A Day of Museums

Today was a day a museums. I visited the Russian museum, the Hermitage, and the Erarta. Each was a completely different experience—the Russian Museum allowed for an introduction to Russian art, the Hermitage was a rushed journey through the great masters of western art, and the Erarta was an exploration of modern art by flashlight. I took pictures in each, so instead of trying to describe what I saw, I’m including a link to a quick slideshow I made (sorry, no music included).

http://vimeo.com/73784271

What surprised and delighted me the most in these museums was the mosaic art in the Russian Museum. I’ve included two of these paintings in the slide show. At first glance, they looked like typical portraits of aristocracy. But on closer look—they were actually mosaics assembled completely out of cut pieces of stone. Portraits have always impressed me where the clothing is painted with such detail that you can see folds of the fabric, but it is even more impressive when this is done in through a mosaic. The Church of the Spilled Blood, which I will hopefully get to visit before I leave, is also completely decorated on the inside with using this same technique. I can only images a cathedral that is floor to ceiling mosaics!

St. Petersburg Day 1

Today Mary (my librarian colleague), Kelly (her husband and IT coordinator extraordinaire) and I met up with a wonderful librarian named Julia. She works at the Graduate School of Management with St. Petersburg University.

Along the embankment where we docked

An arch we walked by. Most buildings in St. Petersburg are yellow with white trim

 

We walked all over the city, visiting the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library, St. Isaac's Cathedral, and St. Petersburg University.

St. Isaac's Cathedral

St. Peter

We ended the day with dinner at a very hip Asian restaurant called Two Chopsticks. While it wasn't the traditional Russian food I was hoping to start my trip with, it was a place I would never have been able to find myself. The most impressive part was the menu. It was made to look like an art book with beautiful images for every dish (Julia said that most restaurants in St. Petersburg have menus like this). I had a tasty bowl of spicy noodle soup.

Almost there

Today we are preparing for landing in St. Petersburg. There have been some great lectures to ready us. There is a guest lecturer who is sailing with us until St. Petersburg, Dimitri, who gave a lecture on the architecture and art we could expect to see in port. I’m sure it is much more complicated than this, but from his talk it sounds like Peter the Great and Catherine the Great wanted St. Petersburg to be as European as possible. As a result, many of the buildings that we will see won’t look like traditionally Russian structures. Instead, many will look Italian. Another professor said that St. Petersburg is to Russia as San Francisco is to the US. I guess we shall see.

The Bridge!

I am quickly discovering that I can't post images on blogger. There just isn't enough internet while we are at sea. On port, I'll have to try and upload all the photos I can. Today was the first day of classes. It was a busy day of training student workers (we have eight of them who are amazing).

Also, we started to travel closer to land so it was much more interesting to watch. Around 7pm we went under a bridge that connects Sweden to Denmark. I wish I could post photos because they are really cool. On the Denmark side there were rows of wind turbines lined up in the water. I'm glad to see that they are being used.

Proof of the wind

Soon we will be Russia! In the meantime, I have a sock to finish knitting and the film professor has put some really strange (interesting?) movies looping on the televisions in our cabin. Russian Ark is one of them. Every seen it? It was filmed using a single shot.

Off to a Good Start

We are on our way to St. Petersburg. Yesterday all the students boarded in a matter of hours. The excitement and buzz on the ship was great to watch. Students were coming to the library say things like, “Wow, this is the library” or “I’m going to spend all of my time here.” It was a great feeling to see students excited about the library and excited about being on the ship. The phrase, “Voyage of a lifetime,” is used here a lot, but I really believe it is and I think the students, faculty, and staff believe it too.

After a safety drill we all gathered to watch the ship leave the dock. We were given bubbles and balloons, but it was too windy to make much use of either.

Before I left Southampton, I managed to sneak out for one last evening in town. This meant a chance to have Indian food, which I couldn’t turn down. Some friends and I asked the cab driver to recommend a restaurant and he sent us to the perfect place. I had lamb dhansak that was so amazing I ate until I was ill (for me, that is the sign of a good dish). When my friend mentioned that I wouldn’t be allowed to take the leftovers back on the ship, I was heart broken.

I also procured some magnets (the walls in my cabin are magnetic), which meant I could decorate. I hung up all of the cards people gave me before I left so I could think of everyone while I was on my voyage. It makes my room look very homey.

Embarkation day

Today was embarkation day. After a morning of orientation (all I could think about was getting on the ship), we had lunch and boarded the bus. Important things we learned during orientation—we are on a ship, not a boat. We are partaking in a voyage, not a cruise (also that the students are not allowed to rent scooters at ports, but we can!)

The dock was halfway between the hotel and the movie theater I went to on Wednesday, so it was hardly worth the bus ride—but I’m glad I didn’t have to drag my bags all that way.

The Queen Mary II was docked right next to our ship. It dwarfed our tiny ship, the MV Explorer. My colleague, Mary, who will serve as the head librarian and her husband Kelly, actually sailed over on this ship and were there to see ours come in.

MV Explorer

Our ship is the perfect size. Its layout and design is a lot like the cruise ship that my family and I took to Alaska the year before. Hopefully, this means I won’t get lost so easily.

It took a long time to unpack, but I’m finally settled in. My only regrets—why did I pack so many socks?? and I wish I had brought suction cups with hooks so I could hang decorations. Here’s some pictures of today’s events:

The library

Where I plan to eat my meals

My room before the unpack

Wadjda

Wednesday evening I decided to see a movie. I think the last movie for me was Star Trek--I've just been too busy getting ready for my trip to go to the movies-- so this was a nice treat. I don't know if all UK theaters are like this, but in Southampton they assign seats! I got to choose back, middle, or front. The movie I saw was Wadjda, if it is available in the U.S., I highly recommend it. It was directed by the first woman director from Saudi Arabia. Here's the trailer:

Also, here's a funny commercial that was shown beforehand (but no previews, go figure):

Southampton

My trip started at 2pm on Monday afternoon in Newark and ended at 11:30am the next day in Southampton. I arrived to the hotel in a fog. Luckily, I was able to get into my hotel room early, but first a cup of tea and a smoked salmon sandwich. It was only after I left some money on the table to pay and was chased by the waitress that I discovered that the British Pound has changed since I last visited the UK (and they no longer except the older money). Oops.

My hotel

Morning tea

After a nap, I decided to wander the city for a while. I was surprised to discover that most things shut down early (the mall was closed by 8pm). Southampton has three large parks and it was nice to watch a cricket match for a little bit.

Cricket

Wednesday I wandered some more and went to the movies (next post). There was also a happy hour where I got to meet staff and faculty. Everyone seems great and I'm excited to meet them more formally tomorrow during orientation. Tomorrow we get on the boat!

Here's my walk and what I saw:

View Larger Map

From one of the parks

St. Mary's Church

Ocean Village

View of Street

 

Leaving on a jet plane

I have had a wonderful, yet hectic, week saying goodbye to friends and finishing up last minute errands. Today I spent the day in NYC with Heather and my brother and his family. We walked the Brooklyn Bridge and found the ice cream shop on the other side!

I leave on Monday, August 19th, for Southampton where I will meet everyone from the ship. It's a long flight--I take off at 3pm and arrive at 10am the next day. In between, I transfer at South Carolina and Dublin. Hopefully customs won't take too long. I'm excited and ready to be on the ship and unpacked (I've had my stuff packed for two weeks so I'm running out of clothes to wear), but I'll try to enjoy the journey there if I can. Books I'm bringing with me on the flight: Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Grisham's The Racketeer (Heather and I started reading it on the drive up to New Jersey and now I have to finish it), and The Hobbit.