Day 15 ~ St. Isacc's Cathedral and The Hermitage

17. July

The group had to meet at 10 at the corner to get ready for more walking and sigh seeing. After sleeping in until the last possible moment a bunch of us went to McDonalds for breakfast. The menu has many different things on the menu than in America, but it’s funny when they transliterated American breakfast items into Russian. I can’t even remember what my food was called, but it was the closest equivalent to a Mcmuffin I guess, but the meat tasted like a veggie burger. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was. Haha, again, I just found the cheapest thing and ordered. It wasn’t terrible. ]

From here we got a tour of St. Isaac’s Cathedral. St. Isaac was the patron Saint of Peter the Great therefore a opportunity to build a church in his honor! The Cathedral was beautiful. I had never seen a church look the way this one did. The pictures don’t do it enough justice, I had to take a video inside to capture what it looked like fully. There was a lot of gold, mosaics, icons and chandeliers as well as huge bronze doors with sculptures coming out of it. The doors are so large that they’ve only been opened once or twice, amazing to look at, not very useable. You can walk up the outside of the church and get an arial view. I didn’t go but Doug borrowed my camera and took pictures. Apparently to get up it’s a trek many many narrow windy stairs that make you feel dizzy after going in circles for a while.
Of course we saw some more newlyweds in our travels. From here it was onto the Hermitage, pronounced “ermitage” by some. This is a museum of Art basically, and its one of the biggest galleries of art in the world. It is located in the Winter Palace.

Basically, this place was breathtaking. There is soo much art and things to look at that if you spent one minute looking at everything it would take you three years. Yes, three years, 24 hours a day. That’s how much stuff is in this place.
Furthermore, each room has different architecture and designs so I spent most of my time focusing on that than individual things. Again, it would be better for you all to spend time looking at the picutures of the Hermitage than for me to explain how grand it was. I don’t really know what to say other than it really is phenomenal. Lots of gold and more chandeliers.

The most awesome thing about the Hermitage in my opinion was being able to see the real artwork of very famous artists. But, not only just that, getting so close to it you could touch it, and being allowed to take pictures. You had to pay to take pictures, but it’s soo worth it. I know in the United States this would not be allowed.

Please look here for the Official Website: The State Hermitage Museum

Here if you search the artists that have works here, and also have a virtual tour. If you look at the Collection Highlights page, it will tell you lots too. Soo much in this place, I can't even remember everything.

Wikipedia : The Hermitage

Hermitage: Works Owned by the Hermitage

Anyways, I saw works of art by the following:
Leonardo da Vinci : The Madonna with a Flower (The Benois Madonna), The Madonna and Child (Madonna Litta)
Michelangelo: The Crouching Boy
Rembrandt: Danae and Flora (as well as many others, there was a whole huge room full of his paintings.

Monet: Haystack at Giverny, Lady in the Garden, Meadows at Giverny, Poppy Field (there was a whole area of Monet’s, I didn’t get pictures of all of them but I know there were more there ..?? )

Renoir: Portrait of the Actress Jeanne Samary .. and more.

Van Gogh: Memory of the Garden at Etten (Ladies of Arles) and Arena at Arles (there was also a whole section of Van Gogh but my camera died so I wasn’t able to get photos of them).

And so much more, but those were some that I got pictures of!

Other artists that I saw after my camera included a bunch of Picasso photos. Michelle got pictures of these, so I will get copies of hers someday.

This is also a good site: At the Hermitage

Overall it was soo neat to see the original works and everything. Michelle was freaking out a bit because art is her thing, she’s an art major at Brockport, and I was very excited just to say oh hey yeah I saw some Van Gogh and da Vinci. Plus, I was excited because my mom is also an artists, so mom I thought of you a lot as I was here. I think you really would have enjoyed seeing this place!

After seeing the Hermitage, Liza recommended that we eat at this pie place as she called it.

It turned out to be my favorite returant that I’ve been to in Russia so far. Funny thing, it’s a german restaurant and they make these “pies”. Well, I can’t really describe how they looked, I wouldn’t call them pies, but they were great. Picture says more than I can. However, these pies are filled with all sorts of things from meat to mushrooms to fruit. I tried one filled with rabbit and mushrooms. Yes, rabbit. I’ve never had a rabbit, reminded me of chicken but it was sweet in a way. The mushrooms were amazing, the best mushrooms I’ve had in my life, not kidding.
On that note, the mushrooms in Russia are the best, better than home! Apparently Russia had mushroom fields and many people go mushroom picking. I don’t even know what kind of mushrooms I ate but for someone who loves mushrooms, I was in heaven. So much better than the small ones we buy in a can at home. I think the Russians would find American canned mushrooms a joke.

I also tried a bit of pie with cabbage, amazing! Definitely have to come here again, and I am sad that Novgorod doesn’t have this pie place. I marked its location on my map so if I ever return to St. Petersburg I will go there again. If only I could get recipes!

Following the pie place we went to a small square where venders were selling souvineers. I bought a Russian winter hat. It’s all white and made of real leather and fox fur. I shouldn’t say how much I paid, much less than most places would charge, (Liza helped me bargain and lower the price 30 percent). Basically, it’s a really cute hat, and my goal was to find myself a real Russian winter hat while here, so I am very pleased.

When we got home Masha and I were exhausted so we took a nice nap for at least 2 hours and found out most everyone had eaten dinner already so she and I went to some 24 restaurant across the street. It was a Georgian restaurant, so there wasn’t much Russian cuisine on the menu. I got a turkey shish kabob thing and some rice and salad with eggplant. It wasn’t bad for a 24 hour place.

After eating Masha and I decided we didn’t want to sit indoors all night so we took a walk around the city. The sun was slowly going down and there were gorgeous clouds on the horizon. Again, the city looked so beautiful with all it’s lights. We spent the time walking through some park and then along the river. Fireworks were going off and they were so neat to watch high above the river in such a great city. I don’t know what was going on today, but there was some type of celebration. The anniversary of the death of Alexander (which one, I don’t know, but some royalty).
I really am in love with the beauty of this city; it’s the most beautiful city I’ve ever been too! In the Winter Palace square there were hundreds of bike riders and rollerbladders. I don’t know what they were doing, it looked like a convention. Haha, anyways, they eventually all took off and rode around the city I imagine. Along with that Michelle and I saw a bunch of drunk guys on one of the boats in the canal. Whatever they were singing I don’t know, but they were quite comical. I recorded their performance.

Additionally, there is always someone performing something in the square in front of the palace, it’s quite the opportune place for performing.

Side note, the videos that I’ve taken in the city I cannot post online while in Russia because they literally take hours to upload so you’ll have to wait until I get home.

After a long walk around the city Masha and I returned and hung out a little bit with everyone upstairs and then we all went to bed around 2am.

The next day was a full day filled with two tours of some more palaces and a Russian ballet performance of Swan lake!
Love,
Sasha.


Picture Links:

Day 15 ~ St. Petersburg: St. Issac's and The Hermitage


There are two more albums I am working on uploading from this day... coming soon!

Day 14 ~ St. Petersburg Arrival

16. July ~ St. Petersburg Day 1

I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful this city is. The architecture is just so amazing. But, let’s rewind a bit. The city is about two and a half hours from Novgorod. I forget that this is where we flew into. The airport is about 10-15 minutes from where we stayed.

The group met at the bus stop and got into our van and there were other people on it, and we arrive and I bet these people were thinking, oh great a whole bunch of Americans. Anyways, the ride was pretty uneventful. However, I still love driving through the countryside. So beautiful, with dachas here and there.

Driving into the city was interesting, the road turns into this multilane highway with ramps and such much like in American cities. I saw a ford dealership and about three McDonalds before we got off at our stop! Makes me feel more at home, just kidding, but it was nice to see something recognizable.

So our bus stops right near the metro, in front of this huge building that has fountains and a statue of Lenin. We get out, and walk to the metro. I found out later that the metro in St. Petersburg is the deepest in the world, at 90 meters. It runs below the canals and waterways of the city. The metro was a bit of a whirlwind, having never been in one before and trying to keep up with Liza, figuring out where we’re going, meanwhile keeping in mind that gypsies could at any moment come out from anywhere and try to pickpocket you! I locked up my book bag and had all my important documents under my sweatshirt, and my money clipped to my belt and then tucked on the inside of my pants. Haha, there was no way anyone could have really stolen anything from me unless they knocked me out first. However, there were no gypsies to be seen so that was good, apparently they’ve been kicked out of the city in the past few years. Apparently they used to be a big problem about 5 years ago.
So, after a long metro ride we get back up onto the road and walked about 10 minutes to our hostel. Our hostel/hotel was located on 16 Nevsky Prospekt (Prospekt means avenue). It’s a main road and about three minutes of walking away from the winter palace.

We check in, drop off our stuff and get a bite to eat at this fast food Blini place across the street. Ordering food out is really difficult, only because of pronunciation, and not knowing what it says. So, I picked the cheapest thing and hoped for the best. It ended up being blini with syrup. Haha, it wasn’t bad, but I knew I would still be hungry. I also tried some blini with salmon and then kashi, which is like porridge. I loved both of course.

While at this place we ended up sitting next to this lady and her son who spoke English. Come to find out they had been traveling around Europe and were spending 6 days in St. Petersburg. They were from Greebay, and the son goes to Mercyhurst College and has taken three semester of Russian. Of course we would find fellow Americans right away!

After chatting with them and eating we all head out for our walking tour, a three hour walking tour. I most likely walked 5 hours when all was said and done.
St. Petersburg has many canals running through it as well as the Neva, Big Neva, and Small Neva Big Nevka and Small Nevka rivers which basically split the city into five plus islands. These rivers eventually run into the Baltic sea. The city was founded by Peter the great, and was used as a major trade center. It was and could still be the major city for shipping and contains many shipyards.

There are over 500 bridges and the main bridges that cross the Neva go up at 2 am so that large boats can pass. It’s a good thing to remember so you don’t get stuck on an island overnight.

When the city was founded Peter the great wanted it to have European style architecture because he said it had to be more European. Therefore the city doesn’t feel Russian at all in its architecture. The cathedrals throughout the city are the only Russia looking buildings. It was very strange to be in this big city and feel that you aren’t really in Russia anymore.

Perhaps this is why I love the city soo much because much of its feel reminds me of when I traveled in Europe, and I love Europe!

So, our walking tour started with the Winter palace, crossing one bridge and then touring St. Peter and Paul Fortress. Storm clouds were coming so we quickly went back over another bridge and found a place near our hotel to eat.

Go here for info on the Winter Palace: Winter Palace
Peter and Paul Fortress

Oh, on our tour, we saw many newlyweds getting their pictures taken, after leaving St. Petersburg I think the count was 23 witnessed newlyweds since arriving in Russia. Apparently it’s Russian tradition that after you get married you go and have your picture taken at the nicest place in the town, preferably by a well known statue, monument, or building. We ended up running into a couple having their first dance by the river, it was really neat to watch and you feel like you’re indirectly taking part in their special day. I first thought it would be neat to be married in this city, but we saw about 20 couples in four days.. not as neat since soo many people come here. There were times where you’d see more than one couple and relatives on the same street only feet from each other. It’s quite comical. One bride seemed kind of jealous of the other couple when her husband didn’t carry her over the bridge they were near so they could take pictures.

The restaurant was some Russian place pronounced Yolki Palki. I felt like I was in a forest in some fairy tale. The restaurant had a tree in it (not real) and just very folk looking decorations. I was neat, and the food was good. However, when the whole group of us came in, two Russian couples got up and left. Haha, opps. I guess a whole group of Americans is intimidating, or disruptive.

For dinner I had fish soup. It was really good! However, we had to wait a while, and again ordering in Russian is fun only because pronunciation of new words is tricky! We basically try to say the word and end up pointing to it. I haven’t had much fish or soup at home for dinner so I thought I would try it.

The checks are never split, and it always takes more time to figure it out then to eat the food itself. All was figured out and we went back for the night to our hotel.

Masha and I had our room on the 4th floor and everyone else was above us in this apartment looking room that had a kitchen and living/ dining area and then four rooms with beds. Masha and I were up on the 4th floor hanging out until about 3am. It was neat, the sun was coming up again when we went to bed. It had been pouring much of the night, it was nice and cool and I personally love the sound of rainfall so it was nice. Most of the group just spent the night talking and drinking (expect myself, Adrian, and Doug). At 2am a few people went for a beer run and I went along just to see the city at night.

I really think that many cities are more beautiful at night when they are all lit up! The city was pretty quiet; the liquor store was just around the corner and down a side street. All in all it was a fun night. Colin is hilarious and there is never a dull moment when he is around, I spent most of the time listening to everyone.
It was a good night. PS – I did not bring the computer on this trip so I had to wait to get back home to Novgorod to write this. Additionally, I’ve taken a ridiculous amount of pictures, so it’s going to take a while to upload them all, so I will post a few here and there in these posts to hold you over until I slowly get them up. Limited access to internet and many pictures leads to not the best opportunity for a mass upload of photos. Sit tight, they’ll be up!
Love,
Sasha.


Photo Link : Russia Day 14 ~ St. Petersburg: The Beginings

Photo Link: Russia Day 14 ~ St. Petersburg: Day one continued

Day 11, Day 12, Day 13 ~

Day 11 ~ 13. July ~ Monday ~ First Day of History Class

Before I continue let me call your attention here:
Photo Link: Russia ~ Day 9 ~ Staraya Russa Continued

It’s been soo humid here the past couple of days. It downpoured but it’s still really humid. I feel all gross and sticky; I actually kind of miss air conditioning.
So anyways, today was good. School is going better, I studied a lot, and understand the uses for all of the cases better, although, I still have to memorize a lot of endings and have a long ways to do with just learning new things daily. Being able to have a better understanding is better.

We’re done with art, and I finally got to take my plate and spatula things home. They were lacquered and look all shiny, it’s awesome. I showed Olga and she loved them! They turned out really neat. I am going to miss art class.

We now have Russian history class after art. I don’t really like history overall, but it’s so interesting to me. The fact that it’s being taught from the Russian perspective is interesting in itself. I feel that having at least a small amount of Russian history will be beneficial. Our teacher is named Stac (Stanislov is actual name), and he runs a lot of the logistics of the program and deals with our internships, so he’s more than just our history teacher.

He started off the lesson by telling us about the geography and environment of Russia that have influenced it’s large history. Many of the new information I had never learned before or even thought of, even though it made common sense, it’s just nothing I ever considered thinking about. For instance, Russia does not have any natural borders, and therefore has always had to have a strong army and defense. The US has the ocean on both sides, and two neighbors, Russia has 18 countries that surround its borders and has always been at risk of invasion because it’s a flat and huge land. It doesn’t have mountains, channels, seas, or anything like that to separate it from other countries like in Europe. What it does have though is its cold climate, so we all know how helpful that is for the Russian army from past history. Many enemies have attributed defeat to the cold.

The climate of Russia allows for only 100 days of agriculture and farming so that’s another thing I never thought of. Russia has many natural resources, including 10% oil, 30% gas, and on that note it supplies a 1/3 of west Europe’s gas.
Stac believes that at least for the next ten to twenty years the future of world politics will be decided by natural resources, (Oil and gas.. ). He said the American Economic crisis is bad for Russia because it’s not profitable because we are not buying gas and other natural resources.

Stac posed a really good question: What is the real value of economy? Is it having lots of money and a lot of zero’s after a number on a piece of paper, or is it natural resources or goods, a factory or modern transport for instance. Stac believed that the real value of the economy is natural resources. You may not be living as lavishly, or as richly as Americans or other countries that are wealthier than Russia, but at least Russia has natural resources.

All of these topics I never really spend time thinking about, and have not a lot of background knowledge about either, but it was really interesting to think about. It’s also interesting to hear it from a Russian citizen’s perspective. Stac has been to America three times, and overall spent about 3 months there. He speaks English very well. He loves to read American mystery novels and watch American Television shows like House MD. I think that the class will be really interesting!

After school Steve, Doug and I went to the university to check email, I forgot my plug adapter so I didn’t upload any pictures because my battery only lasts for about 30 minutes. I have a lot to upload. By the time I update this blog (when you read this) all of my pictures should hopefully be up to date. I plan on having everything all set before Thursday. Thursday through Sunday we are all going to St. Petersburg. I am super excited! It’s nice we only have three days of school. =P

Anyways from there we decided to go to the Pizza place. We all like that place because we can actually order and pay pretty confidently and it’s just a relaxed atmosphere. I got a expresso and then ordered something random off the menu not knowing what it was. It turned out to be a small salald, it was good.

Steve Doug and I were there for about 45 minutes just talking and eating. On our way, we walked from the University, it was about a 15 minute walk, but it took longer because we were accompanied by a drunken Russian man looking for money. He randomly appeared and Steve made the mistake of acknowledging his existence. He had cigarettes in one hand and you could smell the alcohol on his breath. He was asking us where we were from, and said other stuff. Steve tried to keep telling him we didn’t understand Russian. He kept following us, and I decided to just be on the other side of the sidewalk and up a little ways from the guys just to keep my distance from him. It was awkward and rather uncomfortable. I was worried that as he was talking to us someone else might try to be going in our bags, but none of the sort happened. Steve was trying to really get rid of the guy and suggested we go to the Adidas store. We go in and I tell Doug, I bet he will just wait for us, well that’s exactly what he did. We were all like oh man, common! Eventually when he asked us where we were going from there Doug pointed in a random direction and the guy finally actually went the way Doug pointed!

Steve said that when we came out of the Adidas store the guy had American money in his hand, and made motions with his fingers like shooting up into his arm with a needle. We weren’t sure if he was trying to get money from us, or drugs, or trying to get us to buy drugs or whatever, but it was an interesting experience none the less.
Thankfully he was just really annoying and didn’t actually do us any harm. Getting harassed by a drunk Russian guy certainly is interesting.
So that’s been my day. I had dinner with Olga, its nice to have her, Beesha and Shira back. She spent the weekend at her Dacha which is about 150 km away, about 2 hours. She came home with buckets and bags full of produce and fruit. For dinner we had more stuffed cabbage, which is good, but there was a spice in it that I didn’t particularly like, I can’t remember the name.

Some random thing about Russia, there are 24 hour flower shops all over, and at a lot of the bus stops there are mini market things, you can buy alcohol and all types of random things. This includes nail polish and hair products to playing cards, small toys, magazines, small purses and wallets, and even snacks. Some of them have ATMs also. I would never purchase anything from them, but still, it’s interesting. Personally, I don’t know what occasion would warrant having to buy flowers in the middle of the night so the idea of a 24 hour flower shop seems kind of silly.

Hope all is well; I must go do homework now!

Love,
Sasha.


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Day 12 ~ 14. July ~ Tuesday

The day started off as usual, Olga made eggs with dill for breakfast, off to school. I usually leave for school by 8 and arrive by 8:40 after taking the bus and walking a short distance.

Language class is well, class. We all got the sense today that the teacher was getting frustrated with us. My problem is that she asks most of her questions in Russian and the setup of the class is just so different from Brockport. Half the time I am just trying to process her question and try to understand it if it has new vocabulary. Then it’s like ok which case do I need to answer this, which endings! It’s a lot, and when you sit there thinking, the teacher interprets it as if you don’t have any idea. *sigh*

Half the time I am like what did she say!? Plus, I am not that good at pronouncing words I don’t know, so all in all it’s a rough time. It’s a good thing that Liza determines the final letter grade and that other things are going into our overall grade.

I give credit to the teacher for having the patience she does have. I understand why she would get frustrated; I would be frustrated about us too. Oh wait, yeah, I am. Russian is one of the hardest languages to learn I hear and now I can see why!
Anyways, lunch is the time when most of the class talks about how the class went, we usually are venting our frustrations or whatever. Today for lunch Olga made me a potato like salad with egg and meat cut up in it. It was amazing. Everyone always sees what I get from Olga for lunch, it’s usually really good stuff and a lot of it too. Everyone else is eating there slices of bread and cheese and here I am with my salads, and huge sandwiches, vegetables, an apple or chocolates and orange juice. Doug was joking that I should ask her to make me more because I like it so much and then sell it to people in the class. Masha commented she should pay me for my lunches. Haha, doing that maybe I could come back having earned some money.
Oh well, history class is very interesting, however listening to the teacher lecture for two hours is tiring! For some reason I’ve always had trouble not falling asleep in lectures, unless it was Anatomy, Russian, or a science/nursing class.
Today we were talking about the formation of the Russian state as told in the Russian Chronicles. This included information about the first Russian princes, Riurik, Oleg, Igor, Olga, Swiatoslav, Vladimir, and Jaroslav. Olga was the first Christian ruler of Russia after her husband Igor was murdered. Other interesting facts, the name Russia comes from the word “Rus” (or maybe “Russ”), either way pronounced as, ros, as in the word roster. However, no one knows the origins of the word Rus. Russia was baptized by Vladamir and adopted Christianity. The first Russian written law was established by Jaroslav (pronounced Yaroslav I believe).
I usually don’t prefer history but this is very interesting and I actually enjoy learning about it!

After class the group all went and weaved birchbark baskets. It takes about 2-3 hours to make a small basket, although I think we were only there two and a half hours. Professionals would obviously take less time to make a basket of the same size. At first I didn’t think it would take that long, but it’s a very tedious job. The beginnings of making it are a lot harder; once you get the bottom, corners, and sides set up it’s not as difficult from there. I would try to explain how I did it, but it’s too difficult. But, I do remember that we had to put vegetable oil on the birchbark so it would bend and be easier to use. We used twelve pieces and made a 6 by 6 basket.

Overall it was really fun, and relaxing. Our teacher’s name was Vladimir and he is Matt’s host father. He has been weaving for 26 years. He had previously spent a year traveling all over America, the east and west coast and other places also teaching students in our country how to make these baskets. He has written a book about it that you can purchase on Amazon and he said next spring he is going back to America to teach more.

Around Vladimir’s studio he had baskets and other things he’s made of all different sizes including shoes and animals. I certainly wish I was this crafty in something; it’s neat to see the many different things people can make.
The place where the studio was located had a Church and other buildings around it that were really pretty. I was in a part of the city I had never walked in before, but it certainly was nice. The feel of all the nature in Novgorod is so apparent as you walk around the city, it truly is so beautiful!
When I got home Olga and I had dinner. She left to go get a manicure, which I thought was interesting. She doesn’t look like someone who would get a manicure, although a Russian manicure may be different than in America? When she returns I will have to see.

I don’t know if I mentioned it or not but the women in Russia are always nicely dressed. Most of them are wearing some sort of high heels. I don’t understand how they can walk around in the city with them. Some of the streets are so dirty and warn and the buses aren’t in the newest shape. It is certainly interesting. Even just to go to the store women are dressed up, including makeup and hair and jewelry. The men aren’t as dressed up; they wear casual pants, sometimes dress pants, but also jeans and shorts. It’s interesting. Clothes here are ridiculous in price! I wonder what Russians would think of American clothes, other than their being cheap.
It was cooler today but now that its night it seems to be more humid again! Tomorrow we are going on another trip to some type of museum. It should be interesting.
I am getting excited for St. Petersburg, yay!
Much Love,
Sasha

Photo Link: Russia ~ Day 10, 11, 12 ~ Food and Birchbark Weaving
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Day 13 ~ 15. July ~ Wednesday

Today was a most interesting day! For breakfast I had pasta with eggs, looks different that you’d expect, but it was pretty good. School was good and during history class we all went to the local Art Museum near the Kremlin. The museum had a lot of works by local artists as well as other things pertaining to the history of Novgorod, and Russia in general. It was a nice place, lots of really pretty paintings. I can’t remember all the details of the artwork we saw, there was too much!

After school Masha, Doug, Steve, Adrian and I decided to go to a coffee shop that was right down the street from the museum. Doug suggested it so we decided to give it a try, something to pass the time. The place was called Coffee Land, and their slogan was “Tea and Life”. The style of the shop was very European, and Michael Jackson was playing on the radio, I guess Russia is still mourning. The waitresses gave us English and Russian menus. Looking through it, we came across a breakfast item called, “Big English Breakfast”. It consisted of omelet with roast bacon, sausages, field mushrooms, as well as toast. It was amusing to see what is considered an English breakfast.

First we started off getting coffee drinks, I had an orange dream which consisted of Orange Juice, espresso, caramel syrup and ice. I would have never thought to put orange juice with coffee but it tasted very good! With it I got a green cherry (instead of a maraschino cherry) and I thought it tasted prett y bad.
After our coffee we were still hungry and so we asked the waiter for the menu again, laughing at what they thought. Silly Americans. Anyways, another thing on the menu was something entitled “Thawy in the Mouth” .. yes, thawy. It was ice cream wrapped in a hot pancake, basically ice cream with Blini.

So, this Thawy desert arrives and it’s pretty big and delicious looking. It was topped with whipped cream and shaves of chocolate, a mint leaf, and orange glaze with white raisins all around it. It was pretty much the best way to prepare blini in my opinion.

I’ve come to realize that the options of how to prepare Blini are endless, but this was very satisfying! Masha and I shared it, and I ended up eating the mint leaf which was very interesting.

From the coffee place four of us, minus Adrian, went to the bank and then the university to post pictures! As I was coming home and up the stairs I could hear a lot of noise coming from Olga’s house and smell a lot of smoke. I wondered what had burned and when I got in there the house was filled with smoke. The living room and my room were closed and in the kitchen I see Olga cooking. Whatever she had made had turned a little black on the bottoms, nothing actually was on fire.

Meanwhile, the house was filled with guests. Olga’s childhood friend, Ilena, and her daughter, Masha, were here to visit from a town up north near St. Petersburg. The friend’s mother is a neighbor. Later on another friend of Olga’s arrived, Tatiana. For dinner Olga went all out and a big table was set up in the living room. Olga prepared a soup that had five different types of meat in it, as well as a few vegetables. It was delicious. Along with it she made these pita looking things that were filled with meat or cheese and dill. This is what caused the smoke! Anyways, Olga’s food never ceases to please and it certainly was great! I ate too much as usual. The consistency of the pita things is hard to describe but they were very doughy and had lots of oil on them from cooking. The cheese in the one was similar to ricotta cheese in consistency. I should find out the names of the food. For desert we had tea and vanilla ice cream!

When eating the soup I put lemon in it and this stuff that looks like mayonnaise. What the stuff is in English I do not know, but it’s put on many things, and in lots of soups, including borsch.

The tea was too hot to drink so I sat there and would blow on it. Masha spoke a little English and translated that there is a Russian tradition, when the tea is too hot you pour some onto the saucer and drink it from that. It was interesting, I was afraid of spilling it! However, it did cool it down enough to drink. It looks kind of silly, slurping tea from the saucer.

After tea and ice cream (vanilla ice cream also tastes good in tea), Masha and I went into my room to talk. She wanted to help me with my Russian. The first thing she asked me however was, “How do you feel about the death of Michael Jackson?” I was amused that this was the first thing she asked me! I told her I thought it was sad, that he was a great performer. Masha responded by saying that she thought he was killed. Masha went onto tell me about herself. She is 17 and has played violin for the past 6 years and currently plays in a band. She shared some of her bands music with me as well as pictures. We went through some of the music on my computer because Masha was interested in what I liked to listen to. I shared with her what she liked. It was fun. From there she wanted to have tea again, so we went back into the living room. I started working on my homework, and she helped me with my pronunciation. She said that the key to learning is to repeat words over and over and work on pronunciation.

When I wasn’t talking to Masha I spent most of the time listening to the women all get together and speak. Overall it was hard for me to understand what they were saying, however I recognized many words they used. It’s hard putting them together to figure out what’s going on. The women didn’t really ask me too much, I told them my name and where I lived and that was it. I understand that they only get together once or twice a year.

I have come to realize that eating here is an event. Russians spend so much time in the preparation of food its very fascinating, down to the monotonous chopping of vegetables and meats and they are very offended if you do not eat what you’re offered.

Overall it was a nice evening and it was nice to have someone to speak English and Russian with who was around my age! So, since they left I have been packing for St. Petersburg, and did a little reading and writing. The rest of the week will be fun!
That’s all for now!
Love,
Sasha

Photo Link: Russia ~ Day 13 ~ Novgorod Art Museum

St. Petersburg ~ A Short Story

Hello All! So, I've been in St. Petersburg the past four days and it's been amazing. I am a little behind on updating my daily posts, and pictures, plan on getting all caught up with everything that I did before we went to St. Petersburg tomorrow and then onto the info on St. Petersburg.

Until then.. here is a little story of my past four days!

The city is beautiful and very European in style. Peter the Great originally wanted the city to have European style buildings so that explains it. The city is like Russia's NYC.

Another thing, this city doesn't feel like you're in Russia. It is soo much different from Novgorod. After four days I am missing Novgorod. It is very big and i've done enough walking for the rest of my life.

Over the past four days I have done the following : Three hour walking tour of the city, a tour of St. Issac's,a tour of the Hermitage, a tour of Peterhoff and Pushkin, Swan Lake Russian Ballet, and a 1am - 2:30 am boat ride along the canals of St. Petersburg. As well, tours of Cathedral of the Spilled Blood and lot's of sightseeing in the city, walking and eating!

In the Hermitage I saw the originals works of Picasso, Monet, DaVinci, Michaelangelo, Rembrandt, Cezanne, Goya, and a lot more. Mom, I took pictures, I thought of you as I was looking at all the artwork! The Hermitage was beautiful, as were all the palaces and cathedrals I have seen! Lot's to update you on...

It's been amazing and soo fun! I also got to befriend a baby red squirrel, a monkey, and bought myself my very own Russian fur winter hat! It's white with leather and fox fur.

All in all it's been a great trip, and i will leave you with some pictures until I update further about the trip...

I hope you're all doing well! Back to Novgorod for me! :)

Love,
Sasha






My monkey friend, A squirrel that was looking for food, Peterhoff, and the group in front of the Winter Palace!

Day 9 and 10 ~ Staraya Russa and Sunday

12. July ~ Saturday and Sunday

So, its Sunday! I haven’t done much at all today. Olga is still away, her mother comes in and checks on me. She’s nice, and spends a lot of time trying to teach me vocabulary when we are eating. She will point to different things, like body parts and tell me what they are. I know I wont remember much of it unless I look it up again or write it down, which I didn’t at the time, but still it was nice.

Honestly, I got up after sleeping in, then ate some left over’s that Olga had for me with her mom and have just been relaxing listening to some music. We ate dinner, and I had food that I had had before so it wasn’t anything new, but I still liked it a lot. Soon I have to start studying again for tomorrow test. Eek!

Yesterday the group and I went to Staraya Russa, a small town in the Russian countryside, about an hour and a half ride in the countryside. I love the Russian countryside, more than the city personally. I guess that’s the country person in me. It was a very bumpy van ride. I took way too many pictures again, but oh well.
At this place is the home of a famous Russian writer Dostoevsky. He’s in the top of well known Russian writers, above Tolstoy and loved by many in Russia.

Dostoevsky lived for the last 8 years of his life and wrote his masterpiece, Братья Карамазовы (The Brothers Karamazov). It is really a beautiful town and the weather was so nice today. We walked and talked and ate and enjoyed.

Anyways, we got a tour of the only home he owned and a cathedral that is also located in the town. The house and cathedral are located on a small river. It’s beautiful! I loved it soo much. The houses were a different style, I really liked them. Dostoevsky’s house is amazing and built fantastically. I don’t remember how old it is, but I like it a lot. I guess I just like the feel of a very old house on the countryside. I wonder why? Haha.

We also ate at a party house in the city. It was a big place that looked like it hosted a lot of parties and such. I had borsch for the first time, it’s basically made of beets for those who don’t know. I loved it! It smelled amazing, and the color of it is actually really pretty too! We were served borsch first and then some chicken and rice as the second dish and then a small pastry thing with tea for dessert. I still can’t get over how much I loved the borsch and the bread was also really good too. Borsch was different that I expected it to be, I thought it would be thicker and have more in it than beets, perhaps it depends on how it’s made, I don’t know. Either way, I enjoyed it. A Russian who doesn’t like borsch would be a crazy concept.

All in all, yesterday was a really good day, I enjoyed the place a lot. It’s a beautiful small town and the country side is so pretty. There are lots of tall trees, open land and lots of space, small cute houses, and some dacha’s. I also saw some cows too.. there are cows in Russia for those who ask.

When we got back a bunch of people went home, Michelle, Steve and I walked around town, went to the Telecom place to check our emails, then to Baskin Robbins because Steve wanted ice cream. We purchased a quart of Rocky Road and then sat and ate the whole thing, it was a fun experience. We were laughing because all the Russians were in buying little pints of ice cream and here are the Americans with a whole quart. After we went to Michelle’s house and visited Lena. Her house is very pretty. It’s recently been remodeled so it looks fairly new inside. The elevator to the top of the building was kind of scary, it was old and pretty small. Lena’s cat, also named Masha, is adorable. From there the three of us came back to my house and hung out and studied some vocabulary. It was fun.

All In all a pretty busy day yesterday. Today I decided to just relax and chill out. This coming week is going to be a pretty quick one. We have class Monday- Wednesday and then Thursday – Sunday we are going to St. Petersburg. Art class is over, so instead of that we will have Russian history class after language class. Oh how fun, I don’t really like history but I hope it will be interesting anyways. I know for some of the classes we will be taking some trips here and there.
So, I guess now I should go and study some Russian!


Alrighty, talk to you all soon!

Love,
Sasha

Day 9 Album 1 ~ Staraya Russa
(This link is in the previous post too, so if you wonder why the pictures look similar.)


More Pictures to come when I get back from Petersburg.

Day 8 ~

10. July ~ Friday

Finally, no school tomorrow, yay! So, today I spent most of the time not in school walking all around the city in various places.

School was a lot better than the days before. The teacher went over the test with us, most of us did very bad. I learned and understood more today, so there is hope for me! Haha, it’all hard to remember but at least I slowly understand. Monday we’re having a re-test. Hopefully It will go better.

I had a quick breakfast, these weird fried looking things with cheese in one kind and meat in the other. Olga said the meat was kielbasa.

I took the bus to school, but got off two stops before where I usually do. I had gotten on the bus earlier so I had some time to spare. I walked around and I ended up finding an entrance to a park. As I was walking around it, I realized it’s the same park that I walk through to get to school two stops later. I took pictures of course while getting bit with mosquitoes. They are out early, even at 8 am. The park is beautiful, and I love walking through it, it’s one of my favorite parts of the city. There are lots of small parks all around with great big nice trees. It’s just soo beautiful, reminds of woods at home.

After school Michelle, Adrian, Steve and I walked to the Barista hotel, a few steps down and across the street from school. We decided to check it out, Liza says there are cute souvenir shops. So, we go in, and this hotel had everything in it. We saw signs that advertised for a dentist, a spa, a nightclub, pool. It also had a bar and restaurant and lots of nice places to sit. There were a few cute shops. I ended up buying one of those nesting dolls, the ones that you open and there are smaller ones inside! It has a Lion King pattern and that being my favorite movie I purchased it for 375 rubles! I almost bought a Harry Potter one, but I decided not to. Apparently you can find all sorts of people on these things, from the Beatles to Obama.
Steve and Michelle wanted to get something to drink, so we spent time hanging out and getting tea and coffee. That was fun! After we walked more and took a bus to the University for a little while so we could use the internet. Coming home during rush hour on busy buses when you’re walking and standing in the hot sun was not enjoyable, and Steve said he felt like a “wet noodle”.

On a side note, we’ve had some good times hanging out, the stuff people in our group say is hilarious. Last night for instance, we were walking around and I saw a couple by the river having a picnic and I was like look, they’re having a “sandwich party”. Yeah, I don’t know, it was pretty funny. We all say the darnest things.

Olga is going out to the country as she says for the weekend; she left tonight at 6:30 and won’t be back until Sunday night or Monday morning. Apparently she’s with her aunt and mother, I remember hearing that they have another house or something out there, I don’t know exactly.

Hm… so, Olga had dinner ready when I got home around 6 and then she showed me what she’s cooked for me the rest of the weekend and left directions. Right now I am home alone; Olga took Beesha and Shira with her. Dinner was cabbage roll looking things that were stuffed with rice and such. It reminded me of the filling from stuffed peppers, but stuffed cabbage instead. Last night I had told Olga I love apple pie, so she went out and bought some apple pie pastry things, they were nice with tea! Olga is great, I love her!

After dinner I was really tired from walking, my gosh, I should wear a pedometer, I am curious to see how much I really walk each day. I think all together I almost walked 5 hours believe it or not. Masha and I say we’re training for our walking tour of St. Petersburg.

Masha and her host go for “evening stroll” every night, and so I accompanied them. We walked along the river on the trade side (not the Kremlin side), in a direction that we hadn’t before. We ended up coming across a really cool statue of Alexander Nevsky ( I don’t remember why he’s important) and then a beautiful church! In front of the statue however, there were three young guys sitting and the one in the middle was playing guitar and and they were all singing. It seemed like they were in a band together and they were practicing, it sounded nice.

One thing I’ve noticed about the city. People, especially at night and by the river, are always walking, biking, swimming, roller blading, spending time together somehow. You see couples, families, young children, and many pets also! It’s soo nice to see so many families together outside enjoying themselves, It’s a great city! So beautiful, if I lived here I would do the same.

The weather today was really sunny however; my eyes were tearing up from the brightness. Tomorrow is supposed to be very sunny, no rain! It is probably in the 80s!

Ok, back to that Church I mentioned, I think it’s actually my favorite church in the city. It’s not as pretty architecturally or cosmetically speaking as other Churches in Novgorod, but for some reason the location and feel of it I really like. We walked around the Church and then in through a wooded area and wouldn’t you know it was actually the same park that I was walking in this morning! Apparently it’s pretty big and there are many ways to enter it! Again, it’s very beautiful.

From there we passed the hotel and school, and I asked Lena (Masha’s host) if we could walk to the monastery that is at the end of the street. That is also a very beautiful place, and I enjoyed the feeling there too. The trees and everything about it was just so appealing. I love the greenery and all the smells and sounds! I took soo many pictures, 258 today. In 8 days, 985 pictures total. Wow, that just sounds insane, I realize. I understand if you won’t want to sit and look at them all.
Eventually, it was getting late, 10:30! Masha and Lena and I decided we should head back home! So, now that it is 12:15 I should go to bed.

Tomorrow we are going to Staraya Rusa, a place two hours away. Located here is the home of Dostayevksi. This man was a famous Russian artist and painter. We’re getting a tour of his house and eating dinner to. After that I will be going to Masha and Lena’s house for a little bit to study, perhaps go for another walk, and then Masha is staying over at my house since Olga is away. Olga said I could have people spend the night! Fun fun… so it will be a fun filled weekend. I believe the following weekend we will all be in St. Petersburg!

Love,
Sasha


Day 7 ~ Album 2 / Day 8 ~ Album 1

Day 8 ~ Album 2 / Day 9 ~ Album 1 Photos

Day 7 ~

09. July ~ Thursday
7 days! Oh man, that’s insane. I’ve as of the present moment, 727 pictures so far. Ahh, man, yes I know, I have an obsession with taking pictures. I just love capturing things on film, it’s my thing. I can only imagine what it will be like in St. Petersburg, I feel as If I will have a problem. I hope that you all enjoy the pictures none the less.

Today school was awful, that test was just, bad. I get into the test setting and forget endings and mix everything up, it’s terrible. Masha and I are in about the same boat concerning the level of understanding we have. But, after the test our teacher made this really nice chart of endings for male, female, and plural adjectives for all of the six cases. Having the information displayed in this fashion really helped me understand things better, good to see the differences and similarities between cases. So for homework tonight, well personally I am going to work on making more charts. It’s a good place to start.

Art class was soo much fun, tomorrow is our last day, I finished painting most of the plate, we will complete it tomorrow. I am really excited, I think my stuff has turned out pretty good, and for not being very talented with a brush I am pleased.
After classes we went on a tour of Yaraslov’s court. It is located on the trade side of the river (as opposed to the Kremlin side). Since school is on the same side, we walked. Personally, I’ve done the most walking in one week than I have in a very long time. My calves are really starting to ache today. I certainly can use the exercise so it’s not the most terrible thing. I was very tired, and every few steps I would take a picture here and there so Masha, Adrian, and I were basically all behind the rest of the group. Liza was yelling at us to stop taking pictures. Oh well, we’ll have to go back another time and spend a whole day in the city taking pictures. The walk was fun, there were lots of Churches and things to see!
In one church, I don’t remember the name, you’re supposed to pay to take pictures. I snuck in some when the tour person in the Church wasn’t looking, I don’t feel you should have to pay to take your own pictures, come on! I think the tour lady kind of caught on at the end of the tour, so I stopped. The Church’s here are soo amazing, very beautiful. I love walking around and seeing everything, it’s so relaxing.

After our walking tour the group walked around and we ended up back at the Pizza place that we went to a few days ago. When Adrian went to the bathroom Steve jokingly said, quick let’s all run away! Thankfully no one was unaccounted for and all went well.

On my way home I took some pictures of where my house is located, so be sure to check that out! Other than that? Hm.. Oh yeah, Liza cancelled the internship for Francesca and I because we were not supposed to start as early as we did. I was kind of sad, the children will wonder where we are, but it will give me much more free time to do other things and therefore not get home so late and be able to be less tired.

It’s very nice and sunny and hot, although this morning it was cloudy and it rained a lot in the morning, The weather here can change a lot in a day.
Dinner tonight was the most American meal I’ve had so far, chicken and mashed potatoes. It was great! Salad and tea with chocolates after, yay! When we eat or have tea, Olga and I spend the most time talking.

I asked her where she got Beesha and Shira from. Beesha was a gift, his mother was the dog of a friend of Liza’s. Shira was found near the Kremlin when she was very small. Shira was very sick and had to go to the hospital, and after medical attention and medicine she got better and now lives with Olga!

Other than that, Olga always asks me what I did during the day, and I tell her. It’s nice to have conversation even though at times it can be difficult. Most of the time Olga takes a lot of time to make sure to use words I understand, and what I don’t we look up, and vice versa.

For lunch today Olga had made me blini with meat in it. It was kind of like a burrito. I didn’t really like it only because it was cold. Although, the chocolates and apple were very good!

For breakfast I had eggs and sausage, was good as usual, although I was really tired and kinda out of it this morning and wasn’t that hungry. The hospitality of Russians is very apparent, always making sure you have what you want and more.
Well, I must go and work on my homework, tomorrow isn’t a very busy day, just school. There isn’t anything planned, so we’ll see what I get myself into.
Hope all is well and I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Much love,
Sasha

PS - Making my pictures easier to acess, click the link! :)


Day 7 Photos ~ Album 1

Quick Updates!

Hello All,

If you're wondering why I haven't been updating it's because i haven't had a long enough time to upload pictures. I want to upload pictures corresponding with the days I write about, so that's why I wait.

Perhaps tomorrow I will have more time, but we are doing things after school a lot lately and that leaves not a lot of time before I should go home and eat!

A quick update, today I weaved a birch bark basket! It was a lot of fun. Over the weekend I went to Staraya Russa, about an hour and a half in the countryside, it was gorgeous.

Tomorrow we're doing something after school, I don't remember what.

Thursday through Sunday I will be in St. Petersburg! That's the plan.

Talk to you all soon!

PS - Mom, to look at my pictures, take those links/ URLs and copy and paste them into a new browser! If you're still having troubles let me know!

Love,
Sasha!

Day 6 ~ Wednesday

08. July ~ Day 6 ~ Wednesday

Today was tiring. Just now sitting down at 9 after dinner. I made it to school all on my own, bus number 20, 9 stops, a walk through the park and down the street.
School today wasn’t that fun, or shall I say language class wasn’t fun. We’re learning two new cases, instrumental and dative case. Well, we learned it today and yesterday. The grammar and cases were always the hardest thing for me to understand at Brockport, and here is no exception. It’s a condensed course so I guess this much work is to be expected, but usually we have much more time!

Our teacher had a teacher conference somewhere else, so she only stayed for an hour, and left us with 10 exercises with about 8-15 questions in each to hand in at the end of the day.. let’s just say, I don’t understand half of what I am doing, and it’s just really frustrating. There’s a lot to know and apply, and it’s just hard to understand in general. I guess I always feel this way studying any of the cases in the Russian language. There are about six cases. For each you have to learn endings for nouns, and adjectives for both male, female, neuter and plural. Of course they’re all different for each case, as are the personal pronouns and possessive pronouns. Ugh, it’s awful! I never liked grammar.

So, language class was not pleasant at all today. I hope that somehow I will understand better. Oh well, tomorrow we have a test on the two cases so I need to memorize the endings. Ahh! I worry about having such a hard time. Being in the country that speaks the language that you’re learning doesn’t always make it easier to learn.. Yes, I hear it being spoken but that doesn’t help in understanding why things are where and for what reasons.

Painting class is always soo much fun, and a great relief after language. We’re working on painting on our plates, the final project. Our teacher also was selling some of her art work for half price and I bought a small plaque of a Russian scene. Only 300 rubles, 10 dollars, I was excited!

Oh well, after school and the internship I went to the university to upload pictures and such! Thanks for all of the responses. On the weekend, or some day when I have a few hours, I will respond back!

The orphanage today was fun! I brought the children a pack of 50 pack markers and a few coloring books. Most of my time there was spent coloring although I went on the jungle gym and swings with one of the girls. Additionally Alla, Francesca, myself and a couple other people tossed a ball around in a circle, like we did the day before.

Alla wanted to go over the alphabets that we gave her, and I can tell she wants to ask us a whole lot more, but we don’t understand and so it’s difficult. I wish we could ask her more things, however, she’s the one that gets everyone talking. She talks to us right away, however the other children are more shy.

I really enjoy just sitting and watching the children interact. It was warm sunny day today, probably in the 70s, good for playing and being outside.

I made it home safely as well, same bus as last night, so for the most part I have the route to and from school all set. For the amount of buses and cars the air quality in the city is pretty nice. I was surprised, although, as a whole the country doesn’t have as many cars per person.

At the bus stations you’ll usually find someone with a cigarette, a beer, or both. So many people smoke, it must be a European thing, I don’t know. I just find it rather annoying because I hate the smoke!

I’ve almost been here a week. I was thinking the other day that my sense of time is changed. Let me explain. I’ve been here only six days now, although I lost a day on the plane. Anyways, I feel like I’ve been here longer, but the days are longer I guess. Also, the country as a whole is so different from home that I feel like America really is as far as it is, and consequently, it’s hard for me to relate the passing of time between here and there. That might be confusing I don’t know, but when I think of time passing here, and time passing at home, I feel like I can’t because it’s just two separate worlds, literally. Here seems so slow and at home I feel like no time is passing at all. Sorry if that doesn’t make sense.

Dinner again was something new and interesting, looked like dumplings, but it was more of a perigee with what seemed like spicy hamburger in the middle. It was in a chicken type broth and you put sour crème on top. It was very good! Since last night I haven’t f felt as hungry.

Tomorrow and Friday as well, after class we have activities so I won’t be going to the orphanage! Hope you enjoy my pictures and all! I have to go and study now, then it’s off to bed again!

Love,
Sasha

PS - Picture link..

Day 6 ~

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2033010&id=208300966&l=92614ff307

Picture Updates.

Hello,

Here are some links to more pictures that i've uploaded!


Day 2 ~
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2032977&id=208300966&l=52cb245254

Day 3 and 4 and 5 too ~
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2032980&id=208300966&l=a2cd4e470c

I might be on again on Friday, but I am not sure, I have things to do after class tomorrow and Friday and so, we'll be busy. I go to the university and use their internet, so, I don't know their weekend hours. At the latest I will update Monday of next week.

Take care,
Sasha

Day 5 ~ Tuesday ~ First Day of Internship

07. July ~ Tuesday ~ First Day of Internship

It’s a little after 10:30 and again I am really tired! I guess all of this walking around and being busy all day is the reason why. Oh well.

Breakfast this morning was really good. It consisted of eggs with blini and crème with strawberries on top. You would think that wouldn’t be good with eggs, but the taste of the egg isn’t as strong as you would think. I don’t know if that makes sense, but trust me, it’s really good.

Getting to school this morning was interesting as always. Left earlier then yesterday and this time took a bus, and went to the bus stop around the corner. I was supposed to wait here and get on bus 36. That same bus picks up Masha and we would go to school together. Well Olga and I waited and waited, and it never came. Instead we took a taxi. Tomorrow morning Olga says I should take bus 20 instead, and its 9 stops to school. So, we’ll see how it goes.

Michelle was about 15 minutes late, because she waited a lot longer for bus 36 and eventually she herself took a taxi. Two other people from class who walk, walked in the opposite direction for a while so they were late too. Hopefully tomorrow is more successful!

As for getting home, it’s really easy! Bus 16, seven or eight stops depending on where I get on. I get on either in front of the university or the stop closer to the orphanage where I have my internship. Both locations are located off the same street, the street is just long so it had various bus stops.

We had a quiz in school today, I am thinking that we are probably going to have one during every class. Oh well. Painting went better, I wasn’t as messy and I cleaned my brushes better before mixing colors! I am painting a spoon, and soon a small plate. While we were painting outside there was a radio playing and it was playing English music that had been redone in Russian. It was soo strange but we were enjoying it! It was weird because you could recognize the tune and what the song was supposed to be, it was just sung in Russian.

Anyhow, school today was better. It’s still hard, but I don’t feel as bad as I did yesterday. Speaking with others, I am not the only one who has a hard time with it, although some of us are better than others, but at least we’re all in the same boat. Although, as Francesca said yesterday, it’s a sinking boat. It’s not that bad, yet. Haha.

Olga made the same thing for me at lunch because I told her I loved it soo much.
After school, which ends at around 2:30, Francesca and I have our internship from 4-6. Instead of going home and then coming back, today I went to her house. Francesca and I ate vegetables, like a stir fry that Elena had left over, and then time for tea! (Oh, I forgot to take a picture of the stir fry, oh well.. haha). With the tea Elena served us something that I forgot the name of, however, it looks like cookie dough and tastes like cheesecake. It has raisins in it and I also put strawberries on it, soo great!

A note about these strawberries! They are better than in the US. They are smaller however they are less watery, sweeter, and overall just taste a whole lot better. However, they only grow in the summer (and maybe spring) just not winter. I don’t usually like eating strawberries at home by themselves because they aren’t that sweet, have tartness to them, I guess. Overall, the strawberries here are just soo sweet!

The internship was really good. Francesca and I got there a little after four and the children were just coming inside from doing something, and it was time to eat and have tea. They were given small saucers of what looked like soup. Reminded me of the stories that mom told me about, I counted the children eating soup in the orphanage.
There are ten children, seemed to be an even number of boys and girls from ages 4-7. They are adorable. At first they couldn’t say anything to us because they had to eat, and then get ready to play outside but they were very curious and watched Francesca and I as we waited.

At first being there was really uncomfortable. Personally just watching the children was weird in the sense that, wow, I used to be one of them! I was thinking soo many different things, it was crazy. Personally I want to know what circumstances led them here, and I wonder what kind of life they’ll have. It’s a lot to think about and it was a lot to take in. I know I am very lucky.

Francesca and I were not supposed to start the internship for another two weeks or so, and we both wish we had a little bit more Russian language experience before we started. Oh well. It does make things really challenging.

The building that they live in isn’t as big as I thought it would be, but compared to the size of homes and apartments here, it is big. There is a large main room where there are chairs and tables for coloring and such, a piano, a TV, drawings on the walls, a few couches. There are about three or four rooms off the one side of the main room, and a hallway on the other that leads to other parts of the building that I assume is the kitchen and offices for workers. We didn’t get a tour or anything, so I am not sure.

Being my first day and all I really did not want to take out the camera and take pictures, I’ll wait a little bit.

So, we then went outside, and the little girls introduced themselves. They seemed shy, however, that could be because of the language barrier as well. The workers got some balls and we got in a circle with a few of the little girls and tossed the ball around. Eventually this led to practicing Russian and English vocabulary.

There is one little girl there, named Alla, who is very interested in the English language and seems overall very smart and interested in learning. She writes in cursive better than myself and Francesca. Anyways, she started asking us what different things we had were in English, and so we went back and forth asking each other things and saying it in both languages.

After that we sat at a table and started coloring. Alla wanted us to write out the English and Russian alphabet, and Francesca also wrote out the Spanish alphabet. Alla was soo interested and practiced pronouncing everything we were telling her, she really is a bright girl. She even made Francesca and I flowers from folding paper! Francesca made Alla a paper crane, and then Alla asked her to show her how to make it. So Alla and I made one as Francesca showed us. Well, let’s just say Alla understood better than I did and hers turned out nicely.

There were two other girls who sat and watched but did not really say much, they were coloring pictures. One of the girls had drawn a picture that I found before I left and it was of myself. It‘s actually pretty good and so I took it home with me.
Additionally, I think that the orphanage is also a day care, because some of the children had their parents coming to pick them up. The workers said that some of the children stay at the orphanage at night, and others go home and then come back in the morning. That makes me wonder!

I ate a whole lot for dinner, triple what I normally eat. Olga made stir-fry with green and red peppers and left over cutlets from last night and some other sausage. From there she added pasta and cooked it. Then, she put egg and milk and cream cheese and the stir fry together, grated cheese over it and cooked it all together until the egg was done. It was really good. However, now that Olga see’s how much I can potentially eat, she might make me want to eat more and more and more. She doesn’t force me to eat and eat and eat like I was told she would. Uh oh!

We were soo full after dinner, so went and watched television; I did some homework and watched the animals play. Shira loves my pens and plastic bags. Olga and I heard rustling in the kitchen and Shira was into all of her bags. Olga gave Shira and empty one and Shira had a whole bunch of fun getting into it and doing all sorts of silly things. At one point she had put holes in it, and her head was poking out of one hole, and her tail another. I laugh soo hard watching her. She’s really cute!
By the way, I see Obama is in Moscow, it’s on the news. All I could understand was that they talked about Economics. The news showed them having tea. Obama in Russia, for some reason that makes me laugh.

Oh well, today was a great day, I know I am going to love my internship. Despite feeling uncomfortable at first because we were just sitting around, now that we know where we’re doing and stuff, it’s going to be soo great! Tomorrow I am going to bring them some markers and coloring books!

Well, off to bed early tonight, hopefully I can get an alarm clock to work. The alarm I brought from home doesn’t work, perhaps the one in my phone will! Oh yeah mom, that watch that I got a battery for, well the strap broke as I was getting off the plane in Helsinki, so, no watch for me! Although, I don’t really need it, and I’ve got a cell phone!

I hope to get online and post more pictures tomorrow (Wednesday).
Goodnight, with love, Sasha.

Day 4 ~ First Day of School

06. July ~ Monday ~ First Day of School

So, wow, I’ve only been here 4 days and it seems like a lot longer. Not saying that’s good or bad. Masha and I have the reputation as the ones that take pictures of everything. Francesca makes fun of us a lot saying she doesn’t need any pictures herself because we’re going to take them all. It’s all in good fun, and I warned them I take lots of pictures. I’ve been here four days and I’ve taken almost 400 pictures. Steve said that be the 7th week I won’t have anything left to take pictures of, I reassured him I would find something. Haha.

Also, incase anyone was wondering what ever came of the drama with Adrian. Well, we saw him today at school. Apparently when we were leaving the Pizza place he went to the bathroom, but none of us realized and we all left. He said when he went outside we were all gone, he walked around the pizza place. He ran into Jim somehow and then they ended up taking the bus together, so, he wasn’t really lost. His host family and our little walking group just didn’t know where he was.

Just so you know, and aren’t worried, I always walk around with someone, and if I am by myself it’s when I am getting off at the bus stop in front of my building or getting dropped off in front of my building. So Mom and Kevin, try not to worry! I follow the buddy system! Masha, and Francesca and I are together when we’re not in a larger group.

Anyways, so today everyone had their first day of school. Let’s just say, school is hard! Got up at 7 and got ready! For breakfast Olga made me eggs with cheese and dill and a sausage. It was good as always. She packed me a lunch for school, so cute! Then, we finally left around 8 am.

The morning seemed to come too soon! I had a hard time falling asleep last night; it took much longer than it usually does. Then, I got up at like 5 to go to the bathroom and again it took forever to get back to sleep, I don’t know if it’s the light or what.

Instead of taking the bus, Olga and I went by Taxi to school, it was taxi number 20. The school is located on the opposite side of the river as my house. It takes a little while to get there. We got off on the street that the school is located on and it’s a 5 minute walk through some little park. Haha, yeah. I don’t know why we didn’t take the bus but taxi instead.

I should tell you about this crazy bus system. There are many buses, trolleys and taxi to take you around the city. All of them have different numbers depending on where they go in the city and depending on which bus/trolley/taxi stop you’re on it’s a different number no matter what street you’re going on. For instance, to get home from the bus stop near the Kremlin I need to take bus 19 or 20 depending on which direction I am coming from, or if I am in front of the university I take bus 16 or 6. From there you need to know which stop is yours because they all make various stops. The buses usually have a street name on them next to the number so you have an idea of where it goes. Additionally, the streets don’t have signs with their names on it, you have to look at the buildings for the name of the street. So, take all that, along with just being in a new city and not knowing where you’re going in general it can be very stressful. It will take some getting used to. Seriously, can’t there be an easier way?

Anyways, so I get to school, and find everyone. School starts with Russian language from 9-12. The teacher is named Tamara. People who’ve only had one year of Russian take her class, and then those with more have another teacher.

The teacher expected us to know more than we did, and when she realized we didn’t know that much she smiled and had to backtrack her plans a little bit. Tomorrow we’re doing more review of things that we should already know, or should I say, she’s going to teach us stuff she thought we had already known.

Our textbook was 500 and some rubles. Not a bad price compared to our textbooks at home. In reality our book reminds me of a coloring book and the front of it is very child-friendly. Oh well, we did the first few pages in the book and reviewed some more basic things, such as various ways to ask how one is doing, and responses.

Overall I find the class hard in that as I said previously I have a hard time with pronunciation and reading. The things I know, I can pronounce with ease, but I don’t remember a whole lot of things from last year, and I didn’t bring my school stuff from Brockport. Oh well, it will come back as we learn more. Overall the teacher is really great with us. She is very patient, and is helpful with pronunciations and reading. As a class we were all joking that we can speak as well as a Russian speaking first grader, and that if Russia had, “Are you smarter than a 5th grader?” we would all lose.

It really bothers me that I don’t do that well. Everyone finds out that I am Russian and expects my level of knowledge to be a bit greater than it is. Personally I wish it came easier, it’s frustrating feeling so useless language wise. I know here in the country I will have much greater opportunity to learn things and have more time to do it as well. So, all in all, I am feeling positive.

Of course we had homework and like a good student I spent about an hour or so working on it! I was getting tired so I stopped.

After Russian language class we had lunch outside the steps of the Licee (“Li – say”). We aren’t actually at the University for class. I don’t know if this building is connected with the university, but it has many classrooms and such, so it’s for educational purpose. Olga’s packed lunch was reallllly good, I think I had the best looking sandwhich out of everyone! It was two pieces of bread and on each piece she put mayonase, lunchmeat, cheese, and dill. Dill is one of the most commonly used herbs, Russians use it in many things. With it she packed tomatoes and cucumbers and those chocolate covered cookie bar looking things and a really cute small apple juice. I was soo happy, and fed a couple pigeons some crust! I haven’t had lunch packed for me since I was in gradeschool. It’s soo nice that Olga makes sure I get on the right bus and gives me lunch. She really cares, and that’s reassuring when I’d be so lost otherwise.

After that was art class! Our teacher is a locally known artist in Novgorod and she focuses on Folk Art. So, we’re working on painting a folk art design on a wooden plate. My art skills are still pretty lacking, sorry mom! Oh well, it’s a nice wind down from Russian language class.

I have a bad habit of not cleaning off the brush when mixing paint to make new colors! Oops. I can only see mom cringing as I ruin her paints or brushes. I also make a mess too, and Liza was like let yourself get messy. She said, Sasha! Stop cleaning, wait till you’re all finished. She had to do something for a little while and commented when she got back, when I left Sasha was cleaning, when I return Sasha is still cleaning. This time I was wiping off the table as I missed the paper on the edges. Good thing it’s all water based paint.

Hm, painting ended at 2 and from there we took a bus back to the side of the river I live on, and we went to this Folk Art center. Minus the Kremlin, this is my favorite part of Novgorod. The environment is really nice and just different from other places, and it seems like it’s out in it’s own little spot too.

There were tons of people around, we figured out that there were young men that were being drafted into the army and their families were there to wish them well and say goodbye. Russian law requires that at the age of 18 you serve in the army. A man can get out of this if he or his family pay a large sum of money (as large as the price of a house).

At the folk center we met in a large room and there were two women there who were dressed in old fashion folk Russian dress. We played many folk games. It was a lot of fun, and at times dangerous. I tripped over a bench and have a bruise on my shin. Oh well, haha, someone was talking to me and I totally didn’t look in front of me and well, the rest is history.

Another time, we were playing this game where we were all turnips, and we had to sit on each other and wrap our arms around the person sitting on us, and there are a few people who do not sit, and they have to pull the group up, like you would pull turnips out of the ground. Well, when we were getting pulled a bunch of us juts fell into a big pile, and someone landed on the same leg that got bruised. Needless to say I have a nice big bump.

Some of the games, including that one, were very silly, but it was all in good fun. Other games included hot potatoes and variants of it where you dance in partners or threes and things like that. We did a lot, I took lots of video. Sadly I can’t upload videos, it would take days to do it, and that’s not an exaggeration. So I can show those when I get home.

Finally we had tea and blini with current jam! Everyone really enjoyed it! I personally don’t like anything on my blini except the crème Olga has, but the jam was good to eat separately. The blini still tastes more like thin omelet than pancakes to me.
After tea we were free to go on our own. Stac, this nice man who coordinates a lot that we do here, Liza’s right hand man wanted to show myself and Francesca where we will be doing our internship. The orphanage is a short walk from the Folk Center. We went there, with Masha too, for about 10 minutes and got a tour.

Francesca and I start our internship at 4 tomorrow until 6. I am really excited. The children are cute. Personally I have such strong and mixed feelings while being at the orphanage. It almost makes me want to cry, but I don’t. I just really wonder how much of their experiences are similar to what I had had. It will be really good to work with the children though. They range in age from 4-7. Cute children! There is a small playground outside, a large area with a tv and chairs and tables for coloring as well as other rooms. This will certainly be a fun and informative experience.
On our way from here Francesca showed me where the university is where we can get wireless internet access. We were sitting on the steps for about maybe 30 minutes and my battery already died. Masha showed up and I decided to look inside! I found benches and a plug for the computer, very helpful!

Google is in Russian, I have yet to find how to switch the languages, however Yahoo was in English! So, we were there a little while. Francesca left and Masha and I decided that it was about 7 and we should leave before Olga and her Elena get worried. Elena told us which bus to take to get home, bus 16, 3rd stop for Masha, seventh for myself.

I made it home safely! That was good. The bus still makes me nervous. I try not to make eye contact or talk to anyone, I don’t want them to try and steal my stuff. Haha, Liza has me worried about it, well I worry about it from her warning to be careful. I don’t think it’s really that dangerous in Novgorod, but still.

For dinner Olga made pasta and cutlets and a salad. Cutlets of what type of meat I am not sure, but it was excellent and it’s been my favorite dinner meal so far. There was a sauce with it that really sealed the whole meal. I had two plates, and usually I only have one! After dinner I did homework, practiced reading aloud the new things we learned. I am getting better, I never really did much of this at home, wish I had now, but oh well. Beesha and Shira entertained me with their playing. I took video of them at it, it’s soo hysterical. After homework we had the usual tea, and chocolates. From there I went to bed and here I am writing now.

So, hm… I can’t think of much else to say. Oh crap, it’s almost 12! So, off to bed I really must go! School will come too soon again!

I hope everything is well at home, please let me know how you’re doing! You know how I hate missing things, tell me what you’re up to!

“ Spakoi Na Noche” … Goodnight. ( I don’t know how to spell it properly, just how to pronounce it).
~ With love, Sasha.

Day 3 ~ Sunday.. shopping and fun!

05. July

Good morning! So, today I slept pretty well, only got up once to go to the bathroom at 5 am. When I finally got to bed it was 12:45 or so, and it was dark. I was told yesterday that it’s usually dark 12-4am. I got up at 10:20 and breakfast at 10:55.

I sleep well at night incase you’re wondering, although my eyes still look really tired, at least I noticed this morning. Haha, oh well. I don’t think that jetlag has really done much to me. I haven’t felt exhausted in the middle of the day. I guess that’s what jetlag is supposed to do.

Olga made omelet with cooked tomatoes and dill for breakfast. She grows dill at her Dacha. I saw her put the egg in a bowl and then added the dill and cooked tomatoes to it. Then, she put it in the microwave! It was really good! After we had strawberries and crème, chocolate covered wafers, and green tea! I can get used to this!

After breakfast I called Masha (Michelle) and Francesca and we’ve planned on going to a Rugby game at the beach and a concert at 2, with Elena, the daughter of Francesca’s host!

Right now Olga is taking Beesha for a walk. I am gathering that she walks him at least twice a day. Beesha very excited and starts jumping around and barking. When Olga comes home he also gets very excited. Usually he is found sitting by the door waiting for her. Beesha really adores Olga, and vice versa.

There are many stray cats here also. I haven’t see as many as I thought I would have though. Outside of the building there is a cat who Olga says is named Moia, or Moira. It’s really cute! When we were walking up the stairs, there was a cat in the stairwell who did not look happy to see us at all.

Other things I have noticed.. safety isn’t a main priority here, at least to some drivers. Strangers don’t usually smile to each other when passing. Women are for the most part dressed very nicely, even when just going out. They wear nice shoes, including high heels. I don’t know how you can do that, the roads are very bumpy, lots of potholes and mud puddles. Certainly I know I will be wearing my sneakers for the most part.

Hm.. today it is cold and cloudy. I sun peaks through here and there. At home when I am around, I have my notebook and I write down a lot of new words that I am learning. Perhaps I will share them with you. Oh yeah, one thing, the cucumbers here are pear shaped not long and round like in America. Apparently that type of cucumber does not grow very well here and thus are very small.

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So, now it is 9:30. For some reason I have been really tired and yawning a lot since I got home. Perhaps jetlag is finally catching up with me. I don’t know.

Anyways. I went around 1:30 with Olga to some place near the Kremlin, a big department store, and met Francesca, Elena, and Masha (Michelle). We decided since it was raining that going to the Rugby game was not a good idea. Instead we took a bus to the other side of the Volkhov river, (the Kremlin is on one side, and we were going on the other side). We went to another department store, called ? . It has four floors and each floor consisted of something different. The first floor has a grocery store, watches, a café, and you could buy appliances such as washing machines, pianos, and digital cameras. The second floor was basically just filled with all kitchen and housewares. The third floor consisted of music, movies, books, cards, journals, and the fourth floor had kid’s toys.

There were all types of movies, and many American movies dubbed in Russian. There were also lots of American music bands and such. It’s so cool to see things that I like in America here in Russian! Basically, in this store you could buy most things. However, there were no clothes here.

Oh yeah, and also, there was a modern art exhibit. We checked that out, and I’ve got pictures of some of the stuff (Insert picture link). There was one really odd display, and I can’t figure out what it did, but it certainly was something different. (Picture link) Lot’s of the paintings were nice, Mom I am sure you would have liked some of them!

Hm, all in all I ended up buying a small children’s story book about Father Frost (Santa), postcards (which I will have to send out soon because it takes a while for them to get to the US and I would hope they arrive before I return), an English Russian Phrasebook, and last but not least, a compilation CD of the best of Coldplay. Coldplay is my favorite band, and I already have all of their CDs, but I was really excited about finding this so I bought it anyways! Haha, I know I didn’t really need it, but oh well, it’s Coldplay. It’s titled, Forever Best! Coldplay. It’s two CDs of 34 songs! I am pretty excited; I have never seen it in the US.
All of this cost 404 Rubles, which is about 14 dollars. The exchange rate for rubles and dollars right now is about 30.2 rubles per dollar. When I went to the bank to exchange my American money, for 200 dollars I received 6,040 rubles. That’s pretty good, although, last summer it was 50 rubles per dollar.

After shopping, I had to find a place to buy more minutes to put on my cell phone. You can put money in an ATM machine and you give it your cell phone number and it puts the money on your phone. One minute is one Ruble, I believe. However, it costs 5 rubles per minute. At least, that’s what I gather from the amount I’ve used it so far.

We came across the Catholic church where the concert was, but we didn't want to pay 30 rubles to go in, instead I went and took a picture of it, and it was so nice and sunny that we decided to enjoy it since it's hardly ever out long enough to enjoy. Of course, later on it got cloudy and cold again!

From here we decided to get something to eat. There is a café right near the store. The four of us went. It was a cute place. Elena knows engligh pretty well so she translated the menu. We decided on tea and sausage rolled in a pastry, like a hotdog in a cresent roll. The pastry part was sweet and doughy. I ordered black tea with pineapple and honey flavor. You couldn’t really distinguish the pineapple or honey flavors, at least I can’t, but it was still good. Since we have a hard time reading menus, Elena helped us with some names of different foods.

Elena informed us that the Blini I had for breakfast yesterday is something you eat during Russian holiday when winter turns to spring. Sort of like our Mardi Gras. Anyways, Blini is a symbol of the sun (if I remember correctly). Blini are thin pancakes and you can put whatever you want with then and eat it in various ways.
We practiced learning some Russian words for various foods, and I was trying to write them too. It’s very difficult for me to write what I hear, some of the letters are so similar it’s hard to tell which ones to use. On that same note, I have difficulty reading, well pronouncing things I read correctly, and often have to hear them over and over, and once more, to remember correctly. Russian I feel is a difficult language to learn to speak properly. I am sure in time this will get a little easier, I hope.

We walked to some more stores, Masha was trying to find a SIM card for her phone, and a phone to use as well. Went to a flower shop, and also the Adidas store, which was expensive I though. On our galavant we saw some interesting looking cars too! We were stopped waiting to cross the street, and this car was turning and it was purple with a joker painting, I went to take a picture of it but missed, well anyways, as we’re crossing the car ended up turning around, but the driver realized that we wanted to take a picture. He was going to turn right, but stopped for a few seconds and smiled so Masha and I could take a picture. Francesca and Elena were laughing at us. Later on another car had a large cat on it, a cheetah or something. I am easily amused.

Instead of having to take the bus home, Elena’s guy friend Michael picked us up at the big department store that we all met at, and drove us each home. I got to see where Masha lives, a few streets away from me, farther out away from the Kremlin. That was super nice though, I don’t feel comfortable navigating the bus system by myself yet . There are multiple buses with different numbers that each go different places in the city, it’s confusing, I don’t want to get lost!

Dinner tonight was again really good. Olga made some type of meat, reminded me of pork chops, when I asked her she just said it was beef, or meat. With it we had potatoes with dill and onion, and salad with egg and dill and onion and a dressing. I really like all the dill that she puts in everything. Olga also opened a bottle of red wine, I had about a small glass and a half.

I am thinking the wine had something to do with making me really tired. Drinking it at home also makes me tired. So after we ate, we watched some TV, and I watched Beesha and Shira play. They are really funny to watch and I was falling asleep.
Eventually we had some tea again. Olga took Beesha for a walk, I read a book, she returned and I decided it was time for me to get ready for bed.

With that, it’s 10:20, and I am ready to just sleep! First day of school tomorrow! I have to get up at 7. School starts at 9.

Goodnight, miss you all!
~ Love, Lexi

PS - Dad, Olga's doesn't go to Church on sundays, There is a catholic church but I doubt I will be able to go to it. I will try at least once.

Day 2 ~ Fourth of July

04. July ~ Happy Holiday!

Today was a really fun day, a lot more laid back then yesterday. I feel pretty comfortable already here at Olga’s. I got to sleep around 11 the night before, and woke up and thought I had slept a long time, but when I looked at my clock it was only 4:45 am. Being as light as it was, I thought my clock was wrong, so I went out into the kitchen, indeed it was 4:45. It didn’t seem like it. I stayed up for fifty minutes to write in my journal. It was 5:35 when I finally went back to sleep, but my blanket over my head to keep out the light. I don’t think jetlag has really done much to me, as I slept a whole 11 hours. I woke up again at 11:10. Olga knocked on my door and told me it was breakfast time!

For breakfast Olga made these omelet things that had crème in them. The crème looked like crème cheese, but it was really sweet and has the consistency of yogurt. It was called блини (Blini). Apparently on Russia holidays you eat lots of блини. I think we had it because it was July 4. Anyways, it was really good. Had зеленыи чаи (zeloni chai… green tea) also.

From here, Olga and I got ready for her to take me to the Kremlin to meet the rest of the group. We took the bus. To get to the Kremlin I have to take bus 20 and get off at the 5th stop. To return take bus 19. The bus takes frequent stops, and there are lots of buses taking people back and forth around the city. I have a bus pass that I was given that I show to the bus lady so I don’t have to pay a fee. My bus pass lasts all of July I believe. I don’t know what I do in August, perhaps get another bus pass.

The group all met, and we figured out how we were to get back home at night. Host families were to meet us at 8 at the statue of Lennon that’s right outside the Kremlin. Here we met another member of our group, Colin, who is not taking classes but only doing an internship. He is from Texas!

We were starting our tour and saw a statue of Sergei Rachmaninov that was just unveiled in the city in June, and his granddaughter actually came to Novgorod for the ceremony! Apparently Rachmaninov was born in the area. From here, onto the Kremlin!

The Kremlin is about 10 minutes maybe by bus from Olga’s. I wasn’t really paying attention to the time, but after stopping many times, I would assume 10 minutes, maybe a little less. The word Kremlin means fortress.

The Kremlin is the heart of Novgorod, home to St. Sophia Cathedral, built in the 11th century and to the Monument to Millennium of Russia as well as other things. The Kremlin walls are all brick and has 9 tours. At the moment many parts of the Kremlin and buildings inside of it are being renovated because there is a 1,150 anniversary celebration of Novgorod in September, also Putin is coming to Novgorod in August.

The foundations of Novgorod Kremlin were laid by Prince Yaroslav the Wise. It is the oldest of Russia’s remaining Kremlins. It functioned as an administrative, civic, and religious center (all according to my Novgorod Travel Map). City meetings and elections were held here. It also protects St. Sophia Cathedral and the residence of the city ruler. Aleksander Nevsky gathered here before fighting the Swedes. Historical records are kept here and books were collected and copied here.
Inside the Kremlin there are many things to see including an eternal flame that commemorates fallen soldiers, as well as St. Sophia Cathedral, and the Monument to the Millennium of Russia.

St. Sophia Cathedral is one of the oldest stone buildings of Russia (1045-1050) and is dedicated to the Holy Wisdom of God founded by Prince Yaraslov the Wise. The people here say that, “Novgorod is where St. Sophia is” . We went inside the church and it contains many religious icons and pretty chandeliers. We were not allowed to take any pictures. Renovations of some icons were taking place as well. It’s such a pretty Cathedral. The inside is very dark, lots of candles.

Magda, myself, Steve, and the tour girl, Katya, decided to go on a little adventure of our own. Well there is a door that you’re really not supposed to go in it, and Liza always says she’s to chicken to go up it. So Magda and the tour girl (who’s about our age I think) wanted to go really bad so they did. Steve and I were there too and he’s like wanna go in, so we open the rod iron door and sneak it. There’s a windy staircase and the girls were ahead of us. They got further when all of a sudden I heard a noise, like they fell. They come running down yelling Babushka (grandmother, or old lady) and laughing . Apparently at the top of the stairs to the right is a door, where the church choir would sing, and a Babushka was guarding the door and heard them. Babushka never saw us, but it certainly was a thrilling experiencing running down the stairs. In hindsight, this probably wasn’t the best idea, but oh well. Oh and yeah, there were Babushkas downstairs too, they just sit in various places and make sure the people are behaving I guess. Hah, I know what you’re thinking, there’s something wrong when we find going up a flight of stairs amusing.

On top of one the main dome of the cathedral, one of five, is a dove. Legend has it, that there was a dove flying over the Church and when it saw all the killing of the people by Ivan the 4th, it turned into stone. Ivan had killed a whole bunch of people over a period of three days and the Volkhov River was red with blood. Just so you know, Novgorod sits along the Volkhov River.

Now to The Monument to the Millennium of Russia. The millennium was in 1862. The monument was built by Mikhal Mikeshin. The monument was the idea of Emperor Alexander the II. It was placed in Novgorod because Novgorod had a key role in the creation of the Russian State.

Anyways, this statue contains almost all of Russia’s history through the many figures and depictions on it. It’s 50 feet tall. The monument is divided into three levels, representing the hierarchy of Russian society at the time, The church, The Monarchy, The people. The top of the monument has a figure of an angel representing the Orthodoxy, who is blessing a kneeling woman, representing or symbolizing Russia. The second tier contains six groups of figures each of them representing one of the stages of development of the Russian state. The statue is round by the way, and Peter the Great is on the Northern side of the monument. The low tier is a complete timeline of Russian History. Liza talked a lot about the statue, I don’t really remember much of what she said, I plan on getting a book about it or something. Honestly, it’s quite an amazing looking statue.

From here Liza ended her tour, and the group was on it’s own to do whatever until 8. So, we decided we wanted Pizza. We first walked to the bank, I exchanged my American money. The Russian currency is really pretty looking, at least the bills. 1,000 ruble bills are bigger than the 100, 50 and 10 ruble bills. (Wiki link to money).
The Pizza place was small and really cute, on the wall where Latin phrases. We decided to get two pizzas, that were 800 grams each. Various people got coffee, beer, coca cola, and water to drink. It took us longer to figure out how to split the bill than to actually eat the pizza. But, it was really amazing. Apparently the lady who makes it learned how to make it in Italy. We toasted to the fourth and enjoyed ourselves. All 9 of us ate for around 30 dollars. The menu listed the amount of food in grams, which to me is really not helpful at all.

From here the group split up, and Masha, Dough, Steve and I, decided to take a walk around the city, we had about two hours. We were bench hoping! Haha, Masha and Steve were tired, so we’d walk around and find a bench, get up and walk around some more to find another bench. We wandered around and saw things that Liza ran out of time to show us, however I’ve got 7 weeks to see everything, so I am not worried. Our adcenture lead us to the beach and to a monument called the Victory Memorial. At the top of it you could see a lot! Very Pretty. We walked around the park and came across an amustement park of sorts, I don’t know if this is always here, or just temporary. There are blow up bouncing areas and rides! I think you have to pay to go on some of the stuff most likely. Our journey also lead us to a fountain in the park! It’s also really pretty; lots of people were taking pictures in front of it. All in all we really enjoyed walking around just wandering; personally I love these types of adventures.

Around the park there are lots of little roadside stands where you can buy ice cream, popcorn, helium balloons, water, soda, and snack things.

Olga picked me up from Lennon’s statue at 8 and took me home in her car. It’s a cute small car, the same color as my mom’s car at home. Olga took Beesha for a walk, and I played with Shira in the living room. These animals are really friendly to me, and enjoy sitting on my lap or resting by my feet when I eat. Shira is entertaining as always. For dinner Olga made pasta with an alfredo type sauce. I was her putting milk and cheese together, along with cooked chunks of ham and dill. It was really good as usual. For dessert, strawberries with crème (the same from the Blini at breakfast) and green tea.

It seems that drinking tea is a regular thing here, especially after dinner. I don’t mind it at all, I really like it. Perhaps I should use all the tea I have in the cupboard when I get home!

Ahh, oh yeah, during our walk, Masha, Steve, Doug and I realized that we didn’t really know where Adrian went. We all left the pizza place together at 6. We didn’t remember if he said he was going on a bus like some of the others or what. We figured he was smart enough to be alright, but we were still a bit concerned. When we met with some our hosts at 8, Steve’s host mother said she was supposed to pick up Adrain per request of his family. His family said he hadn’t come home; this is when we were like yeah we have no idea where he is. We called Liza and told her we didn’t have a clue where he went. At 9:45 while Olga was making dinner and she got a call that we still did not know where Adrian was, and apparently Liza had been driving around looking for him and even called the police. By 10:25 Olga got a call that Adrian was finally home, apparently he went by himself walking around the city. Liza was very mad at him.

After dinner I showed Olga my pictures from today and she watched television. There was an American movie with Danny DeVito on it that was dubbed into Russian. Our Russian communication is getting a bit better, I guess. There are many tourists in Novgorod, most of them Russians who do not live here.

I saw a most interesting site today too! While wandering around the Kremlin walls, near the beach of the river, there was this boy whose father was holding him a few feet above the ground, and his pants were down and, you can tell where this was going, he was going number two, and his behind was all for the world to see. Haha, it was awkward, and we were like wow!

Another thing, there were three weddings today. The couples were walking around having their pictures taken by photographers by the Monument to the Millennium of Russia, and in front of St. Sophia’s. I assume that they were probably going to get married in the cathedral. It was pretty exciting to see!

I see lots of children and young adults riding bikes, motor bikes, and scooters. One man was roller blading on what looked like ski’s with wheels and ski poles. Very interesting, looked like he was doing laps around the outside of the Kremlin.
The city is very beautiful; I very much enjoy the architecture. I am glad that I am here for so long, I have lots of time to check it out and take pictures. The Kremlin area has a small park outside the walls. I love it, so many nice big trees and lots of vegetation! I really enjoy this type of thing, it’s just so pretty! Lot’s of places to walk and sit on benches.

It was warm and sunny in the afternoon, but during our adventure it got cold and it rained, but then the sun came out again and it was nice. Olga said that the weather in July is cold and rainy and in August much better. Today Olga said she went to her Dacha (a small building, like the size of a shed I assume) and picked strawberries and other vegetables. A dacha is place where people often have gardens and grow things, at least that’s what most people there do at one. It’s really hard to describe what a dacha really is, Liza had a hard time telling us in class. Liza says if any of us have a chance to visit a dacha to go. Olga’s dacha is 10 minutes by car from her house.

I checked my email today at the Telecom building in the city across from the Kremlin. You have to pay for 30 minutes of computer time. Steve, Masha, and I all split the time to send quick messages to our families. We haven’t found a place where wireless is free, although a few exist. Perhaps tomorrow.
Well, goodnight, it’s 12:20am, I should really get to bed!

~ Caша

PS - I will post links to pictures soon, be patient!