Read if you dare

Alright, so, it’s been a while since I last made a proper post, so I’m going to have to skim over some stuff pretty quick. The last time I updated was from Soiree on Wednesday. Thursday I don’t think anything really exciting happened. I took some pictures of my apartment and my host-cat, if that’s what you want to call it. Her name is Kesha. I wanted to take some pictures of my host mom but she wouldn’t let me just then because she thought her hair looked bad. So, one of these days I’ll get some pictures of her and show them to everyone. Friday is worth talking about in further detail. School finished up at 1:00 and the plan was to go with Kenny and John to go walk around on the frozen Gulf of Finland. As Kenny and I left school with a few others, we heard someone calling my voice from far away. We looked around and I spotted Ingrid a couple of other unidentifiable people atop one of the towers of Smolniy Cathedral. After yelling back and forth with Ingrid, she told me just to call her, so I gave her a ring and she told us to come on up. We had to by a 20 ruble ticket to go up, but it was worth it. There was an extra charge to take photos, and if only my camera had already been in my jacket it would have been fine, because we had to put our bags in a locker where a security guard was waiting and I wasn’t able to sneak the camera out of my bag and into my pocket, because nobody was there at the top to check for cameras or anything like that. So we started climbing up and after looking up the stairwell it didn’t seem so bad. We got to the top of that one to find a second set of stairs, this time a spiral staircase. Now, mind you, I still had all my warm clothes on, so by this time I was getting pretty overheated from the climb. I thought we’d be home free once we reached the top of those stairs, but no, there was a third set of stairs, this time a metal staircase that wrapped around the outside. We final reached the top, where I kept huffing and puffing and taking of layers to cool down while everyone else thought I was crazy because it was still freezing cold outside. The view was great though. It was pretty clear and you could see to the north, west, and south from where we were. It really showed me how much industry there is around the city, though. Smokestacks everywhere. We could see lots of famous landmarks poking up on the horizon. I really, really wish I had had my camera. From there, the group (at this point Kenny, Ingrid, John, Reed, and myself) decided to head towards the Gulf, but first they wanted to make a stop at the Church on Spilled Blood. Of course, I had already been there a couple times, but I was happy to wait for them before heading to the Gulf. So we got back down and headed for the bus stop. Here’s one of the weird things about the cold: sweat doesn’t evaporate very well. So, in cases like this where I build up a sweat and then go outside, the sweat in my hair doesn’t go away all that quick. Instead, it just freezes in my hair. That’s a pretty weird experience. So I kept taking my hat off and putting it back out as the sweat continuously froze and thawed. It was kind of annoying. So, we caught a marshrutka, actually to Gostiny Dvor where it was only a quick walk to the Church. While they went inside I hung around out front, used a pay toilet, and then discovered the little park right next to the church. I walked through the pathways and took pictures of the trees and of the Russian museum. Here’s another weird thing about the cold: batteries don’t tend to work very well in the cold. I had about 4 different sets of batters that I thought each had enough juice to last a little while, but I had to keep switching batteries over and over because each pair would only last a few shots. That was also kind of annoying. I almost decided to try walking around on the frozen Moika (one of the channels that runs through the city), but only say animal prints out on the ice and figured that might be a bad sign (apparently a lot of people walk around on the canals, but this time didn’t feel right). I finally got a call from Ingrid after about a half hour. She told me they were in a café down the street, so I met up with them there. They had all ordered some food but I had just eaten at school so I wasn’t hungry. We sat around for a while and chatted about this and that and I came to terms with the fact that we wouldn’t be making it out to the Gulf today after all (I have plans to go tomorrow, thought). Before it got too late we all headed back towards Gostiny Dvor to take our respective modes of transportation back to our respective homes. Standing around waiting for the bus got ridiculously cold, so much so that for the first time I asked myself, “why the hell did I choose to come to Russia?” But, the bus soon came and I felt better. I relaxed at home for a little while, had a little dinner, and then met up with Vickie to head back out and meet with some people. A bunch of us had decided to go back to the hookah bar Petra, because it was so great the other day. Bryce, Matt, Tsveti and Katie were already there, and Ingrid, John, Reed, and Abby all showed up later. We had a great time just hanging out, drinking Baltika (Russian beer) and smoking the hookah. I know it sounds like I do that a lot but really, I don’t do it all that often. It’s been more often than usual lately. I had a long conversation about music with Katie and we discovered that we both liked some of the obscure bands I used to be really into in middle school and early high school. Everyone took lots of pictures, which will all probably find their way to the internet via facebook or flickr or whatever. Vickie and I cut out before it was too late to catch a marshrutka home. We got back a little before midnight and I through some things together for the next morning’s trip to Novgorod and hit the hay. My alarm clock went off bright and early the next morning. My host-mom forced herself to get up and make me breakfast (the same old egg-patty with bread and cheese) as per her agreement with CIEE, and even packed me a little sandwich and the biggest juice box I had ever seen. I met Vickie outside at about 7:15 where we waited for the 147 or 7 bus to come and take us to the hotel where we would get on the other bus to Novgorod. For a long time the bus didn’t come, but a marshrutka did and the women who was also waiting on the corner jumped in. We asked her if that marshrutka was going to Kapitanskaya (the street that the hotel is on), and she said yes, so, a but reluctantly, we hopped in. Luckily it took us right where we needed to go. After buying some water and 7UP and the little corner market, we met up with the group, got on the bus and were on our way. We picked up the other half of the group next to the Kazan Cathedral and then headed out of the city. It was fun driving through the outskirts of the city, because I haven’t really gotten a chance to get outside of the city center much. Once we got out of the outskirts I got my first glimpse of rural Russia. It was really nice, actually. Lots of birch forests and open snowy fields with the occasional cluster of rustic old houses in what apparently constitute “towns.” I listened to the Field Mice on my iPod and thought that it fit really well with the scenery, because that music always felt very cold to me (in a good way).We made a pit stop at a gas station where I got out and took some pictures a breathed the fresh air, something that is pretty lacking back in Petersburg. We drove into the Novgorod Oblast and I got really excited about visiting my second region of Russia (two down, only 87 administrative units to go). After about three hours in the bus we made it to Novgorod. For those who don’t know, Novgorod is the oldest city in Russia. It was founded over a thousand years ago as a trading post on the route between Scandinavia and Byzantium. The city has a population of about 230,000, which would be pretty bustling for an American city, but in Russia that isn’t really that big. It certainly felt a lot smaller than that. We got to our hotel and all had to choose roommates. Tom asked if I wanted to be his roommate and that was fine by me (yes, Tom of tominrussia.blogspot.com). Tom’s a good guy, I had no problems with being his roommate. We brought our things to our rooms and then we all met back up for lunch in the restaurant. The whole place was pretty fancy, and the lunch wasn’t bad. We had steak and potatoes with a nice piece of cake for dessert. After lunch it was time to start our tour of the city. We all got back in the bus and were met with our tour guide, an older Russian woman who gave the tour both in Russian and in English. We drove to the other side of the river to a spot where there were two really cool old churches (there are a ton of old churches in Novgorod, so forgive me for not knowing the names of each of them). We got out and walked around one of them as she and a second, Russian-only tour guide explained things to us. The bilingual tour guide kept over-using the term, “it’s quite understandable,” but not in the right context. Usually you would say that when you are trying to express sympathy for someone else, as in, “oh you missed the bus and couldn’t make it on time, that’s quite understandable,” and even then that still kind of sounds weird. But this women kept using it after explaining something, as if she meant, “it’s easy to understand,” which you don’t ever really need to say anyways. So, I kept using, “it’s quite understandable” for the rest of the day after that. We went inside a particularly old church, which had these amazing old frescos painted on the inside that had miraculously survived the Nazi invasion and subsequent take-over of the church itself. There was of course a charge to take pictures here to, but I got a few in before they told us and I don’t think they saw me taking any. Here’s where the tour guide completely lost the group: While talking about the fresco that depicted a scene from hell, she literally told us, “this is what awaits most of you.” I think she meant it in a joking way, but it definitely wasn’t the right thing to say, and she pissed a lot of people off after that. We were herded back onto the bus and taken a short distance to another cluster of churches. We looked at them and took some more pictures while the tour guides talked about them. I forgot to mention that it was even colder in Novgorod than in Petersburg. Nathan, the tour director, estimated that the temperature was probably around –10 Fahrenheit, which is close to –25 Celsius. Then, it got even colder. Well, not really, but it felt colder. You see, we had to walk across this footbridge to get to the city kremlin and eventually back to the hotel, and this footbridge was over the frozen Volkhov River. The wind was blowing down the river channel and on the bridge the wind-chill factor got down to probably about –35 or –40 Celsius. I was the coldest I have ever been standing on that bridge. We finally made it to the other side, entered the kremlin walls (note: “kremlin” in Russian just means “fortress,” so many cities in Russia have their own kremlins, not just Moscow. Just thought I’d clear that up) and made it to the warm sanctuary that is St. Sophia’s Cathedral, one of the oldest buildings in Russia. Inside was unlike any other church I have ever been in. Usually they are all open and wide inside, but this one was all segmented off and much more claustrophobic-feeling. There were quite a few people there performing religious rituals. It was very interesting to watch. I bought a cool little idol at the gift shop for 60 rubles that has a bunch of saints gathered around the cathedral. Kelly bought a copy of the bible in Old Church Slavonic, which is pretty cool, and I contemplated buying one myself but decided not too for several reasons. We headed back outside, checked out a really awesome statue, and headed back to the hotel. We all had some free time before dinner, so Tom and I hung out un our room and watched cool old Soviet cartoons. Those things are really great. I watched some in Russian class back at the U of O before, and they all have really great songs and really cool animation. I need to find a DVD of those, or at least a CD of old soviet children’s songs. Anyway, right around here is where my trip to Novgorod took a turn for the worse. While watching cartoons I started feeling a little queasy, but reluctantly headed down to dinner. Dinner didn’t help. There was a small “salad” of beet, carrot and cabbage shavings, with some cucumbers and tomatoes and some ranch sauce. The main course was even worse: a piece of fish with mushrooms and cheese on top. I could barely stomach it, and by the end of the meal I was feeling pretty lousy. The plan had been to buy some vodka nearby and hang out in the hotel all night with the rest of the group, but once we got back to my room I didn’t feel like doing much of anything. Tom and Rob went out to buy some while I stayed and rested. They came back a little later with a huge bottle of pepper vodka which at the time looked absolutely disgusting to me. About this time was when I first threw up. I made it to the toilet in time while Tom and Rob left the room. After I had finished, they arrived again with Nathan, the program director. I told him what was up and he told me to take it easy for a while and he would come back and check on me a little later. So, Tom and Rob took of for the fourth floor where apparently everybody had a great night partying it up in Katie and Vickie’s room while I stayed in the room trying to sleep but occasionally having to run to the bathroom. At one point Nathan came and brought me a huge jug of water and some charcoal pills that were supposed to absorb the bad contents of my stomach. About five minutes after taking the pills, I through them right back up. I was a little freaked out because this is a lot like what happened to me in the Czech Republic a few years ago, and that time I was really sick for about 4 days afterwards. So, over all my Saturday night was very unpleasant. Eventually Tom came back and he was totally wasted. He climbed into bed and got back up a few minutes later. He was gone for probably about a half hour and I thought maybe he had gone back upstairs or something. I got up to use the bathroom again and found him sleeping with his arms crossed over the toilet and his head resting on them. I kept telling him, “I have to use the toilet, you have to move,” and, “If I help you can you get up?,” and he kept saying “yeah” and then not really moving. It wasn’t until I felt the urge to vomit again that the urgency in my voice was finally enough to make him move, and he got up just in time for me to make it to the toilet. All I had left inside of me was all the water I had been drinking, which of course was tinted black by the charcoal left over in my stomach. Yeah, not pleasant. While I sat there vomiting. Tom just stood there repeating, “ah, shit dude.” So, we both went to sleep feeling pretty crummy, and the situation was the same in the morning. I didn’t feel sick to my stomach anymore, but I still felt really weak and achy. Tom apparently was really weak as well and said his heart was beating really fast. We both skipped out on breakfast and the day’s excursion and stayed in our room and slept. Nathan brought us some bread, cheese, lunch meat and hard-boiled eggs, and I managed to eat a little bit. I was bummed about missing the excursion, but I was in no condition to attend. I also missed out on the, apparently, amazing lunch that everyone was treated to as well. Tom was feeling better enough to meet them for lunch, but I was still too weak. Plus, a trek through the freezing cold did not sound appealing at all at that point. Tom had only had a really bad hangover, so he recovered pretty quickly. Once he got back from the restaurant he informed me that it was time to go, and that the bus would be picking us up shortly. I got all my stuff together and made it down to the lobby, and by this point I was definitely starting to feel better. Another member of the group, Colleen, had also been sick with the same thing the night before, and she was still feeling pretty bad. The bus ride home was rather uneventful. I listened to music and just looked out the window again. When I got home I tried explaining to my host-mom what had happened, and she understood but didn’t seem all that concerned. I managed to eat a little bit of dinner, did a little homework and went to bed. Man, this is so long, but I really should talk about today. Sorry to whomever may still be reading this. If you are then thank you. I feel honored that anyone would be interested enough to read this much. Anyway, today was pretty good. I got my test back in Grammar class and got a pretty good grade on it. Phonetics was pretty fun too. I went to the computer lab and posted a bunch of pictures to flickr. After school, I decided to do something that I hadn’t really even considered until earlier today. Let me explain: The students on our program had the option of participating in an “internship,” which basically meant an activity outside of classes that could potentially be done for credit, but not really. Basically, we all had the option of helping to teach English to Russian students through the University. I didn’t really give it much thought until earlier today, because today was the day for those who were interested in this to meet with the extracurricular activities director Irina Borisovna and go set it up. After hearing the other people talking about it, it seemed like it could be a really good thing to do. It’s a great way to meet Russians, and also a good way to improve on our language skills because the Russians we teach could in-turn help us out. So, those interested met with Irina today after school next to the McDonalds near Vassileostravskaya. We then walked to the main campus of St. Petersburg State University and were given a quick tour of the facilities. This is where Pavlov did his famous experiments with the dog. We saw this really long, book-lined hallway that has apparently appeared in many Russian films. We were then taken to a classroom where the director of the foreign language program met with us and told us what our options were. Basically, all we would be doing is helping out with conversation and communication in English classes that are already being taught be trained professionals. They like to bring in native speakers to give the students a chance to really try out their language skills. We can come in and help really as often and as much as we want, with the option of teaching different age and skill levels. We all wrote down our information preferences and they are going to contact us to let us know when and where we can help out. After we got the run-down, we were informed that we could even sit in on a class right then and there to see what it was like. They took me and a few others to a class for older students (20s to 30s) where we were each paired up with one or two members of the class to speak with. Their teacher told them to ask us questions, because later she was going to make them give a small report on each of us. I was paired with a 31 year-old computer programmer named Sergei who was learning English for his job. He was very nice and we had a good conversation about all kinds of topics. He told me he only likes to drink Czech beer and I told him about being in the Czech Republic and the Pilsner-Urquell brewery. Eventually a girl named Kate (probably Katya in Russian) joined us but remained very quiet the whole time. I had a great time talking with them. I offered to exchange phone numbers with Sergei just to be nice, but I don’t think either of us will ever call each other. Other people exchanged numbers too. After the class I got to meet some of the other students that had been talking with other people from my group. They were younger and more eager to talk with us and it sounds like they want to hang out with us sometime. There were these two girls named Larisa and Misha (I could be wrong about both of those though) who were very friendly and very impressed that we were learning Russian. They exchanged numbers with some of the girls from our group, so hopefully we’ll get a chance to see them again. I think Abby, Tsveti, and Matt each got asked back to that class specifically, while the rest of us will wait and see where else we might be able to be placed. I am really happy that I decided to do this. I think it will be very rewarding in the long run, and a lot of fun in the meantime as well. I’m looking forward to meeting more Russians and learning more about the language, culture, and city from them. So, I am pretty excited about all of that. The other great thing about this campus is that bus 147 (the miracle bus route) stops right at the front door of the building we were in, so we hopped on and got home lickity-split. I had some dinner, did some homework, and then started writing this post, and now here I am, all caught up. Man! I can’t believe how long this is. It should have been about three or four separate posts. That’s what happens when I don’t update every other day or so. I can’t help but elaborate on every little thing and the post just keeps getting longer and longer. Well, that’s it for now. Until next time (for both our sakes, hopefully not too long from now).