Featured image: View of the Moscow skyline from the lookout point at Zaryadye Park. Vsem privet! (Hi everyone!) Spring is in full bloom here in Moscow (and I’ve got the hay fever to show for it). Just a few weeks ago I still had to bundle up in a coat, scarf, and boots, and now I’m in dresses, skirts, and shorts. The weather here can be unpredictable—a bit like Poughkeepsie weather—since it can jump from under 50℉ up to 75℉…
Featured image: Part of the Rostov Kremlin in Veliky Rostov, where I traveled to a few weeks ago. Stage two of my study abroad journey: welcome to culture shock! From everything I’ve read about the stages of study abroad, I can tell I’ve reached the point (which occurs around a month in) where the rose-colored glasses have slid down my nose, and I’m starting to notice cultural differences about Russia that I hadn’t until now. Learning a foreign language is…
Featured image: The chuchula (scarecrow) of the Maslenitsa celebration near Red Square, is usually burned to signify the end of winter and rebirth of spring. Privet! I’ve been in Moscow, Russia for just about a month now, and so far it’s been a whirlwind of new people, new words, and new sights. Before I left, I worried a lot about the semester ahead and constantly asked myself if I had made the right decision by staying abroad for the spring. At Moscow…
Featured Image: A view of the Russian Orthodox Church in Helsinki. I hate being in-transit. Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing new places, I just dislike the in between part; the part where one gains or loses time, and isn’t home but hasn’t reached the final destination either. This feeling of liminality is further highlighted by how gross traveling makes me feel. Without fail, every time I enter an airport, I am some level of exhausted and slightly sweaty. And…
Featured image: An anatomy modeling classroom in St. Petersburg’s Russian Academy of Fine Arts, which was formerly known as the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. There are some famous alumni of this institution such as Marc Chagall. The Academy is also incredibly (almost brutally) selective, with usually an acceptance rate that boasts about twenty applicants vying for a single seat. One of my instructors Yulia had to apply three times before being accepted while most others have to apply about five…
Featured Image: Henri Matisse’s famous paintings Music and Dance, currently on display in The Hermitage Museum. The version of Dance which is on display in New York’s MoMa was a study for the painting in St. Petersburg. Some Russian rat bastard stole my phone. In the past I have been to many big cities in the United States and Europe, and I always prided myself on never having been pickpocketed. About two weeks ago, that streak came to a tragic end. Allow me to illustrate:…
Last week my Russian professor asked me if I own a gun. For anyone who knows me well, that question is a nonstarter. I abhor guns. I abhor what they stand for in American culture. And I abhor the idea that they make us safer. I responded with a scoff. “Не Конечно!” (“Of course not!” in English) But as she went around the table asking the other students the same question, I realized her inquisitiveness was not part of a…
Featured image: Smolny Cathedral (1748-1761) on the grounds of Smolny Institute for Noble Ladies. If this style looks familiar it is because the architect who designed and built The Winter Palace, Rastrelli, also spearheaded the design of this cathedral. As an interesting anecdote, the nearby Smolny Institute is notable in Russian cultural history as being a school for upper class women. In Russian, the word “Smolinska” (I think that’s right, it might also be “Smolinka” I can’t remember) carries the same…