A taste of what's to come

Although I have now been in Saint Petersburg for several days, today was, in my opinion, my first day in the city.  Up until now I had been at a hotel with the 71 other CIEE students on the southern edge of Petersburg; I must admit it was something of a relief to finally get into the actual downtown area.

Today the CIEE students took a bus tour of the city, getting a chance to see many of the major landmarks and more importantly, a chance to orient themselves in our new home.  Perhaps the most important (and my favorite) stop was Смольный (Smolny): a gorgeous collection of powder-blue buildings that will be the academic home of the CIEE students.

Following the tour I elected to walk back home rather than take the metro.  I made the trip with another student, as the two of us live within a few blocks of each other on Petrogradskaya.  It ended up being a good decision; the walk included spectacular views of the city.

This evening, I took an stroll from my new home to the Peter & Paul Fortress - the founding place of Saint Petersburg (it remains light in the city until about 10:00pm).  The fortress is far larger than I had anticipated, and contains many attractions, all of which require tickets, which I did not feel like spending the money on tonight - it was getting late, and I will certainly be going back.  Entrance to the compound, however, is free, so I strolled around, admiring the golden spire of the church, and dodging the many young couples in the area (it seems to be quite the lovers' spot).

Enough about the specifics, it's time for some abstraction. While New York City (the city with which I am most familiar) is undeniably beautiful, especially from certain angles, it is also undeniable the canyons of Manhattan have certain gray quality to them.  Though it is true the city is incredibly diverse in many ways, and there is obviously color to be found, the average visitor to Manhattan will be far more impressed with the sheer scale and grandeur of the place rather than the color and textures of the buildings.  Petersburg is the opposite.  It possesses a color palette beyond that of any city that I have ever seen, a color that does not derive from neon signs and lighted boards - such things are actually rare here.  The city is awash with a stunning collection of yellow, pink, and mint colored buildings, their multi-colored facades meshing together to form what almost seems to be a fantasy taking shape on an artist's easel.  When looking across the wide Neva river to the far bank, the city looks more like an oil painting than it does an actual, physical creation.

 It's a city that seems at times to be a mystical place.  It's at it's best in waning hours of the evening, the last remnants of the sunlight caressing the golden spires and domes that make up the skyline, creating a veritable light show.  It's at these times that the city takes on an almost mystical appearance, a place that makes the happenings of Nikolai Gogol's writings seem far more believable.  

I have taken many pictures of the city; for those of you who are on Facebook (and let's face it, who isn't?), they will all be posted there.  For those of you who are not, I will also upload all of my photos to a Webshots account, with the link provided below.  Finally, I've included two photos - one of the Peter & Paul Fortress, and one of Smolny.

http://community.webshots.com/user/dhw200

On the ground!

Tuesday, August 24th was the long awaited departure date for Russia.  The plan: New York City's JFK airport to Helsinki to Saint Petersburg, the whole trip on Finnair.  The trip actually went according to plan, and I was lucky enough to meet up with several other students on my program just before the flight.

A few notes about the trip: Finnair uniforms are classy, which is obviously a misguided attempt to distract from the truly awful airline food.  Even by the standards of airline food, this was pretty bad.  Finnair's entertainment systems are quite impressive, though I am sad to say that James Cameron's "Avatar" is not nearly as impressive on an eight inch screen as it was in 3D.  Rather, it was exposed for what it truly is: style over substance, and without the vaunted 3D effects, it's an average action flick with mediocre acting and worse writing.  Herbie Hancock's Grammy winning "River: The Joni Letters" is a truly sublime work of art, and should be listened to from start to finish in one sitting without any distractions.

With that fluff aside, I arrived in Saint Petersburg around noon on Wednesday the 25th, and quickly met up with the CIEE representative at the airport.  We waited around for awhile until more students arrived, and then those students who had arrived boarded a bus to a nearby hotel.  We were randomly assigned with a roommate to a room in the hotel, and after a quick meal, we all went off to collapse and rest our jet-lagged bodies and minds.

The next day (yesterday) was the first of orientation - seminars were conducted by the excellent CIEE staff on cultural differences and learning to live in Russia.  Perhaps most importantly, students had the opportunity to purchase SIM cards and cell phones.  That night, a large group of CIEE students headed to the famous Nevsky Prospekt for our first real taste of the city.

Nevsky Prospekt is a stunning avenue.  It can perhaps best be described as a cross between Madison Avenue and the Champs Elysees - a broad, glittering road lined by incredibly ornate and intricate facades.  Countless expensive fashion and jewelery stores line the street, easily rivaling New York's Diamond District.  I will post pictures later, as well as more thoughts about the street, however I want to get this entry done soon so I can get some rest.

Today involved more orientation, and was capped by the event that most students had been awaiting with even amounts of dread and excitement: the meeting of our host families.  Right of the bat I would like to say that I have been blessed by a wonderful family.  For their privacy I won't go into detail, but suffice to say that my hosts for the next four months have been incredibly gracious and generous, welcoming and kind.  The neighborhood (Southwestern part of the island of Petrogradskaya) in which they live appears, at least at first, to be an excellent one.  It somewhat resembles the artsier sections of Brooklyn, with appealing cafes, up and coming art galleries, and a general "indie feel."  More information (and pictures) are to come, but for now I bid my scores of readers (read: sarcasm) a good night.

Intro

My senior high school English teacher, as English teachers do, assigned a novel to be read over the summer before classes began.  Summer reading is a particularly detested assignment among students for obvious reasons; even I, who greatly enjoy reading, usually dislike such work as it distracts me from books I would like to pursue myself.  

Grumblings aside, my classmates and I spent the summer contemplating (note contemplating, rather than completing) the assigned book, Fyodor Dostoevsky's classic Crime & Punishment.  I wasted most of the summer trying to figure out just why our teacher would have assigned a Russian novel in a course entitled English Literature, but no matter.  I did eventually crack the book open, and became lost in it, lost in the dark tale of ax murders in shadowy alleys in Saint Petersburg, of a wily detective matching wits with the hero (or anti-hero?) of the novel, Raskolnikov.  I raced to the end, desperate to finish it so that I could complete the accompanying written assignment before the start of the academic year.  Once the assignment was safely turned in, I returned to Crime & Punishment so that I might finish it at my own pace.  My love affair with Russian literature has continued ever since.  

I hope to use this blog in the future to express some of my own feelings on the innate qualities and emotions of Russian literature, but for now suffice to say that it was that summer, that assignment, that introduction to Fyodor Dostoevsky and his peers that set me on the path that I am on now.  For although I am a government major at Colby College, I am also a minor in Russian Language & Literature, and about ten days from now, I will be boarding a plane to Saint Petersburg (via Helsinki) for a semester of study on the CIEE Russian Area Studies program.  Over the next several months, I hope to make regular posts about my time in Russia (as well as other topics that come to mind), so that others may share in the experience.  It is entirely possible that I may have ended up studying in Russia anyway, but in my mind, the journey began with that assignment, that damned summer assignment, three years ago.