Orientation-ing

Since my last post, I have relocated from one snow-covered metropolis to another, halfway across the world. Wednesday was airport day, as I took a group flight with 11 other students in the program to St. Petersburg via Helsinki. As we arrived at Pulkovo Airport at around 1:30 local time (or 4:30 AM for my biological clock), we passed through a surprisingly easy customs process—I had unfounded fears of a Soviet-style bureaucratic nightmare—and met up with our on-site program coordinators. Then a 40-minute bus ride took us into the city and to the hotel where we’d be staying for the next two nights. 

So—first impressions of St. Petersburg? Well, as we first got on the highway toward the city, I was struck by how Westernized the city’s outskirts were. Of course, in this day and age no one should be surprised by the reach of globalization, especially in a city like Petersburg that has always been so Western-oriented. Still, there was something jarring to me about seeing so many familiar corporations and franchises—Shell, Mercedes, KFC, Pizza Hut, Quiznos, and many more—represented in a country that once stood as the world’s main opposition to capitalism. But in any case, I had fun reading the signs and advertisements written in Cyrilic and noting the little Russian details that surrounded them, as babushkas strolled in parks wearing the distinctive shapkas and fur coats familiar to anyone’s vision of a Russian. 

As we approached the city’s center, Petersburg’s Russian-ness became all the more clear, as we drove past the massive Lenin statue in Victory Square and countless Orthodox churches. After checking in to our hotel, we were treated to an early dinner of beef stroganoff accompanied by a delicious salad, soup and desert.

Over the past few days we’ve had a lot of meals like this, sampling many staples of Russian cuisine during the orientation period—and on the program’s dime, no less. Orientation is, by its nature, a very regimented process, so as a group we’ve been shepherded from one info session to another detailing every possible aspect of our lives here this semester, including everything that could possibly go wrong. It’s a process that is exciting but sometimes overwhelming, especially when we’re talking about LGBT issues in Russia, or what to do if we are detained by police, or simply the process of navigating Petersburg through public transportation. In between these sessions (and our delicious meals) we have only explored our immediate surroundings in Petersburg, with the exception of a bus tour on Friday that gave me a sense of the city’s geography and its grandeur for the first time. (Check out some blurry, clearly-taken-from-a-bus-window photos below).

Today, though, we took the next step by moving in with our host families. Luckily for me, I was assigned to a family that lives within walking distance of Smolny College, where I’ll be studying. My two host parents are both in their 50s, and they currently live with two of their daughters, their son-in-law, and two little granddaughters: 3 year-old Ksenya and 4 month-old Nastya. From our first conversations, and the delicious dinner I just ate, it seems that I have really lucked out in my host family assignment—everyone has been friendly, engaging, and genuinely interested in what I have to say and where I’m from (the Boston picture book I gave them as a gift has been a big hit so far).

At the same time, I have never heard Russian spoken so fast, and I have never felt more self-conscious in a language! But I know that this language barrier is an inevitable part of the process, and hopefully by the end of the semester I’ll be able to carry on in conversation with much more confidence.

For now, though, I’ll sign off. On tomorrow’s agenda: an excursion to the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, the site of Tsar Alexander II’s execution in 1881. I’m excited to see more of the city on foot and up close, and to  settle into a routine here with my host family.

The famous statue of Peter the Great, sculpted by Etienne Maurice Falconet and immortalized by Pushkin in his poem “The Bronze Horseman.”

One of the St. Petersburg “Rostral Columns,” which surrounded the location of the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange and served as beacons overlooking the Neva.

The Hermitage/Winter Palace seen over the frozen Neva River. 

Smolny Cathedral, not to be confused with Smolny College, where I’ll be studying!

The Russian cruiser “Aurora” which saw action in the Russo-Japanese War and fired the famous “blank shot” that started the October Revolution.