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July 27, 2008 / Sunday
St. Petersburg Wrap-Up
Some notes from my final day in St. Petersburg.
That Language Thing
Toward the end of last week, I learned how to ask how much something costs. That's great and all, except that I don't know Russian numbers beyond 6 (7 on a good day), so I could never understand the response. Fortunately, most vendors have either a calculator or a notepad and pen handy, so it wasn't too big a deal.
When I first arrived, I set myself a goal: to learn what all the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet sounded like before I left. I finally managed to do it with a couple days to go. All 33 letters. That made things a heck of a lot easier. I'm still puzzled by inflection, though.
Penguini
I brought Penguini all the way to Russia with me and forgot to take a picture of him! I realized this as I was packing on Saturday. Not to worry, I posed him with a photo magnet on top of my fake Soviet winter hat, so it looks like he's larger than life at the church of Tetris after a giant fuzzy snowstorm. I took the picture while I was still in St. Petersburg, so it counts, right?
PDAs
The younger generation here is not shy about showing their feelings for one another in public. I think about once or twice a day, I'll be walking down the street, and I'll see a young woman (half the time in stilettos, it seems) grab her man's face and attach hers to it for a good half minute while the rest of the world diverts their paths around them. We all just walk on by.
Matryoshkas
Aaron kept asking what I was going to buy him, and I kept telling him I was going to bring him a babushka. Not the Russian ladys who sit at the bottom of the Metro escalators to keep an eye on you, but those nesting dolls. Well, I somehow managed to visit and leave without buying a single set of nesting dolls. I didn't think that was allowed.
Mosquitoes
I survived the final few days without a single mosquito bite. I really wish I'd figured out the Mosquitall plug-in earlier!
Saturday, around 10:30, I went to take a picture of the clouds at sunset. I pulled aside the blinds and found a bunch of dead mosquitoes on the window sill. I guess they had headed for the window to try to escape, and died there trying. Serves 'em right! Ruthless bloodsuckers!
Hey, I've Heard This Before
Back before the giant upheaval that resulted in people being laid off and my having to drive an hour to work every day, I shared an office with a lady from the Ukraine. I haven't seen her since last year, but I was reminded of her several times when talking to people in Russia. There's a lady at the office who uses a certain kind of voice when she mimics people while telling stories. It's the exact voice that my former officemate used for the same thing. And at the restaurant yesterday, when the server couldn't think of how to say something in English, she made this funny spoken sound with her tongue. I'd heard that before too, in the same context. So those sounds are regional, not individual. Neat.
More Awesome REI Pants
Remember how I bought special convertible hiking pants from REI for the Whitney trip and loved them? Well, I bought special traveling pants there for this trip and loved them also. They're comfy, water resistant, breathable, block the sun (so says the UPF 50+ tag), and have enough secure pockets to hold everything I need: passport, money, camera, phone, notes, etc. They also roll up to capri length, but St. Petersburg wasn't hot enough to warrant rolling.
And Last, But Certainly Not Least
A couple hours after our tour on Saturday, Sergey returned with his dog. I'd heard a lot about her, and it was nice to get to meet her. She's very well behaved and quite gentle, and doesn't need a leash even in such an urban area. Pretty amazing. Imagine walking your dog in your urban city of choice, amidst all the hustle and bustle, without a leash.
I met Sergey downstairs and he took me to a nearby candy store, where he helped me buy a couple bags of random Russian candies: one bag of chocolatey items and one bag of caramel and fruit-based items. Eating them will be a flavor adventure, unless I eat them with a Russian dictionary by my side.
Sergey bought a bag of candies also, and his dog carried them home in her mouth. Now that's discipline! If it were me, I'd have gulped them down immediately. She carries bread home for him, too; I imagine she must be pretty careful with her teeth to be able to do that. Amazing again!
To continue with the amazingness, Sergey gave me a parting gift that had me saying wow every few minutes for a good long while: a fragment of pottery from the 5th century B.C.. (I believe I heard that right, although the shock of it all might have jarred my brain by a century or two.) It has a symbol for good luck on it, intact, which I'm told is fairly rare. If you ask me, an artifact from 2,500 years ago is quite rare to begin with. This, to me, is priceless.
And, um, wow.
And then, they were off. What an extraordinary man. I feel lucky to have met him, and to have learned so much from him these last two weeks. Perhaps I'll get to see him again if I return. Perhaps if one of you go to St. Petersburg someday and want to hear the stories behind all the magnificent structures and pieces before you, you'll get to meet him too. Here's his card. You can tell him I sent you. :)
July 27, 2008 03:49 AM | St. Petersburg
Comments
that's awesome about the dog, and super awesome about the pottery. so glad you got to go!
Posted by: heather at July 28, 2008 02:11 PM
I thought a babushka was that cylindrical, furry hat.
Love the image of the dog carrying the bag of candy! My dog would say "thank you very much" and eat it, bag and all.
Posted by: Jennie at July 29, 2008 02:32 PM