Victory Day

May 9th, 2009

Victory Day in Russia is unlike anything I have ever seen. On this one day over 20,000 people gathered into Palace Square to listen to speeches and watch as the military is presented along with different types of vehicles. Since there were so many people it was impossible to see anything unless you were on the shoulders of another individual. After the chaotic but amazing spectacle that is Victory Day morning we proceeded back down the main street, where many of us bought small flags to remind us of the day, and got onto the Metro. From there we went to two different memorials in different locations in the city. The first one was PISKARIOVSKOYE MEMORIAL CEMETERY and here was an overwhelming collection of mass graves showing thousands upon thousands of individuals who died during the siege of Leningrad. The mood in this hallow place was one of remembrances, pride and sorrow. Watching family members place flowers, candies, candles and vodka on graves showed how deeply they felt about this tragic event and how it still affects their lives. After that we went to the Siege Memorial which was an amazing place that taught all those who went there about the history of the siege as well as showing a documentary about the lives of the people who lived through it. After the history of the day we got to watch a parade that was all about individuals who lived through the Siege or their family members. It was nice to watch their veterans being honored in such a way that I have never seen before.

Epic Day

May 11^th

Today started out a little rushed because we thought we were supposed to leave for our Road of Life bus tour half an hour later than anticipated. After everyone gathered their belongings we piled into a bus and started our voyage down the road in which the 1941 siege took place. Along the way down we stopped at many monuments honoring the children fallen in the siege, the guerilla men, the pilots and even the 1.5 million supplies successfully brought across frozen Lake Lagoda. We got out and looked at all of these monuments as well as saw a few more mass graves like the ones we saw on our Victory Day tour. Halfway through our trip we stopped at a Russian café for lunch and had beef goulash, tea and borsht. The next stop after lunch was the best part of our day and according to most people the best part of the entire trip. We got to walk around in the trenches, which bordered the water line. This was the place where masses of Russian soldiers were killed because they were cornered against the army by the German army. At first I was personally a little skeptical of walking through the trenches because as our guide Sasha said, we were walking over a combination of metal and bones. But, everyone got really into scanning them for debris. In the middle of the field we found our first human bone. Heather said that it was a hip bone and we all got really intrigued so started to look for more- and were shockingly very successful. A few of our best finds while walking and digging through the trenches were the hip bone and a femur, which had bullets through them, a bullet case in tact and a few un-shot bullets that were coated with gold. Heather literally had to drag us out of the trenches so that we could make our last stop on the tour, which was a museum with a diorama intricately depicting the siege. I was okay though because we got to continue to play a little more outside the museum on the huge warfare tanks! The day wound up being quite relaxing for a change because we were on a bus instead of walking but it was also a lot of fun. I think that the best way to describe the Road of Life as a whole would be a combination of tragedy and triumph.

 

Diane

Stalin Who? Just Kidding Heather!

May 4th (sorry it's a week late. I thought it was posted and it wasn't)

So, it is Day 21 of our escapade in Russia and waking up for the traditional Russian breakfast never gets old. Timor who is one of the hostel administrators, is the cutest/nicest/funniest old man ever. As usual, he walked around mumbling to himself this morning and making sure all of us ate what we were supposed to, he's the best. After breakfast, we had 9:30 class with Heather, where we reviewed the political history and people of Russia in preparation to go to the Political Science Museum at the other end of St. Petersburg. Once we got to the museum one of our tour guides Mike, walked us through it explaining the Soviet Union history leading up to, and through the Stalin Era. Some of the most interesting things we saw were the propaganda posters, which were printed by both the red and white armies in response to the warfare going on during that time. Mike read a few of his favorites to us, one of which is the first picture posted in this blog. Besides war remnants of the red and white armies like uniforms, pictures, paintings and posters, the museum had rooms that modeled the set-up of communal homes. These homes were built after Stalin's reign in an effort to deStalinize the hardships Russia had previously faced, as instated by Khrushchev (photo 2). The housing situations we saw reminded me of our current living situations. Everything from toilet paper to food had to be labeled to show it was theirs and even then it didn’t mean it would be there when you wanted or needed it. At the end of our tour, we watched a few documentaries before leaving to look in the tiny museum souvenir shop. Some people left on their own after this, including Angela, Jill, Jess, Shannon and I who decided we wanted to take the metro back to the opposite end of Nevskiy in an effort to avoid the mass number of people currently in the city. We got our DK guidebooks out and found the nearest one and walked there only to find out that it was not in use…in fact probably had not been in use for years by the looks of it. So then after reevaluating our situation we hopped on a tram to get to the next nearest metro, which was a ways away. When we got on I had a flashback to the museum we had just gotten out of. This tram looked and smelled like it was from Peter the Great’s era, well okay, maybe not Peter I, because the Railway Museum we went to a few weeks ago says that’s not possible. But, this was at least from Stalin’s reign by the looks of it, although it did somehow manage to get us to the metro station in one piece. Other people left the museum to go shopping behind Spilled Blood and on Nevskiy Prospekt. Everyone had a very successful day, filled with a good combination of education and fun free time.

 

…So to recap since we've arrived in Russia we have learned how to get ourselves unlost, how to successfully dodge cars while running across at least five lanes of traffic, how NOT to get the Swine Flu, and how to get hair cuts apparently (ask Ryan about his Russian salon experience :/)

 

 

Diane Cenotti '11

 

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page."

::Saint Augustine

May 10th: Happy Mother's Day!

 

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От: Jillian Kubiak '11
Отправлено: Пн, 5/11/2009 12:46
Кому: mevans21@blogger.com
Тема: May 10th: Happy Mother's Day!

            HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!! Just an FYI the hostel is out of phone cards so if there are any mothers that have not received a phone call it is not because we do not want to talk to you but it is physically impossible at this point. Ps, on the same note, I love you mom, you are amazing and beautiful and I miss you!!!

            Ok so today we got up way to early to go to Tsarskoe Selo, which translates to the Czar’s Village. This location contains the palaces of Catherine the Great and Alexander I and lots of other monuments and parks and cool deserted buildings. So basically, we spent eight hours walking around different old stuff that was actually pretty neat. Half of that time was spent retracing our steps because our adorable Buddhist guide Mitya kept taking us in circles. I think he was a little confused but that is ok because I think that my blisters have officially turned in to calluses. Either that or I’ve just become oblivious to pain.  

            It was really cool though because for lunch we ate on top of this 265 year old church. The walls were crumbling and the stairs were treacherous, it was awesome. Then just as we were about to leave the police showed up and said something in Russian that seemed like “get off the condemned building”. Oh well, then to get back, after a couple wrong turns we took the oldest train route in Russian history. This line was built to bring the Catherine the Great from Tsarskoe Selo to St. Petersburg and we enjoyed the view of the outskirts of the city tremendously through our closed eyelids, we were a little exhausted.

            Tonight was a very special night because we had a concert to go to. One of our favorite guides, Nick, was playing a concert with his band at one of the top Jazz clubs in the city. We had tickets so all 23 of us crammed into this tiny club. It was actually an amazing concert, especially coming from a person who is not at all a fan of Jazz music. Even the locals that I talked to at the club were praising the band saying that they had here about them but hadn’t been able to see them live because they only play a few exclusive concerts a year, so we felt very special. Anyways the owner complained about selling our tickets to us because we are Americans and he said we do not smoke and drink enough so we all just had to prove him wrong. The night ended off with all of us up on stage taking a group picture with the band and Nick promising to sign our CDs we bought. Overall just your average Sunday in Russia, where anything can happen.

 

Jill

May 8th Blog

 

May 7, 2009

The title of today’s blog will be “Recovering from Moscow”

After getting off the train we were given the morning to either catch up on sleep or catch up on our reading. I chose sleep ?. Around 1 we were woken and given an hour to eat and get ready for a secret adventure. At 2 o’clock we started out, our destination the Zoological Museum. It was pretty sweet. The museum houses pieces that were in Peter the Great’s original collection, like his horse that he had stuffed. The museum had animals from every continent even extinct and endangered species. Not only did they have bugs on display but also a live bug exhibit. One part that definitely sketched me out was the stuffed cats and dogs. It took us a little longer to get back because the military was practicing for Victory Day... again. After having dinner we had class, we discussed a few poems we read. Then we surprised Dylan with cake for his birthday which was yesterday… and yeah we sang.

Ash