31.8.2007

It’s been an interesting first two days in Russia. The most obvious thing you observe is how the Russian manner is different from that of Americans. I mean, I was warned about this, but it’s so weird! They don’t smile; they don’t show emotion in public. I didn’t think it was weird when the woman changing my money today looked at me crossly to tell me she wasn’t ready for my money, but was totally surprised when she smiled at me when she gave me my rubles. Totally not expecting that.

The other thing is that Russians seem to have a different attitude toward the handicapped or disabled. Today a blind woman with a cane was walking into a coffee shop, approaching a step down, and one of the baristas rushed over to help the babushka. And some other people lifted a woman in a wheel chair up a bunch of steps into the Hermitage/Winter Palace. It was incredible. Oh, and when my friends and I left the coffee shop, a woman came rushing out to return a camera to Jenni (she’d left it on the table). It seems like Russians really look out for each other, despite the coldness of their attitudes. I find myself trying really hard not to smile at people in the streets, because I think they might find it an invasion of their privacy, or something. I usually get glares back. But smiling is a hard habit to break.

I saw Rembrandt’s Prodigal Son today. The most striking thing about the painting was the appearance of the elder son. He really didn’t seem that reproachful to me. I thought he’d look more indignant than he did. My favorite piece that I saw was a sculpture called The Eternal Spring; a man and woman were kissing while they were both kneeling. I think I liked it because it looked like rapture. And it seemed ironic that it was called ‘eternal spring’ because feelings like that don’t last forever, you know? No matter how much you want them to.
I think I may have missed out on a lot of the art within the Hermitage today just because I was mesmerized by the palace itself. I kind of wish they would have preserved the place as a historical site, like as a palace, so we could see, maybe a little, how people lived in there. Because despite how beautiful and ornate it was, it really just felt like a museum. Perhaps that’s how it felt when people visited it in the days of the tsars. Who knows. I was beautiful, for sure. Oh, but I don’t have any pictures because my camera died right before we went inside.

We also visited the Church of the Spilt Blood, erected on the site where one of Russia’s emperors (Alexander the…2nd?) was killed. He’d been told as a boy that 7 assassination attempts would be made on his life. Someone threw a bomb under his carriage (this was now the 6th attempt on his life), killing the driver and seriously injuring the tsar, and as the tsar was talking to the terrorist after the event (he’d crawled out from the wreckage), someone else threw another bomb, and that’s how he died- on the seventh attempt. Crazy, huh? So the people built this church on the site to commemorate him, and it’s so beautiful. The entire inside- the walls and ceilings- are coverd with mosaics. There’s so much color, so many pictures, so much going on. It’s breathtaking and fascinating. Even the floor is beautiful. I don’t think they use it for services anymore. I have a couple pictures of the outside, but it’s the inside that surprises you and makes you wish the States had anything so beautiful. Maybe we do, but I haven’t seen it.

Unfortunately my converter (the thing I use to plug in my laptop to charge it) made a big ‘pop’ sound yesterday and then had smoke sneaking out of it…so I think it’s safe to say that it’s fried. Which means for now I don’t have a sure method of charging me laptop. Which is kind of disappointing, but definitely not the worst of things that could go wrong.