Finally Time to Relax

So my Russian experience will be cut short because I have decided to go to Latvia before going to Denmark and Dublin and spend some quality time with my family. At first, I wanted to experience Russia to the fullest by going on Siberian railroad trip, but unfortunately due to the time and financial limits this had to be canceled. My last exam is on June 9, and initially, it would mean I have only two weeks left, and, therefore, the Siberian trip would be very intense, and there would be nobody who could join me. Moreover, it is not as exciting in its start, and it could take up to 12 hours to get from one destination to another. And finally, it is so expensive that I could invest the same money in more exciting adventures.

Night boat tour with "Bridges Opening"

Moreover, Raphalle has planned to go back home on June 16, and that would mean I would be all alone for one more week. Most of the exchange students won’t be in St. Petersburg by that time anymore. Also, my gym membership would be over, and long story short – I decided to take the opportunity of cheap bus tickets and come to Latvia and be with my lovely family instead. I am sure that is the best choice, especially because I have planned to have quite an intense schedule for the following weeks anyways. 

Speaking of intensive schedules, we definitely had one when Jonas was visiting me from May 12 to May 16. I had planned everything hour by hour and surprisingly we did manage everything except Faberge Museum. That is something I have to put on my list to visit before leaving.

So when Jonas arrived, we first went to our hotel, which was not as magnificent as the one before. Well, it was a hotel, we could have a good night sleep there, but that's about it. It was located quite far from the city, and we had to take the metro every time we wanted to go somewhere. Also, the hotel room itself was a bit annoying due to different “technical” challenges. But I guess, the most important here was that we were together. So we celebrated our reunion at one fantastic restaurant “Gogol” suggested by the guide from the Free Walking tour which we did with my mom and sister. It was such a great experience because service, food and the whole atmosphere were outstanding. There was a live-performing pianist, and every time we wished something from the waiter, we had to ring a golden bell placed on our table. 

The Peterhof Palace

After the dinner, which we finished around the midnight, we went on a private boat tour. It was my birthday gift to Jonas. Unfortunately, it was not as good, as I imagined. Our guide was not very energetic, and it was a bit difficult to hear her. We took a boat that all the other tourists were taking anyways, and she was speaking to us over the automatic Russian language radio. The evening was nice but cold and we only managed to see two bridges opening. It was beautiful, slightly educational, but maybe not completely worth it. The tour ended at 02:30 in the night, so of course, we were exhausted and ready to go back to the hotel.

The next day was very slow for us. We walked a lot to find the perfect place for breakfast. Unfortunately, there were not that many options nearby our hotel. Around 13:00 we took the speedboat to The Peterhof Palace, which is mostly famous for its large gardens full of astonishing fountains. We did not go into the palace, as it was one of the warmest days so far and we wanted to be outside as much as possible. This tour plus the long search for some places to eat, took us the entire day. We finished it up with a cozy evening at the hotel watching the Eurovision. Since Russia was not participating this year, they did not broadcast it, and we had to stream it on my phone, as the wifi went down for the entire time while we were staying at the hotel. 

Staying in, was a smart choice as we had a busy day ahead of us. We begin it with a fine breakfast in a small café that we discovered close by our hotel. And then we went on a Free Walking Tour, which was the second time for me. I was ready to hear exactly the same stories and visit,  places, which by the way would be alright as I sincerely enjoyed the tour last time. But fortunately there was another guide, and she was doing the tour completely differently, so for me it was just another great experience. I am now planning to do the tour again with Raphaelle.

The Mosaic Yard

After the walking tour, we went to the Summer Gardens which surrounds the Summer residence of Peter I. The residence is so tiny compared to what everyone else in the royal family had, but the gardens were magnificent. I could not believe that I didn’t know about this place before, as it is so central. The only thing that is missing in all those beautiful locations are leaves on the trees. It is almost the end of the May, and the trees are still without leaves. Consequently, such gardens do not look as amazing as they could. 

The final thing on my schedule for that day was the Mosaic Yard. We discovered this cute little yard hidden between the resident buildings. It is something that my friend suggested to me, and I am thankful to him for reviling such a treasure that St. Petersburg has. I am definitely in love with this city and its history, but honestly – I am sick and tired of the pollution. It is not tolerable anymore.

Our Sunday we finalized at the Mariinsky Theater attending the ballet performance based on the famous Pushkin's poem “The Bronze Horseman”. I did not have any expectations, but I was in a complete shock of how amazing this performance turned out to be. It is the best ballet performance I have ever seen. We met several of my girlfriends, and they all agreed that “The Bronze Horseman” is the best ballet they have ever seen as well. Since it was somewhat built around the story of Peter I, we could see few links to the stories that we had heard earlier that day on the Free Walking Tour. 

Grand Maket Rossiya

On Monday I brought Jonas to the Grand Maket Rossiya, where we could see a huge model layout designed on a scale to cover images of regions of the Russian Federation. Since we had an audio guide, we tried to listen to every single story, ending up there for 3 three full hours. After that, we went to the museum of Soviet arcade machines, where we could not only see but also play old Soviet arcade machines. It was a place with a weird vibe. At first, we were very excited, but then after using our coins on machines that simply did not work (one even started to burn), our excitement vanished. It was an experience, but I would not recommend it to others. 

Next day, after Jonas left, I went to a small town called Gatchina, where four Tsars used to live in. We left home at 7:15 to manage to catch the first train to this sweet little town. It was such a beautiful day, and we really could relax. We visited the Grand Palace, which as I mentioned before was the family home of several generations of Romanovs. Finally, I could see and hear more about periods and historical figures after Peter I and Catherine the Great, the two most important emperors in St. Petersburg before the revolution). After that, we visited two smaller churches and walked around the palace garden. It was amazing how many sweet, kind, polite people we met at this town. Every single lady at the Palace was so kind and helpful, even people on the streets took their time and effort to help out when we asked for something. I really enjoyed this day, so I hope we can have more such small trips before I leave. 

Gatchina Palace and us :)

Finally, my last experience that I could share here is my recent doctor’s appointment. I have been experiencing occasional stomach pain since the beginning of April, and up to now, I ignored it. When Jonas was visiting, my pain became much more frequent and stronger, so after my buddy’s recommendation, I went to this particular specialist. She was a very fine doctor, and it was a neat clinic, but the price that I ended up paying was astronomic. Yet, it seems that it was worth it as now I have some answers and I hopefully will soon learn how to treat my "discomfort" (I have another “expensive” visit next week). 

That’s it for now :) Next blog will probably come after my time in Moscow!

Birthday

My birthday was a bit unusual. In the midnight I was booking the flight tickets to Moscow, which was a quite annoying procedure. For now, it is Raphaelle, Oskari and me who are going, and it was Oskari’s job to book the tickets. Since he kept postponing this, but the prices were apparently rising, I decided just to do it myself even though I had to do it on my phone. Nevertheless, we all three ended up being involved in this process, because Oskari was translating everything, Raphaelle was repeating his translations, and I was making the booking. It was the longest process ever because there was some kind of a problem in the every step of a way. Anyways, when we finally booked the tickets, an announcement from the University about the Galla party came. And of course, this party will take place while we will be traveling. I was so pissed about it because I just cannot understand why announcing dates for important events take so long in Russia. 

This whole process destroyed my plan to get a good night sleep before the exam in the morning. I tried to prepare for it every once in a while when my family was visiting, but I did not succeed.  So, I thought I would go through my notes in the library two hours before the test which was supposed to start at 11:00. I didn’t take my PC with me because all my notes are on Google Drive and I can just use the big screen at the library. When I got there, it turned out that the library is closed because of the Victory day holidays. So I began to worry about the bad start of my day. 

Fortunately, the exam was very easy, and I was super excited for knowing that the next one will take place only in the beginning of June. Since it was time for a lunch, we went with a group of people to a Georgian restaurant nearby the University. The food was great, but the waiting was just too long. So when I got home, it was already after 15:00, so I took a nap and went to the gym. Raphaelle, left a very nice surprise for me, which was quite handy next morning. She gave me French candy alongside a cute note. The day was finally getting better and better for me. 

Afterwards, it was already time to prepare for the evening out. I invited a group of people to a very cute restaurant called Zoom Café. I went there with my mom and sister few days before, so I was sure we would have a very good time. And we did. It was such a lovely evening, and everyone was so sweet to me. When it was time for the cake, the waitresses turned off the lights and brought the cake with the candles, while everyone sang happy birthday to me. It made me feel so special, but at the same time, it was just such pressure to have all that attention on me. Then guys gave me the sweetest present ever. They noticed how much I loved the Sustainability class, so as the gift to me they bought a goat for a needy family in Congo and named her Elina. I loved it so much that I almost teared up. So thoughtful and sweet. 

After the dinner, we went to the karaoke bar, where Oskari and Kamil joined us as well. We had so much fun there. All the guys went up on the stage and sang happy birthday to me. Of course, the whole bar sang along and again I felt so special and loved. I mean, how sweet is that? Also, I was spoiled with fancy cocktails not only from my friends but also one old man who was there alone and who really tried to get in the middle of our group. It was quite funny. He then tried to ask me out, which made me think that probably I have now reached the age, where it is normal if a 50-year-old man thinks he can have a chance with me. Anyways, the night at the karaoke bar was so great that we stayed there until the closing. I got home around 7 am, so I am happy that I still have the power and youthfulness in me to manage to stay up so long. 

So in conclusion, of course, I wish that my closest friends would have been with me, but I cannot be more grateful for the people that I have met here and that made my day so amazing. That is the best feeling ever to be surrounded by such great friends!

The Fam Comes to Town

On the April 29, I could finally begin to breathe again. Not only I was done with 4 out of 5 courses, but also my mom and sister came to visit me. They came with the bus from Riga, and I met them at their Airbnb. Fortunately, they were staying very central and kind of in a walking distance from the main attractions. They were so nice to rent a place, where there is a place for me as well, so I stayed with them the entire week. 

The outfit on the first day

In the first day, it was raining, so it was our museum day. Raphaelle recommended us to visit Yusupov palace, which belonged to one of the wealthiest families in Russia from 1830 to 1917. It is also the site where Rasputin's murder in 1916 took place. Even though until we reached the place my feet was completely wet, we did enjoy the beautiful palace, which had luxurious interiors, sculptures, and decorations with more than 40,000 works of art. We really enjoyed our time there. 

Starting with the next day, the weather became much better. It was sunny and quite warm, so we tried to be outside as much as possible. The entire Sunday we spent at the Peter and Paul Fortress, which is the original citadel of St. Petersburg, founded by Peter the Great in 1703. 

On 1st of May, we experienced the workers' parade on the Nevsky Prospect. It was interesting, but nothing over the top. I was surprised that there was not even that much police around, taking into account the recent terror attack in the metro station. After the parade was over, we went to a very special excursion. It was excursion over the rooftops of St. Petersburg. Actually, we only went up on the roof of one building, but then by walking around, we managed to be on top of three different roofs. It was kind of interesting, and even a bit scary, especially, because the guide said that this is not legal on paper what we are doing. They are not even a legitimate company. Hearing this did not make my feeling about the walk over to roofs any better. Thankfully, it all went smooth, and I can say that I did it. After this experience, we went on a boat ride. Unfortunately, we ended up on a tour which was in Russian language only so neither Madara or I could understand a thing. I actually, almost fell asleep. (Yes, my Russian has not improved at all, due to my absence in courses for the past three weeks).

On top of the "world"

The following days were less exciting for me. I had to let the girls enjoy the city without me, as I had two exams coming up. One was on May 2 and the second one on May 4. And then there was an exam coming up on May 8, so most of the following days I had to spend at least half a day on studying. At least on May 2, in the evening I went to a ballet called Spartacus with Raphaelle. There we met one more guy from our University, who was so tired (hopefully not bored) that he fell asleep. Raphaelle and I enjoyed the show, unlike the performance that my mom, sister and I went on May 5. I invited the girls to the Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute”, which is supposed to be the world famous performance. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a total fiasco. For the first time in our lives, we decided to leave the show after the first break. Something so tasteless and cheap we have never seen before. It is, of course, shocking, that we had such an experience at the Mariinsky Theatre, but I guess there is the first time for everything. 

1st of May parade

Back to the positive. On Wednesday, we went on a free walking tour around the St. Petersburg. It was a three long tour, where the guide is given tips at the end of it (we pay, what we feel he deserves). Honestly, he deserved a lot, because he was simply amazing. Such clear and compelling stories that seriously in combination with rest of our activities, made me fall in love with this city. I am shocked that I did not feel that way about it until just now. Anyways, I would love to take Jonas on this tour when he visits me in few days. I might even consider going on a night tour as well. That one costs money, but it could be worth it to float around in a boat and watch the beautiful scenery while bridges are opening one by one over the Neva river. We planned to go to see the bridges almost every night with my mom and sister, but we only did it on Friday. I actually was trying to find another excuse to stay in and keep sleeping, instead of going out in the cold at two o’clock in the morning, but I am happy that my mom did not give up on me. We missed the actual opening part because the scheduled times and the reality did not match (of course, it's Russia), but we still saw the opened bridges, and it was a stunning view. 

Bridges opening

On Saturday I joined the girls for a morning walk. We went to the Saint Isaac's Cathedral, where we went up on the roof again to see the view over the great city. It was quite an impressive building. It turns out it is the largest Orthodox basilica and the fourth largest cathedral in the world. St. Petersburg is certainly full of such impressive buildings, and I cannot wait for warmer weather when I can enjoy the city even more.

On the final day, we came to my ghetto, so the girls could leave their bags at my apartment and leave for some more sightseeing before their departure. The moment when I came home, I already began feeling sad. It is so crazy how fast I got used to the nice and clean surroundings and how devastating is the feeling to come back to the disgusting dorms. Thankfully, my mini depression left me rather fast. I think it is because of the gym and my fabulous birthday party (read about it in the next post). 

Anyways, that is it for now. Now I am quite free and relaxed from all the responsibilities. I will be looking forward to my next and final guest – Jonas. I hope I will be able to show him another side of the city and make him appreciate it the same way as the rest of my visitors and I did. 

Karo-Shi (my April)

„Japanese people work 60 hours a week, which has led to a phenomenon called karo-shi (death from overwork), where corporate employees have been known to spontaneously drop dead of exhaustion.”

So, I was definitely experiencing the karo-shi throughout the entire month of April. There were so many days where I would be at school from 9 am to 9 pm and then come home to continue until midnight. Fortunately, the course that kept me awake the most was the new one called “Sustainability and Stakeholder Management”. It was a very intensive course lasting for 2.5 weeks only. We basically had classes every day, including Saturdays. And even though we usually finished by 12:30, we had to read a lot for each lecture and, of course, work on a group project. I would surely not mind all of this if there wouldn’t be three other classes going on at the same time with similar demands.

It is unusual that once again I had such an amazing professor that I just loved attending every single lesson. The topic of sustainability is so fascinating to me that I feel I have discovered a new passion. Even more, I have realized something so unique about myself that I feel that this might be the area where I want to work in after graduating. And that is such a gift to me because I have been struggling to understand what I want to do in my life. Then, all of a sudden, I have been blessed with two fantastic courses that have changed my mindset completely.

With my girls from the Sustainability project

Besides “Sustainability and Stakeholder Management,” I began a course in “Business Process Management and Information Technology”. It is not the most tiresome course, but it is somewhat similar to the “Knowledge Management,” which was a complete disaster. At least the professor is amusing and energetic, even though he is Russian. At first, I was afraid that he would be another super boring Russian geek who runs the entire lecture in a monotone voice, but fortunately, he is my first Russian professor who is trying very hard to make the class fun and interacting. He is always smiling, and he almost reminds me some sort of a host of a Bingo Show. Actually, in the very first lecture, we spent 2 hours on a game which was supposed to teach us how complicated it is to communicate throughout a supply chain. Despite the fact that one out of those two hours we spent on just to understand the game itself, and then the other hour to fix the mistakes that we have done during the process of learning the game, it was a funny start. Honestly, it was just another silly procedure of learning, but I was in tears of laughing with my group mates about the whole process and how ridiculously inefficient it sometimes felt. 

Raphaelle and I at the Mariinsky Theater

Even though because of the pressure from University, April was an absolute nightmare for me, it was also full of different extracurricular activities. Our University offered us amazing deals for various performances at the famous Mariinsky Theater. I bought tickets for three ballet and two opera performances. After this purchase I was, of course, totally broke but most of the shows that I have already seen were worth the “hunger”. Moreover, I was so lucky to be next to one of the girls, who was about to buy the tickets to the Hockey playoffs. All the tickets for this match sold out in minutes, but magically she managed to buy four tickets for us. Some of the much more hardcore hockey fans didn’t succeed in getting the tickets, so I felt super happy to have made it. 

The Hockey match was unquestionably an experience. We enjoyed it to the fullest. We got face paintings, and on every chair, there was a fan shirt that made us look like the real supporters of St. Petersburg's team. Our seats were pretty great as well, as we sat right in front of the corner with all the craziest fans that sang and played drums. We were so close to the field that we got to experience some nice crashes in the glass by the players. The only downside was the person sitting right in front of us because he kept holding a big poster all the way up blocking our view. He was doing it every time the camera was coming to our direction, as it seemed he had come here only to be on TV. Surprise, surprise – he never made the cut, but it did not get him to stop until the very last minute of the game. 

Getting my face painted before the match

Another crazy experience during that evening was seeing all the police and military around the Hockey Stadium. As you might have heard, there was a terror attack in the metro at the beginning of the April, which certainly raised the security concerns in big events like this. But for me, it was very unpleasant to pass so many military guys with big automate guns on their chests. Since the terrible attack, the level of security at the metro stations has also increased significantly. Now in each station, there are a couple of policemen, who randomly check different people throughout a day. I have never seen them checking women, only men. And it is funny, that they usually go for dark guys. The Finnish Oskari, who is very white and a bit redheaded has never been checked, while one of the Italian guys with dark hair is stopped on a regular basis, now even more after returning from a mini vacation in Sochi, where he got some intense tan. 

Anyways, another entertaining event for us happened when Raphaelle and I once tried to sneak in the Mariinsky Theater for free. Every Wednesday at 2 pm they have a performance where they let in 170 people for free. So one day, when we were both off, we went and tried our luck to stand in the long line. We stayed in the line for 1 hour, and they closed the doors basically in front of us. There were maybe ten people in front of us and like 60 behind us. So we were so freaking close. Even though the sun was shining that day, after standing in a line for one hour we were so frozen, that it took me 20 minutes inside the cafe to start feeling my hands again.

Between the main fans at the hockey match

The only positive side of this experience was that we went to a very nice restaurant nearby, where they served the famous business lunch. There are so many restaurants around here where they serve a three-course menu, called business lunch, during special hours for a very low price. Often the total cost of this kind of meals is lower than one dish from their usual selection. So this time we had a fantastic lunch for less than RUB 300 (~EUR 5).

Of course, we also managed to entertain ourselves with just another house party hosted by the two guys who had recently moved out of the dorms. For some reason, this was a pretty wild party for most of the people attending, including Raphaelle and me. I think it has something to do with our dinner before the party. Us two and Lotta (a girl from Finland) went to a Georgian restaurant, where alongside the delicious meal, we had one liter of homemade Georgian wine. It was a very fun beginning of the night, also because of our seating at the restaurant. We were right in between the stage with a woman singing and stage with a belly dancer. So being quite pumped up already, we were the first ones in the line for a good beer pong match at the house party. Well, the rest is history, but needless to say, we ended our night in our absolutely favorite place - SHAWARMA.

Picture that almost nobody remembers :D

It is crazy how long the April actually lasted for me because my beloved Tela was visiting for almost a week as well. Unfortunately, she came at the worst possible time, because I had so much on my plate that week. I had to deliver two projects and final presentations, and I had lectures every single morning. So, I managed to get off some of the evenings to hang out with my girl, but of course, that was not enough. On top of all this, I got sick. For the first time of being here, I got a severe fever and no possibility to get out of the bed. It was a nightmare. So the very final day, Tela came over to my dorms and we just hanged out at my room. How upsetting.

With Tela at the basketball game

Nevertheless, we had one fun night together. I invited both Tela and Raphaelle to a basketball match, where my uncle promised to get us tickets again. This time, however, he said that I should call some guy named Andrej one hour before the start of the match. Fortunately, I decided to call him a little earlier, and when I did, it turned out that not only he could not speak a word in English, he also had not idea about the deal with the tickets. When I got in touch with my uncle, he said I should now call a Sergey, but I was not in a mood to talk with another Russian. Thankfully my uncle got in touch with Sergey, but for some weird reason, I had to call Andrej anyways. So I did, and this time he knew what I am talking about. Getting to meet him next to the arena was also a bit challenging. It was the first time when it was almost impossible for me to understand what he is saying. His Russian was so fast, and he had a weird accent. I was not even sure that we both actually have agreed to meet somewhere. But at the end of this “adventure”, we did find him somehow, and we did get the tickets. The game was kind of fun. We almost cached a shirt, and we were showed on the “kissing camera”. This was a good enough combination for us to say it was a successful evening. Thankfully the both girls hit off pretty well, and they at least could meet for a cocktail the next day, while I was sick and studying back home.

With Tela and...who is that in the background?

Finally, just to give a short update on our never-ending cockroach and dirty apartment saga. Things have improved. After countless requests to clean after themselves, I finally said to one of the girls that if I ever have to come into the kitchen where I don’t even have a place to have breakfast, I will make an official complaint to the administration. At first, it seemed like my threatening worked, because one of the girls even cleaned the oven, which nobody has ever done here before. But unfortunately, three days later, the things were back to “normal”. So Raphaelle and I finally went downstairs and complained to the director of the dorms. It turned out that this particular girl have been living here for five years already, and there have been several complaints received about her already. Obviously, our complaint was going to be a big problem for her, and I have no idea what did the administration told her, but for rather a long time she was cleaning after herself every night. Of course, it did not continue forever, and I had another freak out with her. She then cleaned for some time again, but honestly, it seems that she will never change.

To finish on a more bright side - we got new beds. I was so happy when I got to know that we will be getting new beds because my old one was already so bad that I had to wake up every morning with a back pain. Now, I have a perfect bed where I can sleep like a baby. Slowly, the place is feeling more and more like home. Actually, the day when the cleaning lady came to warn us about the new beds, she began talking to me about her challenging work. How hard it is for her to clean all the dust from the reconstruction at some of the apartments. She talked and talked and then she decided that she wants me to see it for myself. So we went few floors below my apartment, and she showed me the final product of one of the apartments after the renovation. I could not believe my eyes how modern and new everything looked in there. I was even offering her to help with the cleaning just if I can move in there. Of course, she denied my proposal, and I was left with nothing more than an image of what my apartment could have looked like. Well, then again - we got new beds! Ha