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| Meaghan Bernard and Rebecca Lewicki in front of the Lenin statue at the Finland bus station. (Jodie Church Photo) |
Exchange students Rebecca Lewicki, Jodie Church and Meaghan Bernard send messages and photos from St. Petersburg, where they are participating in Dalhousie's Intensive Russian Program.
Exchange participants Rebecca Lewicki, a third-year Bachelor of Science student from Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia; Jodie Church, a transfer student from Balmertown, Ontario, who is in the first year of a Bachelor of Arts; and Meaghan Bernard, a third-year Bachelor of Arts student hailing from Sackville, Nova Scotia are adapting to life in Russia.
Rebecca Lewicki writes:
"Things here are going well, the weather continues to smile upon us. Some days the wind may be chilly or the air really damp and cold, but we've only had a bit of snow so whatever, it is much better than it was in Halifax before I left! The one thing that is constant here is the grey sky. Once and a while the sun breaks through, ironically that is usually the day I have slept in until 2 p.m. and have missed most of it!
Now that I've been here for a couple of weeks, I am accumulating hilarious stories.
A funny thing was going to the Hermitage and setting off the alarm system. I was with another Canadian in our group,checking it out, and I saw this scepter on the wall with a bull's head on it. I pointed at it and said something like "Man that would be cool to have lying around" and suddenly this high-pitched alarm starts going off. I guess my hand crossed the motion sensor when I pointed. Leave it to me to go to one of the most amazing and classy museums in the world and then cause trouble. The Hermitage is so big, I was there for a couple of hours and I think I'll have to go back a few more times to see the rest. You can only handle so much before you get overwhelmed with information.
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| Meaghan Bernard at The Hermitage. (Jodie Church Photo) | ||
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I am still getting used to the money here. Carrying around thousand rouble notes makes me feel really rich, and it always catches me off guard when I read the price of something and have to remind myself that it's not in dollars, it's in roubles. (Otherwise I would have to stop buying 50 dollar lattes!) The streets downtown are full of vendors - ice cream, mystery meats, drinks (including alcohol since it's fine to drink in public here), babushkas selling hats and mittens, artists selling their paintings, just tons of stuff. The best Russian food I have discovered are blini, sort of like stuffed crepes. But no one that I know of in Canada makes caviar crepes.
Something that I'm excited about is that I have tickets to Swan Lake and Madama Butterfly. Both the ballet and the opera will be performed at the Mirinsky Theatre, I am looking forward to them a lot! I will have to figure out how to look as classy as the other people here (miracles can happen). Russians here are usually dressed up, no occasion needed, let alone to go to the Mirinksy!
Since my computer time at Cafe Makc is about to run out in 59 seconds, I'd better sign off!"
Jodie Church writes:
"Well, we've been here in St. Petersburg for almost three weeks already, the time has definitely flown! The first few days it felt like I had been here forever, having been here already and knowing my way around quite well, but now I find myself wondering where the time has gone. I try to judge how things are going by how my trip was at this point when I was in Moscow ... some days are good, and others I get frustrated or tired, but it's to be expected.
On Wednesday, all of us were having a difficult day...classes weren't being understood, fatigue had kind of sunk in, so after class Meaghan and I went to a cafe which we have been frequenting one metro stop from our residence on Vasilievsky Island just to relax and have a cup of tea. The waitresses have started recognizing us, and have always been quite nice. This time though, our waitress decided to strike up a conversation with us, telling us how we had good accents, asking us where we were from, etc. It was exactly what we needed to hear after a hard day.
Immediately we felt better about ourselves, and particularly our Russian capabilities. The next day, while in the grocery store, an older lady asked for our help in reading the label on a bottle of ketchup (she wanted to know if it was sweetened or not, I'm guessing her eyesight wasn't too good). After we helped her find what she wanted she asked where we were from and fondly patted us on the arm, saying "oh, devushki" (oh, girls). It was nice to be able to do something so small.
Despite the fact that we have been here for three weeks, adventures are still a part of daily life. Today, on our way to an internet cafe (where I'm now typing this), we got on a bus that SAID it was going to Nevsky Prospekt, however, it's route had changed - but, not the sign!
We ended up on the Petrograd side, not far from Finland Station. We had time to kill so we weren't upset, laughed it off with some women on the bus, and took the opportunity to take some pictures of the Lenin statue in front of the station. I'm sure there'll be many more adventures like this to come, the possibilities are endless!"