An Afternoon with the Tsars...and dinner with Cubans.

Hello!

Well, it has been a pretty quiet week here in St. Petersburg...well, for me anyway. I am getting used to walking to the metro to the Cherneshevskaya metro station every morning and walking the 30 minutes to Smolny Cathedral for classes. My classes are not difficult at all...much different from classes back in the States. My favorite classes are my history class and my ethnic studies class, taught by everyone's favorite teacher, Leonid. He told us that he was once in the Soviet army occupying Poland. His English is perfect so we always ask him questions about growing up in Leningrad (he's only about 40 years old) and he always says "Well, it was our life." It's interesting to hear the conflicting views of our teachers and host families. My civilization teacher hated the Soviet Union while others just dealt with it because that was the only life they knew. Just fascinating stuff!

On Monday, the St. Petersburg hockey team, CKA, played the Carolina Hurricanes here in Petersburg. The tickets were 2000 roubles (about $60) and thus, a group of us just went to a restaurant to watch the game on TV. The Russians killed the Americans. No surprise there.

Every weekend, most of the student age people (between 20 and 30) head to Dumskaya street, which is just a line of bars and clubs. I have been here a few times but sometimes, it's just nice to do something different. I had asked a Russian friend here where she would go and she pointed us in the direction of Rubensteina street, near the main Nevsky Prospect. We had a restaurant in mind, "O! Cuba," because Katya highly recommended the food. We quickly realized that this may be the greatest restaurant in Petersburg. The wait staff asked us if it was our first time to the restaurant and since it was, they brought us all free drinks. Then, we inhaled two plates of chicken quesadillas and fajitas (without the tortillas) in a place where the walls were covered with pictures of Fidel Castro and Che (not Cuban...) and Cuban cigar smoke lingered. Words cannot describe how great it was to taste that kind of food (When my friends and I talk about what we miss from home, 95% of it is food). It was just fabulous!

The next day, we had a group excursion to Tsarskoe Selo, meaning Tsar's village. What a beautiful place! The palace was built for Catherine I, Peter the Great's wife but his daugther, Elizabeth is largely responsible for the building project. The palace has served as the residence of the Imperial family (like the Winter Palace) and served as a site for hosting visiting nobility. The palace holds the infamous Amber Room (where I covertly took a picture) and is surrounded by a glorious park. The day was the most beautiful fall day, where all of the leaves were yellow and orange. I haven't decided yet if I like fall in the States or in Russia more. It is absolutely gorgeous.

Otherwise, it has been a pretty quiet weekend. I am going out with some friends later (my friend Andy was mugged yesterday so we are just spending the day with him) and then I will probably just stay in tonight. I am looking forward to go to Tallinn, Estonia in a few weeks, then Moscow, then Russian travel week to Edinburgh, Scotland where my mom and sister are meeting me. So much to look forward to! :)

Until later,

HD