This entry is 6 pages in Word!
So it’s been a long two weeks!
The short of it:
My mom was here! I traveled to St. Petersburg! I met lots of relatives and third cousins.
Friday September 30th:
My mom was supposed to land at 1 pm. I got picked up by my mom’s cousin’s wife and her 4 year old and we were going to pick up my grandpa. The traffic was horrible on the way there and we were stuck in traffic for some time. During that time, I got a phone call from my sister saying that my mom had missed her connecting flight and that she wouldn’t land until 7. So then we made it to my grandpa’s, called the airport, and then went shopping to make food. We ate tons of food and then left for the airport. We weren’t at the airport for long before my mom came off the plane.
The plane from cincy to paris had taken a long time taxiing in paris, so she missed her connection. Then the next plane was leaving in 3 hours, but it ended up having some problems, so by the time they found another one, it had been another 3 hours. So she picked up some people that missed connections in Moscow/had to stay in the city because it had gotten too late to get tickets. So we had an extra few people stay in the apartment the first night. It was a fun slumber party.
Saturday:
Woke up and went shopping with my mom for breakfast food. Had a long breakfast with our guests, and then left to visit my mom’s friends.
We stayed all day there, went for a walk to my mom’s old neighborhood, and in the evening lots of people came over and ate food. And lots of cake and ice cream. We ended up staying the night there.
Sunday:
Woke up, breakfast, then ran home for a tiny bit before we had to go meet family. My mom’s aunt had come to Moscow for a few days from somewhere in the south of Russian, and so there were lots of my moms cousins and their children. And food-always tons of food.
Then right after that we were picked up by another person and taken to this super nice apartment. Then I learned that it was my grandpa’s friends kids apartment. So a childhood friend of my mom’s. The apartment, and requisite food, was tasty. Then we got taken home. And got to sleep in our own beds, finally.
Monday:
I skipped class, and went to a French version of Wal-Mart/supermarket with my mom. The place was super huge, and mostly food. I found some fun rainboots that were cheap, so I want to go back and get them sometime soon. Then I went to one class and then met my mom to go to my sister’s apt. We hung out there for the evening and ate ice cream. We made it back to our apt. fairly early, and went straight to bed.
Tuesday:
Woke up really early, left the house at seven so that I could go with my mom to meet more friends. I was only there for about an hour before I had to leave for class. After class I went to my grandpa’s apartment because it was his birthday and he was having people over. And there was food of course. Then, because my paper got pushed back, I was able to go with my mom to see her best friend from elementary/high school. They had an awesome cat and an internet connection, which I abused of course. She also has two kids about my age, so it was a little less awkward than the other visits. I also got to see pictures from my mom’s first wedding, which was a little weird.
They offered me to move in with them, and the internet connection is super-tempting, as is the cat, but I’m already so settled in here, that I don’t know if I should or not…I think I’m too lazy to pack things again.
Wednesday:
We stayed the night there, and I went to school from there. After school I had to rush home super quickly because I had to change for the theater. We went to see Heart of A Dog based on the novel by Bulgakov. It was pretty good, but I felt bad for those that couldn’t understand most of it.
Thursday:
Went walking around the center of Moscow with my mom. Finally saw the Red Square and St. Basil’s cathedral. Then went to meet for lunch with lots of friends that we’d seen previously. Went to class, then came home and packed for the train ride to Chebaksara. The train was fun. You get a cabin with four beds, and a little table. It’s a night train, so you sleep basically the entire time, and it goes quickly.
Friday:
Arrived, had ‘breakfast’ with tons of relatives and little children at my mom’s cousin’s. Then went to my mom’s aunts, and I wrote my paper. Then we went to the restaurant (to celebrate my Grandpa’s b-day). Man, there was tons of food, and it was tasty, and so much alcohol. They went through so much vodka-they had at least 6 shots (toasts) before the main course came. They ended up finishing at least 5 liters of vodka, not to mention the wine, champagne, and cognac. After the dinner, my mom’s cousin wanted to take me to a disco, so I went there with her brother-in-law and his wife, it was fine I guess. A little too loud, and fairly empty. Had some champagne and danced a little. Then went back to the apt, and fell asleep.
Saturday
I woke up early to finish my paper, emailed it, and then went to my great aunt’s. There was more food! This time in honor of her husband’s b-day. There were really tasty cakes there. And a baby, and it wasn’t that gross. I might even say it was cute. I can’t believe I just said that. Then we went wandering around the town, I saw the Volga river (it’s big) and then it was time for me to get on my train back to Moscow. I had to leave early because the study group was leaving for St. Petersburg on Sunday.
Sunday
The train ride went okay, I didn’t sleep very well. Then I packed, and left for the train station again. We took a fast train, and it only took 5 hours (instead of 12) to get there. We were all very excited to stay at a hotel for a week, since the last hotel we stayed at was so awesome. Our hotel was right on the bank of the Neva river, and we had a gorgeous view, but the rooms were slightly outdated, and not very luxurious. But we survived.
It’s crazy to think that most people’s impressions of America come from movies such as American Pie, and from tv shows like Sex and the City, which is shown on basic television here. It’s bizarre for them that most of America doesn’t live in large cities, because here a city with 400,000 people is considered small.
Theeeeennnn….
Operas, Museums, Canals, and Palaces:
Monday
Breakfast at the hotel was not as exciting as I’d hoped. It consisted of lots of bread-cheese, meat and jam for the bread, and a hot dish. The first day there was kasha, and others included hardboiled eggs, sirniki (these cheese patty things), scrambled eggs, and on the last day hot dogs . The jam was amazing though, so it made up for every thing else.
We got a driving tour of the city and then we went to Tsarskoe Selo (Tsar’s Village) which is home to the Summer Palace. The palace was huge and extravagant, and the grounds were also expansive and well cultivated. Then we headed back to St. Petersburg and saw St. Isaac’s cathedral-it’s the fourth largest cathedral in the world. And it was also very pretty and had these awesome mosaics that looked like oil paintings.
Then, we went to the opera. It was my first opera, and I’ve decided that I don’t really like them. Luckily they had a translation of the songs into English projected above the stage because I wouldn’t have really understood what was going on otherwise-and I freaking speak Russian. It’s super hard to understand the singing-I definitely like musicals better.
We made it back to the hotel, and went to hang out at the bar, where some random old guys started talking to us, bought us drinks and were generally drunk. They were rich oil transporters, so it proved to be a funny time.
Tuesday:
Museum day. We went to a decorative and applied arts museum, and had a hilariously enthusiastic guide. They had some pretty things, but for the most part I was amused by the guide. Then we had lunch and went to the Anna Akhmatova apartment/museum. I think it was interesting to me because this was the first of the (many) house museums we were going to see. There was a cute boy sitting in outside the apartment and Anna correctly described my taste in boys: effeminate intellectual.
Then we walked to the Dostoyevsky apartment, and from there to the Kazan cathedral. Then we went out to a Georgian restaurant, and I discovered an awesome green bean spread thingy that I need to find out how to make. After the restaurant, Jen, Kaitlin, and I met (one of my many) third cousin and he took us on a night driving excursion. It was nice to see so many sights (many of which we hadn’t seen yet) so quickly because our group excursions move like molasses. Really, I don’t understand how people can walk so slowly. We saw many, and stopped to get out of the car at four, places in under an hour.
Later we were sitting at the hotel bar when we discovered prostitutes! They were sitting at the table next to us, and assumed we didn’t understand Russian, so of course I listened in. And the other girls could see the action-the exchange of room numbers and the leaving of the girls. There was a woman pimp, which I learned is called a ‘madame’. They weren’t dressed very provocatively, and only one was pretty according to my standards.
Wednesday
The Hermitage, which is housed in the Winter Palace. The best day yet. We had the best tour guide of ever. She basically gave us a hands-on art history course over the course of one day. She was very enlightening and kept our (usually short) attention for most of the day. I can now understand religious art more than I had before. We got to the museum around 11 and left at 6. It was definitely time well spent. After the museum we went to a pizza place, walked around the city, and then went back to the hotel to further observe the prostitutes. We were there for a while, so we decided to time how long one of them was gone-35 minutes before she was back in the bar again. There were a surprising amount of customers, but we don’t know if prostitution is legal here or not.
We played cards-Amanda, a girl from Michigan and I taught the others to play euchre, apparently it’s only a Midwest phenomenon. Then we played spoons, which got hilarious and punchy. I think that punchy is my favorite emotion/state of being.
Thursday
This was our free day. So I went back to the Hermitage (it’s free to get in with a student ID) and wandered around there, bought stuff at the store, and used the Internet. After that, I wandered around the city, along this gorgeous canal, and sat in the sunshine. Wrote some postcards, then joined the rest of the group to go eat dinner. We ate at a great vegetarian place with great atmosphere and great food, and that gave us a complimentary shot of vodka. Afterwards, everyone else went to find a movie theater, and Jen and I went back to the hotel. We bought alcohol and snacks at a grocery store, but only ended up drinking half a drink before we got tired and almost fell asleep. Then other people came back, we gossiped and went to sleep.
Friday
We went to the Pushkin apartment, another palace where Rasputin was killed, and then the Russian Museum, which holds only Russian art. I saw some art-nouveau style icons, they were pretty cool. Then I met up with another third cousin, and she took me to see my great aunt (her grandma). She recently fell down and broke her thigh bone, so was bedridden, and she was very angry/bitter about the fact. But mentally she was all there, so it was nice to meet her. Then we met up with my cousin’s husband (she’s only 21 and been married for 3 years already) and we went to a café/walked around. Then went back to the hotel, bought a pineapple at the grocery store-used scissors as a knife, and ate it.
Then I fell asleep. Amanda (my roommate for the week) came in around 2.30 and I thought that it was time to get up for the day (it’s still dark out at 8 am) and then she told me an interesting story-they had confronted Tony (the pathological liar) about his inconsistent stories. So he ended up confessing to them that he never even lived in Poland, had some Polish neighbors and went there once when he was 16. He and said that he uses lying as a defense mechanism. But we’re not sure if the story he gave was just another lie, so I guess we’ll see what happens. It’s taken us 2 months to get him to admit to his lying, but he’s pretty much told everybody ever-our profs, I assume his host family…so who knows how he’s going to handle the situation now.
Since it was so late, I got to look out the window and see all of the raised bridges along the river. It was a pretty neat view.
Saturday
We went to the cemetery where they buried the 1 million people that died during the siege of Leningrad during WWII. My great grandmother died during the siege, and the great aunt that I had visited lived through it. It’s crazy what people can do to each other.
Then we went to the Peter and Paul fortress. Thankfully, it was a quick stop, and made another quick stop at the siege museum before heading off toward the train station. The train ride was long, and they didn’t give us any food like they had the first time. But we had this hilarious group of Russian guys that finished off 3 bottles of vodka during the first 3 hours of the trip. Needless to say they were having a good time, and being rather raucous.
St. Petersburg is a great city. It’s very European, and so much calmer than Moscow. It has an awesome literary and artistic history, and I can see why, the place is inspirationally beautiful. It has a very expansive feel due to all of the rivers and the canals. Sometimes is reminded me of a bigger Madison.
Oh yeah!!! I almost forgot. My sister had her baby!! It was on the first day that I got to St. Petersburg-so Monday. They named him Alexander-I don’t know when I’m going to see him.
The weather in Petersburg was fabulous, sunny and mild, but now it is rainy and cold. I haven’t left the house today, and I don’t think I will. Days like this make me want to curl up with some hot chocolate. And someone cuddly.
My time of freedom has come to an end. My sister’s grandparents have returned. And so has the dog. I actually kind of like it. It’s a huge ass Doberman, and it’s funny because it can see over the counter. And it’s at the perfect height to lay its head on your lap. He likes me because I pet him. And it’s best not to be on the bad side of a Doberman. I also now have a tv in my room. I wonder what that will do for productivity levels.
And the grandma talks of overfeeding me. That will not do at all. I’m still recovering from all of the food my mom’s friends and relatives shoved into me. It’s sort of nice having people in the apartment, but it’ll definitely be a change to get used to not calling all of my own shots. The grandpa is really funny. He sort of wanders around.
I just got some pine nuts. I love pine nuts. At the rate I’m going, I may just finish the bag tonight.
I bought a ton of postcards from St. Pete’s, leave your address if you want one.
The short of it:
My mom was here! I traveled to St. Petersburg! I met lots of relatives and third cousins.
Friday September 30th:
My mom was supposed to land at 1 pm. I got picked up by my mom’s cousin’s wife and her 4 year old and we were going to pick up my grandpa. The traffic was horrible on the way there and we were stuck in traffic for some time. During that time, I got a phone call from my sister saying that my mom had missed her connecting flight and that she wouldn’t land until 7. So then we made it to my grandpa’s, called the airport, and then went shopping to make food. We ate tons of food and then left for the airport. We weren’t at the airport for long before my mom came off the plane.
The plane from cincy to paris had taken a long time taxiing in paris, so she missed her connection. Then the next plane was leaving in 3 hours, but it ended up having some problems, so by the time they found another one, it had been another 3 hours. So she picked up some people that missed connections in Moscow/had to stay in the city because it had gotten too late to get tickets. So we had an extra few people stay in the apartment the first night. It was a fun slumber party.
Saturday:
Woke up and went shopping with my mom for breakfast food. Had a long breakfast with our guests, and then left to visit my mom’s friends.
We stayed all day there, went for a walk to my mom’s old neighborhood, and in the evening lots of people came over and ate food. And lots of cake and ice cream. We ended up staying the night there.
Sunday:
Woke up, breakfast, then ran home for a tiny bit before we had to go meet family. My mom’s aunt had come to Moscow for a few days from somewhere in the south of Russian, and so there were lots of my moms cousins and their children. And food-always tons of food.
Then right after that we were picked up by another person and taken to this super nice apartment. Then I learned that it was my grandpa’s friends kids apartment. So a childhood friend of my mom’s. The apartment, and requisite food, was tasty. Then we got taken home. And got to sleep in our own beds, finally.
Monday:
I skipped class, and went to a French version of Wal-Mart/supermarket with my mom. The place was super huge, and mostly food. I found some fun rainboots that were cheap, so I want to go back and get them sometime soon. Then I went to one class and then met my mom to go to my sister’s apt. We hung out there for the evening and ate ice cream. We made it back to our apt. fairly early, and went straight to bed.
Tuesday:
Woke up really early, left the house at seven so that I could go with my mom to meet more friends. I was only there for about an hour before I had to leave for class. After class I went to my grandpa’s apartment because it was his birthday and he was having people over. And there was food of course. Then, because my paper got pushed back, I was able to go with my mom to see her best friend from elementary/high school. They had an awesome cat and an internet connection, which I abused of course. She also has two kids about my age, so it was a little less awkward than the other visits. I also got to see pictures from my mom’s first wedding, which was a little weird.
They offered me to move in with them, and the internet connection is super-tempting, as is the cat, but I’m already so settled in here, that I don’t know if I should or not…I think I’m too lazy to pack things again.
Wednesday:
We stayed the night there, and I went to school from there. After school I had to rush home super quickly because I had to change for the theater. We went to see Heart of A Dog based on the novel by Bulgakov. It was pretty good, but I felt bad for those that couldn’t understand most of it.
Thursday:
Went walking around the center of Moscow with my mom. Finally saw the Red Square and St. Basil’s cathedral. Then went to meet for lunch with lots of friends that we’d seen previously. Went to class, then came home and packed for the train ride to Chebaksara. The train was fun. You get a cabin with four beds, and a little table. It’s a night train, so you sleep basically the entire time, and it goes quickly.
Friday:
Arrived, had ‘breakfast’ with tons of relatives and little children at my mom’s cousin’s. Then went to my mom’s aunts, and I wrote my paper. Then we went to the restaurant (to celebrate my Grandpa’s b-day). Man, there was tons of food, and it was tasty, and so much alcohol. They went through so much vodka-they had at least 6 shots (toasts) before the main course came. They ended up finishing at least 5 liters of vodka, not to mention the wine, champagne, and cognac. After the dinner, my mom’s cousin wanted to take me to a disco, so I went there with her brother-in-law and his wife, it was fine I guess. A little too loud, and fairly empty. Had some champagne and danced a little. Then went back to the apt, and fell asleep.
Saturday
I woke up early to finish my paper, emailed it, and then went to my great aunt’s. There was more food! This time in honor of her husband’s b-day. There were really tasty cakes there. And a baby, and it wasn’t that gross. I might even say it was cute. I can’t believe I just said that. Then we went wandering around the town, I saw the Volga river (it’s big) and then it was time for me to get on my train back to Moscow. I had to leave early because the study group was leaving for St. Petersburg on Sunday.
Sunday
The train ride went okay, I didn’t sleep very well. Then I packed, and left for the train station again. We took a fast train, and it only took 5 hours (instead of 12) to get there. We were all very excited to stay at a hotel for a week, since the last hotel we stayed at was so awesome. Our hotel was right on the bank of the Neva river, and we had a gorgeous view, but the rooms were slightly outdated, and not very luxurious. But we survived.
It’s crazy to think that most people’s impressions of America come from movies such as American Pie, and from tv shows like Sex and the City, which is shown on basic television here. It’s bizarre for them that most of America doesn’t live in large cities, because here a city with 400,000 people is considered small.
Theeeeennnn….
Operas, Museums, Canals, and Palaces:
Monday
Breakfast at the hotel was not as exciting as I’d hoped. It consisted of lots of bread-cheese, meat and jam for the bread, and a hot dish. The first day there was kasha, and others included hardboiled eggs, sirniki (these cheese patty things), scrambled eggs, and on the last day hot dogs . The jam was amazing though, so it made up for every thing else.
We got a driving tour of the city and then we went to Tsarskoe Selo (Tsar’s Village) which is home to the Summer Palace. The palace was huge and extravagant, and the grounds were also expansive and well cultivated. Then we headed back to St. Petersburg and saw St. Isaac’s cathedral-it’s the fourth largest cathedral in the world. And it was also very pretty and had these awesome mosaics that looked like oil paintings.
Then, we went to the opera. It was my first opera, and I’ve decided that I don’t really like them. Luckily they had a translation of the songs into English projected above the stage because I wouldn’t have really understood what was going on otherwise-and I freaking speak Russian. It’s super hard to understand the singing-I definitely like musicals better.
We made it back to the hotel, and went to hang out at the bar, where some random old guys started talking to us, bought us drinks and were generally drunk. They were rich oil transporters, so it proved to be a funny time.
Tuesday:
Museum day. We went to a decorative and applied arts museum, and had a hilariously enthusiastic guide. They had some pretty things, but for the most part I was amused by the guide. Then we had lunch and went to the Anna Akhmatova apartment/museum. I think it was interesting to me because this was the first of the (many) house museums we were going to see. There was a cute boy sitting in outside the apartment and Anna correctly described my taste in boys: effeminate intellectual.
Then we walked to the Dostoyevsky apartment, and from there to the Kazan cathedral. Then we went out to a Georgian restaurant, and I discovered an awesome green bean spread thingy that I need to find out how to make. After the restaurant, Jen, Kaitlin, and I met (one of my many) third cousin and he took us on a night driving excursion. It was nice to see so many sights (many of which we hadn’t seen yet) so quickly because our group excursions move like molasses. Really, I don’t understand how people can walk so slowly. We saw many, and stopped to get out of the car at four, places in under an hour.
Later we were sitting at the hotel bar when we discovered prostitutes! They were sitting at the table next to us, and assumed we didn’t understand Russian, so of course I listened in. And the other girls could see the action-the exchange of room numbers and the leaving of the girls. There was a woman pimp, which I learned is called a ‘madame’. They weren’t dressed very provocatively, and only one was pretty according to my standards.
Wednesday
The Hermitage, which is housed in the Winter Palace. The best day yet. We had the best tour guide of ever. She basically gave us a hands-on art history course over the course of one day. She was very enlightening and kept our (usually short) attention for most of the day. I can now understand religious art more than I had before. We got to the museum around 11 and left at 6. It was definitely time well spent. After the museum we went to a pizza place, walked around the city, and then went back to the hotel to further observe the prostitutes. We were there for a while, so we decided to time how long one of them was gone-35 minutes before she was back in the bar again. There were a surprising amount of customers, but we don’t know if prostitution is legal here or not.
We played cards-Amanda, a girl from Michigan and I taught the others to play euchre, apparently it’s only a Midwest phenomenon. Then we played spoons, which got hilarious and punchy. I think that punchy is my favorite emotion/state of being.
Thursday
This was our free day. So I went back to the Hermitage (it’s free to get in with a student ID) and wandered around there, bought stuff at the store, and used the Internet. After that, I wandered around the city, along this gorgeous canal, and sat in the sunshine. Wrote some postcards, then joined the rest of the group to go eat dinner. We ate at a great vegetarian place with great atmosphere and great food, and that gave us a complimentary shot of vodka. Afterwards, everyone else went to find a movie theater, and Jen and I went back to the hotel. We bought alcohol and snacks at a grocery store, but only ended up drinking half a drink before we got tired and almost fell asleep. Then other people came back, we gossiped and went to sleep.
Friday
We went to the Pushkin apartment, another palace where Rasputin was killed, and then the Russian Museum, which holds only Russian art. I saw some art-nouveau style icons, they were pretty cool. Then I met up with another third cousin, and she took me to see my great aunt (her grandma). She recently fell down and broke her thigh bone, so was bedridden, and she was very angry/bitter about the fact. But mentally she was all there, so it was nice to meet her. Then we met up with my cousin’s husband (she’s only 21 and been married for 3 years already) and we went to a café/walked around. Then went back to the hotel, bought a pineapple at the grocery store-used scissors as a knife, and ate it.
Then I fell asleep. Amanda (my roommate for the week) came in around 2.30 and I thought that it was time to get up for the day (it’s still dark out at 8 am) and then she told me an interesting story-they had confronted Tony (the pathological liar) about his inconsistent stories. So he ended up confessing to them that he never even lived in Poland, had some Polish neighbors and went there once when he was 16. He and said that he uses lying as a defense mechanism. But we’re not sure if the story he gave was just another lie, so I guess we’ll see what happens. It’s taken us 2 months to get him to admit to his lying, but he’s pretty much told everybody ever-our profs, I assume his host family…so who knows how he’s going to handle the situation now.
Since it was so late, I got to look out the window and see all of the raised bridges along the river. It was a pretty neat view.
Saturday
We went to the cemetery where they buried the 1 million people that died during the siege of Leningrad during WWII. My great grandmother died during the siege, and the great aunt that I had visited lived through it. It’s crazy what people can do to each other.
Then we went to the Peter and Paul fortress. Thankfully, it was a quick stop, and made another quick stop at the siege museum before heading off toward the train station. The train ride was long, and they didn’t give us any food like they had the first time. But we had this hilarious group of Russian guys that finished off 3 bottles of vodka during the first 3 hours of the trip. Needless to say they were having a good time, and being rather raucous.
St. Petersburg is a great city. It’s very European, and so much calmer than Moscow. It has an awesome literary and artistic history, and I can see why, the place is inspirationally beautiful. It has a very expansive feel due to all of the rivers and the canals. Sometimes is reminded me of a bigger Madison.
Oh yeah!!! I almost forgot. My sister had her baby!! It was on the first day that I got to St. Petersburg-so Monday. They named him Alexander-I don’t know when I’m going to see him.
The weather in Petersburg was fabulous, sunny and mild, but now it is rainy and cold. I haven’t left the house today, and I don’t think I will. Days like this make me want to curl up with some hot chocolate. And someone cuddly.
My time of freedom has come to an end. My sister’s grandparents have returned. And so has the dog. I actually kind of like it. It’s a huge ass Doberman, and it’s funny because it can see over the counter. And it’s at the perfect height to lay its head on your lap. He likes me because I pet him. And it’s best not to be on the bad side of a Doberman. I also now have a tv in my room. I wonder what that will do for productivity levels.
And the grandma talks of overfeeding me. That will not do at all. I’m still recovering from all of the food my mom’s friends and relatives shoved into me. It’s sort of nice having people in the apartment, but it’ll definitely be a change to get used to not calling all of my own shots. The grandpa is really funny. He sort of wanders around.
I just got some pine nuts. I love pine nuts. At the rate I’m going, I may just finish the bag tonight.
I bought a ton of postcards from St. Pete’s, leave your address if you want one.