Long, Long Overdue

So it's been, what? A month? Well, I'm alive everyone! Just in case you wanted to know. I'm also not in St. Petersberg anymore, I'm in Nizhny Novgorod. St. Petersburg was only a five day trip before my actual program started. Since so much time has passed I'm going to separate this entry categorically. namely Food, School and, Sites. More details about other aspects of my life will be forthcoming.

Food
Since this is what typically comes out in my stories, I'll just start with this topic. I have a love/hate relationship with Russian food. Some of it is amazingly delicious, and other things are downright nasty and/or strange. Take kefir, for example. In concept it is milk that has been intentionally spoiled under specific conditions to create a smooth, creamy drink that tastes exactly like rotten milk. It is one of the more vile things that I have forced down my gullet. On the other hand, they have pelmeni, which is my favorite food that I've had thus far. They are little noodle pockets of meaty joy smothered in sauce (usually sour cream with tomato paste or mustard (all of which are very different from what we have in the States)). Also, besides kefir and a related drink called ryazhinka, Russians have really good dairy. Their milk is super tasty, their cheeses are amazing, and their ice cream is out of this world good (not as good as Italian gelato, but much creamier that most of what we have). Bread is also a fun thing to explore here. Fresh black bread with a big bowl of cheese soup is something I will probably dream about when I go home. So, what are the downsides? Russians don't really mind leaving food or dairy sitting on the counter for hours or even days at a time, so I sometimes come away from a meal with a sour stomach. To wrap up this section, let me tell you about candy!! Russian candy is far, far superior to that of  the U.S.. Imagine with me, if you will, a Snickers bar, but instead of peanuts, hazelnuts! It is the holy matrimony of Ferrero Rocher and Snickers, and is now my favorite candy bar of all time (and it is an actual variety of Snickers that they only have here). A similar candy bar is the Cinnamon and Anise Twix, made in Russia. My suggestion is that we bombard the Mars Candy Company to make them available in the States.

School
 The university I'm attending here in Nizhny is called the Higher School of Economics. I have about 5 and a half hours of class each day covering Russian grammar, phonetics, history, culture, and politics along with a language practice course. The teachers are all native Russians, save the BYU professor who is our program's director. The teachers are also all really really nice and classes are mostly very fun and informative. I have learned a lot thus far and I intend to apply myself a lot during my remaining month. Coming here, I had an OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview) score of "Intermediate Mid" Meaning that with a lot of pauses and explanations, I can understand or convey most anything I would want to. My not-so-tentative goal to go up two levels and reach "Advanced-Low" I feel like I've already made a lot of progress already.


Sites
St. Petersberg was absolutely amazing! We tried to see everything in the 5 days that we were there and we didn't even come close. We went to the most famous sites, of course, my favorite of which was the Hermitage Museum. This place is almost beyond words. You walk down hallways of imamaculately carved walls and inlayed floors while gazing at art by people you've only read about in textbooks. Two full rooms of Picasso, some Da Vinci, some Michelangelo along with  tons that I've never heard of. My favorites were a room full of Medieval armaments and another with cuneiform tablets from Sumeria (for those who don't know, cuneiform is one of the earliest forms of writing). We also went to the Chapel of the Spilled Blood which is like the dark twin to St. Basil's in Russia; it looks much the same, but with a darker coloration.

                                     
Most of the other sites we saw in St. P were related to Dostoevsky, because Matisse, one of the students who was with me, is a HUGE fan of his works. From St. Petersberg we took a night train to Moscow to meet up with our group. This was a really fun experience; we rode 2nd class were thankfully able to get some sleep before what turned out to be a really long day. In P-berg we had gotten a good grasp of the metro system (which is one of the deepest in the world), but the Moscow metro is an entirely different animal. We decided to just keep is simple and go to a park for the many hours that we needed to wait for everyone to fly in. Just about then, we discovered a problem. Derek, the other student who came early, realized that he had left his $200 pendant on the train... So, we got on the metro and went back to the train station. After some rusty and broken conversations in Russian, we finally got directions to where be needed to go, which happened to be right out onto the railroad tracks. We walked, un-escorted mind you, up the tracks to the train yards where we found Victor. Victor then led us to a train engine, which we then got on and rode a bit more up the tracks. He then pointed out our train and left us to our own devices. The entire situation was pretty surreal, but after talking to some gruff Russians on the train's cleaning crew, we actually did get the pendant back!
       
This is turning into a huge entry...Oh well! Here in Nizhny, we have also been really busy going to museums and churches, but we've mostly been to school and back home to do homework. We did however go to a city called Kazan which is in Tartarstan, which is a republic that joined the Russian Federation. There, I saw the most beautiful Mosque that I've ever seen .

 We also got to learn more about Muslim culture in Russia. The mosque is actually in Kazan's kremlin alongside a Russian Orthodox Cathedral. The entire trip was really interesting, especially the train ride, which was 3rd class (a must do for a true Russian cultural experience!)

Well, this is a really long entry, I hope that you all enjoyed (and sorry Mom, for not having done it sooner...much sooner). I also hope you are all doing well; it'd be fun to hear from you! If you have any questions, please ask! До следушего!