Okay so I have officially been in Russia for 21 days…which is still one day shorter than everyone else on the trip but hey at least I get to say that as a bonus I spent a day in New York…
Anyways so much has happened since last week – I am now teaching English at a private Филологический Институт, I have been to the Россейская Нацноналная Библиотека, I have done so much more sightseeing, I went to the Петропавловский Крепость, and spent a weekend in Новгород (и можно сказать что я больше понравилась Новгород чем Cанкт Петербург?)….
In any case, I sit in on a beginning English language class from 6:30-8:00 whenever they need me as a native speaker representative and to provide conversation to the students…lets just put it this way: I looooooved the first class but now have an enormously newfound respect for all my teachers at Smolny….
I also went to the PeterPaul Fortress on Friday after class with the whole group, and up until that point, it was definitely my favorite part of the trip thus far – we saw the church there where a majority of the Romanov dynasty is buried including Пётр Великий, Александр II и его супруга, И Ннколай II и его семья – there was this whole room dedicated to the last of the imperial family where their remains were transported in the 1990s….все удивительно…then we were able to do the museum tour where we actually walked through and into the prison – I not only saw the clothes prisoners wore and the lists of people who were locked there (it was the ‘whose-who’ of Russian criminals and dissidents for sure – Lenin’s brother, Trotsky, Vera Finger, Gorky etc.) but was also able to walk inside the cells – I actually also got the complete package of Russian prison life = there was a solitary confinement room we were able to walk into but since I didn’t think the entire experience of ‘solitary confinement’ could fully be achieved with half a dozen other people in the room at the same time, I waited till the rush died down, then closed the door behind me and sat in that room in the darkness for a good solid minute by myself. Complete darkness except for the light seeping through the air holes, absolute silence, and impenetrable air….I could hardly last after 30 seconds let alone 30 days…and just think the monasteries where my ancestors were imprisoned were not only much colder, but also much smaller….it is unbelievably humbling to have experienced just a taste of what that must have been like…
Anyway after that groundbreaking feeling я гуляла с другами в крепостe и в городе (or as my friend David here likes to say ‘goo-li-ats’ ☺ )…it was a nice way to end the day before waking up at the crack of dawn to catch the train to Novgorod…
It’s a 3 hour bus ride to Novgorod give or take and since we left at 8:00 everyone on the trip now knows how un-morning of a person I am….so there’s that…but otherwise it was the start to what may have been the most amazing weekends I will have in Russia. So before this trip I had never heard of Novgorod (and yes mom it is Нов-город not Новий Город) and had no idea why it was important....well now I know it is one of the oldest cities in Eastern Europe and houses the oldest standing church in Russia – Saint Sophia. The city was on the crossroads of the traderoutes from the Vikings to the Greeks and became a vastly wealthy trading point – there are about 18 dozen churches (im of course exagerating but not by much) in a city of about 800,000 people if that, a legacy from these древные богатые купци. And in 1944 when the Germans bombed the city, 85% of the city was destroyed so only 15% of the original churches from ancient Novgorod are actually still standing (so sad)…not gonna lie, once you’ve seen one of those churches you’ve seen them all (white washed, onion domes, orthodox) but it was so cool to be walking on streets where Russians walked 1000 years ago…I also looooooved Novgorod because there was a beach there (a “beach” but it was a heck of a lot better than the one in Petersburg that butts up to the Крепость because nothing says a day at the beach like a nice stroll past the state prison...) and a beach volleyball tournament going on so I laid out three times in the sweltering heat (Im not kidding who would have thought Russain could be so hot but it is giving LA a run for its money right now...) and was in my bathing suit all weekend – and its a good thing becuase while they did not tell me to bring a skirt or shawl for this weekend excursion and I was forced to go buy a scarf to wear as a skirt in the churches, I was the only one in a bathing suit at lunch time on Sunday and was able to take a dip in the lake behind one of the cathedrals on the outskirts of the city –all those times i wear my bathing suit under my clothes and it FINALLY paid off....
We also went to the museum they have in Novgorod that is a preserved/consructed Russian villiage (the church is from the 1500s most of the houses from the 1800/1900s) but totally totally cool (not literally it was about 30 degrees ugh)...but I walked through a typical Russian villiage – awesome right?...I was also asked by a random Russian lady there who I asked to take my picture which part of Russia my accent was from...so 'wha-la' I guess I am learning a thing or two at school here haha...
Anyways I can go on and on because it was just such a relaxing, fun, friend-bonding time weekend (my roommate Jen is the sweetest girl - such a blessing to have met such normal, good-hearted, decent people on this trip) in such a peaceful, old, less touristy, Russian (and I mean Russian with a capital R) city…it was such a well needed break from the hubbub of Petersburg…but since we returned on 4th of July we all decided to celebrate so I came back to the rush of the city full-force – stayed out till 6:00 am to see the bridges go up and experience a full night of Russian White Nights – strangely enough this doesn’t seem to be an uncommon occurrence – we saw everyone from old babooshki to 4 year old kids on the hardly-dark streets at 4:00 am…weird
In any case the next day we had no school but I went to the National Russian Library right in the heart of the city – 3 years ago no students were allowed there and foreigners would not have even been considered, only Russian graduates (they would have to bring their diplomas with them for entrance) but laws have changed and I can now access the vault of 14 million old texts БЕЗПЛАТНО! Amazing! – they have all kinds of old texts – a Guttenberg bible, the first text printed in Swedish, the Gospel written in not Slavonic but Cyrillic (the ancient form of Slavonic) from 1038-9 one of the oldest of its kind, and countless other books – I know there is a goldmine of info there that is just waiting for me to access it…and all I need is my student ID and my passport – sweet…
In any case, I apologize for all the Russian words throughout – every tour I have thus far been on has been in Russian – completely – because I am in the first class so am expected to always go with the Russian tour guide on these excursions….it is incredible for my vocabulary and language retention, but I do have a tendency to passively listen as my brain starts to get Russian-overload so I know there is all kinds of things I missed during these tours, but fortunately I do remember most of it (my Russian is definitely improving)…but these past few days have been crazy, fun-filled, eye-opening, exhausting, but thoroughly enjoyable …now back to school and time to hit the books…