A bit of business before I disappear...

So I'm definitely feeling the increased security here as the Summitt approaches. Cops with machine guns have started patrolling the subway during the day time now too. I nearly got stopped yesterday (I think it might have been the big bag I was carrying) but he stopped the guy next to me.
So I'm going to "disappear" for a few days. I've decided that the best course of action is to stay home, since going anywhere would require taking a bus or the metro. I can receive calls for free on my cell phone, so if you can find a cheap way to call me, I welcome messages from home (not just if you're wondering where I am, but if you just want to talk too) at +89500035886. Kindly remember the 9 hour time difference.
Also, my posting will probably be pretty scattered from here on out. The art program ends this week, so I don't think I'll be able to use the free computers any more. Sigh. I will find a way...
Oh, and Liam - you be careful too. As Dogberry once said, "Adieu. Be vigitant, I beseech you."

A very disorganized post...

I hate it when I neglect writing on my blog for several days then can't remember all that has happened since the last post. I think it's a combination of lack of sleep and super-busy-ness that has caused the lapse in memory this time. Saturday and Sunday were both days of relative relaxation. I finished editing the photos that I wanted in the show and messed around downtown all weekend while the others finished up their projects and starting hanging stuff in the exhibition space. Maybe I just can't remember what I did all day because I didn't do anything.
Anyway, I had a ticket for the ballet (at the Hermitage Theatre) on Sunday evening, so I decided to go home early (2-ish) and take a nap before the show. When I walked in the door, Tanya handed me a glass of champagne, annoucing that it was her birthday and we needed to celebrate. So began the celebration, and it ended with me having to leave early to sit through a very long ballet. It was gorgeous, as nearly everything in this city is, yet ballet is definitely not one of my favorite forms of entertainment. I'm more the opera type. But it was good, and more importantly, it was free. And we had pretty good seats.
Monday was kind of hectic. Last minute preparations for the show were going on. I had another language class with the other Elena (such a common name here), and I think I may have impressed her with my fairy tale reading ability. Then again, maybe not.
Tuesday (yesterday) was really one of the highlight days. We spent the morning frantically finishing up for the show opening. Gleb's finger was one of the casualities of the show - he sliced it pretty good with an X-acto knife while putting together his installation piece. (More on this later) We patched it up (temporarily) and had a great opening - lots of press and free box wine (they still haven't completely recovered from the whole import sticker fiasco - see last entry). We had to kick some homeless guys out at one point (we felt bad because they were nice, but they were getting drunk on the free beverages). I'm gonna try and get my hands on some of the Russian press. It really was a good show, if I do say so myself.
We had a mini celebration after the opening, since we felt like we had successfully completed our major task for the trip. We went to a nice pizza place on Nevskiy prospect, then just hung out for the rest of the evening until we were too tired to stay up. We had to take Gleb to the American Clinic to get his finger checked out, then he had to go back in the morning to get some stitches. Poor guy - it just wouldn't stop bleeding. But that's what happens when you play with knives...
This morning we visited this guy's house outside of town. He had an animation studio of sorts set up inside, and showed us a bunch of his work. He was really a cool guy, and talked to us for ever (we never got tired of it either). The house reminded me a lot of central Austin - a little run down lot resisting the encroachment of the big commercial constructions around it. So cool. It was almost like going to one of Leann's barn dances.
Anyway, I have to run - it's Ksusha's birthday today, and I promised we'd go play pool.

Celebrating the Fourth...a few days late

Plans to have a big Independence Day celebration here in St. Petersburg kind of fell through on Tuesday night. We had trouble finding other Americans to hang out with, and we were all completely exhausted from our trip to Moscow, so we ended up hanging out at a pizza place, where we stuffed ourselves (an American pasttime, right?) while a big group of Italians huddled around the TV inside to watch the World Cup match. A rather anticlimatic end to a wonderful weekend, but what the hey - I had fun. I ended up having to sleep on the other girls' floor though. We didn't get done with dinner until about 1230 (that's what the sun does here - tricks you into thinking it's earlier than it really is), and by that time the metro was closed. But I slept well all the same. There's only so much that can keep you up when you are as tired as I was at that point.
Wednesday and Thursday were pretty uneventful. More museum visits (to the Russian Museum again and the Museum of Ethnography) and another of my private language classes with Elena Romanovna. (She is an awesome teacher by the way - I'm not looking forward to our lessons ending). Friday was when we had the real excitement.
We all piled into a bus on Friday (including all the younger staff from the youth center) and drove to Penates, the former estate of the painter Ilya Repin. We spent about an hour in the museum and wandering about in the garden (after all, our trip had to have at least some sort of academic basis), then we crossed the street and had a picnic/barbeque on the beach next to the Bay of Finland. We roasted hot dogs on an open fire pit, ate lots of fresh tomatoes and cucumbers and plums (the latter was a present from Katya's mom, who's dacha is down the street and showed up halfway through the day). The youth center people also brought a healthy supply of cheap beer and box wine*, completing the image of the perfect poor-students' Fourth of July celebration. (*It would have been real wines in bottles but Russian bureaucracy once again got in the way - apparently the government decided that starting July 1, all bottles of wine and spirits must have a new sticker to be sold; they didn't release the new sticker until June 3o, so none of the stores could legal sell any wine to us until they got a new shipment from the factory). We spent all day hanging out by the water, swimming and playing frisbee and volleyball, and just being goofballs. It's been such a long time since we last had a real break from class stuff, and it was particularly nice to have one last day of lightheartedness before we have to start putting together the final exhibition here at the youth center. It is supposed to go up on Tuesday - I don't think any of us are ready. At least I'm not.
Speaking of which, I should be editing photos right now instead of blogging. I should be able to upload a bunch more pictures this afternoon (I put up some more st. Petersburg pictures the other day as well), so make sure you check Flickr either today or tomorrow.

My Weekend in Moscow

It is so funny going back to some of the places I visited when I was here six years ago. Let's take the St. Petersburg train station as an example. I don't remember there being so much neon lighting there, but the huge bust of Peter the Great still looms over the heads o fall the people who enter the city by rail. And then there is the spot right in front of the info board where I was sitting with Mrs. Krupala when I pointed out to her that our train was leaving in 10 minutes. What a good story - remind me to tell you about it sometime if you haven't heard it. Also, the "toilets" in the Moscow train station still get the prize for the worst restrooms I've ever had to use - I'm talking about the literal definition of a shit hole. Hmmmm. Fun.
Anyway, the train we took on Friday was by far the nicest train I've ever been on. Nastya assured us that the one back on Monday wouldn't be nearly as charming (a very true statement). The Friday train even had a name - the "Dve Stolitsy", or "Two Capitals". Our beds were turned down when we got on board and there were faux-silk curtains on the window. The best part was that the door locked! Yay for security, or at least a sense of it. Our wagon attendant wasn't the best ever, but I'm used to being self-sufficient when traveling so it wasn't that big a deal. What a difference from our train home - but more on that later.
When we got to Moscow on Saturday morning, we headed straight to the hotel (well, as straight as you can go while navigating the INSANE Moscow Metro system - there are so many different intersecting lines, it's hard to figure out where you're going, especially with the circle line in there; but I love the Moscow Metro stations - very clean and very ornate; there's just something way too cool about marble walls and chandoliers in the subway that makes me want to spend time riding just to see the stations). We all took a nap for a couple of hours, then had some breakfast and headed out for our tour of the Kremlin and Red Square.
Even with threatening clouds and chilly temperatures, this part of the trip was definitely cool. The tour itself was a bit long and boring, but it was more in-depth than my last visit. And we saw more - we actually went inside a couple of the kremlin churches. We were definitely feeling the lack of sleep at that point, so we just took it easy after the tour. We grabbed some snacks in Alexander Garden, then wandered over to Red Square.
I forgot how beautiful this city is. Red in Russian is a synonym for beautiful - how fitting a name it is for this square. One major difference since my last visit is the appearance of St. Basil's Cathedral. I don't remember is being so vibrantly colored. I'm pretty sure some restoration work had been done lately. Either way it is absolutely beautiful. It almost doesn't look real. But I went inside too check and I can assure you all that it is. I'm glad I bought the new camera before heading to Moscow - the sky was just right (it had this ominous look to it) for some really cool shots.
We all ate dinner together at a little cafe, but after dinner half the group (understandably tired from the lack of sleep on the train) went to bed while Andrew, Nastya, Katya and I went on a little adventure.
With the singular goal of finding a place to chill out and have a cold beer in mind, we walked toward the nearest metro station, convinced we would be going towards the center of town. On the way we saw this cute little local cafe/bar. It was only 8.30 and the place was so alive - people were dancing all over the place and singing along to the funky Russian music. It was more of a southern group - Uzbekis or something. They were a lot of fun to hang out with - totally cool with hanging out with a few strange Americans wandering around in their part of town. We ended up staying there until about midnight. This sweet (though not very attractive) little local guy named Dima kept trying to get us to stay. He even bought us champagne and paid the DJ to keep playing, even though the place was obviously closing up. We used our heads and best excuses and headed home to get some sleep. After all, we still had a trip to the club scheduled for the next night after a day chocked full of museum visits.
Sunday was one of the longest days I've had in a long time. Not only did we visit the main building of the Tretyakov Gallery (and see much of its huge collection), but we also walked all the way to the Modern gallery that is part of the Tretyakov. There we had a suprise tour by the lady who runs their new youth center. It was a nice tour but entirely too long. We didn't leave there until around 6.30! We did see a bunch of works by Kandinsky and some etchings by Chagall and a bunch of other really cool pieces, but we were all exhausted and starving by the end. I had my second experience in sushi-eating that evening. Between the seven of us (Katya had gone to visit a friend) we consumed 18 orders (108 pieces) of sushi. Yum.
After much needed naps and a change of clothes, we headed out to find a club, a task which was harder than we thought it would be in a town of 10 million+ people. Our hotel was on the outskirts of town, so we ended up walking about 5 miles before we found a place to hang out. It was weird having darkness on the walk there - we were finally far enough south to have at least a little bit of nightfall. Of course, the sun was starting to come up for the walk home, so the night wasn't too long. We had a good time, though it wasn't the hippest of establishments.
Monday was a day of wandering. We slept as late as we could considering we had to check out, then ate breakfast and took our bags to the train station, where we locked them up and headed back down to the center of town. We went back to Red Square and inside St. Basil's, then went and wandered about in some of the shops. I found a really good Russian text book in the book store, and they had a good selection of English classics too, so I bought a couple of books. We also decided to satisify our cravings for American fast food and paid a visit to McDonalds. Yay for the Royal with Cheese (that's a quarter-pounder with cheese, for those of you haven't left the US or seen Pulp Fiction). Feeling happily disgusting, we wandered around a bit more, stopping in a few more shops and visiting a few more landmarks. Then we sat down to a quiet meal and headed for the train station once again.
Now our train back to St. Petersburg was quite different from the one we had taken on Friday. It was sort of like one of those stereotypes you see in movies. Luckily there were no drunken people singing (at least none that we could hear) and no one who looked too sketchy. I think the other girls were a bit freaked out by it. I thought it was kind of fun. The kind of thing where if you wanted to you could get to know a lot of locals and have a really good time. You just have to keep an extra eye out for you stuff (which I did, very vigilantly seeing as how I had just gotten the stolen camera replaced and don't really want to have to do that again).
We didn't get much of a break this morning. We were supposed to have a free day but instead had to go to the print shop for a lesson in printmaking. It was interesting I guess, but none of us were in the mood to work at it. And it took a lot longer than planned - we didn't get to leave until about 5.30. But that's life I guess. I would like to relax. I haven't had a real day off in about two weeks. And it's the Fourth of July for crying out loud. I think we're all going to go celebrate our independence tonight in our own way. We may not have fireworks or watermelon, but I think it'll be fun. And once-in-a-lifetime.
Happy 4th, yall!

Adventures in camera shopping

I bit the bullet today and replaced the Rebel. Technically I bought a Canon 350D - that's the name for the Rebel XT outside of the US (don't ask me why it's different - the camera is exactly the same other than the name). I shopped around all afternoon yesterday for the best price, then got Gleb to go with me to the store today so that I wouldn't get screwed over. I ended up getting a really good price on a 2 GB memory card too, so I think it worked out. Even though I could have gotten it for a bit less in the US, getting it here and everything would have cost even more, so I think it's better this way. And now I have a kick-ass camera again - just in time for the trip to Moscow.
Which, by the way, is on for tonight. We're leaving at 11. Don't worry - I'm going with a group that includes two locals. And this line is supposed to be really safe.
I'll have my cell phone with me and will try to find an internet cafe at some point this weekend. I'll be back in St. Petersburg on July 4th. Happy Independence Day, everyone! Have some watermelon for me!

I saw an old lady walking down the street this morning as I was waiting for the others to wake up. What was so unusual about this old lady? Thrown across her shoulder was a huge scythe. Imagine a female version of the Grim Reaper minus the hood and with an extra pound or two, and that's what I saw walking down the street. She was obviously on her way to do some major yard work. It's just another example of something ironic I've noticed about this city. Everywhere you look there are computer stores and DVD stands and internet cafes; yet simple tasks, like clearing a yard, are still done with the most simple of tools. It's kind of neat. It might take a little more effort to mow a lawn with a huge (and dangerous) reaper, but it's a lot cheaper and there is nothing else involved - no gasoline and no random little parts to replace.
I decided not to take a picture for two reasons. 1 - The batteries on my camera were dying. 2 - She didn't look all that thrilled and I didn't want to piss her off - especially since she was carrying a large (and I assume very sharp) lethal object.
After this humorous little incident, the others came downstairs and we got on a bus to St. Isaac's Cathedral. We went on a walk through the museum, then climbed up a couple hundred stairs to the collenade - one of the best views you can get of St. Petersburg. The weather was interesting - that cold, windy feeling you get just before it starts to storm, like any second you'll start to feel the rain coming down. It was great.
We had the rest of the afternoon off, and I've been bumming around, looking for a new Rebel and not having much luck. I'll figure it out though.
Tomorrow we're heading to Moscow for the weekend. It should be a lot of fun - Nastya and Katya are going to be our "guides". I'll talk to yall on the flip side...

Same old, same old (sort of)

I've had a couple more interesting days, like all the days in St. Petersburg thus far. Yesterday we visited the Imperial Porcelain Factory. At first I thought it was really boring - we went through the museum part with a guide telling us about the whole history of porcelain creation. Pretty stuff but not particularly interesting to me. The exciting part came when we got to go into the actual factory part. We didn't go to the mass production area, but instead got to see the creative production department, where all the master artists were creating one-of-a-kind pieces in porcelain. It was pretty cool. We even saw a lady creating a gold over-glaze. Wow.
After lunch we had free time/studio time. I'm not really taking studio classes with the others, but have joined them for a few activities (ie - the traditional wood painting). Yesterday they were getting stuff ready for our trip to the printshop. Elena let me make one too - we'll see how it comes out.
I'm entertaining the idea of getting something together to put into the final show. It's not a requirement for me like for the others but it might be fun. All this creativity is making me want to start painting. Who knows - we'll see how much time I have left after the trip to Moscow.
Today we took another bus trip - this time to the towns/palaces of Pushkin and Pavlovsk. Pushkin was the summer residence of the royal family, mainly used by Catherine the Great (though it was built before her time). It was really pretty, and a nice day for strolling through the gardens. The best part of Pushkin was outside the palace though. The reason the town is called Pushkin is because it is home to the Lyceum - the school set up by the tsar for elite education - where Alexander Pushkin was a member of the first graduating class. We went on a brief walk through the museum, and even got to see his bedroom at school. It's smaller than my closet! Really a very cool little side trip that I'm glad Elena came up with.
After that, we hopped on a bus for Pavlovsk, where we ate lunch and wandered through the English gardens before visiting the palace. This was the palace of Paul I (son of Catherine the Great) and his wife (after his death since he only reigned for about 5 or 6 years). I loved the gardens there. I've discovered that I really like the over-grown, natural-looking English-style gardens over the crisp and proper French gardens (like they have at Pushkin). I just like wandering about in the woods a little too much. And today was a perfect day for it.
Of course, right now it has started raining. I'm really not looking forward to the walk home. But I'll live - it's a nice little break from the heat.