Last entry I promised a post about my homestay and family, and - I assure you - it is in the works (I just left some notes, etc at home and don't want to print incorrect info about my hostfam, plus I haven't snapped pictures of them yet).
Instead, I'll just fill you in a bit about this past weekend:
Friday
As the last day of the work week, Friday holds a special place in everyone's heart. It's a different day for us because we don't have our regular 1.5 hour classes; instead, we have 45 minute classes and then a 1.5 hour lecture about language and culture ("лингвокультурология"). After the lecture, every other week we have an excursion to a museum, cathedral, or other culturally significant location.
Меншиковский Дворец / Menschikov Palace
Our excursion this week was to Menschikov Palace, which is only a stone's throw away from our university on Vasilii Island. Menschikov was the first Governor of St. Petersburg and close friend and adviser to Peter the Great. Menschikov Palace was the first stone mansion built in St. Petersburg and... well... if you'd like a thorough history, I'll just direct you to the wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menshikov_Palace ... and the article about Alexandr Menschikov himself : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Menshikov . Menschikov is actually an incredibly interesting fellow - one of those fantastically corrupt monarchical advisers who survived primarily by charming the Emperor.
Saturday
Natasha (one of the program participants) invited several of us to Petergof. Natasha was born in St. Petersburg, moved to the states when she was eight, and naturally speaks Russian quite well. It was initially a trip planned by her friend Nastya, and we were glad to be able to tag along.
Petergof
Originally planned and designed by Peter the Great, with the intent of creating a massive complex of palaces and gardens in the spirit of the French Palace at Versailles. Having never been to Versailles, I can't contrast the two, but I will say that Petergof is pretty darn opulent. If you get the chance to go, don't miss it. This past weekend was the last weekend that the fountains were operating before they shut them down for the winter (that's right, folks, it's mid-September and we're shutting down for winter).
I'm going to be posting all of my pictures to Picasa Web Albums for all to see. The first installment consists of the photos I took while at Petergof. The weather wasn't the best and thus I wasn't completely inspired to take snapshots of everything there was to see, but that will leave something for those who someday visit Petergof.
Without further ado: http://picasaweb.google.com/jonwebah/FlagshipPetergof
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Long Days and soon-to-be Long Nights
Well it's Thursday, and I'm still recovering from a long Monday, frankly. Three hours of class in the morning leads to a forty-five minute session with a tutor -- not too bad, all things considered. We usually get out of class around 2 or so, which leaves a good chunk of day for whatever one's heart desires (usually a coffee or a beer). On Mondays, however, I have my спецкурс ('spetscours'), which is an elective course I'm auditing with Russians. The спецкурс is a bit of a marathon - it lasts four hours from 4 to 8 pm. Factor in an hour for transport and it means I leave in the morning at 8:30am and return home at 9pm.
The Спецкурс
'Modern Systems of Human Rights Defense' is a course outlining the history and current governmental and jurisprudential means of defending human rights. In our reader, which comes in at around 1,000 pages, there are translations of an early English bill of rights, the Virginia bill of rights, the US bill of rights, et cetera. So far, the course has been useful in terms of learning Russian lexicon as it relates to human rights, but also to other subjects such as law, economics, politics. Our professor is of Georgian descent and has spent time studying in Boston, which means he speaks English beautifully, but on the rare occasion in which he uses it with us, we generally choose to answer in Russian.
Here's a pretty picture that I took a little while back -- the view is from the southern bank of the Neva, looking onto Peter and Paul fortress.
And another photo to whet your appetite for my next post which will be about my homestay and family... this is the view from the window of my apartment on Hercules avenue:
The Спецкурс
'Modern Systems of Human Rights Defense' is a course outlining the history and current governmental and jurisprudential means of defending human rights. In our reader, which comes in at around 1,000 pages, there are translations of an early English bill of rights, the Virginia bill of rights, the US bill of rights, et cetera. So far, the course has been useful in terms of learning Russian lexicon as it relates to human rights, but also to other subjects such as law, economics, politics. Our professor is of Georgian descent and has spent time studying in Boston, which means he speaks English beautifully, but on the rare occasion in which he uses it with us, we generally choose to answer in Russian.
Here's a pretty picture that I took a little while back -- the view is from the southern bank of the Neva, looking onto Peter and Paul fortress.
And another photo to whet your appetite for my next post which will be about my homestay and family... this is the view from the window of my apartment on Hercules avenue:
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Day to Day
Naturally I've been asked various questions about day to day life here in Russia -- how are my classes, what's my host family like, et cetera... Well, let's get down to it:
Classes
We have five courses all together and our schedule splits them up over the course of the week. On any given day we have two courses for an hour and a half each. Then comes lunch and one-on-one time with tutors, and then the day is over. As you can tell, it's not a super-long day, but having one-on-one time with a tutor can be exhausting after 3 straight hours of class.
Grammar and Lexicon
This is the meat and potatoes of any language, but at our level it's a lot of discussing nuanced verbs and rarely employed high level phrases and vocabulary.
Speaking and Conversation
As you might expect, we do the most free speaking in this course while tackling various themes offhand. Challenging, depending the topic.
Phonetics
Have you ever heard a Russian speaking English and thought to yourself that their intonation sounds a bit morose and monotone? Well an American speaking Russian sounds like a moron, what with our rollercoaster intonation. Thus, we work on phonetics.
Language and Culture
So much of being able to understand a speaker of a foreign language depends on prior knowledge of history and culture. This course examines the connection between language, literature, film, music, et cetera. Do you know what 'riding as a rabbit' ("ехать зайцем") means?
Writing
More specifically, letter writing. Although I would not have thought we'd need an entire course for letter writing, I'm finding that this course is helpful in terms of writing style. After all, the phrases that a corporation would use in a correspondence to a client (continuous passive voice, et cetera) are useful in all forms of official writing.
We're also auditing a course of our choice among Russian students. Currently I'm in 'Modern Systems of Human Rights Defense' and it looks to be an interesting course.
On a typical day, a fully English phrase does not pass though my lips. It's great to be in Russia again and to have such committed students of Russian in the program with me. We speak Russian at all times and although there have already been a few days when I've felt like a TOTAL dolt, I'm beginning to notice small improvements in my speech. Baby steps...
JW
Classes
We have five courses all together and our schedule splits them up over the course of the week. On any given day we have two courses for an hour and a half each. Then comes lunch and one-on-one time with tutors, and then the day is over. As you can tell, it's not a super-long day, but having one-on-one time with a tutor can be exhausting after 3 straight hours of class.
Grammar and Lexicon
This is the meat and potatoes of any language, but at our level it's a lot of discussing nuanced verbs and rarely employed high level phrases and vocabulary.
Speaking and Conversation
As you might expect, we do the most free speaking in this course while tackling various themes offhand. Challenging, depending the topic.
Phonetics
Have you ever heard a Russian speaking English and thought to yourself that their intonation sounds a bit morose and monotone? Well an American speaking Russian sounds like a moron, what with our rollercoaster intonation. Thus, we work on phonetics.
Language and Culture
So much of being able to understand a speaker of a foreign language depends on prior knowledge of history and culture. This course examines the connection between language, literature, film, music, et cetera. Do you know what 'riding as a rabbit' ("ехать зайцем") means?
Writing
More specifically, letter writing. Although I would not have thought we'd need an entire course for letter writing, I'm finding that this course is helpful in terms of writing style. After all, the phrases that a corporation would use in a correspondence to a client (continuous passive voice, et cetera) are useful in all forms of official writing.
We're also auditing a course of our choice among Russian students. Currently I'm in 'Modern Systems of Human Rights Defense' and it looks to be an interesting course.
On a typical day, a fully English phrase does not pass though my lips. It's great to be in Russia again and to have such committed students of Russian in the program with me. We speak Russian at all times and although there have already been a few days when I've felt like a TOTAL dolt, I'm beginning to notice small improvements in my speech. Baby steps...
JW
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
I have found the Ark
Well, until today I was in trouble in terms of finding a reasonable place to use the internet. In practically every internet cafe in St. Petersburg, it seems, the prices have risen slightly. Combined with the fact that the dollar has decreased in value relative to the ruble (from approx 29 rubles to the dollar to 25 rubles to the dollar), it costs consistently more to access the internet. The going rate for an hour at an internet cafe is now 100 rubles (4 bucks). That is, frankly, too much.
Browsing through the yellow pages the other night, I found a cafe called 'Star Cafe'. The ad in the yellow pages said that there was free internet and free wifi there. Booya. Hopefully I'll be in better connection with everyone via the internet from now on. I figure I have budgeted a coffee/beer a day for myself, so I can afford to come here and use the internet for free.
Until next time,
JWeb
Browsing through the yellow pages the other night, I found a cafe called 'Star Cafe'. The ad in the yellow pages said that there was free internet and free wifi there. Booya. Hopefully I'll be in better connection with everyone via the internet from now on. I figure I have budgeted a coffee/beer a day for myself, so I can afford to come here and use the internet for free.
Until next time,
JWeb
Feet on the Ground
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31
Well, folks, it's been a while since the last entry in this renowned blog, and rightfully so. Had I posted constant updates from day to day about what we were doing and how I was acclimating to all of it, I assure you that you would have been bored, outside of the fact that you would have questioned my sanity (in retrospect, I, too, question my sanity).
After flying off on Friday at 6:00pm eastern standard time, we flew into Munich (my 3rd time in Germany without stepping out of an airport) and then from Munich flew to St. Petersburg. Our program's resident director would have normally been with us, but due to the fact that the long-standing RD for the Flagship program departed this summer, Tim Dempsey (our new RD) was held up due to the complicated and time consuming Russian visa process. Nevertheless, we successfully made our flights and met up at the airport with Lena Zinkevich, our homestay coordinator. She really picked up a lot of the duties that Tim unfortunately had to miss out on because of the visa debacle. We were eventually picked up by a small bus and dropped off to our respective homestays. I was the last to be dropped off, which basically means that I live the farthest from the city center.
This week was mainly orientation and what I would call a 'sampling' of the classes we're taking. Grammar and Lexicon, Phonetics, Reading, Conversation, and Writing. I won't get into those right now... in fact I'll leave the whole classes thing to another time, when I've had some more time in the trenches.
In terms of acclimation, I'm finally able to realize how nice it is to be back in St. Petersburg. During the first few days I was so horribly jet lagged I didn't know which way was up – I was sleeping during the day, awake at night, and basically miserable. It's amazing how lack of sleep can disrupt one's world.
That's all for now -- when I'm writing, I'm generally writing about what comes to my head at that particular moment. If there's something you'd like to hear about or if you have a suggestion for a blog topic, shoot me an email (jonwebah@gmail.com).
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