Altai

This weekend we took a trip to the Altai Mountains, located in the south of Siberia, near the borders with Mongolia and Kazakhstan. 12 hours on bus there, 48 hours in the mountains, and then another 12 hours back to Tomsk. Needless to say I'm worn out, and on top of that our flight to St. Petersburg leaves early tomorrow morning, but it was all worth it. The mountains were very beautiful, we did some fun excursions and generally had a great time together. We did hiking, saw a waterfall, went into a cave, and also went to a banya.

A banya is like a sauna - there's one room with a large, hot oven, and you poor water over it to steam up the room. You get really hot and sweaty, and then one of your friends beats you with birch branches as you lie down. When you've had enough you go into the next room, where you jump into a really cold pool. Repeat the process as much as you like. You leave the banya feeling clean and purified, not to mention warm. As is known, for many months of the year Russia is a very cold place, so the banya has become an integral part of the culture.

In conclusion, beautiful scenery, fresh air, and Russians of all ages in skimpy clothing. Pretty much like going to the backwoods in America. Now for pictures.

Birch trees are everywhere in Russia.

The tour guide got everyone to put their hand on the inside of the tunnel, make a wish, and then run around it three times, with the promise that your wish will come true. I personally think he was bored and curious to see what he could get people to do.

Beautiful scenery. What you don't see is the pile of garbage at my feet. People take it upon themselves to create garbage dumps here and there.

My new hat, in the fashion of the indigenous Altai people.

Banquet

Yesterday was the last day of classes, so to celebrate we had a banquet dinner with our professors and program directors. I heard the restaurant was nice, but I was blown away by our arrangements. First, the restaurant itself had great atmosphere, a lot of wood, and art designed by the artist who we visited a few weeks ago. We had a ton of food, too. The table was completely covered with appetizers like fish, meats, fruits and vegetables before we arrived, and I was so full that I forgot that I also ordered a main dish. Plenty of bottles of Soviet Champagne, red wine, and vodka certainly helped maintain the lively mood. Making toasts is a big part of Russian culture, so needless to say, there was a lot of toasting and gift-giving going on. Everyone was in such a great mood, and I realized how I'm definitely going to miss everyone, Americans and Russians alike, after the program ends. Of course, we had music too. A tradition in Russian restaurants is to hire a singer to sing cheesy love songs for the 80s, and we had that going on, although once we all decided to hit the dance floor we got a nice change of pace going. I'd have to say the highlight of the night was dancing with two of my professors, Tatyana Borisovna and Natalya Giorgevna. All in all a fantastic time, but it's not over yet, since this evening we're leaving on a 12 hour bus ride to the Altai Mountains.

Tomsk Art Museum

Teplokhod

Two weeks and I'm back in America. I don't know where all the time went. I'm sick of doing school work and kinda tired of Tomsk, but I don't want to leave Russia because there's so much left to explore in this vast country. But hey, two weeks left and there's still St. Petersburg....

Sci-Fi building

We went for a boat ride and danced with locals while enjoying the scenic views.

It wasn't until now that I wondered where gravel came from.

Relaxation

Last week was stressful. Lots of excursions, coupled with a social life, as well as homework, left me drained by Friday. Much good came out of it though. Apparently word has gotten around that there is a group of Americans in Tomsk, so this week journalists have visited us at school twice. On Tuesday's news they showed a clip of one of our classes (unfortunately not mine). Then, on Friday, at least five journalists showed up at our weekly Russki Chai (Russian Tea). Russki Chai takes place every Friday after classes are over. We all gather in one room to drink tea and eat cookies as each group (we are split into 3 groups of 6 or 7 students) recounts the week's lessons and gives an artistic performance (in Russian, of course - everything is in Russian). For example, we have sung Russian songs and read poetry. One kid always sings opera. Well, this week, I, along with two other girls from the group, performed a scene from the play "Duck Hunt" by Aleksandr Vampilov. Apparently I'm a great actor, cuz I got compliments for the rest of the weekend. Who knew? Journalists were filming, snapping photos, and asking questions left and right. Later that evening an interview I gave made the final cut for the newscast. The point is Tomsk, Russia, may be my big break to stardom.

That night, motivated by our reminisces of college life, we threw a party, complete with jungle juice. The Russians were unfamiliar with it, but don't be surprised if hunch punch becomes the next big thing amongst Siberian youth. The following morning I had to get up early, as I had volunteered to work with two of our professors to put together a video about Tomsk and our group's experiences here. The American girl who is collaborating fell ill, so once again I became the star of the show. After shooting for a couple hours I was compelled to explore by myself, since there are only two weeks remaining and I figured there's a lot I still haven't gotten around to seeing. I didn't stray far from my own neighborhood, but I was fascinated by all I saw, and I realized that this city really is beautiful and has a character all its own (or at least I'd assume so). Today was the first day I could really relax, stop, and take it all in. I've been doing so much these past two months, but when you're consistently on the move, you don't have time to digest everything your mind is taking in and truly process where you are and what on earth you're doing. But yesterday was that day, so praise the Lord. I'm definitely blessed to be here.

And now for photos I took while exploring yesterday.

Gators for Pushkin

Two professors, two Russians, me, and a Chekhov-impersonating American student who's from the same town my mom was born in.

Russian car - a Volga, if I remember correctly.

Remember that building from the Power Rangers?

Architecture School

Regional Court House

Ballet

Russia has a rich cultural heritage, and ballet plays an important role in this tradition. Here is a scene played by the famous Mikhail Baryshnikov, whom you may know as "the Russian" from Sex and the City. Enjoy.

Religion in Tomsk

It's pretty much unavoidable to study abroad in Europe (or Russia) without being overloaded with visits to churches. Luckily I'm in Russia, where the architecture is different and therefore somewhat of a novelty. Until yesterday I had only visited one church since coming here, so yesterday there was an excursion which had the objective of seeing all the churches in one day and getting it all over with, and in fact it only took 2 hours. I think it was too rushed, and I would have liked to explore more, but at the time I was hungry and tired. I got good pictures though. In Tomsk there's a considerable amount of religious diversity: Various Christian groups: Russian Orthodox, Lutheran, Catholic; Jews; Muslims and more. The churches were beautiful both inside and outside, but the Sacre Coeur in Paris, France, remains my favorite.

Orthodox Church and Monastery

Orthodox Church

Orthodox Church (the one near my house)

Catholics! (Also near my house)

Mosque

Tidbits about Russian Orthodoxy for the uninitiated:

-Historically, Orthodoxy is the opposite of Catholicism (in layman's terms). The Great Schism took place in 1054, when the Church split into Roman Catholicism (Latin-speaking) and Eastern Orthodoxy (Greek-speaking). The Greek variety was preserved amongst peoples such as the Russians, Bulgarians and Serbians, whereas as the Roman variety was preserved amongst Poles, Czechs, Germans, French, Spaniards, etc. The Cyrillic alphabet, based off Greek, was inherited from the Orthodox tradition, which explains our differing alphabets (ours is the Roman alphabet).

-Icons are very present in Russian churches and homes. They are considered holy and are an important aspect of worshipping God. The Catholic Church does not recognize this. For me it was interesting to go into a church and see so many glimmering images of people. On a side note, this practice drastically differs from Islam, whose art forbids the depiction of any human being, especially Mohammed.

-Catholics cross themselves in the order of forehead, chest, left shoulder, right shoulder; Orthodox Christians cross themselves forehead, chest, right shoulder, left shoulder.

Museum

Yesterday we visited the Museum of Political Repression, located on Lenin Prospect in Tomsk. The museum was established a couple years ago in the same location as a Soviet jail, where political prisoners were held before being shot. There was definitely an eerie presence, but it mostly went unnoticed thanks to our cheerful, talkative tour guide.  There's a lot to be said about the topic of political repression, so I'll give a short introduction. In October 1917 a revolution took place in Russia that dethroned the Tsar and established the Bolshevik Communist Party as the leader of the new Soviet Union. The Tsar was basically the king of Russia, and this tradition had existed for centuries. There was little attempt at democracy up until the 1905 revolution. Furthermore, the majority of the Russian population were serfs (essentially slaves) up until 1861. A 5-year civil war followed the revolution, and until the end of Stalin's regime in 1953, political repression was not uncommon. People would be kidnapped, thrown in jail, kept in jail for extended periods of time, deprived of education or work opportunities, sent to work camps (Gulags), and sometimes murdered for a variety of reasons. Maybe you were in the opposition political party, or maybe you simply voiced an opinion that opposed the authorities. Maybe you got caught stealing, or you were a spy. Maybe your neighbor overheard you say something against the authorities, or maybe your neighbor completely made something up to get you arrested. There were rewards for turning people in, and disposing of criminal elements was a great way to advance in the communist party. This way of life created an atmosphere of paranoia and fear, typical of a totalitarian regime. During the Great Purges (1937-1938), for example, it is estimated that up to 2 million people - Communist Party officials, peasants, workers, minorities - were murdered. As I said, there is a lot to say about this tragic topic when you get into the effects it had on society and how it is perceived today, but I'll leave it at that.

Balcony shot

The other evening I shot this video from my balcony.

Excursions

When I'm not busy doing homework, I've got plenty of opportunities to get a taste of local and Russian culture. Here's a list of my activities thus far.

Concert - A local orchestra played a free concert at the Philharmonic, located on the main plaza. From what I remember they played a few impressive pieces by Mikhail Glinka.

Concert - This same orchestra was joined by various opera singers known around Russia to perform pieces from various operas. I'm not crazy about opera, but it was interesting nonetheless.

Concert - A local group played jazz renditions of traditional Russian songs, as well as a couple Western classics, including a Russian translation of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive."

Theatre - A children's puppet show. I guess I should have been listening when they explained that it was a children's show, but we went as a group so it wasn't too weird. It's noteworthy that the puppets were human-sized. The show itself was a re-telling of a folktale written by Pushkin.

Theatre - An adults' puppet show, although there were more children there than adults. More thematically and emotionally heavy, and the puppets were very small. It wasn't a puppet show with a puppet-stage - it's an artist who stands on stage and plays with his puppets and makes a story out of it. I think we're returning, so I'll take pictures next time.

Extreme park - Outdoor park outside of the city. Paintball. Rock climbing. Obstacle course up in the trees.

Dacha - Hanging out with Americans and Russians out in the country side, staying overnight in cabins we rented. Mosquitos, flies, vodka, unfiltered local beer, and lots of pickled food.

Sauna - We have a sauna in our house, it's cool. You go in, get really sweaty and hot, and when you start losing your breath, you leave the sauna and jump in the pool. Then you go back in. After a couple times you're good to go, and the rest of the night you have a nice high to relax on.

Beer factory - See earlier post.

Candy factory - Like the beer factory excursion, except less interesting and less tasty.

Artist Studio - We visited a local artist's studio, located on the top floor of an apartment building. A nice view while he showed us his paintings and talked a lot. His style varied from impressionist to abstract, and it was cool to hear him talk about his life and his work and see how it all fit together.

Museum of Slavic Mythology - An art gallery of contemporary artists' paintings portraying gods and legends from pre-Christian Slavic culture. Also an attempt to rip off tourists with over-priced matryoshkas.

Tomskaya Pisanitsa - The park/nature place we went to after our excursion to Kemerovo. A woodsy area with old huts that display inside the way Russian people, as well as other local ethnic groups, used to live (or still live) Artifacts and things like that. There was also a mini-zoo, but now's not the time to comment on animal rights.

I have about three weeks left - time has gone too fast. Much more to come!

Kemerovo

Last Saturday we visited a nearby city (nearby in Siberia means 4 hours) named Kemerovo. It was founded in 1918, so it was developed along the lines of socialism. The city has wide main streets and is very well planned, like a grid. There are also a lot of monuments to workers and other socialist heros. We pretty much drove around the city in a tour bus for an hour, getting off to take pictures of monuments, and then drove some more. Afterwards we went to a park in a nearby forest, which was located along the river Tom.

Memorial to miners.

Industry in Kemerovo.

Russian Orthodox Church

View of the Tom River, near Kemerovo.