Some reflections ...

Next week I begin full time school at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies where I'll be focusing on Russia and Eurasia. I doubt that between getting married, taking classes, and working that I'll have much time to blog. When I have a chance, I'll try, but thank you to all of you for reading. In the last couple days it's become apparent what I do and do not miss about Russia. Here's a sampling:

What I will not miss about Russia:

• Some food: Overpriced Sushi, cucumbers for every meal
• A haze of cigarette smoke everywhere
• A permanent state of sweatiness, usually combined with a general grimy feeling.
• Air conditioning that gets just cool enough to make you think it’s actually cold upon entering a building, but actually its only 2-3 degrees cooler than outside; and now you don’t even have a breeze!
• Cell phone shop employees thinking I’m a Chechen terrorist since I had a cell phone with Arabic lettering. I actually had to get my host family to help me get a phone the first time.
• Being afraid of the police
  
• Smelly water in the showers.
• Not having to lug 8 liters of water back to my apartment for a week’s water supply.

What I will miss about Russia:

• The people
• Keri the dog
  
• The way that you can always find a beer at any street corner
• Cheap food/drink: A pint of beer in a bar for as cheap as $1.75, bananas for 10 cents
  
• Café Stolle's pirogs
  
• Red Caviar on a Bliny, basically bliny's in general - Teremok at Sennaya Ploschad:
  

• The waitresses at Bliny Domnik who took a liking to me (or pity on me) and gave me free juice
  
• Knowing that I drank 8 liters of water in one week (kind of a good feeling for some reason)
• Quickly moving escalators
• The palaces and their grounds:

Россия, страна возможностей

One of my favorite stories growing up was called The Little Engine that Could. If I remember right it was all about this little train that had to try to make it up a bunch of hills and it kept saying “I think I can, I think I can, etc.” Anyway, on my last night in St. Petersburg I went with two of my friends from the English Discussion Club to a little Vareniki place (little assorted sweet cheese variations wrapped in ravioli). On our way back, amidst the construction I noticed a big billboard for the Bank of Russia that I was to see all over Moscow, it said, "Россия, страна возможностей," or literally, “Russia, the country that can” or probably better translated as, "Russia, the land of opportunity."

I think that phrase aptly sums up my impressions of Russia. I’ve complained to no end about the construction going on in St. Petersburg, and on a larger scale in Moscow, so I’m not going to do that again. The biggest frustration I had with Russia was that there is so much potential, but they are unable to capitalize on it. A few examples:

1. Beautiful architecture but off the beaten path, xenophobic graffiti (one said "Achtung Juden").
2. Great food, but parasitic water.
3. Beer on every street corner, but rampant public drunkenness.
4. A wealth of natural resources, but disregard for the environment.
   

I was having a conversation with one of my colleagues at the Embassy about some of these… I wondered, why not just have a fine for littering? Beyond the problem of enforcement, it would seem that the corrupt policemen would welcome new reasons to fine people. Take the beautiful canals, the Neva, 90% of the beaches in the Gulf of Finland—all unswimmable because of the industrial waste. But his point was that it’s ingrained in their mindset. Maybe it’s a Soviet legacy, but I tend to think the country should be smart enough to simply assign a price to clean air, clean water, basically any public good by fining people (or firms). Additionally, most Russian homes I’ve been in have all been immaculately kept, it’s just the public goods (the rivers, the common courtyards, the sidewalks, etc.) that are the problem.

One other thing that bothered me about the country was the public drunkenness. My colleague also mentioned that he’s seen a marked decrease in the amount of alcohol Russians drink now compared to a decade ago. Whereas before an evening would start off with five or more shots of Vodka, now only one (if any) is the norm. The simple availablility of non-alcoholic beer in restaurants in the last decade is another example of this trend, and I think that’s a good sign of progress. In the mean time, with the country's male life expectancy at 59, they are kicking themselves in the economic foot.

Russia has a wealth of natural resources, (and I’m not just talking about oil and natural gas), smart people, and money to spend. As other academics much smarter than I will point out, establishing strong and just institutions that are free and fair ought to be a priority. Also, this week the Economist pointed out that three in four senior officials in the Russian government roots with the KGB, and I am positive that's undermining transparency and media freedom in the country.

From my and Westerners point of view I perceive that as a problem, but the question is: Do Russians? Most economic indicators are no worse or even better than before Putin took office. With oil revenues high and expected to remain that way, with Putin's tight control over who his successor will be, and with no regional governors being appointed by the Kremlin, democracy remains in its infancy. It's therefore easy to understand why, when I asked the older generations (like my host mother) what she thought of Putin, the answers were usually positive.

That said, this rant on Russia should in no way discourage you from visiting the country, appreciating the culture, and savoring the delicious food that's made its way to America. I only hope that someday the country can capitalize on the inherent strengths it has at its disposal.

HOME!

After 36 hours of travel, I'm home! My flight was delayed on Air France out of St. Petersburg, so I missed my connection in Paris. As I weighed the costs and benefitst of Air France putting me up in a hotel in Paris compared to getting home, I chose the latter. There was no way I wanted to spend any more time in St. Petersburg's Pulkovo airport either, that's for sure, since my midnight choices there were either Cmetana (sour cream) flavored potato chips and my favorite Nevskoe beer, or more sweets at a little cafe. I'm just glad to be home and I look forward to posting the rest of my posts I've had time to write while waiting in the airport in the next day or so.

Moscow: 2 Days as a Tourist, 3 days as a Бизнесмен (Biznessman)

After a nice night of sleeping on a futon only to be wakened by my friend’s crying baby (rest of the family, Mike, Katya, and Max are pictured immediately below), I left to go try my luck to see Lenin’s Mausoleum.
There was of course a demonstration going on near the Kremlin, but I got into the line just in time. Lenin was pretty freaky. He’s just lying there, and his hands have been laying for so long on his black straight jacket that they’ve left these little white cloudy imprints on the suit. There were about 6 guards in the room and the security was pretty high. For the first time I was forced to pay the foreigner rate for a bag check since you’re not allowed to bring anything into the Mausoleum with you.

I spent the rest of the afternoon in the three separate buildings of the Pushkin Museum of Art: The Dutch collection, French and other European, and the private collections. I loved the private collections museum of course because it was almost all Russian art. I took some pictures which I’ll post at a link below. I then walked along the Arbat (open-air market) and successfully bargained for two Ohio State Buckeyes (2002 and 2006) Matryushkas, only to realize I didn’t have enough cash to buy them. Sucks to be the people I wanted to buy them for since I didn’t make it back there. You might have to settle for chocolate (or Vodka shots). I had some wonderful Italian Food for dinner and got to bed pretty late.

My days of “work” in this city were not too pleasurable. After a full day of meetings I wrote up my notes and tried to get as much sleep as I could. We accomplished a lot, and I have a wealth of new information and contacts to bring back to work, but let’s just say my suit is a crumpled, dirty, smelly mess. Business meetings in Russia are pretty convivial. Most people we met were very casual, and all had a requisite secretary to offer us Chai (Tea) or Coffee. At the investment banks we of course had Evian (retailing for about 8 dollars at a restaurant). One of them even had a cigar room, but we were unfortunately not invited to partake.

Trying to take the metro in this city is pretty easy. The trains come pretty quickly, but it is just hot. To complicate matters yesterday, there were peat fires in the northern part of the city that created an entire layer of smog and gave people respiration problems. One of their weather agencies actually encouraged people (especially children) to stay inside, and in 2002 about 600 people died over the course of the summer from the smoke. That’s why Russians have their Dachas.

I will post some pictures of mine from Moscow at this link soon.

Here they are.

Trip to Moscow

After a hearty midnight meal of kasha and broiled potatoes, I boarded my overnight train to Moscow. I was in a nice "Coupee" for the overnight train down and I surprisingly slept just fine. We got in at around 10 AM and I went immediately to my friend of a friend's parent's house up near the university. An old man with no shirt on answered. Valentin introduced himself and then took me to meet his wife, a very nice Jewish grandmother-like lady. She promptly fed me, and I couldn't say anything to keep her from serving me a nice, hearty Russian breakfast of sardines, tomatoes, eggs, and cucumbers. Yum! Mike, my friend Dan's friend came to pick me up later in the day after I went all around the Kremlin. In tourist mode, I dutifully stood in long lines, avoided other ones, and tried to see as much of the main sites that I could with the small time I had.

Today (Sunday) after a nice sleep at Mike's house, I saw one corpse (Lenin), two Ferraris, and all three buildings of the Pushkin museum. I also saw the beautiful Synagogue here, and I will post pictures of it all when I finish working. This city is really amazing. It's very much like New York, but with the spansiveness of LA. There are tons of what they call "New Russians" that have endless money to spend on food and luxury items. The reconstruction that's taking place here is similar to what's going on in St. Pete but the size of it all, is just eye-opening.

I don't know how much time I'll have to post over the next couple days but I hope to catch up when I get back home.

The Port of Primorsk

As many of you know I do energy stuff for a living, so today I was in my element when I accompanied the Consul General, the Consul, and some other Consulate employees to the biggest oil port in Russia, and the fourth largest oil port in the world. The port is located about 2 hours north of the city on the Gulf of Finland. We passed many many dachas (summer homes) on the way up, and it was really beautiful.

Most of the 1.5 million barrels per day (bbl/d) of the crude oil Primorsk exports goes to ports in Europe, but only a very small amount (less than 100,000 bbl/d) comes to the US. We had a tour of the port facilities and some of the environmental labs where they test the water conditions. At the end we were given a wonderful lunch with a pike-like fish, red caviar blinies (much better in bliny than on sushi), salmon pelmeni (aka kreplach) in a fish-based soup, more salmon for the main meal, and then fruit and cookies for dessert. It was extremely nice and ochen vkoocni (very tasty). They answered almost all of my questions, but it makes me want to work on my Russian even more since I only understood about 1 in 10 words. I luckily had many people to help translate parts of the briefing, and even the native Russians didn't understand a lot of the oil terminology.

In the next couple days I have a couple other work-related meetings here, which means my spare time is being used up prepping for those and for my trip to Moscow on Friday night. I hope to post more about my activities this past week soon. Unfortunately no pictures of the Port for you all since it's kind of a security risk. Sorry!

Making change

I want to write quickly about something here that drives me nuts. Others have written about it, but I would like to rant. I recently ran out of money on my cell phone. You have to go to these little kiosks and put in small amounts of cash to add money to your account. Let's say however that when you last took out money, all you got out was 1000 roubles, or about $45, and you got it in one single bill. No place will take this 1000 roubles and exchange it for smaller denominations. If you go to a Producktы they look at you like you're crazy and if you try to give it to a bus money collector he takes your last 8 roubles and doesn't worry about the rest. I've tried to think about why this is the case here, and all I can think of is that it's some government or regionally sponsored initiative to control the liquidity of money, or more likely, they don't want to have too many large bills on hand in case the smaller establishments get robbed. Either way, it's annoying.

Russian Cars

Nowhere else in the world can you find the different types of cars you find here in Russia. During communist times, the USSR exported some of their Ladas to Europe, Africa, South America, and even Canada. The cars were often re-exported back to the USSR because there was a demand for what was conventionally thought to be a better made export-ready car. Today, many of these junkers, including the domestic version of the Lada (the Zhigouli) are still spattering around this city, fuming at rates that I am sure exceed even a minimum EPA standard from the 1990 Clean Air Act.
Ownership of a car is a status symbol here. To own a car is a privilege, and it's easy to see why not having to rely on the sometimes sketchy Marschrutki, the slow busses, the cavernous metro, or the non-existent tram system is advantageous. But car ownership here is rising. I wish I had access to some of my resources at work to get actual numbers. Also, a number of big auto deals were signed at this year's Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, and this city is fast becoming the Detroit of Russia. I want to write about a couple other points:

1. On some of these older cars, they have these little metal static protectors that run from the chassis to the ground. (See the slideshow and you'll see what I mean). I guess if enough electricity builds up in the body it can short circuit it? I really don't know.
2. I really think the cars are designed with more sensitive security systems. Anytime a motorcycle goes by at least one car alarm goes off for about 2 minutes and then stops.
3. When locking these cars the security systems make the most awful Bleep-Bleep-Bleep that for some reason people like to do it over and over and over again.
4. Honestly I think that people speed up when they see pedestrians crossing the road where crossings are unmarked
   
5. There are no posted speed limits in this city that I've ever seen.
   
6. You can actually buy 76 octane gasoline here. Simply put, the higher the octane, the higher the temperature (and the more efficiently) your motor can work. When the price of this gasoline is half the price of 85 or 88 octane gasoline, you can imagine what people might be encouraged to buy. I've figured out that 85 octane gasoline here is actually around $2.70 per gallon, but that's still about half of what it costs in the rest of Europe.
   
7. So, with no speed limits, universal construction, few street signs, and your typical New York cabbie driving all the little Marschrutki, you can imagine how this would not be the safest place to be a pedestrian.

Balancing out: What I'm enjoying about St. Petersburg

To balance out what I think have been a couple salty, yet true, posts I want to write about a couple more positive things about this country so I don't scare all of you away from visiting. These past couple days I've explored the nightlife of the city even more, talked to the people in the Productы (insert guttural sound at the end), went on a daytrip to Gatchina, and sampled the sweets.

The last week here has been beautiful every day, with highs around 80, almost no humidity, and then dropping to a comfortable 60 at night. Perfectly blue skies every day have made for a couple postcard-ready pictures. (sans construction, of course). Below, you can see Palace Square in the top left corner.

I've also been frequenting a bar called Dyunie (I believe this means dunes) where some Germans have found an empty courtyard near the Church on Spilled Blood (view from the bar, to the right) and have dumped a big pile of sand, added lawn chairs, and stuck some wood in the ground for bathrooms. They play a mix of euro hip hop, reggae remixes, and 60's motown and soul music. Weird mix, but it actually works and we all keep going back. You can get beer for around $2-3 and you can then add all different kinds of syrups to it. We kick off our shoes and just relax. For me, getting home from this area is a bit of a walk (around 40 mins) after the metro closes, but my feet have gotten used to it and I've enjoyed peeking into all the other little stores that are open late, sampling Moroshenaya (ice cream) and laughing to myself about the people stumbling home.

Dyunie, very early in the evening

My friends from the discussion club have also been eager to show me some of the sites of the city they call home. One of them took me to a little art exhibition with some cool photographs and some promotional materials for what the new city of St. Petersburg will look like. I felt very in-the-know with my own translator by my side. Another friend took me to a little doughnut shop, called Pishki, right off of Nevsky Prospect that serves doughnut-sized funnel cakes, covered in powdered sugar. They were very good, but I actually preferred the candy they sold there, and I plan to bring home a bunch of it to share with all of you (hope it doesn't melt).

She then took me to the edge of one of the canals where if you throw a coin on this little oft-stolen bird (called Chizhik Pyzhik) you're supposed to have good luck. My coin landed on the bird (action shot shown below), but it fell in the river. Oh well. There's a song for the bird too that goes, Chizhik Pyzhik Gde Tы Bыl, Na Fontanke Vodka Pil (meaning "Where have you been? I was on the Fontanka [canal] drinking vodka"). It was named after the group of students at the Chizhik law school who went there often to unwind after classes.
My day trip to Gatchina was kind of spur of the moment, but it turned out to be a nice escape from the city, and I welcomed the fresh air (bus ride home in hot, sweaty-smelling Marshrutka balanced that out nicely). My german friend and I left on an elektritchka (electric commuter train) and the trip took about an hour. I snapped this picture quickly from the train.
It was a beautiful day and some of the art in the Palace was very nice. The park was pretty also but it was so big we didn't get to see all of it. Hands-down, the cafe there made the best cinnabon-like things I've had here. Speaking of food, here's a nice picture of the beautiful, sweet pirog's at Cafe Stolle.
So, there've been many positive things that I've grown to love about St. Pete and this region. Most importantly, I never really could grasp the concept of the "Russian soul", but I think now I'm beginning to understand what that means. Hopefully I can put those thoughts into words when I get back from Moscow next week. I don't think I could ever live here, but I wouldn't turn down an opportunity to come back for a little while someday (provided I have time to buy a jar of peanut butter).

City planning in Russia

I've been waiting to write this post for awhile, and I think I finally have enough examples to make it work. Some of my Russian readers have asked me to note that some of the observations I'm making are really generalizations, so please keep that in mind. Still, I've come to the realization that becoming and being a civil engineer or some contruction planner/worker must be vastly easier than it might be in other parts of the world. Why?

1. Street signs on corners are never required. Sometimes they're midway down the street, hidden behind some other sign. I would not want to try to drive here.
2. Drinking fountains in buildings or in any public place are never required. Then again, drinking the public water here will subject to you parasites. In fact the St. Petersburg Times reported today that 3 million tons of used water is dumped into the Neva. Two-thirds of that amount falls into the river completely untreated.
3. There is no need to mark construction sites. Russians are expected to be on the lookout for random cracks, holes, crags, scrap metal, and especially loose planks. Those nice little yellow and black-striped danger tapes, or normal orange cones are RARELY if ever used here.
4. Let's say you start building something. Let's say in the end things don't end up being very level and you need to throw a little 4 inch step in the middle of the hallway just to make things even out. Perfectly normal, right? Yeah, until you spend your break watching every single person jar their knee as they walk from one end of our building to another. A yellow strip or a "watch your step" sign would work wonders. Plus, it's not just our building, it's my house, and many other restaurants and buildings.
5. A smushed-in spare tire is a perfectly acceptable way to fill a hole in the sidewalk.
6. If you're boring a hole in the sidewalk with a massive saw and creating incredible amounts of dust, there's no need to either contain some of the dust you're making or allow for people to walk around you (without getting hit by the car speeding down the street).
   
7. I think it's worth mentioning yet again that people here actually accept they won't have hot water in the summer for 3 weeks.

Thanks for letting me rant. As my mom points out, I think it also probably has a lot to do with the abundance of personal injury lawyers in the states and probably many statutes concerning negligence and legal stuff about which I am not an expert.

How to wait in a line

Dear Russian People,
Yesterday I, a foreigner, ventured into your train station to try to buy a ticket. After walking into your station I walked around for five minutes until I could find the ticket counter. After surveying the scene I decided to wait in line at a window, only to realize 15 minutes later that you don't accept credit cards and I had to go wait in another line. Frustrated, yet still understanding, I switched into another line. Someone in front of me left the line and went to another line, labeled something to the effect of "War veterans only, documents required". Just as I reached the window, 15 minutes later, the same guy came back over and tried to cut in front of me. In broken Russian I exclaimed " Nyyyyet, I've already been in line twice, and you left!" and surprisingly he stood down and waited behind me. Repeated experience with your cutting-inclined brethren has made me more aggressive these days. Allow me to give you some tips about how Westerners wait in line. I think it might lessen the mayhem that exists at your train stations, restaurants, and other places of interest.

• One line, one ticket counter, unless otherwise indicated. You may not tell your wife to go wait in another line to see who is served first.
  
• Lines are supposed to have a shape, and are not meant to be an amorphous mass of people sticking their arms in front of each other to get ahead
• Just because the lady at the counter who is too busy to actually look you in the eye says "Ya Clooshayoo" (I am listening) does not mean she is listening to you since you got in line after me
• If you are drunk, you do not have special prvileges and you may not fall on top of me or other people in line. Also, you should shower.
• If you leave the line, and don't come back for twenty minutes, you can't have your place back. Sorry, buddy.
• Compliance with the above simple rules will ensure that excessive police presence is not necessary.
  

Thanks,
Foreigner

So, to avoid problems with the ticket lady I wrote down what I wanted: the times, date, etc. and amazingly walked away with a ticket to Moscow for around $130 roundtrip. I can't read anything else the ticket says but I think I know which train I need to be on and when. Phew.

Some insight on Russian society

Through my friend and through the volunteering, I've met several Russians who are patient enough to either let me speak in English or are patient enough to speak slowly to me in Russian. Last week, in addition to our English Discussion Club meeting on Monday, we went out to bar with a beautiful view of the Neva. I want to share a couple interesting little tidbits that I learned from them:

• It's apparently common in Russian Internet parlance to use Albanian words to make yourself sound funny. For example if you want to call someone a Krasovchek (a handsome guy), but you replace the "k" with a "g", thereby sounding Albanian, it's supposed to be funny. I tried repeating it a couple times, to broad laughter. Replacing almost any "k" sound with a "g" is just funny sounding to them. I don't really know what an equivalent might be in English.
• There's an entire site called www.vkontakte.ru (lit. in contact) that is a basic copy of www.facebook.com. I now have a profile, sort of in Russian. It's hard for me to type the cyrillic letters without these little decals you can buy for your keyboard.
  
• People in this country are forced to go into the draft, unless they are enrolled in a University or have children. What's quite common here I'm told is that families will pay off doctors in order to get them out of having to serve. I realize this happens in a lot of places though, not just Russia.
• I've been asked repeatedly here about why Bush was elected president a second time. It's amazing (and unfortunate) how some Russian people's image of America is based solely on our leader. When we turn the table to Russian politics and ask who will follow Putin, the unanimous opinion is that they are pretty sure they will only get to know him for a very short time before he's "elected".
  
• As I have mentioned before a lot of this city is under reconstruction. I don't think I can describe to you the extent to which almost every 5 buildings has some sort of scaffolding and every other block's sidewalk will have at least one ditch in various stages of filling. Apparently, there is a lot of money to be made in this business, but the money is being used to only renovate the facades of the buildings, not the courtyards (like this one which Dostoevsky wrote about), pictured below. There is more money to be made in renovating the buildings since that costs more, than in just knocking them down and rebuilding.

Inside

Outside

Well, I am off to go eat some more Bliny's and try my hand at buying a train ticket to Moscow. I have lots more to write about now that my econ tests are over.

Cafe Stolle: Why my life in Russia has markedly improved

As I said earlier this week, I've been spending a lot of time studying for 2 economics placement tests so I haven't had a chance to write. What I do want to write briefly about is that I've recently found a new chain of restaurants here called Cafe Stolle, one of which is conveniently located not more than a five minute walk from my house. They make these wonderful little pirog's that are basically pastry bread with fillings inside. There are some pictures on their website. The fillings are sweet and savory, ranging from meat to chocolate. My new favorites are the salmon with dill and cream and the blueberry. In other food news. I've recently been on a bliny rampage. Between the bliny stand that I've begun to sample near my house and the plethora of Teremok's all around the city I've eaten quite a few this week. One day I went to a really great place called Russkiye Bliny and got one of which was a double-sized blintz filled with fruit and whipped cream and shaved nuts on top.

In other news, my host mother has informed me we are not going to have hot water for the next 2 weeks while they are doing maintenance at the water station. Luckily we have an electric water heater that plugs into the wall above the shower. There seems to be many of these such devicese in Russia, no worries about the safety concerns of having 220V of electricity running through your water, since my friend (read about it at her blog) has also had to use a similar device from Bulgaria to wash clothes in the bathtub. The first time I had to use it on Friday, the water pressure was kind of lackluster, so to input more water, I had to turn up the machine to max. Little did I know that after more than a minute on full power, it blows the fuse. Really fun standing there in the dark, covered in soap, and not being able to remember the russian word for HELP! Don't worry, I'm fine, and I've resigned myself to lukewarm water for the next couple weeks. I should accept this, as I've been told by many a Babushka, teachers, and friends, "It's Russia!".

Mikey and Janna's Visit

I miss my friends a lot here, so it was very nice to have Mikey, also an old roomate, and his wife, Janna here visiting on their cruise. Their family is quite large so they were able to get a bus to take them around the city. On Monday, it was great. I got to see the insides of the two churches that I'd been around a million times but hadn't yet paid to go see inside. I was reminded how much they rip off the tourists here. They'll charge you twice the Russian price, and then they charge you if you want to take any pictures. Luckily most of the time I can get away with being a Russian student (half the foreign student price) by showing my SPB State ID. My strategy is to say as little as possible. Here's a little picture of them outside the Church of Spilled Blood (where Alexander II was assassinated, they built a pretty church).
Yesterday they went to Moscow for the day and then today they went to the Hermitage. I met up with them at the SPB Artillery Museum, and we were then shuttled to a firing range on Vasilievsky Island that is used for army training and where they bring cruise tourists. I am sure if such a thing existed in the States we would have to sign about 30 waiver forms before even going inside. We got to shoot a Kalashnikov (AK-47) semi-automatic rifle and a Makarov pistol. Never in a million years would I have put this on a list of things I wanted to do in St. Pete, and of all people Mikey and Janna's family would have been the last I would have thought would want to do it. They claim they thought it would be more like laser tag. In any case, if you're going to shoot a gun for the first time, why not make it a Russian one?

Fire and Ice

This week I have to take an Economics placement test for SAIS so I don't know how much time I'm going to have to blog. Later this week I'll get back to some more regular postings, including an update on the English Discussion Club at YESOD and my friend Mikey and his wife Janna's visit (on a cruise ship).

This past weekend I went to a bar in the city called the Ice Bar where for around $11 you are given a Siberian outfit, are ushered into an ice-walled room with ice sculptures and ice tables, and are given one drink. It was kept at around 15 degrees fahrenheit. Brrr. I dont know if i would go back, but it was almost worth it for the picture. My friend Sandro managed to freeze his drink into one of the Ice sculptures by pouring it down the tube. We left quickly thereafter.


The next morning I went to the town of Pushkin, where the poet had his Dacha, and where Catherine the Great's palace is. It rained pretty much all afternoon, but it was still pretty to see. In order to get there, you have to take the Metro about 30 minutes south and then take a Marshrutka (sort of a Taxi). We had a little trouble getting him to stop where we wanted, so we also ended up seeing the palace at Pavlovsk, which Catherine built for her son Paul. It would have been a lot prettier without the rain.

Pavlovsk

One of the most amazing things about Tsarskoe Selo (Catherine's Palace), is that the entire thing was completely gutted out during the second World War, and the Nazis actually used the palace to store their military wares. The Russians knew that the palace might be occupied so they transferred almost all of the valuables of the palace to various places in Siberia. The one room left that they couldn't transport was the priceless Amber Room. The Germans reconstructed this room in Konigsberg but it was then lost in the chaos at the end of the war. E.ON Ruhrgas (A german gas company) was noted as playing a large role in a new restoration of the room that was completed in 2003. Although most of the palace is completely restored, much of the rest of the grounds are actually still under reconstruction.

The Amber Room

Outside of Catherine's Palace

Things at school are going well. Today I learned the word for a car crash and for getting hit by a car. I've managed to now find the Americans, including a girl from Parma, Ohio (now living in Woodley Park) and two OSU grad students. Go Bucks! Small world.

Georgian Shabbat - Part 2 ("Don't Worry be Happy")

Last night, as I mentioned last week, I went to a Georgian Jewish family's house for dinner. They live down the street from me in a modest little apartment similar to the one I live in. Yaakov, the man who invited me (turns out he's only 26) lives with his mother and father, his grandmother, his 6-7 month pregnant wife and his two children (1 and 4 years old). The house is filled with pictures of the rebbe and the family. He was quick to show me pictures of his wedding which took place in T'bilisi two years ago, and he was overjoyed ("Mazel Tov, Mazel Tov!") to find that I am also getting married. He insisted I send him pictures.

My night consisted of a combination of Hebrew, English, and Russian (this is after spending the day at the Hermitage with two German friends from class). Needless to say, my mind's on language overload today. Anyway, dinner began with Shalom Alechem, a tradional song sung at the beginning of the Shabbat meal, followed by Kiddush (blessing over the wine). The amazing thing is that one could walk into any Jewish familiy's home in the entire world and find almost identical customs of observing the sabbath (Same blessings, same main food items, same songs, etc). I had to take a step back and think again about how lucky I was tonight to find this community who welcomed me, in Yaacov's words, "as my brother" and one that within 1 minute of coming inside encouraged me to act in their home as I would in mine.

The salad smorgasbord consisted of marinated eggplant slices wrapped over a crushed almond/nut spread, two types of salmon (one with a spicy crust, one normal), cabbage latkes with a horseradish spread topping (one of my favorites), a garlic houmus type thing that looked exactly like chopped liver and tasted spicy ...like nothing I've ever tasted before, tomato and cucumber salad with parsely and dill, another beet/cabbage salad, cooked tomatoes with an egg white topping, and probably 2 or 3 other things that I can't remember off the top of my head. Main course was chicken and rice (it's very hard and expensive to get kosher meat here), and dessert was melons, cherries, peaches, and date-filled ginger cookies. It was all excellent and I was happy my conversational Russian is improving so that I could thank them properly for their hospitality and carry on a conversation with them.

There are supposedly 200 Georgian Jews in St. Petersburg, and, from what they told me, a very lively community of around 1000 Jews back in T'bilisi. There are also a couple rabbis here for the community, but they all are on vacation for the summer. Yaacov has his MBA from St. Petersburg State, also in Economics, but I couldn't really gather what he really does for a living. "Baruch Ha'Shem" (lit. Blessed is G-d, but figuratively it means that G-d will provide.") He would usually follow statements like this with "Don't Worry Be Happy." This was also his response to, "How is life for Jews in Georgia, or in St. Pete?" Unfortunately, now I have that song in my head.

As if the world couldn't get any smaller, his father, get this, used to be Minister of Energy under Shevardnadze, but unfortunately he speaks very very little Russian and he now works in a restaurant in the city. He didn't say much at all the whole night. I think it's partly since he is now relegated to working in a restaurant; Yaakov said there are just not that many jobs back in Georgia. Whether or not it's because of their affinity for Shevardnadze, they repeatedly called Saakashvili, Georgia's current Columbia and GW-educated leader, a puppet of the West. In all, it was a very interesting night.

Today I went on a great Dostoevsky walking tour with some people from the Consulate here. They're all very nice, and one of them is actually in my program. He and his wife have a great blog about their adventures. Be sure to check it out, especially a forthcoming post entitled something like "Russia: The Land that OSHA forgot".

Walking around town

The following are the top 10 most common sights you'll see around this city:

1. It's normal to see people walking around with a bottle of beer in their hand, even at 9 AM.
2. Trucks spewing (and I mean spewing) fumes into the air. There are definitely no low sulfur diesel restrictions in this country.
3. People making out.
4. If it's a weekend, in any scenic place you are bound to find a bride and groom taking wedding pictures. They will have their entourage with them and all will most likely be drinking.
5. Stray dogs. This is sad, but amazingly the ones near where I live know how to cross at the crosswalk.
   
6. Some sort of construction being performed by only about 2 of the 10 people that are supposed to be doing the work. The rest are taking a cigarette break.
7. Although I don't take the metro that often there are always people selling things. This week it was band-aids.
8. Cruise tourist groups. Very easy to spot. Some even wear nametags that say things like "Captains quarters."
   
9. On almost every block you'll find a Beauty Salon, a Pharmacy, a 24-hour convenience store, a shoe repair shop, and a Bar/Restaurant.
10. Mothers walking arm-in-arm or holding hands with their daughters.

And finally, some of the most beautiful architecture and historic sites in the world. Here's a new set of pictures.

The only statue of Catherine the Great inside of St. Pete. Here, she is surrounded/supported by philosophers like Voltaire and Diderot.

The State Russian Museum

Last year I went to an exhibit at the Guggenheim in NYC called Russia!, which showcased for the first time since the end of the Cold War a chronological set of Russian art in the United States. Frankly, I was blown away. For those of you whose concept of Russian art is Kandinsky and Chagall (as mine was), there were many other artist to discover. Plus, the exhibition was interesting in that it divided Russian art during the Soviet period into art sanctioned and not sanctioned by the state.

This afternoon I went to the Russian Museum, indeed in search of Kandinskys and Chagalls (even though they had very few), but more to see the art that couldn't make it across the ocean. It turns out that a lot of the art, especially from the Soviet period is on exhibition elsewhere. I wasn't disappointed though, and a number of the same pictures I saw today had been at the Guggenheim exhibit too. Here's one of them.

lya Repin, Barge Haulers on the Volga, 1870–73

Just FYI, what you read from here on out comes from the humble opinion of an artist's son. I can take nice landscape pictures and draw nice stick figures, but I'm definitly not an art critic. So, just bear that in mind. Really, though, I'm not going to critique much, I just liked the art. Second, for those of you who don't care about art-- don't worry. I am going to be writing about Russian cars, Russian fashion, and more Russian food in the next couple days.

Although a lot of the art was inspired by neo-classical, romantic, realist, and then impressionist movements it was the subject matter that was slightly different. The theme of "work" or "the worker" is pervasive during all time periods, as are landscapes. I'm a sucker for landscape pictures (clouds, fields, oceans, sunsets, etc) so I found that art impressive.
On a modern note, one of the special exhibits going on right now is about Malevich's black square. An informational thing at the beginning claimed that this symbol is the second most recognizable symbol in art next to the Mona Lisa. I'm not so sure that's completely true though.

A lot of the art showed lots of sadness. I counted at least five pictures that were simply just titled "Grief" or some variation of it. The art leading up to the 1917 revolution almost entirely portrayed the life of peasants.

Boris Grigoriev, Indigenous Land, 1917-18

I'm also not a huge fan of portraiture, but I thought a lot of the way people were being portrayed was similar to Manet, with a stark background and with the subject in his/her element. I don't know who took their cue from whom, but this picture was one of my favorites.

Leon Bakst, Supper. 1902

The rest of the pictures are posted on kodakgallery and you can take a look if you'd like.

In other news, I'm happy to report I have a brand new towel that doesn't smell like it's 20 years old, although the water still smells here. It's not safe to drink because its chlorinated. I'm beginning to get a little tired of potatoes and fish (when you eat it almost twice a day that's bound to happen), although variations on the theme, like the potato latkes that I had at the student center today, were quite tasty.

A Discussion on Human Rights with Russians

Last night I led the english discussion club at YESOD on human rights. We had a small discussion about the UN Declaration of Human Rights, which we passed out in Russian and English, and then drew some connections to Judaism and Jewish texts. We then broke up into little groups to make up our own non-profit organizations to try to "tackle" (a new word for most of the Russians) some of the problems (Darfur, Child Slavery, Freedom of the Press in Russia, spread of AIDS, and a couple others.) The Russians were quite knowledgeable about some of these world issues, but the concept of a non-profit was a bit foreign to them. We had to re-emphasize that the state was not trying to solve the problems, but instead might be the biggest challenge to being able to work.

There were a couple interesting observations that I made during the discussion club. First, when I asked everyone to go around the room and introduce themselves, the last person told me that he wasn't accustomed to this, and asked why we (Americans do it). I explained my hope was for them to find common ground, and to make for a more intimate discussion. I think they understood.

When the group presented the non-profit group to try to encourage freedom of speech in Russia, one of the girls challenged her as to where the money would be coming from. If that money came from the oligarchs (like the Abramovitch's, Gusinsky's, or Khodorkovsky's of the 90s), then that's not truly free speech, but is just speech subject to new interests. There was much debate about whether free speech truly exists in Russia today. Surprisingly many said it does.

Joe, my co-leader, asked the students if they trust the police here. Two (of the 12 or so that were there) spoke about apartments they had rented where police were running a heroin racket. One of them even had a judge living in the same apartment building and even she chose not to do anything about it. Both ended up just moving out because they didn't want to have to rely on the police. Others agreed they try to minimize having to rely on them. I was lucky the other day as I walked down Nevsky Prospekt (the main street) since two Asian tourists were stopped right next to me by the police. Luckily my documents are all in order, and I think I've been doing a good job of blending in (which involves not smiling a lot).

In all, I think we had a good discussion; the point is really to get them talking in English. A lot of them don't know each other outside the weekly meetings, so we're planning to all go out socially to get to know each other better.

Otherwise I've been adjusting to life here fine. Today is Tisha B'av, and I fasted a little bit. Now I'm going to go reward myself with a Blini (like a crepe or a blintz). This weekend I plan on seeing Carmen in the Mariinsky Theater down the street. It'll be in Italian, probably with Russian subtitles. I will be lucky if I understand any of it. On Sunday I'll be going to the city of Pushkin, or Tsarskoye Selo, the home of Catherine the Great's palace.

Peterhof Pictures

I took a day trip on Saturday to Peterhof, which is the Summer Palace of Peter the Great on the Gulf of Finland. You can click here to see just a few the pictures I took when I was there (trust me I took a lot more, but I'll spare you). I'm gearing up for another week of class after doing some intensive studying this weekend. I'll be blogging about some more substantive issues this week, but I should sleep a bit.

Georgian Shabbat - Part 1

On Friday night I decided to go to the Choral Synagogue again. Who knew that there's a Georgian Jewish community that meets in the small chapel upstairs. I have a feeling that the majority of the people that attended the shul last weekend on Saturday morning were Ashkenazim and most likely attend the nearby Chabad on Friday nights. I didn't realize it was Georgian until I saw a color weekly newsletter written in Hebrew, Georgian, and Russian. Why in the world would I know Georgian script when I saw it? Don't ask, let's just say it has to do with pipelines. I don't know how these Jews came to settle here in St. Petersburg; they probably came at some point prior to the fall of the FSU. They were very welcoming to me, and all of them came up to say Shabbat Shalom to me at the end of the services.

I have to admit it brought back a lot of memories from France. When I studied there, I also went often to a Sephardic synagogue, and there are a number of similarities to how that largely North African community conducted its services and this one. For one, the sephardic custom for Kabbalat Shabbat (welcoming the Sabbath) is to go around the room singing one line of the Song of Songs at a time. It's kind of a free for all: the man who is singing loud enough after about 5 seconds gets to finish the sentence. So, that creates a very confusing experience if you don't know where they are.

One big difference between this community and the one in France is the level of education about the Jewish prayer service and traditions. The man sitting next to me was reading a Georgian transliteration of it; there was no Hebrew at all in his book. A number of times in the service the men argued about how to complete a prayer or which prayer should be next. It is pretty amazing how suppressed these communities have been and how they are trying to re-learn the traditions of their ancestors.

I also remembered from France last night that I will never be able to replicate or sound like a praying Sephardi. The normal tune has a sort of staccato rhythm, with quick, unmelodic high and low notes, and with little fluctuations at the end of each sentence that have very little rhyme or reason. Let's just say that when I try to sing along I sound like a combination of a wet cat and an off-key yodeler. One interesting thing was that at the end of the service they all made their way up to the Ark cover and gave it a kiss. Then, one of the men, Yaakov, invited me to dinner next week. I look forward to filling you all in on the cuisine.

Not going hungry, that's for sure

My family will be happy to know that I'm not going hungry here. It's amazing how a European-"style" city has so many stores that are open 24 hours. Even the grocery store is open till 11 at night, which is completely the opposite from other parts of Europe where everything closes at 8 and isn't open on at least one day a week. Here, there are fruit stands on almost every corner, and I have a big grocery store that's a five minute walk away. Tonight my host mother (yes, I believe her hair is fuschia) made me some delicious Ratatouille and what are called Vareniki. These pierogi-like pouches come in many varieties, but she made the dough from scratch and then put (slightly sour and smaller than American) cherries inside with some sugar. It's served with a kind of sour cream called Cmetana, not sure if this is where the name for shmetna came from. Very very good, besides the pits that were in the cherries. But I'm not complaining. That's all for today.

Adjusting to St. Petersburg

Sorry it's been awhile since I last wrote, but it's been a time consuming couple of days getting adjusted to where my classes are and figuring out how to get around. They have these things here called Marschrutkas and they’re basically communal taxis that run around the city and will pick you up anywhere and drop you off anywhere for only one more rouble (about 4 cents) than taking a bus, tram, or the Metro. After taking 2 wrong busses yesterday I am finally beginning to figure out the system here. It makes it pretty convenient actually. I was able to get to the US Consulate today on the other side of town by only walking about 5 minutes total.
This is my view on the way to class:
So, my first class was a little over my head. I saw a bunch of the people that had taken the same placement test with me outside one of the classrooms, and looking at my schedule, not realizing that it was Tuesday, not Monday, I went to the wrong room. Today's class, the right one, was a little too easy/slow, so tomorrow hopefully it'll be just right.

I was told by multiple people here that I really ought to go to Talinn (in Estonia). I’ve had to deal with some [St. Petersburg State] University bureaucracy to both register my current visa (which everyone has to do) and then try to get a multi-entry VISA to go to an EU country. To do that you must have an AIDS test. So it’s a funny thing though in the clinic. You have to wear these little blue booties over your shoes to help avoid bringing dirt into the building. As it turns out since almost all the students around the university wear these really high pointy heels, they just break right through the little coverings. It's kind of amusing to see these women in heels (and miniskirts) walking out of the nurse’s office and holding a big wad of cotton over their arms. But after much contemplation, and after being told that to expedite my VISA processing at all it’s going to be an extra $60 (after having had the AIDS test of course), I decided there is plenty to see in this country. Tallinn’s not going anywhere.

For example, I realized yesterday, during my free time in the afternoon, that I am able to get into the Hermitage for free. After walking around the Summer Gardens and getting a sun burnt forehead, I took a little stroll through the museum. At most of the most famous museums in the world there’s climate control, but not at the Hermitage. I would assume that since it never really gets above 80 here they don’t really need it. But as I walked around hundreds of millions of dollars worth of art by Van Gogh, Matisse, Gauguin, and Picasso, among many others, I couldn’t help but wonder if the 85 degrees inside, let alone the sunlight shining directly on some of the paintings, was damaging them.

Church of the Savior of the Blood (Site of the assassination of Czar Alexander II)

A Matisse in the Hermitage:

The view from the Hermitage ( I hope to get up there again soon to take this picture properly):

On a different note, I have mentioned before that I'm getting involved with the JDC while I'm here and I've been asked to help continue an English discussion club for some 20-30 year old Russians (I'm told no one asks whether they are Jewish or not, supposedly they've been found through various online networks). They meet in a brand new building called YESOD, similar to a JCC in the states, and paid for primarily by the Cleveland Federation along wiht other Jewish Organizations around the world. It's the largest center of Jewish life in Eastern Europe, and it's pretty amazing that a community close to my hometown helped put it here. I'm helping lead the discussion with another American law student from Boston, and this week was our first meeting we ran on our own, without the help of the two JDC volunteers who are leaving next week. I can't really talk about my impressions of the group since I haven't had a chance to get to know them very well, but I hope to write more about it in upcoming weeks.

Western (kosher-keeping) Man vs. Russia

If you're not familiar with Bear Grylls, the star of Man vs. Wild, a show on the Discovery channel (I think on friday nights) you should be. It's an amazing show, teaching you all kinds of survival techniques. I've had to use a share of my own today in my last day before classes. Of course, I'm exaggerating, but when my Babushka served me a plate of perch she'd fried that still had most of the scales on it, and was only half cooked, I thought to myself if Bear could do it (see the video of him eating raw fish) then I should be able to. I didn't want to hurt her feelings, seeing as how I know i've butchered half the words I say to her in Russian, and I'm sure i've already offended her somehow. I ended up asking her to cook it just a little more for me. I've been eating fine otherwise and I'm really happy that I packed all eight of those Clif bars and the peanut butter.

At around 9 tonight, to my surprise I looked out the window and the sky was blue. I was so excited that I went outside for a little walk and took a couple pictures.

Some of you have asked me what my general impressions are of this city, and I think it's going to take some getting used to. I knew Moscow would be gritty from movies, books, etc, but I just thought St. Petersburg would be similar to some of the pristine European cities I've visited before. I was wrong. I would say it's quite the opposite (outside the heaviliy touristed parts). Much of the city is under construction of some kind and almost every single sidewalk is filled with huge ditches either roped off or half filled with gravel. The soviet-style administrative buildings are still everywhere, but interspersed between some very pretty architecture.


I also went for what was supposed to have been a 40 minute run but turned in to an hour when i made a wrong turn. Luckily I had a map with me. Besides the dumbfounded looks I got from almost everyone I passed today, the worst part was a little pipsqueak dog lunged at my leg. I'm pretty good about watching out for larger ones but now I'll be more careful next time.

One thing that's made me very happy is the host family has a dog named Keri. I'll try to get a better picture sometime but she was not cooperating. I learned the word for Daisy is Margaritka :-(.

Some pictures...

Pretty building. Guess who owns it?







The regional St. Petersburg (SPB) affiliate of Gazprom.

There was a wedding party taking pictures near the Bronze Horseman (statue of Peter the Great).

St. Isaac's Cathedral

Shabbat

This morning I attended a nice Shabbat service at the Grand Choral synagogue, which is around 2 blocks away. It's beautiful inside, with newly painted pale yellow walls, a huge chandelier, and a large Ark with three Torahs locked up with a parking garage gate. Most of the nusach (tunes) was pretty familiar, but there was a choir in the rear and the cantor's voice really filled the vast space inside. He looked (and sounded) like Pavarotti. Chabad pretty much runs the show there, but most of the congregation was in the 60+ generation and seemed to divest itself from actually taking an active role in the activities. I guess there's a free meal at the end so that's why people come (but that's not different from a lot of places though). The rabbi gave me an Aliyah, which was very nice.

I had lunch this afternoon at the home of Menachem Lepkivker who is the head of the JDC here in St. Petersburg. The cholent was excellent, preceded by a whole plethora of different salads, most of them cabbage-based. I guess this is something i'm going to have to get used to. His family lives in a beautiful apartment (with a picture of the Rebbe inside, of course) right off of Nevsky Prospekt (the main drag). His son at home was around 8 years old, speaks fluent hebrew and russian and even a couple words in English.

I've made another new discovery about my host babushka. Not only was she a nanny for orthodox families in Israel, but one of them happened to be in Kiryat Arbeh in the territories. She showed me two entire albums of her 5 years in Israel. After getting an earful of Russian explaining them all, I was ready to take a nap.