Hello! I just got back from my weekend trip to St. Petersburg –
there’s so much to say and it’s intimidating to think of the many blog posts
ahead of me. THEREFORE, I think I’m going to split everything up day by day.
SO. Friday. I brought all of my stuff for the weekend with me to
work so that I would be able to go directly to Balaban's house. Around 6pm, we
left the lab together and walked the 15 minutes to his housing, stopping at a
grocery store along the way. While walking, we saw and went past lanes upon
lanes of traffic; Balaban said it would take almost an hour to get home if we
were to take a car. Yikes.
After getting to the house, Olga (wife) immediately thrust a
pair of shoes at me, telling me to "take them, take them!" since the
pair on my feet were wet. Russians are obsessed with shoes and having the
proper footwear. I will never understand this because I live in flip flops 8
months of the year and am always barefoot at home and in the studio (ie 22 of
24 hours per day). She wanted me try on a lot of different pairs, so of course
I obliged, and eventually found a pair that I would wear for most of the
weekend...lolz.
Then we ate dinner...chicken, salad, bread.... and Dr. Balaban
introduced me to Сало, which is basically raw bacon with black (rye) bread. It
sounds gross, I know. But it wasn't bad! Afterwards you're supposed to drink
vodka, but because I was one of the kids this weekend, no vodka for meeeeee. We
had salted cucumbers instead. Yum. Balaban also made snail for me! Since he's
worked with snails in the lab for 40 years, I think he's grown accustomed to
having them around the house. Again, they sound gross, but with garlic butter
sauce, nothing tastes too awful. The texture was a little strange, but I'm glad
I tried both foods.
The train was supposed to leave at 11:30, so we were to leave
the house at 10, which meant I had an hour or so to chill. While we were eating
dinner, the girls (he has two daughters - not biologically his - Dasha (15) and
Katya (13)) were watching Mean Girls....WITH RUSSIAN DUBBED OVER VOICES. It was
hilarious and I wanted to stay and watch but I had to eat dinner. Maybe I can
find it online sometime. It would be a good movie to watch in Russian without
subtitles since I've seen it so many times in English and the language is easy.
Anyways, after dinner, they had finished watching, so I watched the movie
"Home," which is an animated film by DreamWorks and it is THE cutest
animated film I've seen in a long time (minus "How to Train Your Dragon,"
of course). Highly recommend.
The movie ended, and it was time to go to the train. We took a
marshrutka (public taxi..kind of) and the metro in order to get to the
overnight train. Now I can say I've been on that overnight train between St.
Petersburg and Moscow on three different occasions. Each time has been so
different and during such different parts of my life. It's nice returning to
old places because it lets you examine growth -- I love re-reading books, and
re-watching movies, and going to old places years later because I get something
new each time. Perspectives are constantly changing, and for me,
movies/books/places reflect that in an obvious way.
Anyways. We -- Balaban, Olga, Katya, Dasha, and I -- finally
made it to the overnight train. Each of the rooms consist of two sets of bunks,
so I was in a room with the rest of the girls, and Balaban was in the room next-door
with random people (presumably). The train ride went smoothly and I fell asleep
almost as soon as we started moving. Trains are amazing to sleep on since they
have both built-in white noise and movement (like a car). In the morning, we
received Kasha and muffins (this was unusual.... I think they ordered it) and
then we headed out into the city of St. Petersburg.
Almost as soon as we stepped onto the platform, Balaban
exclaimed how “we should all follow Stephanie since she knows the city better
than any of us.” HEHE! That made me happy. I know more about something in
Russia than actual Russians! I guess I did live there for 6 months. Apparently,
the girls had only been there once before when they were little, and Balaban
had been only a handful of times.
Of course they wanted to go to Nevsky Prospekt first, so we made our way there and began our stroll. We walked from Площадь Восстания (Ploshad Vostaniya) to Краса на Крови (Church on Spilt Blood), which is almost the entire length of Nevsky Prospekt (ie 3 miles) TWICE. To say I was tired afterwards would be an understatement. We did, however, get a short break when we stopped for food. I had the most delicious blinchki with apple and raspberry syrup.
Around 1:30pm, we reached our hotel. I was in a room with Katya
and Dasha (a king bed for them and a pull out couch for me), and Balaban/Olga
were in a separate room down the hall. The hotel was extremely nice and like
any other hotel in America. There was drinking water, shampoo and condition,
free wifi, free breakfast in the morning, etc. It was a little removed from the
center, but overall I think it was a great deal and situation.
An hour later, we headed out for our boat tour of the canals.
This was also my third time on such a tour, HOWEVER, never had I ever taken a
detour to an island in the Neva to make Шашлык.
But before I get to that, I will go over a few other things
first. On the boat were: four Balaban’s, myself, the captain, and a woman from
the Institute of Physiology. This woman (Elena) is a friend of the Balabans and
it seemed apparent that perhaps she was how Balaban himself got invited to
speak at the dissertation (I’ll get to the dissertation in a later post).
Anyways, we hit it off. When I told her that I lived in Petersburg for five
months, her face immediately lit up and she started talked about the city and
everything she’s done, etc. It was great. She was super spunky and we bonded
over the fact that St. Petersburg is better than Moscow. Petersburgians are
very passionate about their city – I was happy to bring that out in our
conversation.
The tour was great, though it wasn’t so much of a tour as it was
an excuse to hang out and eat and chat (which I’m always fine with). We had
cheese, bread, meats, chocolates, veggies, wine, and more. The conversation was
lively, albeit exhausting since it was entirely in Russian. It’s hard to keep
up with 5 Russians when they’re all excited and talking fast! But I did my best
and kept up well enough. They also got to see the sea-sick side of Stephanie,
which was hilarious (not for me) as per usual.
It was fun joking around – though of course Olga was very serious and
concerned for my wellbeing. I laughed it off.
About halfway through the tour, we stopped at an island to make shishkabobs.
The adults had many toasts with their wine (I was not an adult on this trip)
while the girls and I entertained ourselves by roasting the Шашлык. At one
point, Balaban turned to me and asked, “What’s the difference between animals
and humans?” [Stephanie Side Note: Humans ARE animals…..]. I shrugged my shoulders, and he answered, “We
are the only species that creates obstacles for ourselves only to figure out
how to overcome them.” I thought this was interesting. We could have easily gone
to a house to cook a meal, but instead we decided to go to a deserted island
with a few coals and sticks for the meat. Why? We rarely go for the easy route
in life, I’ve found. Humans are so strange.
The Shashleek was delicious, and after eating, it started to
rain, so we all hurried back to the boat to head home. We finished the day by
stopping at a café for desserts and tea. Elena again made comments about how
Petersburg is so much more open and welcoming and “European” than Moscow, and
we all chit-chatted for another hour or so. Of course, there were times when I
had zero idea what anyone was saying, and of course there were times when I
wanted to pull my ears out of my head because they were so tired, but overall,
the first day was a huge success and I was very proud of myself for being
thrust into this new family and living alongside them being Russian Stephanie
24/7. It is not an easy feat, let me tell you.
In the evening, we all returned to the hotel, and I watched the
movie “The Age of Adaline” before going to sleep. The family is so welcoming
and inclusive. Balaban at one point also put his arm around me and said
something along the lines of, “I’m glad you’re finally here,” or something, and
they were saying how I was their “adopted daughter”…. It was all very cute and
made me feel safe and happy.
At the end of the day, I ended up calling Alec, and I had a
slight breakdown. So much had happened! Even just talking in English without
having to think about what I was saying felt so strange that night. Living with
a host family abroad was NOT comparable to what this weekend was like. When
abroad, of course your classes are in Russian, and you’re living with a
host-family, and of course everyone on the street speaks Russian…. But at the
end of the day, you have ~15 other Americans to fall back on.
That is NOT true here. I felt that this weekend. I woke up
speaking in Russian, and went to sleep speaking in Russian. I wish I could
adequately convey how exhausting or frustrating it is to have complex thoughts
– or even thoughts on a whim! – and not be quick enough to spit them out, or
versed enough to describe them in the way you want to. People get such a distorted version of myself
simply because I can’t express myself as well – let alone as eloquently – as I
can in English. This is a sad truth, but one I have already come to accept.
Anyways. I digress. That was day one/two. I’ll post the rest
soon!
My best to all.
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