Finishing up the semester...

So, it's that time of the semester for all of those Smolny traditions that come at the end.

On Friday we had our Awards Ceremony. Much less exciting for those of us who attended last semester, as we all know what the "award" will be (a packet of Soviet propaganda posters, apparently the same "award" they have been giving out since at least Lauren was on the program). But I was called the "dependable Norwegian photographer" and given the packet of "SOVIET MEANS EXCELLENT" advertising posters. We ate chicken and greasy potatoes and that trademark 3rd floor café salad and had Choco-Pies and packaged ice cream for dessert and I felt nostalgic thinking of the summer program and last semester and that this would be the last time I'd be graced with this if not super delicious, at least filling and memorable kind of Smolny meal. Anyway, I, of course, once again got roped into helping organize the end of semester gifts for the teachers, and Katy Lafen and I handed out 3 roses to each of the 6 RSL teachers and clusters of 3 zinnia-like flowers for the 2 advisers and I gave a mini thank-you speech in broken Russian/English because I got confused about which language I should say it in....

On Saturday we had our last official excursion (only one of the few I actually went on this semester) to the Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery outside of the city, where all of the victims of the Siege of Leningrad are buried. The place is highly groomed and green, looks like the National Mall or something out of D.C., and is very somber in the fact it is mostly mass graves of the 1.5 million people who died during the 900 day siege. It was peaceful, though the recording of Pachabel's Canon which they had playing through speakers tied up on poles throughout the cemetery felt vaguely tacky to me. Otherwise it was somber and calm and peaceful and sad and beautiful and seemed fitting. 

As for today, we had our end of semester dinner, though unlike the chinese food shenanigans of last semester, we had our dinner of Stolle pies on a boat, just like we did at the end of the summer program. It was cloudier than the summer program, and due to a lot of recent rain the water levels were so high we couldn't go up on the deck except for when we were out on the open water of the Neva. The food was delicious though, and Katy and I handed out the remaining gifts for the tutors (flowers), Elena & Yulia (flowers and a collage Cathy put together of photos from the semester) and Bryan (a travel kit of tanning oil and such for his vacation to Israel), which seemed to be successful... Also, perhaps the most key moment of the boat festivities was when all of the 9 students plus Bryan who swam in the ice back in March posed for a group photograph in Speedos and bikinis that Louis, Bryan & I put together. We stenciled "SMOLNY INSTITUTE" on the butts in Cyrillic, and then below, on the Speedos we stenciled "МОРЖ" ("morzh") meaning walrus and on the bikinis, "МОРЖИХА" ("morzhukha") meaning a she-walrus, as that's what ice swimmers are called in Russian. Anyway, these photos were too good for you to have to wait until August to see:

*NOTE: Vlad got a clear Speedo we made out of plastic as when he went swimming originally he went in nude, so we figured it was more of a symbolic thing for him....

After the boat trip, Louis and I went for a walk through Mikhailovsky Sad in an out-of-the-way-way to the bus stop, and Dad, just as you thought, all the flowers were finally in bloom. There were violets and lupins and those weird drippy yellow flowers you were so excited about.... the grass was green and lush and the 8PM sunlight was just perfect.

Anyway, the semester really seems over now. Next week everyone is kind of off doing their own thing. Louis and I are taking off again on one more "spontaneous" trip out of the country. This time we tried to plan more, and were all set on trying to go up to Murmansk and see the Northern part of Norway, but traveling in that area ended up being a tad too difficult and expensive and we didn't have enough time, so we, spontaneously, decided today to hit up the Scandinavian capitals (repeat of the NORTHERN CAPITALS TOUR '05 with N&P and Mom) next week instead. We leave tomorrow night on a bus for Helsinki, and I'll post "ALIVE IN _______" updates when I can.

Until then, self portraits are up-to-date again.