Privyet, druz'ya!
Alive and well and exhausted in St. Petersburg. Both flights, the first to Helsinki and the second to Petersburg, were very uneventful, though Finnair seems to be strongly opposed to the concept of legroom.
We were greeted by a series of gift shops at the squeaky clean Helsinki airport, one of which sold reindeer hides for 98 euros each. Welcome to Finland, I guess.
What was really cool was being truly "forced" to speak Russian for the first time ever today. I sat next to a couple from Kazakhstan on the plane from Finland to Russia and I think I managed to not completely butcher my grammar. I also gave myself a huge pat on the back after the flight for refraining from asking them if they'd seen "Borat" and whether Kazakhstan is, in fact, the number one exporter of potassium.
After we arrived at the smoky airport in Russia, we waited for a bus to pick us up and take us to our hotel. A dilapidated truck chugged along the road, and somebody joked that that would be our bus. After a good laugh, we were surprised to learn that this truck would be taking our luggage to the hotel while we rode a bus that leaked due to holes in the roof. Welcome to Russia, I guess.
We checked into our hotel, went to a yummy cafe for lunch, took a 3-hour tour ("Gilligan's Island", anyone?) of the city by bus, ate dinner at a Humphrey Bogart-themed cafe, took the metro to the hotel, and now I'm here typing. The students in the program are so nice, and it's fun to be with people who are also ridiculously nerdy and passionate about Russian studies.
The city is absolutely incredible. I can't believe I'm here, and it's been amazing even just getting to practice my Russian for a few hours today. When we walked to lunch, we passed by the Church on Spilled Blood which, despite its gruesome name, is definitely one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen. St. Petersburg also has pretty much preserved every Soviet structure, so there are lots of remnants of the era all over the city.
Tomorrow we get an actual tour of the Church on Spilled Blood (yesssss), more tours and other really awesome stuff, and then we move in with our host families! Ah! Very excited. Saturday's a free day, Sunday's more awesome stuff, and classes begin on Monday at Smolny College.
It's about 9:45 p.m. here, and it looks like it's mid-afternoon outside. Bedtime.
Hugs from the Old Country,
Даша/Dasha/Dana
Alive and well and exhausted in St. Petersburg. Both flights, the first to Helsinki and the second to Petersburg, were very uneventful, though Finnair seems to be strongly opposed to the concept of legroom.
We were greeted by a series of gift shops at the squeaky clean Helsinki airport, one of which sold reindeer hides for 98 euros each. Welcome to Finland, I guess.
What was really cool was being truly "forced" to speak Russian for the first time ever today. I sat next to a couple from Kazakhstan on the plane from Finland to Russia and I think I managed to not completely butcher my grammar. I also gave myself a huge pat on the back after the flight for refraining from asking them if they'd seen "Borat" and whether Kazakhstan is, in fact, the number one exporter of potassium.
After we arrived at the smoky airport in Russia, we waited for a bus to pick us up and take us to our hotel. A dilapidated truck chugged along the road, and somebody joked that that would be our bus. After a good laugh, we were surprised to learn that this truck would be taking our luggage to the hotel while we rode a bus that leaked due to holes in the roof. Welcome to Russia, I guess.
We checked into our hotel, went to a yummy cafe for lunch, took a 3-hour tour ("Gilligan's Island", anyone?) of the city by bus, ate dinner at a Humphrey Bogart-themed cafe, took the metro to the hotel, and now I'm here typing. The students in the program are so nice, and it's fun to be with people who are also ridiculously nerdy and passionate about Russian studies.
The city is absolutely incredible. I can't believe I'm here, and it's been amazing even just getting to practice my Russian for a few hours today. When we walked to lunch, we passed by the Church on Spilled Blood which, despite its gruesome name, is definitely one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen. St. Petersburg also has pretty much preserved every Soviet structure, so there are lots of remnants of the era all over the city.
Tomorrow we get an actual tour of the Church on Spilled Blood (yesssss), more tours and other really awesome stuff, and then we move in with our host families! Ah! Very excited. Saturday's a free day, Sunday's more awesome stuff, and classes begin on Monday at Smolny College.
It's about 9:45 p.m. here, and it looks like it's mid-afternoon outside. Bedtime.
Hugs from the Old Country,
Даша/Dasha/Dana
"It's about 9:45 p.m. here, and it looks like it's mid-afternoon outside." - So jealous of the White Nights - I can only picture it - you will have to enjoy it extra much for me!
ReplyDeleteMissing you <3 Have fun touring tomorrow, and good luck on getting over jet lag!
Madeline