A Favorite Place

I've been traveling for quite a while, and in the mess that is my life abroad I have been lucky enough to return multiple times to what have become my very favorite places on earth. One of them is Lake Baikal, another will always be Kiev, and of course my very first love: Moscow's Red Square. I can't fully explain my love for this place --- Maybe the connection to my first trip abroad? Or perhaps its the general sense of awe that one feels while walking across the expanse of smooth, wide-set cobblestones towards this immense, iconic cathedral. Maybe it's the sense of peace as well, because when you enter red square all of a sudden everything becomes quiet, seperated fom the noise of the street vendors and traffic just outside the gates, with red walls and churches surrounding you on three sides. Night trains to Moscow arrive before 7am, which means I usually get to see the square at Sunrise, when St. Basil's is back-lit and beautiful. I take a mandatory picture with the cathedral, and then continue to the small street that runs to the left of the square and walk past some of the most beautiful little churches that line the path all the way to my favorite sandwich place in Kitay-Gorod. It makes sense that during my one-day layover in Moscow, I went to Red Square multiple times, and it seems that most of the pictures I took there feature the square as well... #sorrynotsorry. Enjoy one of my favorite places on earth, everyone. I'll write very soon about how amazing Petrozavodsk is!

Sunrise

Early Morning

Valya likes this place, too

Obligatory St. Basil's Selfie

Mid-day

Krispy-Kreme with an old Friend

The End!

Holidays (in every sense of the word)

Happy International Women's Day! March 8th is a very important Holiday in Russia (and everywhere around Eastern Europe, in my experience). We were treated to a student concert, with lots of variety:

Women have been hearing wishes of good health, happiness, and love from EVERYONE this weekend. Even strangers in the street will wish us a Happy Women's day when we walk by, it's that well observed here. It seems like we have been wishing everyone a "Happy Holiday" of some sort the whole time we have been in Tambov, because last weekend was (if you remember) MASLENITSA (pancake week!)

Maslenitsa originated as a pagan tradition celebrating the beginning of Spring: The pancakes resemble the sun, and a large doll is burned as a symbol of the end of Winter. The celebration also marks the period before fasting, and the last day of that period is the last day you can have butter (which, along with meat, is off-limits until Easter during fasting time) --- hence the buttery pancake indulgence!

This doll is burned to signify the end of Winter

People of all ages gather to celebrate Maslenitsa in the Park

Standing in line for pancakes (which we never got, because the line was too long)

And besides that, there was also ANOTHER sort of celebration --- the Olympic torch was brought through Tambov on its way to the Paralympic games in Sochi: 

...We stood there for a long time waiting for them to come by. I've never been that into the olympics, but still, how often do you get a chance to see the olympic torch? I snagged a quick vid. (p.s. This really was the most exciting part, it was kind of anti-climactic.)

In other news, we have been visiting so may educational centers, youth groups, universities and NGOs that I can't even keep them straight sometimes. We will have a final team meeting in a few hours to go over all the material we have gathered here and figure out what we can do with it --- and then it's off to Petrozavodsk via train, where we will have a 15-hour layover in...

omgIcan'twaitI'mgonnapeemypantssoHAPPYYYYY

For those of you who don't know anything about me (but perhaps read the first few posts on my time in St. petersburg), I'll tell you right now that most often my unhappiness in St. Petersburg is caused, very simply, by my NOT being in Moscow... because I find it inherently BETTER in almost EVERY way. So yeah, I'm pretty happy about it.

That's all for now, next post will be from Karelia!

Love,

Sarah

Тамбов // Tambov

Eternal Flame

Lenin

Rachmaninoff

On the school wall in the background: "Study Study Study -Lenin"

View from the Bridge

500-year old Oak tree

Тамбовский Волк --- Тебе Товарищ

The title of this post is a Russian saying, which translates as "The wolf from Tambov is your comrade." From what I understand, it's supposed to be ironic --- but people in Tambov have been wonderful so far! :)

We are continuing come research which we started in Samara, looking at different models of collaboration between youth, schools, NGOs, and service organizations.We are mapping out three main models so that we can analyze them based on criteria such as project sustainability, application in an American context, and possible partnerships with U.S. organizations. We love charts! 

Otherwise our first day in Tambov was a bonding day at our host organization, the Center for Youth Initiatives. Our colleagues here often lead master-classes on decoupage, so they invited us to create our own little projects --- they turned out quite nice, I think.

We talked out our whole schedule for the week and the next day met with a fabulous artist Nikolai Nikolaevich at his studio inside a local school. The school accomodates regular students as well as students with hearing impairments. Nikolai has been teaching life skills through art since the early 90s, and his philosophy on the benefit of art is quite inspirational.

We met with 4th-grade students and asked the what they like to draw most. The girl on the left said "Girls, with pretty outfits, from cartoons and things"; the second girl answered: "Dogs. My dogs, and me!"

In more general news, we are finally starting to feel productive with our project, things are falling into place, and this weekend is Maslenitsa! It's sort of like Mardi Gras, marking the beginning of the lenten season when orthodox believers start their 40-day fast until easter. It is sometimes referred to in English as "Pancake Week," so you can guess what I'll be eating on Sunday ;)

I'll keep you posted!

Sarah

Самара // Samara

Meanwhile, in Samara...

Sorry for the lack of posting! We have been in Samara for a week, so were nearly done with our time here, technically. It's been a total blur, but here's what I've been up to (sorry that I've been too busy to really write about it all, but for those intrested in knowing what types of meetings we have all-day everyday, here you are!):

Day 1: Met with our hosts at the International Marketing Institute, saw Swan Lake at the Ballet.
Day 2: Sat in on presentations of Samara-region social projects financed by the state for the upcoming year, learned about the structure of NGO and government funding for Education in Russia
Day 3: Met with our good friend Yuriy Maystrovskiy to talk about his own financed project, where students from 6 different universities will be creating their own NGO over the course of the spring semester.
Day 4: Acted as judges for the "Federation of Kids' Organization" as middle-school students presented their tourism projects. Students lead interactive tours of their town for younger children, and came together to present and discuss with groups from different towns.
Day 5: Cross-country skiing and the Museum of Modernism!
Day 6: Trip to the town of Togliatti to visit their youth volunteer corps and youth bank.
Day 7: Visit to "Desnitsa," a local NGO that supports people living with physical disability, followed by a visit to a home for social orphans where Desnitsa youth volunteers (with and without physical disabilities) socialize and play board games with the children on a regular basis.
Day 8: Visited the Volga Business Expo where we got to play a business simulation computer game being used in high-school classis to teach the basics of business and economics (My colleage got first place, I got last... I should never start a business). Oh, and we visited Stalin's Bunker, which he built in secret just in case he needed to sneak away into hiding deeeep underground.
Day 9: Visiting village schools in Otradniy, where we learned about their youth social initiatives. Ended the night with a feast in an old schoolhouse which is now a museum of traditional crafts --- Got to weave AND throw a pot! (throw a pot = make a clay pot on a pottery wheel)
Day 10: Met with high-school students in their "Social Design" club and discussed their volunteer initiatives with service NGO "New People"

Youth Tourism Project

Cross-Country Skiing

Museum of Modernism

Togliatti Youth Volunteers

Stalin's hideout, 37 meters underground

Russian Feast

Largest Village in Russia?

Today: If you need me, I'll be sleeping, thankyouverymuch.

Sarah

411. 179.

Aaaand we're back. Sorry for being a bit behind --- As most of you know, I am already in Samara, which is about a bajillion times better than being in St. Petersburg (in my opinion). While I am totally loving it here, we are extremely busy, and I haven't even finished writing about our work in St. Pete! I gave myself an ultimatum to write about it before I fall asleep tonight, so here goes :)

Our last two visits in St. Petersburg were to School 411 and Lyceum 179. Russian schools are usually referred to by number, instead of by name --- although school 411 is called "Harmony," everyone refers to it as 411. In fact, I'm not even positive about the name of Lyceum 179, I don't think anyone bothered to mention it (or perhaps they don't even have one).

School 411 is located in Peterhof, just outside of St. Petersburg, which is also the home of Peter the Great's fabulous summer palace. It's famous for it's spectacular fountains, although this isn't really fountain season, so we enjoyed it in the snow. We spoke with a representative from the Peterhof Museum, and she told us about their special school for museum tour guides. Highschool-aged students can apply to take special courses once a week in the many museums around Peterhof. They are trained as guides, lead tours for local schoolchildren, and graduate high-school with a sort of "excursion license" which allows them to work in St. Petersburg and Peterhof museums. At Peterhof they lead special themed tours for children, where they dress up as historical characters and lead them to a royal ball!

Our friends from school 411 took us for a stroll around the palace grounds and then brought us back to visit "Harmony." The Students study English and German, and are part of a special league of Petersbug schools who coordinate on projects like "NanoCity," a special camp dedicated to studying nanotechnology.

Friends from School 411 at Peterhof

School 411, "Harmony"

A Kindergarten play-room/performance area

I wish I had taken more pictures inside the school, but the students were already gone, and the most interesting room was this carpeted space for kindergarteners to run, play, and occasionally perform. Kindergarten programs in Russia are like day-care in the sense that young children of different ages (2-6yrs) stay with their peers and teacher all day, usually in a facility that has beds for each child to nap in, meals during the day, and plenty of toys and games for all. In any case, it was fun to see the school, and it sounds like they might have students who are interested in taking part in our International cyberfair project.

Our last school visit was Lyceum 179. While Lyceums are still public schools (students don't have to pay tuition), they usually have a special focus and sometimes require that perspective pupils take entrance exams and/or apply for a space. This particular lyceum had a partnership with medical and physics universities, and focused on medical and technological sciences.

Physics Classroom

Students test water quality based on plant indicators

Salt therapy room - yeah, those walls are salt.

Of course at every meeting in Russia, there is always tea. At this meeting we had a special treat, Russian chocolates. Moscow and St. Petersburg (as well as many other cities in Russia, mind you) each have their own brands of candies. The chocolates come wrapped in paper just like in this photo, folded except for the tips of paper on each long end. They use this paper as a canvas to display a character or animal instead of a written name for the chocolate. This one is a Petersburg chocolate called "Little Red Riding Hood," or in Russian "Красная Шапочка"

"Krasnaya Shapochka"

We had a great time in St. Petersburg, but have a lot of work ahead of us. Just a little hint: The Samara region has over 4,000 NGOs, and we are visiting as many as humanly possible to see how they work with local schools. Get ready, get set, go!

Sarah