Today we saw a bear get on the trolleybus on Vasilievsky Island, right across from the University. I’m not sure if he had to pay the fare or if he’s considered a child, but I suppose the ticket taker would have to be pretty well-paid to try to kick a brown bear off the trolleybus. He got in on all fours but then stood on his hind legs and held on to the railing with his front paws once he was on board. We went to the University today via the Marshrutni Taxi, which was more like a luxury bus than the usual cramped minivan. It only cost 12 rubles per person, and Alison was free, so 36 rubles for the 3 of us (the exchange rate is around 29 rubles to the dollar). After registering with the University, we visited our first museum of the trip, the zoological museum and insect zoo (the insect zoo cost extra, and was gross, but worth it). Then a stroll down Nevsky Prospect (the main artery in Petersburg) where we stopped in for a very tasty “biznis lanch” at a Middle Eastern place, “Café Cartago” (Carthage café?). Walking back home from the University might take less time if we could refrain from wandering around shopping, and maybe once we settle down, we won’t be on a buying craze, but today, for example, we bought 2 model kits for Josh, a clay modeling and painting kit for Alison, a toy loom for Alison, a watch for me, various fruits and vegetables, and various papers, magazines, maps, and books. Paul McCartney is going to perform here in a few weeks and Bella’s cousin Maksim, who is a big music aficionado, wanted to get us tickets, but Bella said no before I had a chance to protest. Unfortunately, Bella’s first inclination is usually to say no.

Here’s the weirdest thing I saw today: As we were waiting for the rain to stop in an underpass on Nevsky Prospect, I glanced over and saw a couple standing against a pillar having a serious face-to-face conversation. Well, not just face to face. Other body parts were involved, and all with about a hundred people standing around them also waiting for the rain to stop. Oh, and there was a cop about 20 feet away, who didn’t seem interested in interrupting them. Other than that, today was pretty uneventful. We did some shopping (I’m not sure it’s possible to go more than a day without doing that) and basically hung around. It was a light walking day, only about 4 or 5 miles, and the kids are handling it all like champs, so that makes everything much easier. They’re covered with mosquito bites, though, and we’re in the process of trying to figure out how to get rid of the house mosquitoes that wait til we’re asleep to start feeding. Both kids have tremendous welts on their faces and arms, and Bella even ended up spraying DEET on their blanket last night. It didn’t help that the owner of the apartment had hidden open pails of water in every room of the house. I’m guessing they were for watering the plants, but who knows? Oh, I forgot to post pictures of the apartment. It’s a two-bedroom transitional, which around here means they’re in the middle of doing their Evro-Remont (European Remodeling). When I first heard the term in Moscow in 2001, I thought they were saying Evrei-Remont, which apparently means Jewish Remodeling. Anyway, here’s a Link to the Apartment Pictures.
On another note, yesterday, Alyona took us out to see Dostoevsky’s old neighborhood, and we saw the building where he wrote Crime and Punsihment. It’s a pretty creepy part of town, even in daylight, and you do sort of feel like looking over your shoulder to check for doppelgangers. We also went to see what was playing at the Mariinsky Theatre (formerly the Kirov, which was itself formerly the Mariinsky). After that, we crossed the street and saw the Shamrock Pub straight ahead, which some of you may know is the bar partly owned and operated by a former William & Mary student. We met Tom and stayed for a lovely dinner, American style, complete with hamburger, French fries, and borscht. I also had a very nice Guinness, and won a Guinness T-shirt in the bargain. Okay, that’s all for now.

It’s 9:30am and the sun is shining on another beautiful day in St. Petersburg. Bella and the kids are asleep, and I just finished my morning coffee and bread with smoked salmon. I think I may make the kids some French toast if they don’t sleep all morning. We met Alyona (last year’s Russian House tutor at William & Mary) who took us for a stroll around the center. It’s a much more laid back town than Moscow. Less hustle and bustle, and less stress on consumerism, but the young women and men here are very style-conscious. I’m afraid they’re going to make the William & Mary students look dowdy by comparison. I suppose the old Soviet-era way to tell foreigners apart (ie. They were dressed more stylishly) has been turned on its head. Now you can tell foreigners apart because they’re not dressed in the latest fashions and their cellphones aren’t attached to their ears. We noticed this trend last time we came to Moscow in 2001, but now things seem even more style-oriented. Of course, the dichotomy between the beautifully attired youth and the shit and grime all over the street is pretty striking, but I did see a sign the other day imploring Petersburgers to pitch in and clean up their city. So maybe someone cares. There is broken glass and empty bottles all over the street everywhere, though, so this message hasn’t yet gained popularity with the “in” crowd. Still, the center of town is beautiful, and not so touristy that you can’t still enjoy its Russianness. We haven’t been to the area around the Hermitage Museum yet, so maybe that area will be too touristy—I’ll keep you posted. I took about 80 pictures yesterday, and have posted some of them on my website: http://mxblum.people.wm.edu/petersburg/
Alyona took us to a Japanese restaurant/sushi bar for a light dinner last night, and we all had a very nice meal. Bella had some very fine salmon teriyaki, Josh had the chicken teriyaki, and Alyona and I both had rolls. I had some of the best eel rolls this side of Mizu in New York, and Alyona’s tuna and avocado roll was first-rate also. Alison was the only one who was a bit disappointed with her dish, some fried chicken they cracked a raw egg on top of. The egg was supposed to cook lightly when put on top of the hot chicken, but it was still pretty runny, so we spent a good part of the meal scraping raw egg off her dish. She still ate most of it, and what was edible was very tasty. She even used chopsticks (mainly because she was too stubborn to use a fork), and the service, though very friendly and good, was slow enough to let her finish her meal in as unhurried a way as she wanted. We walked and walked yesterday, and the kids didn’t complain at all, though Josh and I did have to carry Alison a bit at the end. We got back to the apartment around 1030pm, which explained the stares we started to get from the Petersburgers (having two young kids out that late is probably not acceptable), but it’s so damned light out even now at the end of May at 11:00pm that it’s really hard to believe it’s nighttime. Oh, well. Nobody’s up yet (it’s 10:15am already), but I guess I’ll start seeing about waking them for breakfast.

We’re finally in Petersburg after a blur of being in transit since Tuesday morning. The trip from London was pretty easy and all our luggage (except for Alison’s stroller) made it to Petersburg in good condition, even the extra bag we had to buy to shift stuff out of our overweight suitcases at the last minute right there in the baggage check in area by British Airways. The stroller has gone missing, so we put in a claim and hopefully it will arrive today or tomorrow. Otherwise, I suppose I’ll have to carry Alison when she gets too tired. Who’ll carry me, I wonder? Bella and Alison are asleep, and Josh and I are sitting here writing, he in his diary and me on the laptop. The owner of the apartment showed us around the place and helped us find a store yesterday where we bought some groceries, and I bought ice cream for the kids with the rubles we had left over from our trip in 2001. I knew those bills would come in handy some day. The apartment is pretty nice by Russian standards. Decent location, right in the center of everything, but there’s no elevator (lift), and we’re on the 4th floor. Carrying those extra-heavy suitcases up 4 flights wasn’t easy after traveling for 3 days straight. Last night we had a simple dinner of sosiski (hot dogs) and bread with cheese, and it was all really excellent, so we plan to buy the same brand of hot dogs again today or tomorrow. We’re afraid of the Giardia bacteria that’s in the Petersburg water supply, so besides boiling water for 15 minutes before using it for anything (including brushing teeth), we’re also probably not going to be eating anything that hasn’t been pre-packaged for a while. Fruits and vegetables are out, at least until we get on our feet here. The apartment is in an old, Stalin-era building (or maybe even older) with high ceilings and wood floors. It’s in the middle of being remodeled, so the kitchen and bathroom are pretty nice, the water closet (toilet) is decent except for the strange curtain behind the toilet that separates the new renovations from the horrendous mess that I’m afraid to look at that hasn’t been renovated (yet?). There is one apartment on each floor in the building, though the ones closest to the ground are actually businesses. The thing I really forgot about Russia is how depressing it is just to be here, among the filth, the decay, the disrepair. Everything is either falling apart or cobbled together or both at the same time, and it’s always a shock when we first arrive. I suppose we’ll get used to things pretty quickly though, and start ignoring the bad parts and focusing on the good. As Josh just pointed out while reading over my shoulder, every city is like that, New York has its decay and dirt too. At least there are sidewalks here, and I’m looking forward to walking to the shops instead of having to drive everywhere just to pick up milk or mail a letter. The kids have been great since we arrived, they’re treating the whole thing like a big adventure, and now Josh is impatiently waiting for Bella and Alison to wake up so we can start exploring the city. It’s 9am and the girls seem to be hibernating (Josh’s words). Well, I could write more, but that would mean that someone might eventually have to read it, so I’ll just end for now.

If the Russian consulate is good at anything, it’s good at making you sweat. We were supposed to get our visas sometime around May 20 for our flight from Dulles at 7:55 on May 26, so on May 19, I called Travel Documents Corporation (www.traveldocs.com) to ask when we might expect the visas. The woman over there, Sharne, who sounds incredibly grumpy and unprofessional over the phone, told me to hang on a second. After about 5 minutes on hold, she got back on the phone and told me the visas wouldn’t even be ready until May 26, a few hours after our flight was supposed to leave. Typical. Of course, that was the beginning of my insomnia and the ever-tightening knot in my stomach. After lots of begging and pleading, letters from both St. Petersburg University and the College of William & Mary, and various contingency plans, we were told we would get our papers back on May 25 at the earliest. So we drove to Travel Documents Corporation the morning of the 25th and went with their representative over to the Russian Consulate. After some more pleading and cajoling, the smug-faced consular official said, “Come back at 3:00.” And that was all he would tell us. Not that the visas would be ready then, just “Come back at 3:00.” So we came back at 3:00 still trying to think of various contingency scenarios, conjecturing that the reason we were being kept waiting and in the dark was because Bella is a Russian émigré. We thought it likely that they’d give me and the kids our visas and force Bella to wait another day. In that case, we decided that I’d take the kids to St. Petersburg and just hope that Bella would eventually follow. After all, the Reves Center would pay for the substantial extra expense of a last minute ticket change for Bella, but not for me, since she’s the program director and I’m just there to make a promotional video for them. Anyway, we returned at 3:00 with the Travel Documents Corporation representative and they finally handed us back our passports. They all had visas in them! Okay, so now we could take a few minutes to breathe before starting to worry about the trip. The thing is, it’s hard to really mentally prepare yourself for a trip until you really know whether or not you’re going, so here I am on the plane still not quite mentally prepared for anything. Here comes the guy with the Emigration Cards we have to fill out before landing, so I’ll sign off for now.