Life in the USSR...errrr...I Mean Russia

Unfortunately I wouldn't be able to fit this souvenir in my bag :(

So, sorry it's been awhile since my last post. I just have so much to do here all the time that I never really have a chance to sit down and write. I don't feel like there has been a lot of really exciting stuff going on since I last posted.

Two weeks ago our group went on an excursion to the Nut Fortress. It is a fortress that is on an island close to St. Petersburg that was originally built by the Swedes but is now part of Russia. The fortress was supposedly named the Nut Fortress because it looks like a nut. I'm not really sure that that's true though. It was basically your standard medeival fortress, which was pretty cool. I'm not sure you can get much more medeival fortressy than this

Most of it has been destroyed though. Also, the fortress was integral in keeping open the Road of Life during the seige of Leningrad, which was a major factor in St. Petersburg's ability to survive the seige.If you didn't know, I was there fighting in WWII

Last weekend I went to Pavlovsk with my host mom and host sister. Pavlovsk is another palace of Pavel I. The palace was really cool, and again the grounds were nice. I really feel like all these palaces are pretty much the same though. They're ridiculously gaudy with their own private parks. I guess they are pretty cool though.Me at Pavlovsk with Pavel I

On Wednesday this week we didn't have school or an excursion, so me and some other people from our group went to the banya. The Russian banya is essentially the same as a Finnish sauna. You have a really hot room that you sit in, and then you jump into some really cold water. Repeat. Whenever I tell Russians that the banya is the same as the sauna they always try to argue with me and tell me that it is different. But I really could not see any difference at all. They are exactly the same and the Russians just don't want to admit it. It was a really good time though. There was a separate room with couches and a tv where you could sit and relax in between sessions in the banya. So, it was pretty cool, and a nice way to spend the free day.

Since there's not a whole lot else to update you all on, I thought I would take a moment to comment on where I live in Russia. Before I came to Russia, I didn't really grasp how in some ways Russia is still very much stuck in the past i.e. the Soviet Union. For example, my apartment building pretty much looks like it is straight from 1960's USSR, or the south side of Chicago you can take your pick.Silly ACTR, I wanted to go to Russia, not the USSR

My school is another example. It is located in an alleyway behind a large (as in like 10 ft tall) iron door that looks like it leads to a maximum security prison. These kinds of things would be very odd in America, but here they seem like totally normal remnants of the Soviet Union. I think my favorite remnant of the USSR, however, is the heating system. All buildings that were built before like 5 years ago in St. Petersburg are on the same heating system. The buildings are heated by hot water that runs through the pipes in the radiators. Because the system is very old, they turn the whole thing on at once, so the entire city gets heat at the same time. So, essentially, the government controls all the heat in the city. And for some reason, the government is of the opinion that until we have 5 days in a row where the high is below 45 degrees, heat inside buildings is completely unnecessary. Who cares if it's 35 degrees overnight, people don't need heat in their homes. So, basically the past week everyone in St. Petersburg has been freezing. In school everyone wears their coats inside and I've several times considered putting my gloves on at home. So, hopefully the heat comes on soon before we all freeze to death. And until then, I guess I have the ingeniousness of the Soviet Union to thank for being cold.

See, the leaves are on the ground, which means it's fall, which means it's cold!

Well, that's all for now. This Thursday our whole group is leaving for a cruise down the Volga River. So, I probably won't update again for awhile, but I'm sure I'll have lots of adventures to tell about then.