Tsarskoe Selo

Hello again!

Summer has arrived at last, although we have had quite a bit of rain during this past week. We are beginning to adjust into some semblance of a schedule for the next few weeks before we return to the U.S. for July. Amanda is tutoring two of her students from last year as well as two new students who will be enrolled for the coming year. I have been working on Russian language and both of us have been working on logistical things (budgets, support, visas, etc.). It has been nice to enjoy a change of pace, although both of us miss being at school!

One nice benefit of the summer is that we have more time to visit places and spend time with friends here, and last week we were able to do both when we went to Pushkin, a suburb of St. Petersburg. Formerly known as Tsarskoe Selo (Tsar's Village), the town was renamed Pushkin in 1937 in honor of Alexander Pushkin (Russia's most beloved author) on the 100th anniversary of his death. Pushkin studied at a school in the area, so he did in fact have connections with the area. The area is home to the Catherine Palace, one of the most sumptuous of the old imperial residences, as well as extensive gardens and grounds. We picked what turned out to be a gorgeous day with clear skies and warm temperatures. Two friends and fellow teachers from school, Christina and Jarrod, also went with us.

To get there, we rode the metro to the end of the blue line and then boarded an elektrichka- a passenger/commuter train. It was only a few stops along the train to Pushkin and then about a 20 minute walk to reach the palace and the grounds.

A picture I took out of the window of the train looking down the tracks.


Inside the palace gardens. While this picture is of a part of the grounds with carefully hedged trees, in general the gardens are not as elaborately manicured as the gardens at Peterhof, having a more rugged feel and appearance to them. For any historical gardening buffs out there, Peterhof represents the French style of 18th century gardening, while the Catherine Palace exhibits the English style.


The grounds of the Catherine Palace has a large lake in it.


Stone bridge.


A Turkish bath that was built on one edge of the lake.


The Catherine Palace. The Palace itself is enormous and so long that we couldn't fit it into a single photo. Incidentally, the palace is named after Catherine I, the wife of Peter the Great, and not for Catherine the Great. It was greatly expanded under the reign of Elizabeth (1741-1762). We didn't go into the palace (it's somewhat expensive and the lines were all long. I did tour the palace when I was here in 2007 as a student, though), but just viewing it from the outside is extremely impressive. The palace is home to the reconstruction of the famous Amber Room.


The palace from farther back.


Some elaborate landscaping in front of the palace.


The chapel at one end of the palace.


Jarrod, me, and Christina peering through the gates at the side of the palace opposite of the gardens.


The other side of the palace.


A bridge in the gardens across from the palace.


A picture of the "small" hermitage on the palace grounds. It is still larger than most mansions, but in comparison to the main palace it would represent something of a secluded retreat. It even has a moat around it, although there is no water in it.


The old boathouse for the lake.

Thanks for reading!

-Matt

Motley Assortment Post

Hello!

This is a catching everyone up post!

End of the school year came fast and then the K's were here right afterward. So here's some things we missed between the last post and now!

The last week of school was mostly various activities. Matt went with the high school to the Hyundai plant that brings many of our students here to SP. My class packed and moved for several days and we went with the 4th and 5th to the aquarium here. Prom was also that week and Field Day and Graduation. Since we didn't go to prom we don't have any pictures of our own from it, so here's a picture of all the students from the photographer they hired.

Colors were pink and white and the seniors and their dates met at IA and took a morbidly pink limo to where they had prom. :-)

(While we were there the photo not by us but the photographer they hired)

We do have pictures of graduation though!

Part of the band
Mr. S giving addresses to the 3 seniors. A huge advantage of having such a tiny grad class is that graduation is much more personal and things can be tailored to them.
IK giving his address. He gave it in English and Korean which was sweet. :-)
DO's address

ZP's address.

Turning of tassels and diplomas!
Our grads!
High School choir singing a song
the whole school singing a version of "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands"

Below are a few Peterhoff pictures that I'm posting mainly because they are pretty!

This guy is at the Peter and Paul Fortress. There are debates about the intentions of the artist since his head is so teeny tiny! Certainly not flattering.

So that's a bit here and there from our end of school year busyness!

In the near future there will be a post about our trip to Tsarsky Selo with some other teachers!

Amanda

A Visit from the K's!

For those of you who did not know, this past week Matt's family (his parents and younger brother) visited us in St. Petersburg for about a week!
We saw many sights and played much euchre. It was a lot of fun to have them here. As someone living in one country with many friends and family in another country, you get used to having two worlds. So it was surreal at first to have parts of both worlds in one place, but we loved being able to show them our new home and how we live here.
I'll let the pictures explain the major events of the week. :-) (We did see all the major sights like the Bronze Horseman and such but there won't be pictures of everything since we have already put up our own photos of all that.)

His family arrived on the 29th of May, the day after the birthday of the city. So we went on a walk and were able to see the columns lit for the second time since we moved here. They only light them for special occasions so that was a nice welcome.

It was rainy and cold so we headed back after walking around the spit of the island. However, we were greeted by something that was good and bad. The bridges were being raised during the day (below) for the water parade on the Neva. This is something even Matt and I hadn't seen yet and so that was great. The downside was that we had to walk back many blocks to a bus stop. Not how we meant to greet them after a long day of flights. :-)

Matt's dad in our apartment.
The next day after they arrived I had tutoring until noon so Matt took his family to the school. Unfortunately, my room has been rearranged and turned into the library (since I'm moving upstairs to teach high school next year) and many of the rooms are covered in plastic to protect from dust. But they were still able to see the building and Matt's room as it usually is.

Above is the males of the K family.

Below is Matt and his brother with his mother.

Matt and I outside of the school.

So once I rejoined the group at the school we went to the Smolney Convent by water taxi. I'd never been here before so that was a nice first for me. It is used for different concerts and such currently but Smolney was originally the first girl's school in Russia, built by Catherine the Great.
We were told we could go up in the bell tower so after many many steps we had a windy and wonderful view of the city.

The picture above is me opening our front door. I have said to various people that when we moved here I was concerned that I would ever be able to open the door. So if you look you can see why. :-) I have to put my weight on the door with one arm and turn the huge key with the other.
Every time Matt or I have been to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra (Monastery) Rimsky-Korsikov's grave has been under a big wooden box. So when we went with Matt's family everyone was very happy to see it uncovered. Matt's dad teaches music and jazz and is a percussionist and his brother is studying music performance for trumpet so the Big Five was a highlight for them.
Later in the week, we went to the Peter and Paul Fortress, another first for me. As you can tell from the pictures, the first day was gloomy and bleh but every other day was clear, bright, and blue.
This is the room in the cathedral at the Fortress dedicated to the Romanov family. After Nicholas the Second stepped down, his family (wife and four children) moved to Tarsky Selo. They were later moved to Ekaterinaburg and shot there in the middle of the night. Their bodies were buried in the woods and damaged. Their remains are grouped under the marble pillar on the left. They are considered martyrs to the Russian Orthodox Church and were sainted.
Peter the Great's remains and sarcophagus.
In the back right corner, Catherine the Great's remains and sarcophagus. To the left of hers is that of her generally hated husband, Peter the Third.
Thursday Matt and his family went to the Hermitage and his mom took pictures so we stole them. (You have to pay to take pictures there.) Above is one of my favorite things in the Hermitage, the peacock clock. It was a gift from Potemkin to Catherine the Great. On certain days they wind it up and the peacock dances and there are other woodland animals around it that do various things. The white room it is in (below) is also one of the prettiest in the building. It has tons of white marble and small curling staircases to the balconies.

Another of my favorite rooms is the Golden Sitting Room. The display they have in it is of cameos but the room itself is much more impressive. It is covered in gold leaf and the fabric of all the furniture also has gold stitching. Personally, I think the rooms of the Hermitage surpass the art.
A street sign for our street. The Cyrillic is the top and it is transliterated to Latin characters underneath.
A picture of Teremok, one of two main bilini chains here.
This photo bears witness to a rather epic series of events. For Matt's brother they brought an air mattress. All was fine for several nights and then one night he announced that he could hear air hissing out of it. When he went to refill the mattress, the little pump broke. So we had a leaking mattress and no pump. He did, however, figure out that he could bridge the connection points of the batteries with cutlery and it would work. So every night was a new level of trying to rig up the pump and tape up the mattress. :-)
Sunday we had dinner with the Gerigs (below) and before we arrived at their place we went to the Chezmin Church. In the words of Matt's brother, it looked like a huge gingerbread house. But it was small inside and had several old icons. It was lovely and reverent.

On their last day here we saw some big sites like St Issac's (above) and the statue of Nicholas the First (below).

Then we went to the ballet Sleeping Beauty at the Mihalovsky Theater. (I cannot explain the blue dot. Sorry!) The cast bows below.

So we had a week full of visiting and just enjoying being together again. It was a blessing to have them here!