With the illustrious Melissa! This is nuts!
So, I'm alive.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
ALIVE IN PARIS.
And I already hung out with Erin B once and we saw all the major landmarks by night! Look at that!
So, I'm alive.
So, I'm alive.
Monday, January 26, 2009
And I'm off again.
But not back to Russia quite yet.
I'm taking my time getting back to St. Petersburg -- a whole ten days -- and taking a detour through Paris, Berlin and Krakow.
If you don't hear from me during that time period, don't panic. I promise a nice long entry about my time in Europe once I am back and settled in my apartment in Petersburg.
Anyway, I'm really glad I came home for this break. It was much needed, restful, happy, and just enough time to see pretty much everyone that I really wanted to see. I took a ton of pictures over the past two weeks, of course, mostly of Agnes, of course, and am behind in getting those up, but look forward to seeing them sometime early February. Agnes is too cute for words. She's even better in person. I'm glad I got to meet her.
Until I catch up on uploading though, you can at least see my self portraits from my time at home. I think they are pretty funny as I tried to incorporate as many guests into them as possible. Definitely the majority of the people I hung out with over break turn up in one portrait or another, and I broke some records in the project including the most number of guests in one shot (9), the youngest guest (4.5 months) and the oldest guest (75 years). Actually, all three of those records occur in the same image. Anyway, I think the self portraits alone show exactly why I came home and why I am glad I did. There are so many good people in Massachusetts that I had been missing. Well, I'm off to go miss them again for another six months, but this time when I made my round of good byes, things weren't nearly as sad. For whatever reason this next chunk of time seems significantly shorter (just one semester instead of a semester plus a summer, even though the amount of time is almost the same), plus I think everyone was relieved to know that if I came back once, I will come back again. I'm not leaving everyone forever.
So, off I go.
I'm taking my time getting back to St. Petersburg -- a whole ten days -- and taking a detour through Paris, Berlin and Krakow.
If you don't hear from me during that time period, don't panic. I promise a nice long entry about my time in Europe once I am back and settled in my apartment in Petersburg.
Anyway, I'm really glad I came home for this break. It was much needed, restful, happy, and just enough time to see pretty much everyone that I really wanted to see. I took a ton of pictures over the past two weeks, of course, mostly of Agnes, of course, and am behind in getting those up, but look forward to seeing them sometime early February. Agnes is too cute for words. She's even better in person. I'm glad I got to meet her.
Until I catch up on uploading though, you can at least see my self portraits from my time at home. I think they are pretty funny as I tried to incorporate as many guests into them as possible. Definitely the majority of the people I hung out with over break turn up in one portrait or another, and I broke some records in the project including the most number of guests in one shot (9), the youngest guest (4.5 months) and the oldest guest (75 years). Actually, all three of those records occur in the same image. Anyway, I think the self portraits alone show exactly why I came home and why I am glad I did. There are so many good people in Massachusetts that I had been missing. Well, I'm off to go miss them again for another six months, but this time when I made my round of good byes, things weren't nearly as sad. For whatever reason this next chunk of time seems significantly shorter (just one semester instead of a semester plus a summer, even though the amount of time is almost the same), plus I think everyone was relieved to know that if I came back once, I will come back again. I'm not leaving everyone forever.
So, off I go.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
So. I'm back.
On Friday night I was walking down Nevksy Prospekt in the snow, and on Saturday night I was in a car driving from JFK through Connecticut highways back home in the snow.
Well, the snow is universal at least.
This is all kind of odd. I'm still kind of confused, but not feeling too jetlagged even though I calculated I was traveling for 28 hours and had been awake for 46 hours with only three brief 1-hour naps (on two planes and on one bench) by the time I went to bed last night.
And so this blog goes on hiatus for a bit, until I leave for Europe to go start my traveling back to Russia. That time at least the traveling will be spread out over the course of ten days, instead of 30 hours.
If you want to see me while I'm home, you should know how to get in touch.
Well, the snow is universal at least.
This is all kind of odd. I'm still kind of confused, but not feeling too jetlagged even though I calculated I was traveling for 28 hours and had been awake for 46 hours with only three brief 1-hour naps (on two planes and on one bench) by the time I went to bed last night.
And so this blog goes on hiatus for a bit, until I leave for Europe to go start my traveling back to Russia. That time at least the traveling will be spread out over the course of ten days, instead of 30 hours.
If you want to see me while I'm home, you should know how to get in touch.
Friday, January 9, 2009
HOW AM I GOING BACK TO AMERICA TOMORROW ALREADY???
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Thursday, January 8, 2009
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
A lot of age-inappropriate theatre-going.
Back from good old Yaroslavl (Ярославль), thoroughly exhausted (well, actually, not that exhausted because I slept really well on the trains) but satisfied I went even just briefly to reunite with my favorite members of the Wellesley Russian Department.
The final statistics were: 30.5 hours of travel to spend 30 hours in Yaroslavl, less than 24 hours worth of which were with the Wellesley girls.
The timing wasn't exactly ideal, as the only train that got me to Yaroslavl (that wasn't sold out) on the 5th in time to see the, didn't get me there until almost 5pm, and then, on the 6th, my train didn't leave until 11pm that night, long after the Wellesley girls had gone back to Moscow.
It was a really good time though. Excellent, even.
Yaroslavl is a weird little place. My initial impression on the bus from the train station to the city center was that if I had spent my year abroad there I would have already killed myself, but then I felt guilty for this thought and retracted it and gave the city a second chance, and actually really began to appreciate how much quieter, calmer and snowier it is than Petersburg or Moscow. It is really small though. Literally small, actually. Even though Yaroslavl is much, much older than St. Petersburg it felt like it was trying to be a miniature version of Petersburg, with its embankments and squares and things.... but actually miniature, meaning not just the area of the city is smaller, but all the buildings and everything just seems smaller too. For example, in Petersburg the highest building is maybe 6 stories, 7 stories, I don't know, pretty small -- in Yaroslavl, I saw nothing higher than 3 floors. There are also about a billion beautiful little churchs in the city, really little though -- nothing really taller than 4 stories. And the squares themselves are smaller, the streets are only one or two cars wide instead of three to five.... I felt like the world had been shrunken or something. It was highly bizarre.
The whole time was actually fairly bizarre, as I didn't really feel like I was in Russia. First of all, there was the fact that I was hanging out with Carly, Abby, Malina and Alla L'vovna.... and then we spent the rest of the afternoon and night of the 5th just hanging out in the hotel, eating in the лобби-вар downstairs and catching up on life and things (messing with my head because Wellesley was suddenly in my Russian life, but Carly already knows everything about this life because she lived it last year, but Abby and Malina know some things about it too because they were both here this summer, and then them asking about how Janna and Meri and people from other walks of life were.... I have no idea how I keep all these things straight....), the whole hotel being this little island of Western culture floating in the Volga (literally the hotel is floating on a barge of sorts on the Volga, it's actually a pretty classy place. check it out if you're ever in Yaroslavl, you know, and I got to crash there because one of my friends on the trip ended up not being able to come last minute so they actually had a bed for me. thanks, Wellesley!).
Yesterday morning, the Wellesley group had an excursion planned to a New Year's theatre production and, due to the extra ticket situation, I got to tag along. Well, first of all, this theatre production was at 10:30AM and intended for children. Sadly, the clear pronunciation and easy vocabulary of the show is still just about at the right level for our Russian, and even then some stuff went over my head still. The show was of two of fairy tales by Alexander Pushkin: The Fisherman and his Fish and The Tale of the Dead Princess (essentially Snow White). I was surprised by how well designed and executed the show was, and how professional the choreography and acting was as children's theatre isn't usually known for that kind of thing; it was also done in the old state theatre which is a really interesting building. I did really enjoy the actual theatre-watching bit of the excursion -- and the whole atmosphere of the event was fun, this time of year seems to be like Christmas, New Year's and Halloween all rolled into one as all the little kids were dressed up in costumes, there was a little boy dressed like a dalmation that I was obsessed with -- even though it was a little age-inappropriate.
What was slightly more age-inappropriate though was the New Year's gift that was part of our tickets for the production. If you paid a little extra for a ticket (which I guess Wellesley had it in their budget to do), you got to recieve a new year's present before the show. We were all thinking, oh it'll probably be a chocolate bar or maybe a christmas ornament or something small to tuck away in a pocket and forget about.... not quite. Everyone was given a bright orange, plastic bull (the Russians are quite into the fact that it's the year of the ox) -- the exact size and shape of a small soccer ball -- filled with some stale Russian candy and a smaller bull ornament inside either dressed like a flamenco dancer or playing the balalaika. So then, we were not only a) the only foreigners at this event and b) the only group excursion and c) the oldest non-parents in the place but d) the oldest people carrying around the orange plastic bulls that were not holding them for their child. Some kids were even looking at us enviously. We all generally just felt a little weird. Especially when we were walking on the street outside after the production on our way to lunch, bulls in hand...
So I had lunch with the group, but then sadly we had to part ways, earlier in the afternoon than we'd though. The group was going to a museum of matroshka dolls and then dong a master class of painting matroshkas which I had hoped to tag along on as well, but the museum and class was located 2 hours outside of Moscow, so I couldn't come along. So they left on their four hour drive, and I was left to my own devices in Yaroslavl.
First I hit up the Yaroslavl Art Museum, which was oddly full of tour groups but surprisingly awesome. It was full of 18th to 21st century Russian paintings, right smack in the time period I like, and there was also a special exhibit of illustrations of Degas, mostly of naked ladies in compromising positions on beds, but also a whole collection of photographs he took which I really enjoyed. Who knew I'd go to random Yaroslavl, Russia to see Degas? What the hell?
I then walked for a while along the embankment of the Volga before it got too dark, which was really gorgeous. The whole river was frozen pretty solidly in most places and people were ice fishing. I photographed some of the five billion little churchs, etc...
Then I tried to go to the Museum of Music and Time -- mostly just because I was intrigued by the name, less so by the old clocks and things that my Lonely Planet book promised me were inside -- but all the tour groups had moved onto that museum and single the whole museum is a one-room house, I nearly got trampled trying to go inside and gave up.
So I actually returned to the hotel, which felt vaguely pathetic, but it was right near where I was on the embankment, and the food had been so good the night before, and enjoyed a really long meal (there was some issue with the chef, but I got complimentary chocolate out of it that I ate later on the train) and nearly finished reading Catch-22. It was also a good period of warming up.
And then I ended my time in Yaroslavl by finding the one movie theatre in town (with the help of Abby and the hotel consierge and a small map), arriving just in time to see th 7:50pm showing of this new Russian movie Стиляги which some people I know had seen and hated and so I felt compelled to see what all the fuss was about..... also, it killed just the right amount of time for me to exit the film, get on the bus back to the train station, board my train and go back to St. Petersburg. Probably the nicest part of my night was when the woman checking my ticket to get on the train looked at my passport and said, " Wow, what a nice picture. I look at so many of these and they are usually all so horrible. I think this is the first good one I've seen. Are you pre-Baltic?" And when I said no, she asked, "Are you sure?"
So, I arrived back in St. Petersburg mid-day today and met up with Carrie for lunch, and then we went to Smolny Sobor to check out a production of The Snow Queen that Carrie had heard about. Carrie and I had both read the story as kids and I remember watching that animated film of it at Nunni's house and so we thought that seeing a play of it would be nice.... except it wasn't exactly a play..... the set up was the same kind of theatre-thing as the Pushkin fairytales had been in Yaroslavl -- a 5 to 1 kid to adult ratio, lots of costumes, a Christmas tree..... Carrie and I did not opt to pay extra to get the present this time (I warned her about the bulls) -- but it was.... a ballet interpretation of the tale.... done entirely by children of a ballet academy....... it was highly bizarre. It was actually kind of disturbing, in that same way out of that scene in Little Miss Sunshine where they show all the little girls in the beauty pagent. There was a little girl in the show who could not have been older than 5 years old, probably more like 4, who was on point. You can do that at such a young age? That is phsycially possible? I was kind of freaked out. I really felt like I was at the circus when at one point they danced a dog across the stage in a tu-tu. That was just weird. They also used excessive video projections utilizing just about ever photo-shop style and technique possible. I felt kind of tripped out afterwards. It was.... an experience though. Not what we expected, but very little here is ever what I expect.
And now, home finally. I'm packing up my things and getting ready to leave on Friday night, and it's really starting to freak me out. I've been here for almost seven months. I'm getting really sad actually to move out of this apartment with my family. Not that I am not looking forward to living with Abman in our beautiful, amazing place.... but this has become home..... and it's really insane that I am moving out and going back to..... America of all places..... and this isn't even halfway, this isn't even for good, this is just a visit! What the hell!
Well, I'll keep myself busy. I certainly have enough shit to do before I leave.
The final statistics were: 30.5 hours of travel to spend 30 hours in Yaroslavl, less than 24 hours worth of which were with the Wellesley girls.
The timing wasn't exactly ideal, as the only train that got me to Yaroslavl (that wasn't sold out) on the 5th in time to see the, didn't get me there until almost 5pm, and then, on the 6th, my train didn't leave until 11pm that night, long after the Wellesley girls had gone back to Moscow.
It was a really good time though. Excellent, even.
Yaroslavl is a weird little place. My initial impression on the bus from the train station to the city center was that if I had spent my year abroad there I would have already killed myself, but then I felt guilty for this thought and retracted it and gave the city a second chance, and actually really began to appreciate how much quieter, calmer and snowier it is than Petersburg or Moscow. It is really small though. Literally small, actually. Even though Yaroslavl is much, much older than St. Petersburg it felt like it was trying to be a miniature version of Petersburg, with its embankments and squares and things.... but actually miniature, meaning not just the area of the city is smaller, but all the buildings and everything just seems smaller too. For example, in Petersburg the highest building is maybe 6 stories, 7 stories, I don't know, pretty small -- in Yaroslavl, I saw nothing higher than 3 floors. There are also about a billion beautiful little churchs in the city, really little though -- nothing really taller than 4 stories. And the squares themselves are smaller, the streets are only one or two cars wide instead of three to five.... I felt like the world had been shrunken or something. It was highly bizarre.
The whole time was actually fairly bizarre, as I didn't really feel like I was in Russia. First of all, there was the fact that I was hanging out with Carly, Abby, Malina and Alla L'vovna.... and then we spent the rest of the afternoon and night of the 5th just hanging out in the hotel, eating in the лобби-вар downstairs and catching up on life and things (messing with my head because Wellesley was suddenly in my Russian life, but Carly already knows everything about this life because she lived it last year, but Abby and Malina know some things about it too because they were both here this summer, and then them asking about how Janna and Meri and people from other walks of life were.... I have no idea how I keep all these things straight....), the whole hotel being this little island of Western culture floating in the Volga (literally the hotel is floating on a barge of sorts on the Volga, it's actually a pretty classy place. check it out if you're ever in Yaroslavl, you know, and I got to crash there because one of my friends on the trip ended up not being able to come last minute so they actually had a bed for me. thanks, Wellesley!).
Yesterday morning, the Wellesley group had an excursion planned to a New Year's theatre production and, due to the extra ticket situation, I got to tag along. Well, first of all, this theatre production was at 10:30AM and intended for children. Sadly, the clear pronunciation and easy vocabulary of the show is still just about at the right level for our Russian, and even then some stuff went over my head still. The show was of two of fairy tales by Alexander Pushkin: The Fisherman and his Fish and The Tale of the Dead Princess (essentially Snow White). I was surprised by how well designed and executed the show was, and how professional the choreography and acting was as children's theatre isn't usually known for that kind of thing; it was also done in the old state theatre which is a really interesting building. I did really enjoy the actual theatre-watching bit of the excursion -- and the whole atmosphere of the event was fun, this time of year seems to be like Christmas, New Year's and Halloween all rolled into one as all the little kids were dressed up in costumes, there was a little boy dressed like a dalmation that I was obsessed with -- even though it was a little age-inappropriate.
What was slightly more age-inappropriate though was the New Year's gift that was part of our tickets for the production. If you paid a little extra for a ticket (which I guess Wellesley had it in their budget to do), you got to recieve a new year's present before the show. We were all thinking, oh it'll probably be a chocolate bar or maybe a christmas ornament or something small to tuck away in a pocket and forget about.... not quite. Everyone was given a bright orange, plastic bull (the Russians are quite into the fact that it's the year of the ox) -- the exact size and shape of a small soccer ball -- filled with some stale Russian candy and a smaller bull ornament inside either dressed like a flamenco dancer or playing the balalaika. So then, we were not only a) the only foreigners at this event and b) the only group excursion and c) the oldest non-parents in the place but d) the oldest people carrying around the orange plastic bulls that were not holding them for their child. Some kids were even looking at us enviously. We all generally just felt a little weird. Especially when we were walking on the street outside after the production on our way to lunch, bulls in hand...
So I had lunch with the group, but then sadly we had to part ways, earlier in the afternoon than we'd though. The group was going to a museum of matroshka dolls and then dong a master class of painting matroshkas which I had hoped to tag along on as well, but the museum and class was located 2 hours outside of Moscow, so I couldn't come along. So they left on their four hour drive, and I was left to my own devices in Yaroslavl.
First I hit up the Yaroslavl Art Museum, which was oddly full of tour groups but surprisingly awesome. It was full of 18th to 21st century Russian paintings, right smack in the time period I like, and there was also a special exhibit of illustrations of Degas, mostly of naked ladies in compromising positions on beds, but also a whole collection of photographs he took which I really enjoyed. Who knew I'd go to random Yaroslavl, Russia to see Degas? What the hell?
I then walked for a while along the embankment of the Volga before it got too dark, which was really gorgeous. The whole river was frozen pretty solidly in most places and people were ice fishing. I photographed some of the five billion little churchs, etc...
Then I tried to go to the Museum of Music and Time -- mostly just because I was intrigued by the name, less so by the old clocks and things that my Lonely Planet book promised me were inside -- but all the tour groups had moved onto that museum and single the whole museum is a one-room house, I nearly got trampled trying to go inside and gave up.
So I actually returned to the hotel, which felt vaguely pathetic, but it was right near where I was on the embankment, and the food had been so good the night before, and enjoyed a really long meal (there was some issue with the chef, but I got complimentary chocolate out of it that I ate later on the train) and nearly finished reading Catch-22. It was also a good period of warming up.
And then I ended my time in Yaroslavl by finding the one movie theatre in town (with the help of Abby and the hotel consierge and a small map), arriving just in time to see th 7:50pm showing of this new Russian movie Стиляги which some people I know had seen and hated and so I felt compelled to see what all the fuss was about..... also, it killed just the right amount of time for me to exit the film, get on the bus back to the train station, board my train and go back to St. Petersburg. Probably the nicest part of my night was when the woman checking my ticket to get on the train looked at my passport and said, " Wow, what a nice picture. I look at so many of these and they are usually all so horrible. I think this is the first good one I've seen. Are you pre-Baltic?" And when I said no, she asked, "Are you sure?"
So, I arrived back in St. Petersburg mid-day today and met up with Carrie for lunch, and then we went to Smolny Sobor to check out a production of The Snow Queen that Carrie had heard about. Carrie and I had both read the story as kids and I remember watching that animated film of it at Nunni's house and so we thought that seeing a play of it would be nice.... except it wasn't exactly a play..... the set up was the same kind of theatre-thing as the Pushkin fairytales had been in Yaroslavl -- a 5 to 1 kid to adult ratio, lots of costumes, a Christmas tree..... Carrie and I did not opt to pay extra to get the present this time (I warned her about the bulls) -- but it was.... a ballet interpretation of the tale.... done entirely by children of a ballet academy....... it was highly bizarre. It was actually kind of disturbing, in that same way out of that scene in Little Miss Sunshine where they show all the little girls in the beauty pagent. There was a little girl in the show who could not have been older than 5 years old, probably more like 4, who was on point. You can do that at such a young age? That is phsycially possible? I was kind of freaked out. I really felt like I was at the circus when at one point they danced a dog across the stage in a tu-tu. That was just weird. They also used excessive video projections utilizing just about ever photo-shop style and technique possible. I felt kind of tripped out afterwards. It was.... an experience though. Not what we expected, but very little here is ever what I expect.
And now, home finally. I'm packing up my things and getting ready to leave on Friday night, and it's really starting to freak me out. I've been here for almost seven months. I'm getting really sad actually to move out of this apartment with my family. Not that I am not looking forward to living with Abman in our beautiful, amazing place.... but this has become home..... and it's really insane that I am moving out and going back to..... America of all places..... and this isn't even halfway, this isn't even for good, this is just a visit! What the hell!
Well, I'll keep myself busy. I certainly have enough shit to do before I leave.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
La di da da da.
Mmm vacation.
Last night -- inbetween moving stuff to the apartment, hanging out at the dorm and sitting around at home with Katya and Misha and their friends -- I had a little outing by myself to see The Nutcracker, again, but this time at the Mariinsky Theatre.
Olga had told me that the production at the Mikhailovsky was much more classical compared to the Mariinsky's which is strange and modern. I guess in some ways this is the case. The Mariinsky does have a passion for pink and black costuming along with bright and artificially colored wigs, but I don't know. I preferred this production, at least aesthetically, just looking at it, because it was more coordinated. For example, for each of the dancers of the different countries in the third act -- at the Mikhailovsky they all wore insanely different costumes that looked kind of odd and clashed when they danced together, while at the Mariinsky they all still wore different things to represent their countries, but all had the same black/whites or pinks/reds or silver/golds or light blues and blended beautifully. I also preferred the costumes for the waltz of the flowers at the Mariinsky -- softer pink with white instead of magenta and bright green -- which you can see in the photograph below which I stole from the Mariinsky's website. Comparing it to the photographs in the other Nutcracker entry which I took from the Mikhailovsky's website, you can see the difference already.
Other differences about the production: there were fewer children in the audience (though the place was completely and 100% full, I have never seen the Mariinsky like that before. I also appeared to be sitting in the middle of a tour group of attractive blonde people speaking a language I couldn't identify [Dutch? Czech? Something Scandinavian?] and a British family on my left who I was eavesdropping on until Lauren called me and I blew my cover by speaking in English), but in the production children actually did the dancing instead of older teenagers pretending to be children. They also had a real doll for the Nutcracker in the first act, a small boy with a false nose and a fake beard playing the Nutcracker in the second act, and then a grown dancing man playing the Nutcracker prince in the third act.
Ilana, you will also be interested to know, that as they did not have a person playing a Nutcracker doll in the first act they did the dance of the doll "негр" which was a small guy in black face. God, the Mariinsky has absolutely no problems with black face. They also had a white guy playing one of the Chinese people and did his make up in a way some people might have found offensive, but the female Chinese dance dancer was a guest artist from Japan, so I guess they felt that made up for it (....).
As for the quality of the dancing, I'm no Ilana Tabby, I can't make a professional judgement, but I would say the dancers who played the dolls were actually stronger at the Mikhailovsky, but in general, everyone was better at the Mariinsky. Also, the Mariinsky orchestra is the best orchestra in the city, I am certain. From my oddly angled, high up seat on the 3rd balcony (I was in the bench seating where I have never sat before) I had a perfect view of the double bass section and found it funny when in the 2nd act they had to cram in a whole youth chorus around the four of them to sing in the dance of the snowflakes. You may wonder how I could see this as I am known to not be one with strong, far-distance vision. Well, I tell you, this is because yet again I forgot my glasses, and so I finally broke down and splurged and rented opera glasses for the show. It was great, man I should always do that. I could actually see the dancer's faces! Heyyoo! I also spent a lot of time using them to examine the sets which consisted of a lot of white trees and glitter, but also a really nice lighting technique that made it look like it was snowing.
So, that was the Nutcracker at the Mariinsky.
I won't be updating again for a couple of days as tonight I leave for a small city two thirds of the way between Petersburg and Moscow for a WELLESLEY RUSSIAN DEPARTMENT REUNION.
Last night -- inbetween moving stuff to the apartment, hanging out at the dorm and sitting around at home with Katya and Misha and their friends -- I had a little outing by myself to see The Nutcracker, again, but this time at the Mariinsky Theatre.
Olga had told me that the production at the Mikhailovsky was much more classical compared to the Mariinsky's which is strange and modern. I guess in some ways this is the case. The Mariinsky does have a passion for pink and black costuming along with bright and artificially colored wigs, but I don't know. I preferred this production, at least aesthetically, just looking at it, because it was more coordinated. For example, for each of the dancers of the different countries in the third act -- at the Mikhailovsky they all wore insanely different costumes that looked kind of odd and clashed when they danced together, while at the Mariinsky they all still wore different things to represent their countries, but all had the same black/whites or pinks/reds or silver/golds or light blues and blended beautifully. I also preferred the costumes for the waltz of the flowers at the Mariinsky -- softer pink with white instead of magenta and bright green -- which you can see in the photograph below which I stole from the Mariinsky's website. Comparing it to the photographs in the other Nutcracker entry which I took from the Mikhailovsky's website, you can see the difference already.
Other differences about the production: there were fewer children in the audience (though the place was completely and 100% full, I have never seen the Mariinsky like that before. I also appeared to be sitting in the middle of a tour group of attractive blonde people speaking a language I couldn't identify [Dutch? Czech? Something Scandinavian?] and a British family on my left who I was eavesdropping on until Lauren called me and I blew my cover by speaking in English), but in the production children actually did the dancing instead of older teenagers pretending to be children. They also had a real doll for the Nutcracker in the first act, a small boy with a false nose and a fake beard playing the Nutcracker in the second act, and then a grown dancing man playing the Nutcracker prince in the third act.
Ilana, you will also be interested to know, that as they did not have a person playing a Nutcracker doll in the first act they did the dance of the doll "негр" which was a small guy in black face. God, the Mariinsky has absolutely no problems with black face. They also had a white guy playing one of the Chinese people and did his make up in a way some people might have found offensive, but the female Chinese dance dancer was a guest artist from Japan, so I guess they felt that made up for it (....).
As for the quality of the dancing, I'm no Ilana Tabby, I can't make a professional judgement, but I would say the dancers who played the dolls were actually stronger at the Mikhailovsky, but in general, everyone was better at the Mariinsky. Also, the Mariinsky orchestra is the best orchestra in the city, I am certain. From my oddly angled, high up seat on the 3rd balcony (I was in the bench seating where I have never sat before) I had a perfect view of the double bass section and found it funny when in the 2nd act they had to cram in a whole youth chorus around the four of them to sing in the dance of the snowflakes. You may wonder how I could see this as I am known to not be one with strong, far-distance vision. Well, I tell you, this is because yet again I forgot my glasses, and so I finally broke down and splurged and rented opera glasses for the show. It was great, man I should always do that. I could actually see the dancer's faces! Heyyoo! I also spent a lot of time using them to examine the sets which consisted of a lot of white trees and glitter, but also a really nice lighting technique that made it look like it was snowing.
So, that was the Nutcracker at the Mariinsky.
I won't be updating again for a couple of days as tonight I leave for a small city two thirds of the way between Petersburg and Moscow for a WELLESLEY RUSSIAN DEPARTMENT REUNION.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Not being in school is GREAT.
Russia is so much more fun without classes and homework and shit. I actually went and saw a movie last night with some people -- Обитаемый Остров. It was one of those big flashy sci fi movies that based on a (probably much better) novel, the kind of thing a large group of us would have gone to see at the Dedham Cinema in high school, like Serenity or something.... but this was no Serenity, this really sucked, actually. It was actually fairly hilarious in how bad it was. But I didn't really care because it's great to be able to have time to just go do stuff like that now. Besides that though, I haven't even been doing much of anything, just trying to readjust my sleep cycle after a bunch of late nights in a row, moving my stuff over to the apartment, uploading photos.... speaking of which, oh, hey.....
PHOTO UPDATE:
-- self-portraits up until yesterday, 1/2/09.
-- got prints made of the rest of the photos from the bathroom-dark-room-developed roll.
-- finally got a print made of that photo of lauren from the first kiev roll.
-- finished the fall digital section with photos from the final banquet, the nutcracker and the various events of christmas eve.
-- digital photos from Kiev are up as well, all five billion of them.
-- plus, yes, you guessed it, new year's eve.
I still have four rolls of film from various cameras (holga, supersampler, fisheye & kiev) that I have been in the process of shooting for a while.... hoping to finish those off and get them developed before I am out of here....
PHOTO UPDATE:
-- self-portraits up until yesterday, 1/2/09.
-- got prints made of the rest of the photos from the bathroom-dark-room-developed roll.
-- finally got a print made of that photo of lauren from the first kiev roll.
-- finished the fall digital section with photos from the final banquet, the nutcracker and the various events of christmas eve.
-- digital photos from Kiev are up as well, all five billion of them.
-- plus, yes, you guessed it, new year's eve.
I still have four rolls of film from various cameras (holga, supersampler, fisheye & kiev) that I have been in the process of shooting for a while.... hoping to finish those off and get them developed before I am out of here....
Friday, January 2, 2009
The entry about Kiev.
Finally.
FIRST, some general impressions: Ukraine is a really weird hybrid of both Russia and Europe, much more so than the Baltics were. Lativa and Estonia now seem just purely European after being in Ukraine. It's strange though, because Ukraine will have these gorgeous, beautiful European-style buildings -- many more so than St. Petersburg -- right across the street from modern, grungy Soviet architecture. Generally, as well, the streets appeared to be cleaner, fewer people were to be drunk, and Ukrainians seemed to be Russians in a perpetually good mood. It was absolutely freezing the entire time we were there -- significantly colder than St. Petersburg, it snowed every single day, there was constant icy wind, and none of us brought warm enough clothes because we'd stupidly thought "ohhh, we're going down south, it should be warmer..." -- but no one seemed to care. We actually saw a man all dressed up in a business suit, right down to his shiny black dress shoes, sliding a few feet and then stopping and sliding a few more feet along in the slush, just like a happy little kid experiencing the first snow of the winter. Also, Kiev is the slipperiest city I have ever experienced. Yes, St. Petersburg can get pretty bad but Kiev seems to be entirely paved with these big square tiles right out of a bathroom, just waiting to break an 80 year old woman's hip, or this beautiful but deadly yellow-blonde brick that became uncomparably slippery in the snow. We had a lot of close calls, but as Emma realized the other night, none of us ever slipped and fell the entire time we were there.
So, our trip.
We left on THURSDAY 12/25/08, Christmas day, at 1pm on a train for Moscow. This was the first time I had ever taken a train riding in just a seat for eight hours. It was actually significantly more comfortable than I anticipated, but oddly like an airplane which confused me at times in my exhausted state after being up so late the night before. There were a lot of good subjects for people-watching though, including one young girl to our left that looked like Kirsten Dunst out of Little Women who had a plastic box with holes in the top on her lap that she held so carefully it clearly contained something alive. Emma and I wanted to know ever so badly what kind of animal was in that box, and only at the end of the trip when we were almost in Moscow did we see that it was a little orange hamster. We arrived in Moscow around 9pm, with just the perfect amount of time to get ourselves around half the circle line to Kievskii Vokzal for our 11pm train to Kiev. Even just those few hours in Moscow were enough for me to be reminded about my St. Petersburg preference. One of the first things we saw entering the metro was a homeless man lying on the steps to the underground of the metro -- probably dead -- with his stay dog curled up protectively beside him. You see those kinds of things in St. Petersburg too, but always more so in Moscow and the city just leaves me feeling kind of sad a lot of the time. Merry Christmas. But we got to the train station, boarded our train without event, and spent the remaining part of our weird Christmas day in our own private compartment.
We crossed the border early in the morning on FRIDAY 12/26/08, and by the time we got to our hostel and were checked in it was past noon, over twenty-four hours later exactly (factoring in the one-hour time difference). The hostel we were staying at -- the TIU ("This Is Ukraine") Kiev Backpackers hostel -- I had picked almost at random off of good, ol' hostelworld.com. It had good reviews, was the right price, was close to the center, and we could make food there in the kitchen. It seemed like it'd be a fine place to live for four nights. Well, it was love at first sight with our hostel. We hadn't realized it would be a fucking GREAT place to live for four nights. We felt at home immediately -- the hostel is small and cozy, feels more just like staying at your friend's apartment -- but also fastidiously clean. The bedroom was carpeted with what looked like brand new white carpet, and the kitchen was spotless. When we arrived, the two British men who own the hostel, plus the German and the American major who live there semi-permanently were celebrating St. Stephen's Day. Apparently they'd had a big Christmas celebration the day before, and we "just trying to get rid of" the rest of the champagne left over. "We don't do this ever day, really," as they made each of us a mimosa to welcome us to the hotel. All four of them though were extremely helpful and welcoming immediately -- suggesting walking routes for us that would let us see some big sites and also becoming protective and father-figure-like, warning us about the one Spanish guy staying at the hostel who was known to be a little creepy, and that no matter the time of day or night we should get them if anything made us uncomfortable.
After becoming settled in the hostel, we went for a little walk to orient ourselves. This is first when we discovered it was fucking unbelievably freezing, and we actually had to stop and buy Katy socks along the way and go into a coffee house so she could put them on. We walked along the big main street of the city, Kreshatik, and up towards Independence Square where the Orange Revolution took place. Independence Square was all done up for New Year's, with a big decorated tree and also about fifty guys in Santa costumes roaming the streets, aggressively pursuing us for photographs. As I say, there is nothing scarier than an aggressive Santa. There were also ponies and clowns and balloons and shit like that, and we all felt vaguely like we were in some weird dream sequence. We also walked through the square and up towards St. Sophia's Cathedral, known to be one of the oldest Orthodox churches in Ukraine and maybe also in Russia, I forget. As we were cold we just paid admission to walk along the grounds, which were snowy and silent and calm but also beautifully lit up at night.
We got ourselves back to the hostel after that and warmed up for a while -- oh my god the showers they had there were amazing -- just in time for the German, who is now apparently the resident social director of the hostel, to inform us that they were going to be making an excursion to the bar down the street -- you know, just to celebrate St. Stephen's Day -- and we were invited. So we tagged along to this unmarked, unlabeled, impossible to find unless someone tells you about it, basement bar, that they refer to as "the Doctor's" or "Hospital Bar." This is due to the fact -- get this, Genny, man I wish you could see this place -- that the entire bar is medically themed. The bartenders wear bright blue scrubs with stethescopes around their necks, the waitresses are all dressed up as nurses (though, of course, vaguely slutty nurses), and they serve shots in either syringes or in those thin, tall chemistry vials. And, of course, it is insanely clean, just like a hospital. Seriously, after months of seedy Russian bars, this one was spotless, plus you can get a beer for 10 uah which (with Ukraine's insane currency that fluctuates daily -- when we first arrived it was 7uah to the $1, by the time we left it was 8uah/$1) is just over $1. And, who would have thought, the food there is amazing and, like the beer, cheap. So, we had an excellent excursion, and made a point to return to this bar two out of our three remaining nights in Kiev.
On SATURDAY 12/27/08 we returned to St. Sophia's, this time to go into the church itself and to check out the view from the top of the bell tower. I am sick to death of going inside of churches, usually, as I feel like that is all we do on excursions here sometimes, but I think when you choose to go into the church yourself it is different. St. Sophia's is absolutely beautiful, and so, so old with winding stairs and nooks and things. I also really liked the mural-painting there, because there was something that felt more authentic and orthodox about it than many of the churches in St. Petersburg that are trying so hard to imitate churches in other countries. As for the bell tower, I counted 208 steps on the way up and 207 on the way down, so I screwed up somewhere in there, but the view was magnificent and I took about 50 pictures just up there. The only awful part of that was the entire damn tower was lined with those stupid yellow tiles that are slippery as hell, so we had to go very very slowly and very very carefully.
We walked further up north in the city, along one of the oldest roads in Kiev, which is winding and along the side of a hill and full of these vendors selling beautiful arts and crafts -- not just the same old junky matroshkas -- and we all agreed to return to this street later when we weren't rushing to get to the Chornobyl museum before it closed (even though earlier we all had also agreed not to spend a lot of money on this trip, oops). We finally did find the Chornobyl museum, and we were, well, not disappointed exactly, but mostly just confused. Most things in the museum were not labeled, so they'd have a journal in a class case and you were expected to know what it was exactly. Also, the things that were labeled were often just labeled in Ukrainian, which we could kind of figure out with our Russian, but not exactly. In the final room as well they did one of those strange artistic interpretations of the disaster, with mood lighting and a pile of stuffed animals to represent all the children who had cancer or something. But the general effect of the museum was daunting, and I left feeling fairly depressed with mankind, which I guess means the museum achieved its goal.
At this point some nuitrition was in order, so we checked out a chain of Ukrainian fast food restaurants -- Пузата Хата ("Puzata Hata") -- recommended by another British guy staying at the hostel. This was not quite fast food as you're imagining it -- fast as in it was prepared quickly, but that was the only thing fast foody about it. You walk into the place and it is a cafeteria-style restaurant decorated to look like you are outside in a courtyard or something -- it was actually the first place we'd seen with Christmas/New Year's decorations that did not flash or blink and were not neon -- and you get into line and go along and take whatever food you want and then go pay, but the food that they have are delicious, healthy little things like bowls of borsch or blini with tvorog or all different kinds of salad..... we went a little nutso (and for whatever reason food is priced so reasonably in Kiev at the moment) and had a good, long snack.... meal.....
We then decided we were too cold to walk all the way back to the hostel, so we decided to experience the Kiev metro. Ha. HA. After the Russian metro systems, after just the other day riding on the Moscow metro which is known to be perhaps one of the best metros in the entire world, the Kiev metro is a hilarious little joke. It works fine and we used it several time afterwards to get to where we needed to be, but it's so tiny! And the metro tokens are made of big circles of blue plastic like Candy Land game pieces! And the stations themselves are just kind of odd with really silly advertising designs, such as wallpaper with a pattern of peanuts and "SNICKERS" all over it, or the columns on the metro platform wrapped in huge blue paper advertising some mobile phone provider. Just really kind of........ ridiculous, after such serious Russian metro systems. Ha. It was warm though, and that was what we found important at the moment.
We ended our night with a return to the Hospital, this time to try their mozzerella sticks.... which were small spheres of cheese and ketchup, kind of strange.... and watched European boxing and this guy from Morocco kick the shit out of this other guy who ended up winning because the Moroccian was too vicious.
Our SUNDAY 12/28/08 was oddly similar to our Saturday, as we walked back to the same area with the old winding road and the Пузата Хата where we'd been the day before. We went and checked out one of the newest orthodox churches on the way -- St. Michael's -- which just finished undergoing renovation in 2004. In a lot of ways the church was very similar to St. Sophia's, just a little brighter, a little shinier, a little newer, but it was also in operation as opposed to just being a museum, and so when we went inside there were priests chanting and incense burning and there was a great calming effect. Maybe I'll convert to Russian orthodox. Ha. After that we went back to that street and bought a lot of artsy shit. But what was cooler than the stuff we found was the people selling it..... they were actually interested in having conversations with us.... I bought this woven belt that I am going to use as a camera strap from a woman who wanted to know all about our studying in St. Petersburg and if we preferred Kiev to St. Petersburg and how it is more спокойный (meaning "calm" or "not worried" bu doesn't really translate that exactly) in Kiev. There was also this married couple that all three of us were obsessed with -- Emma and I bought matching little leather wallets that the man makes himself and Katy bought this beautiful Reeses-peanut-butter-cup-colored sweater made by the woman. The woman actually went with Katy to a random stairwell to let her try on the sweater before she bought it, and the man gave Emma and I lucky coins in the wallet. People were just so fucking FRIENDLY. It kind of blew our minds.
We then repeated our Saturday exactly, going back to eat at Пузата Хата and taking the metro again, but this time we got off at the Kreshatik stop, and walked along the street again because we'd heard they close the entire road, not just on special occassions, but every single weekend. I think that was the happiest I've seen anyone in Ukraine, it was just so cheerful and Christmasy and everyone is running around in the street and kids are waving balloons.... there was a band playing of these kind of skeezy dudes with pony tails and sunglasses and santa hats who were playing music from Бриллиантовая рука. They looked like the kind of guys who would be really into jazz. Or really like the Eagles. I actually thought this to myself, and then as we walked further down Kreshatik, they started playing "Hotel California." Yes, Puppy, I was all the way in Kiev, Ukraine, and it was just like being at good old Andersen Insurance.
On our walk home, we also wove our way through the Botanical gardens. We didn't stray too far from the path as it was dark by this point and a little too quiet and eerie with all the snow, but it was so beautiful. But it was great because there were all these little kids running around with sleds in the gardens, even though it was 8pm at night, going down hills and almost crashing into trees and seeming to be generally quite content. When we finally got ourselves home, we decided to spend the night in at the hostel. We cooked ourselves spaghetti and pasta sauce -- creatively made out of some tomato paste and peas and cucumber.... it would have been worse -- with a little champagne. We talked for a while with a new guest at the hostel -- a woman from Hungary whose English wasn't great, but who also studied in St. Petersburg for a semester several years ago, and so we all talked together in Russian for a while. It was funny listening to our exchange -- none of us native Russian speakers, but that being our only common language -- and comparing it to the German and the Ukrainian girlfriend of one of the owners of the hostel speaking in English.... it's funny to see what languages people use to communicate, without any regard to the languages they grew up speaking.... And then we took advantage of the fact that the hostel had a gorgeous TV and we watched some shows in (gasp) ENGLISH?? We watched Animal Planet and Discovery Channel.... my god, talk about a vacation. And then we put on a movie which was, none other, than In Bruges, the film I have been trying to get Emma to see since June, which I had just quoted the other day when we were walking up to the top of St. Sophia's bell tower: "I mean, it's all winding stairs. I'm not being funny."
We ended our night by watching youtube videos of funny commercials with the German. He showed us this one and Emma showed us this one and this one.
MONDAY 12/29/08 was our last full day in Kiev, and we spent it at the Caves Monastery towards the south of the city. We first followed some advice of the American major and took the metro one stop further out, where the metro becomes above-ground, to check out a beautiful view of the skyline of the city, complete with all the war monuments, the monastery, and the giant statue of Rodina Mat. Once back at the monastery, the first thing on our list of things to do there was check out the exhibit of microminiatures in one of the museums on the grounds. The monastery is kind of a bizarre place -- as Katy said, it felt more like a carnival or something with all these weird attractions than a monastery -- and we had read in the guide book all about a flea wearing gold shoes and a chess set so small it fits on the head of a pin. This clearly we had to see before any religious kind of thing. We were not disappointed by the work of Mykola Syadristy, who definitely has the finest motor skills in the entire world. There was a portrait of Ernest Hemingway drawn on half of a pear seed! What!
The other, more traditional aspects of the monastery were also really interesting. We went through part of the caves there and saw the buried bodies of saints. It was an uncomfortable mix of tourists and religious pilgrims, and, as Emma said, we felt vaguely like imposters and got yelled at by a woman afterwards who asked us why we weren't wearing crosses or skirts or scarves (though our heads were covered). The woman didn't even work there, she was just one of those typical babushkii who take it upon themselves to be the authority and yell at you. Anyway, it didn't put a damper on our visit to the monastery because there were actually blue skies there for most of our time, which was exciting enough.
On our way home we stopped at a grocery store recommended to us by the German at the hostel, and we went kind of insane there buying food for the train. It was, perhaps, the most beautiful grocery store we had been in in a good long while and -- get this -- the people who work there bag your groceries for you.... what?? You still have to buy a bag, of course, which is a good thing, but.... service? Anyway, we got all kinds of fruit and good cereal for our long journey back, we then returned to the hostel to get ready for our last night out in Kiev.
We went out ot the Hospital bar one last time with both of the British owners, the Ukrainian girlfriend/manager of the hostel, the German, the American major and another few guests. As it was such a special occasion -- not really, it just happened to be free that night -- we got to sit in the "padded cell" booth of the Hospital. We had a grand old time on our final night out -- and we even tried this special alcohol called Becherovka which basically is like drinking a glass of Christmas. We tried to go out to the club down the street afterwards for a bit too -- the club named SORRY BABUSHKA, yes, Malina!! the club for which your radio show on WZLY is named!! -- but we'd forgotten it was Monday night so it was closed, and so we just ended up back at the hostel drinking more champagne ("We don't do this every night, really!") and telling dirty jokes. I got a couple new ones that I think Puppy will like, but I'll save them for when I'm home as delivery doesn't really work in blog-format.
And so on TUESDAY 12/30/08 we had to get up and leave Ukraine, bright and early. Our train was at 11:42am leaving from the station, and didn't get us in to Moscow until 3am on WEDNESDAY 12/31/08 when we had to have a seven hour lay over of sorts sitting in the train station, waiting for the metro to open, then waiting for our other train to be ready, and drinking a lot of tea. But we basically slept the whole time on both trains, and so we were good and ready for New Year's Eve, but you already heard about that.
FIRST, some general impressions: Ukraine is a really weird hybrid of both Russia and Europe, much more so than the Baltics were. Lativa and Estonia now seem just purely European after being in Ukraine. It's strange though, because Ukraine will have these gorgeous, beautiful European-style buildings -- many more so than St. Petersburg -- right across the street from modern, grungy Soviet architecture. Generally, as well, the streets appeared to be cleaner, fewer people were to be drunk, and Ukrainians seemed to be Russians in a perpetually good mood. It was absolutely freezing the entire time we were there -- significantly colder than St. Petersburg, it snowed every single day, there was constant icy wind, and none of us brought warm enough clothes because we'd stupidly thought "ohhh, we're going down south, it should be warmer..." -- but no one seemed to care. We actually saw a man all dressed up in a business suit, right down to his shiny black dress shoes, sliding a few feet and then stopping and sliding a few more feet along in the slush, just like a happy little kid experiencing the first snow of the winter. Also, Kiev is the slipperiest city I have ever experienced. Yes, St. Petersburg can get pretty bad but Kiev seems to be entirely paved with these big square tiles right out of a bathroom, just waiting to break an 80 year old woman's hip, or this beautiful but deadly yellow-blonde brick that became uncomparably slippery in the snow. We had a lot of close calls, but as Emma realized the other night, none of us ever slipped and fell the entire time we were there.
So, our trip.
We left on THURSDAY 12/25/08, Christmas day, at 1pm on a train for Moscow. This was the first time I had ever taken a train riding in just a seat for eight hours. It was actually significantly more comfortable than I anticipated, but oddly like an airplane which confused me at times in my exhausted state after being up so late the night before. There were a lot of good subjects for people-watching though, including one young girl to our left that looked like Kirsten Dunst out of Little Women who had a plastic box with holes in the top on her lap that she held so carefully it clearly contained something alive. Emma and I wanted to know ever so badly what kind of animal was in that box, and only at the end of the trip when we were almost in Moscow did we see that it was a little orange hamster. We arrived in Moscow around 9pm, with just the perfect amount of time to get ourselves around half the circle line to Kievskii Vokzal for our 11pm train to Kiev. Even just those few hours in Moscow were enough for me to be reminded about my St. Petersburg preference. One of the first things we saw entering the metro was a homeless man lying on the steps to the underground of the metro -- probably dead -- with his stay dog curled up protectively beside him. You see those kinds of things in St. Petersburg too, but always more so in Moscow and the city just leaves me feeling kind of sad a lot of the time. Merry Christmas. But we got to the train station, boarded our train without event, and spent the remaining part of our weird Christmas day in our own private compartment.
We crossed the border early in the morning on FRIDAY 12/26/08, and by the time we got to our hostel and were checked in it was past noon, over twenty-four hours later exactly (factoring in the one-hour time difference). The hostel we were staying at -- the TIU ("This Is Ukraine") Kiev Backpackers hostel -- I had picked almost at random off of good, ol' hostelworld.com. It had good reviews, was the right price, was close to the center, and we could make food there in the kitchen. It seemed like it'd be a fine place to live for four nights. Well, it was love at first sight with our hostel. We hadn't realized it would be a fucking GREAT place to live for four nights. We felt at home immediately -- the hostel is small and cozy, feels more just like staying at your friend's apartment -- but also fastidiously clean. The bedroom was carpeted with what looked like brand new white carpet, and the kitchen was spotless. When we arrived, the two British men who own the hostel, plus the German and the American major who live there semi-permanently were celebrating St. Stephen's Day. Apparently they'd had a big Christmas celebration the day before, and we "just trying to get rid of" the rest of the champagne left over. "We don't do this ever day, really," as they made each of us a mimosa to welcome us to the hotel. All four of them though were extremely helpful and welcoming immediately -- suggesting walking routes for us that would let us see some big sites and also becoming protective and father-figure-like, warning us about the one Spanish guy staying at the hostel who was known to be a little creepy, and that no matter the time of day or night we should get them if anything made us uncomfortable.
After becoming settled in the hostel, we went for a little walk to orient ourselves. This is first when we discovered it was fucking unbelievably freezing, and we actually had to stop and buy Katy socks along the way and go into a coffee house so she could put them on. We walked along the big main street of the city, Kreshatik, and up towards Independence Square where the Orange Revolution took place. Independence Square was all done up for New Year's, with a big decorated tree and also about fifty guys in Santa costumes roaming the streets, aggressively pursuing us for photographs. As I say, there is nothing scarier than an aggressive Santa. There were also ponies and clowns and balloons and shit like that, and we all felt vaguely like we were in some weird dream sequence. We also walked through the square and up towards St. Sophia's Cathedral, known to be one of the oldest Orthodox churches in Ukraine and maybe also in Russia, I forget. As we were cold we just paid admission to walk along the grounds, which were snowy and silent and calm but also beautifully lit up at night.
We got ourselves back to the hostel after that and warmed up for a while -- oh my god the showers they had there were amazing -- just in time for the German, who is now apparently the resident social director of the hostel, to inform us that they were going to be making an excursion to the bar down the street -- you know, just to celebrate St. Stephen's Day -- and we were invited. So we tagged along to this unmarked, unlabeled, impossible to find unless someone tells you about it, basement bar, that they refer to as "the Doctor's" or "Hospital Bar." This is due to the fact -- get this, Genny, man I wish you could see this place -- that the entire bar is medically themed. The bartenders wear bright blue scrubs with stethescopes around their necks, the waitresses are all dressed up as nurses (though, of course, vaguely slutty nurses), and they serve shots in either syringes or in those thin, tall chemistry vials. And, of course, it is insanely clean, just like a hospital. Seriously, after months of seedy Russian bars, this one was spotless, plus you can get a beer for 10 uah which (with Ukraine's insane currency that fluctuates daily -- when we first arrived it was 7uah to the $1, by the time we left it was 8uah/$1) is just over $1. And, who would have thought, the food there is amazing and, like the beer, cheap. So, we had an excellent excursion, and made a point to return to this bar two out of our three remaining nights in Kiev.
On SATURDAY 12/27/08 we returned to St. Sophia's, this time to go into the church itself and to check out the view from the top of the bell tower. I am sick to death of going inside of churches, usually, as I feel like that is all we do on excursions here sometimes, but I think when you choose to go into the church yourself it is different. St. Sophia's is absolutely beautiful, and so, so old with winding stairs and nooks and things. I also really liked the mural-painting there, because there was something that felt more authentic and orthodox about it than many of the churches in St. Petersburg that are trying so hard to imitate churches in other countries. As for the bell tower, I counted 208 steps on the way up and 207 on the way down, so I screwed up somewhere in there, but the view was magnificent and I took about 50 pictures just up there. The only awful part of that was the entire damn tower was lined with those stupid yellow tiles that are slippery as hell, so we had to go very very slowly and very very carefully.
We walked further up north in the city, along one of the oldest roads in Kiev, which is winding and along the side of a hill and full of these vendors selling beautiful arts and crafts -- not just the same old junky matroshkas -- and we all agreed to return to this street later when we weren't rushing to get to the Chornobyl museum before it closed (even though earlier we all had also agreed not to spend a lot of money on this trip, oops). We finally did find the Chornobyl museum, and we were, well, not disappointed exactly, but mostly just confused. Most things in the museum were not labeled, so they'd have a journal in a class case and you were expected to know what it was exactly. Also, the things that were labeled were often just labeled in Ukrainian, which we could kind of figure out with our Russian, but not exactly. In the final room as well they did one of those strange artistic interpretations of the disaster, with mood lighting and a pile of stuffed animals to represent all the children who had cancer or something. But the general effect of the museum was daunting, and I left feeling fairly depressed with mankind, which I guess means the museum achieved its goal.
At this point some nuitrition was in order, so we checked out a chain of Ukrainian fast food restaurants -- Пузата Хата ("Puzata Hata") -- recommended by another British guy staying at the hostel. This was not quite fast food as you're imagining it -- fast as in it was prepared quickly, but that was the only thing fast foody about it. You walk into the place and it is a cafeteria-style restaurant decorated to look like you are outside in a courtyard or something -- it was actually the first place we'd seen with Christmas/New Year's decorations that did not flash or blink and were not neon -- and you get into line and go along and take whatever food you want and then go pay, but the food that they have are delicious, healthy little things like bowls of borsch or blini with tvorog or all different kinds of salad..... we went a little nutso (and for whatever reason food is priced so reasonably in Kiev at the moment) and had a good, long snack.... meal.....
We then decided we were too cold to walk all the way back to the hostel, so we decided to experience the Kiev metro. Ha. HA. After the Russian metro systems, after just the other day riding on the Moscow metro which is known to be perhaps one of the best metros in the entire world, the Kiev metro is a hilarious little joke. It works fine and we used it several time afterwards to get to where we needed to be, but it's so tiny! And the metro tokens are made of big circles of blue plastic like Candy Land game pieces! And the stations themselves are just kind of odd with really silly advertising designs, such as wallpaper with a pattern of peanuts and "SNICKERS" all over it, or the columns on the metro platform wrapped in huge blue paper advertising some mobile phone provider. Just really kind of........ ridiculous, after such serious Russian metro systems. Ha. It was warm though, and that was what we found important at the moment.
We ended our night with a return to the Hospital, this time to try their mozzerella sticks.... which were small spheres of cheese and ketchup, kind of strange.... and watched European boxing and this guy from Morocco kick the shit out of this other guy who ended up winning because the Moroccian was too vicious.
Our SUNDAY 12/28/08 was oddly similar to our Saturday, as we walked back to the same area with the old winding road and the Пузата Хата where we'd been the day before. We went and checked out one of the newest orthodox churches on the way -- St. Michael's -- which just finished undergoing renovation in 2004. In a lot of ways the church was very similar to St. Sophia's, just a little brighter, a little shinier, a little newer, but it was also in operation as opposed to just being a museum, and so when we went inside there were priests chanting and incense burning and there was a great calming effect. Maybe I'll convert to Russian orthodox. Ha. After that we went back to that street and bought a lot of artsy shit. But what was cooler than the stuff we found was the people selling it..... they were actually interested in having conversations with us.... I bought this woven belt that I am going to use as a camera strap from a woman who wanted to know all about our studying in St. Petersburg and if we preferred Kiev to St. Petersburg and how it is more спокойный (meaning "calm" or "not worried" bu doesn't really translate that exactly) in Kiev. There was also this married couple that all three of us were obsessed with -- Emma and I bought matching little leather wallets that the man makes himself and Katy bought this beautiful Reeses-peanut-butter-cup-colored sweater made by the woman. The woman actually went with Katy to a random stairwell to let her try on the sweater before she bought it, and the man gave Emma and I lucky coins in the wallet. People were just so fucking FRIENDLY. It kind of blew our minds.
We then repeated our Saturday exactly, going back to eat at Пузата Хата and taking the metro again, but this time we got off at the Kreshatik stop, and walked along the street again because we'd heard they close the entire road, not just on special occassions, but every single weekend. I think that was the happiest I've seen anyone in Ukraine, it was just so cheerful and Christmasy and everyone is running around in the street and kids are waving balloons.... there was a band playing of these kind of skeezy dudes with pony tails and sunglasses and santa hats who were playing music from Бриллиантовая рука. They looked like the kind of guys who would be really into jazz. Or really like the Eagles. I actually thought this to myself, and then as we walked further down Kreshatik, they started playing "Hotel California." Yes, Puppy, I was all the way in Kiev, Ukraine, and it was just like being at good old Andersen Insurance.
On our walk home, we also wove our way through the Botanical gardens. We didn't stray too far from the path as it was dark by this point and a little too quiet and eerie with all the snow, but it was so beautiful. But it was great because there were all these little kids running around with sleds in the gardens, even though it was 8pm at night, going down hills and almost crashing into trees and seeming to be generally quite content. When we finally got ourselves home, we decided to spend the night in at the hostel. We cooked ourselves spaghetti and pasta sauce -- creatively made out of some tomato paste and peas and cucumber.... it would have been worse -- with a little champagne. We talked for a while with a new guest at the hostel -- a woman from Hungary whose English wasn't great, but who also studied in St. Petersburg for a semester several years ago, and so we all talked together in Russian for a while. It was funny listening to our exchange -- none of us native Russian speakers, but that being our only common language -- and comparing it to the German and the Ukrainian girlfriend of one of the owners of the hostel speaking in English.... it's funny to see what languages people use to communicate, without any regard to the languages they grew up speaking.... And then we took advantage of the fact that the hostel had a gorgeous TV and we watched some shows in (gasp) ENGLISH?? We watched Animal Planet and Discovery Channel.... my god, talk about a vacation. And then we put on a movie which was, none other, than In Bruges, the film I have been trying to get Emma to see since June, which I had just quoted the other day when we were walking up to the top of St. Sophia's bell tower: "I mean, it's all winding stairs. I'm not being funny."
We ended our night by watching youtube videos of funny commercials with the German. He showed us this one and Emma showed us this one and this one.
MONDAY 12/29/08 was our last full day in Kiev, and we spent it at the Caves Monastery towards the south of the city. We first followed some advice of the American major and took the metro one stop further out, where the metro becomes above-ground, to check out a beautiful view of the skyline of the city, complete with all the war monuments, the monastery, and the giant statue of Rodina Mat. Once back at the monastery, the first thing on our list of things to do there was check out the exhibit of microminiatures in one of the museums on the grounds. The monastery is kind of a bizarre place -- as Katy said, it felt more like a carnival or something with all these weird attractions than a monastery -- and we had read in the guide book all about a flea wearing gold shoes and a chess set so small it fits on the head of a pin. This clearly we had to see before any religious kind of thing. We were not disappointed by the work of Mykola Syadristy, who definitely has the finest motor skills in the entire world. There was a portrait of Ernest Hemingway drawn on half of a pear seed! What!
The other, more traditional aspects of the monastery were also really interesting. We went through part of the caves there and saw the buried bodies of saints. It was an uncomfortable mix of tourists and religious pilgrims, and, as Emma said, we felt vaguely like imposters and got yelled at by a woman afterwards who asked us why we weren't wearing crosses or skirts or scarves (though our heads were covered). The woman didn't even work there, she was just one of those typical babushkii who take it upon themselves to be the authority and yell at you. Anyway, it didn't put a damper on our visit to the monastery because there were actually blue skies there for most of our time, which was exciting enough.
On our way home we stopped at a grocery store recommended to us by the German at the hostel, and we went kind of insane there buying food for the train. It was, perhaps, the most beautiful grocery store we had been in in a good long while and -- get this -- the people who work there bag your groceries for you.... what?? You still have to buy a bag, of course, which is a good thing, but.... service? Anyway, we got all kinds of fruit and good cereal for our long journey back, we then returned to the hostel to get ready for our last night out in Kiev.
We went out ot the Hospital bar one last time with both of the British owners, the Ukrainian girlfriend/manager of the hostel, the German, the American major and another few guests. As it was such a special occasion -- not really, it just happened to be free that night -- we got to sit in the "padded cell" booth of the Hospital. We had a grand old time on our final night out -- and we even tried this special alcohol called Becherovka which basically is like drinking a glass of Christmas. We tried to go out to the club down the street afterwards for a bit too -- the club named SORRY BABUSHKA, yes, Malina!! the club for which your radio show on WZLY is named!! -- but we'd forgotten it was Monday night so it was closed, and so we just ended up back at the hostel drinking more champagne ("We don't do this every night, really!") and telling dirty jokes. I got a couple new ones that I think Puppy will like, but I'll save them for when I'm home as delivery doesn't really work in blog-format.
And so on TUESDAY 12/30/08 we had to get up and leave Ukraine, bright and early. Our train was at 11:42am leaving from the station, and didn't get us in to Moscow until 3am on WEDNESDAY 12/31/08 when we had to have a seven hour lay over of sorts sitting in the train station, waiting for the metro to open, then waiting for our other train to be ready, and drinking a lot of tea. But we basically slept the whole time on both trains, and so we were good and ready for New Year's Eve, but you already heard about that.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
С НОВЫМ ГОДОМ!!!
H A P P Y N E W Y E A R !!!!!!
Last night was great. Really great. I always put so much damn pressure on myself to have a good new year's, to have the best new year's yet, and I am usually let down. Not that I don't have fun but, you know, it's just the same old thing.
Well, I finally met my goal this new year's because St. Petersburg really knows how to throw a new year's party. The description of what I actually did makes the evening sound kind of lame: I met up with Carrie, Maneka and Emma on Nevksy and we walked to palace square and then sat in the garden in front of the Admiralty and drank red Ukrainian champagne out of the bottle and then at midnight watched fireworks.... but it was the best fucking time. There was just complete chaos -- the street was packed, the entire Dvorstovsky Bridge was so full of people it looked like it could break, just mobs and mobs and everyone drinking champagne in little plastic cups and singing and fireworks that lasted for hours after midnight. God, Russians love fireworks. I woke up at 8:00AM to send a half-asleep text message to Mom, and I could still hear someone setting off fireworks across the street. And fireworks are so much better this time of year as it is actually dark out so you can see them for a change. It was just beautiful and overwhelming and gave me a really good, solid feeling about humanity or some nonsense like that. And then, like fate or something, after I'd left the Americans, I ran into Katya, Misha and Stas on my way home and hung out with them for a little bit -- standing around behind Kazanskii Sobor with their Canadian friends. The area around the Grebedova canal back there has been under construction for all the past seven months that I have been here, but then last night, perhaps on the occassion of the holiday, suddenly all of the blue barriers were removed and you know what had been hidden behind them all this time and I had no idea? That iconic, famous St. Petersburg bridge with the four griffins with golden wings and lamps above their heads, the one that is plastered all over postcards that somewhere in my subconscious I had been wondering all this time why I had yet to see it and where it was located.... and there it was. And the sky was clear and I was in such a good mood, such a stark comparison to last new year's eve, and we're just standing around drinking champagne under this gorgeous bridge. This is by far my favorite part of living in a city like St. Petersburg: these old, ancient, elegant, iconic things become part of your every day life.
And so, I can safely say, this was the best New Year's I've had. Not that I didn't enjoy all those years of board games with the parents or doing head stands at midnight with Rosie in my basement, but they were in a different time in my life. This was exactly the kind of New Year's I wanted this year.
So, I have about four hundred pictures from the festivities last night.... plus one and a half memory cards from Kiev.... plus pictures from my epic busy Christmas eve.... actually, the start up disk on my computer is almost full and I only have about half of those on there to edit, so I'm going to need a bit more time editing them all and moving them onto my hard drive and such. So, be patient. But hey, I have no more school and no more anything really until January 9th, so they'll probably be up..... later today or something. But I make no promises!
Though I do promise the entry about Kiev will come soon!
Last night was great. Really great. I always put so much damn pressure on myself to have a good new year's, to have the best new year's yet, and I am usually let down. Not that I don't have fun but, you know, it's just the same old thing.
Well, I finally met my goal this new year's because St. Petersburg really knows how to throw a new year's party. The description of what I actually did makes the evening sound kind of lame: I met up with Carrie, Maneka and Emma on Nevksy and we walked to palace square and then sat in the garden in front of the Admiralty and drank red Ukrainian champagne out of the bottle and then at midnight watched fireworks.... but it was the best fucking time. There was just complete chaos -- the street was packed, the entire Dvorstovsky Bridge was so full of people it looked like it could break, just mobs and mobs and everyone drinking champagne in little plastic cups and singing and fireworks that lasted for hours after midnight. God, Russians love fireworks. I woke up at 8:00AM to send a half-asleep text message to Mom, and I could still hear someone setting off fireworks across the street. And fireworks are so much better this time of year as it is actually dark out so you can see them for a change. It was just beautiful and overwhelming and gave me a really good, solid feeling about humanity or some nonsense like that. And then, like fate or something, after I'd left the Americans, I ran into Katya, Misha and Stas on my way home and hung out with them for a little bit -- standing around behind Kazanskii Sobor with their Canadian friends. The area around the Grebedova canal back there has been under construction for all the past seven months that I have been here, but then last night, perhaps on the occassion of the holiday, suddenly all of the blue barriers were removed and you know what had been hidden behind them all this time and I had no idea? That iconic, famous St. Petersburg bridge with the four griffins with golden wings and lamps above their heads, the one that is plastered all over postcards that somewhere in my subconscious I had been wondering all this time why I had yet to see it and where it was located.... and there it was. And the sky was clear and I was in such a good mood, such a stark comparison to last new year's eve, and we're just standing around drinking champagne under this gorgeous bridge. This is by far my favorite part of living in a city like St. Petersburg: these old, ancient, elegant, iconic things become part of your every day life.
And so, I can safely say, this was the best New Year's I've had. Not that I didn't enjoy all those years of board games with the parents or doing head stands at midnight with Rosie in my basement, but they were in a different time in my life. This was exactly the kind of New Year's I wanted this year.
So, I have about four hundred pictures from the festivities last night.... plus one and a half memory cards from Kiev.... plus pictures from my epic busy Christmas eve.... actually, the start up disk on my computer is almost full and I only have about half of those on there to edit, so I'm going to need a bit more time editing them all and moving them onto my hard drive and such. So, be patient. But hey, I have no more school and no more anything really until January 9th, so they'll probably be up..... later today or something. But I make no promises!
Though I do promise the entry about Kiev will come soon!
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