Stronger than me

Poor Amy. I heard this song outside an Irish pub on my street on my last night out in St. Petersburg. 

Beyond symbolic, beyond beautiful.

The Last Post in Russia

Well, it's about time to head home to the states. I'd like to leave you, my faithful readers (hah), with one of my final impressions of Russia, which I predict will remain with me for many years to come:

"Ах, Джейк!" сказала Брет, "Как бы нам хорошо было вместе." 

..."Да," сказал я, "Этим можно утешаться, правда?"

Graffiti Collection

I've picked up the habit of collecting graffiti. Here's a look at some of my recent favorites from around St. Petersburg:

Who doesn't?

"Rap Sucks...Rock 'n' roll!"

This one was around the corner from one of Lenin with a swastika on his forehead =Awkward.

Suck it, skinheads!

I've also seen a lot of graffiti advertisements which I hate. Vandalizing buildings that have survived a revolution, the siege of Leningrad, and the collapse of the Soviet Union for your commercial interests is a dick move. Do what everyone else here does, and hire a babushka to push fliers onto the masses.

Never Thought I'd See This

GRASS!!!

Today I saw grass for the first time since January. It's a  (post-)St. Patrick's Day miracle! 

Welcome to the Neighborhood

I'm digging the graffiti of the Sovyetskayas (my hood):

Insert poem about unrequited love and mortality here

Definitely caused a setback in overcoming  my fear of clowns

Russian Cinema

While looking through a bin of movies at a bookstore today I came across several promising titles dubbed into Russian, including this beauty:

Not only was I pleased to know that Russians like a J-Lo flick as much as I do, but I really enjoyed the irony of the film's translated title, "План Б" (that's Plan B in Cyrillic, Eva). Maybe if whoever came up with such a terrible idea for a movie had had some EC nobody (Russians included) would have to sit through such a shitty movie (actually, I never saw it).

Russian Literature

Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, and Nabokov are so passé. My хозяйка (host mother) loves: 

For those of you who don't read Cyrillic (or are too lazy to), that would be Danielle Steel's The Bachelors' Club. 


 Personally, I'd rather find a Jackie Collins while I'm here.

I have arrived

Here's the DL on the short time I've spent in St. Petersburg:

St. Petersburg = Winter Wonderland (if WW's include a lot of slush and ice)

Number of times I've looked foolish in front of Russians = too many to count

My neighborhood = nice; I live on Soviet Street (the 8th of 9 Soviet Streets actually), just off the Square of the Proletariat Dictatorship, very close to the city center and very convenient for nightlife

My school = originally a convent built by Tsarina Elizabeth; converted into a girls' school by Catherine the Great; housed Lenin's government during the 1917 Revolution (NBD)

My apartment building= sketchy (looks kinda like Jimmy's (Bobby DeNiro) warehouse in Goodfellas where he freaks Karen out)

My apartment = Soviet-retro chic

My host parents (Irina and Yuri)= Soviet-retro chic; she talks to the food while she's cooking ("Where are you my cup?" "What are you doing my macaroni?"), and he wears wife-beaters and loves television; she works at Peter and Paul Fortress and he's a musician.

My host cats = BAMFS, except not really, because Sonya is a bitch and Serekshka (Irina calls him her boyfriend) is afraid of me, maybe because I accidently locked him in my room for 30 mintues; really beautiful though

The food: not as bad as expected, but there is a lot of it. For my first meal with my homestay family I had soup (potato with chicken), pasta and meat (I have no idea what kind of meat-Irina just said "meat") and tea; we had blini and coffee (pancakes) for breakfast. Irina gives me so much food; what I ate for dinner was probably the equivalent of what I normally eat for an entire day.

And now, what you really want, pics:

 The airport

 Alex seems excited to be in Russia (he's in front of St. Isaac's Cathedral, btw)

Tsar Nicolas the First 

 One of the Rostral Columns

 The Winter Palace (part of the Hertimage): really, really amazing!

I saw some of the Dutch and Flemish galleries, and they were great.

I haven't been to the Modern galleries yet, but I plan to soon

Smolnyy Cathedral (where my school is)
side note: this was on a sunny day (very rare and very beautiful) in St. Petersburg

 School Again

School (Are you jealous yet?)

Гуф Респект (Guf Respect)

I've been exploring Russian music, and according to MTV Russia, this is very popular:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bPinvBrDQU

Obligatory Pre-departure Post

Привет товарищи! (Hey Comrades!)

Just wanted to get this thing set up before I left. I still have a ton to buy and organize and pack, but none of that merits its own post, so I'll just leave you some valuable phrases from my book of dirty Russian:

Хай всем нормальным пиплам! (Shout out to all the cool peeps in the house!)
Я ищу себе спонсора. (I'm looking for a sugar daddy.)
Печень болит. (My liver hurts.)
Пойдём бухнём! (Let's get hammered!)

Hopefully by the next post I'll be in Санкт-Петербург (St. Petersburg)!


-Colleen

Глаза боятся, а руки делают.