Some thoughts

In lieu of the longer post I was planning on writing (and keep putting off due to poor time management) about food in Russia, I'm just going to share some random thoughts I have. The food post will come soon.

At first, it does not seem as though learning a language in said language should be terribly difficult, especially after a two year foundation, but it presents entirely new challenges. It is often a struggle to fully understand why my grammatical constructions are incorrect when my teacher does not speak English. It's even harder to define certain words. In class, we almost always try to define unknown vocabulary in Russian, which often leads us to more previously unknown words. Well all else fails, we consult our pocket dictionaries. Living here and being forced to speak almost entirely in Russian throughout the day, I think I've used my Russian-English dictionary more in three weeks than I would have an entire year, but that's a good thing. I carry a pocket dictionary everywhere I go, and often just look through it as I think up words I don't yet know but would like to.

I definitely feel as though my Russian is getting better. Today I went for coffee with my tutor and his girlfriend and spoke entirely Russian for a good hour or so with them, and the conversation flowed surprisingly well. Far more fluid, at least, than when I first met my tutor at the beginning of the semester.

It is still very difficult to hold conversations on the phone, when I can't hear as well or clearly. It is also very difficult at ticket or bank windows, because unlike in America, there is never a speaking hole in the glass which separates you from the cashier or saleswoman. Her voice is always muffled behind the Plexiglas and I often have to guess what she's saying. And yes, it's always a woman.

In conclusion, here's a photo of my apartment building:

Excursions

One thing I failed to mention in my post about school here is that we only have classes four days a week.  Every Wednesday, we go on an excursion as a group. Some of the future highlights will include a CKA hockey game, the ballet, the Dostoevskii museum, and the Baltika brewery, to name a few. Tomorrow, we're heading to the Krepoct Oreshek, a very old fortress which dates back to the fourteenth century and has passed between Russian and Swedish hands through various wars over the centuries.  Because it was never taken by the Nazis in World War II, it was able to provide a lifeline to Leningrad, thus saving the city during its blockade.



Last week we went to Gatchina, a palace outside of St. Petersburg in which Catherine the Great once resided.  It was all-but-destroyed by the Nazis in World War II, and the Soviets did little to repair it, but in recent years it has been the subject of a great deal of restoration and is a major tourist destination. The palace itself is somewhat reminiscent of Versailles in its construction, decor, and enormous hunting grounds.  However, Versailles is a bit more impressive in my opinion, though perhaps only due to the discrepancy in renovation.

A model of the palace

Outside the palace

Typical Russian bed (mine is a lot like this, too)

The underground tunnels are infamous for their echoes, which answer your questions

The backyard

School

Alright, so now that I'm on the internet on a regular basis, I'm going to be updating as such.  I decided I'm going to do this more thematically than chronologically, since I'm pretty much settling into a pattern anyway. So I'm going to write a little about my schooling here in St. Petersburg.


I'm taking classes at the Russian as a foreign language department (not it's real name) at Gerzen University.  The classes are designed specifically for Americans, and only other program participants attend them. Most of my classes are with the same core group of three people.  We comprise level 4 (out of six levels) and we take Phonetics, Grammar, and Conversation together.  I also have what we call a спецкурс (spets-coors). Mine is a syntax and phraseology class which teaches me to speak more like an actual Russian, covering colloquialisms and such. This class has about 8 people in it.  Lastly, I have a duel politics class which is split  into one weekly period covering current politics of Russia, and one period covering historical politics of Russia. This class is taught entirely Russian by politics professors. They speak really quickly and are hard to understand, but they're good about going back and explaining things.


Every day I commute for about an hour to get to school, which starts at 9:40.  I usually take a машрутка (ma-shroot-ka, a short bus) to the train to save time, though sometimes traffic is really heavy and I just walk, though it's quite far.  Then I take the metro three stops into the city.  The metro is really efficient, and I rarely have to wait more than 2 minutes for one to arrive.  A great difference in Russian metro stations is how deep underground they are. The escalators you have to take down to the platform are the longest I have ever seen in my life and take a couple minutes to ride all the way. Russians are really good about lining up on the right side and letting people run past, though, probably owing to years of experience standing in line in Soviet days.


I have three classes every day, with a lunch break between the second and third classes. Some friends and I have taken to going to the same restaurant for lunch, where we've discovered a three course lunch special (salad, soup, entree+side) for 159 rubles, or slightly over $5.  Today at lunch, we noticed our two politics professors were eating there as well. At lunch we speak a combination of English and broken Russian, but it is indeed nice to speak English for half an hour since it is forbidden of us on university campus. This is ACTR's policy, not the university's, but it's a good one for a few reasons. First, it will obviously improve our Russian. Second, it's more respectful to our professors, showing that we take the Russian language seriously. There are a lot of Chinese students at the school who ALL speak in very loud Chinese amongst themselves in the hallways and outside. It can be a bit annoying.


I hope to upload some photos soon, I've been having trouble transferring them from my computer to the internet, but as soon I can I'll share them with you guys!

St. Petersburg

Click here to view these pictures larger

(Insert "In Soviet Russia" reversal joke here)

So, at last, after a long summer in Chicago and a two-day orientation in Washington DC, I've arrived here in St. Petersburg.  More accurately, I arrived yesterday.  I've been so busy that this is my first opportunity to update on here, and the only reason for that is that I decided to stay in rather than go out to the bars with a bunch of my fellow ACTR participants.  So instead, I'm here, drinking a Baltika (Russia's best beer according to the man who works at the nearest продукты (pronounced: pro-dook-tee) and silently typing away at my computer alongside my Hungarian roommate, David.  I'll post a picture of David when I get around to uploading files from my camera.


As the orientation is scarcely worth mentioning, I'll move right along to my now two days spent here in St. Petersburg.  On day 1 we arrived absolutely exhausted.  Most of us had not managed any sleep on either of our plane rides, lasting about seven and a half hours between DC and Frankfurt, and then about three and a half hours between Frankfurt and Peter. No baggage was lost whatsoever, which it seems may be a first for the program.


We immediately went from the airport to the dorm where we spend the first two nights. It was raining when we arrived, as it so often is this time of year here. We went out to dinner at a pretty typical Russian casual restaurant with counter service.  The place had a poorly translated English menu. Our favorite translation was "Language the beef broiled".  As it turns out, the word "tongue" and "language" are the same in Russian, so this was really broiled tongue, which is quite popular in Russia.  I got something that translated to "Chicken on-the-home", as well as a piroghki filled with meat.  


After dinner, exhaustion set in and many of us headed to the dorm to rest up, but most us eventually found a second wind and decided to hang out in the common space.  We bought a bottle of vodka (русскии стандарт) and a bottle of truly awful champagne.  Later, we also bought some sausage, bread, and a jar of both pickled tomatoes and cucumbers (delicious).


Today we got to sleep in (good after staying up nearly 35 hours straight) and went out to explore the city a bit.  Our most productive activity was purchasing cell phones, which took a VERY long time. We've since been hanging out around the dorm, meeting some other international students.


Tomorrow, our host families (in my case, one woman) will come to pick us up and take us home with them for the first time.  It's both exciting and intimidating.  I know for a fact that my homestay is one of the farthest away from the university, which I'm too pleased about, but I'm sure my hostess will be very inviting.  That's all for now, thanks for reading.