Yes Russia DOES have a Beach!

On Thursday, since it was the 2nd to last day for the ROTC cadets, our program coordinator agreed (with some convincing from their majors) that we should all go to the Yaroslavl beach in the afternoon! The Volga is the main river that goes through Yaroslavl and there are basically 2 beaches... the one that says you're "HIGHLY recommended to NOT swim in the water" and the one that only says you're "Recommended not to swim in the water." - we opted for the latter :)

It was a little interesting, since the Russian idea of "swimsuit" is slightly different than what we'd see in America.... basically the bottoms were a little skimpy... on the women AND men! :) In true American fashion, American's never let their presence remain a secret when in foreign countries and our group was in full force yelling in the water and bringing chicken-fights to the Federation. We may have gotten a few stares and "what hell are they doing?" but honestly, when else will you swim in the Volga river with some great friends?! NEVER!! We even got some of our Russian translators to chicken fight too, although I think they thought we were a little crazy and tried to disassociate from us as much as possible... Below are some of our translators... Asiya, Katya (blue), Katya's Russian bf (can you tell he's Russian??) and Sveta (in the yellow top)

After about 4 hours in the scorching Russian sun (you think I'm joking, but I'm serious... it's HOT here!) headed back for a quick shower and off to a night of bowling! Believe it or not we found a legit bowling alley in Yaroslavl... all we had to do was go down a dark alleyway to find it. But seriously... Don't worry! Everything ended up fine!! :) Except for the fact that I'm a horrible bowler no matter what side of the ocean I'm on! After a quick trip to McDonalds (I've seriously been to McDonalds more in the past 3 weeks then in the past 3 years!!) I walked back to the homebase.. trying to take in the whole day and the realization that my first 3 weeks were almost up.

I have to honestly say that the day at the beach was the most fun I've had in Russia ... friends, sun, sand, the Volga and maybe a little bit of Baltika 7 - what more could you want for a great Russian afternoon?!

Week 3 & Russian Village

I haven't been able to write any updates for a while but it's a good thing because I've been really busy and having a good time :)

Let's see ….. Tuesday morning my group headed to the children's shelter and was really looking forward to spending time with all the kids we'd met the previous week. However, we became all too familiar with the social system that these children are in the middle of… there were significantly fewer children on this trip than the previous time and we were told that those kids had been sent to the orphanage; their parent's rights had been terminated and the children would no longer have any contact with them - this included Amalia and Alania. Even more shockingly, was the fact that about an hour after I arrived, one of the little girls we'd been playing with (Larissa) was actually taken to the orphanage. She was playing on the playground, went inside with one of the staff members and emerged a few minutes later with a small grocery bag filled with her clothes and maybe a toy and was waving saying, "Good-bye! I'm going to the orphanage!" - while it was a little reassuring to see that she wasn't in tears leaving, there's no way she could understand what that meant. Although all of these children are now available for adoption, they all range in age from about 4-7, not exactly prime adoption age - especially in a place like Russia where there is an abundance of orphans and so few families willing to adopt. (3 of the children taken are siblings and would need to be adopted together - further decreasing their liklihood of being taken by a family)

I asked the translator who I was working with what would happen to these children now and she said that if they are not adopted, they will remain in the orphanage until they are 18 years old, at which time the State helps them find a job and a place to live; the state also pays for their apartment until they are 23 years old and then they are cut off from all financial assistance. While it's a far from perfect system and I am not close to knowing all of the details of either the U.S. or Russian child welfare systems, it seems like they are doing the best they are able for these children. It's apparent that the real root of this problem is alcohol; almost every child in the shelter (if not all of them) are there because one or both of their parents are alcoholics and either abuse or neglect their children. Until this issue can be addressed, there seems to be little that the social system can do for the thousands of children who are left in these terrible situations.

Besides being upset about the children being taken to the orphanage, I wanted to still make my time there the best it could be for the remaining children. There is one little girl in particular who really, really stole my heart - Amolia, probably around 3 years old I think… she took a barbie from the toy bag, gave me one and that was it! Here we are together!! played with the barbies, puppets, colored and she even found a toy necklace and was trying to put it on me! Even more, when it was time for us to leave, she gave me a hug and was running after our van waving and yelling… it was just amazing how much these children just want someone to love them and play with them. They've had such a difficult time in their short lives but are still just happy children-so happy to have someone spend time with them.

Wednesday, July 7 - this morning my group went to the women's hospital for some more crafts and games and in the afternoon our cultural excursion was to a traditional Russian village. After about an hour drive outside of Yaroslavl, we arrived in a tiny village, which is apparently very typical of "traditional" Russian life. Seriously, talk about the middle of NOWHERE!! There was literally NOTHING around - no stores, no gas stations… NOTHING! All of the buildings were built between 180-300 years and were surrounded by dirt roads. first went into the museum where the host gave the group the traditional welcome of tea (and cookies :). After a brief history of the village we went to the 2nd floor of the museum, where it had been decorated as a 19th century village home would have been, complete with Russian village costumes …. yes, I did dress up like a Russian peasant :) We walked down to the river where some people went on a 'boat ride' (3 people in a row boat) and some people were brave enough to actually JUMP in the river!! While it looked like a fun time and I know it was an experience they'd never forget, I have to admit that I opted out to be the photographer for the river swimmers :)

Returning to Yaroslavl around 7pm, me and a few other volunteers decided to go out and enjoy the evening with a nice stroll around downtown Yaroslavl and along the Volga embankment.... you know, just my standard Russian life.

Russian Observations...

Here are some interesting observations after my first 3 weeks ...

-Apparently it's not just Americans that can't drink the Russian water, we even have to use the filtered water to brush our teeth!

-The Russian sewer system is terrible!!! Literally we can't put toilet paper in the toilet... there's a little trash can next to the toilet. I'll leave the rest to your imagination.

-Russian women are EXTREMELY beautiful ... but Russian men are EXTREMELY gross!! There will be women walking around in high heels, mini skirts, with long, lean legs and long blond hair. The men walk around in tight pants, cutoffs and have mullets for god sakes!

-Just like in Prague, there is little to zero customer service. The waiters and people at the grocery store check-out make you feel like you're inconveniencing them by purchasing things from their establishment. I guess it's part of the fact that they don't work off tips.

-Tipping isn't done in Russia. Also sales tax isn't added when you check out. The price you see on an item is the price you pay (that part is sort of nice).

-Beer is cheaper than water.

-Along with customer service, courtesy is not done here either. I've been cut off, cut in line, and pushed while walking down the street on any given day. They also don't hold the door for you, even if you're right behind them

-Russian's don't respect personal space either. I was at the grocery yesterday and I was paying and this rather large man stood THISCLOSE to me... I wanted to ask him to move but of course know very little Russian that I just tried to give him a dirty look :)

Despite all of these things, I'm enjoying my time here and will truly appreciate my American life.

Last Day in St. Petersburg & Start of Week #3

Sunday, July 4 - Happy 4th of July!!! I have to say that this July 4th is unlike any that I've had in the past… and I'm pretty sure is unlike any I will have in the future. There were no bbqs, no fireworks, no parades - but I was in St. Petersburg. I can deal with that for one 4th of July :)

On my last day in St. Petersburg the group headed down Nevsky Prospect to the Hermitage Museum - which comprises of the Winter Palace and two other buildings built onto the Winter Palace by Catherine the Great to house her massive art collection. The Hermitage HAS to be one of the largest museums in the world, it's absolutely HUGE!! Our guide said that if you wanted to see everything in the museum and stood in front of each exhibit for 1 minute, it would take about 5 years; there is absolutely no way to see everything in the museum but I was still able to get a good overview of the collections and saw some of the most important pieces. Because we were such a large group (about 30 people) we were able to get an English guided tour at the last minute and got to skip the 2 hour line to get into the museum.

The Winter Palace is a green and white building, right next to the river which was built as the imperial residence of the tsars after Peter the Great. The palace itself is just astonishingly massive and majestic. Every room in the palace is more impressive than the next - paintings the size of the entire wall, dozens of crystal chandeliers hanging in every room, gold crown molding, mirrors everywhere, 30-50 foot ceilings, marble columns…. it was truly breathtaking. For me, the most fascinating thing is to think that people used to actually LIVE here! A lot of people actually lived here! Catherine the Great, the Empress Elizabeth, Nicholas II and Anastasia - I walked through the same hallways as them, I took the same stairs as them, I looked out the same windows as them…. for me at least, that was the most interesting and erie thing to think about. The tour with our guide was about 2 hours and then we had to meet back at the bus stop for the next destination. After a quick lunch at Subway (yes there's Subway here) the group split and 1/2 went back to the hotel and 1/2 went to the Church of Spilled Blood…. I went with the latter.

The Church of Spilled Blood is built in the more traditional "Russian" style, with multiple onion dooms and bright colors. It was built on the site of the assassination of Alexander II. In the late 1800's he was riding through St. Petersburg when a group of terrorists threw a bomb into his carriage; because the bomb detonated so close to him, his body essentially disintegrated and his remains were brought back to the Winter Palace were he "died" (although I'm pretty sure he was dead before he got there). Thus the name of the church. I didn't have time to go into the church but I was able to get some great pictures of the building.

I have to admit that I was a little anxious about the train ride back to Yaroslavl. Since my overnight train experiences have been less then stellar - especially after my experience being in a car with the Russian army - I was timid to say the least. However, I think God took pity on me and my train ride back was a very pleasant and safe experience. First of all, I was in SECOND class! Which means that there are only 4 beds in a compartment and the compartment has a locking door! Second good thing, was that 2 of the other beds were occupied by 2 other of my volunteer friends - Yay for not staying with random Russians! There was one random older, Russian man who's room was in our compartment but we were able to convince him to trade compartments with another volunteer, whose compartment was only 2 down. So, I was able to get a restful nights sleep - or as restful a nights sleep as one can get on an overnight train - and felt completely safe, since I was bunking with 3 of my friends. Besides the random Russian in the dining car who was trying to talk to us about Jazz, it was a fairly uneventful night. Here's a picture of our compartment...

And here's a picture of the Russian countryside - the dachas that practically every family has (a weekend cottage) Note that this picture was taken at 11:30pm

Monday, July 5 - the train pulled into the station about 6:40am and after a quick nap back at the home base, I had to head off to work at the Women's Hospital in the morning. I was secretly hoping that it might be a little quite (I believe the other volunteers were suffering from a lack of sleep as well) but it was not to be… Monday was probably one of the loudest and busiest days at the hospital so far (of course right, that's they way it works!). Luckily my puzzle lady, as usually, was very interested in doing puzzles and after 2 puzzles she gave me a hug! It's those little things that make what I'm doing worthwhile. Knowing that something simple like doing a puzzle makes her day a little better, that's what it's all about.

The afternoon was a little different than usual. My "group" that I go to placements with is made up of 5 girls, but 3 of the girls are 'Interns' which means they have separate meetings and guest speakers and are getting academic credit for their time here. Since the interns had a guest speaker, me and the other girl who aren't interns (Bayleigh)went with another girl to the Yaroslavl Botanical Gardens. I'd never been to this placement before but it was really nice just being outdoors - we pruned and weeded some bushes and trees. Not exactly what I envisioned when I imagined volunteering in Russia but I have come to realize that few things are exactly how I imagined. Sometimes it's not always what you expect and even if it doesn't seem like you're making a difference, everywhere I've gone the people who work at the placements have been so grateful for the time I've spent and energy I put into helping them. You don't always realize where you can make a difference.

My Monday evening was both interesting and quite enjoyable. Needing to send several postcards and a few letters, I decided to try and figure out where to post office was, to buy stamps (apparently this is the only place you can purchase them). After getting directions from my program coordinator, I was off on the bus for the first time by myself! I got to the post office without incident although once I was inside, I realized that I had no idea which of the TEN windows to go to to buy stamps! I just picked one and hoped for the best. After waiting for about 20 min I got to the front and pointed to the top corner of my postcards, to show that I needed stamps. The post office employee had no problem understanding I wanted stamps for the 4 letters I had, what she had a difficult time grasping was the fact that I wanted an ADDITIONAL 10 stamps for future letters (there was no way I was going to the post office on a regular basis). After about 15 min of going back and forth - me using hand signals to try to explain what I was looking for - she finally called over another employee who spoke a little English and understood what I was trying to get across. So after my half hour struggle, I emerged from the post office successful…. we'll just see how long it takes for the mail to reach America! I had planned on running right after my visit to the post office so I went for a little run and stopped at the big grocery store across from my homebase for a little "American" dinner - a delicious meal of fruit and yogurt! Just like I have at home :) My day concluded watching a double feature with a few of my ROTC friends - courtesy of me, "When Harry Met Sally" and courtesy of the Army volunteers, "Blackhawk Down". I have to say it is interesting watching a war movie with people in the Army - it really gives you a different perspective. They can explain all of the little details that I usually miss in war movies, they explain all the different ranks and what all of the military lingo is. I was told that watching Blackhawk Down (since I'd never seen it) would make me feel hooah - and it did! Hooah!! :)

More St. Petersburg Pics

Here are a few more pictures from St. Petersburg...

This is me on top of St. Isaac's cathedral with St. Petersburg in the background - such a pretty view!!
The The Winter Palace...
The Gulf of Finland
Me on the boat ride to Peterhof - a little windy
A cathedral built by Catherine the Great - can't remember the name though :(

St. Petersburg

This weekend I went to St. Petersburg and since I've actually randomly read a lot about the Russian royal family, it was my most anticipated destination. To get to St. Petersburg from Yaroslavl you have to take a 12hr, overnight train. I've only been on one overnight train before - from Prague to Krakow - and it was a terrible experience. Let me just say the Russian overnight train wasn't much of an improvement. While they are "sleeper cars" it's basically an open car with people lying on the bunk "beds" that come down from the wall. My friend Bayleigh and I were on the same train as the rest of our group, however since our tickets were purchased at a different time, we were in a different car. We said good-bye to all our friends and headed to our car at the train station and what happens but an entire company of Russian soldiers come on the car with us. It was literally us two girls and a bunch of loud, smelly, gross Russian soldiers. Needless to say I was not too pleased with the arrangement. I expected the train ride to be uncomfortable but I didn't think I would have to worry about my safety. As the train started moving there were a few tears (from me) and we decided that it just was not safe to put ourselves in a situation like this. We were trying to figure out how to stay somewhere else, in a different car near people we knew when one of our friends from a different car made his way to us to see if we were ok. I was SO happy to see a familiar face and when he said there was room for us in their car we wasted no time in heading over there. You cannot comprehend how relieved I was when we arrived in our friend's car - there were about 4 other people from our group there and we were all hanging out, talking and swapping snacks. However, what I did not realize is that the train stops at several locations along the route and NEW people come on the train… I think you can see where this is heading. The new car that had "plenty of space" was taken over by a family that had tickets for those open beds. Getting a little frantic at the thought of going back to the "army car" we followed some friends to the dining car where after some more tears (from me) I was able to calm down a little bit and everyone reassured us that there was no way we were going to go back to the car with all of the soldiers. After about an hour of trying to figure out where to go and what to do (mind you this is at 2am and the train was moving) 2 of the guys said that we could switch bunks - we could stay in their reserved bunks (near other people we knew) and they would take our bunks with the Russian soldiers. They were INCREDIBLY generous and I still don't know how to thank them but after they showed us where to go and we told them our spots, I was able to get in maybe 2 or 3 hrs worth of sleep. Still much better than what I would've gotten had I stayed in the army car. Here is our train car getting attached to the rest of the train in Yaroslavl...

We pulled into St. Petersburg around 11:20am on Friday and went straight to the hotel (after figuring out the metro and walking about a mile underground - me and a few other volunteers figured out that the train station was only about a 10 min walk from the hotel). EVERYONE was in need of a shower after that thoroughly Russian experience of the train ride and after a quick lunch at McDonalds (yes, yes, I finally gave in and ate McDonalds) the group was off on a 3hr city bus tour. Seeing an overview of St. Petersburg, really any city, is really the way to go. We hit all the main sights and got a short history on each place - in addition to pulilng over 4 or 5 times to take pictures at really famous monuments. A few of the places we drove by were St. Isaac's Cathedral (one of the 3 largest in the world, next to St. Pauls in London and St. Peter in Rome), Peter and Paul Fortress (where St. Petersburg was founded by Peter the Great), the Winter Palace (now a part of the Hermitage museum where the tsars lived and all along the river embankment. That night I went with a group to get Italian food for dinner - honestly I get kinda burned out on Russian cuisine during the week - and then back to the hotel to change for the night. Although some people wanted to go to some of the crazy Euro clubs - I kinda have the "been there, done that" mentality from my time in Prague- so I went with another group - we walked down the Nevsky Prospect (the main road) and walked for a few hours, taking it all in and watching the sun set (at around 1am :).

On Saturday after another delicious Russian breakfast (lots of vegetables? cold cuts, and other interesting looking foods) the group headed out for a day at Peterhof Palace. This was the Summer palace of the tsars and is about an hour bus ride or - in my case - about a half hour BOAT ride, as the palace sits right on the Gulf of Finland. The palace was built to resemble Versailles and they did a pretty spectacular job at replicating it! Coming from the Gulf, you walk down a path to the main palace and in front of the palace are incredible fountains that seem to spurt water from every direction. entire grounds were really an amazing place to walk around, not only is there a beautiful palace, the Gulf and golden fountains but it is also surrounded by acres and acres of park grounds and beach. While we were there to tour the palace, many people came to just have a picnic or lay out in the sun. Strolling around the grounds, me being the history nerd, was imagining Catherine the Great and Anastasia walking around the same paths, going in the same water and enjoying the warm summer weather. Below you can see me in front of the palace and the fountains :)

And here's me putting my feet in the Gulf of Finland. Why? Just because I can :)

After a full 4 hours at Peterhof we returned via boat to St. Petersburg and grabbed a quick dinner and then did one of the most amazing things that I've done in any of my time abroad. St. Isaac's cathedral only opens from 6pm-11pm for visitors but you can ascend the 200 stairs to the top of the dome to get amazing views of St. Petersburg - so of course we did!! I have to say the views I saw from the top of the dome were truly breathtaking. For miles and miles all you could see were the beautiful imperial palaces, the churches and the river - all while the sun was just descending on the horizon. I don't remember the last time I saw something quite so beautiful...

In the second photo below you can see the Winter Palace - the green and white building on the left..

St. Petersburg has hands down become one of my favorite cities - not just in Russia - but that I have ever visited. The city is full of history, grand palaces, a beautiful river and has an overall majestic feel to it. They say that this city was built to be more "European" than "Russian" and I have to say that it does remind me of several European imperial cities I've been to (Madrid and Vienna come to mind - combined with the canals and waterways of Venice :).

St. Petersburg is probably the one city in Russia that I would return to some day and I wholeheartedly hope that I do. I have one more day here until I return to Yaroslavl and the plan is to go inside the Hermitage to see the Winter Palace and the museum. I'm sure I'll have more to write after seeing that - in addition to the train ride home... everyone keep your fingers crossed it's not quite as 'eventful' as the train ride here!

From St. Petersburg... Happy 4th of July!

Pcitures

I am finally able to upload some pictures! These photos are from around Yaroslavl... the homebase, my placements and just around town to give you all an idea of where I am!

The picture below is the "Home Base" (where I live).... It occupies the first 3 floors of the apartment building - my room is on the top floor - showers are on the first floor :(

This is the monument to the people of Yaroslavl who fought in the "Great Patriotic War" aka WWII - they also have an eternal flame, don't know if you can see it very well. This is the Mc Donald's where I usually make my calls and update my blog :) I have yet to actually purchase anything there.

The statue outside the Yaroslavl Army Glory Museum (dedicated to those from Yaroslavl who served in WWII)

A view of the church right by the river by the home base - this was taken on my first night, on the bridge crossing the river.