Back again at last

I have returned!

Things are going very well - so much to fill you in on. The most important thing is that I'm now happily settled into my apartment and enjoying having my own place again oh so much! It's now been almost two weeks since I packed up my nomadic student's belongings, said goodbye to mildly insane host family and mundane meals alike, and trekked across Vasilievsky Island to start life afresh with my two new roommates, a Potsdamer by the name of Cornelius (whose twin brother apparently also has an eccentric Latin name like Arminius) and Charlotte from Grenoble, France. Both exceedingly friendly and fun people, though unfortunately it was not to last long as Cornelius left for Germany in the wee hours of the morning on Christmas Eve. After spending the holidays at home he's off on what may just possibly be one of the most bizarre study plans I've heard of; an internship in the government of Nagorny Karabach, a miniscule break-away region of Azerbaijan!

If I hadn’t heard of the place before, I'd swear he was making the whole outlandish tale up but apparently on an earlier trip to Armenia he took a side tour into the miniscule self-declared republic of Nagorny Karabach, where he met the president who personally invited him to do an internship in his government! The only snag is that N-K isn't actually a country, as although it declared independence from Azerbaijan after a bitter war in the 1990s it still has not been recognized by the international community. So it's a bit in limbo now.. not sure why anyone would want to go there particularly, but Cornelius is fascinated by these weird little wannabe states as an International Relations student. The other place he considered going was even stranger, Trans-Dniestria, formerly part of Moldova and now Europe's last remaining fully Communist "state;" from what I've heard its like stepping back in time to the days of the USSR - red banners still flying, Lenin statues aplenty, authoritarian government, widespread xenophobia, and Soviet-style corruption alive and well. As though someone forgot to tell them the Cold War's over, sorry you lost! (strangely enough, at our first party at the new flat once I arrived one of our guests was a girl from Trans-Dniestria)

To give you a better feel for my new abode, I've posted some photos of it on my recently created Picassa webpage, with a handy link added to the Links bar to the right of my blog. It's infinitely easier to upload photos to then my blog, as I don’t have to muck around with html coding, which is about as comprehensible to me right now as ancient Mayan or hieroglyphics! And me without my Rosetta stone, of all things to forget at home... On my new photo site you will find two albums so far, one of my new place and t'other of those random Petersburg sites which put up earlier but I plan to redo shortly (better quality images and some proper captions!).

I'll also get some photos up of the strangest Christmas I've ever spent, and my first one away from home too; eating fois gras (not turkey but very good) and drinking "Sovietskoye" brand champagne (the good stuff, 100 roubles or $5 a bottle) at Christmas dinner surrounded by French speakers (3 Belgian, 1 Quebecois, and 1 French friend) in the midst of a country for whom the 25th is just another ordinary work/school day!

One of the things the Soviets did accomplish, having failed to build a Communist utopia or beat the Americans to the moon, was at least to cancel Christmas, replacing it with a nearly identical but completely arreligious New Year's holiday, which remains the major holiday even now. The only real differences compared to our Christmas seem to be instead Christmas trees they're called New Year's trees and instead of Santa Claus or Father Christmas it's "Ded Moroz" or Grandfather Frost, who wears blue not red and doesn’t have elves but rather a pretty blonde female helper called Snegorochka. We actually saw the jolly old fellow ride by on his sleigh during a holiday parade on Nevsky Prospekt, a parade that was remarkable for two things only: 1) The entire parade, for which we waited 30 minutes in the c-c-cold last 3 minutes at most, and 2) There were at least as many, if not more, ushanka-wearing Militsia men marching on either side in escort as there were people actually participating in the parade! Unbelievable.. I've never seen a more military flavoured holiday display. Judging from the ridiculous amount of protection, apparently even old Ded Moroz has dangerous enemies here in Russia!

Ross was here for a visit too, though I'll have to write about that another time. I will be more regular with the blog from now on I should hope so thanks for bearing with me.

A short break

Just a quick note to let those of you who still check my blog periodically (there are some left, I hope?) that despite my poor recent record, I will be posting more often, soon! But not yet. I'll have to take another week or so off the blogging as right now Ross is here and then I have to spend the next few days frantically dealing with grad school applications (so I can get back to school next September). Yes I'm finally biting the bullet and getting them done, with January deadlines fast approaching - not the easiest thing to deal with when you're in Russia! Wish me luck.. I'll need it.

A Change of Address

I'm moving! So for anyone who was planning to send me a nice Christmas card (or present) by mail, don't use my old address as by Tuesday I'll be gone! [If you've sent something already, don't worry as I'm sure I'll be able to pick it up from Mila's] I should have my new mailing address soon and I'll be sure to get that out as soon as I do.

So why am I moving? I've been wanting to leave the host family for awhile now - it was only ever meant to be a sort of starting point, an safe and easy setup for me so that I could get my bearings in Russia without having to worry about roomates, cooking meals, and all the other potential headaches of living on my own... I've unfortunately run out of time today but I will write more soon about my NEW PLACE! It's so beautiful - can't wait to move.

One more thing, more photos as promised! I've decided not to post them here because blogger's not been very reliable for that so I've put them up at http://picasaweb.google.com/peterbhouston/MorePetersburg except I haven't had time to do all the captions so mabye you shouldn't go look at them just yet. I'll get a proper link to the photos up soon as well. So much to do!! Here's a quick sneak preview, dramatic sculptures on the war memorial at Ploschad Pobedy that I was talking about: