just about the WORST day ever

Sunday we took a day trip to Starraya Russa and Novgorod. Starraya Russa is the town in which Dostoevsky based The Brothers Karamazov. I do not think there is any significance to Novgorod so I am not sure why we went there.

One thing that I have learned about Russians is that they have no sense of time or direction. Our bus ride was suppose to take about 2.5 hours. We left at 6:30am so that we could stand (literally) in on an Orthodox Literagy. Well, we missed that (thankfully) because the ride took us 5.5 hours. It was miserable. Russia does not have any real, paved roads. There are no lines painted to designate which side of the road you should be on so everyone just does there own thing. We almost crashed about 10 times. Due to the fact that the driver avoided these collisions, he was unable to avoid swerving. This consequence made me extremely sick.

Once we finally got to Starraya Russa we were suppose to have a tour of Dostoevsky's summer home. Hillary and I were so sick that we could not handle being inside because we were so nauseous so we walked outside for fresh air. Our plan was to sit alongside the river, but the problem was that if we stood or sat in a spot for too long, we would be eaten alive by mosquitoes. I have about twenty bites. Not sure how I got them because I was wearing pants, a sweater and boots. Moral of the story: I hate Starraya Russa.

Then we had to back track an hour to get to Novgorod. It was here that Steph and I got in trouble for laying down in the grass. Two police officers came up to us with their K-9 dog. We then walked around some bell statue for about twenty minutes, went into St. Sophia's where we were yelled at by babuschkas for who knows what reason, climbed some tower that had contemporary art and then went to dinner.

We then drove the long 5 hour drive back home.

I am ready to go back to America.

a stroll in the park...and a graveyard

Yesterday, as a class we all went to Alexander Nevsky Monastery where Dostoevsky's grave is. Our professor thought it would be a great idea to read Alyosha's final speech in The Speech at the Stone from The Brothers Karamazov. This book is my professor's favorite so he was really excited for us to be there and pay our respects to the writer, but everyone else was less than thrilled.

After we read parts of the Epilogue- Evanne, Steph, Colin and I went to Stereo Sushi where we had a delicious dinner. After that we went to get some drinks to go to the park. I had no idea that we had such a beautiful park down the street from us. You wouldn't expect such a green and tranquil place to be on the same street as abandoned buildings with graffiti.

The park has walking trails, an old amusement park with functioning rides, a horse stable, a stage and a lake. We sat down on the grass overlooking the lake and to the left of us there was a gazebo that looked exactly like the one in Pleasantville when Toby Maguire's character and his girl went to Lover's Lane. We continued to walk around the park, finding the horse stable that had a young horse. We had Somersby's in our hands, which is a cider, and the horse was eager to share with us.

Not realizing how late it was (it literally does not get dark here until 3 am) we made our way back to the university to end our day with another Disney movie...Hercules.

a Ballet and a Palace

Last night we all went out to the ballet. We saw the Russian Conservatory Ballet's Swan Lake. I am pretty sure I have talked about ballets before in my blog but in case you didn't know...going to the ballet is one of my Top 5 favorite things in the world. The music, the beauty, the grace. I love it all. Below is a clip from Tchaikovsky's beautiful masterpiece.



This morning we took a boat to a small island where the Peterhof Palace is located. The palace is architecturally very European and looks similar to a palace I saw in Vienna two years ago. This palace had numerous fountains spread out throughout the grounds. Stephanie and I walked through rows of trees and beds of tulips that were in full bloom. We also walked down to the shore and met a squirrel that climbed up our legs as if we were trees. The afternoon was sunny and beautiful and it was so relaxing to walk around outside in such a beautiful environment.

A Day Trip to Moscow

I finally got my Russian laptop today!

It has been really hard keeping up with the blog without a computer so this post will be a combination of events that have occurred over the last week and a half or so.

At the beginning of the week, the group and I went to the Mariinsky Theatre to see the opera Boris Gudonov. I must say that I am not a fan of the opera, especially when it is in Russian and it lasts 4 hours. I kid you not...the opera lasted 4 hours. It was torture. We didn't get back to the house until after midnight and then I had to pack for our trip to Moscow. I packed and got about two hours of sleep before it was time to wake up and meet Professor Contino at 5:20 am to take the subway to the train station. We took the fast train to Moscow which took close to 4 hours.

Onwards and Upwards is Dr. Contino's motto. We walked around Moscow for hours. We made it to Red Square to see Lennin's grave, St. Basil's Cathedral and the Kremlin. Inside the Kremlin we saw about five other cathedrals. I thought guided tours were bad, but you know what is worse? A guided tour in Russian that needs to be translated. After the long and tiring day, we made it to our hotel. But not after going to the wrong Renaissance Hotel first. Stephanie and I shared a room and as soon as we swiped the key through the door we got into our pj's and layed down. There were five channels in English, one of them being the Disney Channel, so we watched the Suite Life of Zack and Cody while we waited for Evanne. Once the tri-pod was reunited we ordered Heinekens and fries and watched Due Date. A perfect ending to the day.

The next day we continued walking around Red Square and went inside St. Basil's Cathedral. We went to another famous square (but I don't remember the name) bought souvenirs, ate dinner and even found a Starbucks. After that we made our way back to the train station, and then back to the university where Steph, Evanne and I ended the day with another movie...Anastasia.

RIP Laptop

Yesterday was the worst day ever. After class, my roommates and I had the afternoon to start our homework and catch up on reading. I was working on homework when I decided to take a break and bring my cup into the kitchen. I was going to just set it in the sink, but I hate when other people do that and they were piling up so I decided to wash all the dishes. I left the door to my room open because my roommate Steph was in there. She came out and offered to help with the dishes but I was already done so I told her she could wash the counter. In the span of 2 minutes someone went in our room and stole my laptop. It was so weird though because from the hallway you couldn't even see my bed. My roommate's computer were in sight/in reach from the doorway but the thief decided to take mine.
As soon as I knew it was gone, I freaked out. I had my hands on top of my head and began pacing around the room. After about 30 seconds of that, I had to just get out. I just started walking. I think it my mind I thought I was going to see the thief walking on the street with my computer in hand. I was so frustrated that my fists were curled up, ready to throw a punch. I cooled down, walked back and waited for the police to arrive. Only they didn't. So Constantine, the director of the school drove me to the Police Station. This was so super sketchy. But of course all of Russia is super sketchy. I passed by inmates in their cells, banging on their doors with their handcuffs. The man who I gave my statement to was rude and told us to come back when I had my computer's serial number.
I went to another place today, not the Police Station. It sort of looked like a detective's office. I walked down the narrow hallways trying to avoid the dried-up red liquid that was on the floor. Constantine claimed it was jam, but I kind of think otherwise. I spent about an hour there explaining what had happened as Constantine translated. It is really frustrating that no one here speaks English (but what did I expect? I am in another country).

Settling in or down

5 days have passed since we first arrived in St. Petersburg. I can hardly believe it.

During this time of year in Russia, they have what they call white nights. The white nights have really been messing with my jet-lag. It does not get dark until around midnight, I kid you not. Yesterday and today we were able to have some time to ourselves to explore and catch up on our reading.

Yesterday we had a "marathon" class which lasted 5 hours. We talked about the first 100 pages of The Brothers Karamazov and by tomorrow we are suppose to have read to page 300. After class Evanne, Steph and I made our way to Nevsky Prospekt to do a little shopping at H & M where I snagged two loose shirts, a pair of white 80s style shorts and tan oxford shoes. I couldn't find the exact ones from h&m online.


After we were done shopping we made our way to a restaurant called Stereo Sushi. Our waitress greeted us in Russia and our looks of concern immediately came across our faces. Luckily the next thing our waitress said was, "It's okay. I speak English." Her English was very good and the picture menu made things easy too. When we finished our meal we walked outside to the sun still shining as if it were late in the afternoon only to discover that is was 8:30 pm. We made our way to the grocery store and then back to the university so we could continue to read and do laundry. Laundry was another adventure in itself. We were not aware that the laundry room closes at midnight. We didn't want to leave our clothes in over night so we were to reception to find someone to help us. There we met Sasha- a man who knows only two phrases...."Just one moment" and "Hi my name is Sasha." Through a game of charades we were able to communicate that the door was locked and Sasha opened the laundry room for us. The Russians are very hospitable as well. During our game of charades, Sasha offered us oranges, haha. As Ivan (a teenager also staying in the hostel) says, "It's Russia."

Россия...Welcome to Russia

So I actually made it to Russia. I can hardly believe it- this time last week I was convinced that I was not going. Last Thursday I found out that UPS had lost my passport with my visa in it. Luckily they were able to locate it after being lost for 4 days but it wasn't going to be delivered until May 3 which was the day I was leaving. After many hours on the phone with UPS my local UPS worker said that he would pick up my passport as soon as it arrived locally and bring it to meet at the airport. It sounds like a story that should be turned into a commercial, haha. Joe (my UPS worker) did as he promised and met me outside the Tom Bradley Terminal and handed me my passport through the window.

Fast forward about 20 hours of travel time and I arrived at St. Petersburg Christian University. Our living arrangements are not like we imagined. The university runs a hostel and that it where we are staying. Stephanie, Evanne and I share a room. Although there is no closet space, we have found a way to manage (even with our wash clothes that are suppose to be our towels). We are all just grateful to have a bed to sleep in and hot water at the end of the day.


Yesterday our tour guide/translator Alexei Belov showed us all around St. Petersburg. I am not sure the names of the churches/buildings/museums we went to because there were so many. We walked non-stop from 10 am to 11 pm at night. It was very cold, rainy and exhausting. The most exciting/interesting part of our day was watching all the military men practicing for the victory parade on Monday. There were probably close to 100 tanks parked along the streets and who even knows how many military men were out marching.

Today we had our first Russian language class and went to Dostoevsky's museum and another church. All I can say is...I'm in trouble. Russian is very hard and our teacher doesn't speak very good English. I also found a kitten who I named Ana after Dostoevsky's second wife. She was filthy so I gave her a bath and she is currently sleeping on a towel that is placed in our small trash bin. She is so cute. I wish we could keep her, but I do not want her to get attached since we are leaving in a month. So just for tonight we are letting her sleep in our nice, warm room so she can get some rest. I am sure we did other things, but the past two days have sort of blended together in my mind.

Tomorrow we have class for 5 hours. Then my roommates and I are going to go shopping for some warmer clothes, do homework, make dinner and watch a movie. Russia itself, the people and the culture are very interesting, but I am looking forward to all the experiences I will have in this next month.

Class of 2011

April 30, 2011.
The day of my college graduation from Pepperdine University.

Provost Darryl Tippens said that Malibu has two types of weather...beautiful and interesting. Graduation day was a mixture of both. The sun was out and blazing while the winds were blowing caps off. Even though the wind almost blew us all over, all the graduates made it across the stage to receive their diplomas.

Congrats Class of 2011. We did it!