In Which I Nearly Freeze

It's been a fairly quiet week, so I'll keep this short. It's Sunday evening, and I've just gotten back from a long walk through Yaroslavl' that has in a way reaffirmed for me the beauty of this city. Recently I've been getting rather frustrated by this fairly small, very provincial Russian town, and I really was wishing I were in a properly modern, western city. It took was a two hour walk on a bitterly cold (less than 20°F) and windy afternoon, through the snow that has accumulated over the past week, to lift the frustration that has building in me in the past few weeks. Somehow the snow makes the city look much prettier: the 17^th century churches look less shabby, the streets look less dirty, and the people look less bitter and angry.

Seeing as how we have about a month left of classes, my professors have started to load us up with work somewhat – for instance my politics professor expects us to write 3-4 pages in Russian for our papers for every class. So I've been quite busy with school work, and thus haven't had too much time to wander around or waste time. Much of the rest of my time has been spent trying to figure out how I'm going to arrange meeting my big brother Teddy (or Ellis) somewhere in the world in late December. At first we discussed meeting in Almaty, Kazakhstan, but then we decided that would probably be too complicated, though it would make for a good story. Then we were trying to decide between Turkey, and Northern India. We seem to have decided to meet in Delhi on Christmas, though no reservations have been made yet. I am really excited about it, and quite amused by the prospect of boarding a plane in cold, snowy Moscow, and getting off in decidedly less cold and snowy Northern India.

That's actually all I have for now; perhaps I will have more to say next time. Though it's likely I won't have a whole lot to report until I'm finished with classes on December 15^th. Oh, and I put up my pictures from Moscow on Shutterfly, along with the pictures I took on my walk today. Again, it's fromtherodina.shutterfly.com

In Which I Travel About

After a fairly long break from my blog, I feel it's time to give an update on my life. When you, faithful reader, last heard from me, I had a moustache, and my host had just recently returned from the hospital. Much has happened in the meantime, such as me shaving my moustache, and our mid-term vacation. We had ten days off from the end of October to the beginning of November, and people in the group went their separate ways. Two girls went east to Irkutsk and Mongolia, and two girls went west, one to Spain, and one to Prague. One went south, to Tbilisi, Georgia, and one went north, to Arkhangelsk. I, however, went with three friends first to St. Petersburg and then on to Moscow. We had originally planned on going to Novgorod as well, but that just didn't work out. After a twelve hour train ride from Yaroslavl' to St. Petersburg in which we befriended the strange Russian couple that was across from us on the train, we arrived tired and stinky to our hostel fairly near the center of the city. We did a lot and saw a lot in St. Petersburg, and I'm not going to go into everything that happened. What I will say is, go to St. Petersburg. It's a really beautiful and interesting city, though I don't have much nice to say about the weather. It rained a good portion of the time we were there, and we only got around 4 hours on sunshine in 4 days. Oh, and we had about the strangest coincidence I could possibly have expected – as we were getting on the train in Yaroslavl', I noticed three American girls getting onto the same train car. I thought it was interesting that there were other Americans in Yaroslavl', but didn't think about it beyond that. Then, when we arrived at our hostel, the three Americans were there waiting to check in. It turns out that they are volunteering in Yaroslavl' at orphanages and such. And then the next morning, we heard a few people in the hostel's common room speaking with English accents about Yaroslavl'. We went out to investigate, and it turned out there was a group of English students studying in Yaroslavl' that had turned up at the same hostel in Petersburg. So there were three separate groups of people, all studying or volunteering in Yaroslavl', staying at the same hostel. Weird. Anyways, after four days of doing the normal touristy things, seeing my good friend Davey, and meeting with my freshman year Russian professor who moved back to Russia, we got on a train headed for Moscow.

We arrived in Moscow in much the same manner in which we arrived in Petersburg – tired, smelly, and not really wanting to do anything. We didn't really do anything that day, other than shower and nap. In all, we spent four days in Moscow seeing all the sights, though I didn't actually get a chance to go into the Kremlin. Fortunately that will likely be rectified in December when my sister, father, and aunt arrive for a tour of Moscow, Yaroslavl', and Petersburg. We met up with my friend Alexis, who is also a Macalester student, who is studying with Middlebury in Moscow. We went to the cemetery where many famous Russians are buried, such as Anton Chekhov, Nikolai Gogol', Nikita Khrushchev, and more recently, Boris Yeltsin. Our last day there consisted of going out to the Sparrow Hills (formerly known as the Lenin Hills) for views of the city of Moscow, and of my favourite building, Moscow State University (MGU). I would say the highlight of my time in Moscow was walking down to Red Square at midnight with a friend, in light snow. They light up all the buildings on the square at night, and GUM was covered in Christmas-type lights. It was really beautiful. We returned to Yaroslavl' last Monday, tired and loopy, and somewhat poorer. But it was a really fun trip, though I'm glad I'll be able to go back to both cities to see the things I missed.

Oh, and by the way – if you're interested, I put up some of my pictures from St. Petersburg on Shutterfly, and am working on getting the pictures from Moscow up there as well. The address: fromtherodina.shutterfly.com

In Which I See a Bear on Rollerskates

Just one entry for this week as well, as I just don't feel up to writing about some theme I've noticed during my stay here. The good news is the low spirits I was experiencing last week have left me, they were probably just due to insufficient sleep and not eating properly. Since my return from Kaliningrad my hostess has been in the hospital, so I have been responsible for making my own meals. That isn't too much of a problem, but Russian grocery stores can be confusing, so my selection of ingredients has been rather lacking. Also, I have no recipes, so I have been having to wing it. Fortunately food in grocery stores is really cheap (I am always incensed when a block of cheese costs more than 70 rubles, or somewhat less than $3) and of a generally high quality. I think I've already mentioned this, but bread, cheese, and fruit in Russian grocery stores seem to be much better than in American ones (this is particularly true of the bread), and is generally cheaper. Anyways, after reintroducing vegetables to my diet, not to mention sleep, my spirits have improved significantly. I was worried that I was starting to exit the “honeymoon” phase of traveling abroad, after which everything gets to be irritating and life in another country loses its lustre. Fortunately, I was just not eating right, as far as I can tell. Earlier tonight I went for a walk to the post office to drop off some postcards, and since it was snowing I decided to continue to wander around my part of the city. The outer reaches of Yaroslavl' are not particularly attractive, but the snow really seemed to help alleviate that problem. It's still snowing right now, and it's very pretty. Oh, and as regards postcards, I have sent a few out, though I am still working on going down my list of people to whom to send postcards. Please do me a favour and let me know if you have received a postcard from me – it may be a few weeks before they arrive, if they arrive at all. The Russian postal service is notoriously slow and unreliable, so do not be offended if you don't get anything – it's quite likely that they either lost the postcard, or decided not to send it because they didn't like something about it. Hooray for Russian bureaucracy. Oh, and as regards my khozyaika (hostess) – she came home briefly on Saturday to take a shower and so forth (Russian hospitals are not the most pleasant places, it would seem), and she will be coming home for good next weekend. So I'll only have to cook for myself for another week, and I won't have to move to a different host family. And Middlebury gives me 250 rubles a day ($10) for food, so I am well taken care of. So you don't have to worry too much about me, Mom.

Anyways, now to the recap of my week. Monday through Friday was fairly quiet – I would say the highlights were going to play pool on Wednesday night, and buying train tickets for my trip at the end of this month. I'm going with three other American students to St. Petersburg and Moscow for 10 days, with a possible side trip to Novgorod in the middle. We bought train tickets from the main Yaroslavl' train station, and they were incredibly cheap. All told it was 850 rubles (just over $30) for an overnight trip to St. Petersburg, and a shorter trip from Moscow back to Yaroslavl'. And that was includes the service charge of around $8 which we decided to endure so as to not have to deal with the ornery workers at the normal ticket windows. We didn't buy our tickets from Petersburg to Moscow because we have to wait for somebody else, but we can get those once we are in Petersburg. But that was about it for what I did during the week. On Saturday, though, we went to go see the circus. Russian circuses are well known both for being some of the best in the world, and for having really depressing animal shows. This circus delivered as promised on both counts. Before the circus started we went and got our pictures taken with a bear sitting on a motorcycle, though the bear didn't seem to be too happy with the arrangement. I don't think bears are natural motorcycle riders. During the circus itself they brought out an Indian elephant which proceeded to do tricks, but looked very sad all the while. The dog show was significantly less depressing, with many happy-seeming dogs (some dyed strange colours) doing tricks. They even had a chihuahua that climbed a 15 foot ladder and then jumped off of it. They bear show in the second half really upset me, as they bears were are muzzled, and looked really uncomfortable and unhappy. They were all forced to walk on their hind legs, when they weren't riding bikes, or motorcycles. I think the circus would have been a much better experience if it didn't have bears or elephants in it, though many would likely not agree with me. The show was billed as being a “Bear Show with Indian Elephants,” rather than advertising what I would consider to be the much more impressive part of the show – the human acts. My mom told me that many circuses are populated with Russian circus performers, and I can see why that might be. The jugglers were really fantastically good, and according to my female companions, very attractive. For those who saw the Oberlin Circus at Teddy's graduation – imagine those jugglers, but then having done it professionally for a number of years. They were really quite amazing. The most impressive part though, was the acrobats. They had the normal dancing-type acrobats, which were fine, but then they busted out the best part. There were two biggish men who balanced 15-20 foot poles on their shoulders, with platforms on the top. Then the acrobats climbed up these poles, and did tricks on them. I was quite impressed by the people doing backflips on platforms 25 feet in the air, balanced on a man's shoulders. Little did I know, though, the best was yet to come. They got both of the men balancing their platforms, about 15 feet apart. Then one acrobat climbed up one of the poles, and stood on the platform facing away from the other platform. He then proceeded to do a backflip from one platform to the other, and these platforms were no more than 6 square feet big. Then, they got a guy on each platform, and one guy did a backflip off of his platform, and landed on the other's guy's shoulders. It was really crazy, and truly one of the more impressive things I have seen. Overall I would say the circus was a positive experience, especially considering it is a distinctly Russian sort of thing to do. Though I will avoid animal shows in this country from now on. On Saturday night after the circus some of us went over to the apartment of the Finnish student, Outi. I actually have no idea if I spelled that right. Anyways, she is here in Yaroslavl' studying at YarGU, because her home city is a sort of sister city to Yaroslavl'. We went over to her place and watched a few movies. We encountered a rather serious problem upon leaving, however – the trolleybuses had stopped running because it was fairly late at night, so four of us were forced to stay the night at her place. It wasn't too bad, though I would have much preferred to be able to sleep in my own bed, as uncomfortable as it may be.

In Which Our Hero Goes to the Zoo

Just one entry this week, as I'm not really feeling up to it, and still need to get started on my homework. Perhaps later in the week if I am in higher spirits I will check in again. Anyways, this week was the week of our group trip to Kaliningrad. We left Yaroslavl' at 2am Tuesday, to drive to Moscow to catch our 7am plane. After a largely sleepless bus ride in which we were apparently stopped by the Militsia (police) for some reason, we finally arrived at the airport in Moscow. Following our flight to Kaliningrad (again largely sleepless), we got in at around 10am. We took taxis to our hotel, and my initial impression of the city was that it was incredibly ugly. I had read that most most of the attractive parts of the city were destroyed in WWII or by those damn Soviets, but I was not prepared for the level of ugliness that I encountered during that taxi ride. All the buildings we passed were cookie-cutter soviet apartment blocks, in various states of disrepair. The initial ugliness of the city, combined with the extremely irritating taxi ride (I won't get into that) and having slept for less than two hours meant that when we got to the hotel I was in less than a wonderful mood. A four hour nap helped to alleviate this situation, so I decided to go exploring the city with some friends. I discovered once we got into the center of the city that Kaliningrad isn't really that ugly. Don't get me wrong, it's still pretty ugly, but there are some very attractive buildings and neighborhoods. From this one gets a sense of just how nice the city must have been before it was decimated during and after the war. The central square (Ploshad' Pobedy, or Victory Square) is dominated by a huge gold-domed orthodox cathedral that was built in the last few years. The other main point of interest in the city is the large church on Kant Island, which has been renovated in the past few years by donations from German families who were kicked out by the Soviets. It's mostly just a concert hall now, but it does have two chapels, and one of the largest pipe organs in Europe. Unfortunately they were not holding any concerts while we were in town, or I would certainly have gone. Attached to a corner of the church is the tomb of Emanuel Kant, the philosopher, who lived and taught in Koenigsberg (the German name for the city).

On Wednesday we had a group trip to the Curonian Spit (I think that's what it's called in English), which is a narrow strip of sand dunes along the Baltic Sea, half of which is owned by Russia, with the other half being part of Lithuania. It was a really fascinating, if wet, excursion. At one point we climbed some sand dunes and then a tower and were able to simultaneously see the Baltic and the Curonian Lagoon, which is the body of water formed by the Spit. We also got to see the bird ringing place, in which they catch birds in a huge net and then tag them, record them in a book, and then release them. I had a hard time understanding the guy who was talking, but it was cool nonetheless. We had Thursday to ourselves, so some of us decided to go to the Kaliningrad Zoo. Apparently it was one of the best zoos in the world before the war, but insufficient funding and neglect seem to have taken their toll. It is a really pretty park, but the exhibits are not well maintained, and the animals seem to be hungry and sad. I'm still glad I went though, as it has been a really long time since I last went to the zoo. I got to see bears, lions, a tiger, an elephant, hippos, and a very angry elk, among other things. I also had the very strange experience of watching Sarah feed mango to a bear. Since the zoo has so little money, the keepers do not discourage feeding the animals. When we came up to one of the bear cages, people were feeding throwing acorns to the bear, who seemed to be happy as a result. Once the other people went away, and once the soldiers passed us by, Sarah proceeded to throw bits of dried mango to the bear. Bears like dried mango, it would seem. Or at least this one did. I took a pretty sweet picture of the bear preparing to catch a flying piece of mango in its mouth. Hopefully it'll still be visible if I put it up on shutterfly. After the zoo we went to the Museum of the World Ocean, which consists of some boats, and a main building. The highlight of that was getting to go into an old Soviet submarine. The old man on board was very enthusiastic, and seemed very eager to practice giving his talk in English. It was really cool. The first part of Friday consisted of going to the Amber Museum, and helping Emily buy pants. This, it turned out, was somewhat less fun than bears and submarines. Oh well. Oh, and about amber – Kaliningrad is, I think, the world's largest producer of amber. And they seem to all be really proud of this fact. Kaliningrad's hockey team is even called Dynamo-Amber (Dinamo-Yantar'). After returning to the hotel, we got in taxis and headed back to the airport, for our flight back to Moscow. Everything was a little bit delayed, and I didn't end up getting back to my apartment until 3:45am Saturday.

After getting some sleep, I went to the Icon Museum in Yaroslavl', for my culture class. They have a really beautiful collections of icons, some of which were painted in the 13^th century. On Sunday I went ice skating, and didn't even break any limbs. I would be lying if I said I didn't fall, but I didn't fall very many times, or very spectacularly, which I consider to be a good thing. I shall try to go ice skating again before too long, and perhaps might even learn to do it without looking tentative and silly. On a completely unrelated note, I need some opinions regarding facial hair. I am unsure if I'm happy with my beard. I'm having a debate with myself about whether or not I should go for just chops and a 'stache, to go with the mullet I'll hopefully have by December. So, if anyone has any words of wisdom regarding beards, moustaches, or mullets, please let me know, by whatever means you see fit. Thank you in advance.

Oh, and one last note - I just uploaded pictures from Kaliningrad, this time with real live people in them! That should placate you for a while, Teddy.

Ramblings, as promised

Now, to the topics I promised I would revisit. On Wednesday night, after playing a few games of pool, we sat down and talked to Andrei, Pavel, and their friend, whose name escapes me. For a while I talked with Andrei about the stock market and investments, which turned out to be difficult, seeing as how I don't know the Russian words for any of those sorts of things. After that, we talked about politics for a while, which was definitely the most interesting part of the evening. So far the only things I have heard from Russians about Russian politics have been from Olga Ivanovna, our Politics professor. Predictably, she seems to follow the official line about the Russian political system, which holds that it's an open, democratic system in which everyone has an equal chance and say. Andrei and Pasha, though, told us that the elections this December really don't matter, as Yedinaya Rossiya (which I think is usually translated as “United Russia”) is certain to command a huge majority in the State Duma, which is their more important house of parliament. United Russia is the “Party of Putin,” and thus gets all the benefits of Putin's new laws suppressing legitimate opposition parties. The only other parties that are expected to gain seats in the Duma are the Communist Party, LDPR, and another party, which I think is called Spravedlivaya Rossiya, though I'm not certain. The Communist Party isn't particularly strong, and is mostly supported by pensioners who are nostalgic for the Soviet Union. LDPR is the party of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who is a ultra-nationalist, racist, anti-Semitic nut. Do yourself a favour and look him up on Wikipedia to see just how ridiculous / scary this man is. Spravedlivaya Rossiya, or whatever it's called, is the union of three earlier political parties. It's supposed to be a fairly moderate party, and a challenger to United Russia. But Pavel told me he thought Spravedlivaya Rossiya was just created by the powers-that-be to take votes away from KPRF (the acronym for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation). It was really interesting for me to hear these guys give a completely different view on national politics than I had been hearing in my classes. They don't seem to think that Russia is a democracy at all, and they had the same opinion about the American system as well. I won't get into what I think about that point, as this is neither the time, nor the correct forum. As I said, on Thursday I went to IMKA, where we did some “cross-cultural communication,” which I find to be a very Macalester term. This consisted mostly of introductions (which were interesting in their own right) followed by discussing stereotypes that Americans hold about Russians, and that Russians hold about Americans. As there were two Americans there, and more than 10 Russians, this ended up being a fascinating discussion. We divided up into groups of three, with Rhiannon and I in the same group, along with a crazy Russian student-type named Aleksei, who had studied in England. Each group had to come up with a list of the stereotypes they thought Americans hold, and those that Russians hold. Most interesting to me was what Russians thought Americans think about Russians. They seemed to think that Americans know a lot more about Russians then they actually do – for instance, birch trees and good food were both given as things that Americans associate with Russia. I would estimate that very few people in the US who haven't tried Russian food would assume that it's good (it generally is, for the record), and wouldn't have known that Russia has birch trees. As for the stereotypes that that they held about us (or thought Russians in general hold about Americans), they thought we smile at strangers too much, that we get married late, and that we have high living standards. They also associated cowboys, fast food, and Hollywood. Aleksei had some really interesting views about Americans, but I won't go into them now, for I have already written way too much. Oh, and perhaps the best part about the IMKA experience was that Vitya (nickname for Viktor), who is one of the heads of IMKA has as his ringtone the song “YMCA.” As in, the Village People. That made me really, really happy.

In Which I Converse With Some Real Live Russians

It has been a very enlightening week here in Yaroslavl'. I feel like this week, more than any other so far during my time here I've done what studying abroad is all about – conversing with people, with real live Russians about topics that are important to my conceptions about Russia as a country, and the people as a whole. Oh, and seeing bears. That's also what studying abroad is all about. But before I get to all of that, I'll recount what I've done this week, for those who require a day-by-day account of my activities (my Mom). After an entirely unexciting Monday, of which the highlight was successfully uploading my pictures to Shutterfly, on Tuesday we had yet another trip to the Nekrasov library with my Politics class in order to pick out an article that deals either with Viktor Zubkov, the new Russian Prime Minister, or with the upcoming parliamentary elections. Olga Ivanovna (name and patronymic are used when addressing professors and other people in older generations), or Politics professor, showed us the various political magazines and newspapers in Russia, all of which are controlled by the state, as far as I can tell. Anyways, she wanted us to choose an article, and then describe it to the class. My article was about the members of Zubkov's cabinet that are expected to continue to be a part of the government, and which aren't. It was interesting, but at times hard to decipher what the article was saying. On Wednesday we went to the Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Saviour with my Culture class, and saw the exhibit on “The Song of Igor's Campaign,” which is a Russian epic poem that all Russian students study, and which was discovered at the monastery. After walking around and looking at old Russian artifacts, we went and saw Masha the bear, who lives in a cage on the monastery grounds. I had never seen a bear before in real life that I could remember, so this was a strange experience. Masha was rather listless and depressed looking, though once someone offered her some fruit on a long pole she got up and showed some life. Masha did not dance, and thus did not quite fit the stereotype of Russian bears. Perhaps I'll go to the circus sometime in the next month to see their “bear show,” so as to fulfill my need to see large, sad looking bears dancing and riding motorcycles. Anyways, Wednesday evening I went with a friend to play some pool with the two Russian guys we met last weekend. They speak about as much English as we speak Russian (or perhaps less), so the conversation was about half in each language, I would estimate. After beating them handily in both games of our pool hall reenactment of the Cold War, we sat down and talked for a bit before going home. But I will get back to this later. First, the rest of my week. I have no classes on Thursday, so I went and hung out with some friends in a cafe before we decided to go sit by the Volga and chill out there. At 4:30 I left with Rhiannon, another American student (and one who also goes to Macalester) to go to IMKA (Russian YMCA) where they were holding another meeting for potential volunteers (it seems they don't have enough for all their programs). Anyways, we spent an hour and a half there, doing what Vitya, one of the leaders, called “cross-cultural communication.” I will also get back to this, once I finish recounting my week. Friday was not terribly exciting, consisting of nothing out of the ordinary. On Saturday we hopped on a boat headed up the river towards the Tolgsky Monastery, and had ourselves a picnic in a field next to the forest. This picnic was organized by Alina, the same person who arranged the hockey game I went to last weekend. We had ourselves a wonderful picnic, with bread, cheese, fruit, wine, cookies, and the like. It was really nice. We even played some silly games. Dasha, a friend of Alina's, decided to play a getting-to-know-you game called “The Train Choo-Choo,” which was a mix of ice-breaker and conga line. It was strange. And then someone else decided we needed to play a different game, which was very difficult for me, as it involved rhythm. After our picnic we walked through the monastery (which I've decided is one of my favourite places in or around Yaroslavl', and then took the boat back to the city. Then we went to a cafe, which was decorated to resemble a castle, or maybe a dungeon. It's a really cool, tiny place, with brick and stone walls and ceilings, and very hefty wood furniture. I foresee myself going there fairly often, especially considering they are purported to have very tasty soups. On Sunday I attempted to go to the one laundromat in the city to clean my clothes pre-Kaliningrad, but failed, as they are closed on Sundays. Then I attempted to go to the traveling seal and dolphin show, held on a boat on the Volga. In this too, I was unsuccessful, as we apparently underestimated the demand for mobile animal shows, and the tickets were all sold out. So instead of dolphins, we went to a cafe called “Vanilla Sky,” where I had the first spicy food I've had since I left home more than a month ago. It was awesome, if a bit expensive. Then, I spent the rest of the evening either doing homework or washing clothes by hand, as everyone in Russia seems to do. It's possible that the thing I miss most (apart from family and friends, of course) is easily accessible washers and dryers. Washing clothes by hand sucks.

This coming week we are going as a group to Kaliningrad, which I am very much looking forward to. For those who don't know, Kaliningrad is the little bit of Russia that is separate from the rest of it, on the Baltic Sea between Poland and Lithuania. It is actually a whole region, though the most important part is the city, which shares its name with the region. The city of Kaliningrad was a German city called Koenigsberg, which was flattened in WWII, and taken over by the Soviets. The Soviets got rid of all the Germans, and turned it into a distinctly Russian city. It is named for Mikhail Kalinin, who was one of Stalin's henchmen. He is known best for ignoring a massive famine in Ukraine in which millions of people died, and for ordering the execution of thousands of Polish officers during WWII in a forest near Smolensk, which was then blamed on the Nazis. What a guy. We leave Yarloslavl' at midnight or 1 am Monday night, for a 7am flight out of Moscow, and then get back here on the 5^th or so.

Pictures

I have uploaded a bunch of pictures - they can be accessed here, I hope: fromtherodina.shutterfly.com

In Which I See a Really Sweet Mullet

It has been a busy week in Yaroslavl'. On Tuesday we had a group trip to the Yaroslavl' Regional Universal Scientific Library, also known as the Nekrasov library, with our Politics class. This was an interesting expedition, as we got to see how the Russian system of libraries works. I have to admit – I don't think that the US should adopt it. It is far too complicated, and there isn't anywhere near enough freedom to take books you want. In fact, only a very small percentage of the books in the library are available to be taken home – you have to do all your reading in the library, in one of the reading halls. In addition to that, you can't go wandering through stacks of books looking for one you want. To get a book, you have to use the card catalog (no computer catalogs) and then take the information about the book you wrote down to someone who then requests the book. After waiting for 20 minutes or so, the book is brought to you from the deepest recesses of the library. It seems to be that our system is far superior, as you don't have to deal with ornery Russian library workers (virtually all Russian service workers are ornery, by the way), you don't have to wait around for the books to come, and you can peruse the racks of books, looking for exactly what you want. I guess people here just really love their bureaucracy. There were, though, some cool things – there was a section of really old books, and we had a long talk from the woman who worked there, though I understood little of what she said (likely due to the fact that I stopped paying attention about halfway through). Anyways, that's it for the library. On Wednesday we had a walking tour for our Culture class, given by the professor. We had been talking about traditional Russian architecture, so we went around the city looking at the various 17^th century churches, and things of that nature. It turns out that the Yaroslavl' region has its own type of church architecture, which is rather distinct from that in other regions of the country. Almost all Yaroslavl' churches have onion domes that are scaly, and almost all churches are white with green domes. Apparently this is different from other places, such as Moscow where the domes have spiral designs on them (look at a picture of St. Basil's on Red Square to see what I mean). Also, Yaroslavl' churches apparently traditionally have short staircases leading up to them, though I'd say this is rather a minor detail. In all we saw saw probably eight or so churches on our little “ekskurtsia,” along with some monuments and other things important to the history of the city. It was a very pleasant tour, and I took a bunch of pictures. I'll try to put them up online as soon as I can, though I have no idea when that will be.

On Friday I ended up (after many delays and complications) going to hang out with the group of Finnish students that was in town for a week or so. We ended up at a very cramped bar, where I had a conversation with two youngish Russian men about politics. Their English was about on the same level as my Russian, so the conversation was about half in each language. It was really interesting, though, to hear what they had to say, though I admit I had a very difficult time hearing them, as it was really loud in there, and they spoke too quickly in Russian, and not very well in English. Kevin, a student from the University of Nebraska studying here, and I agreed to go play pool on Sunday with these two Russian fellows, Andrei and Pavel. Unfortunately they called too late on Sunday, as I had homework, but Kevin and I agreed to call them up later in the week to reschedule.

After a fairly quiet Saturday afternoon in which I almost bought some much-needed shoes but didn't have the nerve to ask the woman working at the store to help me, I went to go see a hockey game. Not surprisingly, this is where the awesome mullet comes in. I remarked on our way to the stadium that a hockey stadium was likely to be a prime mullet spotting location, and I was not disappointed. About halfway through the game a man sat down in the row in front of us who had the sweetest mullet I have ever seen with my own eyes. The best word I can think of to describe it is “epic.” Oh man, it totally made my day. Most mullets I have seen thus far were rather short and greasy, and worn by younger (under 25) males, but this one was different. This guys was probably in his 40s, and had the most perfect mullet imaginable. I will try to provide photographic evidence (I asked my friend Sarah to take a picture of it, and when she wouldn't, I borrowed her camera and did it myself). Aside from hairstyle related issues, the game was a lot of fun. The Lokomotiv fans were really into the game, though they ended up losing 5-4, after putting up a valiant fight towards the end to get back into the game. I was surprised to find that no alcohol was sold at the stadium, as far as I could tell, and that no bottles of any kind were allowed into the arena. I bought a bottle of soda on the concourse, but was told that I could only bring it to my seat if I poured it into a little plastic cup. As the game was about to start, I just downed my 7up and went back to my seat. I think both of these rules are designed to make it the arena a safer and more pleasant place to be – if alcohol were involved the fans would likely get very rowdy, particularly against Moscow or Petersburg teams, and if bottles were allowed in, they would probably be thrown onto the ice. Anyways, the game was a lot of fun, and I will definitely be going back sometime in the not too distant future.

On Drinking

There's a pretty prevalent stereotype held by Americans – that Russians love to drink. After about three weeks of living in a Russian city, I can't say that the stereotype is inaccurate. Maybe it's because there isn't much else to do in the cold winters, maybe it's just because it's so cheap, but the Russian people as a whole do seem to love the sauce. It's really amazing to me how drinking is accepted and perhaps expected – kiosks scattered all over the city emblazoned with the Baltika logo (Baltika is the largest Russian brewer of beer, and is owned by Newcastle and Carlsberg, two western European breweries) sell bottles of beer of all different varieties for very low prices, and as far as I can tell are open all night. One can buy a bottle of Baltika Nine for as little as 20 rubles, which is less than a dollar, on the street. Another popular option is the big plastic bottle of cheap beer, which can be bought for around 70 rubles. That's less than 4 dollars for as much as three litres of beer. It's sort of strange to be on the trolleybus at 2:00 in the afternoon and seeing younger men sitting on the bus drinking from their jugs of beer. And at pretty much any time of day, it's a good bet that there'll be someone walking around with a bottle or can of Baltika in their hand. What's interesting to me is that beer seems to be much more popular than vodka, which is more or less the national drink. I'd say that when people think about Russia, one of the first things that comes to mind is a bearded man in a fur hat drinking from a bottle of vodka (and perhaps watching a dancing bear). I'm not trying to say that vodka isn't popular here, don't get me wrong. Perhaps it's just because I usually only see people drinking when they're on the street, as I don't frequent bars, but beer seems to be the drink of choice among the younger crowd. Among the older crowd, however, I get the impression that vodka is still the preferred drink. Any grocery store will have a large wall absolutely packed with bottles of vodka, ranging from the $5 half litre bottles, to the bottles costing upward of $50, which are usually imported. Even in cafes vodka is quite cheap, with bottles being available for under $10, usually. No wonder there seems to be such a problem with drunkenness.

Anyways, this all leads me to the more important question: why is it that drinking is such a big thing here? In class a few weeks ago, we were discussing the Russian concepts of optimism, soul, and fate, and someone asked our professor about depression. Specifically, she asked if a man who spent all of his time drinking and doing little else would be considered “depressed.” Her answer really surprised me: she said that sometimes such a person would be considered to be depressed, but generally it would just be thought that he was “pouring vodka on his soul” in order to keep it from getting sick. That doesn't translate very well, but I was really taken aback. Coming from the US, where any dependence on alcohol is seen as a sickness, and a problem that seriously needs to be resolved, it was somewhat of a shock to hear alcoholism described as something less than terrible. Overall though, I can't say I am terribly surprised that there is so much drinking here – the reputation is well earned. It is worth noting, though, two things. First, is that women don't seem to drink very much. At celebrations and gatherings at people's houses, vodka is pretty much always drunk. The women, though, are usually not expected to take any more than the first shot of vodka, and often drink wine instead. Maggie – I don't see too much support for your “every good Russian women can drink a litre of vodka without batting an eye” theory. I'm terribly sorry. The second thing is public drunkenness is often seen in a very poor light. One reason (among many) that Russians didn't seem to like Boris Yeltsin is that he was often drunk at public gatherings, and not a few times made a fool of himself. Vladimir Putin, however, does not drink much, and this is by no means seen as a personality flaw. I should note, though, that pretty much anything Putin does is hailed as being wonderful. It's easy to be loved, it turns out, when you control the media.

In Which I Get Some Culture

It has been a fairly uneventful week in Yaroslavl', though I did go out and get my first taste of culture here. And I have more on the way, hopefully soon. As far as classes go, everything has been going fine, and we started Phonetics this week. Our professor is a bit scary, and has decided that we are going to sing Russian songs on Fridays, about which, I'm sure you can imagine, I'm not terribly excited. Though the class should be interesting – we all need a lot of work on pronunciation and the like. Also, in a bit of fortuitous timing, the Russian Prime Minister, Mikhail Fradkov resigned in the middle of the week, which gave us plenty to talk about in my Russian politics class. It's unfortunate, though, how tame the class can be in some ways – we didn't really address the (almost certain) possibility that this is a completely staged move, and could just be a sign that Putin is going to choose the new guy, Zubkov, to be the next president. Granted, the fact that we didn't talk about that could be due to the fact that we don't possess the necessary vocabulary to do so. Oh, and a quick note about the names of the potential successors to Putin as president – Viktor Zubkov, who just was appointed prime minister – his name comes from the word “zub,” (pronounced “zoob”), which means “tooth.” And Dmitri Medvedev, who is a vice president, and also runs Gazprom, the state natural gas company – his name comes from the word “medved,” which means “bear.” The other name being thrown around is Sergei Ivanov, though his name isn't nearly so interesting. It's the Russian equivalent of “Johnson.”

Anyways, on Thursday evening I ended up going to a concert of the Yaroslavl Academic State Symphony Orchestra (if you think that's long in English, try it in Russian – Ярославский Академический Государственний Симфонический Оркестр), or YAGSO, for short. It was a performance of pieces by Glinka, Rodrigo, Kitka, and Rimsky-Korsakov, and it was really nice. The concert hall is quite small, but it's a nice space with fairly good acoustics. I can't say that they're a particularly good orchestra (I'd put them well below the BSO), but the tickets are dirt cheap, so I'm going to go as often as I can. A student ticket costs only 50 rubles, which is almost exactly $2. In a few weeks there's going to be a concert of Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninov, so I'm totally going to try to go to that. I'm glad that I've been getting a chance to see the various cultural attractions in the city – there's a lot to be seen, so I may as well make use of the maximum of $50 I can get in cultural reimbursement from Middlebury. Hopefully next week I'll be going to see the Yaroslavl' hockey team, Lokomotiv, play against some other SuperLeague team. And next week we have an excursion for our culture class to go look at the architectural styles of the various 17^th century churches in the city. I'm really looking forward to that – I'll be sure to take some pictures.

On Friday we had classes as normal, and then spent the evening hanging out with some other American students in a bar / cafe until fairly late, at which point we decided to go to McDonald's, which turned out to be a strange experience. I ordered a Big Mac (Биг Мак), which tasted exactly like it does at home. The fries I tried, however, were disappointing, though perhaps that's just because we got there just before they closed. On Saturday I spent the afternoon hanging out at a cafe / bar, until heading back to my apartment for free dinner at home. After dinner I went over to the apartment of one of the students from the University of Nebraska, where we hung out until it was time to head home. A quick note: Russians apparently like their wine really sweet. We bought a few bottles of Chechen wine (bottled in Beslan, of all places) for 50 rubles apiece ($2), and they were like grape juice. Not my favourite, but I can't complain too much, considering the price. Anyways, that was about it for my week.

On Communism

I was watching a show during dinner the other night, which as far as I could tell was like a Russian “Figure Skating with the Stars.” I feel like such a show exists in the US, but then again, I wouldn't watch it if there was. Anyways, some of the figure skating “champions” that were paired up with actors or musicians were champions during the Soviet era, and they seemed to be the most loved. This got me to thinking about the legacy of communism and Soviet Power in Russia. One interesting part of this is the names of streets, squares, and such in Russia. True, city names were generally changed - Stalingrad and Leningrad were changed to St. Petersburg and Volgograd, respectively, after the fall of the USSR - but a lot of things have retained their names. For example – the building in which I have all my classes is on Red Square (or Krasnaya Ploshad', to those in the know). We also have a Lenin Avenue (prospekt Lenina), and the University's address is on Soviet Street (ulitsa Sovietskaya). On my way into the city center from where I live, I take the trolleybus down Freedom Street (ulitsa Svobody) past Labor Square (Ploshad' Truda), and then past Youth Square (Ploshad' Yunosti), which totally fits in with the Soviet pattern, if you haven't studied Soviet culture. The weirdest street name has got to be Pavlik Morozov street (Pavlik Morozov was a legend in the early Soviet era. He ratted out his family to the authorities for hoarding grain during collectivization, and his family then killed him, I believe the story goes). And, what is to me probably the weirdest thing of all (except for maybe the naked volleyball player statue, which is a story for another time), is the fact that Yaroslavl' has two statues of Lenin. We have one on Krasnaya Ploshad',where Lenin is standing heroically pointing toward something in the distance (the advance of World Communism, perhaps?). And there's another one north of the university on prospekt Lenina where our dear Lenin is sitting reading a book, like the gentle scholar that he was. And it's not like all these names still exist only because Yaroslavl' is some backwater provincial city still yearning for the days of Brezhnev and Molotov – a quick search of a map of nearly any city in Russia reveals multiple streets or squares with Soviet names - Karl Marx street, or Kirov Square. Things are a little different in Moscow and Petersburg, though you still do encounter it – the oblast', or state, that surrounds St. Petersburg is called Leningradskaya Oblast'. Certainly, attempts have been made to de-Sovietize Russia – notably, I can't think of anything named for Stalin, or any statues of him that I have heard of or seen. And, in many cases churches and other cultural landmarks throughout the country have been rebuilt after the fall of communism – the Tolgsky Monastery just up the Volga River from Yaroslavl', for instance, was recently rebuilt after being used as a prison during the Soviet era. Additionally, statues of Tsars that had been taken down under Lenin and Stalin have been recast, in a strange embrace of the not-any-easier Tsarist era.

Anyway, I think this all says something really interesting about the reaction to and legacy of Soviet power. Clearly, people don't completely reject everything about Soviet life. If that were true, I wouldn't frequently walk down ulitsa Sovietskaya to get to Sovietskaya Ploshad'. At the same time, for obvious reasons people don't completely embrace the Soviet legacy, as evidenced by the complete lack of references to Stalin, and some name changes. Russian culture really has embraced a fascinating combination of things from their past. To me, Yaroslavl' is a great example of this. From the window of the University it sort of looks like Lenin is pointing directly at the gold onion domes of a church built in the 17^th century. Then, just down ulitsa Komsomolskaya (the Komsomol was the Soviet organization for youth) lies the Kremlin, with buildings built in the 1500s. In the middle of the square in front of the Kremlin is a statue of Yaroslavl the Wise, son of Kievan King Vladimir (the Great, I think). Quick side note - Yaroslav founded the city in 1010, when he killed a bear with an ax and decided to build a city on the spot. This is the reason for Yaroslavl's official seal – a bear holding an ax. Betsy, if you read this please do me a favour and tell Brian that the symbol of my city is big bear holding an ax. I think he would appreciate that. Getting back on track (if I had a track to begin with), there seems to be a strange nostalgia for the Soviet years, though with love for the Tsars, and other things that were denounced as being “bourgeois” by the Soviets. As far as I can tell, people here really didn't much like Boris Yeltsin, though they all seem to absolutely love Vladimir Putin. People absolutely love Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, who were both censored by the Soviets because of their ideology. Not to mention all the beautiful Russian Orthodox churches that have been painstakingly rebuilt, after being destroyed or turned into museums of atheism during the 20^th century.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what things are like in other cities, cities that are completely unlike anything I would ever find in the US. For instance, I'm not likely to see signs noting the upcoming 1000 year anniversary of the founding of any city in America, while there are signs telling Yaroslavl' residents that they “only have three years.” At the beginning of October we'll be going to Kaliningrad as a group, which should be absolutely fascinating, and then we have a week off to travel in late October / early September, and I'm going to try to get to Petersburg if I have the chance. In the meantime, hopefully I can get out to Moscow, which is only a four hour train or bus ride away. Wow, sorry for having written so much, I guess I got sort of carried away. I hope everyone is doing well. Take care.

In Which I Notice a Few Things

Life in Yaroslavl' turns out to be quite interesting. I've been getting used to taking the trolleybus into the old center of the city every morning – see Mom, I can take public transportation. Especially when a month-long student pass costs only around $5. Last Sunday I actually got a chance to see Mom and Joe when they were in town on their boat tour of Russia, which was really nice, if somewhat of a surprise. I had sent Mom an e-mail saying I probably wouldn't get a chance to see them on account of the orientation activities we had that morning, but I was standing outside of an internet cafe on ul. Nakhimsona near the Kremlin, when I felt a hand on my shoulder. It turned out to be my mom's hand, which came as quite a surprise. They had to go get back on their tour bus, and I had to continue doing orientation with the group, but I got to see my mom and stepdad for a few minutes, thousands of miles away from home. This weekend, on Friday night we had a meeting with IMKA, which is sort of the Russian version of YMCA, though without the Christian part, and with no association with the Village People. They have programs for little kids, teenagers, and students, most of which involve teaching English. It looks as if most of us will be doing some sort of program with them this semester. Anyways, we had a meeting with them on Friday night, which was quite a lot of fun. It was seven of the eight Middlebury program students, the two students here on a University of Nebraska program, and five or six Russian students and young people. We played some ice-breaker type games, and then participated in what seems to be one of their favourite activities – drinking tea. We were there in all for a couple of hours, and then some of us went to a cafe and hung out there until it was time to head home.

A quick note about assorted things I've noticed since I've been here – first, Russian men seem to love mullets. I'm not entirely sure why this might be, perhaps it's just because they're 20 years behind on everything. I usually watch Russian TV with my host during meals, and they way some of these people dress is really appalling. The women all have really big hair, way too much makeup, and really ugly clothing. And the men all seem to think that “business in the front, party in the back” is an acceptable formula for a hairstyle. Though I have on occasion seen some really strikingly beautiful women, who haven't succumbed to to the temptation to dress trashily. Speaking of hair-related issues – Teddy, you will be glad to note that my Russia beard is progressing nicely. I haven't shaved since I was in Estonia, which is coming up on two weeks ago. The problem is I'm in the itchy stage, and I really hope that ends soon. Because I don't know how much longer I can deal with that. Oh, another thing I've noticed – I really like to hear from people back home. So no matter who you are, by all means send me an e-mail or something every once in a while – it's very comforting to be able to freely communicate with people I care about. Well, I think that's it for now – I hope all of you are doing well in your respective countries, states, and cities.

Oh, and one more thing – I'll hopefully soon be putting up some pictures from around the city (including our very own statue of Lenin, on our very own Red Square), and from our trip to Tolgsky Monestary up the Volga a little ways. I'll have some more info on that soon.

In Which I Start Classes

I've been in Russia for not a lot more than a week, but I think I'm starting to get somewhat used to how things are here. Communicating with my host is still rather difficult, but it works out in the end. She turns out to be a really funny lady – the other evening she thought I had gone to bed at around 8, and called up another host babushka to find out what time I needed to be at the university in the morning. She's also a very good cook, though I get the feeling that I'm going to get rather sick of Russian food before too long here. It's good, but one can only have so much sour cream before it gets to be too much. I've also been getting to know the other students in the program – there are eight of us in all, and I am the only guy. For some reason the Middlebury College School in Russia has only one guy in Yaroslavl', none in Moscow, yet three or four in Irkutsk. I think it's because the guys all wanted to be tough and go to Siberia for a semester (or a year). I, however, am not so silly. I'll stay where it's somewhat warmer (not that winter is warm here). Anyways, of the eight students, three of us are from Macalester, which makes things somewhat more comfortable. I think it helps me to have someone here whom I know fairly well – I don't feel quite as isolated and uncomfortable as I think I would otherwise. We've all done a pretty good job, I think, of sticking to our language pledge (which says we can't speak English in the University, during program events, or when there are Russians around). It's not as hard as I would have thought to have conversations more complicated than simply saying that we like tea. We sometimes do throw in an English phrase here or there, but I would estimate that 95% of what we say to each other is in Russian.

We started classes the other day – I'll have five classes in all: Grammar, Phonetics, Conversation, Culture, and Politics. All of the classes are taught by Russian professors from YarGU (which stands for Yaroslavski Gosudarstvenny Universityet, or Yaroslavl' State University). I had Culture and Politics on Tuesday, which was the first day of classes for us. Culture will be interesting, I think – so far we've been talking about Russian idioms, and we had a reading about what stereotypes Russians have about themselves and about others. Politics seems like it will be quite amusing – our professor is really really enthusiastic, and very energetic. I think that class will be mostly about the structure of Russian politics – how the State Duma works, how the presidency works, what the constitution says, and so forth. I think it will be interesting to hear about that from the perspective of a Russian university professor. And it turns out that we'll be here for a parliamentary election, and our professor told us she would take us to a polling center on election day. Our grammar class is taught by the same professor who teaches Culture – her name is Svetlana Yurievna Rodonova. She speaks quite quietly, but she is very understanding when we don't understand something, or when we're having trouble trying to say something in Russian. Our conversation class is taught in groups of four, which should force us to talk more than some of us would in a larger group. We haven't had phonetics class yet, but it starts this week.

For those who want to be able to talk to me on the phone whilst I'm here: I now have a Russian cell phone, and as far as I know it won't cost me anything to receive calls on it from people even if they are in another country. So, and this particularly applies to Mom and Dad, though anyone else who wants to is certainly welcome to call me: send me an e-mail in advance to set up a time, and then try calling my cell phone. Apparently there are ways to get international phone cards that cost only five cents a minute or so for calls to Russia, though I am no expert on that matter. My number is 8-915-978-6427. I'm not sure if any of that is the city code, or what – it's probably best to ask the phone card people if they know anything about phone numbers in Europe / Russia.

By the way - the picture is of the statue of Lenin right outside the University, on Red Square.

In Which I Arrive in Russia

I finally arrived in Moscow at 9:30am, and was the first student from the program to get to the airport. I met Simone, the assistant director, at the airport, and we proceeded to stand around for 3.5 hours waiting for the rest of the students (maybe 15 in all) to trickle out of customs. We then boarded a bus to go to our hotel, which was in the Izmailovo region of the city, northeast of the city center. We didn't see anything interesting or particularly notable on our way to the hotel, save for many Soviet style apartment blocks (which aren't really that notable, considering they're everywhere). At the hotel we did some orientation types of things, ate dinner, and then hung out until bed, taking advantage our last few hours of being allowed to speak English. In the morning we got up early, did some more orientation-like activities, including finding out about our host families (more on this later), and were told about how we would get attacked by skinheads if we went to any soccer or hockey games against Moscow or Petersburg based teams. We then had lunch, and were told that as of 2:00pm, we were no longer allowed to speak English to each other, only Russian (well, they only said no English, so I suppose I could speak something else if I really wanted to. Maybe). At 2:00 we retrieved our luggage and, saying nothing because could only speak Russian, boarded the bus to Yaroslavl'.
Our driver was a large Russian man named Aleksandr, who seemed to be one of the most aggressive drivers I had ever encountered. Until, that is, I saw how the other drivers were - I have never seen people so aggressively passing on two-lane roads. Even full size buses would be passing other buses, trucks, and regular cars, with vehicles bearing down on the other side of the road. It was really crazy. Anyway, after a long, largely silent bus ride, we arrived in Yaroslavl', and started to drop people off with their host families(which are, in fact, usually not families at all, but rather older women living alone. Out of eight students, only two are living with more than one other person). When we pulled up to where I would be living, we were met by my host babushka, Lutsia Vladimirovna Zlotnikova, who is a rather short older woman, and who has been hosting American students for ten years. And according to the information I was given in Moscow, she is “good at hosting male students, as she gives them lots of room and doesn't 'mother' them as much as other babushki are known to.” So you got your wish, Mom. I won't be living with an old woman who will cater to my every need. Only some or most of them. Anyways, I was terrified at first because I didn't really understand anything she was saying, but once I sat down and had something to eat it went a little more smoothly, and I was able to learn that she has a daughter who is a psychologist (perhaps a psychology student, I'm not sure) in Yaroslavl', and a son who is in the army, in Kiev. She worked at a university, I think, though she's now retired. She actually complimented me on my Russian, which made me happy, considering how nervous I had been at the beginning. I'm now settled into my room, listening to Al Green, about to go to bed. Tomorrow is more orientation, including seeing the university (YarGU), and the center of the city. I'm so glad to finally be here, and somewhat settled.
Oh, for those who have asked – here is the best address at which to send me mail. I would recommend printing it out on labels, since it's in Cyrillic, but if that's not doable, try to copy the letters as best you can:
150000 Ярославль
ул. Советская, 14
Ярославский Государственний Университет
ИНОТДЕЛ
Charles Ballard, американский студент
RUSSIA

In Which I Find out if Blogspot Works

Hello, and welcome to the journal of my adventures during my semester studying in Yaroslavl', Russia.

As some of you already know, I did some travelling before I went to Russia for my semester abroad. My mom and I hatched a plan in which I would go to Finland and Estonia with her and my stepdad, Joe, and then I would go to Latvia by myself for a day, before flying into Moscow to start with the Middlebury College School in Russia. We left the Thursday before my program started, and flew Icelandair into Helsinki, Finland. After getting very little sleep on the plane, when we arrived at our hotel, we were very tired. We had dinner at a nice cafe, and promptly went to sleep. We were staying at what turned out to be a sailor's hotel, down near the (very beautiful) main harbor in Helsinki. A few steps out of the hotel door was a fantastic view of Uspensky Cathedral, which is a beautiful cathedral that was originally Russian Orthodox, but is now Finnish Orthodox, I believe. Over the course of a few days I got to see most of the city, including some of the islands nearby, by means of a boat tour. We also went to the town of Porvoo (I think I'm spelling that right), which was an hour's bus ride outside of Helsinki. It is a picturesque little town on a river, but we all were tired, and didn't stay there too long.
The next day we took a boat to Tallinn, Estonia, which I consider to be the highlight of the trip. The boat only took 90 minutes, and we soon arrived in Estonia. We were staying in Old Town Tallinn, which is an impeccably preserved medieval part of the city. It was absolutely beautiful, with huge old churches and cute winding streets, though it felt a little eerie. There were people dressed up in traditional costumes, trying to get customers at their medieval themed restaurants, which served mead from big goblets, and huge throngs of tourists. All of which made it feel a bit like a theme park. We walked around the city, and I fulfilled a promise by buying a pair of knit mittens from an Estonian woman in front of the so-called “Sweater Wall.” We slept that night in a very nice hotel on the north edge of Old Town. The next morning, after looking around the city we headed back to Helsinki, in time to go see the Oslo Philharmonic perform at Finlandia Hall, which was great. At the end of both halves the symphony played encores, which I don't think I had encountered before. Anyways, it was a really cool thing to do, and I'm glad my mom was resourceful enough to find out about it and to book tickets. The next morning I headed off to the airport, to catch my flight to Riga, Latvia.
Riga, it turns out, is a scary place. I got into the airport, got some Latvian cash, checked my big bag, and got on the bus. On the bus, I think I angered the old ticket collector lady, because I didn't have any change, and couldn't understand what she was saying (as I don't speak Latvian, and she didn't speak English). She finally took my 10 lats bill to pay for a 0.30 lats ticket, and gave me the change in coins, which equals nearly $20. I took the bus into the city center, though I had to guess where to get off. There were huge throngs of people everywhere, which was really overwhelming. I was able to navigate to my hotel, and checked into what turned out to be a rather depressing room. I guess that's what happens when you only pay $36 for a room. I went out to have dinner and then wandered around town a little bit, and saw some of the really beautiful architecture in the city. It was probably an absolutely gorgeous city 100 or 200 years ago, but these days it is showing the wear from 50 years under Soviet rule. I decided to head back to the hotel when I had had enough of the masses of people and cars. I woke up the next morning at 4:00, and grabbed a cab to the airport at 4:30. I had to wait a little while until the AirBaltic counter opened up so I could get my ticket, but everything worked out fine, and I sat around for a bit waiting for my plane to Moscow. The flight turned out to be operated by Aeroflot, the Russian state airline, so I got to read a Russian in-flight magazine, which was amusing.
Overall, my trip through Finland, Estonia, and Latvia was fun, though I wish I was less cranky. I think it was the combination of jet lag, lack of sleep, being with the same people around the clock for a week, and being really really nervous about going to Russia for four months that made me somewhat cranky and irritable. Sorry about that, Mom and Joe. Anyways, Helsinki was great, and everyone spoke English, which made everything easier. Tallinn was beautiful. I strongly recommend both to anyone who wants to go somewhere less frequented by American tourist types. Riga I wouldn't recommend, or at least not if you're going to be by yourself. I also didn't see very much of it, which probably taints my perception of it.