) match to see the local team, FC Torpedo Vladimir, face off against FC Dolgoprudny from Moscow Oblast/province. There weren't too many people there, but it was in their big stadium, and I swear the police and various military guards--security dogs included--nearly equaled, if not outnumbered, the actual crowd. Never before have I seen a sporting event (or, really, any other event I can think of) with so much security.... The game itself was a draw, 0-0 at the final whistle, which was kind of a shame, because it would've been nice to see what a Russian goal celebration is like, both on the field and in the stands. But it was a really good time, and Emily (a grad student from Alaska who's in Vladimir for six weeks studying Russian) and I hit it off, talking about our shared history with the sport and other life stuff. All the other Vandy people and the Russian students who'd joined us left at halftime, but the two of us stayed chatting and cheering on our home team.

One of the most exciting moments of the match was off the pitch, when some really drunk guy started attacking a metal fence/gate in the stands--there was nobody within 15 feet of him, so he was just kind of there on his own rattling the fence, acting like he was strangling it, until a quarter of the nearby police pack went over, grabbed him, wrestled him down a little, and walked him out of the stadium. Very odd, made no sense, but was--admittedly--entertaining to watch.

After the game, I went back home, ate a quick dinner, and then Gleb came over and we went for an hours'-long walk, just strolling through a park and throughout the city, having really good conversation with the help of Google Translate. He bought me lemonade, and the whole thing was very sweet and quaint. Russian date? Check!

This afternoon (since it's now Friday...) through Sunday afternoon, the group will go to a rural village to experience a bit of real, "old-world" Russia. We really have no idea what to expect--we don't even know the name or location of this village--but I don't expect to do any blogging this weekend. ;)