“Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.” - Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, set in the beautiful city of Saint Petersburg, Russia.
We arrived in Saint Petersburg early in the morning on Tuesday, May 19th. The train was a much better experience this time around. For those of you who missed my first train ride to Saint Petersburg last year - I'll just say this: This time, we had private cabins. Last time? We rode communal-style. My Russian teacher to this day still talks about how traumatized I was by the experience. Yes, it was horrible.
Anyways! This time around was MUCH better. I slept perfectly fine and awoke when one of the attendants banged on our door, telling us we were arriving in 30 minutes.
Once we arrived, we lugged all of our luggage of the train, which was a real process. Then we took a bus to the hotel, freshened up, and headed to the Grot School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, our partner school in the grant program, Getting Closer. We were taken on the tour of the school and able to meet the staff and some of the students we have been Skyping with since last year.
After that, we got on a bus and headed to the Hermitage, one of the oldest and biggest museums in the world, founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great. (Saint Petersbug is also filled with smaller palaces that she built for all of her different [she had many] lovers).
Anyways! This time around was MUCH better. I slept perfectly fine and awoke when one of the attendants banged on our door, telling us we were arriving in 30 minutes.
Once we arrived, we lugged all of our luggage of the train, which was a real process. Then we took a bus to the hotel, freshened up, and headed to the Grot School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, our partner school in the grant program, Getting Closer. We were taken on the tour of the school and able to meet the staff and some of the students we have been Skyping with since last year.
Marina, vice principle, giving us a tour.
A book in Russian Braille from the library.
On the tour with Marina.
The wonderful Dr. Crepeau, a history professor at UCF who is a part of our program posing with a penguin in the biology classroom.
On our tour.
Once the tour was over, we were invited into a room to have coffee/tea/water with cookies, candies, and other snacks. We ate and hung out for about a half an hour. We were told we were going have free time that night and could do whatever we wanted. Olga (or Olya as we call her) overhead me asking another student about the bookstore Dom Kneegee (Book House) and if it was located on Nevsky Prospect because I had been there on my last trip wanted to try and find it. Olya then offered to take me herself. Of course I jumped at the opportunity to have a guide. So another classmate of mine and Olya all headed to Dom Kneegee. We used the metro and it was my first time in the Saint Petersburg metro, as last year we only used the bus to get around. Interestingly enough, in the Saint Petersburg metro, not only can you purchase a paper metro card to scan to get into the metro, but you can also purchase little gold coins that go into a coin slot at the turnstile and let you through. Moscow doesn't have a coin system.
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| One of the famous "postcard views" of Saint Petersburg - you can see the Church of the Savior on Blood in the background. |
Church of the Savior on Blood
DOM KNEEGEE!! <3
Browsing the English book section at Dom Kneegee
Leaving Dom Kneegee.
After we left the bookstore, Olya took us to ANOTHER bookstore that was further down the road that is open 24 hours. I wish we had something like that in America - I'd never leave!
I just bought a few books ;) From the top left, clockwise:
The Essential Tales of Chekhov
Midnight in Siberia (this is available in America only as a hardback, but this one is paperback, yay!)
Rich in Russia
The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol
A Dog's Heart
Splithead
Olya recommended Checkhov and Gogol, so I thought I'd give them a try! After leaving the bookstore we went to Teremok for dinner - I had a double ham and cheese blinchiki and one filled with honey. They're basically skinny pancakes folded like a tortilla, but flat.
After dinner Olya gave my fellow group member and I directions back to the hotel because she lives in the opposite direction, and we miraculously made our way back. I had to stop and ask for directions at one point, and thank goodness the person knew the hotel I was asking about. The good part was that we're almost to the the White Nights (the time of the year where it doesn't get dark until 1AM, and even then it's not completely dark) so even though it was like 10:00 at night, it was still pretty light out. Once we got back to the hotel we passed out!
Today we went to the school and sat in on geography class. During the class, Irina, the leader of my group for the grant (appropriately titled Team Awesome) gave a presentation on art in America that lasted the entire class.
After that, we got on a bus and headed to the Hermitage, one of the oldest and biggest museums in the world, founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great. (Saint Petersbug is also filled with smaller palaces that she built for all of her different [she had many] lovers).
We road along the Neva Rive on the way there and had another beautiful view of Peter and Paul Fortress
The Hermitage
The grand staircase inside the Hermitage.
Our awesome group!
The entrance hall.
Our tour guide, Katya (left) talking about the room.
In the main hall of the palace
Throne of Tsar Nicholas II
A really awesome door - because why not?!
Letters and documents salvaged from the Siege of Leningrad (1941-1944) in which the Nazis occupied and sealed shut the city for 2 years, 4 months, 2 weeks, and 5 days. Hitler wanted to flood the city using the Neva River and completely destroy it.
Madonna and Child (The Madonna Conestabile) by Raffaello, painted when he was just 17 years old.
The view of the palace square from the Hermitage
Crouching Boy by Michelangelo. Catherine the Great had this moved outdoors so that she could view it while strolling in her park.
Catherine the Great - the longest ruling female leader of Russia. And did you know: she's not Russian! She is actually German. She came to power when her husband, Peter III was assassinated.
You can read a lot more interesting information about her on her wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_the_Great
Tomb of Alexander Nevsky - Nevksy Prospect, the main road in Saint Petersburg is named after him.
From Wikipedia: served as Prince of Novgorod, Grand Prince of Kiev and Grand Prince of Vladimir during some of the most difficult times in Kievan Rus' history.
From Wikipedia: served as Prince of Novgorod, Grand Prince of Kiev and Grand Prince of Vladimir during some of the most difficult times in Kievan Rus' history.
I didn't catch the name of this room - it's White something - however this is the room in which the Romanovs were arrested and taken from the palace during the Russian Revolution. These private quarters were given to Nicholas II and Alexandra when they were crowned.
Portrait of Nicholas I. The Romanovs began their reign in 1613 and continued until the Russian Revolution when they were overthrown.
Paul I - son of Catherine the Great.
Outside of the Hermitage.
The Palace Square
The Alexander Column at the Palace Square.
From Wikipedia: The monument was erected after the Russian victory in the war with Napoleon's France. The column is named for Emperor Alexander I of Russia, who reigned from 1801–25
From Wikipedia: The monument was erected after the Russian victory in the war with Napoleon's France. The column is named for Emperor Alexander I of Russia, who reigned from 1801–25
View of the Hermitage from the square
Our group at the palace square
Leaving the square to catch the bus back to the hotel
My bear I bought at the Hermitage on the bus :P
We took the bus back to the hotel, and then walked to the Grot school from there, because it's about five minutes down the road by foot. Back at the school, the plan was to get together with the students and play the video game that was created through the grant. Two digital media professors, Anastasia and Ruben helped us create a video game to play with the students. Students in the grant got to lend their voices to the game and be voice actors/actresses for it! Sadly because of my work schedule I couldn't help out.
The entrance to the Grot school
Hermitage bear at the Grot school ;)
The entrance to the Grot school that we use
A student, Denis playing a song he wrote
Rudy explaining the game to the students
The opening "scene" of the game.
We were all paired with a Russian student to play with. Everyone had a fantastic time and made new friends! Sergei gave me a golden spoon with Peter and Paul Fortress engraved on it and a scene of the Neva River, along with a Saint Petersburg magnet. I gave him a copy of the New York Times and he absolutely lit up. It was incredibly touching and I was so happy to see him so excited. He promised that tomorrow he will bring me a book and some DVDs - I think he's going to bring Sherlock Holmes because he really loves it. I'm super excited!!
Grant students working with the Grot school students while Rudy and Anastasia supervise.
My partner, Sergei, reading instructions of the game
Sergei and I working our way through the game together.
The credits page of the game - I won!
Sergei and I!
Students learning to play Jenga
Concentrating hard on Jenga!
Grot and grant program students conversing about the video game
Liza and Rebecca working through the game
Everyone having a great time!
Sergei singing and playing the guitar for me!
Leaving the Grot school
Outside the Grot school on our way home.
All and all, the past two days have been wonderful - especially today when we got to interact with the students and make new friends.
Tomorrow we have a bus tour of Saint Petersburg, then an excursion to Peter and Paul Fortress (my favorite because I'm a total Romanov nerd [they're all buried there]), then back to the school to work with the students on a chain-story. The chain-story involves us all writing a paragraph about how we feel about the program/our experience/opinions/etc and connecting it all together with everyone else's story to create one large one.
So, that's all for now! I should be able to make a post tomorrow night covering tomorrow's events.
