Dubrovnik

Greetings from the Pearl of the Adriatric! It's been a few days and a few thousand kilometers since my last entry. I flew from Russia to Austria and from Austria to Serbia. I've been in buses and cars throughout the southern half and Serbia, the eastern part of Bosnia and the southern tip of Croatia. Right now my parents and I are soaking up the beauty, history and sunshine of Dubrovnik, Croatia. Already tomorrow, we'll be retracing our steps through the mountainous Balkan Peninsula so my parents and grandma can fly home.

This might just be my last entry from outside the United States of America. This Saturday, 11 August, I'm flying back to California. Until we see or meet or talk again, Sve najbolje!

More pictures of Peterhof

Here's a couple more pictures of Peterhof. The first is taken from the level of the palace, looking out over the canal that leads to the Bay of Finland. The fountains hadn't been turned on yet, when I took this picture. The other picture is of the famous pyramid fountain, one of the many, many cool fountains. Enjoy the pictures!

What's a Pskov?

This week saw our last out-of-town excursion. We visited the 1100 year old city of Pskov near the Estonian border, staying there Thursday-Saturday. Most interesting to me was the Kremlin (fortress) built on the confluence of the Velikaya and Pskova rivers. It felt like an older, smaller, Russian version of Belgrade. Besides the mandatory fortress tour, we spent some time with the local members exploring other areas of the town.
In addition to Pskov, we saw Mihailovskoe, where the poet Alexander Pushkin spent time on house arrest; and also an old fortress in Izborsk and a monastery in Pechory.
Yesterday was also my last Sunday at my little branch outside the city. Next Saturday I'll be travelling with my parents so I already had to say goodbye to them. It was sad, and actually reminded me of when I had to leave my wonderful friends in Serbia. But even in that thought I found some consolation. At the end of this farewell, there awaits a reunion or two...

Peterhof HO!

This past Saturday was our last free day (meaning a day w/out class) of the program, excluding Sundays. We decided to use the day to visit Peterhof, Peter the Great's palace resort, just outside of St. Petersburg. We splurged a bit and payed extra to ride a hydrofoil out of the city and through the Bay of Finland over there.
The area consists of a canal leading through a gigantic lower park, up to Peter the Great's palace. On the other side of the palace is another Imperial park. The lower park is full of the most amazing fountains I have ever seen in my life, the crowning one (captured here by yours truly) is a gilden statue of Samson ripping open the lion's jaw, symbolizing Russia's victory over Sweden in the Great Northern War. Saturday was Peterhof day, a holiday which they celebrated with a beautiful fountain and firework show, along with 18th century costumed dancers and ballerinas. It was impressive like the surface of the Sun is warm.

Pavlovsk, Moscow, Novgorod and soon Pskov

That's the list of all the places we've visited since my last entry.
Moscow was great. I spent a l

Moscow Right Now!

I'm back from Moscow. Actually, our train arrived this morning at 5:30am and I'm not home yet. It's nearly 7:00am, and James and I stopped at an internet cafe after fighting just to get most of the way home. The empty city buses wanted to make us pay extra to transport our luggages, but I didn't have any money. I finally bullied a ticketer into letting us ride for the normal charge and we were able to use our regular passes.
You probably want a traditional picture of me at Red Square. Well, you just might get one later. I think I'm going to go home and sleep first.

Marinsky Theatre

Today we went to the Mariinsky Theatre and saw Swan Lake. It was incredible. Really. I never seen a complete balley before and was expecting it to be interesting but slightly boring. From the moment I walked in I was impressed. The walls were golden, the seats were beautiful and even the curtain exuded majesty. We weren't far from the box where the Czar would sit and watch ballets. The ballet itself was amazing. It had never occured to me that you could blend music and dance in such an elegant way, and then use it to tell a story. I found myself getting excited at tense moments and could even find (gulp) the romance in it all.
I had been hesitant to spend the money to go to the theatre, but now I wish I had bought more tickets. Alas, they are all sold out for the rest of the season. Oh well, I'm glad I could go once...

White Nights

These last few days have seen the longest sunlight out of the year. So, we stayed up and watched the bridges again. Here's a picture of us in front of a raised bridge at about 2:30am. Check it out.

Russian Cruise Anyone?

Last Tuesday night there was a YSL dance entitled "Petersburg Style." People were supposed to dress up in the style specific to St. Petersburg. So, being without any St. Petersburg clothes and not having the money to buy them, I did the next best thing: I got a St. Petersburg haircut: a mullet.





I had my roommate James cut my hair. By the way, James had never given anybody a haircut before, had never learned about haircuts and used this old pair of ordinary Russian scissors to do the job. You can refer to the picture from the dance and form your own opinion about my haircut. Our host mom was pretty upset with me and Chelita Pate, the BYU employee who lives here and supervises us, was pretty much horrified. So horrified in fact, that she cut my hair again less than 2 days after I got my Petersburg haircut. I guess it wasn't meant to last, but it was sure fun to have a mullet for a couple of days.
Okay, so we went on a Russian cruise of Lakes Ladoga and Onega, in which we visited the islands of Valaam and Kizhi. Feel free to click on any of the links to get more information on any of those destinations. To summarize the 4-day cruise, there were stop-offs in the day, nice meals on board and crazy Russian dances at night. The last night we had a final concert in which various guests performed. The other guys in the Study Abroad group and I decided to sing the Beatles Yellow Submarine. I managed to procure the crew members' uniforms, which we wore as we performed (to rauccous applause.) It was fun.

Russia Day

This week we found the actual apartment where the old pawnbroker lived in Crime and Punishment. Yup, that is a picture of James and me outside her apartment door. As we walked in the building, we could see place where the painters were playing as Raskolnikov left the building. We also walked the "730 steps" back to Raskolnikov's own apartment (where Dostoevsky actually lived). While we weren't able to enter the building, there was a nice monument outside that I photographed. For those of you who are not yet familiar with Crime and Punishment, I highly recommend that you get a copy and read it.

We had class off yesterday, because today is a national holiday: Russia Day! It's probably better described as Russian Independence Day, but "Russia Day" suits me well. I figure that way it sounds more all-inclusive. In fact, you can celebrate Russia Day in America, if you want. Anyway, we spent our free time yesterday exploring another river island here in Petersburg. There were many old beautiful mansions and I even found this little sandy beach (pictured at right). It reminded me of home, so I decided to lie down and rest for a while. It was a nice spot and we (3 other students who I was spending the day with) decided that we will come back another day and have a picnic there. The beach-ette was so endearing that I even took another picture so you could see the mansion across the river.
Later, we decided to stay up until 1:00am and watch them raise the many bridges that span the Neva. We watched the them opening from Vasilievsky Island- where you can see almost all of them at once. The only problem was that we don't live on Vasilievsky Island, so once the bridge to our home went up we were stuck. The good news is that they lowered our bridge again 3:00 am and we daintily crossed back over and went home. I crawled into bed at about 3:30 am, and right after my head hit the pillow, it was 7:30 am and time for me to get up and volunteer at the hospital. I have included a picture of one of the smaller bridges for your enjoyment.
See you next week!

Old Church. Old Hospital. New Picnic.

This Saturday we had a "picnic" with some young members on one of the many St. Petersburg islands. It was a nice sunny day- a little bit chilly because of the wind- but still a great day. The island was far enough out of the city so that it was green and nature-esque. There was a nice blend of pine trees, natural grass and beautiful scenery. We set up camp right next to a little lake. We threw the frisbee around, played games and some of the Russians even showed me how to make my very own wreath with just dandelions! That's the yellow thing on my head in the picture. I'm going to make one for Rachel when I get home.
Church has been great. I always attend the same, little, out-of-town branch. The branch president is a missionary and was transferred to the city only a week before we arrived. He and his companion have been working hard to bring less-active members to Church. That fact, combined with the four energetic American students attending the branch, has helped bring up the excitement level a little bit. Church was great on Sunday. It was fast and testimony meeting and there were about 18 people present. After the branch president shared his testimony and opened up the time for testimonies, there was a silent gap. No one was getting up. I was just starting to collect my thoughts when I was shoved hard from behind. When that didn't get me moving, my "coach," one of the local old ladies, kept pushing me and start saying to me "Onward Serbia, Onward!" I think it was loud enough so that a passerby walking outside near our little chapel could hear it. So, I decided to get up and bear my testimony. The rest of the students and some members all followed (including my "coach"). That meeting, as well as the rest of Church, was great.
My volunteering is going well. I am now all outfitted with scrubs and little nurse-shoes. I "work" Mondays and Tuesdays, but only for a few hours each day. I work in the "Anesthesiology, Reanimiation and Intensive Therapy Ward" of the "Municipal Geriatric Hospital." That means that all of the patients in our ward are in pretty bad shape. I clean, retrieve medications and supplies, feed the patients, wheel them on stretchers to get X-rays, etc.Russian healthcare is interesting- It's not as bad as any of the horror stories you've probably heard, but there's no way it would ever in a million years even proximate any healthcare facility I've seen in the United States. It's a great experience though, and I have been surprised by how much I enjoy it. My favorite thing is being with the patients- they're wonderful.

Good News

After some unsuccessfull (and unpleasant) attempts, I secured a volunteer position at a hospital. It's a geriatric hospital about a 15 minute walk away from where I live. I'll be helping out in the post-surgery/recovery area, where I can help out by moving people and items around. It looks to be fun. I'll include more info when I have it.

A Birthday, Fireworks, and "Cats and Dogs"

Sunday was the 304th birthday of St. Petersburg, so there were lots of celebrations both Saturday and Sunday. After classes Saturday afternoon (yes we have class on Saturday), we all watched a parade on Nevsky Prospekt, the main boulevard. There were tons of people, and the sun was shining but we all had a good time. Well, maybe not all of us. One girl in the group had her camera stolen right out of her pocket.
The weather was great. The city even guaranteed good weather. Our professor told us that, in the event of bad weather, they would send up some airplanes to spray antimony into the air. That would apparently scatter the clouds, or prevent precipitation. In any case, their plan seemed to work until about three hours into the parade when clouds suddenly appeared and then it started pouring. It was coming down at an amazing rate. We would have gotten drenched, but out of my backpack I pulled the handy little umbrella my mom made me take to Russia (thanks Mom!). Then as quickly as the rain started about six people, only some of which I knew, rushed to me to get under my umbrella. I've never had so many people so anxious to be close to me!
Sunday was great too. Our landlady and her son had to be out of town until 9:00pm, which meant that we couldn't come home from Church until then. That meant we had a lot of time to kill between 2:00pm and 9:00pm. After church James and I had lunch with two other students who attend our branch. We decided to eat at Lenin Square, under the shadow of a huge Lenin statue identical to the one in the picture above (That statue is somewhere else). The weather had gotten sunny again by Sunday. Oh yeah, and it was hotter too. The city birthday celebrations were even bigger on Sunday than the day before, so there were tons of people, vendors and folklore dancers out at Lenin Square.
At about 5:00pm, the other students exhaustedly left for home. That blessed James and me with the opportunity to wander the hot, muggy streets for the next four hours. We were tired, but got to see a lot of cool things. The city started its fireworks show over the Neva river right as we were crossing it, so we got a great view. The show took place in bright daylight, which struck me as strange until I realized that if they wanted to wait until dark for the fireworks, then they wouldn't be able to start until about 2:00 or 3:00am. Now that I think about it, I don't think I've seen any nighttime-type darkness at all since I've been here. I go to bed and it's light. I wake up and it's light. Crazy.