Tag Archives: Russia

Busting the Stereotypes

After strolling around for almost 2 months in the Russian Federation, I have learned so much about cultural differences. I have seen things that I never would have imagined I would witness here in Russia, and I would love to share these “stereotype-busters” with you in this post.

1. Russia does not have year-long winter: “You are studying abroad in Russia?! You will have to wear your winter coat ALL summer!”

While it may seem that almost every American film set in Russia involves freezing weather and fur coats and hats, brutal cold is not the only temperature. Sunshine does exist: I have seen beaches and people sunbathing in parks. There are fountains here that children play in and adults run through. On sunny days, my phonetics professor actually teaches our class outside on the green lawn!

They have beaches in Russia?!

To be completely honest, the weather is a little odd. The rain and wind here can get pretty funky. My host mom just informed me that there was a small tornado in St. Petersburg yesterday, and she said it was the first time ever. (This is also the record coldest summer since 1948, which is unfortunately ironic.) Nevertheless, even during an unusually windy and chilly summer, sunburns and sweat are still very much a reality.

2. I haven’t seen any bears roaming about in Russia. I haven’t even seen a pet bear on a leash. But I have seen stray dogs and more pigeons than I would ever like to see. And I have also seen pet monkeys in outfits and raccoons on leashes. Go figure.

This lil guy actually has an owner, but he was strolling about campus today and interrupted our last outdoor phonetics class.

3. All Russians are not as “serious” as one might have thought. Humor is a huge part of life here, and it is enjoyable to catch silly moments on the metro or marshrytka (like when an elderly woman starts laughing hysterically and blessing you repeatedly because she fell onto your lap during a sharp turn …or when it starts raining out of nowhere and the wind blows your umbrella inside-out and an elderly man finds it to be absolutely hysterical). Actually, a lot of these LOL moments happen at home. I woke up the other morning to some Russians teenagers singing “Hakuna Matata” outside my window.

And the other week, I bought a purse during a huge sale at the mall, and my host mom liked it so much that she went out and bought the same purse in a different color …and could not wait to tell me about it. Now she enjoys telling me “good job” every time I take it with me out the door in the morning.

And sometimes, when she knows I have been to the mall, she will ask me if I saw any good deals.

“Super American Sandwich”… Russian humor at its finest.

4. Fastfood is better abroad. There is just something about sitting in a Burger King with a ceiling fit for a cathedral and biting into the most plump burger that makes one start to compare…

The prettiest Burger King ceiling I ever did see

And… Russian McFlurries are creamier than American ones, too.

To be entirely honest, the best American hamburger I had here was from a Russian cafe…

5. Russia has roller coasters. I would know – for the Fourth of July, I went to a “Disney-like” theme park. Oh, and they are WILD. The advertisements for the particular roller coaster that I rode said it went from 0 to 100 km/hr in 2 seconds, but the fact that there was no bar over my shoulders during all the loops and corkscrews was slightly more terrifying. But for the split-second I had at the top before the plunge, I could see the most spectacular view.

How Americans celebrate the Fourth of July in Russia…

6. Not all Russians drink. But when they do, according to my culture professor, they do it right. And it is normally vodka. “To warm Russians up because we are such cold people,” he would sarcastically explain.

7. The Minion movie in Russian is great. Without having really seen either Despicable Me movie, I can say that my friend and I laughed our pants off in a theater that only had a handful of other people in it… and they were all under 3 feet tall.

That reminds me…

8. Russian movie theaters have the comfiest seats ever. And probably the coolest refreshment options ever. A pint of Baskin Robbins? Sure. Refillable giant sugar sticks? So that’s why the little boy kept leaving the theater…

9. While it is advised to keep a straight, blank look on your face on the metro, some people are doing just fine without their “Metro Face”:

After this Russian man spontaneously hopped on the metro and started playing his electric clarinet after everyone had a long and tiring day (Navy Day celebrations – long travels, lots of walking, lots of exciting events)… he ran up and down the aisle – asking for money – and then hopped off at the next stop.

Never a dull moment.

^^^ Not even for him.

Location: st. petersburg, russia

From Pittsburgh to Petersburg

Now that I have developed somewhat of a routine that involves getting used to the constant daylight of White Nights in Saint Petersburg (waking up at 3 a.m. and seeing daylight kept throwing me for a loop), I am rather excited to share my experiences with you!

As my plane flew from Brussels to Saint Petersburg two weeks ago, I could feel my heart thumping in my chest. Maybe it was a combination of the dehydration that comes with running through airports and time zones without a water bottle handy and the anxiety of flying to Russia to live there for the summer. Yeah, that was probably it.

To ease my nerves and excitement, I peered out the window into the vast blue. The sky seemed cloudless and endless, and eventually the pilot’s voice announced our descent into Saint Petersburg. As if on cue, the sky turned to a thick, milky gray, and condensation covered my window. When my plane landed, the 20-some degree drop in the temperature blasted me like a bad surprise… But there was absolutely no time to let the stereotypically temperamental Petersburg weather being me down. I was greeted by enthusiastic CIEE employees and taken to Crowne Plaza, a gorgeous hotel (WITH WIFI!), to wind down and prepare for dinner and, yes finally, sleep.

I landed on a Friday and spent the weekend attending orientation sessions with the other CIEE program participants to prepare for Sunday afternoon. That was when our host families were meeting us to take us to our home for the summer. (Ahhhhh!!! We were all so anxious..)

But everything has been great, and I am happily typing away in my own bedroom in an apartment with my host mother and her little Yorkshire Terrier. We have had multiple funny moments together, and no matter how awkward a situation may seem due to cultural differences… we both get a kick out of it.

For example, during first evening with my host mom I was telling her about where I came from, and I brought out my gifts to share with her. I presented to her a Pennsylvania map, Pittsburgh sports memorabilia (including a Fourth-of-July-edition Terrible Towel, of course), JIF Peanut Butter and family pictures.

I guess I figured that my lack of language skills (how does one explain the Terrible Towel, anyway?!) would be made up for with my superior charades skills… Needless to say, my host mom was laughing so hard when I jumped up and started waving around the Terrible Towel like a true Steelers football fan. She must have liked the gifts because she giggled and grabbed my arm, and we went for a walk to the metro station so that I would be able to know where to go to commute to school each day (Russian transportation requires another post… stay tuned…). We laughed the whole time, bonding over the stories we shared as we passed a McDonald’s restaurant (you can’t escape it…) and other familiar businesses. To my happy surprise, I realized I even knew enough Russian to crack a few jokes and to help break the ice.

Троицкий собор – Troitsky sobor (Trinity Cathedral) I am lucky to have a long, scenic walk home from the metro station every day. Oh, and this photo was taken at about 10 at night!

Eat Fresh!

As it turns out, we are all people who smile and laugh and cry and understand – no matter where we come from or what language we speak – and I am so blessed to be understanding the Russian culture and appreciating more every single day that I spend abroad.

Location: St. Petersburg, Russia

Vodka and Mayonnaise and Bears, OH MY!

After telling people where I was studying abroad this summer, I got a lot of funny reactions: Most of the time I got worried reactions (people asking if I was okay), sometimes I received agonizing looks, and I even witnessed a few angry outbursts. It’s true: Russia isn’t everybody’s first choice for vacation or study, but it’s mine. I love telling stories and am naturally curious, and I see studying abroad in Russia as an opportunity to challenge myself and to inform others about a culture that perhaps they don’t know very much about.

It hasn’t really hit me yet that I am going to be in Russia on Friday. I will be living in St. Petersburg with a Russian family, taking classes in Russian (!??!?!!) about the Russian language and culture, and exploring not only a new world …but a new me.

Just a year ago, I was packing up my stuff for my freshman year at Penn State. I never imagined that this summer would see me off to the Motherland. And I definitely never imagined that I would be taking an oath to speak only in Russian. But hey, I wouldn’t have it any other way, and I cannot wait to soak it in!

I AM nervous, though. Naturally… I have a long plane ride with a few layovers, and packing was a nightmare. Thank goodness I finished that… today… And I am also anxious about living in a Russian family’s home for 8 weeks. What if I can’t understand them? What if they don’t like me? What if I get lost trying to get to St Petersburg State University every morning (the metro system is a whole different story!)? I realize these little worries are stupid to fret over. I’ll get over there and it’ll be fine. Actually, it’s going to be a lot better than fine. It’s going to be amazing – quite the life experience – and I am going to savor the Russian language and culture and share the beauty and excitement of Russia with all of you.

So watch out, world. I am packed (I hope I’m not forgetting anything…) and ready for a challenge. This surreal adventure that I am about to embark on is ON!

Location: Pittsburgh, PA

A Week in Leningrad

Please forgive the long stretch of time between the pre-departure post and this one. I had no access to a good internet connection until just yesterday. Fortunately, that has been the only hitch thus far during my time in St. Petersburg.

Russia is a wonderful country. It is not inherently European or Asian – It’s an entirely different animal. I’m not really sure how to describe it myself.

I am staying in a Leningrad flat with my host-mother Natasha. We live just off of a busy street by the name of Moskovskiy Prospekt, which runs south toward Novgorod and Moscow. Though the skies are always grey and the streets are perpetually covered in brown slush, ice, and puddles, it is by no means a depressing city. The degree of so-called ‘westernization’ since the Soviet era is astounding, and I’m continually shocked by the amount of signs, items, posters, and reglami (commercials) that have English and non-Cyrillic elements.

I am studying at the Smolniy Institut of political science on the eastern part of the city centre. The campus is absolutely breathtaking – a horseshoe-shaped complex of white walls and blue domes, with a brilliant Orthodox cathedral at the centre. Of course, there are magnificent Orthodox churches all over the city, and a load more thousand-year-old churches out in Novgorod, the birthplace of Russia, where I spent this past weekend.

Items like food and toiletries are horribly inexpensive in Russia, and that’s on top of an exchange rate in my favour (somewhere between 28.8 and 29.5 roubles to the dollar). Electronics, on the other hand, cost an arm and a leg. Pricing here is a set of polar opposites, especially in chain coffee shops such as “Kofe Hauz,” where a lunch that would cost me 80 roubles at my local Produkti market turned out to be 480 roubles (and let me tell you, I wasn’t happy about getting one meal for the price of six. See if I get a regular Americano at the Kofe Hauz ever again).

But I digress. St. Petersburg is a mix of the present-day Russia, the Soviet years, and imperial Russia all crammed together into one city. In one day, one can go from the Hermitage – Winter Palace and other buildings commissioned by the Tsars – to the statues of Lenin at Moskovskaya Station and Lenin Square, and then to the massive shopping mall, Gostiny Dvor, on the Nevskiy Prospect. And, of course, all of these things are closer than ever thanks to the horribly efficient St. Petersburg Metro System, which I take every day on my commute to campus.

I suppose that’s enough for right now. I will here add a few pictures taken during this past week and call it a night.

The statue of Lenin at Ploshad Lenina (Lenin Square), just south of Finlyandskiy Railway Station.

The starry-towered corner of the Monastery at Novgorod, a complex housing the 1150 year-old cathedral of St. Yuriy (St. George). Here, I am sporting my new shapka, a gift from my host mother.

The grand staircase at the Winter Palace (Hermitage).

A portion of the campus at Smolniy Institut.

Last but certainly not least: During the tour of St. Petersburg we were given on our first day in the city, these two guys that had parked their Toyota on the side of the road could not get it running. The tour group broke out the cables and gave our comrades a jump, and they went on their way.

I suppose that’s all for now. Until next time, do zvidaniya.

Location: St. Petersburg, Russia

Pre-Departure: St. Petersburg, Russia

If you were to ask me how long I’ve wanted to visit Russia, I’m not sure I could give an accurate answer. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t dream of setting foot in the former USSR. To tell the truth, I still can’t quite believe that in under twelve hours from the time this entry is published, I’ll be riding in an airplane bound for St. Petersburg. But perhaps first some sort of introduction is in order.

My name is Michael Mattia. I was told that, when it came to wanting to visit the Russian Federation, I was somewhat of a peculiar case. And I can understand why – I have no relatives in Russia, nor am I Russian by descent. My intended major, Veterinary and Biomedical Science, doesn’t have any overlap with Russian history or language. I am not sure why I’m so captivated by Russian culture and history. But I am, I always was, and I’m sure I always will be.

My Russian is limited. The language was not offered in my high school and my major has no language requirement. All the Russian that I presently know was self-taught over the course of the last three years. I hope that the Russian Area Studies programme with CIEE (through St. Petersburg State University) is going to give me a more appreciable grasp of Russian (I of course can’t expect fluency given my limited background). But, without question, I’m going to St. Petersburg for far more than solely a chance to learn more Russian.

I want to walk across Palace Square, the ground that was home to a revolution that changed not just the history of a single country, but the history of the entire world. I want to walk down the Nevsky Prospect, the setting of countless pieces of Russian literature. I want to witness the ‘white nights’ of St. Petersburg for myself, to see if they are as magical Dostoevsky described them. I want to hear and sing the old imperial-era folk tunes and Soviet songs alike, and stand beneath the statue of Lenin at Moskovskaya Station.

And now I can finally say that I don’t just WANT to do all of these things; I instead, after years of waiting, will finally make some of those wants a tangible reality.

I invite you to follow along with me as I explore the world behind what once was called the Iron Curtain. You never know what might become your new historical and cultural interest.

And to my friends and family back home, remember that my departure is not “goodbye” – it‘s only “do svidaniya.“

Location: Freehold, New Jersey, United States of America

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