Russia

The summer school has finally started! I had meant to post a blog earlier but it has been very busy, but filled with lots of fun activities though!
We welcomed 20-something students from America and they are all very nice. They might just pretend to be nice to me, since I'm not 'just' a student but an intern and I 'work' with them. But who cares, I like 'm and they're nice to me.

Last weekend we went to Russia, to St. Petersburg! We left Thursday early morning and came back Sunday evening. We travelled by bus and it was quite a long drive. We left at 6:30 and arrived at around 20:00. We had a very nice hotel just right next to the river, where you could see one of the cathedrals on the other side.
St. Petersburg gave me a familiar vibe. While I was well aware that I was in Russia, a country I had never been, it didn't feel that strange and new. Some parts of the city semi-reminded me of London and Paris, and other places I have been to. The one thing that really gave it away off course was the Russian writing, as they have a different alphabet.

It was kind of hard getting used to and in all honesty I haven't really learned it completely, but I did figure out some letters and once you do you can read most things, because lots of words are similar to languages we already know.

I'm not going to give you a summary of everything we have done because you can look up the Summer School schedule online and find the program there. I do want to share some things however.

On Friday night I went to Russian ballet with some of the American girls. We went to a ballet called The Nutcracker. I guess most of you know this story. It was a very beautiful theatre and the ballet itself was really amazing. I was very impressed, but I guess that's also a little bit because I could not for the life of me do any ballet. Interesting was how the show was very much targeted at tourists and not so much at the Russians themselves. Announcements were in English and you basically heard lots of different languages around you. I guess it is mostly a tourist thing, to go to Russia and go to Russian ballet, just so that you can say you have done it.

On Saturday night we went on a boat tour, with on-board-entertainment. We were told that there would be refreshments. Inside there were a couple of tables that all seated 4 for us to sit at, carrying a small bottle of water, a big bottle of wine and a big bottle of vodka, 4 banana's, 4 apples and 4 small pieces of bread with caviar. You can guess how this night ended for most Americans who are under-aged in America and now suddenly had access to large amounts of alcohol.
It was a very fun night though, and there were performers dressed in traditional Russian clothing who were dancing, singing and making music for us. Although they looked kind of silly in their clothes, they played their part with so much pride that I ended up having deep respect for all of them. As much as I'm proud of my country, I can't picture myself dancing around in a big dress with wooden shoes on.

Please look for pictures of the Russia trip and just the summer school in general at the International Summerschool facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.163313550399515.40747.111610078903196