On my 4th day in Russia, 27 Jan 2019
After lunch with the group I split off on my own to witness more of the 75th anniversary commemoration of the lifting of the 872 day Leningrad Blockade (872, а не "900 дней и ночей"!) on the "Road of Life". I watched the performance of songs and poetry recitation by young people from Youth Patriotic Action "Muse of the Blockade" and the Committee on Youth Policy and Interaction with Public Organizations, saw part of a prerecorded video interview, looked at posters and newspapers from the time of the blockade, walked along a chronicle of the siege, and read heartbreaking personal stories of children of the blockade on a wall of memory arranged for the occasion. After wandering around the city center for a while, I used my pocket atlas of the city and the sight of the church across the street from me in order to find my path back to Gostinyj dvor metro station. This proved to be less difficult than I had imagined. My trip to Poland in 2016 flying all by myself, my bus trip to Boston last summer, my visit to Brighton Beach over spring break and my exercise of intentionally getting myself lost in Kingston once I finally obtained my driver license seem to have been a perfect course of preparation for this adventure in Russia. I walked alongside the Fontanka (and, yes, briefly, on the Fontanka, where many people were walking and a memorial of flowers was placed). My toes finally began to feel the chill of the perhaps -12 degree weather (positive 10 degrees or so for Fahrenheit) through my two pairs of socks and my excellent boots as I tramped on in my long coat, knee legwarmers, hat and earmuff, and thin gloves plus thick gloves, with a ruby-purple scarf wrapped around my head. Slipped I have, but not fallen yet. My boots are wide soled and lend me stability. The weather here really seems not much different from what we have in some New York State winters. I recommend that you find a below-ground crosswalk or a metro station entrance if your fingers begin to ache; the warmth brings relief with surprising quickness. City life has never been my life, and cities have usually provoked some claustrophobia in me. But here I love seeing the buildings. They have beautiful colors and there are no skyscrapers severing you from the vast dome of the world. I felt perfectly comfortable setting out on my own as the rest of the group left the restaurant together. The Petersburg metro at first pass strikes me as much more pleasant and easily usable than the New York subway system. For a brief moment concern struck me on the metro escalator when I saw only one zheton (metro token) in my hand and thought, "But I bought two! What happened?!" . . . but then came the hilarious realization: "Oh, I used one to enter the metro in the first place, of course!" In honesty, there being no expectation of a smile or interaction with strangers whom you encounter on the street feels so much more natural to me (the others have mentioned how hard it is not to keep smiling automatically - not a problem for me, you see!). And, knowing that crowding each other is expected, I really do not mind it. There is less hesitation surrounding one's every move. Keep all important possessions in internal pockets or clearly in your sight and you should be fine. Up on the streets adults tow small children on sledges. The sidewalks are busy and slippery, yet people rarely walk into one another. There is a true advantage here this time of year for those who love the sunrise but struggle to rise early enough to see it - the sun does not rise so early. The sunlight throughout the day is fresh and gentle, remaining so similar to the light of dawn and dusk. It is beautiful.
Upon returning to my host dom I succeeded in requesting an additional blanket for the bed. My room is somewhat cold at 16 to 18 degrees (60 to 65 Fahrenheit), not unlike my room in the States. There are many everyday vocabulary words as of yet unknown to me, but for certain I will improve, and for certain I will feel very frustrated with myself. What may seem most ironic to some is the fact that, aside from not being able to converse very well in Russian at the moment, I feel more at home among the Russians so far than among the others from the United States. One of the cultural notes given us was that Americans tend to stick out in groups in Russia because they are very loud. I find it strange and grating when some of the others start speaking with excessive volume. Even to me they can seem like "loud Americans". At least two of us are usually quiet ones (we also seem to be the main science nerds of the group). At the hotel some of us discussed our nervousness about moving in with host families and struggling with the language. It seems to me that the type of uneasiness they described matches my usual experience almost anywhere at any time. In a way my excessive baseline anxiety may turn out to make all of this easier for me than for them. Whether I have ever experienced jet lag before I do not know. Since arriving here I have slept without major complaint, felt tired throughout the day but not become too sleepy before nighttime, and gotten up in the morning without issue. I have gone to bed between midnight and 1:00 in the morning each night since arriving (I will need to start getting to sleep a bit earlier moving forward). Perhaps my extraordinary sleep schedule at home this month before my departure mitigated potential difficulties of the transition. I was staying up until 3:00-4:00 in the morning regularly. Then I had only one and a half hours of sleep the night prior to my flight and not more than one hour of sleep on the airplane.
Ate dinner a while ago, and now preparing for tomorrow. I shall take the bus for the first time in the morning with my new rubles in hand.
Pictures and video to follow at a later time.
