Class time!

So even though I have internet, I realized I still haven't posted! Sunday we went on a walk down Nevsky Prospect, which is the "main drag" of Saint Petersburg. We ended up at the Hermitage Museum, which is way bigger in person.

Our group going on our walk.

 

 

 

 

The Hermitage Museum.

  Monday we went to take our placement test. I placed the highest out of my group! I couldn't believe it. After our test we walked down to the Summer Garden. This garden was created only one year after Peter the Great (Peter the First) founded Petersburg. It was in high disrepair after a flood, and it was just reopened this last weekend, so we were some of the first people there! Is was beautiful, even though the weather was a bit cold.

Today I had my first class in Petersburg. The class was conversation. Our teacher read a short story by Pushkin called "The Station Master" and we had to answer questions. We also watched part of a movie. Every once in a while our teacher would stop the film, and we would have to answer questions about the main themes. All in all it was very interesting, even if it was three hours long! My brain didn't feel too good when I was done! After class we went to the first museum in Russia, which was founded by, guess who! Peter the Great, and it is named "Kunstkamera." Peter the Great was very big in science, and so it is an anthropology museum. He studied why babies were born with deformities, and there were at least 100 babies in glass jars. I will NEVER go back to that place. There were other interesting things, though, such as artifacts from different countries and so on. I over heard a conversation in the African section between a mother and her daughter that was so funny. It went like this: Daughter: "Mom, is this an African lady?" She points to a replica of mostly clad black woman. Mom: "Yes, dear, it is." They move on to the next replica, which is a very scantly clad black woman. Daughter: "Mom, is this an American lady?"

It is so beautiful here. It is really easy to see why Petersburg is called the "Venice of the North"

 

 

These little water ways are everywhere, and they led to the Neva river and to the Gulf of Finland.

View from my room.