Alvaro's Blog

Today went like most other days, in the morning that is. I woke up, showered, …, and eventually finished history class. After that, I walked to the bus stop and took a bus that took me near the Kremlin. After that, I walked for 10-15 minutes to get to the job site. It is an archaeological dig. When I got there, I walked down to where the people were, stood there, and had a confused look. Soon there was two people talking to me. One of them was sort of like a supervisor, and the other one spoke English. He explained to me what to do, have me a little shovel, a bucket, and a small wooden stool. My job was to clean a large piece of wood and it’s surroundings. I would get the dirt off, make sure there wasn’t anything interesting in it, such as bones or pottery, and put it (the dirt) in the bucket. There was a box were we put the other stuff.

I got there around 3pm and worked until 6:15pm with a few 10 minute breaks. They didn’t really explain very much how exactly I was supposed to be digging, but oh well, if I break something…. For my first day, I think I did ok. I found some small bones, and a bigger one that was either a jawbone or very large tooth. I asked the boss lady what it was and she kept pointing at her teeth, so I think that’s what it was.

After work, I walked another 10-15 minutes to the bus stop and got on a bus home. When I got here, the house was empty, which is a first. I went on the computer for a little and then started writing this. Then the family got back from who knows where and told me to eat dinner. I had some nice pilmini, which are like the things in wonton soup, which I really like. Then I had some cold something and later was given a drink with a bunch of stuff in it. I wish I knew what it all was, it definitely does not look good, but always ends up tasting ok or pretty good.
Now I have to do my homework…

Today was not very interesting, but it was not very boring either. After I woke up and had breakfast, I did some of my homework for class and decided to go out. While waiting for the bus, some old lady started speaking to me and making strange gestures with her hand. I told her I did not understand her, but she kept talking. Once I got on the bust, she followed, sat down, and started speaking to half the people on the bus, it was quite strange. After the bust ride, I ended up in a big shopping center. I walked around for a while and noticed 90% of the stores were womens clothing. I found a music/movie/books store and spent some time there. I bought a book and some discs. I also managed to make the cashier lady angry. The ATM only gave me 1000 ruble bills, and she kept asking if I had smaller ones, I said no a few times until she took it and walked away. She came back with my change and a not very happy face. Oh well, I can’t make everyone happy… I then walked around some more trying to find the place where I entered so I could leave and ended up in a huge furniture store. I never realized how long the mall was, and the stupid furniture store was just as long. Once I found my way out, I bought a soda and headed back home.

When I arrived, the grandma asked me where I had been and what I had in my hand. I told her I went to the store and bought a book and some disks. That wasn’t enough information, she followed me into my room and asked to see exactly what I had bought. Now I just say I’m going outside, and not exactly where I am going. I doubt it will help though.

After lunch, I watched part of a Russian soccer game on tv, talked to my parents on the computer, and decided I was bored again. I got on another bus and went to another shopping place I had not been to. This one was four stories tall (the other was three) but again, a bunch of female clothing stores. After seeing that, I got out and got on another bus, which took me close to the Kremlin. I walked around the park, bought some ice cream, walked over the river, walked back, walked some more, etc… Around 8:30pm I decided to head back. When I got in the bus, I saw one of the girls I met the a few weeks ago when I visited the English class. She was with a friend, so we didn’t really talk, but it was nice to see someone I knew. Now I’m back home and probably going to sleep soon. Maybe tomorrow will be more eventful.

Today I went to a town whose name translates to Old Russia. I think the main reason it is famous is because the house of famous writer, Dostoevsky, is there. The house is now a museum and we walked around it with a lady explaining what everything was. After the house, we went to a small church with many paintings. We didn’t spend a lot of time there so we went to a restaurant to get food. Maybe all this happened in a different order, I can’t seem to remember what I did this morning…
After lunch, went to a cemetery where German soldiers from WWII are buried. This was a very interesting site, I definitely did not expect to see something like it in Russia. It is located on the shore of Ilmen lake, so we walked down to the beach and took some pictures. After that, we got back on the bus and headed home. I think the ride was about an hour an a half, but I don’t really remember well.
Once in Novgorod, we got some ice cream, hung out for a while, then I headed home. I still don’t know if I am going to do anything else tonight, but I have a feeling I won’t.

St. Petersburg was awesome! I just got back from four days over there, and I am very satisfied with what I saw.

On Thursday I woke up around 6am to make the 8am train to St. Petersburg. The train ride was about 3 hours long, so it was not bad at all. Once we arrived, we took a bus to our hotel, which was right on Nevsky Prospect, which is the main street where many nice things are. After that we went to the Saviour on the Blood cathedral, which is extremely colorful on the outside and very fancy on the inside. After that we went…. actually, I don’t remember, so I’ll just go to the next day.

Friday was probably the longest day. I think we went to St. Isaac cathedral in the morning. Its dome is 100m high, which is pretty incredible when you are standing right under it. There were some statues that stood about 12m tall, but since they were at the top of the dome, they seemed minuscule. We got to climb on top of the cathedral and got some pretty cool views and pictures (Which I will probably post when I get back to Miami.) We then went to the Hermitage, which I think is one of the largest museums in the world. The Hermitage used to be the winter palace for the Tsars. If I remember correctly, the museum has around 3.5 million pieces of art, but it only displays like 3% of that at a time, it is incredible. We spent a long time in there, walking from exhibit to exhibit, seeing the different rooms in the palace, etc… After the Hermitage, we had lunch, went back to the hotel, and took a long nap. We then went to see the ballet “Swans Lake”. I had never seen a ballet in my life, and I did not really enjoy the first two acts because I had no idea what was going on. The music was amazing though, there were many musicians and the conductor playing right in front of the theater, just like it used to be in old plays. After the second act, a friend let me read the program and I understood the story, once I did, I really enjoyed the rest of it.
The ballet ended around 10:30pm and five of us decided to go somewhere before we headed back. A friend wanted to go to this pub (I forget the name of it.) which took us a long time to find, even though it was right in front of us. We ordered some drinks (and a club sandwich for myself) and talked for a while. There was three Russian girls in the table next to us, and they kept looking at one of the guys in our table, eventually they threw a napkin with stuff written on it, so we went over to their table. One of them spoke English very well, another spoke very little, and the third one didn’t speak any at all. We had a lot of fun speaking in English and Russian and around 3am decided to go somewhere. We walked around in circles for a while until we got to a night club, since it was 3:30am and half of the people didn’t want to go in, we headed back towards our hotel. Around 4am I was tired and decided to call it a night and go to sleep, everyone else went to McDonalds.

The next morning I woke up at 7:55am, I don’t know why I did; my internal clock needs some serious repairs. Around 10am we headed for the docks and got in a really futuristic looking boat. It was one of those hydrofoils that glide above the water when it is going fast. This took us to the Peterhoff, or Summer palace. This palace has hundreds of beautiful fountains, some that shoot over 20m high, but the most amazing thing is that they are purely gravity powered. There are no water pumps anywhere, I was really happy to see such an interesting thing that was built over a hundred years ago. We walked around the palace and parks for a while and later headed back. We got on the wrong boat and ended up somewhere different than where we had left earlier. Fortunately, there was a good restaurant nearby and we got some great Russian food. We then took the subway back to our area. The subway was probably the cleanest part of the city. There was not a single graffiti on the wall, no trash on the floor, there are statues and fancy lamps on the stations, it was very cool. We then took another long nap and went to a Mexican restaurant. Another unexpected thing, this Mexican restaurant was better than any Mexican restaurants I have been to in the USA! There was live music and even a couple that danced as a show. The food was great, the drinks were great, and the atmosphere was awesome. In the table next to us was a group of about 20 Russian men and women. I’m not sure who they were, but they wore very nice (expensive) clothes and had several bodyguards outside of the restaurant. They seemed to have a lot of fun taking pictures of themselves wearing sombreros.
Around midnight, there was a fountain/light/laser show in the middle of the river. I don’t think I have ever seen anything like it. There was very loud music playing, and massive fountains lit with laser and colored lights playing along with it.

Today (Sunday) we walked around the city just for fun. We went to a small market, a bookstore, a military antique store (which was way too expensive), rode the subway, and headed back to the hotel. Around 4:30 we got on a bus to the train station, got on the train, and headed back to Novgorod.
I wish I could write more, but I’m tired and I have school tomorrow, so that’s it for today.

I have not had much time to relax since 9am this morning. It feels good to finish the day.
I did the usual this morning and got to school around 8:25am. I sat on a bench outside and listened to music until class started at 9. Our teacher had to leave at 10am and left us some work to do for an hour. In the third hour, we sat in the more advanced class with another teacher and tried to learn some stuff. I think I did learn though.

After lunch, I had history for an hour and a half, we had to cut it short because we had to leave early to go catch a bus. We went to a small church like place where a man named Vladimir works. He is a master birch bark weaver (His title is something like that.) and is working in his doctorate. He was nice enough to take three hours to teach us how to make some really neat baskets. Making the basket was easier than I thought, but it takes patience and time. I am not a very patient person, and I had to finish in two hours because I was going to go to a show at 7pm and had to be home at 6pm. I finished around 5:15pm and headed out. As usual, I made a few wrong turns and decided to walk halfway home. I took a few buses that took me nowhere useful and walked some more. The funny thing is, I knew where I was, but being me, I figured out a way to take the longest possible route without meaning to.
I finally got home around 6:05pm had a quick lunch, and headed out. We got to the theater around 6:55pm, so it was ok.

I think the play is called Анаморфозы Шута, but maybe not. It has something to do with Salvador Dali, and it is a fantasy. There was no speaking in the play, which is good, because if there was, it would be in Russian. I still didn’t understand much, oh well. It was pretty cool though.

Tomorrow morning I am leaving to St. Petersburg, I don’t feel like carrying my laptop, so no blog posts until Sunday night/Monday. I’m tired.

Yesterday wasn’t very interesting so I didn’t feel like writing something. I walked around the Kremlin and that’s pretty much all that is interesting.

Today has been more fun. I got up early, showered, had breakfast, and headed to class. The bus I got on was extremely packed, I went in the front-most door and ended up standing pretty close to the windshield, right next to the driver. It wasn’t a problem until he started asking me to move around so he could see if there were any cars coming in an intersection. The second bus wasn’t nearly as full and I actually got to sit down.

Russian class was interesting too because we got a new teacher. Our original teacher had something to do this week, so she will be out. I learned some more new things about the language, which I always enjoy. After that we had our first Russian History class. Today we only covered a basic overview of the whole culture and why Russians are the way they are. I also learned some other cool things, I didn’t know that Russians had gone all the way down from Alaska to California! I guess I should have payed attention in world history class a long time ago, not that I know if they covered that or not…

After class I came back home, had some good lunch, and did my homework. I later went on the computer and checked my email. I was extremely happy to see that some of my new Russian friends had sent me emails. One of the emails was completely in Russian, so it took me a few minutes to translate everything and figure out what they were telling me. I think I understood most of it, but I am not sure. I tried to reply to the email in Russian too, I hope I didn’t screw up too bad. I also hope I get to see them again, they all seemed really nice.

Oh, I also found out I am going to St. Petersburg on Thursday, instead of Saturday, which was nice to hear. I also found out that I am starting my internship on Monday! I still don’t know where I will be working, so that’s strange, but I’ll figure it out…

No ideas for a title of todays post…

It has been raining all day, and it’s starting to get annoying. Today I woke up relatively late (for my standards) around 8:30am. I showered, had breakfast, did some homework, and read a magazine. Around 4pm, after we had lunch, I called my parents, who are now in NYC. They flew back from Europe yesterday, I hadn’t called since I left the USA.

I then watched part of a French film dubbed in Russian, I think it was ok, but I had no idea what was going on. I also went out to a small shopping place where I saw a music store. I bought three CD’s, each one 80 rubles, which is less than $4. The funny thing is that they have the songs in mp3, and each CD has 200 songs. I guess the royalty rates here in Russia are very low, it’s not like the place was sketchy or anything, they had the regular type of cd’s too.

I went to a bookstore and bought two children’s books for handwriting in Russian. They both teach you how to write in script, they have arrows to show how to write each letter and all that stuff. Oh yeah, and it was raining when I left home. It rained on the way to the bus stop, on the way to the shopping thing, on the way to the bookstore, on the way back, etc… On they way back I had to run to catch a bus, I didn’t really care that there was a deep puddle in my way to the bus, now that I look back, I should have missed the bus. I hate having wet jeans.

Once back, I watched a soccer game on tv and ate some snacks. I am starting to feel tired, if I don’t find something to do soon, I’m going to fall asleep.

I don’t think I am getting enough sleep. Yesterday I almost didn’t go to talk with the English class because I was taking a nap. I was extremely tired throughout yesterday and ended up going to sleep late. Today I woke up early again to go to school. I didn’t have as hard a time staying up as yesterday, but its still annoying.

Today I did not have art class, so I headed home right after Russian class around 12:30pm. As soon as I got home, I fell asleep. I was later woken up to have lunch, after that, sleep again. Around 5 or 6 I woke up again. I did some homework, spent some time on the computer, and had dinner. As usual, I learned a few new words during my dinner conversations, and was quizzed on the ones I am supposed to know, which I always forget. It is 10:30pm as I write this, the sun is still out, but I am still tired. I think I’m going to go to bed early today so I can enjoy the day tomorrow. I’m not sure what I will do, but I sure will have a better time if I am not tired.

I am very tired so I won’t write too much…

Today was awesome. For the first time my alarm woke me up, every other day I woke up before it went off, which means I was really tired. I went to class and struggled because I was very tired. I finished my painting in the art class (Which was the last art class of the trip) and later went home.
I tried doing some homework, but my efforts were futile. I lay in bed and fell asleep instantly, which almost never happens. I set my alarm at 4:50pm so I could get up and catch a bus around 5pm. When the alarm went off, I must have turned it off because my mom woke me up around 5:15 to ask me if I was supposed to be somewhere. So I ran off and got in the bus.

The reason I left is because my Russian language teacher also teaches an English class at night, and she wanted me and a friend to meet her class so they could practice English. I got there in time, met with my teacher and friend, and walked to the school. Once people arrived, we started speaking in English and Russian. The class would ask us questions in English and we would answer either in Russian or English. I had a lot of fun. After an hour or so, a guy from Peru (who was teaching Spanish in the adjacent classroom) came in and asked if I would go do the same in his Spanish class. I asked them questions in Spanish and they would answer in Spanish as well. After a few minutes of that, I got back to the English class. The teacher was teaching the final lesson of the year, so I just sat in and listened. Two women sitting next to me wrote a note in English asking if I wanted to go to a Cafe after class, and of course I sad yes. After class, a group of seven students, myself, and the teacher went to a nice place right next to the river. We communicated as well as we could trying not to ask for too many translations by the teacher, it was a very educational experience, but it was much more fun than education. After who knows how long, I took a taxi with three of the students that live very close, they walked me to the apartment and said goodbye. I have their emails so we can keep in contact, now I can say I have my new Russian friends! The only Russian people I knew well were my host family and a few of the people that organize the program. Hopefully I will see my friends again, I am really looking forward to it.

As I said before, I am extremely tired and have school tomorrow, maybe I will write more then.