Flying Home

After spectacle we had a couple hours before we had to be to the airport for our long flight home.  I had to repack my suitcases because everything wasn’t going to fit.  So I repacked my suitcases and then had a really nice meal with Anya and Oleg.  Oleg and I talked about a lot of things and it was really nice.  Though we have different ideas as to what is acceptable I respect him and his opinions.  One of the last things I did was give Oleg a Utah State Aggie hat.  He really liked it.  He thought he looked really cool in it.  He then decided that he needed to get me a hat.  So he went to his closet and found a hat.  He ended up giving me a cowboy hat.  He said that the cowboy look really worked for me.  Anya agreed.  That is why I wore a cowboy hat from St Petersburg to Salt Lake.  It isn’t like there are many places that you can put a cowboy hat while you are traveling.

Getting to the airport was pretty awesome.  My host dad works and so it would have been inconvenient for him to take me to the airport at 3 am so he took me to the apartment at midnight.  Then at 2:40 am Alla comes to pick up the 4 girls at the apartment and me.  With her came another car with Megan.  Another car was supposed to be coming but Alla got a phone call saying that the other car wasn’t coming and we still had 3 big suitcases and me that didn’t fit in Alla’s BMW.  Alla wasn’t sure what to do because its nearly 3 am and it would take too long for a taxi to come.  So she just walked down the street and found two random guys and asked them to take me to the airport with the luggage.  It was an adventure.  Only one of the pieces of luggage fit in the trunk because of the stuff the guy already had in his trunk and so the other two pieces of luggage were in the back seat with me.  The ride was nice.  It felt very much like my many taxi rides on my mission where I was squished in the back of these little Russian cars with luggage and with techno music blasted from the back speakers of the car.  It brought back pleasant memories.

Munich airport.  Looks like a happen' place doesn't it?

Once we were at the airport and getting checked in it kind of sucked because they would only allow us to have 1 carry-on item.  That meant that I had to check 3 bags and so that meant that I got charged for 2 extra bags.  It was expensive also!  But I do have to say though that it was very nice to only have my backpack because then I didn’t have to drag my other suitcase behind me.  But it wasn’t worth the money I paid to have it checked through.  After that the trip was uneventful.  We flew from St Petersburg to Munich.  Sat in the Munich airport for a while.  Flew from Munich to Washington.  Sat in the Washington airport.  Then finally made it home in Salt Lake.  Once we got into to SLC though it was a little hard to find our parents because there were like 7 missionaries that were on our flight with us.  There were a lot of people at the airport.  It was a long trip.

Review

I have had a hard time writing this blog post.  This is the second or third time that I have started.  The previous time(s) I didn’t really like what I had written and then when I reread what I had written it wasn’t what I wanted.  Hopefully this time will be better.

I have been back from St Petersburg for about a week now.  I have gotten back to normal life, if you can say that.  We celebrated Christmas.  That was great!  On Christmas I was looking through my pictures from the last couple days in St Petersburg and I began to miss the kids incredibly much.  Emphasis on the word ‘began’.  As the other ILP teachers can attest to I didn’t seem all that attached to the kids when I was there.  At the spectacle, which was the culmination of the progress that the kids had made throughout the whole semester, everybody else was crying but I looked like normal.  Thinking back on my feelings at that time they were these.  The idea that I wasn’t going to be seeing these kids in a week hadn’t sunk in.  On the way back from one of the last times we taught I remember people were talking about how that is the last time they were going to teach the kids.  I guess I tried not to think about it.  I didn’t want it to happen.  So I waited until there was nothing that I could do about it, I waited until I had already left Russia, to think about how I would never see those kids again.

I do miss the little kids that I taught for nearly 4 months.  Some of them I taught 4 times a week and others I only taught twice a week.  Well, that was when they came.  It was kind of weird how there would be periods of time when some of the kids wouldn’t come.  Then after that break they would return as if nothing had happened without any explanation.  But what would the kid have said?  Teaching was kind of difficult and near the end it was getting harder and harder to think of things to do with the kids that they would enjoy and also speak English instead of Russian.  There was a big problem with that.  But once I saw the ending show it made it all worth it.  When Kostya showed up in his penguin costume that was legit it made me so happy.  Then to see Igor with his white tux made me proud also.  Then it was also sad to see little Nika, who sometimes excluded herself from the group and didn’t want to participate, with huge crocodile tears because she didn’t have any costume for spectacle.  But then I gave her some reindeer ears and she cheered up.  Spectacle was also great because we heard each one of the children say a short sentence like: “I have an orange beak.” “I pull Santa’s sleigh.” Or “I waddle like this:” It was precious.  Then after all the kids had said their lines and sang all the songs then they were released to go to their parents and get some cookies and juice at the back of the room.  Then after they got some cookies then they came back to find the teachers and, with the help of their parents, gave them gifts.  I was completely surprised by the gifts that were given.  These kids and their parents are so very gracious.  I received gifts of chocolate, calendars, mugs and bells.  It was hard to remember who gave which gift because I just wanted to give the little kid a hug and thank them for their present and for being in my class.

All of these were gifts.  Alina gave me the little bag.  Alla gave the nesting doll. Then I don't remember who gave me the mugs.

Then after the primary kids were all finished then the level kids came in.  They did their performances and they were pretty good.  Some were better than others.  But it was still a moment of pride to know that I helped to teach these kids some English.  Then again the same thing happened when the levels had finished performing.  The kids would find their teachers and thank them for teaching them and then also give a little gift.  It was incredibly nice and very thoughtful.

Level 2 taught by Ty

Level 3 taught by Sydney

Half of level 5 taught by Sydney

We were all very proud of the kids and how well they performed and how they had progressed this semester.  But what added the frosting to the cake was that Ludmilla, the school principal who did everything she could to make sure that spectacle went off well with costumes and organization, said that this spectacle was better than all the other spectacles.  That it was лучше всех “better than the rest.”

Weekend trip to Finland

When we were planning for our week long adventure Jessica did some research about some things to do in Finland.  One of the things that she found was the home of Santa Claus.  It is in the north of Finland.  We didn't end up doing that for the week long adventure but she still wanted to go.  I decided that that would be pretty cool and so I looked more into it.  Long story shorter.  We made the plans and were on our way.

We decided to take a bus from St Petersburg to Helsinki because it would cheapest and it would still work with our time schedule.  Our microbus left at 11 pm St Petersburg time.  We were off and going and we were thinking that things would be good.  We got to the Russian border and things started to happen.  It was at the "butt crack of dawn" as Katie might say and so the details are kind of hazy.  But we got stopped at the border.  Our bus was searched and then searched again.  There was a dog that was brought in even though the dog didn't smell anything.  Then the driver drove away leaving all of us just in the building for passport control.  We waited for probably an hour and twenty minutes. Then finally he came back and we got in and drove to the Finnish border.  Things got better.  We were only detained for like 40 minutes.  There were 3 guys, at least one of them was Greek but I guess he also had a Russian passport.  Well they got through passport control but then a border officer saw something suspicious and so then those three were detained.  40 minutes of sitting in a freezing van later we are on our way again.  We drive for maybe 10 minutes and we stop again.  This time to stop at a 'duty free' store.  We were making great time.    All this time we were thinking, "How are we going to make our train that leaves Helsinki at 6:30 if the bus ride is supposed to be 8 hours but we got stopped for 2 extra hours.  The (slightly) comforting thing was that the woman worker said that we would make it there in time.  Then fast forward past all the time in the uncomfortable bus bouncing around all the time and being cold for much of it.  It was only after dropping people off at the airport and then making our way to the train station in the center of Helsinki that I saw a clock and then was pacified because for some reason Helsinki was 2 hours behind St Petersburg even though they are in neighboring time zones.  Well I wasn't complaining because that meant that we didn't miss our train.  What we have done if we had missed our train?  You know I don't really know.  But I am glad that we didn't have to find out.

We arrived in Helsinki to early for anything to be open and so we were left with the little cafe in the Helsinki train station for breakfast.  I had hot cocoa (which wasn't very sweet) and then the musli that I had brought with me.  Then we sat on a very comfortable train.  It had everything.  I had a table to put my laptop on.  I had electricity and internet.  The train traveled very quickly and very quietly.  I would love if all travel was that comfortable.  Plus I got to play Plants vs Zombies.  We were on that train for like 6 hours.  Then in Oulu, Finland we switched to a different train to Rovaniemi.  This new train was not as comfortable and didn't have a electricity or internet.  Oh well.  We were only on that train for 2 hr and 40 minutes.

I was not disappointed in Rovaniemi.  When we got there it was snowing and it snowed much of the time that we were there.  Rovaniemi is not a very big city.  It may be the capital of Lapland Finland but that doesn't really mean much.  It was still a small city.  We arrived and quickly found our hotel.  Not without Jessica almost falling.  Though I am not really sure how she didn't fall especially her being the one to wonder who was going to be the first one to fall because there was snow and ice everywhere.  We found our hotel Aakenus but almost froze on the way there.  We got all checked in and then decided what we were to do.  We were going to go to SantaPark but we didn't know how to get there really (in theory we did) but we were also cold and hungry.  We asked the reception girl for suggestions to eat and she suggested this traditional Finnish restaurant.  She said that we needed a reservation and so we had her call for us.  So then we walked from the hotel to the restaurant and saw the main square on the way.  A good adjective to describe the city is quaint or cute.  After passing the town square we found the restaurant and realized that it was really out of our price range.  We went into a mall and found a little place to buy a donut to hold us over before dinner.  We ended up buying a buffet dinner from the hotel.  After dinner (meatballs with mashed potatoes and baked potatoes, steamed vegetables, salad, bread, and a ginger snap dessert) we went back to our room.  Jessica had me turn on the Christmas cartoon Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys.  I fell asleep during that because I had hardly slept on any of the trains.  After the movie I was excited to go to the sauna.  There were different times for men and women in the sauna and so I went before Katie and Jessica.  I liked the sauna though I didn't spend much time there.  I felt like I did a poor job at regulating the heat.  So then I came back.  I told Katie that she should go and she did with Jessica.  Then not very long afterwards she came back saying that she doesn't like saunas.  But it was part of the Finnish experience and so I am glad I encouraged her to go.  We then went to sleep.

The next morning (Saturday) we ate buffet breakfast at the hotel and then made our way to Santa Village which is different than SantaPark.  They are actually 2 km apart.  Right next to Santa Village there was a husky park.  They had all sorts of huskies of all ages.  They were really cute.  You could even go on a sled ride with them but it was 25 Euros for 500 meters.  Not very worth it.  So we just paid the 6 Euro entrance fee and saw all the huskies and the other people on the sled.  When we got cold we went into this little building with a fire and some hot drink and cookies.  The drink was a juice and it was pretty good.

Then we went into Santa Village.  There were a bunch of places to buy souvenirs.  We also went and saw Santa Claus.  We could get a USB drive with the video and the pictures for 49 Euros (again not worth it).  But it was cool to be able to meet him.  In the room that was next to the one that Santa was in there was this giant turning wheel that was turning.  It had to do with the earth's rotation and there was an on and an off button.  So Santa can turn on and off the rotation of the earth.

The other cool thing about Santa Village was that it was on the border of the Arctic Circle.  So we crossed the Arctic Circle a bunch of times.  Awesome!  We also saw some reindeer.  I was surprised at the size of the reindeer.  They weren't very tall or very big.  If you can imagine those miniature horse except with antlers on its head.  That is what a reindeer is.  Surprised! I was.

We then decided that we had seen everything at Santa Village and that it was time to go to Santa Park now. I wasn't aware but it was actually a 2 km walk.  But we enjoyed the walk because it was through the Finnish forest and the trees were close and there was snow everywhere.  Stunning!  We get to SantaPark to find out that it is in a hill.  They actually had this hill that they had removed a lot of the insides of the hill and put SantaPark in there.  We were kind of contemplating not going because we would be there for like 3 hours or so and that was all.  It would be expensive to enter (29 Euros) and we weren't sure that we would be able to do all the things that we wanted to do.  We then go to the cashier and tried to pay.  But there was a problem.  So every one has a chip in the credit or debt card but none of us have that.  Unfortunately at that time the card reader wasn't working and so they could only accept cards with chips in them.  So we were denied entrance because we couldn't pay.  So then we stood outside SantaPark and waited for the bus to take us back to city center.

We went back into the mall and the grocery store there and got some food for the train ride.  Then we went and found the train station again.  It really wasn't any big deal that we had been 3 hours early for our train because we just waited in the train station.  I was able to charge my laptop and read the book that I am reading.

At the appropriate time we got on our train back to Helsinki.  The train was like our second train from yesterday and so didn't have all the luxuries of the first train.  It didn't matter as much because I wanted to sleep most of the way but I wasn't able to because they wouldn't turn off the stupid overhead lights.  They were on the whole 12 hour train ride.  It was horrible.  I eventually was able to sleep but not very well.  Jess seemed to sleep the whole train ride.  She seemed to be sleeping a lot of all 3 of the train rides.  Eventually we did get off the train in Helsinki.  While we were going to work things out with finding our bus stop back to St Petersburg I got a phone call from the company asking me if I was still coming.  I said that we were and got things worked out.

We then left the train state and went to Senate Square.  I am not sure that it is the senate building or if it is a cathedral because it said that day (Sunday) there was no tourists from 9:30 am - 11:45 am.  A reasonable time to hold Mass.  We just looked around the building and the market in front of the building.  Then proceeded to see other parts of Helsinki.  We enjoyed that part of Helsinki very much.  We bought shirts in a souvenir shop and then found an information place that had warm drink and ginger snap cookies.  People in Finland like their ginger snap and their warm fruit drink.  Information showed me where we should go to catch our bus and then we were off.

We just had to walk down this one street.  Then continue on that street when it branched.  Then take a right and we would be there.  It was actually that easy.  It was then that we really realized how different this trip to Helsinki looked than last time.  This time there was snow all over and last time there was no snow.  The last thing we did in Helsinki was go to Subway.  I got me a meatball sandwich because I have never had a meatball sub from Subway and wanted to try it.  When we left the mall that Subway was in we realized that Finland has cool malls and Utah doesn't have cool malls.  We entered the mall on one side of the street and then went down to Subway and then came up on the other side of the street.  It was really cool.

We easily found our bus and got on.  It was the same thing.  A micro bus that was full.  There were about 20 people to start out with.  I say start out with because half of them jumped bus midway through.  Just like our other bus ride it wasn't uneventful.  We started going and hadn't been going for very long and then we stopped.  What the actual story was I am not quite sure but this is what I think. We supposedly ran out of gas.  The driver left the van and didn't come back for ever.  There was another bus (like a tour bus) that stopped and was allowing people to come on board.  I heard that they were charging an arm and a leg to go though.  We decided that we didn't really have money and so we would just stick it out with the van because the driver had to come back some time.  The driver did come back maybe 5 or 10 minutes after the other people had left.  They did whatever the needed to to get things running.  We went up a hill right ahead and then on the left was a gas station and we went and stopped there to fill up on gags.  But one difference between this group of people and the other was that they didn't all go into the store.  Only a few did and they were quick.  It seemed that the bus driver wanted to make up lost time and was going rather quickly.  When we talked about it we really wanted to catch up to the bus that there other people were on and say hi but we didn't see them.  We may have seen their bus at the border but we were sure.  Crossing the borders was the easiest thing.  Both the Finnish and the Russian borders were really quick.  We waited only a short time at bother of the borders and nobody got held up.  It was awesome.  We were then on the bus for a long time.  We left Helsinki at about 1 pm (3 St Petersburg time) and then got to St Petersburg at about 11 pm.  This included that more than an 1 we were sitting in the van waiting for the driver to come back.  We got back to the bus stop and then we had the metro ride back to our normal stop.  Then I had my normal 30 minute walk from the Metro Station to my apartment and I was home free.  I got back about 11:30 pm and immediately looked for something to drink and then something eat.  My host family did not fail and had something in the fridge for me for when I came home.  I was very happy to be back at home.

Overall the trip was a very nice one.  I really enjoyed it.  I decided that I enjoy traveling by train.  You just have to sit there and it is more or less comfortable.  When I say this I have in mind more comfortable than a bus where you are bouncing all over the place and being jerked back and forth and side to side.

Thankfulness

One of the things that I really liked about the blog that I read before I started my blog was how simple this person made their blog.  I have not done that so far with my blog.  Most of my posts have been long and detailed.  This one won't be.
As I am riding on this (very comfortable) train through the Finnish country side I am really grateful for what I have.  I am grateful for the opportunities that I have had.  I just look out and see this snow covered wilderness/forest that looks so wonderful.  I would try and take a picture but it won't turn out.  It will be blurry and the feeling won't be there.
This morning we took a (rather uncomfortable) bus from St Petersburg to Helsinki.  Our microbus was stopped at the Russian border forever because who knows what.  But they brought a dog in and had the driver drive away for at least 40 minutes.  Then we get to the Finnish border and some of the people on the bus were detained.  Maybe they didn't have the proper visa paperwork.  We didn't have any problems really.  Then even with these delays we still had plenty of time to get to the train station to get on our train.
As I started writing we were passing this place in the forest that had some green houses and they looked perfect.  Very much like those in the cartoon "Frosty the Snowman".   But that passed very quickly.  Now we are stopped in the town Seinajoki with a couple more hours on this train.

Life is good.

The Last Couple Weeks

So my adventure here in St Petersburg is going to come to close fairly soon.  No I am not leaving tomorrow to go back to America.  I still have two week here in St Petes but they are going to fly by I know it.  It only seems like last week that I was a world traveler again going to Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Lithuania, and Latvia when it was actually like 3 weeks ago.

What's left?

There is still another weekend trip.  This time to the North of Finland.  Hello Santa Claus!  I am super excited for that.  It is going to be absolutely gorgeous!

Next week we are going to be doing a lot practicing for Spectacle.  It will also be my last full week in St Petes.

Then the following week will be a short week.  Monday will be spectacle for levels.  Tuesday will be the day for primary.  Then early Wednesday we will already be on our way back to America land.

State Russian Musuem

I was again faced with the decision as to what I was going to do this Friday afternoon.  The reason it is such a decision is because it is the only day that after lunch I go out on the town and do things.  Monday through Thursday I am preparing for the classes that I will be teaching that day.  That and I don’t want to be in the middle of town and then not make it back in time to teach.  That would be really bad.

Today I wasn't interested in what the other teachers were doing and so it looked like I was going to spend the afternoon alone again.  I was going to go to the Hermitage again but then I remembered that I wanted to go to the State Russian Museum.  So I asked Jessica where it was and then I went.  I was waiting around the Pushkin Statue and there were the people dressed up in costumes so that you can take a picture with them.  I was working things out with Katie and stuck around there too long.  They targeted to and talked to me and asked to take my picture with them.  Long story short.  I got my picture taken with the lady.  She said that it would be 100 rubles.  Well I didn’t have 100 rubles.  I had 1050.  We took the picture and then when I went to pay them I said that I didn’t have 100.  They weren’t going to take my 1000 because they didn’t have change and so they ‘gave me a gift’ and only charged me 50 rubles.  Ha!  Think you can swindle me.  Didn’t work.  At least not like it was supposed to, and I still got the picture.

The Barge Haulers

I really liked the State Russian Museum.  Though the Winter Palace is more detail and intricate than the Mikhailovsky Palace I think I would say that I liked the State Russian Museum better than the Hermitage.  There were still some cool floors and the ceilings were awesome.  The other thing that I liked about the Russian Museum was that the paintings were HUGE!  There were some that took up entire walls.  20 feet tall and 50 feet wide!!  It was incredible.  I don’t know very many paintings but there was one that I did remember.  The painting was “The Barge Haulers” by Ilya Repin.  There was one more that looked familiar but I didn’t know where I saw it before.

The one I wondered where I had seen it

Use the lady in the picture as a scale as to how big this painting was

I also liked in the Russian Museum the exhibition “folk art.”  There were a ton of regional Russian art pieces.  There were toys made from bone and wood carvings.  There were also many pieces of pottery and ceramics.

Wood Combs

Pottery

The other exhibit that I really liked was “Art from the end of the 19^th and 20^th Century Art.”  There were a bunch of modern art pieces and some older pieces.  There were realistic pieces, abstract, and everything in between.

Hermitage Round 2 down Nevsky Prospekt

Hermitage floor

Last Friday was the first Friday that we haven’t had Russian language classes.  So what did we do?  We each did our own thing.  I went to the Hermitage.  I got there at like 3:30pm and then left when it closed at 6pm.  I enjoyed myself a lot.  The part that I enjoyed the most was in conjunction with something that Sydney has said.  She said that people should enjoy their music as they walk around.  I was listening to Natasha Bedingfield and Neon Trees while I was in the Hermitage and I was feeling the music.  So I danced around in the Hermitage.  There weren’t very many people in the rooms that I was when I would dance.  I started being a sneaky dancer just doing a move or two and then stopping.  But then I listened to the music more and looked less at the people around me. (There weren’t very many anyways.)  I have now been in the Hermitage for about 5 hours.  I still have more to see!

After I left the Hermitage I decided that I would just walk down Nevsky Prospekt because it is the biggest street in St Petersburg and it has a lot to offer.  Can I say that it didn’t disappoint.  I have three stories:

I walking down the street and then I thought that the lady on the street ahead of me was a hooker.  Why?  She was sending a lot of signs.  She was wearing a skirt with black tights.   The also had her coat unzipped.  Something that tipped me off that she was a hooker was that she was standing in the road itself trying to flag down cars.  Then whenever a taxi or a bus would drive by she would drop her hand and motion for them to move along.    Then the thing that made say, “That is a hooker.” Was that I did see a car stop.  He rolled down his window.  There was a short dialogue/conversation.  Then the car drove away and the lady was still there.  The car got 10 feet away and the lady flipped the car off.  Must have been a bad offer.

Second story.  I was just walking by and there are a lot of stores and there is some good window shopping.  For this particle window it was advertising Techno Gym: The Wellness Company.  They had a girl exercising  in the window.  She was walking on a treadmill listening to her ipod and was super excited.  I walked by and she smiled and waved at me.  Then as I was walking by there was another person coming from the other direction and she pulled out a camera to take a picture.  The exercising girl posed for the camera and so I decided that I wanted a picture also.  I was thinking “work it girl!”.

Third Story.  It starts to get dark kind of early.  It was getting dark during the last story.  By now it is dark.  There is no more sun.  It was definitely night.  As I was walking I saw a couple cars stopped with their hazards lights on.  I was walking on the left side of the street so the closest cars were coming at me.  When I got closer to the cars I noticed that there was a group of like 4 Africans in a circle.  Now I don’t know what sort of business they were doing but I don’t know that it was legal.  The reason I saw that is because I totally saw a gun in one of the hands.  That was enough for me to not pay any attention to myself and keep walking forward just like the flow of the crowd.  That is the first non-cop that I have seen that has had a gun. 

Theater

Canal