Night and Day Curtains

I had a hard time deciding what to make this post about and so there are a variety of topics. 

First, I am going to try to attempt to erase or maybe just better explain some of the stereotypes associated with Russia.  After watching the Russian movie Брат 2 I think the best way to explain how I viewed Russia/Russians is with a quote from the movie; an American woman asks a Russian couple “Are you guys gangsters?” and the Russian responds “No, we are Russians”.  To some degree I think most Americans think of Russia as a 3^rd world country where bribery and pick pocketing are the social norms.  While to some extent this does exist it is not as prevalent as you would expect it to be.  In addition, I think a lot of Americans think that Russians are cold and rude people.  The behavior that may make you feel this way is in fact due to them trying to be polite.  For example, if you accidently hit someone with your bag it is rude to apologize or say “excuse me”, instead you are supposed to pretend like it didn’t happen to truly show that it was a mistake.  On the other hand, Russians can be very blunt about their opinions.  If you’re having dinner at someone’s house and whatever you are eating is too salty you are supposed to tell him or her that it is too salty, hiding what you really feel is considered rude.  It may not make sense but that is how it is done here.  It would be the same way if a Russian was coming to the states, they would not understand some of the things we do like wearing what we wore outside inside but that’s what you have to do when you go to a foreign country; accept it and move on. 

On a different note, I have now been to three cathedrals and all three have been completely different.  The first, Church on Spilled Blood, has the Russian revival turnip roof tops and while as an American this is one of the first things that comes to mind when I think of Russia but for Petersburg this is not normal.  The church was built as a memorial to Alexander II and has a shrine that marks the exact spot where he was assassinated.  The second was Kazan Cathedral.  This church is filled with hundreds of Icons including the most famous one that has a line to the other side of the church of people waiting to kiss it.  Icons are a huge part of the orthodox religion.  In fact there is one in my room.

The last, and probably my favorite was St. Isaacs Cathedral.  It’s the biggest cathedral in Petersburg and makes you feel microscopic when inside.  The walls are covered with mosaics and all I could think about was how long it must have taken to make even just a square foot of one mosaic.  Impressive does not even begin to explain how extraordinary these mosaics were.  On top of that the doors are gigantic made of cast iron that have 3-D biblical images from top to bottom.  Of course there isn’t just one door there are 3 of these gigantic pieces of metal.  The tour guide explained that over 30 people died while building the cathedral and I’m starting to wonder if I understood her correctly because the vast amounts of granite everywhere must have killed more than just 30 people.  The last part of the tour was a trip up the colonnade.  200 and something steps later and the best view of the city lies before you. 

In my last post I complained about the lack of normal or good coffee.  I am pleased to write that I have finally found good coffee.  The answer to this problem is anti-cafes.  For those of you who don’t know what that is I will do my best to explain.  An anti-café is a café where you pay for how long you are there, not how much you drink or eat.  For example, an anti- café may cost something like 2 rubles a minute for the first hour and 1 rubble per minute after the first hour.  Depending on the café it would only cost you about 150-200 rubbles for 2 hours, which is about 6 dollars.  What is great about anti-cafes is that the coffee is French pressed and you can add milk and sugar to your liking as opposed to buying a crappy 6-dollar latte that tastes like milk with watered down coffee.  In addition, there are usually cookies or some kind of snack, free wifi, games, and Russians who are willing to suffer through your horrible speaking skills.  They are officially my new favorite thing in Russia. 

My Russian language intensive officially ended on Thursday and Monday I begin real school.  It should be interesting.

Oh, you may be wondering about the title.  There are two different words in Russian for curtains depending on if you are talking about day curtains or night curtains.  Day curtains let light in and night curtains keep light out.  It is a strange concept since it is pretty much the same amount of darkness right now during the day as it is at night but that’s Russia for you.

Ill try to post pictures later today...