cemetery

A few pictures from a cemetery outside the Alexander Nevsky monastery which I visited on Wednesday. I took tons of pics but don't feel like posting them all right now. I will probably put some more up on facebook. This is probably my favorite place that I've been so far. The day was perfect - sunny, warm. All the trees are turning colors. The cemetery was full of trees, quiet, beautiful. The muted midday sun seeped through the orange and yellow leaves, giving a feeling of solemnity and peace. It was so great. I also saw some graves of famous Russians, like
composer Tchaikovsky:
author Zhukovsky:
author Dostoevsky:
composer Glinka:
composer Rimsky-Korsakov:
composer Mussorgsky:
and Stravinsky:
Around the cemetery:

autumn sun:don't know whose grave, but I thought it was beautiful, especially with the trees in the background:so many gravestones:This is either the monastery or the Holy Trinity Cathedral. I was pretty confused:

progress

Two great things:
- I finally got through to Bank of America and got the stop taken off my debit card. This is so incredibly relieving. Let me just tell you that if you are planning to go out of the country, be SURE to notify your bank beforehand or they will freeze your account as soon as you access it from another country! Don't do what I did!
- I am at a cafe with free wireless, connected. So I know that there is nothing wrong with my computer, but with the institute's wireless network. And I can post photos now.

Oh, also it has been pretty nice out recently. I heard rumors of snow tomorrow, but I checked the forecast and see rain instead. I'm okay with that.

One not-so-great thing: I dropped my camera - in its case - and it is not taking pictures. I am not sure if it is actually broken, but it is acting very strange. I don't want to be here another three months with a broken camera. I have lots of things I still want to photograph.

Tomorrow marks one month in St. Petersburg. Wow. Now for some photos. I have so many. Where to start.

A couple weeks ago we went to Peterhoff, Peter the Great's palace (?) and beautiful gardens and fountains. Apparently he modeled it after Versailles. We didn't go in any of the buildings, but wandered the grounds for a few hours.
Walking in:
Weird statue - what is in its mouth?
not a cathedral:
fountains
grounds
spills out into the gulf of finland
gulf of finland

Megan was there too:
I also went to the Hermitage, Catherine the Great's superlative art museum.
Rembrandt's Return of the Prodigal Son. After reading a whole book on it, I was anxious to see the painting itself. It didn't disappoint:
The Hermitage was also Catherine's Winter Palace, so there were lots of fancy halls and interiors and chandeliers:
(notice a sizable Asian tourist contingent in the first photo)
Proud Russians take pictures in War of 1812 Hall:
Lots and Lots of Gold:
A rare Picasso painting I actually like:
Henri Edmond Cross Delacroix, "View of the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli near Assissi," 1909. What a name, but a cool painting:
Vincent van Gogh, a favorite:
A new favorite, Camille Pissarro:
Claude Monet, "Lady in the Garden." I want to live in Monet's paintings.
Lastly, this is for my dad:

a quote

My internet is still not working. I think something is wrong with my computer. But until then, no solution to bank problem and no pictures to post. So instead, a quote from the book I started last night (book #6 of the trip):

"The immense accretion of flesh which had descended on her in middle life like a flood of lava on a doomed city had changed her from a plump active little woman with a neatly-turned foot and ankle into something as vast and august as a natural phenomenon. She had accepted this submergence as philosophically as all her other trials, and now, in extreme old age, was rewarded by presenting to her mirror an almost unwrinkled expanse of firm pink and white flesh, in the centre of which the traces of a small face survived as if awaiting excavation. A flight of smooth double chins led down to the dizzy depths of a still-snowy bosom veiled in snowy muslins that were held in place by a miniature portrait of the late Mr. Mingott; and around and below, wave after wave of black silk surged away over the edges of a capacious armchair, with two tiny white hands poised like gulls on the surface of the billows."

- from The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton (p. 27)

a new week

Thanks so much for all the comments and prayers. It is so good to know that there are people who care and pray.

I am doing better. It is warmer. Today it is downright mild outside. Over the weekend it warmed up and I think maybe the heat has come on in the school building? not sure. But it is fine for now.

The bank problem is not solved yet. I wanted to call today but am unable to connect to the wireless internet at school, so I can't Skype. Not sure what the deal is, but I'm really wanting to get this resolved in the next few days....

And I am doing better emotionally, overall. Everyone that I have talked to since posting last started the conversation with "how are you feeling? better than when you blogged?" Haha. Sorry if I scared you. I AM OKAY. It is just very up and down here. I am better today, but may feel discouraged again tomorrow, or next week, or whatever. I have fewer stabilizers on my emotions here like family, friends, easy communication, familiar surroundings, conveniences, church community, routine, etc. So it takes less for my emotions to fluctuate. But right now I am feeling good, though not quite so well physically. Ha. I think that the Russian food is getting to me, and my stomach is finally complaining. I am not sick - still at nine years and counting since the last vomiting episode - but my stomach roils and churns any time I eat anything. Whatever. I just ignore it.

And that's it. The computer issues are making me not feel like typing. I wish I could post all the tons of pictures I still haven't posted, but those will have to wait. Пока, друзья!

frustration: a rant

[if I had internet at home I would have published this on Wednesday night. Thursday afternoon some of the feelings have changed, but circumstances have not. Thus I publish anyway. I needed someone to rant to last night and had no one.]

Friends, I am feeling so discouraged right now. I am typing this up on Wednesday evening and will take it to class on Thursday and post it. I have spent the last thirty-six hours really angry. For a few reasons. First of all, it is SO cold. Temperatures are in the mid-40s during the day, I think, and colder at night. Okay, that is cold but not freezing (literally). But, there is no heat in the buildings. Apartments buildings like the one I live in and school buildings like the one I study in are connected to the centralized city heating system of the SOveit era. It is literally pipes through which they pour hot water. It works great, actually. But you have to wait for "them" to turn it on. They heating usually comes on in October. It is mid-september, and an unusually cold mid-September. Damn. At least two more weeks. It makes me angry to be sitting in class in my coat and four shirts and scarf and gloves and still be frozen. How do I concentrate on a lecture in Russian and try to take notes or translate something? It just doesn't work. Then I walk home, feet frozen, and freeze the rest of the evening. I have a space heater that emanates heat at about four inches per hour. I left it on overnight and the room finally got warm. Last night I fell asleep with cold feet despite wearing two pairs of socks and two shirts, under two big blankets. I never wear that much to bed. Anyway.

I have had more curse words flooding my brain in the last couple days than have in the last few months cumulatively. The other issue I am dealing with is my bank. I withdrew money from an ATM and the bank froze my debit card because of suspicious activity. I have been emailing them and finally was told that I could only resolve this by telephone. So I have made several calls in the last two days. I HATE automated telephone services. Whoever invented them should be forced to use them. Yes, that's the torture I would prescribe. AAAH. The voice recognition part never works and it usually doesn't work when I type in the number of my choice - I think something is wrong with the ancient phones I am using. So I finally got a person on the phone and they directed me to another number then it didn't recognize the number I was selecting. And I tried to call back and can't access the number from Russia. So I'll have to Skype them tomorrow from my school cafeteria. Oh it makes me so upset. [Thursday update: the wireless network at school is down so I can't Skype. Delayed another day. Awesome.]

Plus I am just angry at Russian people. I thought I was used to it but I think I've been in the States too long and have started taking common courtesy for granted. Well, today I reached my limit and got yelled at one too many times. I just wish that employees wouldn't treat customers as a nuisance. What are they getting paid for if not to help me? And Russians are just so impatient with and angry at people who don't understand them. Anyway, I waited in line at the post office for 30 minutes for nothing and got ignored then snapped at at the theater. That was just accumulating from the last few weeks of laughing off all the rudeness. And I have four more months here.

Well, there it is. I am an angry and proud person who needs the gospel and doesn't want to admit that I can't do it on my own and am helpless without Christ. After another failed phone call (but I got so close!) I cried and cursed America as well as Russia, then listened to some indelible grace and read Doug's message on John 3. I need Jesus. I can't get it right. It is more than a lousy day. People and automated telephone services are here to stay. In my anger and frustration I am trying to turn to Christ. But I am missing friends and family so badly. Please pray for me.

unearthed, like a fossil

The above title refers to the following photos. (how's that for a lot of references in one sentence.) Since visiting the Serven house and reading Doug's post, I have been more wary of my verbiage. But it's like, kinda hard not to use these words sometimes, you know?

Speaking of words, I've been noticing over the last few weeks how cumbersome the Russian language can be. It is just so much more wordy than English. Lots of Russian words are really long - some of them are compounds. And they just express things much less efficiently than English-speakers do. In my English-to-Russian translation class (which I suck at), if I translate pretty much word-for-word, the result is usually mostly grammatically correct but completely stylistically wrong. And the Russian version is always significantly longer than the English. English puts value in the ability to be as succinct as possible. Russian does not comprehend this possibility. So where I would like to shorten, they would like to expand. And so my anglified tongue stumbles over the Russian constructions and painstakingly spells them out. Yet Russians still manage to speak so quickly with such a troublesome language. Baffling, I tell you.

Anyway, back to the fossils. I dug these photos out of the depths of my hard drive the other day, previously not even realizing their existence. And though they are now right about a year old, I find them to be worth posting anyway. For those of you just tuning in, these outlandishly-good-looking kids are my little brother and sisters, residing in the same chilly land which I now inhabit.

Behold, the youngest two:
And the next two on the way up the chain:
My, how cute.

And I found this funny. A seemingly failed attempt such as this:
is necessary to create a successful result such as this [though it's still looking a bit squinty]:
And a token shot of Carrie in the nightgown I used to wear:

on Russia

Living in Russia is always an experience. For the last few days I have been capitalizing on this experience by developing my observational skills.

One thing Megan and I were noticing is the different styles of clothing among Russians. This is particularly interesting when considering how ethinically/religiously/whateverly homogeneous the population in St Petersburg is. Everyone looks basically the same. But I have observed the Russian Goth. The Russian HipHop. The Russian Hippie, the Russian Emo (a lot of this one). The Russian prep, alternative, punk...they have it all. It's infinitely amusing.

The Russian language has a certain way of being spoken. Young guys often draw out their words in a Russian version of a drawl. Young and middle-aged women often speak incredibly quickly. Old men mumble. Middle aged men often sound drunk or angry. And then there are the old women. Old women have several varieties. There are the angry ones. You are in the wrong place, you are wearing the wrong thing, you are walking the wrong way, you are too slow, you are too fast, you are too rude, you are too loud. They will pick on anything, and call you out on it unashamedly. The old Russian woman is very into scolding. Usually high-pitched, slightly whiny but also very forceful. There are also the bent-over, silent old women who have probably endured who knows what. These women were born in the height of the Soviet era, and lived through its collapse and their resulting "freedom." Their husbands are probably dead of alcohol abuse or heart disease or divorced them long ago.

There are also the friendly old women. They might also have the high-pitched whiny voice, or they could have the classic Russian singsongy voice. This one lends itself well to lecturing, telling stories, reciting poetry, singing (folk music, Orthodox church music). The Russian language has a beautiful cadence and rhythm to it that is impossible for foreigners to acquire. This is what makes Russian poetry great.

Anyways, I think I'm done. I wasn't planning on writing about that.

Since the last textual update I have been spending a lot more time talking with my host family. I am not as antisocial as I first portrayed myself to be.

On Sunday I tried out two churches. I will probably visit two or so more. Yesterday I had no classes so I went to the Hermitage art museum for several hours. It was great. Pictures to follow.
I am starting to get into a routine that involves little class time, little homework, lots of reading, and a fair bit of sleeping. In the last three months I have been reading a lot and reading good stuff. I have rediscovered my love for reading and the thrill of being taken out of this world and into a different one. Of following a story and characters, of laughing and crying over people who don't exist. Of building this story and these characters in my mind, drawing them in my imagination, and hearing them in my head as I read. It is so good.

I have a few more pictures that I can access without my laptop. It looks like they are coming out really small. Click to enlarge, I guess. I will probably always be behind on posting pictures, but here is a random assortment:
Some cathedrals. Church on Spilled Blood:

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uh...St. Andrew's Cathedral, I think (Andreevsky Sobor):

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Prince Vladimir's ?? (Knyaz-Vladimirovsky):

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Isakievsky (St. Isaac's):

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Forbidden picture inside a church. I got caught:

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The building I live in. Notice the graffiti. Rather ironic:

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cobblestone:

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The Bronze Horseman, Peter the Great, looking out over the Neva. A tribute from Catherine the Great:

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Typical Russia. So typical. In the background are the Neva River and the Hermitage:

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