Thursday, June 02, 2011

Summery Summary of the Day

Priviet! (That's "hello" in Russian--I'm sure I spelled it wrong, but phonetically that is how it sounds at the very least!)

Today was another grand day for the Bennies as we traveled outside of St. Petersburg to nearby suburbs to visit a couple of summer palaces of the Russian royals. Our first stop was at Catherine the Great's summer palace. The place was huge! The palace spanned many meters and is one of the biggest palaces in the country. While we're well versed in tours at this point in our trip, today was different because all guest had to wear fun little booties while touring each of the palaces (check out the picture below to see what we sauntered around in--very stylish!) This was done to preserve the originality of the royals' homes. Catherine's summer home was stunning--done completely in gilded Baroque style with lots of details in each of the rooms of the palace. It was very lavish and ornate; it almost looked unreal. I felt like I was in an actual fairy tale and I kept hoping at any minute my fairy godmother would show up to spin my outfit into a grand ballgown so I could waltz the day away. The place was incredibly gorgeous, but the thing that will stick with me from the tour is that Catherine's palace had to be rebuilt after World War II. During the war it was occupied by soldiers and completely stripped--75% of the treasures and belongings in the place were lost during the war. Only the outer walls and parts of the ceiling were left by the end of the war. In the 1960s the Russian government decided to rebuild and restore the summer palace to it's former glory and a thirty year labor of love began. It was inspiring to see the pictures of it during the war and then to walk through it completely redone, dazzling crowds on a daily basis. To me, this lesson of hard work, rebirth and revitalization will stay with me for a long time.

The second palace we visited was the summer home to Peter the Great. Compared with Catherine's summer palace, Peter's seasonal home was not nearly as grand, but many of the students said they preferred it more because it was smaller and felt more homey. It was still quite large, but not nearly as lavish. The fun thing about this palace was that the royals built a bedroom complete with a massive gilded canopy bed just for show! They never used it! The bed was really lovely and it's a shame to think that it was never used, only looked at when guests visited. Silly royals and their money.

I want to talk for a moment about Russia and some of the things we're experiencing as we're abroad. Everyone's done a fabulous job of capturing the day-to-day events, but so much happens that we could blog for hours and still not tell about everything! For me, Russian culture has been really interesting to experience. The biggest difference that I have noticed is that Russians rarely smile. This is a bit of a challenge for me to comprehend because I'm always smiling and laughing--and because of that I've definitely gotten some odd looks from people on the subways and sidewalks! The cultural norm is just different--people are much more reserved here whereas Americans are more likely to express and emote.

The other thing I've noticed is that Russian women dress a lot differently than American women. On a daily basis I wear jeans and cardigans. Here, it's like a fashion show as the women wear beautiful dresses and heels every day. I am inspired on a moment-to-moment basis because many of the young women here look like they are dressed to go to a party or the theater. They look stunning! We've asked some of the young women we've encountered about this and they've said that it's just the norm here. Women want to look good; they want to give the impression that they're put together and come from a good background--even if that isn't necessarily the case.

I must close for now, as tomorrow we have another big day. We're going to the coast of the Baltic Sea--we're all so excited! We'll also chat with some Russian business women to hear about their journeys and then we'll get to experience a true Russian ballet, The Nutcracker! It'll be another wonderful day for us as we wrap up our adventure abroad. We all send our love! Dasvidanya! (That's Russian for "goodbye".)

~ Krissy P

4 comments:

  1. The pictures and blog entries have been fabulous to read, look at and follow! What an incredible experience you've been having. We can't wait to say "WELCOME HOME" and hear even more about the trip.

    Jody

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  2. Nice booties!

    How's the food? Love reading the posts and seeing pictures.

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  3. Love reading the blog. Interesting notes on the Russian culture--especially about dressing up!

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  4. Enjoy your last few days! Thanks for the great posts and pictures! You are lucky you've had so much sunshine while there.

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