back in the US

Home from Russia...going to take a break from blogging for a bit. I guess I'll write some from Mystic, the maritime studies program I'll be doing next semester. For the next few weeks I'll just be vegetating in Niskayuna, probably not much interesting will be happening.

parked cars

The thing to do in Russia seems to be sitting in your parked car with a friend, beer, cigarette, or any combination. For the first few weeks, I was alarmed and concerned whenever I walked by such parked cars. It seemed a bit like the sitters were lying in wait, about to do something unspeakable. But now I believe that they are just chilling.

I'm really not sure why this is a thing in Russia. Perhaps a parked car is the warmest option in the winter and they just do it year round? Sitting on benches or loitering on street corners are also popular activities, but less surprising to see.

The other thing is that the parked cars are often on the sidewalk. So there have been times when I've moved off the road to avoid the cars pointed at me with their brights only to find myself nose to nose with a car pointed at me with its brights. So I usually try to find a place on the sidewalk that would be difficult for a homicidal car to navigate.

We finished finals and classes today. So now we have all of tomorrow to loiter around the city, pack and etc. before flying off Sunday morning.

Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic

I finally got to the Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic. It was pretty nice...Arctic on the first floor, Antarctic on the second. Everything was in Russian, and while I've built a decent vocabulary in the fields of churches, wars, and old buildings, the polar expedition lingo was beyond me. But it was nice to have a walk around the city by myself. (No one else wanted to see the Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic.) I poked my head into some restaurants, walked by the Dostoevsky House again, through an outdoor market, and along the canal. I think I needed some alone time with the city so that I could move at my own arbitrary pace. A break from running ideas by the group.

I read a while back, I think in Time, that several countries have been bickering over rights to the North Pole as the ice cap melts and trade passages open. Walking around the museum, I started to get a feel for the Russian perspective of this issue. It seems that most of the Russian polar expeditions were during Soviet times and a real source of nationalistic pride. In fact, aside from stuffed polar bears and penguins, perhaps the most notable aspect of the museum was the proliferation of Soviet symbolism and propaganda (not that it can't be found elsewhere in the city). I know that the US claims a stake to the territory, I guess just because we bought Alaska. I just wonder if anyone in the US, politicians or anyone else, actually cares. Not that we should just give the North Pole to Russia. I just wonder if anyone cares. Hopefully whoever gets it doesn't use it as a nuclear testing site.

early Saturday

Found a place last night near home, an outdoor cafe by the waterfront. Featuring a two-man band and some tipsy dancing Russians. I went with the neighbors...by neighbors, I mean, people in our program who live nearby. On the island. It was a perfect solution, because I was feeling antsy and really wanted to get off the island, but no one else really did, and I didn't feel like venturing out by myself. But we found a new place! There's really not that much to do close to home aside from sitting on the beach or in the park, which is fun, but not something I want to fall back on every night. So now we have somewhere cheap to hang out if we want.

I'm up early because I'm going to the synagogue this morning. I'll probably play my fiddle for a while after that and then...I don't have a plan to hang around with anyone in the afternoon, so I think it will be a good point in the trip to visit the Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic. I haven't tried to convince anyone else to go and I think I'd rather not.

My host sister, Наташа Natasha, is back from her trip to Egypt. I'm really hoping she notices that I'm more coherent after ten more days of studying, if, in fact, I am.

Synogogue, cucumbers

I'm eating a cucumber that I think is from the дача dacha. I've been finding cucumbers in the fridge and on the table. If I don't keep up, they accumulate, so I've been eating them at odd hours.

We visited the Grand Choral Synagogue on Tuesday. It was surprisingly light...especially after seeing so many orthodox churches which all share a certain architectural style, necessary to support onion domes, which results in a rather dim setting. After the tour, I found a store that sells kosher food, including kosher meat. This was a great triumph...I bought some beef jerky. Apparently, there's a kosher restaurant nearby which I didn't bump into, but maybe I'll have a chance to go back.

With only a week and a half left, people are starting to get antsy about cramming in as many things as possible before our departure. Actually, I don't know if anyone but myself feels this way, but I assume they do. Anyway, I'm determined to have some sort of activity after school tomorrow...restaurant, bar, or museum. Or even just park sitting somewhere in the city center. It's easy to fall into the trap of walking home after school, doing homework, and then being too tired to leave the island. Takes some effort.

On the way home from the museum, I sat with a few people in a park/square with a statue of Rimsky-Korsokav. He's got quite the beard. It's nice to be in a place where around any corner, there's a good chance of happening upon a statue of a famous composer. Or more likely, Lenin.

Новгород aftermath

Internet is back at home! Hooray! I just returned from our trip to Новгород Novgorod and had some dinner. It was fun and successful trip...not quite so far away as Псков Pskov, so the bus ride was less sweaty, and we are back in time for the evening to function as an evening.

Saturday was spent on a very long tour of the city, which made the rounds to all of the historic monuments and churches. Definitely the highlight for me was a dip in Река Волхов the Volkhov River! A very rapidly flowing river indeed.

This morning, we visited a monastery located fifteen minutes from the city center next to a lake. One of the monks gave us a quick tour of their main church and moved us along to the exit. I really liked it there...though perhaps the flowers die and shrivel after the summer, I'm sure the winter is idyllic in its own dark and frigid way. I guess I don't really have any interest in becoming an Orthodox monk, though, so they'll probably never let me visit for more than a few minutes.

I've been practicing (violin) more lately. A few days after I started playing on the street, I began to look at some new Bach, and now, all of the sudden, I've been practicing regularly. Funny how quickly one can snap back into old habits. Must be like hell to quit something that's chemically addictive.

в Новгород to Novgorod

Tomorrow morning, we will pile on to a bus for our trip to Новгород Novgorod, a very old city south of St. Petersburg. So I won't have internet for the weekend, but that won't be so noticeable as it might have been before.

Yesterday, I went on a run for a couple of miles. I finished at around 10:00, used the bathroom, then realized that I ought to run some more. So I ran to visit three friends on the next island, called Petrograd, and we sat next to a canal and played a Russian card game that we all only sort of know how to play. They only live a few miles away, but it takes a while to walk and requires a metro transfer, so I tend to hang around with my neighbors instead. But running, it only takes 25 minutes. So I think I'll try that again some time.

наталья Natalia, my host mother, is beginning to trust me a bit with the house. I was allowed to help with dishes the other day. And she leaves me home more often now...she's not around very much between trips to the dentist and the дача dacha, summer house. So now, whenever she's gone for a few days, I'm supposed to call her in the evening and say how my day went and confirm that no one robbed the house.

I found myself starting to plan the two weeks that I'll have at home after I get back. Strange to think that we'll be wrapping things up soon. I'm going to try to get some recipes from наталья Natalia to take home and to school.