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.
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?
