Its been about a week and a half since we updated and the time has come once again to tell of the goings on in beautiful St. Petersburg.
Colder weather has been the rule for these past 10 days or so. Our heat is finally on in our apartment which is a blessing:-) Heat is controlled by the government and administered to the city when the temperature reaches a certain point for a long enough period. It was announced last week that due to the cold weather the heat would be turned on, but this process takes a while as different regions of the city get heat. We kept checking our radiators (the heat is all through hot water in radiators) and were optimistic when our stairwell got heat, but it took another day or so for it to finally make its way to our little flat. Now that its here we are enjoying not waking up to a cold apartment every morning. The downside is that we have no control over the temperature so if its too hot all we can do is open up a window. Not the most energy efficient arrangement, but we'll take it.
This past week at school was a busy one as we are almost finished with our first quarter. The quarter technically ends this coming week, but because we are using a new computer grading program all of our grades had to be turned in by the end of last week, something that we did not find out until Monday. This threw a wrench into some of our planning, but we managed to get everything done in time. I had a nice stack of essays to read and grade, but those are finally finished. Next Friday are parent-teacher conferences at IA, which probably means more for Amanda than for me since parents are far more involved/interested/clingy/irrationally defensive of, etc. of a child the younger that he or she is. Hopefully this will be a productive time for everyone involved:-)
Amanda and I are helped out again at Friday's at 5, the youth group that many of our students are involved in, this past Friday. I was involved in helping out when I was in St. Petersburg as a student three years ago, and its interesting to see just how much the group has grown. Three years ago the group averaged around a dozen or so while our first two meetings this year has seen upwards of 30 students come. Its a good time to have fun and hangout with students outside of school without having to be the teacher.
The weekends are our time to get out and explore more of the city, and as usual we have pictures of our recent excursions! Last weekend we went to the Smolensky Cemetery on our very own Vasilievsky Island. The cemetery is enormous and is the largest in the city (read more about it here!) A portion of it is also a site of some of the mass graves of people who died during the Nazi blockade of the city in the 1940s in which over a million residents of the city died. Even though being in a graveyard can seem a bit somber, the reason we went was to get out into a place with trees to enjoy the fall weather. There are lots of trees and we got to appreciate the changing colors of the leaves.
This weekend continued the lovely fall weather and gorgeous yellows and oranges of leaves. Yesterday Amanda and I made a pilgrimage to the grave of Fyodor Dostoevsky at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in the city. To get there we decided to take St. Petersburg's newest mode of transportation: the aquabus! The aquabus is a water taxi system that just opened up recently in the city that provides transportation on the river. We had heard about it from some people awhile ago and found one of the docks while walking along the river several weeks ago and decided that we would have to give it a try. There are plenty of places that offer tourist-type river cruises at various prices, but nothing can beat the 50 ruble price of the aquabus. We took it from one end of its route to its end. I forgot to time it but I would guess it took about a half hour. I'm not sure that it would be any faster than taking the metro, but its always nice to be on the water in the Venice of the North.
The weather was wonderful and the trees at the graveyard were absolutely gorgeous in their brilliant fall colors. We arrived at the lavra at a time of one of the services at the cathedral and were able to stay for a part of it. The Alexander Nevsky cathedral is extremely large and richly decorated inside and it was very impressive to hear the chanting of a full choir. After leaving, we met Masha for dinner at an Italian restaurant and had fun catching up with her for the first time in over a month (life is busy...).
This week should be a little easier at school since for all intents and purposes the second quarter has begun. However, the week after next Amanda and I get to take a trip to Riga, Latvia for the next step of our work visa process. It will be nice to get outside of the city (and the country!) for a couple of days, but it does mean that we will have to miss a day of school and need to have things planned for substitutes. We'll have pictures and a post on Riga when we get back, so begin to look forward to it:-D
And now the part that you are all waiting for... PICTURES!
First some from the Smolensky Cemetery
Stones marking graves for those who died during the siege of Leningrad during the Second World War.
While the cemetery marks the memory of those who have died, it is very much alive with brush and vegetation growing unimpeded virtually everywhere. A bit of landscaping could do wonders.
Soviet-era monument.
A good example of "remont." This is a cathedral that is adjacent to the cemetery. Russians use the word remont to describe repair/remodeling/restoration/refurbishing and a host of other related concepts and it is EVERYWHERE! Scaffolding and repair work is going on all over the city and is often quite extensive as is the case with this church.
The bell tower of the Smolensky Cathedral, the church inside the cemetery.
A chapel built on the grave of St. Xenia of St. Petersburg, one of the patron saints of the city.
And now for some photos taken on our ride on the water taxi.
The water taxi that we took. This is the dock we traveled to near the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
Inside our cozy little boat. There is seating for about 12 inside.
How beautiful!
The Winter Palace (Hermitage).
Trinity Bridge, one of the many gorgeous bridges that cross the Neva River and the various other rivers and canals that wind their way through the city. (sorry about the glare on the photo. Taking them through a window on a moving boat meant that there are some water and reflection issues)
The Bolsheokhtinsky Bridge.
Closeup of one of the arches on the Bolsheokhtinsky Bridge.
Another water taxi that we passed.
The Alexander Nevsky Lavra and Graveyard!
Part of the monastery.
The entrance to the lavra.
The colors of fall in the graveyard.
Dostoevsky.
A number of famous composers are buried here as well, including Glinka.
Borodin (left) and Mussorgsky (right)
Tchaikovsky.
Fall!
Just feeling a bit seasonal.
The lavra courtyard. The dome and bell towers of the cathedral are visible.
The ringing of the cathedral bells.
And lastly, a photograph that doesn't fit in with any of the others but one I wanted to post anyway. This is of the new playground that was recently finished in our courtyard! We posted a picture of our courtyard a long time ago when we first arrived, but since then it has been torn down and replaced with this new and nicer one.
The end (for now!)
-Matt
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