6/13: Lenin's tomb, Final Exam, Fulbright Center, and Swan Lake

Lenin's Mausoleum

We woke up early this morning to see Lenin's tomb before all of the Oriental tourists arrived (not kidding, they're everywhere in Russia). The display of Lenin's body has been a heated political issue in Russian politics since his death in 1924. He requested to be buried in St. Petersburg with his family, but the peasants wanted his body to be on display to worship the leader of the revolution. Stalin built a wooden imperial-style tomb for his "comrade" and had his body preserved and put on display for the world to see. Several Soviet leaders believed that science would reach a point to revive the dead, and wanted his body preserved in hopes of returning their glorious leader to life. Scientists have even dissected and studied Lenin's brain to find the source of his genius. In recent years, many prominent anti-Communists such as Yeltsin have called for his body to be buried, while the still-powerful communist lobby wants his tomb to remain in Red Square next to the Kremlin. In the Moscow Times, Putin's Culture Minister called for the body to be buried, but anyone can still see the corpse today free of charge. We thought it would be a good idea to see the rotting thing while we still had the chance.

Lenin's Body

Security at Lenin's tomb was tougher than it was at the Kremlin. No cameras were allowed in the tomb and we had to pass through a medal detector with security guards watching our every move each step of the way. If we stopped to wait for the rest of the group, we were yelled at by then guards. When we were inside the tomb, I began to speak, but was loudly shushed by a guard. The tomb was very dark. I was afraid I was going to trip, because I was unable to see the person in front of me or the walls on either side. We passed through to a red, ominous room that was lit by a single light, showing the upper half of Lenin's body (the lower half was wrapped in a red blanket). He looked like a wax figuring more than a human being. His skin was smooth and more perfect than humanly possible, his beard was well-trimmed, and his body was so shiny that the light seemed to bounce off of it. Lenin was shorter than I expected (he was only 5'5") and his face was completely expressionless. I could only see the body for thirty seconds before being yelled at by the guards to hurry up, but the impressions I got from it were crystal clear. Outside of the tomb were the grave sites of famous Soviet leaders. The likes of John Reed, General Zhukov, Yuri Andropov, Leonid Brezhnev, and Joseph Stalin were buried here. Stalin's grave site was less pronounced than I thought it would be. He sat between Andropov and another Soviet leader that I didn't know. All that was there was a coffin and a simple stone statue that bore the head of the infamous dictator. Two flowers sat atop the coffin, probably placed there by the officials who ran the tomb. Passing by some more graves, we exited the area, bypassed the Oriental tourists, and headed back to the metro station, taking in what we had just experienced.

On the metro, we hurriedly studied for our final exam. I had been filling my spare time by reading my notes for the past week or so. We were all worried about the final, because most of us had taken Dr. Goeckel's classes before and knew of his reputation for giving challenging tests. The final wasn't as difficult as we imagined; however. I recited some basic knowledge about Russian history, politics, and culture and that was that. After the final, Olga said goodbye to us and presented us each with a certificate acknowledging our completion of courses at Moscow State University.

We met with a Fulbright officer to promote SUNY and discuss the program. Fulbright sends tons of students and professors to various colleges free of charge. It would be an interesting opportunity to have, but the program lasts a full year. That's a long time to be away from home.

Scene from Swan Lake

Our last activity of the trip was to see Swan Lake. The story is about a girl, Odette, who falls in love with Prince Siegfried. Odette is cursed by a sorcerer to become a swan by day and a woman by night. The sorcerer also disguises his own daughter, Odile, and fools Siegfried into thinking that Odile is actually Odette. The story ends when Siegfried asks Odile to marry him, Odette dies of sadness, and Siegfried and the sorcerer are both killed in a dual with each other. The music was written by Tchaikovsky. Despite my prejudices, I really enjoyed the ballet. No talking took place in the entire show, leaving the uncultured viewer (me) to understand what is going on in the story. The music was lively and strong; however, and the dancing was excellent. I left the ballet a happy camper.

In the hotel, I packed up my things and stayed up until 7:00 AM so that I would be tired enough to sleep on the plane ride home. We took a van to the airport and I played Russian-themed American music from my laptop. Selections included Fiddler on the Roof, Anastasia, and "Moscow" (a really catchy and culturally offensive song about Russian stereotypes performed by a group of German singers). Tired from staying up, I began to nod off while "Once Upon a December" was playing. I don't know how many people are familiar with my song, but I guess that I'll end my blog by saying that Russia will always remain across my memory.

6/12: Opposition Protests and Farewell Dinner

Today was a very special day. June 12th in Russia is known as Independence Day to celebrate Russian independence from the Soviet Union. Putin recently changed the name to Russia Day, but people still call it by its former name. Saturday is a working day so that Russians can take the Monday before Independence Day off for a three day weekend. All Russians get off of work on June 12th, making it a perfect opportunity for protests. And protests there were. Since mid-May, opposition leaders have organized a protest on Independence Day to vent out their anger regarding a corrupt electoral system and Putin's encroaching totalitarianism. History was in the making on June 12th and we got to be a part of it. Dr. Goeckel went with us to Pushkin Square, where the so-called "March of Millions" began. We saw a ton of people handing out flyers and Dr. Goeckel told us to collect as many as we could. And that we did, taking everything from law firm advertisements to surveys that we were probably supposed to return to the distributer if we could understand what the piece of paper was saying. Dr. Goeckel met a German person who was interested in the protests. The man warned us about being in the vicinity of the protests, saying that Putin was angry today. Being the political science nerds that we were, we chose to ignore the warning and leave if any of us felt unsafe. We went through the security check, passed under a metal detector, forfeited our bags to be checked for dangerous objects, and arrived in a park filled with tourists following the march that took place on the street alongside the park. 

Protestors on Tverskaya Street

Protestors were marching in groups. Each group represented a particular faction of the opposition. Ideological groups ranged from radical nationalists to fascists to anarchists to communists. Although they all had very different ideas of where the country should be headed, they all came together in opposition of corruption and Putin's centralization of power. People shouted slogans such as "Russia without Putin" and "Goodbye Putin." Everywhere there were people handing out political cartoons that portrayed either Putin or someone in his administration as a greedy dinosaur who only cares about himself. When we got to a very wide and low-level road, we could see a stretch of protestors reaching miles ahead. Later counts said that 50,000 people attended the protest and rally. The crowd was huge and all so politically engaged. It was wonderful to see democracy in action inside a country that is touching the edge of authoritarianism. 

While I thought that I would feel unsafe at the protests, fear wasn't present at all. Although the protestors were angry, they were peaceful. The security checkpoint made me feel safer, ensuring that no one within five square kilometers was holding a weapon. And the heightened police presence of 10,000 men actually quelled my fears as well, knowing that they were there to settle disputes if anything got out of hand. The rally began at 3:00 and all of us except for Dr. Goeckel were too beaten by the heat to stay for the speeches (which most of us couldn't understand anyways). Nonetheless, it felt great to witness Russian history in the making. 

Our farewell dinner took place at a Georgian restaurant that was recommended to us by Jason (the Baker and Botts guy). I was very much excited, given my previous endeavor with a Georgian dinner. Several of the Russian friends we met on the trip were invited to the dinner, as were some of the professors who taught us all that we needed to know about this amazing country. Like at the previous Georgian restaurant, I was full before I had even finished the appetizers. I forced myself to eat the rest of the meal, reminding myself that I will probably not have authentic Eurasian food again for a long time. Dr. Asatiani, who was born in Georgia, told us it was typical for a Georgian dinner to have several toasts. And that there were, as various professors and students toasted to the good times in Moscow. We gave Dr. Goeckel a present from us, which I found in the tourist market. It was a Cold War chess set with Soviet and Russian leaders on one side and American leaders on the other. We distributed the gifts we got for each other and said our goodbyes. It was sad to see our friends go, probably never to see them again. Thank God (or Mark Zuckerberg rather) for social media!

6/11: Tsaritsyno, Public Market, and the Circus

Another lax day was on the books for today (thank God!). First stop: Tsaritsyno, an estate and palace that was meant to be Catherine the Great's Moscow home. However, upon its completion, Catherine rejected the entire palace. Rumor has it that when first entering the palace, she was too fat to make it through the door comfortably. Because of this, she tore one of her elaborate and expensive dresses. As a result, she fired the architect and never stepped foot inside the palace again. Stories like these are why I love Russian history!

Tsaritsyno Grounds

The estate was absolutely beautiful, of course. We went on a clear, sunny day, which helped to enhance the natural grandeur of the grounds. Passing by loads of ice cream stands, we came to a huge fountain that shot water straight up into the air. It was then I remembered Professor Olga's lecture about how the tzars loved fountains, because it made them seem like they were conquering the laws of nature. Water shooting upward defied gravity. The mist generated by the fountain provided a nice relief from the hot weather we were experiencing. While we didn't go inside the palace (apparently, few people do), we leisurely walked around it, taking a break from the stressful, but rewarding past couple of weeks. It was nice to relax and enjoy the decorative bridges, streams, overhangs, and pavilions along the walking path.

Around lunch time, our group split up into people going back to MSU and people going to the public market. Wanting to experience a non-touristy marketplace for myself, I chose to go with the latter group. Only Alona and Katrina came with me, but it was nice in that we were all efficient travelers, discovering our common Type A personalities. Alona explained to me that the public market was like Walmart for Russians in that middle-class shoppers are wary of going there at risk of buying low-quality products. For cheap college students, however, low-quality products = bargain. The market took two metro transfers and a bus to get to, but we finally arrived. The shops seemed to stretch for miles and in between the shops were rows with even more shops. Very few people spoke English, but luckily Alona was there to translate. Items were extremely cheap. Shirts were three dollars. Sunglasses were five. Shorts, pants, purses, wallets, toys, food, t-shirts, and umbrellas each had their own little shops. The crowd was a bit chaotic and it was easy to get separated from our little group.  One stand had large crowds of women sorting through purses and shoving money at the storeowner. It must have been a happy hour of some kind.  Also, a lady we bought bananas from thought we were Polish. That's a first.

Scene from Moscow Circus

At 7:00 we went to the circus. I learned that I become a little kid again when it comes to circuses. I gasped every time the acrobats nearly fell from the balloon, cracked up when the clown made faces at us after we didn't clap in the way he wanted us to, and became wide-eyed when the dogs lined up on top of one another in a conga line. Russian circuses tend to use more animals than American ones, and from the looks of it, animal rights are not as much of a concern in this country as they are back home. One of the shows featured a bear that could stand on its hind legs. Unfortunately, the bear was muzzled and looked very unhappy when it had to run around the center stage. A large part of the second act was focused on lions. The lion tamer carried a stick, which the lions were probably trained to fear. They roared at the tamer whenever the end of the stick came too close. The lions also took a few swipes at the tamer when he egged them on. The lions appeared very angry, but lacked the means to do anything about it. Although I'm not a vegetarian or an animal-rights activist by any means, I felt guilty about applauding some of the acts, as it seemed quite horrible what the circus was doing to the animals. Before the show, you could take pictures with several of the animals for the astronomically high price of 500 rubles.

On a lighter note, the acrobats were very good. They had won several awards for their performances and you could tell that they definitely deserved them. One guy did a triple flip in the air and managed to hang onto his partner without falling onto the abysmal safety net. The circus was a positive experience overall. I always wanted to see a Russian circus (I have odd dreams) and my wish finally came true!

6/10: Kolomenskoe, Public Market, Dinner with the Musicians

Aleksey Mikhailovich

It was a very rainy day once again in Moscow. We took the metro to the outskirts of the city in order to visit the palace of Tsar Aleksey Mikhailovich with some of the Russian students of FFL. Before that, however, we all said goodbye to Jane, who came to the platform of one of the metro stops to bid us farewell. She had a personal message for each of us as she gave us a hug goodbye. It was sad to see a friend go, but there's a lot more of that to come, so I don't want to get worked up quite yet.

As we marched to the palace in the freezing rain, I saw what seemed to be the palace. Surprisingly, the outside was made entirely of barely-painted wood. It looked more like a luxurious log cabin than a palace for royalty. It also looked as if it hadn't aged a bit. It was then that I learned from Sasha, one of the students from FFL, that the real summer palace was demolished by Catherine the Great. A model was rebuilt a couple of years ago for tourists to visit, but it just didn't feel very authentic. Ventilation shafts were visible everywhere, there were fire alarms and smoke detectors on the ceilings, and the wood smelled as if it had just been cut. Nonetheless, the builders did an excellent job recreating Alexey's home. The palace was split into a female section and a male section. We were able to stand inside the study room of Peter the Great and his daughter, Elizabeth. Elizabeth's room was decorated a lot like the Winter Palace. The room was baby blue to match her eyes, and in an extravagant  classical baroque style that was a testament to how much money she spent as tsarina. Oddly enough, there was a portrait of Catherine the Great in Alexeys' wife's room. This was weird because Catherine was born way after his wife's death. I guess historical accuracy wasn't one of the main aims of the designers.

Kolomenskoe

We then ate lunch at the mall. I saw an Israeli restaurant standing in the food court and sprinted for some falafel and sababa. Delicious stuff. I miss Middle Eastern food. The marketplace was exciting. We were given an hour and a half to do as much shopping as possible. Some of the Russian students told us to save our money for this moment, because the cheapest souvenirs are available at the marketplace. However, you have to know how to haggle in order to get those good prices. Storeowners like to rip off foreigners by charging them inflated prices and making them think that they are giving them a special discount. For example, I passed a hat salesman who brought a hat up to me and said "1000 rubles." I said no. He then asked me where I was from, and said, "Fine, because you're American...800 rubles." To haggle, you must be ready to walk away. You get the best deals when you pretend that you aren't interested in an item. I found that I was pretty good at haggling, receiving an 800 ruble markdown on that hat that I ended up paying 200 rubles for. The marketplace was a relaxing way to enjoy the afternoon.

Marlene and Alexei, the two singers who performed a free concert for us, invited us over to their apartment to eat dinner and take warm showers. Even though it was tempting, everyone declined the latter option, but still enjoyed a wonderful meal. The night was a lot of fun. Dinner consisted of Armenian and Uzbek dishes. Everything served was delicious. Particularly good was an Uzbek rice pilaf with vegetables, prunes, and dates in it. The babushka who was serving us rice took particular note of Dan, Isaac, and myself, putting more food on our plate despite our "no thank you's." At one point, Isaac hid his plate under the table so she wouldn't add more food, but the grandmother spotted him and scooped spoonfuls of the delicious dish onto his plate once again. We were completely stuffed by the end of the night. We talked a lot about politics at dinner and we found out that Marlene was in support of Putin. It was interesting to hear her reasons. The 1990's were absolute chaos according to her, and she saw Putin as a stabilizer who could move the country forward. The opposition groups didn't have a clear agenda, but they are all really just untied around the fact that they don't like Putin (sounds like a criticism of the Occupy Wall Street protests in America). Their family was split; however, and her son and husband were strongly against Putin.

We went into a guest room and were invited to play some songs that we knew for the piano. I tapped out the Turkish Waltz and some others in the group had a bit of piano knowledge, but Alexie put us all to shame when he played. His fingers didn't seem to be pressing down on keys. His hands were moving so fast. He played astoundingly well (he is a professional after all). After some singing and gazing from the balcony, we headed to a nearby park for a late night walk. The walk in the park was peaceful, leisurely, and relaxing. It was nice to have a low-key day after weeks of going from place to place. Things seem to be winding down on our program and it is getting more difficult to experience everything there is to know. At home, if you want to understand something in more detail, you can tell yourself that you can always come back and see it another time. In Russia, that possibility isn't there. The only thing I have to lock me and my experiences together is this journal. Memories are hard to keep, and while writing them down and taking pictures helps, it isn't the same as experiencing them first hand.

6/9: Political Institutions Lecture, Chair of Poli Sci Dept, Cosmonaut Museum, and All-Russian Exhibition Center

Another packed day, we started off by attempting to visit Lenin's Mausoleum. Apparently, the communists were in love with Lenin so much, that when he died in 1924, they decided to preserve his body and put it on display for the world to see, despite calls from his family to be buried in St. Petersburg, as he requested. However, the Mausoleum was closed for the day because of a concert for Independence Day on June 12th, a day that celebrates Russian independence from the USSR. Because of the holiday, Saturday and Sunday are working days to make up for the loss of Monday and Tuesday, which are the days of celebration for the holiday. Disappointed, we headed to the metro to have a lecture by Dr. Goeckel at FFL.

Vladimir Putin

The lecture was on Russian political institutions. We went over the presidency and the legislative branch of Russia. Russia's parliament is divided into two parts: the lower house (Duma) and the upper house (Federation Council), kind of resembling our House and Senate. The Federation Council houses two senators from each region in Russia that are appointed by the governors of each region. However, Putin recently made it law to allow the president to appoint the governor of each region rather than having direct elections. Thus, the Federation Council is really just a representation of Putin's cronies, causing it to be more of a rubber stamp factory than a legislative body. In terms of a Kremlin-sponsored bill that significantly raises fines for illegal protests, it took eleven hours of debate to pass the Duma, but only one hour to pass the Federation Council. Putin is finding sneaky ways to slowly centralize power, which is why several protests are occurring in the first place.

Next, we ate lunch and rushed to meet Professor Shutov, the Dean of the Political Science Department at Moscow State University. He talked a lot about the higher education system in Russia, but was also interested in speaking about corruption. He gave us an example of one student who told him that people hired by the Communist Party would go around the polling area and say to students that they would give them 2000 rubles if they gave them proof that they voted for Zyuganov. All the students had to do was check the box for Zyuganov, take out their phones, snap a picture, and show the photo to the communists in order to get their money. I guess people accused Putin of fraud, because can appoint the governors. If a governor's region had less that 65% voting for Putin, that he would consider that a failure of the governor to implement his policies and fire him as a result. Because of this, governors often created incentives for citizens to vote for Putin and often fixed the results to get above the 65% threshold. It was great to get a practical example of how corruption took place in the elections. We always hear abstract statements about how Russia is so corrupt, but it is difficult to get concrete examples of corruption.

Worker and Kolkhoz Woman

While the dean was interesting, I needed to get my blood flowing again. We went to the Cosmonaut Museum, which was right next to the All-Russia Exhibition Center. Although the museum was very well done, I had seen space things seven summers in a row by working at the Rochester Museum and Science Center. After thirty minutes of perusing the exhibits, I left with part of my group to the All-Russia Exhibition Center right next door. The Exhibition was opened in 1935 to celebrate the achievements of the USSR. Products made in every region of the Soviet Union were brought to the Center for Muscovites to try. Art competitions were usually held here and Soviet films were shown here as well. It is best known for being the site of Vera Mukhina's statue of the Worker and the Kolkhoz Woman, a gargantuan structure that depicts a man with a hammer racing to the future alongside a woman holding a sickle. Each republic of the Soviet Union built its own pavilion representing the diversity of its region (the Russian pavilion is the largest and most central, of course). The pavilions are designed in the shape of a ship, with Russia at the front, steering the country forward.

Central Fountain - "Friendship of Nations"

Walking into the Exhibition Center, it felt like going to Seabreeze. There were roller coaster rides on either side of me and lots of little kids running around, begging their parents for ice cream. People were able to rent bikes, rollerblades, peddle cars, and even segways at one of the many stands near the front entrance. The atmosphere was nice and playful. Everyone seemed to be happy. The Russian pavilion could be seen far in the distance, so we headed for that. Some interesting observations: we saw a vending machine that popped out a pizza if you put in 200 rubles, a soda machine in the design of a Soviet flag, and a kiddie pool for little kids to jump in, if their parents felt comfortable allowing their children to take a plunge into the hose water. At the center of the Exhibition was a giant fountain baroque-style fountain that got you wet if you stood near it and the wind was blowing in your face. Several people were literally inside the fountain and playing in it as if it were a swimming pool. I'm not sure if that was allowed, but it sure looked like fun. We sat around the fountain for half an hour, just getting a chance to relax after the long day. While some of our group paid eight dollars to ride the ferris wheel, I took the time to relax some more.

That night, we went to dinner with Lena, Masha, and Natasha, three of the Russian students from FFL. Lena was telling me about how here father works for a state-owned company and that her company is forced to provide lists of the workers to the government. She suspects that if her dad were ever to be spotted at a rally against Putin, he would be fired. Putin is slowly gaining more and more control of the country. It is great to watch history in action.

6/8: Duma, the Communist, Sakharov Museum, and the Conservatory

Another busy day was on the books this time. We had so much planned that lecture was canceled today to fit everything into the schedule. First on our list was visiting the Duma, the Russian parliament. The outside of the Duma was surprisingly unimpressive. It looked like a rectangular office building that was plopped in the middle of nowhere. After going through three security checks, we were given a "tour" of the Duma. I put "tour" in quotation marks, because most of it was just a standing and walking lecture of Russian politics. The Russian system is unique in that it has a semi-presidential system, which consists of both a president and a prime minister. The prime minister would be roughly equivalent to the Speaker of the House. It also has a multi-party system. United Russia, the party of Vladimir Putin, currently holds a majority of 238 seats in the Duma. Coming in second is the still-prominant Communist Party with 92 seats. A Just Russia Party, who are basically a more socially democratic version of United Russia are in third, with the Liberal Democratic Party, which is commonly labeled as "neither liberal nor democratic." Dr. Goeckel told us that Russian parties tend to center around personalities rather than ideologies. People vote for and join a party based on whether they support the ideas of its top-ranking member rather than its platform as a whole.

Duma in Action

The one thing we were able to see was the Duma in session. They were debating whether or not to have a government-run broadcasting network (on top of the other networks that basically take orders from the Kremlin). We sat on the balcony of a large, rectangular room with comfortable seats to watch parliamentarians squabble away in Russian about the morality of public broadcasting. United Russia (the pro-Kremlin party) was for it, while all of the minority parties seemed to be against it.

We then made our way up the tiny elevators to the 9th floor of the Duma. I had asked Dr. Goeckel a week ago, and he managed to get us, a meeting with members of the Communist Party. Entering the room was an experience all in it own. We heard loud shouting and laughing in Russian beyond the narrow hallway. The walls were lined with Pravda articles from the Soviet period that spelled out the success  and achievements of the communists. Our group sat at opposite ends of a long horseshoe table. At the crux of the horseshoe sat three Communist Party members. One was in charge of the internationalist department of the party, one was a staff member who acted as our translator, and the last was a professor and current member of the Communist Party leadership.

The professor spoke for most of the time. He opened with some very unapologetic and controversial remarks. According to him, the results of every election since 1996 were fraudulent and if the Communist Party were allowed to check the ballot boxes, Gennady Zyuganov (who has been the party's candidate for the past eighteen years) would have won. The Communist Party is still significant in Russia, coming in second place in almost every election since the fall of the Soviet Union. He attributed the fall of the USSR to "American imperialism" as well as the to the fault of the Communist Party for not following the trends of the rapidly changing world of the 1970's and 80's. He also spoke of a wave of economic crises in the near future that would eventually bring an end to capitalism. When I asked about what he thought of Stalin, he referred to him as a strong command-in-chief, a great industrializer, and said that historical background must be taken into consideration when analyzing his rule. He basically used the good old excuse that every society goes through its rough patches, so it is perfectly alright for him to have killed 20 million people. He had a lot to say about higher education, saying that the four-year undergraduate system should be replaced with five years and that the entrance exams should not be multiple choice. Lastly, he said that US-Russian relations will only improve if we don't suspect each other of "dirty tricks," citing US intervention in Libya as a campaign in support of human rights that turned into an effort to depose Mr. Qaddafi.

All in all, the man was passion and set in his ways, but very chummy. He made several jokes, telling us that we will be communist by the end of the session and acknowledge his proclivity for American basketball. Dr. Goeckel later said that the communists we met were from the Brezhnev era and represented the old guard of the party. It would be interesting to understand how the younger communists view the state of things in Russia.

Andrei Sakharov

Next was the Sakharov Museum, dedicated to Andrei Sakharov. Sakharov was a prominent dissident during the Soviet era, who worked on the Soviet nuclear arms program and eventually went on to criticize the Soviet Union, only to be arrested and thrown in the gulag until perestroika in 1986. He received the Nobel Peace Prize for his writings against the Soviet Union, but was not allowed to leave the country in order to accept it. While I was looking forward to learning more about the life of Sakharov, the museum focused mostly on the gulag and life in the internment camp. Having received more than my fair share of Holocaust education in Hebrew School, I wasn't very interested in life in the gulag. A small section of the museum was dedicated to Sakharov; however, and I did enjoy learning about his movement against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

After a quick lunch on the street, we went to Moscow Conservatory. The area was and still is a world-renowned school for musicians. The most notable graduate would be Tchaikovsky.  The students of the conservatory often do cheap performances in the gargantuan theater built by Nicholas II in order to help them practice for larger events when they are older. We were one of the lucky benefactors of this deal and received balcony seats that seemed as if the builders decided to make a right angle with two blocks of wood.

Everyone applauded when the conductor took the stand. I enjoyed watching him conduct. He was very animated and made it feel like the musical experience was a scene out of Fantasia. He moved with the music, swaying back and forth with the flutes and jumping up and down with the fast-paced blow of the trumpets. It was as if he were a wizard, attempting to control the massive force of music before him with his magic wand. The sounds emanating from the orchestra were incredibly powerful, but I probably would have enjoyed them more if it were not the end of the day and were the balcony air conditioned. I was tired, having been on this trip for several weeks with little time for rest. The concert was enjoyable nonetheless, and although I was tired, I know that I'm going to thank myself later for experiencing all that I can in Russia.

6/7: Culture Lecture, Father Chaplin, and Baker Botts Law Firm

For the final time, Professor Domnina gave us a lecture on Soviet culture. The topics ranged wildly. She covered everything from the metro system, Soviet chocolate, the communist youth, ice cream, and the All-Russia Exhibition (which we will be visiting on Saturday). Although everything she covers in her lectures is interesting, I guess the one thing I found most fascinating was that Russians regard ice cream as a snack rather than as a desert. Because of this, the ice cream is much heavier in order to tide one over in between meals. I have to say that the ice cream here is much better than American ice cream. The West is known for their sorbets and low-fat mixes, but Russia has the real stuff. It's delicious, but also very fattening. I guess Russians get fat on ice cream during the summer so they have more insolation for the rough winters.

Father Vsevolod Chaplin

Next up, we took the metro to a dilapidated part of Moscow so we could visit Father Chaplin, one of the patriarchates of the Christian Orthodox Church. Father Chaplin has proven controversial as of late, attempting to form an "Orthodox Church Party" in the Duma, saying women should dress more conservatively, calling for the ban of novels that "justify pedophilia," and decrying the injustices of modern capitalism. He is the spokesman for the Orthodox Church and had to deal with a lot of press when Patriarch Kirill (the pope of Eastern Orthodox) was caught wearing a $30,000 watch. The Father Chaplin that we met didn't seem at all like the Father Chaplin we have been reading about. He was a quiet, old man who seemed almost nervous to be in a room with twelve American students. He spoke very low and monotonously and often stuttered when he was answering a pointed question. Even more surprising was that he appeared more toned down than we expected. Very few of his statements were controversial and after our eyes lit up when he said that church and state should not be completely separate, he became even more moderate in his tone. I asked him about recent statements by opposition leader Alexey Navalny that the Orthodox Church should act as a mediator between protestors and the government in abiding by their demands. His long-winded tangent-ridden ten minute response can be condensed into "We support dialogue between the government and the protestors, but the Church is against any sort of revolution." He made some semi-controversial remarks about Putin never really formulating his religion and questioning his devolution to Orthodox Christianity, but most of the things he said were reasonable. There was mention a religious revival occurring in Russia, improving relations with the Roman Catholic Church, and he called for an end to corruption in the government. Maybe we didn't press him on his stances hard enough, but he did not come across as the fiery figure were were imagining. Father Chaplin just seemed like a cranky old man who was set in his ways.

Jason Bennett

Baker Botts Law Firm (which I kept calling Bertie and Botts, thinking of the every-flavored jelly bean producer from Harry Potter) was also unexpectedly interesting. Tired and worn from weeks of traveling, most of the group was not looking forward to visiting a law firm, which could be done any day in America. Jade's mom worked at the New York office of Baker Botts and thought it would be a good idea to have our group pay the Moscow branch a visit. The first thing everyone noticed when we were led into the conference room was a table fully of coffee, tea, soda, and snacks. It seems like only the American places we go to give us free food. After a mad dash to the snack table, we settled down into comfortable and tidy office chairs. We were met by Jason Bennett, a lawyer at the firm who specializes in oil and gas law. Jason was very enthusiastic and informative. He gave us a briefing on doing business in Russia, similar what what Mr. Somers did for us at the American Chamber of Commerce. He said that Russians tend to develop their business through relationships rather than developing relationships through business. In other words, if a Russian businessman is good friends with a government official, he might cozy up to him for tax privileges, rather than meeting with clients and earning an honest profit. The feeling of responsibility for the firm as a whole is subverted by the desire to get ahead and not get fired. He also mentioned that the bureaucracy in Russia is difficult to get through. Of the 45 staff who work in the Moscow office, six of them are hired just to make sure that they are in compliance with government regulations. This creates a lot of wasted resources and inefficient business practices. Jason's stories about applying to school in Ukraine were fascinating and hilarious, and he made an effort to get to know us by asking about our first impressions of Russia. I asked him about British Petroleum's recent decision to stop doing business in Russia, wondering if this was part of a general trend. He said that it was a trend in the oil and gas sector, because the government is reserving drilling in vast areas of land only for government-owned oil companies. With business in the service, real estate, and technology sector, he said that foreign companies are investing more heavily in the Russian economy. According to Jason, Russians don't have the same mentality of worrying about the future, because their history has been full of so many times of hardship that the situation can't get much worse. Because of this, they are much more willing to take risks and start up new businesses. Russia has a rising entrepreneurial class that is just trying to get its foot in the door.

For dinner, we went to an American restaurant, simply out of curiosity for Russia's portrayal of American culture. There were a lot of cowboy boots, skinny jeans, and American flags everywhere. On the menu: steak and potatoes, burgers and fries, and pasta. I guess our southern culture is more visible to Russians than that of the North.

6/6: Double Lecture, Concert, and Stalin's Bunker

Today was a very busy day. We met in the SUNY Office at 9:00 AM to walk to FFL early that morning. We were to meet several teachers of English, who were apparently interested in hearing from American students. Olga was the one who introduced us and it felt more like walking onto a gameshow than going into a classroom of teachers. We entered to applause and were told to shake hands with everyone there (I would say that there were about 50 women in the audience and we gave up after realizing that we couldn't get to them all). The teachers were taking pictures of us as we marched down the aisle and lined up in a row in the front of the classroom. We had planned beforehand to each say our name, the codename (or kalichka) that we came up for each other at dinner one night, our favorite part about Russia, and our favorite thing about America. My kalichka was "angry bird," because apparently, the profile of my face looks like an angry bird. I told everyone that my favorite thing about Moscow is how everyone thinks that Americans are such a spectacle. Everywhere we go, people take pictures of us. It's very amusing. My favorite thing about America is the free toilet paper in the restrooms. You can't beat  that awkward moment when you forget to bring kleenex into a Russian bathroom with you.

Professor Dobrosklonskaya finished her lecture on Russian media by telling us about the popular television stations and internet sites that Russians count on for their news. An interesting point that she made was that international television stations are trying to gain viewership by making their programming available in English. She referenced RT.com, which tries to give world news from the Russian perspective. I also read an article in today's Moscow Times that said that RT has the most viewership of any international news network in the United States.

In the afternoon, Professor Dominina spoke of Russian Music. It was surprising how much classical music that I already knew, which happened to be Russian. "Sinbad the Sailor" was a song composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsorov, a military elder and Russian composer who borrowed songs from the East. The song is the main music in Fantasia. It carries a lot of emotion in the melody, so much so that you can hear the waves crashing against the ocean each time the symbols are sounded. "Peter and the Wolf" was written by Russian composer Sergei Prokoffiev. I remember seeing the ballet at the Geva Theater in 2nd or 3rd grade. Prokoffiev gets creative by having each instrument represent a different character. The grandfather is played by a bassoonist, the cat by a clarinetist, the bird by a flutist, and the duck by an oboist. Prokoffiev was good at writing music so simple that a child could understand it, but so complex that professional Russian dancer Galna Ulanova would refuse to dance to it.

Marlene Mosh

At 3:30, we went to a private concert hosted by Alexander Malkus, a professor at the Moscow Conservatory, and his wife, Marlene Mosh. Both are personal friends of Dr. Goeckel and he was able to get them to perform a free concert for us out of the goodness of their hearts. Malkus was on the piano and Marlene sang. Malkus had so much emotion in his playing. You could really see the passion as he thrusted his whole body forward to press the keys of the piano as hard as possible. Marlene sang ancient Armenian hymns and although no one could understand what she was saying, there was really no need to, because her singing did all of the work for you. You could tell if they song was sad, happy, hopeful, or melancholy based on the tone of her words. It was a wonderful concert and it was a shame that we had to leave early to make it on time to Stalin's bunker.

When Dr. Goeckel mentioned to us that we are going to be the first group to see Stalin's bunker, I immediately though of a small underground cabin filled with leftover banana peels that Stalin had left behind. The actual bunker was nothing of the sort. Our tour guide came off as a typical Soviet soldier at first, speaking as if the tour was very scripted and telling us not to press any buttons or touch anything if we didn't know what it was. He also warned us against pressing buttons or touching things if we knew what they were as well. After the introduction, we went down eighteen flights of stairs to the very bottom of the bunker. It got colder and colder as we descended into the dark and dank abyss. I couldn't imagine anyone wanting to hide in this place, but I guess when you are trying to avoid nuclear destruction, you really have to appreciate what you have. Apparently, the bunker was completed one year after Stalin's death, so it was never really used by Stalin. He just commissioned it.

After showing us the tunnels, our tour guide took us to a movie room, turned on the project, and left the room saying, "If you are frightened, don't worry. You are in the safest place in Moscow." The movie was a 30-minute propaganda video created by the KGB, explaining how the Americans recklessly used the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and were willing to use it on the Soviet Union, which is why the USSR was forced to retaliate and develop its own nuclear arsenal. The movie was actually humorous at some parts as to how inaccurately biased it was. The narrator basically labeled Gorbachev as a western conspirator who worked with the US to dismantle Russia's nuclear arsenal, not even laying credence to the fact that the US destroyed plenty of its own missiles during the negotiations as well.

Tunnel in Stalin's Bunker

The tour guide took us to the control center when the movie was over. This is where guards had to sit, ready to launch a nuclear weapon when the orders were given. They had two men at the station at all times, and rotated in twelve hour shifts to make sure the guards were not asleep at the wheel. Our guide then chose Isaac to do "destroy the world." He had him sit and one of the control desks and press the button that would have launched a nuclear bomb. The room got dark a screen showed total annihilation of the free world. Nice job, Isaac!

We were then brought into a separate room and allowed to take pictures of ourselves wearing gas masks, holding kalashnikovs, having on Stalin's hat, or grabbing any of the other things in the war room. The kalashnikovs were real, by the way. After a smoke-infested room, and a barrel with the body of an upside-down soldier in it, our guide took us to a room which was being turned into a club and restaurant, complete with neon lights. When the tour was over, I was one of the daring people to go up all eighteen flights of stairs rather than use the elevator. At the top of the stairs we noticed that it was raining extremely hard. Everyone's clothing go drenched as we attempted to make our way to the subway, stopping instead underneath an overhang until the rain subsided. Sopping wet head to toe, I could confirm that today was tiring, but also a lot of fun. 

6/5: Cold Shower, Media Lecture, and Meeting the Dean

We got back to Moscow at 4:30 AM. Groggy and tired, we were given the first and only opportunity to sleep in that morning and have our lecture in the afternoon instead. It was an opportunity well received, as I was able to catch up on some much-needed sleep (going on tours all day is a lot of work). I woke up around 9:30 AM and went to take a shower. To my irritated amusement, the water was remaining cold, no matter how much I turned the hot water knob. After a couple minutes of fiddling with the shower, I figured that Russia had once again delivered an unwelcome surprise into my life. It was later I learned that the heating system in Moscow is so old that the government has to shut down the hot water in order to repair it every summer. In other words, every Muscovite has to grumble through a week of cold showers each year before the government decides it is time to turn the hot water back on. After googling "How to Take a Cold Shower," I basically chose to just go with the flow and suffer through five minutes of freezing rain. Not a fun experience, but an experience nonetheless.

Pravda Magazine

Today's lecture was on Russian Politics in the Media by Professor Tatyana Dobroskionskaya. She covered the major Russian newspapers and magazines and said that most Russian media is successful because it combines quality press and popular press into a form of "Mid Market" press that provides a mixture of serious articles and entertaining tabloid materials. In the Soviet days, most media was quality press, but the newspapers had to reconstruct themselves in order to stay popular. Pravda, which used to be the main paper of the government, is now a tabloid-filled newspaper that is more interested in covering scandals than in reporting accurate news stories. The professor was full of interesting tangents, but it took us a while to move from point to point. I was really interested in hearing about the television and Internet media (where most Russians get their news from), but we unfortunately didn't have enough time for that. However, we did have enough time to watch a video clip of Ukrainian parliamentarians beating each other up (literally) over a bill that would make Russian one of the official languages of Ukraine as well as a clip of T-Paine rapping to Obama's health care bill.

Next, we were to meet the Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, who Professor Dobroskionskaya had modestly described as, "like Oprah Winfrey...only white." After an hour of waiting around (the dean is a busy lady) we were seated around a table in the dean's office. She was an elderly lady, who said she had been at MSU for 51 years. It was difficult to hear her, as the window was open, cars were zooming by, and her voice was not the strongest I've ever listened to. Nonetheless, her sweet welcome to us appeared a bit...communist. Somehow, she got on the topic of how choices make us less happy and how thirty years ago, you would always be assured a good quality pair of shoes because you would just go in the store that had the longest line coming out of it. While this seemed an inefficient way to decide who to buy shoes from, to her it seemed better because she wouldn't be disappointed in her choice of shoes. After all, everyone would be wearing the same pair, so you know that you got the best bang for you buck...if not the only available bang for your buck. After talking about how she wrote about cross-cultural communication, but hated her daughter's French husband, her inner-Oprah came out when she passed around DVD's of MSU in which she was featured in an interview. She was a sweet old lady and we were all glad to have met her, despite her confusing means of communication. 

St. Petersburg

I apologize for not posting sooner. Our hotel in St. Petersburg charged 100 rubles (3 dollars) an hour for internet access and being the cheap college student that I am, I decided it would be better to wait a couple of days before posting another journal entry. Without further adieu, here are my entries for St. Petersburg:

6/1

Today was a big day for us. Our schedule was jam packed with things to do, leaving us having to run from one place to the next. The day started with a fantastic lecture in Russian history covering Tsar Nicholas II to Brezhnev. The professor did an excellent job in giving a thorough and detailed account of such a large part of history in an hour and a half. She specialized in Russian and English History, and you could tell by her British-Russian accent in which country she learned to speak English. She managed to sneak little anecdotes into her lecture, such as how Khrushchev celebrating the victory of American pianist Van Clayburn in a Soviet music contest was an essential step in improving US-Soviet relations and how Brezhnev was so slow to respond that his team had to have him memorize answers to possible questions from Americans in the UN, rather than allow for him to think on his feat. My dirty mind makes me want to write about how at one point she said that Lenin's wife was an ardent communist and that as soon as she married Lenin, "they made revolution together." The whole class giggled, confusing the instructor, who didn't catch the double meaning. 

While the instructor was very good, she went over time-wise, forcing us to once again scarf down our lunch and dash to the busses. Our shortness on time was not aided by a bus driver arguing with a passenger who hopped on the bus without paying a fare. The two were going back and forth for about five minutes before we decided to hop on another bus. I guess the driver was forced to give up and drive off with the stingy passenger still riding the bus. If she continued to argue and held up the bus any longer, she could get fired. In Moscow, it seems as if people try to nickel and dime each other any way they can. It must be a product of their culture. I'm theorizing that during Soviet times, people had to learn to game the system in order to get the basic necessities of life. With capitalism in place, there isn't the same trust that we have in America between the customer and the producer. You have to check your bill every time to make sure that the cashier gave you the correct amount of change and the entrance to every building has some sort of metal detector. 

It was interesting to be at the Gorbachev Foundation, because most Russians have a strong distaste for "The Mineral Secretary." While in America, we view his liberal reforms as necessary and humanitarian in nature, Russians view him as the man responsible for the downfall of the Soviet Union. They see him as week and ineffective, recalling the massive inflation and political chaos that perestroika and glasnost brought. A recent poll found that Gorbachev was the least popular leader in the past century, receiving positive acclimates from 14% of Russians (Stalin was at 28% and Putin was at 61% by comparison). The Foundation was founded by Gorbachev and financed mainly by the money he made in speaking fees for lectures he has given at colleges and universities. Those who run the foundation are sympathetic to Gorbachev and were probably delighted to foreigners who shared in their sympathy. 

Mikhail Gorbachev - Soviet Leader 1985-1991

One of the ladies at the Foundation gave us a tour of the objects on display in the gallery. She described the success of perestroika and effectiveness of Gorbachev as the first and only president of the Soviet Union. We were able to see his Nobel Prize, the Time Magazine issue that awarded him Man of the Year, and pictures of him negotiating an end to the Cold War with Presidents Reagan and Bush. I asked about his relationship with Yeltsin and she said that Gorbachev promoted the accession of Yeltsin in the Communist Party and greeted him as a reformer. They were very good friends. Yeltsin eventually turned his back on Gorbachev with the coup, but Gorbachev stepped down and praised him nonetheless. Of course, this is a biased story, but it still helped me to see how much a humanitarian Gorby really was. 

At the American Embassy, we were given the opportunity to ask question to those who worked in the embassy. Their specialties ranged from human rights, to foreign affairs, to economics, to relations with the press. While the information we received was interesting (one guy was stalked for a period of time when he released a negative human rights report about Russia to Washington), what was more beneficial was seeing potential jobs that we could have in the next couple of years. Those at the embassy are reassigned every one or two years to different countries, giving them the opportunity to experience several different governments and cultures. It was definitely a great experience and the security at the embassy was surprisingly much tighter than anywhere in Russia. There was a rule that guests had to be escorted in groups of six, forcing us to split up when we had to go from room to room.

Right now, I am packing for St. Petersburg. We have an overnight train to catch at one in the morning. As I try to stuff as many clothes into my backpack as physically possible, I'm listening to Russia's entry into Eurovision. Eurovision is an American Idol-type contest in which each European country sends a delegation to represent their culture in this fifty year-old singing contest. While most countries send young and famous pop singers (usually from countries other than their own) to achieve national fame and glory, Russia took a turn this year and sent a group of 70 year-old babushki  from a rural village near the Volga River who yodeled their hearts out. They made it all the way to second place in the contest by winning the hearts of European voters. A video of their performance can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLiYkUXss7U. 

6/2

At one in the morning, we boarded the train to St. Petersburg. Each car had six rooms, two bathrooms, and a room for an attendant, who periodically walked around and asked if we wanted coffee, tea, or chocolate. Upon hearing from the Russian students at the American Center that the train from Moscow to St. Pete’s was not the best, I was afraid for what I was about to find. However the rooms were not bad at all. They were cramped for sure. I would say that they were about the size of my room at MSU, but they held four people instead of just one. However, they were oddly spacious. There were two bunked beds on either side of the room, but the bottom bunks had enough head room to be used as couches. Storage space was plentiful, as there were large compartments under each of the bottom bunks and above the top beds. And the sheets and comforters we were given were quite nice. The pillows were much larger and softer than the MSU pillows and there was a reading lamp available for each of us above the head of our beds.

The one inconvenience were the bathrooms. They locked the bathrooms when we were in the major cities, probably because the toilet connects directly to the bottom of the train and they don’t want the train tracks in the city smelling like human feces all day. Alona was saying that she was on a Russian train once in which you could see the gravel on the ground when looking through the toilet hole. The other problem I found with the bathrooms was that they were in-navigable. I couldn’t figure out how to flush the toilet (apparently, there was a pump on the ground I was supposed to press) and the knobs used to turn the faucet didn’t work. There were signs in Russian telling you how to use the different contraptions in the bathroom, but that really didn’t help me very much. Despite my quarrels with the bathroom, the sleep on the train was one of the best that I’ve had in Russia (I’m not sure that’s saying too much). The window shades worked well, so it was dark enough for me to sleep and the movement of the train rocked me back and forth like a baby in a cradle.

I awoke at 8:30 and right off the bat, we headed for our hotel, dropped off our stuff, and went on a four-hour tour of the city. Our tour guide’s name was Sergei. He was very well informed about the Romanov dynasty and could go on for eons about the history of St. Petersburg. While we saw practically everything on our tour (it was basically a sparknotes version of St. Petersburg) there were some things that stuck out. We went to a fortress constructed by Peter the Great. Inside the fort was the Peter and Paul Cathedral which held the tombs of virtually every Romanov tsar. Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Anna, Paul, Elizabeth and Alexander II were all buried there. It was so cool to have so much royalty in such a condensed area. In Moscow, it felt like we needed to search around the city for traces of history, but in St. Petersburg, it appeared as if everything was right under you nose. Connected to the Peter and Paul Cathedral was a cathedral built for Nicholas II and his family. Although the Bolsheviks killed them after Nicholas abdicated the throne and buried them in the woods, their bones were found in 1969 and brought to St. Petersburg. Interestingly, Anastasia’s bones were also found in the mix, debunking any myths of the missing grand duchess.

Coming out of the cathedral and into the rainy weather, hearing the church bells ring, I was so excited to be in St. Petersburg. This moment and the first time visiting Red Square had to be the two affirmations of the fact that I was not in Kansas anymore. It felt genuinely Russian (even though St. Petersburg is more of a European than a traditionally Russian culture).

Tsarina Elizabeth 

An interesting story that Sergei told us was about how extravagant Tsarina Elizabeth was. He said that she spent lavishly on herself (as was already evident in all of her carriages we saw at the Kremlin armory). At one point, Elizabeth decided that she was tired of ruling Russia and wanted to become a nun. Instead of going to a convent, she had a gigantic baby blue one built for herself that resembled another palace more than a place of God. She practically emptied the state coffers to have this built for her, but it was never used as a convent, because she changed her mind and decided that she actually enjoyed being tsarina. Catherine the Great decided to make it into the first school for girls in Russia and now it is used by St. Petersburg University as an academic building

Also memorable was our stop and visit to one of the only two synagogues in St. Petersburg.  The synagogue was huge and was constructed like an Orthodox Church. The Star of David was stained in glass, there was a huge alter in the front, and the temple was very decadent overall. My guess is that they hired a designer of cathedrals to build the temple because there were no synagogue architects available. It was beautiful nonetheless, and the prayer books were in Hebrew. There were even little kids running around with tafillin.

Peter the Great

At dinner, we discussed the differences between Moscow and St. Pete’s. It seems as though people in St. Petersburg are nicer. They smile when they speak to you, they are more willing to help you when you are confused, and they don’t bump into you when you are in their way. This is probably because St. Pete’s is more of a European city. It was meant to be Peter the Great’s “Window to the West.” It was constructed with the intend of being different from anywhere else in Russia. It was not supposed to have the hustle and bustle of Moscow. It definitely more accommodating to tourists. It is more likely to find people that speak English here. Several of the signs are in English and Russian. Food and souvenir shops are endless and the prices are very reasonable. Many of the historical buildings from the tsarist times have not been removed, either, because Moscow was the center of communist rule, and they were more focuses on destroying the palaces and cathedrals closest to them first. Because of this, St. Pete’s has more of an 18^th century feel, while Moscow feels as though Ivan the Terrible is losing a battle to Stalin, but is still hanging on for dear life.

6/3

The continental breakfast served at the hotel this morning was one of the best meals I’ve ever had. I was slightly emaciated the day before, having only one meal, and everyone knows that when you combine unlimited free food and hungry college boy you get a very happy Marty. Every food known to man was served at the continental breakfast. Eggs, muffins, croissants, toast, cheese and cereal galore. Everyone was satisfied with the breakfast as some regretted not coming down soon enough to eat more. I made sure to stuff a couple of snacks in a ziplock bag for later.

St. Isaac's Cathedral

The first stop on today’s adventure was St. Isaac’s Cathedral. St. Isaac’s is probably one of the tallest buildings in St. Petersburg. It was constructed, destroyed and reconstructed four different times, getting larger and more beautiful with each reconstruction. It was originally meant to be a private cathedral for Peter the Great, but it was destroyed in a fire. Catherine the Great decided to build it up again, but after her death, her son , Paul (who hated his mother for killing her husband and sending Paul away from the capital as much as possible) used the marble from the cathedral to construct his own palace. It was finally rebuilt by Alexander II, but it took forty years to do it. It is rumored to have taken this long because the architect allegedly heard a fortuneteller say to him that he will die after his greatest work is complete. The cathedral was used as a storage facility for St. Petersburg’s treasures during World War II. The Soviets learned that the Nazis were using St. Isaac’s as a focal point to destroy buildings around the cathedral (because it was so large and tall), so they knew that it would not be a target of Nazi bombs. It was converted to a Museum of Atheism under Stalin (oh, the irony) and was put under state control after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Although we explored several cathedrals, it was nice to be in this one because it was no longer a cathedral, but a museum instead. This enabled us to take pictures and receive a tour. The girls were also more liberated in that they didn’t need to wear a scarf over their heads when they entered the cathedral. It also helped because they had a display of models of the four former cathedral designs and pictures of St. Isaac’s during WWII.

We were also able to trudge up 262 stairs of death to the colonnade of the cathedral. Honestly, hiking up Madasa in Israel was much more difficult, but the winding staircase was a bit dizzying. The view from the colonnade was breathtaking. You could see several of the palaces of St. Petersburg, the cities several meandering rivers, and a couple public gardens around the cathedral. It was just my luck to have my camera act up on the colonnade, preventing me from taking any pictures of the beautiful scenery. Maybe that was God’s punishment for taking so many pictures in the cathedral. Oh well, I can always get them from others on Facebook.

Next on our list of Things You Must Do In St. Petersburg was the Hermitage Museum. This was the Winter Palace which was built by Elizabeth and refurbished by Catherine. It had over one thousand rooms and so many objects and pictures that if someone where to look at one picture every minute, then it would take them eight years before they saw everything in the museum. The historical significance is priceless. The square in front of the palace is where Nicholas II ordered protests to be fired on in 1905, and where the Bolsheviks stormed the castle and captured the royal family in 1917. Almost every Romanov tsar had stood in the corridors of the Winter Palace. It is the place where the fictional character of Anastasia (in the movie) discovered her long-forgotten past.

The palace was astounding. There must have been at least $100 billion of wealth in there. Everywhere there was gold trim decorated in baroque and rococo style. Chandeliers fell from the ceiling like raindrops. Where a ruby carpet wasn’t present, there was an extensively decorated wooden floor. Walking up the grand staircase, one feels like royalty. Although 30,000 people come through the Hermitage every day, it seemed like I was the only one in the museum as I was in awe of the 1000+ room building around me. Time froze as I gawked at the walls, each square inch of which must have been worth $1 million.

Winter Palace/Hermitage Museum

Objects that we were given permission to glace at included the royal throne, the room in which Nicholas II and his family were captured by the Bolsheviks, Catherine’s legendary golden farm animal clock, and paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, Henry Matisse, Rembrandt, Van Gough, and Michelangelo. Apparently, you weren’t allowed to bring water into the Hermitage anymore, because one guy through sulphoric acid on a Rembradt painting in protest of the imperialism of the Soviet Union. This caused one lady to freak out when a member of our group started to take out a bottle of water and began to drink from it. Apparently, drinking sulphuric acid isn’t allowed either.

Though we had a three-hour tour of the Hermitage and I was very tired afterwards, it still didn’t feel like enough time. I still needed to absorb the fact that I was in one of the most famous palaces in the world. That the likes of Catherine the Great and Alexander II had stepped where I was stepping. Events that I had simply read about on paper had actually occurred in this place. It was a bit of a history shock, I guess. The art section in particular made me wish that I had looked up my notes from Art History 173 that I took freshman year once again. I was sure that I had seen at least ten of the art pieces in lecture and it was so amazing to be able to see and take pictures of the original works in person.

For the last part of the day, we went on a boat ride down St. Petersburg’s main rivers. Peter the Great wanted his city to be like the Netherlands. He admired the Dutch and envisioned an area of islands connected by several bridges. Part of the beauty of St. Pete’s is due to the fact that there is always a river nearby. This also leads to St. Petersburg to be one of the rainiest cities in the world. Along with have over sixty days of sun every year, precipitation is frequent. Luckily, it only rained one day of the three days we were here.

After the Hermitage, we ate lunch at went on a boat ride. The organizers of the boat ride gave us a headset, which provided a tour of the major sites in St. Petersburg as we drifted down rivers and under bridges. The tour mostly covered buildings that we had already seen on the bus tour, so I used the time to enjoy the cool, breezy boat ride. We have been on our feat all the time, so it was nice to sit, relax, and not have to ingest tons and tons of information. The little person in our ears gave us intricate details of each and every bridge we passed under. There are 342 bridges in St. Pete’s and almost all of then are drawn in at night to allow ships to pass through. Therefore, if you are out past one in the morning, it is not difficult to get stuck on one of the several islands of the city until about five o’clock, when the bridges are let down again.

6/4: Catherine’s Palace and World War II Museum

After another amazing breakfast (even stuffing some food in my bag for later), we went to the countryside to visit Catherinehof, the Summer Palace of Catherine I (Peter the Great’s second wife). We were first given an opportunity to walk around Catherine’s garden, which was decorated in an oriental fashion. The grounds were absolutely beautiful and naturalistic. It reminded me of Henry VIII walking around his garden in The Tutors. I could picture Catherine walking around her garden with famous politicians of the time period, conversing about politics or whatever was on their mind. Taking a walk in the garden was like stepping into the past. It was easy to get lost in the maze-like area. One path gave way to several more, and if you went in the wrong direction, the next set of paths was a long ways off. The garden must have covered several anchors, and it didn’t help that the grass was very high, preventing anyone from seeing their way around.

When it was time to enter the palace, we had to stand in a very large line to wait our turn to enter. The Summer Palace is known for long lines. Although it only gets 15,000 visitors per day (half of that of the Hermitage) I guess they aren’t as efficient. While waiting in line, our group played a game involving counting off numbers. We made a scene and people stared at us, but we continued to play. Then people began taking pictures of us. I guess they’ve never seen Americans before. We are a sight to behold, after all.

The Summer Palace, or Catherine’s Palace, was built for Catherine I (Peter the Great’s wife), but was expanded heavily under Elizabeth, who decorated it in rococo style with gold trim up the wazoo. Catherine the Great viewed the palace as “whipped cream” and had it renovated in the neoclassic style. The palace is now an eclectic mixture of the styles of various empresses and tsarinas, and looks like the Palace that Anastasia when to in the movie (even though she really went to the Winter Palace).

Tsarina Catherine the Great

Stepping into the palace, my first thought was, “I know why those peasants revolted.” In fact, it wasn’t really a thought, because I said it out loud, and everyone around me laughed. But seriously, there was gold everywhere. It seemed like everywhere we went in St. Petersburg there were palaces. The Romanov’s would built castles to spite people (like the ice palace that Anna built to watch a noble freeze on his wedding day), to congratulate themselves, and as gifts to each other. There seemed to be castles for every season in each city. Our tour guide was saying that Elizabeth had four or five different castles and that the servants had to be ready with food every night in case the tsarina were to stop by for dinner on a whim. If I were a peasant, I would be getting pretty angry that none of the money was being used to help make my life better. One inch of that castle could have paid for a peasant’s food for a year. Those Romanov’s really were extravagant.

The Amber Room - Catherine' s Palace

Anyways, we toured the ballroom (which actually looked like it was from Anastasia) the changing room, Catherine’s study room for her grandson Alexander (she hated her son, Paul, and hoped that Alexander would succeed her), and several other unnecessary rooms in the palace. Catherine’s palace also held the famous Amber Room. The Amber Room is sometimes dubbed the “Eighth Wonder of the World” for its beauty and extravagance. Every inch of the room was either covered in gold, amber, or mirrors. It felt like walking into a cold fire. Everything was such a bright orange-brown that I practically had to squint my eyes to see each detail. The room actually went missing with the Nazi occupation in World War II (how the Russians could just lose a room, I will never know), but it was eventually recreated by 2003, the 300^th anniversary of Catherine’s Palace. We were unable to take pictures of the room, but several people were anyways (the official reason is that they “don’t know the effects of photography on amber”). I chose to go the honest route and purchased a postcard at the gift shop.

After exiting the palace, we took a walk around the gigantic man-made lake behind the palace. Sergei pointed to a pyramid during our walk and said that it was the burial place of Catherine the Great’s dog, Zamirah. When the dog died, Catherine was weeping for weeks and could not get on with her work. It wasn’t until a designer created a replica of Zamirah out of porcelain so Catherine could carry around the figurine and feel like the dog was still alive that she could go back to ruling the country. Reminder: this is the tsarina who had her husband murdered and tried to banish her son in any way possible.

Our next stop was the World War II museum of St. Petersburg. The museum consisted of only one room and was sticks and stones compared to the museum we saw in Moscow. There were a few artifacts that were found after the Siege of Leningrad and a video of the suffering and perseverance of Leningraders during the war, but I thought it was cooler to be exploring old castles than a museum about war and death.

Georgian Soda

For dinner, Dr. Goeckel took me and a couple other students to a Georgian restaurant a few blocks away from our hotel. Although the food was pricey and they gave us an unnecessary service charge, the food was beyond delicious. I shared Shashlik (Georgian shish kabobs) with Katrina and we had a delicious plum sauce to dip it in. The best part of the meals was the Georgian cheese bread, which was warm, gooey, and filling. Dr. Goeckel bought us a traditional Georgian soda, which resembled a green toxic sludge, but had a really sweet minty licorice aftertaste. By the end of the meal, I was ready to pledge allegiance to the Georgian flag. I was so full, but I wanted to finish the food so badly. Everything tasted so good!

At 9:30 PM, we hopped on the night train and it was off to Moscow once again.