First day in Vytegra

Day 4

Today was our first day in Vytegra! We started with an early morning with an 8:30 breakfast at the «Бистро». Before coming to Russia, I was very skeptical of the food, and I wasn’t sure if I would really like it, but I must admit that I have thoroughly enjoyed the majority of our meals! And breakfast this morning was no exception. We had farmers’ cheese patties (which looked like potato pancakes) with sour cream, Russian salads, cheese sandwiches, salami sandwiches, jam, and tea.

If it sounds like a lot of food, it is. I enjoy trying everything, even the things which I have not liked so much, but it is very difficult to make it through a whole meal, even with the foods which I really like. There is just so much food for every meal! I really find this aspect of the Russian culture interesting and foreign. A host must offer food to the guests or else they will be considered (or consider themselves, for that matter) very rude, just as a guest would be rude not to accept the food offered. This is just very different from in America, I think. Hosts and restaurants go to such extents to please guests even when they may not have the means to, and food is very important! This is why I’m trying my best to eat as much of everything that is offered to me as possible, though it is getting harder and harder because I am still so full from the day before, and each meal just keeps adding to the fullness! But I don’t want to look like a rude guest, even if I’m not so fond of what I am eating, so I do my best to eat a lot.

Even in the Museum today while we were working, the ladies working there were so hospitable and welcoming to us, and they continued to offer food to us in order to make us feel truly welcomed. The first thing they did when we entered was offer us a traditional Russian bread, which is dipped in salt, while the woman was smiling and wearing a very traditional Russian dress. The bread was very good, and she just kept insisting us to take more; she said that we were too bashful and reserved because we did not take as much bread as possible; I suppose that’s a big cultural difference. We don’t want to take too much and seem rude for overindulging, but the Russians see it as rude if we are reserved. It is a cultural difference which we are quickly learning to overcome. Later in the afternoon, after lunch, the very nice ladies of the library prepared delicious tea, cookies, lemons, and candies for us! They were very good, even though we were far from hungry!

I think that this aspect of the culture more than anything else that I have experienced so far really demonstrates the Russian hospitality that we have encountered. They want so much to welcome us and open up their culture to us and show us who they are and what they do. It is amazing to be here as an American and be so welcomed; it seems like most of the world isn’t quite so welcoming of us all the time. It is really neat and interesting to see that the schools and the students are going out of their way to prepare things for us and make plays and set up tours for a whole day; the city council set up a meeting with us just to welcome us to the city and introduce themselves to us; the press has set up meetings with us to get to know us better and introduce us to the town and welcome us; the museums have set up tours for us and welcomed us very warmly! The amount of kindness and welcomeness here has really surprised me and makes me feel more comfortable about being in a place which sometimes seems so foreign to me.

I really find it amazing that so many people have so much to offer us in terms of tea and food even when we know very well that budgets are tight and it is not easy for them to do so. I think that says a lot about the culture and about what is truly important to these people who have a great deal of pride in both their city and what it is they do. We seem to be stirring things up quite a bit despite the short length of our stay here.

So today, as I said earlier, we had breakfast at the bistro, and then we went to meet with the city officials and the local press. Next we visited the museum for the first time, toured it, and had an orientation to our jobs there. Jill, Ethan, and I were supposed to translate some of the labels on the history exhibit into English. After our orientation we went for a walk and saw the local cathedral, which was just amazing to see. We got to climb up to the top of the bell tower for a splendid (but very frigid) view of the entire city! Then we went to a little café and had a good and filling lunch (every borshch which I have had has been exquisite!). Then we got to work in the library. We had dinner at the bistro and then a reflection session, which got us very excited for tomorrow when we will visit our first school!

Step 3: The Road to Vytegra

We got up and packed in a rush, as breakfast was at 9am, and we were to load up at 9:30am and hit the road by ten. This is probably the part of the journey in which I am supposed to make notes of the difference between the metropolitan sphere of Saint Petersburg and the provincial realm of Svirstoy and Vytegra. Anyway, we loaded into a tour bus, with two older drivers and a younger boy. It apparently took them ten hours to get to Saint Petersburg. We drove for a bit, took a quick break at a bus stop (also to charge up phone cards), and hit the road again. At about 3:00pm we reached the town of Svirstoy and had lunch in a small café (borshch, corn, buckwheat, and fish patties). We then tried to visit the monastery, and, when we approached what we believed to be it, we were confronted by a Russian Orthodox nun, who told us that it was close. We had gotten to a nunnery and the male monastery was further down the road. There seemed to be a little confusion about which monastery we were heading to. It turns out that the town has/had two. We then trekked to the newer-looking one (“looking”, as the newest building was constructed at the beginning of the 20th century), and tried to find a guide. Another point of confusion, the guide had already gone out with another group, and we had past each other on the road. We caught up to the guide and secured a partial tour, as Alina had to translate the guide for us. The older-looking monastery was built by the brethren following of the Saint Alekandr, who lived in a hut, which is inside what is now the other monastery. The older monastery is out of shape, as it was claimed by the communists during the Soviet era and used as a mental hospital. We went inside the cathedral, and saw the wall paintings, including one depicting the trinity, and another mirror to it depicting judgment day. The variety of icons on the sacristy gate was astounding. I didn’t say this at the time, but I was pretty sure that I saw one move out of the corner of my eye. The various buildings of this particular monastery were built during different centuries, primarily the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. We then migrated over to the other monastery, the one that houses most of the areas important to the mythos of Saint Aleksandr of Svir'. As we crossed the gateway, the bell of the monastery started to sound its call to the faithful, a dreary tone for the season of lent. Our first stop was to visit this tiny little building that houses the spot on which the Saint received his vision from God, which links them to Abraham, who was the first one to receive a visitation from God (Aleksandr being the second). I have some sand from this location, which I am embarrassed to write that I have sealed in a common shopping bag. Ah, woe. By the time that we stepped out of the hut, the bell tower, which was the final addition to this particular monastery, had begun to ring a different tune. I managed to get a video recording of the bell tower about halfway through this tune, which I will attach. The next part of our journey through the monastery took us into the proper religious building in which we walked into a Russian Orthodox mass. I was a bit uneasy about our intrusion into this religious setting, probably because my own religion is practically the twin brother of the Eastern Orthodox Church, from which the Russian Church descended. In side this temple, we saw the relics (full body; first class relic) of Saint Aleksandr, who, despite his remains being captured by the Soviets and housed in a government military lab until perestroika, remained primarily uncorrupt. I thought that this was amazing, as the Saint died in the 16th century. As we were in the relic chamber, a babushka approached us and said something that I did not catch. Alina simply asked us not to pay her any mind, as the babushka was apparently not in her right mind (note: I should ask Alina what the woman actually said, just for information sake, although I have a faint idea).

After that, we visited the monastery shop and it was probably after 5:30 that we boarded the bus to continue on to Vytegra. By the end of the tour the weather began to turn afoul. I fell asleep on the bus after trying to press through the reading for my already late midterm paper, but we reached Vytegra at 10pm. We then checked into our hotel which had dorm-like rooms, and we trekked across the village to the café in which we were to have dinner. The place was also a bar and had no shortage of drinking Russians. A male patron actually came (almost burst) got toin to our separate dinning area and asked (as I later found out) where we were from. He was dispatched rather quickly and we continued with our meal.

The meal consisted of some vegetables, mashed potatoes and a meat patty. We then left the bar, as it was almost past closing. I am not sure how near on which side of closing it was as we arrived later than expected and by the time we left the other patrons were hanging out in the foyer of the restaurant. We were planning to have a group party tonight as celebration for surviving the long bus ride (which actually took longer in getting from Saint Petersburg to Vytegra by bus than it did getting from DTW to Saint Petersburg by airplane). We briefly stopped at the grocers to pick up supplies that consisted of chocolates and other groceries. The grocers was also home to this adorable tawny cat which I have a few pictures of, as we as a video of it becoming most attentive of Chelsey’s boot tassels. We left the grocers heading back to the hotel. Unfortunately this took us through the crown of post-drinking patrons of the Russian restaurant that we dined at. We picked up a few shouts of something that I didn’t understand, and two tails that I was nervous about and tried my best to keep an eye on. We made it bgot toack to the hotel, tails included, and we tried to get up to our rooms as fast as we could (note: I am not sure how much the entire group was aware of the two men following us), and the men tailing us were, more-or-less, stopped in the lobby (I heard that they were still there when Joanna went down to the lobby for something-or-other, but were chased off by the woman who worked at the reception, who knew them by name). We apparently attract so much attention because we are new faces to the county. Joseph and I, who now share a room, as Ethan volunteered himself to take the single (odd number of males, as the rooms are apparently in doubles or singles), moped about for a bit until midnight, when we all gathered in Alina’s front room (she had a suite) and watched the Olympic Hockey between Canada and the USA game. We also went over the events that will make up our stay in Vytegra. Apparently our visit attracted a bit of media attention, as we will be covered by the local media when we meet the local government administration tomorrow morning.

After a while, the party began to part ways, and Joseph and I retired to our room. My work at the museum will involve the digitization of the museums audio collection. My major thoughts for the day involve the idea that provincial Russia is pretty inaccessible to tourists during the winter (which is when I believe the best time to see “Russia” ), the religion in Russia is pretty grounded in hagiographical tradition, and that the religious traditions of Russia are making a sure recovery after the Soviet period. Notes from {Party of Hats/Café Silent} --I STILL need to find a cookbook that contains the stuff from this trip, it is absolutely delicious and I think it would fit in well at the co-op. As for folk-music for Chekhov, I have noticed a stark difference between the metropolis of Saint Petersburg, where Serebryakov is thought to be from, and the provincial portions of Russia, which isn’t identical but similar to the region that the estate is said to be located in. Michael Makin notified me before the trip that northern provincial Russia wasn’t populated by landed gentry as much as the south was. The north was mainly controlled by the merchant “bourgeois” class, but, meh, it is all the same to me, according to the environmental and living conditions that the characters would have been subjected to year after year.


BONUS TIME!
Video of the Chelsea and the Vytegra Cat.

day 3- ten hour trip

Day 3

Trip to Vytegra: long trip- 12 hours

We stopped at a very beautiful monastery on the way, which helped to break up the trip. This stop was great, because we got the opportunity to see what a real Russian church looks like in the Russian style, rather than the European style of the cathedral we saw in St. Petersburg. There was a big difference between the two alters and the way the two were set up! And we also got blessed sand, so all in all it was a very good stop. It was very late when we made it into town, but I was very impressed with the hotel when we got here! Danielle and I actually have outlets in our room and a mirror! The rooms are clean and have two beds, bathrooms, closets, tvs, desks, and storage (everyone else has a fridge, but somehow we missed out on that one, ha). It's much more than I was expecting; pleasant surprise :)

Connor-Day 3

I had wanted to wake up early this morning and explore Vasilievsky Island before breakfast at 8:30am. However, I had chosen to stay up late hanging out with the guys from my group instead. Of course, I’d have liked to see even more of St. Petersburg, but I’m satisfied with the exploring I was able to do. I’d love to return during the summer months, when the days are longer and the streets are more navigable.
As I write these notes, twilight is dimming and the wintry Northern Russia is growing dark. We have about three more hours until we meet our destination, but secretly I wish the bus ride would never end. I enjoy traveling in this manner – my own space and plenty of reading material and sightseeing to keep me occupied.

Perhaps I’m also nervous about beginning service in Vytegra. Unlike my fellow students, I speak no Russian. In the museums, I may be alright, but I’m especially uneasy about interacting with the school-aged children. Unlike in St. Petersburg where I could leave the group and adventure on my own, in provincial Russia I will need to call on the support of my peers more than since we arrived in the country.

We visited a cathedral first built in the early 16th century this afternoon. I feel more artistically inspired than ever in the provinces, however I preferred to stay with the group than commence work on my thesis project. The cathedral was great – it fulfilled a similar expectation that I had of Russia as St. Petersburg did. In coming here, I wanted to see images that I considered Russian – first the Europeon-like splendor of St. Petersburg, followed by the onion shaped domes of Orthodox cathedrals. Although we have an entire week remaining of the program, I already feel like I’ve experienced enough to satisfy me for an entire semester abroad.

The provinces are beautiful. The bridges spanning the wide rivers are quite frightening – totally uneven road make you feel like you’ll sink right through to the water beneath. And they’re high. Like the escalators down to the metro in SP, the bridges seem extra tall, perhaps a thousand meters above the river.

It’s colder here as well. In SP this morning it had started to rain and the ground became even more hazardous. But the area around the monastery, about 4 hours north east of the city was still a winter wonderland. It’s quieter here – something that the book Skunk: A Life prepared me for. It’s peaceful in the snow.

Step 2: Petrograd, the Metropolis of the North

We woke up before we were due, around 8:15. We did our various routines, and had breakfast in the café again (oatmeal, drinkable yogurt, juice, and coffee). We once again boarded our bus with Anatoly once again at the wheel. We also had with us a tour guide for the day. We took a brief break of about five minutes or so in St. Isaac’s square, which is in front of the St. Isaac’s cathedral, which was damaged heavily during the Second World War. Pat-Joseph and I drifted over to a bridge with a pillar that marked the water level for the worst flood in the city’s history (4m I believe the pillar noted). In front of the cathedral there was an equestrian monument of Nicholas I, this Czarist statue survived the Soviet era on the marvel of its design (only two of the horses legs touch the pillar).




Our first stop was the Hermitage Museum complex, which is made up from several interconnected buildings, a palace, an actual museum, and other such royal buildings. The interior of the Hermitage although some of it is undergoing restoration…

I think “wow” just doesn’t cut it... The Hermitage is filled with paintings and statues bearing the origins from all over Europe. It has over three million pieces, making it the largest art museum in the world.
I took many pictures of the paintings that I could; I especially like the religious paintings in the Hermitage.

The paintings had come from all over the powers of Europe of the time: Holland, Italy, England. There was, in fact, a gallery in which we were prohibited from taking pictures in. I believe the reason was that the paintings were lifted from the Soviet occupied Nazi territory (the Nazis probably lifted it from the territory that they took). The Soviet government didn’t admit to having these works of art until after the perestroika, so the exhibition of the paints was slightly controversial.

After the Hermitage, we went back on the bus. One of our next leg-stretcher was at the Cathedral of the Savior of the Spilled blood, which was built by a Czar on the spot of the assassination of the previous Czar, his father. It is supposedly on the exact spot, and stretches slightly out into the canal, as the Czars, blood flowed onto the cobble-stones of the canal wall. I did my first amount of souvenir shopping at some street shops just across the street from the Cathedral. I bought a lacquer box for my youngest sister which had a design painted by artists of a former icon painting school and a music box shaped like the cathedral for Emma-Riley (my young niece I hope she’ll enjoy it when she grows older).


We ate luch an this lovely little restaurant, I ate the Pelmeni dumplings (a Siberian food). It was fantastic; I should learn later how to cook this. Our next stop was the Peter-Paul Fortress, which was built on an island in the middle of the river Neva, and essentially helped sprout the city. The complex was meant to be a fortress against Sweden, but wasn’t used because a second one was built closer to Sweden.

Because of that, the complex was partially converted into a prison for political prisoners (it held the Decembrists after their failed revolution). We visited another cathedral, which houses the graves of the Romanov Czars, including Peter, Chatherine I, and II. Off to the side, there was the Chapel to St. Catherine the Martyr. This chapel also housed the remains of Czar Nicholas II, the last Czar, and his family.

My camera started to run out of batteries, but I managed to get a picture of the vessel that sounded the start of the Soviet assault on the Winter Palace by cannon.


Bonus Time! Various Pictures of us in the Hermitage and Around St. Peters.
Chelsey, Alina, and Jill

The group contemplating a floor mosiac.

Ethan playing the goof and Joanna checking here picture.

Emily standing in a hallway that was painted to rival the vatican.

Same hallway; Joanna taking Ethan picture, as seen by mirror.

Group listening to guide in the Dutch collection.

Group under the watch of angels.

Political egg-dolls at a street shop outside of the Savior of Stained Blood.

Academy cadets on snow-shoveling duty (or so we joked).

Us in the Cathedral in the Peter-Paul fortress.

Connor-Day2

I’m actually able to pick up a bit of the Cyrillic alphabet. On the way home from extensive touring, we navigated the Metro system problem-free. I could look at the schedule and pick out our Island’s name – Vasilievsky. It did help knowing that the island is North-West of the heart of the city. ”KoΦe” is personally very important to remember. Of course, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m only beginning learning Cyrillic, and my knowledge of Russian language is abysmal. I totally underestimated the difficulty I’d have getting by in the country. For instance, my jont through the city was free and easy until I wanted to buy a cup of coffee. I simply paged though my guidebook until an employee began speaking to me in English.

Stereotypes Galour

Traveling has always been a love/hate relationship for me. I love to travel, whether it's to another city of state. There's something invigorating about the unknown which presents itself during a travel. At the same time however, traveling always seems to remind me of the warm Texas city of San Antonio that I come from. It makes me quite aware of how different each of us are, hailing from different cities in the US. Being in Russia only heightened this realization because of the stark contrasts of this country which has such a rich cultural history.

Landing in the St. Petersburg airport was simply surreal. We were all exhausted from a long day of traveling and after having so much excitement built up for months prior to our trip, we were all just overwhelemed by finally being in Russia. After retrieving our bags we went through passport control which merely reinforced stereotypes associated with Russian people- that they are quite cold. The woman who handled my documents was stone faced, and only changed her expression to roll her eyes at me and "shoo" me away after she had finished shuffling through my passport and papers. I, in turn, merely smiled at her and waved goodbye, reinforcing the stereotype of Americans- that we all smile too much.

Once we were on the bus which was to take us to the Sports Complex where we were to be staying, the smile which I had given the young Russian woman, remained plastered to my face. Architecturally St. Petersburg is absolutely fascinating and so detailed, even at night when the only things making the buildings visible are the dim lights which line the large streets. On our first night, traveling through the city established by Tsar Peter I, it was easy to see that St. Petersburg had had a great European influence in the setup of the city which has rivers running through it, seperating it into islands. It was almost as if you weren't in Russia, but rather in a much larger, and more pleasant smelling Venice. In fact, our tour guide on the second day in St. petersburg mentioned that many thought that St. Petersburg was not Russian at all, but rather resembled a German man, whereas Moscow resembled a Russian maiden of the country. Touring through the city, it became obvious that her statement was relatively accurate.

Overall, my first impression of Russia and Russians coincided with what I was expecting. The stereotypes that were formed were accurate thus far, and I realized that the stereotypes foreigners have of Americans have some accuracy as well. But nonetheless, we have yet to travel to the small town of Vytegra where I'm sure we will all have a real taste of what and who Russian and Russians really are.