writing home
hi mom! thanks for YOURE newsy email. and thanks for giving the clothes to ana. i feel better about my excessive buying when things like that happen.
yesterday we went to a town called novgerad. it is a "real russian town" said our host as opposed to st. petersburg which here is considered westernized. there are something like 200 cathedrals there and we visited about 20. all of the ones we visited were russian orthodox style with onion domes. i thought of you when i saw the architecture. they are spectacular. in the central dome of these churches most of them have a LARGE painting of jesus with his arms spread meant to be protecting the people in the church that were so haunting. there are icons painting all over. each icon has a person so in the rooms you are being watched by hundreds of over-a-hundred-year-old people. also in these cathedrals there is no where to sit. they are one main room with little set ups all around in front of specific icons where rituals are performed (lighting candles ect.) and the people go around i think praying to whichever one is relevant to them at the time. i will send pictures when i understand this computer better.
now i am going to start painting. i am painting from pictures i took of the architecture in the hermitage. hope all is well! share this with dad too.
paka! (goodbye!)
-erin
yesterday we went to a town called novgerad. it is a "real russian town" said our host as opposed to st. petersburg which here is considered westernized. there are something like 200 cathedrals there and we visited about 20. all of the ones we visited were russian orthodox style with onion domes. i thought of you when i saw the architecture. they are spectacular. in the central dome of these churches most of them have a LARGE painting of jesus with his arms spread meant to be protecting the people in the church that were so haunting. there are icons painting all over. each icon has a person so in the rooms you are being watched by hundreds of over-a-hundred-year-old people. also in these cathedrals there is no where to sit. they are one main room with little set ups all around in front of specific icons where rituals are performed (lighting candles ect.) and the people go around i think praying to whichever one is relevant to them at the time. i will send pictures when i understand this computer better.
now i am going to start painting. i am painting from pictures i took of the architecture in the hermitage. hope all is well! share this with dad too.
paka! (goodbye!)
-erin