Hermitage = Name Dropping

So we are in St. Petersburg. Pretty awesome place. The hostel/hotel we are staying in is really nice. We did a walking tour yesterday after we got here. Everything is so beautiful. The city is on a bunch on islands on the Neva River and it's very European as far as style goes, in my opinion. All I could think of was that Belle from Beauty and the Beast was going to come walking around the corner at any minute. We saw the Winter Palace from the outside and it is gorgeous! I wish I was a tsarina :-)

Today we started out by going to St. Isaac's Cathedral. Absolutely gorgeous inside, I was literally tearing up because of the shear height of the dome and the intricacy of the mosaics. Then we did the 3 hour hermitage tour to see all the great masterpieces as fast as possible because there is just SO MUCH to look at. It would legitimately take years to see it all. The beauty of the interior of the palace as well as the magnificent artwork. It's just unbelievable. I wish I could've seen the interior of the palace when it was in use as a palace. As far as artwork goes it was all about name dropping, seriously. Da Vinci, Michelanglo, Renoir, de Goya, Monet, Van Gogh...it was incredible.

We're chilling in the room for a little while because we're pretty much exhausted from the day but in a little bit we're going to go get some groceries and such. Then we might go do something tonight or hang out in the room...not sure yet. Tomorrow is Peterhof and also the ballet (Swan Lake of course :-) ) tomorrow night.

Love&Miss Ya'll :-)

Francesca

Items of Interest

First of all, I have another awesome superstition to tell you. Lena's nose was itchy and she told me that in Russia that means you either will have an alcoholic drink soon or be punched in the nose soon. Haha. Tell me that isn't an interesting insight into Russian culture.

Second, I went to a little party last night with my friend Misha (not to be confused with my friend Masha; I have a lot of English speaking Russian friends in Novgorod). Anyway, he is in the militia and one of his fellow members was like promoted and given new stars for the shoulders of his uniform so he had a little get together. The tradition is that the stars have to be put into a glass of vodka and like cleaned before they can be accepted onto the uniform and the guy has to drink the vodka to get the stars. It was such a fun party. I tried to speak Russian, they tried to speak English by translating things online; it was awesome. Also, they kept begging me to sing Fergie but I was SO embarassed and couldn't remember all the words so I sang part of a classical Italian song instead, it was SO funny.

Third, believe it or not we are going to St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad) this weekend, Thursday through Sunday. I'm excited to go on a mini-break and see the sights. We also only have 3 days of school this week :-)

Fourth, we started our history lessons today. Pretty cool. Very interesting stuff. Some of it I already knew from some classes at Brockport but some I didn't. Here's an interesting fun fact: Russia (size wise) is 1/6 of the world; 2 USAs put together. Crazy big.

Fifth, because of Misha and the party, and Masha and her friends, I have like mad Russian friends now. Alina, Natasha, Yahna, Marina, Ramazon, Ludmila...they all rock so here's a shout out to them! (Don't be sad Brockport/Dansville friends....I love and miss you all too!)

Finally, I am off to go to Masha's flat to watch Harry Potter. We are preparing for when the new movie comes out on Thursday...although I won't see it until after I get back from St. Petersburg.

Love,
Francesca

PS...leave me comments! What do you want to hear about?

Я люблю Россию

Couple fun things to mention...

1. Other things I love about Russia...instead of salt and pepper shakers they have little tiny bowls that they put on the table with salt and pepper in them. They are adorable. Also, bottled water is often carbonated and some people don't like it but I do, it's good.

2. We went out to a dance club last night...it was so fun! It was on a boat on the Volkov River. The music was really dance-techno and there were lights ands a fog machine and the whole 9 yards. I had one drink when I was there (yes mom, just one), but it was a doozy. I can't remember what it was called but the bartender used a martini glass and it had 3 layers that he kept seperated by pouring it on a spoon and they must have had different densities or something. Anyway, he hands me a straw and with a lighter in his hand starts trying to explain something to me in Russian. Luckily my new friend Masha is Russian (she lives here in Novgorod) and she translated. Basically, he lights the drink on fire and you have to drink it fast before your straw melts. Crazy Russians. I was sort of scared of drinking fire but then I was like "When will I ever be young and foolish enough to do this again in my life?" So I did it. I was ridiculous. It burned my throught and it was sort of syrupy and minty and altogether pretty yucky. And, after lighting it he turned on a siren so everyone was watching, awesome. So I guess I can cross that off my list. Everything else about the club was fun though, we danced for hours, it was so fun.

3. Today we went to Staraya Russa which is where Dostoevsky lived for the last 8 years of his life and wrote his seminal masterpiece, Братья Карамазовы (The Brothers Karamazov). It is really a beautiful town and the weather was so nice today, about 25 celcius. We walked around the town and there is a nice river there, it's very picturesque.


Everything else is going well. I finished my first week of class and everything was fine. I am trying to improve my language skills as quickly as I can. Unfortunately we finished our week of art, but we start Russian history on Monday, so that will be interesting. I'm really having a great time here in Novgorod. I love the city already. It's so beautiful and quaint. The mix of new and old is so unique comparted with the United States where things are new or newer. Novgorod is celebrating it's 1150th anniversary this fall, it's the oldest city in Russia. The Kremlin and Jaroslav's Court are like time machines. Then there are interesting features such as old factories that have been turned into brand new shopping malls...love it.

That's all for now, hope everyone is well stateside.

Miss&Love You,
Francesca

Things I Love About Russia (con't) And MORE :-)

Ok, here are a few things I forgot last time:

1. I went to the grocery store with Lena, my host mom and there was an entire aisle of vodka...no joke...an entire aisle. It was crazy. Plus the aisle of beer, the aisle of wine and the aisle of other liquors. It's crazy.

2. I love Novgorod. The city is amazing! It's not too big but still fairly cosmopolitan. There are losts of place to get tea or coffee or beer. It seems you can walk anywhere but the bus system is also very nice.

3. White nights. It gets dark here is Novgorod at about 11:30pm. Until then it's lighter than twilight. I love it. You can have such a long day full of wonderful things. We do a lot of walking around the city; it's such an old city and there is so much to look at. All the churches and parks are so beautiful.

4. Mayo/ketchup. This sounds funny I know, but the mayonaisse and ketchup are sold in these bag that sort of seem like the bags craisins come in, but there is a little nozzle on the top that you take the cap off and you squeeze the mayo/ketchup out. It's wierd but totally cool.


In other new, my lessons are going pretty well. I am keeping up fairly well in my language class. I feel like I am learning more Russian and some of my Russian friends are helping me with my language, espcially my бабушка, Toma, who is awesome. She makes me speak Russian and I am learning a lot of conversational stuff.

Art class has been really fun. We are learning a technique of painting that includes decoration after the painting that almost makes the work look like patch-work. Then it is laquered over to make it shiny. We start Russian history next week. It is actually kind of hard to spell in English right now as I've been operating in Russian for a week.

As far as food goes...the food here is pretty awesome. I really like all the food I've been served by my family. Eggs, oatmeal, bread, bananas, apples, strawberries, yogurt, tea, vegetables...it's all been delicious. Also, I think I've eaten a ton of pizza since being here. I've been in Russia for 6 days and I've gone out for pizza thrVee times. Twice with my classmates and once with my Russian friend Misha (Миша). I've had some other Russian food but I can't remember the names. It's all been delicious though!

We got to Staraya Russya on Saturday so that will be fun. I've already been all over the Kremlin and Jaroslav's Court. Even the river is so beautiful.

It's getting too hard to type/spell in English. More later :-)

Love&Miss Everyone!

Things I Love About Russia

Hey all! I've been so busy I haven't really had time to be on the computer. Apparently this blog will count for a reflective journal that we are supposed to be keeping while we are here so...this one is for you Liza :-)

Ok. TAK. Things I Love About Russia.

1. Superstitions. My host mom Elena tells me about all these awesome Russian superstitions. My favorite so far is about flowers. Flowers in a vase and as a gift must be in odd numbers. Bouquets of even numbered flowers are for the dead...lol.

2. Tea. Tea is awesome. We drink tea all the time and it's awesome. It's delicious abnd it's a nice social time to sit and talk.

3. Time/date format. Military time makes more sense...duh. If your meeting someone at 8...you may be twelve hours early/late in the US...not so in Russia. Also, for the date Russians do day/month/year...smallest to largest...makes sense!

4. My host family. I absolutely LOVE my host family. Especially my mom Elena. She is SO sweet and smart and her English is very good. She is wonderful about helping my friends and I figure things out.

I think that's all for now. I'm having a great time here and miss everyone dearly. More later!

Love,
Francesca

First Morning

I am in Russia. Right now. Doesn't that blow your mind?!

After driving to the airport, 3 plane rides, and a very bumpy bus ride, I have arrived in Novgorod and am currently at my host family's apartmet. The flights were very long but OK. I didn't sleep at all.

All I've done since arriving is shower and sleep. I have to go eat breakfast though.

More soon!

Leavin' On A Jet Plane

In about 24 hours I will be on a plane flying to JFK so that I can fly to Russia. I can't believe the trip is already here and I am out of time to do all the things I needed/wanted to do before I left. I'm very stressed out right now, but not really because I'm nervous about being in a foreign country where I know almost none of the language and culture. It's just all the other stuff stressing me out. I still have a mondo list of stuff I need to do before I leave. My friends are commandeering me later to hang out one last time before I leave so it feels like everything has to be done now, which I guess it kind of does....

I'm trying to finish up my organizing and packing right now. Last load of clothes is in the wash, camera/kindle/ipod are charging, watch set to Novgorod time, extended absence message left on the voice mail for my cell, shoes are shined.....OK, not really that last one.

I decided against bringing my hair dryer for those of you curious about the outcome of that debate that I've been struggling with for weeks. I'm going au naturale as far as my hair is concerned.

So that's it. Please follow my blog this summer and pretty please leave me some comments to make me smile :-)

Miss&Love you all.....next post from RUSSIA!