Tired and Busy

The last few days have been quite exhausting. At first our nerves were so high from just being here at all, then the we were relieved to be with our group and doing excursions, but it has simply been non-stop ever since we started class and met up with our group. Lynee and I were a little frustrated because we were the only beginners at Смолни (Smolny, our school campus) and are therefore the only students in our class. This also means that we meet fewer times during the week and for less time during the day then our more advanced peers. We didn't have much homework last week because of this and we felt like we were already behind, but now the lack of other beginners has essentially given us a personal tutor and we are progressing at record speeds. We have covered more breadth in language material in 4 classes then I did in 3 years of high school Spanish. Lynee never did verb conjugation (a very very basic aspect of language) in 2 years of high school French... we have been conjugating verbs in both the present and past tense since our second class... pretty nuts really. The amazing thing is that we are actually understanding virtually all of it, and the massive confusion that plagued my high school Spanish classes is not present in these Russian classes. The difficulty we are facing now is that we understand the material, but don't have time to memorize the vocabulary to apply the concepts too. Through the weekend alone we've been to a series of 3 ballets (which were quite amazing), a 3 1/2 hr Opera, a prison, museum, cathedral where the Tsars are entombed, and ample walking about the city. We have barely had time to sleep and only got 6 hr last night, and are trying to squeeze in studying and reading where we can between grabbing something to eat (still usually at McDonald's or now блини (blini... Russian pancake fast food)). We did laundry for the first time too... which was quite and experience, our host "mom" does laundry and just fills a couple drying lines...our comparatively massive amount of laundry filled all the lines, plus everything else we could find to lay stuff on. It will take some creativity to do this in the coming weeks.

Probably because of the business, at least I feel like it is almost going by too fast. We have already been here 11 days, and it feels like 3 months of preparation are just flying past. At least we are seeing and doing a lot. We are still adjusting to the Russian culture. Overall, it seems very rude to our American eyes. We are beginning to understand that they are not being rude, but just that Russians are very curt and to the point. They are very upfront and honest with each other, if you do something wrong or something that slows the checkout line down, or whatever... they have no problem making you know about your error. Unlike American culture, they are not concerned bout stepping on peoples toes, it is considered polite to be honest and clear... but to us it has often felt abrasive and rude. We just have to remember that it is actually our culture and our mindset that is foreign here... Just as a side note, we found it interesting that one of our readings stated that the Russian word for "foreigner" is a derivative of the word for "mute." And we can definitely attest to this, it is extremely challenging, embarrassing, and frustrating that we cannot ask for even the simplest things. We wanted ice cream from McDonald's yesterday: I tried to get Lynee a vanilla cone and got a chocolate Sunday, and asked if they even have milkshakes and was asked in response if I wanted 1 or 2. It has actually been really encouraging to see our language skills increase... albeit very small steps. The first day we could only order exactly what was transliterated into Cyrillic "Биг Мак" = Big Mac (which neither Lynee or I like very much), and we can now order French Fries (which took a week to figure out) and really any sandwich... we're onto desserts at the moment. If we can just memorize/learn what we've already been taught in class I would say we would have "broken" Russian already... we have yet to memorize the vocab though. Lynee has been picking up extremely fast (though she still sounds French when she pronounces everything... but her phonetics improve daily... she can now roll her R's... sometimes). Her ability to memorize better than me has led her to almost outpace me despite 3 months of training at NASA.

That's my piece... here's Lynee:

Hey everyone! This last week was incredible! There is so much history in St. Petersburg, and we have already seen quite a bit of it, along with trying to adjust to the fact that we are now in Russia! As Ryan explained above, each day we improve with our language skills, social skills and cultural knowledge of St. Petersburg. This weekend alone we were able to go to Mariinski Theater to see three beautiful ballets and then last night we went to Mariinski Opera House to see Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. Our professor, Artemi, told us that the Mariinski Theater is second in the world for ballet, second only to the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. Both President Clinton and President Bush have visited the Mariinski Theater a number of times and had the privileged to sit in the Tsar's box for the performance. On Friday while we were watching the Firebird ballet, it really started to hit me that we were sitting in such a historical place where at one time, the Tsar's of Russia would come and join the elite upper class for a night of artistic performances.

We also visited Peter and Paul's Fortress where we were able to visit the tombs of Peter the Great (who founded St. Petersburg) and his second wife, Catherine I who ruled Russia for a period of three years. We then visited the St. Petersburg museum which was full of artifacts from the lives of those who lived long before the city was founded all the way through when Peter the Great began construction to build St. Petersburg. Then we spent some time in the prison learning about the lives of the leaders of the radical group, People's Will. All in all, very long days. We are running on fumes at the moment but looking forward to having tomorrow off (although we plan to explore as much as possibly why we are here, so hopefully tomorrow will bring exploration and rest). пока (bye)!

Getting Busy

We are now starting to move full speed past the phase of carefully taking little doses of the city and only leaving the house for a couple hours at a time. One of the directors of the international programs at St. Petersburg State University told us our first day that they consider their program to be demanding by itself for just the language courses... we are also taking a completely second program on the side with the professor from CU (Artemi). The way the director phrased it: most their students don't want to leave, they cry, they hate to go... Artemi's students are glad to leave... What she means is that we are worked quite hard while we're here... its not a vacation. We are definitely starting to get into this. We have about 100 pages of reading for the history and culture portion of the class due by Friday alone. This is in addition to regular language classes, homework and practicing for the language classes, and of organized excursions. And we are still "travelers" on top of all this. We have to manage to eat when its hard to order or buy groceries because of our limited/non-existent Russian, and do laundry and all the regular duties of normal life combined with traveling (like finding somewhere to use the Internet...not always trivial). This week alone we went to the largest art museum in the world, the Hermitage (rivaled only by the Louvre in the Paris, but the Hermitage still has more art), we are going to 3 ballets on Friday, a river/canal tour Saturday, the Opera Sunday, and have had ample walking around and general exploring all over the city on top of this.

I can't speak for Lynee specifically, but I know I feel wholly inadequate in terms of my historical and art understanding. We have seen some of the most famous painters to live, such as Picasso, 2 of only 14 paintings by Da Vinci, Monet, Raffael, Rembrandt, etc... and I know virtually nothing about these historical figures, or the periods in which they worked: such as pre-Renaissance, post-Renaissance, impressionists, and others. It always seemed boring to me in school... art that is... but once you can actually look at some of the paintings and get an appreciation for what they meant when they were painted and that some of them now may be as much as $150 million a piece, it changes your perspective.

It is almost impossible to understand the history we are surrounded by. Virtually everywhere we go the city is packed with history. From the canals that thousands died to build in the harsh climate for Peter the Great, to the room we stood in yesterday in the Hermitage where Lenin and the Bolsheviks arrested the provisional government. It is difficult to understand the significance of the places we are visiting. This is probably boring and hard to understand without pictures... if you're even still reading at this point, but it has been pretty amazing to experience.

The language course is getting more challenging. We are already working on verb conjugation when we are still struggling with reading Cyrillic... but we must move at a fast pace. Our history readings are quite fascinating, and it gives a lot more depth to our visits. Overall we quite enjoy the food. The pancakes filled with various meat or desert fillings (called blini, a Russian traditional favorite) can be found on virtually every corner. We still eat a lot of McDonalds, but this is more because it is easier to order and they have free wifi.

Ryan and Lynee

Day 5

So... we've been in Petersburg for 5 days now... doesn't really seem like it has been that long, but in the scheme of the trip we've barely begun. We are starting to feel a lot more comfortable with the city and Russian culture and get over our initial culture shock... which is the worst I've experienced in the 5 countries I've been too. I've heard that a more deep culture shock can often hit you after 1 1/2 to 2 weeks after which you really accept your surroundings... we'll see if this happens. We have actually spent a lot of our time just sitting in our room (which is larger then we expected with a double... very hard... bed, 2 comfortable sitting chairs with a small desk and ample closet space) and sleeping a lot. We've had upwards of 12 hours of sleep each night, just adjusting from the jet lag. The light is definitely odd... it looks like 4 in the afternoon with a nice orange sunset for about 3 hours well past 9pm or 10pm... the city is equally busling even at the later hours and could easily... and does... fool you into thinking it is afternoon, not bedtime. We've been eating McDonalds a lot, just because we can muddle through ordering it.... the names are essentially the same, but it is funny to seem them in Cyrillic. We started our Russian classes yesterday, and are the only 2 beginners currently in the school. So we essentially have a personal tutor. This should change over the next week as more student arrive from other programs. We took a bus tour (some of the attached photos) which was the first event with the CU group. They are all nice and we got comfortable with each other pretty quick. One of the students is fluent in Russia which made a huge break from the restaurant difficulties of ordering. The bus tour took us all over the city, which is huge and has history on every corner. We also walked around yesterday, which was the most we've done. We also got cell phones which is really nice because we are not linked with the rest of the group. We took the subway which was crazy. The escalator that descends into the station is indescribably long. Maybe 1000 feet or more... and is the deepest subway in the world. We look forward to doing more Russian as it is slowing increasing the ease of getting around. Well, that's it for now. Paka!

We're in St. Petersburg!

We got to St. Petersburg yesterday, tired but safe. The airport was surprisingly not as stressful as we anticipated. All the of the signs appeared in Russian and English so we were able to located our luggage and driver easily and go through border crossing with out any problems. We then met our host mom, Nailya. Meeting her was a huge relief as she is very kind and accommodating for us. She also speaks some English but it is very basic. However she is really involved and has been showing us around her neighborhood and introducing us to the city. We have had several moments of confusion caused by the language barrier but we hope that it will become less as the weeks go by.

We will meet up with the professor on Monday and begin school which includes an official bus tour of St. Petersburg. We don't know all the plans for next week but we will be going to three ballets this Friday.

Day 1

So far we've made it as far as Chicago (hardly in Russia yet...), but the 3 months of planning are finally behind us and we're on our way. We are busy waiting for our flight to London and Lynee is working on learning to read Cyrillic. We have a balmy 40 degree St. Petersburg to look forward to tomorrow when we finally arrive which we are not completely prepared for in terms of heavier clothing. So the adventure begins!

We will try to update this blog as often as we can to keep friends and family informed on our adventure.