Holiday Club St. Petersburg St. Petersburg

... Often, I think people are just as scared of us as we are of them. While talking to some young Russian guys studying English. they told me that they are too nervous to approach foreigners in order to get some practice. When I asked why, they replied that "we" are scary, we might laugh at them and, in short, we're "the other" and it's impossible to talk to us.


"Although this land is not my own..."


Leaving Russia is going to be ...

... Before they'll even let you into the actually clinic you have to see a woman at the coat room and pay 5 rubles (about 15 cents) for disposable tapochki. Sometimes the Russian desire for cleanliness confuses me just because no matter how much they seem to clean things and ask you to remove your shoes things still seem dirty. Though the custom of putting on slippers makes sense especially for the winter months when your shoes are most likely wet and/or caked in mud ...

... full week and I really like all of my courses and professors. I'm taking Grammar and Conversation, Russian Civilization, Russian History, and Arts of St. Petersburg. I'm also kind of enrolled in the fourth class offered, Ethnic Studies. I just go and sit in there and do the reading and discuss it. CIEE (the company that I came through) doesn't allow anyone to officially sign up for all of them but I talked to the director and he said it was okay if I came ...

... is in a hurry to get out of the subway?) until we rode down and realized just how deep the stations are. No one but the really fit could walk up that distance. So, it suggests that their escalators must run consistently unlike the NYC subway's escalators with their frequent breakdowns. The NYC Transit Authority might want to consider a visit to St. Petersburg. Leaving the metro station we came out across the street from a market, a large hanger-like ...

... oh, excuse me, that was given to them by other countries. Renoir, Picasso, Degas, names I can't even remember right now, but every famous artist you have heard of is there. And the building itself is very beautiful. All of it is just over-the-top ornate. The people are nice, but they don't smile and I don't think I ever saw one person laughing - all very dour. Our guide was a young girl who taught English in the schools and was a ...

... day with the cruise ship tour. Outside, Chris (the Ensemble Host on this cruise) ushered everyone good naturedly into the bus and we were on our way. Now, we are in the middle of an industrial area, and there are lots of trains around, so I was pretty happy about it. I got some great shots of Russian rolling stock as we drove out of the terminal area, and were greeted by yet another holdout of Central Planning efficiency. At the entrance to ...

... interesting to see the women all dressed up for a day of shopping. The next evening, we hopped aboard our last train to take us to St. Petersburg. This was an overnight trip, and very short compared to the last one I had done. We arrived in St. Petes at 7am, and were picked up by our driver and taken to our hotel. Svetlana gave us a couple of hours to shower and have breakfast, and then we met in the lobby for a city tour. Everyone seemed to keep saying that St. Petersburg is much ...

... mindestens zehn Stockwerke groß. Davor, im Schatten, steht irgendwas klassisches, zweistöckiges, weiß gelbes. Margolis redet von einer Kaserne unter dem Denkmalschutz. Die Kaserne verliert sich aber voll im Schatten des entstehenden elitären Wohnkomplexes. Margolis zeigt in die andere Richtung: Tawritscheskij Garten, auch unter dem Denkmalschutz, was bedeutet: jede Art von Neubau verboten. Auf Papier, versteht sich. Gazprom ist mit ...

So this afternoon I went out to the airport to meet Benny and Tom, who arrived in St. Petersburg today. We had a good time walking around the center of St Pete, stopping a few times at some outdoor cafes for food and beer. They were quite amazed with the White Nights, and the fact that it was still light out at 11:30pm helped keep them awake that long even though they hadn't slept the night before. Anyway, not going to write much now, but did want to post some initial pictures.

... little secret fountains and areas all over the grounds. I think it is something like 250 acres (might be wrong there - could be 2.5??). The weather came up in the afternoon and luckily we were tucked away in our hotel room as the sky opened up and drenched everyone else who didn't get back in time! Went out to a group dinner tonight - last night of the tour. Kartya (tour leader) took us to a Georgian ...