Heather Worley Living in St. Petersburg, Russia
Hey everyone -
First of all, I welcome Gramma Annie, Uncle Harry, and any other interested
employees of the Worley-Luginbuel Funeral Home in Grove to the list.
I love you guys!
I've had a great week, and there's so much I want to say that I'm going to have
to leave some of it for next time, or maybe do a second issue later this week.
I think I partly understand the problem of people talking in class: it's simply
that I'm in freshman classes and the freshman are all 16 or 17 years old.
I was talking to some of the older girls this weekend, some third-year students,
actually, and they said that that's just how first- and second-year students
act. They dress to get attention, they don't take their education seriously,
and they act really immature in general. So they're basically no different
from 16- and 17-year-olds at home, it's just that here while they're acting
like this they're actually in college. That said, not all of the freshman
here act like that...but the ones who act like that are all younger.
I had a really busy weekend, but it was great. Saturday we went on a group
excursion to the Smolny Cathedral (http://saintpetersburgtours.ru/smolny.html ) [edit:27/6/04],
which, thanks to UNESCO, has some really lovely scaffolding all around the bell
tower. We also all trekked over to one of the last remaining Dzerzhinsky
statues in Russia - he was the head of the precursor to the KGB, so most of
his monuments were ripped down after the fall. Anya went along with our
group, which I thought was great fun, but she made the mistake of thinking that
since the other Americans from OU don't speak Russian really well, they wouldn't
understand that she was talking about them. (You know, Americans do this
all the time, too...trust me, foreigners always recognize their own name and
the name of their country in a sentence, no matter how quickly you're talking.)
She wasn't saying anything bad, though, thank goodness.
Yesterday I skipped church because Natalya invited me along with the family
to go see Aleksandr Blok's apartment, now a museum. It wasn't incredibly
interesting, because he sold most of his stuff during WWI, as did virtually
every other Russian, to buy firewood and food. However, it was cool to
see his book collection, and his death-mask was on display in the downstairs
room where he died. (I love how gruesome Russian museums are!)
Downstairs from the museum was an exhibition of photos in honor of a singer
who had a really long hyphenated name that I couldn't remember. He's one
of those singers sort of like Sting, who, after a very long career, including
trips to India to find out about meditation or drugs or tantric sex or whatever,
is still somewhat cool to a second generation. His 50th birthday was declared
a holiday by Putin, which is really weird. Natalya told me a lot of the
Moscow musicians and entertainers have sold out and are giving verbal support
to political figures in exchange for money or favors, but the SPB musicians
decline to become entangled in political affairs. This interests me a
lot - the effect that democracy is having on various aspects of public life.
As we left the museum, we walked through a courtyard, and I realized, oddly,
that there was no graffiti anywhere in the courtyard. It was the strangest
thing I have experienced in Russia. Russians are, on the whole, rather
messy - there is a lot of litter everywhere, and graffiti, also. Some
of them are very aware of this, and most St.-Petersburgers who travel comment
on how much cleaner other European cities are compared to theirs. I don't
know if they're necessarily messier than Americans, but I do know that even
some of the better neighborhoods in Russia aren't nearly as clean as the poorer
neighborhoods I've seen in Houston. I think part of it's due to poor city
trash service. But at least Russians keep their houses really clean.
After that Natalya and Evgeny wanted to go see St. Nicholas's cathedral, which
is really beautiful, because Evgeny was baptized there. I don't know
if they even consider themselves to be Christian, but Natalya crossed herself
as we left the church. After that, they decided they were interested in
seeing the synagogue, so we found it and went inside to see what it was like.
This I found incredibly interesting, mainly because of how Natalya reacted to
it. She didn't know that there wouldn't be icons or crosses inside.
I told her that icons are forbidden in the Jewish faith, and crosses are a Christian
symbol. She said, "But Jesus was a Jew..." She was, however,
incredibly interested in the architecture, which was very Arabic-looking - lots
of very fancy arches. This really makes me wonder about religion in Russia
- I think the culture might be religiously stunted, or maybe just religiously
sheltered, not only by the government, but by the Orthodox church, too.
(Russians are comparatively much more knowledgeable about literature, language,
history, science, etc., than Americans, so the lack of religious familiarity
is a stark contrast.) Right now, the Pope is trying to return a very important
icon to the Russian Orthodox church, but he wants to deliver it in person, and
the Russian Patriarch is refusing to see him. They're territorial: a reaction,
I suppose, to years of persecution and or subjugation by the government.
I don't know how much the average American knows about Orthodox religion or
culture, but it's not really like Catholic culture, which is what Americans
tend to equate it with. A typical church has an iconostasis at the front
with twelve or so icons, and the more elaborate the icon, the better.
The really rich churches have every bit of wall space occupied by an icon, all
with places in front of them to light candles. I think a lot of people
here who consider themselves Orthodox don't go to services, and with good reason:
the services are really long (three hours is not atypical), they're conducted
in a language no one speaks anymore (Slavonic), and you have to stand up the
whole time. There are a few benches in every church along the walls, but
they're only for old people, so a lot of people go to church only to pray.
After that we went home and had lunch, and then I went out for a walk with one
of Natalya's students who I met last week while helping her teach English.
Then Anya and I went to see a concert of one of her favorite comedians, Sergei
Drobotenko. She was nearly hysterical with excitement all day long, except
when she was pouting about having to go to museums. (I assured Natalya
and Evgeny that Anya was just being a teenager, and that I was just like that
and grew out of it, as Anya will in a few years. Natalya said, "But she
won't be living with us anymore then..." It makes me think I should
apologize to Mom and Dad for being difficult for basically 7 or 8 years.
So I'm sorry!) I didn't understand much of the concert, but it was fun,
anyway.
After the concert I went home and crashed in bed, I was so tired. I was
actually quite grateful for school Monday - weekends take so much
out of me!
I hope things are going well for everyone there. Don't forget to keep
me updated on the local news about marriages, moves, break-ups, new jobs
or cars, or various football victories...
Till next time -
Heather:)
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Povtorenie mat' ucheniya. Repetition is the mother of learning. (Basis of Russian
pedagogy. :)
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