A City Shaken

The Moscow Metro Bombings that occurred yesterday morning were certainly a shock to us all, but especially to those of us here in Russia. Immediately after we found out, we became concerned about our fellow students in Moscow, and were obviously worried and frustrated at the lack of information we had early that morning.

The bombings took place during rush hour on the Moscow Metro (one of the busiest in the world, carrying over 7 million people a day) at two of the most popular stops. The first was at the Lubyanka station, which is located right under FSB building, the KGB's successor. The second bombing occurred about 45 minutes later at Park Kultury station, near Gorky Park. There were 38 deaths and dozens of injuries. We now know that the two female suicide bombers that committed these acts are presumably rebels from the North Caucasus region, which includes Chechnya. It has been said that this was a retaliation act for the recent killing of separatist leaders in that area by Russian police.

The metro was up and running again that night. There is now tighter 'security', aka Russian police standing armed at metro entrances. I even noticed the police doing the same at the St. Petersburg Metro.


Putin, using his well-known inspirational rhetoric, attempted to instill a sense of Russian nationalism by saying that the bombers "would be scraped from the sewers." This brings up the question of what will happen next in regards to the security of the Russian people--many speculate that Putin will take this opportunity to curtail civil liberties under the pretense of national security, something Putin has been criticized for doing before. No doubt political opposition will be more harshly suppressed as well (as if it wasn't already).

Whatever political action lies ahead, this is still first and foremost a tragedy and my heart goes out to all of those affected by it. Please keep them in your prayers.






President Medvedev

Minnesota Meets St. Petersburg!

Exciting News!

My best friend from Minnesota (Madelyn DePrey for those who don't know) arrived in St. Petersburg TODAY with her acting group from the National Theater Institute in CT. They are studying at the St. Petersburg Academy for about 2 weeks. I got to see her tonight after a confusing phone call with one of the program's Russian contacts (a very serious девушка who means business!) Her hostel is not far from Nevski Prospekt so I found it easily!

It was an EPIC reunion... complete with a Hollywood-style running-towards-eachother-hug. It's great to have a little bit of home here with me! All of her friends are wonderful, talented people-- and future famous actors, I'm sure :)


Stay tuned for more DePug-DePrey adventures, St. Petersburg edition :)

Catherine's Palace- Царское Село

This is long overdue, but...

Last weekend some of us went to Город Пушкина (City of Pushkin) to see Catherine the Great's Palace. Not only did she live there, but it was also a favorite summer residence for other royalty as well.



It is located about 45 minutes south of the city- a really pretty town (Pushkin did something or other there, obviously- he could have sneezed there and they would have built a statue in honor of it).

Anyway, the palace is beautiful-- it has been under construction for quite some time because ZE GERMANS bombed the crap out of it back in World War II. After ZE GERMANS retreated post-Siege of Leningrad, the archivists were able to take some of the original contents from the palace and clean them up/restore them.

Now it is all pretty much restored (Including the famous Amber Room--see below).


It's a huge tourist spot in the summer- not so much now when it's raining/snowing/sleeting/whatever-ing... but, it was still nice and fun to look at.

Enough of my babbling, here are some pics!


Look who was there! Peter AND Catherine the Great! I was shocked. And I got to meet them for only 100 rubles.


Snack room... if you get the munchies.


Catherine the Great had a SWEET panasonic.


.....and some huge hips

Hope all is well back home!

Mass in Petersburg

To not make my dead Catholic relatives completely roll over in their graves, I finally got my lazy butt out of bed early this past Sunday, and went to the English speaking mass at the Catholic church conveniently located on Nevskii Prospekt. Actually, I don't know why I say conveniently-- it's still a 10 minute walk on icy sidewalks, a 30 minute metro ride with transfers, and another 5 minute walk on icy sidewalks away from my apartment. I guess its convenient for everyone else.

Anyway, overall it was a nice mass. I incorrectly assumed that because it was an English-speaking mass, that there would be a lot of Americans there. False-- I was one of maybe three. The whole choir was composed of African immigrants (who were, as I later found out, near-fluent in Russian), the priest was British, the deacon was Austrian, the lector was Irish, and there were also many Hispanics. It was very interesting to see such a diverse community of Catholic, English- speaking people in St. Petersburg.

And I made a new friend there! His name is Engrishia (or something like that) and is from Uganda. He creepily walked with me and my two friends for two blocks after mass, asked for our numbers, and is set on going out with us after next week's mass.

Yikes. Maybe I'll go to the Russian-speaking mass next week.....

Pics!





Also, I went to Catherine's Palace, located in Pushkin city this weekend. I'll update about that later! Hope all is well in the States :)

Correction Please

Ladies and gentlemen... I stand corrected.

The verb "to fart" is actually Пукнуть.

Nastya was tricking me.

Grrr....

Guess I should read a dictionary. Плакать is "to cry". I knew that!


Well, I guess it makes sense. After that fart I WAS crying.

Плакать

Living with a five year-old gives you access to all those words you WANT to know but are too embarrassed to ask about.

I'll explain.

Today, as I was in the living room diligently reading Pushkin (Капитанская дочка, if you were curious), I suddenly smelled something AWFUL. I looked up and saw a guilty look on Nastya's face. Here is the conversation that took place:

Me: Awww, NASTYA!! Ты *farting noise*!! (You.. *farting noise*) - If you couldn't guess by now I didn't know the verb 'to fart'.

Nastya: НЕТ, Я не плакала. ТЫ плакала. (NO, I didn't fart. YOU farted).

Me: (excited to now know the verb "to fart") Hmm..ну...Я плакаю, ты плакаешь, она плакает?? правильно?" (Hmm. well is it I fart, you fart, she farts? -- trying to get the conjugation right)

Nastya: "да." (yes)

Me: Ну... они.. плак..плак... ПЛАКАЮТ.. правильно?? (I couldn't figure out "they fart" form)

Nastya :(annoyed) Маша, Я не твоя мама. я не могу объяснять русский язык. (Masha, I'm not your mom. I can't explain Russian to you.)

Me: Ну, ты плакала. Ew. (Well, you farted. Ew).

She proceeds to run and get the air freshener from the bathroom and sprays it all over the family room. I think some got in my tea. Good thing I didn't finish drinking it.

Babushka was NOT happy.








While Nastya was spraying air freshener, Babushka was yelling, and I was laughing hysterically.

Even if it did smell bad, now I know the verb to fart.

All in all, another hilarious day with Nastya.

Спас на Крови (Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood)

Its about time I got some religion in Russia!

If you've noticed, my blog picture has been a picture of the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. Well today I FINALLY went there, and it was easily one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

Some interesting history: Спас На Крови is the site of the assassination of Tsar Alexander the II. He was riding in his carriage along канал грибоедова (Griboedov Canal) where a grenade was thrown at him by a conspirator. Injured, he got out of the carriage and tried to reconcile with him. While out of the carriage, another conspirator threw a grenade, wounding him significantly. He started bleeding heavily (hence the name) and was taken back to the Winter Palace where he died a few hours later.



Two years after his death, they started building the church. The actual place on the street where the assassination occurred is enclosed within the walls of the church. So they extended the embankment to allow enough room for the actual building.

The inside of this Church is unreal. Upon entry you are overwhelmed with the detail of every inch. There are over 7500 sq feet of mosaics.

After the Russian Revolution it was badly damaged (ooooof course), and it was closed in 1930. After the Siege of Leningrad it was used as a temporary storage facility for dead bodies (awesome) , and then it was used as a potato warehouse. Clearly it's the perfect place for potatoes...


It was re-opened in 1997 after 27 years of restoration. It has never held services- serves solely as a museum/memorial. Also, it was never reconsecrated after the restoration.

Alexander II must have been quite the dude if he had such an awesome church built in honor of his death. I'll know I've made it if I'm assassinated and get an awesome church built in my honor. But that's a little old school.

And of course this awesome religious filled-experience had to be ruined by a creepy man who asked for my phone number and followed me for 3 blocks.


Alas, here are some pictures. I am glad I can share it with you!


The Outside











St. Michael the Archangel... I think...

Heels, Swans, and Class Adventures

Yep, you guessed it! I went to the ballet... Swan Lake. Cliche cultural experience full of fun lessons learned.

First, you'd think in St. Petersburg, city of culture, people would have a set dress code for an event like the ballet. That was most definitely not the case. It ranged from jeans and sneakers to almost-ball gown type dresses. I was glad to have fallen in the middle with a skirt and semi-fancy top. It was the only nice outfit I brought, so thanks, Deb, for forcing me to buy it. Otherwise I would have been in the jeans-and-sneakers category, and that would have been no good. Secondly, ladies and gentleman, I should NEVER be allowed to wear heels. I stupidly wore my 3-inch black pumps... I was going to wear boots and then change into my heels right outside of the building but I was feeling like a champion that day (must have been the Wheaties) so I wanted to tough it out. BAD idea. I honestly do not know how Russian women wear heels like that everyday. They must have feet of steel or have some other heel-wearing secret I don't know about. Either way, Mary walking in heels = disaster. I looked like some sort of deformed animal walking down Nevksi Prospekt.

The swans in the ballet, on the other hand, were not deformed but graceful. Obviously.... Cause they were trained ballerinas. Overall, it was a very well done ballet, and the prima ballerina had back muscles that even Billy Blanks would be envious of.




In other news: Just when I thought Russia has humbled me to the point of no return....I experience a new type of humiliation! In class today, my teacher decided to give us a lesson on how to ask for directions. Instead of just telling us, she gave us each a sheet with 5 places. Once we found each new place we had to ask where the next one was. This, obviously, required us to ask RANDOM PEOPLE on the street where things were. I found the first two alright ( and when I say alright I mean after I asked about 7 people). The last 3, however, were a bit of a challenge. I asked a 20-ish year old where a certain street was, and she immediately told me in English. (Come on lady I need to practice my Russian!) But after I followed her directions I still couldn’t find it. So I asked another woman and she sent me back the way I came. Then an old woman told me she didn’t know, but asked me if I could tell her the time. An old man told me he didn’t know what I was talking about. Three middle aged women couldn't agree with each other on where it was so just left me standing there while they argued. Obviously this started to get annoying because while I am trying to figure out where the heck I am, I also have to watch out for the falling blocks of ice from the tops of buildings and pay attention to the patches of ice on the street at the same time. Anyway, after I ask 3 more people, I finally found the street… and what a lame street it was. I think I asked probably a total of …. 15 people how to get to streets that have no significance. But hey now I know my way around Лиговский Проспект! Despite the uncomfortable nature of the assignment, I was thanking my teacher by the end. Thanks to her, I am now an expert at awkwardly asking for directions.




Anyway, here are some pics from the ballet. Enjoy!





Nose-bleed seats!



With Grace, who still looks fabulous post-food poisoning. (Note :Russia not only humiliates you, it ruins your gastrointestinal tract when you least expect it)





Hope all are doing well, I sure do miss all of you!

And .....Now I Know Why There are So Many Russians in the NHL

Tonight I FINALLY got to experience my first Russian hockey game. It was all kinds of exciting...

But let me backtrack a little bit. Due to my annoying military habit of being 15 minutes early to EVERYTHING (thanks, Dad), I had time to kill before the game and just waited for the group in the metro station. I noticed 1) about 1000 militsia (police) and 2) said militsia stopping a TON of people to ask for their documents. Then I noticed that the people being stopped were all dark-skinned. One of these dark-skinned men simply went up to one of the militsia and handed him his passport without saying anything.

Can you say, "Racial Profiling?" Daily routine here, folks.

Anyway, we get to the game where they take security quite lightly, but would kill you if you brought a drink into the seats. Priority issues here? Yes.

It might be easier to sum up this game with a sort of "Top 10" type of list

1) The crowd had about 10 different types of chants, well songs actually, and they did NOT stop singing for the ENTIRE game.
2) American songs such as "Takin' Care of Business" , "We will Rock You", and "Bad Romance" played between time-outs.
3) Oh, and I can't forget "Y-M-C-A". When that started playing, of course all of us Americans started doing the YMCA dance. Russians really have no idea what the song is because everyone was staring.
4) Russian hockey cheerleaders can't dance. Well, I don't even think American cheerleaders can, but these girls were especially awful. The did a sort of circular motion with their hips and sporadically waved their fur pom-poms whenever they felt like it. Then they literally plopped down on the steps when the music stopped playing.
5) The goalie, Robert Ash, is 'MURRICAN. Every time he stopped the puck we yelled " WE LOVE ASH". Again, the Russians stared. But I'm sure Ash appreciated it. He had an American Flag painted on his helmet= win.
6) The police had an entire section to themselves... where they all sat together with their hands across their chests. You can have fun at hockey games... but not TOO much. Big brother is watching, kids.
7) Before the game, I thought all Russian hockey players would have an Alexander Ovechkin-style of play so I expected a delightfully brutal, quick-moving, violent, on-the-edge-of-your-seat-type of game. Nope:
8)Russian Hockey
9) Is so
10) Slow and sloppy. And high-scoring.

Now I know why the NHL is loaded with insanely good Russian players-they all got bored playing here. Looks like they could use some good ol' fashioned Herb Brooks-style motivation. Oh what the heck: (this is for you, Collin)




Great moments... are born from great opportunity. And that's what you have here, tonight, boys. That's what you've earned here tonight. One game. If we played 'em ten times, they might win nine. But not this game. Not tonight. Tonight, we skate with them. Tonight, we stay with them. And we shut them down because we can! Tonight, WE are the greatest hockey team in the world. You were born to be hockey players. Every one of you. And you were meant to be here tonight. This is your time. Their time is done. It's over. I'm sick and tired of hearing about what a great hockey team the Soviets have. Screw 'em. This is your time. Now go out there and take it!!

Replace "Soviets" with Трактор, the opposing team, and VOILA. Motivation.



But, I shouldn't be so mean. The crowd was really fun to watch! And, St. Petersburg won... Ура, СКА!



ASH!




In Soviet Russia.... police creepily watch you while you watch hockey games.



The Crowd




And not related at all, but just because its funny:

I honestly don't know how she has so much energy....but I might blow up if she puts another dirty spoon in my bed.