Russia

I've been thinking for two days now what to write in this blog about our Russia trip. I still really have no idea what to say about it because there was just so much that we experienced and saw. I can say that this trip has definitely been one of my favorites of the semester. I remember one of the first facts I learned was that St Petersburg is actually made up of 42 islands. I had always assumed that St Petersburg was a mainland city, and realized right away that I had so much to learn about it. I also learned on this trip that the movie Anastasia is not real. That she was actually shot and put in acid, then thrown down a mine shaft with the rest of her family. And peasants did not actually sing and dance in the street, but died in the street from hunger instead. And Kathleen happily ruined my fairy tale by drilling this into my head.. sound effects and all.
My favorite places that we went were the Yusupov Palace and the State Russian Museum. In the Yusupov Palace I enjoyed seeing how a true royal family lived on a daily bases, and was quite blown away when I learned that this included a private theater located just downstairs. I also learned that you cannot touch the authentic velvet upholstery in the theater.
The State Russian Museum housed the works of Russian artists. Many of these artists are not well known, and I had never heard of or seen many of the things there. This art turned out to be my favorite, however. Even over the grand collections in the Hermitage of world renown artists. I especially loved the enormous narrative paintings. You could stand in front of one and feel as if you were seeing the actual event take place. These were different from the usual ceremonial and proper depictions of history.
The large paintings seemed to fit right in with the scale of St Petersburg. Everything was so big. The size and grandioseness of the city was overwhelming, but in an exciting and invigorating way. Sometimes it felt as if we had stepped into a story. Not everthing was so enchanting though. The food and bathrooms made me miss dearly what I have in Estonia. Twice I went to the WC and opened the stall door to find a hole in the ground. One place was a museum, and the other was at the bus station. In both places I would have thought that they would have complete facilities. And like I said, the food wasn't wonderful either. We found the secret to why Russian girls are so skinny. I did like the caramel ice cream, but other than that I'm glad Moma Roma was just down the street to take care of us.
The people were also different in Russia. I found that, compared to Estonia, people interact much more assertively and aggressively. Walking down the street or through a store in Russia, I would have people meet me eye to eye, and I felt that in a way, I must return the look to avoid showing weakness or suspicion. In Estonia if I meet someone in the eye in public, we both look away. After returning from Russia, I realized just how much I've adapted and changed my behavior to mimic that of Estonians in order to fit in here. To make a generalization, I feel that the way I act in public here in Estonia is almost one of demure shyness in comparison to interaction in America or Russia. Estonians have a reserved meekness about them.

Like I said, there is so much that happened during our trip. I think I would write a small travel book if I talked about everything. At the beginning of this semester I knew very little about Europe and its history, especially Eastern Europe. I also knew very little about Russian hisory. But being able to see places and monuments of actual history and events, I learned so much in just a short 5 days. Russia no longer seems so strange and far off.