Tag: Kelly Morris

By KMorris117

Politics in Russia: everyone wants to know about them, no one wants to talk about them. With the recent explosions in St. Petersburg and the most current developments regarding US-Russian relations, it is a topic that we often don’t want to bring up in conversation. It is a topic that I, both with my lack of Russian vocabulary and even my inability to access all honest media reports, rarely feel comfortable discussing with my Russian host family and friends.

To start, I want to point out/reiterate to my family (and maybe the only ones reading this) that I have never felt unsafe as an American in this country. Sure, crossing the border has gotten a bit tougher. There are often a lot of questions, but thankfully my Russian is mediocre enough to be able to answer them accurately. And very rarely are these questions coming from a place of suspicion or distrust; rather, they are normally from a place of curiosity or intrigue. I have been the first US passport some border-control men have seen, and they are often interested in why I am studying there. And although gingers are not the most common thing in Russia, my appearance doesn’t scream “American” or “Outsider” when I am walking down the street. I have run into very, very few problems with being an American here, and I feel safe in this country.

That being said, being an American in Russia has been the most unique experience I could have asked for, mostly because of the perspective it provides when I am learning or talking to people about contemporary Russian politics. And while I don’t want to go into too much detail while still using Russian Wi-Fi (kidding, sort of) I can say this: there are people in Russia who fall on all sides of the spectrum. I have met people who are supporters of every major party, major Russian and/or Soviet politician, and feel differently about all major domestic and foreign issues.

...continue reading "The Forbidden Topic"

By KMorris117

Every semester, my program schedules a trip for all of the students to Moscow. It is always very exciting because it is the first time we are allowed out of St. Petersburg. For the first 7-8 weeks, our Passports/Visas are going through the Russian bureaucracy and getting both extended and changed to multi-entry. So as much as we all love Petersburg, we were all very excited for the chance to travel and see something new.

We boarded a train on Wednesday night at about 11pm. The sleeper train, which was small yet comfortable, arrived to Moscow by 8:30 the next morning. Running on little sleep but lots of coffee, we then hopped on a bus for a tour of the city. This is where I found the first major different betweenMoscow and Petersburg: traffic. There are cars in St. Petersburg, but there are SO MANY CARS in Moscow.

It was like sitting in New York rush hour traffic. Still, we got to ride around and see different spots throughout the city, many that we visited again for detailed tours later on in the trip. It was pretty cool seeing the iconic sites, like the Red Square and St. Basil’s Cathedral. Also by driving around the first day, we got a better sense of the layout and size of the city. Moscow is huge. It is about 3x larger than St. Petersburg and much more spread out. To be honest, it looked like any other metropolitan city. I did not get the same sense of culture that I do in St. Petersburg, but of course it was only the first day.

...continue reading "Trip to Moscow"

By KMorris117

To be quite honest, Russian food is not the most exciting in the world. There’s not a whole lot of spices or diversity in flavors. It’s very meat-and-starch centric, and there are not as many fruits and vegetables. It makes sense-Russia cannot grow such things in the winter, and their current foreign relations have left them with many sanctions and bans on food imports from other countries. Still, I am eating very well. A perk of living with a host family is the meals they provide. It not only saves me money, but it furthers the immersion experience. I am eating what a Russian would normally eat every day, and I think it is providing me a unique perspective on the current economic situation here! And that being said-my host mom spoils me. She buys lots of fruits and vegetables and gives me a full salad every night with dinner. I think I’m eating better here than I do at school!

But of course, I am eating out a bit too. Like any major city, St. Petersburg has a plethora of every type of restaurant you could want. I’ve had some killer meals, and my new favorite cuisine is Georgian. Which is good, since I just booked a short trip there at the beginning of April.

So what is Georgian food? Imagine the best cheese bread you’ve ever had in your life. And now imagine adding egg, spinach, meat, tons of spices, or just more cheese. That is Georgian Khachapuri (I suggest googling it right now). It is basically a dish of bread with cheese and whatever else you want in the middle. The traditional one is served with egg, which you then mix in with the cheese to get gooey Georgian goodness. Also ProTip: It pairs remarkably with Georgian wine. Just saying.

...continue reading "The Food Situation"

By KMorris117

I realized that I have not posted much about a large reason I’m actually in St. Petersburg-school! In one of my earlier posts, I mentioned St. Petersburg State University and the Smolny campus. The campus is just as beautiful as it was the first day, and it is a lot more lively now that all classes are in session. I’ve got a few tests and quizzes coming up, so what better way to procrastinate than write a blog post about them?

As you know, I am taking Russian language courses while I am here. Because I am the only student who has never taken Russian before, there was no one else placed in my beginner level. Basically, my professor is individually tutoring me, and it is great. I am so thankful they were able to offer these classes to me because I am really learning a lot. It is overwhelming at times, getting a crash course in such a difficult language and sometimes having up to 3 hours of one-on-one Russian classes in a day, but I can already tell how quickly I am able to pick things up because of it. There is still a looong ways to go, but I knew coming into this that it would be a slow process. And even short conversations I am able to have with people in Russian is progress!

...continue reading "Wait, school? What’s school?"

By KMorris117

Brace yourself; you’re in for a long one.

Have you ever had one of those days that were just so great you never want it to end? Well February 23^rd, 2017 was one of those days for me. It was Defender of the Fatherland Day, which is a national holiday. We did not have school, and instead we spent all day exploring and experiencing the new things Russia, and this day in particular, had to offer.

 

 

 

 

To begin, I’ll briefly explain Defender of the Fatherland Day. Like our Veteran’s Day, it is a day to honor those who have served in the military. However, in Russia, this day has become a bit more all encompassing. Instead of just those who have served, it has turned into a day to honor all men. It seems a bit odd to me. When I asked my host sister about it, she said it sort of became that way because there was no national men’s day to counter the widely celebrated International Women’s Day here. “It seems ridiculous,” she said, “because every day is men’s day in Russia.”

...continue reading "A Day in the Life"

By KMorris117

This past week, I have spent a good amount of time on public transport. St. Petersburg is an extremely accessible city, and there is a bus or train that goes just about everywhere. While the set-up is similar to that of DC, there are some major differences as well. The following are 8 facts/observations I have made about St. Petersburg public transportation the last few weeks.

1. The escalators (or lifts as they say) are incredibly long. The ride up/down takes multiple minutes, which gives you enough time to really think about how far underground you are going. Spooky.
2. People don’t walk up or down the escalators like most do in DC. You pick a stair, you stay on that stair, and you ride the incredibly long escalator all the way down. It’s nice, though, because people are not in such a hurry. There isn’t the same frenziness that one can often feel on the DC metro. Although a lively and crowded city, the overall pace of St. Petersburg is no where near as hurried as DC or New York.
3. The escalators (last one about them, I promise) are a prime spot for PDA. I have no idea why because they are all well-lit, and at first I thought it was just one-time thing. But no, it is a consistent thing that many Russian couples participate in. Valentine's Day was very interesting.
4. The Metro face. Russians tend to smile less and look more serious in general, but it gets brought to a whole new level on the metro. I’ve never seen so many faces stay so straight for so long. It’s impressive-no noise or sudden halt fazes them.
5. The public transportation is very on time and very efficient. Trains come about every 3 minutes, and buses are just as punctual. After the disaster that was the DC metro this past summer, this aspect is very much appreciated.
6. The metro stations themselves are beautiful. The architecture makes each station look like some sort of art museum. There’s paintings and ornamentation on the walls, marble pillars, and even some chandeliers.
7. Each ride on the metro and the bus is a flat 40 rubles, at any time to get you anywhere. No rush hour pricing. It’s lovely.
8. There is no limit of how many bodies can be squeezed into a metro car. There is also no concept of personal space. I’m used to crowded train cars, but that definitively has taken some getting used to.

...continue reading "Public Transportation: An Adventure in Itself"

By KMorris117

Привет!

It has been a little over a week since I first touched down in Russia, and what an exciting one it has been. I have moved in with my host family, and the experience has been fantastic so far.

Marina, my host mother, makes sure I am (overly) fed every day. She is kind-hearted, hardworking, and enjoys talking about growing up in St. Petersburg and in the USSR.

Liza is my host sister. She is working towards a Master’s Degree in art history, and she also works at a contemporary art museum in St. Petersburg. She speaks English pretty well and has helped me in adjusting to my new environment.

Ivan, or Vanya, is my host brother. He works and goes to school, and he is a great musician. He plays guitar and sings, and the other night we were jamming to some Adele and John Legend. The music I have heard in Russia is incredibly interesting to me. At restaurants and cafes, many of the songs they play are in English. Some are more recent, popular songs, and others are songs I haven’t heard since middle school. On Friday night, the bar we were at was playing all the pop hits from 2007-2010. To say us international kids were excited is a HUGE understatement.

Obviously, things are very different here than they are in the US. Still, I was surprised at how much of a bustling city St. Petersburg truly is. When many imagine Russia, they imagine a cold, barren wasteland. However, St. Petersburg is a constant hub of activity; it is like any other European city, except everything is in Russian!

...continue reading "Anti-Cafes: My New Favorite"

By KMorris117

The moment we’ve all been waiting for-my first post from Russia! The realization that I am finally in St. Petersburg, mixed with the jet lag, has made the past few days incredibly surreal. It was quite the journey to get out here- Chicago to New York to Helsinki to St. Petersburg- but I was lucky enough to avoid delays, lost luggage, or anything else that can go wrong with flights. My plane from Helsinki, Finland to Russia was very small. It consisted of about 10 Russians and 13 other kids from my program.

We all nervously introduced ourselves to one another as we passed through Russian customs, which wasn’t half as intimidating as I expected. We then met up with some of the directors of our program and some other students, and we headed to the hotel for the orientation weekend.

On Friday night, we were able to have dinner all together and get to know one other. The students in my program are from all over the country, and we are quite the eclectic bunch. Although so far we have all been speaking to each other in English, most of the other students know Russian very well. They all thought it was pretty bold of me to come without any previous language experience, but they’ve been incredibly encouraging and helping me along so far.

For example, today we had to fill out LOTS of paperwork to apply for visa extensions. The forms, of course, were all in Russian and needed to be filled out in Russian. Although I know alphabet, my knowledge of vocabulary is still pretty weak. Yet, with some help from my new friends, I was able to fill out all the forms correctly on the first try (& not to brag, but most of the other Russian-speaking students didn’t even do that.)

...continue reading "Mama, I Made It"

By KMorris117

The week is finally here. What was once “Oh, I’m going to Russia in February” has turned to “I’m going to Russia on Thursday”. And although I still don’t speak Russian or know anything about my host family, I could not be more excited to go abroad.

The nerves, of course, are inevitable. There are a lot of unknowns about my semester in Russia and not knowing how to prepare for these can be frustrating for me. Yet I’ve come to the conclusion that as much as I would love to have everything figured out and know exactly what I’m doing, I just simply cannot. I can read my program’s handbook forwards and backwards (which I have done), but there are bound to be many things about my semester that will be out of my control. Coming to terms with this has been a little tough, as I am one who likes to be grossly prepared for everything. But I have turned those nerves of the unknown into feelings of excitement for the challenges that lay ahead.

I am looking forward to all of it- the adventures, the obstacles, and everything I will learn in the process. I am excited to meet my host family, adapt to the cultural differences, and fully immerse myself in the Russian way of life. I’m eager to meet Russian students and hear their views on things like politics and international issues, and I am eager to learn enough Russian vocabulary that I can then contribute to the conversation with views of my own. Things are going to be pretty different over there. But instead of letting that scare me, I am allowing it to excite me. Taking this perspective has made the preparation process much more relaxing and fun.

...continue reading "Let the Countdown Begin"