Go, go Schlüsselburg!

In a few minutes we will be leaving for a day-trip to Schlüsselburg. Let’s see how it will be! – Well, to really explore the city, we have just time till around four o’clock since it’s getting dark then.

(carianna)

Short Notice About My Whereabouts

The last few days have been really crazy: Just really shortly.

On Monday I met Dima and Mascha (Dima spend the last semester in Graz as an exchange student and Mascha is his girlfriend who also has been to Austria quiet a lot of times – and has even been to EIBISWALD) at the Faculty and they asked me whether we wanted to join them to go to Ryazan (Russian: Рязань) with them, where the University KVN-Finals (in Russian: КВН) would take place. I instantly agreed and so about 6 hours later at 12 o’clock at night Andrea (my roommate) and I met Dima and Mascha at some metro station where the bus to Ryazan awaited us*. We went on “board” with nothing else then a purse, a toothbrush, some chocolate and HUBBA-BUBBA AND an extra pair of socks.

The journey started and about 18.5 hours later we arrived in Ryazan. KVN-Finals started at 7 o’clock on Tuesday. It turned out that KVN is kind of a show or competition where groups compete against each other. The group that is the most funniest, that makes the best jokes, wins. In Russia it is a really popular game. Already in school there are KVN-clubs, in University still and then also for adults there are competitions. We went to the finals of the University competition because our Faculty team also competed there – actually they came in second. It was quiet interesting as there were four different contests and different kind of jokes were made – also some politicall ones.

But for Andrea and me it was especially funny because we didn’t understand all of it and after the contest, about three hours later, we already went back to Piter, again by bus, again about 17 hours of road-trip (but this time we could still get some proper food – not just chocolate and Hubba Bubba).

to get some idea about the distances and stuff, I created a google-map with the location of Ryazan

* Anna unfortunately didn’t feel to good, so she didn’t come along. ;(

(carina)

Random Thoughts About Shopping

Some interesting observations about shopping in Russia:

I have been wondering why in Russia there are a lot of stores where you first have to tell the lady behind the counter what you want (to look at) and just then can look at. Today I had “some” idea why that might be the case: Maybe as in Soviet times (and probably also before) there wasn’t that much choice (and maybe also not that much money) people would just go to the shops when they already knew WHAT they had to buy. So they would just exactly tell the lady behind the counter: “Please give me that and that!” and it wouldn’t take to long.

For me it’s interesting though because for us (Austrians) it’s just normal to go around the shops and just to look at the products but here I sometimes have the feeling, that I kind of have to buy the things, if I go in such a shop with a counter.

Anyways, another interesting thing is that there isn’t really any such phrase in Russian as “shopping” or “to go shopping” or to shop. There is this phrase “ходить по магазинам”, which means something like “walking around the shops”.

Funky Places to Situate a Shops
I already wanted to close this blog-entry but then I remembered that it might be quiet interesting to know, that in Russia, a lot of shops are just situated in the strangest places, where you wouldn’t at all expect a shop to be. You are walking along the street, might be on your way to a friend of yours, you enter the backyard through an iron-gateway (that might even need to be opened with a special numeral code) and then in the backyard you find a beauty salon, or a small 24-h-shop or anything else. A lot of shops are also situated in cellars – that might or might not be accessable or viewable from the main street.

Russia and its shops are just great I love them: They are open 24/7 and they sell anything you can dream of but hardly any Russian products.

The World Is So Small! – More Austrian people in St. Petersburg

As you might already know, already in our first week we met two students from Austria, Julia and Maria, with whom we still keep hanging out. There just seems to be a “magical bond” between Austrian people in Russia.

So also today when meeting up with Geraldine Kraus, an Austrian lady (who I know because she comes from my hometown and because her daugther used to go to school with my mum and because she used to be the teacher of one of my aunts [uff! confused now?]), it was quiet comfortable to “hang out” with her, talk to her and walk around Saint Petersburg.

Why am I writing all this?

Feeling Austrian in Piter
First, I think it is quiet interesting, that when you are with either people from your “nationality” or at least with people who speak your language (also with Andrea, our roommate from Germany) there is some special bond. There is some weird comfortability, some closeness that sometimes is even kind of weird. Still sometimes this “speciality” is also quiet useful: There was never really anything like a big “HOMESICKNESS”, as I always had some people around me who felt I little bit like me, who I could talk to about my problems – without having to fear, that I would offend them, if I spoke about my problems with some facettes of Russian culture. And today there was also this genuine feeling, that even though I was in St. Petersburg, it felt like being in Austria, somewhere, in some city I don’t know yet (and where a lot of Russian tourists are).

Successful Austrians in Russia
Secondly, it was very interesting as Geraldine Kraus is a very interesting person and her reason for being in Piter is also quiet interesting and I would say, it has even some newsworthiness (still I put this fact to the end of my blog entry – I am very sorry for those who are journalistically interested in my/our blog-entries). Geraldine Kraus actually retired a few years ago but since about 2001 she used to be in touch with Russian schools. At home she used to do “Schulentwicklung” (development of eduction) and some day she also started to consult some Russian school close to Moskow about how to develop their school (system). Some years later also in the “Leningrad Area” (the area around St. Petersburg) she started to develop a programm for “school inspectors” or better to say for the education of school inspectors.

Well anyways, I think this is interesting, because in Austrian media it is always said that the Austrian school system is very bad, but then it is very interesting to speak to this lady and that she is telling me, that she actually also helped to develop (the school system) in other Eastern European countries. Sometimes Finnish and Austrian knowledge is brought to these countries and sometimes it is just Austrian knowledge. And so this really surprised me as the Finnish school system in Austrian media is very often mentioned as a rolemodel for the Austrian school system. – I am not going to comment on Austrian understanding of a good school system and the differences I have already experienced between U.S., Italian, Austrian and Russias school system because that would be too much for now. But I thought I had to share this knowledge about successful Austrians in Russia with you.

(carina)

Little time and short days

We are starting into our last week of university. It’s only three more weeks that are staying in St. Petersburg and as I am writing this and thinking of it, it is a pretty weird feeling. It’s 9 in the morning here and it is only starting to get light. Days here are very short and thus to me it feels like time is passing by even more quickly.

(anna)

Writing to Welcome Winter

Just wanted to let all of our readers know that although I was trying to hide and run away, I was caught. Winter has finally arrived. I might have felt a little bit of excitement when the first snow was falling down, but by now I have had enough of it.

Just before starting this post, I took some picture for you: that’s what winter looks like for us. It’s not even five pm and getting really dark again.

(anna)

Moscow

Last week, on Tuesday, we took a night-train to go to Moscow. I was really excited about this trip. I had heard a lot of different opinions about Moscow, some people told me that they didn’t like it, because it was too big and crowded and people were rather gloomy, others told me that Moscow was really cool. I couldn’t wait to go there myself to get my own impressions.

Taking the night-train was quite alright. The old, big lady sleeping very close to us was snoring quite badly all night long, so I didn’t really sleep well. We met girls from Moscow with whom we chatted for a little bit befor the lights in the train were turned off. It felt so good to just be sitting there and having a talk, which made me realised that my Russian had indeed improved.  Our trip started off really well.

In Moscow we found the way to our hostel without any problems. It was quite interesting. We basicually stayed in a private flat that must have some kind of licence to be a “hostel”. There was one private room with a double-bed (Carina and Markus stayed there) and two rooms with bunk beds. Students of PR from some Siberian city (and I am sorry for not recalling the name) stayed in the hostel, as they participated in some PR workshop for students from all over Russia.

We were really lucky as far as the weather was concerned. It was colder than in St. Petersburg – or least it felt like that – but the sun was shining. It was nice weather to walk around.

I was a tourist in every possible way. Spending three days in Moscow is quite little time and although we did a lot of sightseeing – yeah, we went to the Red Square and Kremlin – we didn’t quite manage to cover all of the important sights and landmarks.

I went to a really nice underground art store, where former Soviet objects are re-used and either new commodities or design objects are created. I bought a really cool bag, individually designed (actually sprayed) by some young Russian artist.

It’s really hard to say what it is, but somehow being in Moscow felt different to being in Piter, and I am not sure if it was only due to the fact that I was a tourist in Moscow and thus had a different feeling or attitude or if the two cities really differ that much.

Moscow is definitely worth a trip and I have already decided that I have to go there again, because there is so much more to see and I just liked the first impressions I got from it. Moscow has definitely caught me. It’s a cool place.

Back in St. Petersburg we had a really cool weekend, throwing a party (ветеринка) with lots of people in our small, but very cosy dorm room and lots of dancing. Carina made delicious “Topfenknödel” (curd cheese dumblings) on Sunday, that were so delightful that they are worth being mentioned here.

(anna)

Being Girly Again

Forever young … Andrea and I just got tattoos on our hands and we are chewing “Hubba Bubba” chewing gum. The Skittles over here are also great. Everybody loves candy, especially women. The sweeter the better.

hubbabubba

kiwi

erdbeer

bubba

hubba

cola

mango-maracuja

“And girls just wanna have fun …” could be the title of our small night blogging session. Because simple is easier than complex.

(andrea+carina)

Passion for Pirogs

One of the highlights the Russian cuisine has to offer are definitely pirogs. Pirogs are pies made out of yeast dough or puff pastry. There’s s a wide range of different stuffing – so there is a great choice in both sweet and salty pirogs. We have been eating a lot of pirogs, especially in one of our favourite cafés, “Stolle”.

It’s great fun cooking together with friends, so I gratefully accepted the invitation to participate in the pirog experience. Julia and Maria invited us to their place. The advantage of living in an apartment is definitely the fact that they have even an oven!

Besides Julia and Maria, the two hosts of this “perfect dinner”, Sara, Marina, Varpu and I myself were passionaly and eagerly involved in the preparations. But do too many cooks spoil the broth?  Let me tell you – we didn’t!

Yummy!!!

Having a few glasses of sparkling wine during the preparations, some good conversation and laughs, we were all really curious whether our very first pirogs would be as good as we hoped. By that time, even more guests – Daniel, Hilmar and Iva – had arrived.

The smell that filled the apartment was promising and when the pirogs were finally ready, they just turned out to be absolutely delicious …

Yummy!

We then went to the city center to see a concert of Markscheider Kunst, which was great fun as well.

(anna)

Halloween, Houswarming, “Lying-In”, Sushi & Co

We haven’t postet a lot about going out lately but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we haven’t been going out. Actually it’s quiet the difference. During the last two weeks we were out quiet a lot and it was a WHOLE LOT of fun.

Friday – Halloween

Halloween: Fun in Karinas Flat

On Halloween we were at a really nice friend of ours – Karina – and then we went to the Club “Achtung Baby”. In order to get free entrance Anna “pretended” to be a ballet dancer and even gave a little show of her skills. Because pictures say more than doesn’t words, you should check out flickr for some impressions.

Saturday Night – “Lying-In”
While Anna was at a concert, I was at another great party on Saturday night (unfortunately I don’t have any pics). Our roommate Andrea and I went there and didn’t return until the next afternoon. Because of the metro’s and the bridge’s timetables, all the guest just stayed there. We had a big “Bettenlager” – “bed camp” would be the literal translation but I am afraid there isn’t such a word in English, maybe even something like “lying-in”.

Thursday Nigth – Housewarming Party & Sushi
Last Thursday we were invited to “Новоселье” (Housewarming Party) and it was really cool. We were invited to this very nice flat, in a new built apartement complex. Katja, a very dear friend, invited us. When we arrived a lot of nice Russians and a really good buffet awaited us. That night we even learned who to make “Sushi” ourselves.

Partying here is a lot of fun, especially with Russians. They really know how to party and how to enjoy one’s time.

(carina)