I was talking with Katherine yesterday, who wondered if she could use some of my photos in a presentation she is giving next month on the AIFS program. By the way, I will help her, of course. She liked some of the photos I put here on the blog, but didn't realize that if you click on them, they will open full size (6.0 megapixels). I just thought I'd point it out in case anyone else didn't know about that feature. Now I think is also a good time to say a very special "Thank you" to my Gramparents, who gave me this awesome camera for Christmas.
Most Sincerely,
Jake
P.S. Here's some photos.
This photo was taken out the coach window on the way back from Pavlovsk. I really liked this sign, which marks the southern border of St. Pete city limits. It says "St. Petersburg: Leningrad - Hero City" (hence the medals to the right). The catch-line at the bottom could also be translated "Leningrad is the Hero City", because Russian doesn't use intransitive verbs in the present tense. This sign also represents an interesting bit of St. Petersburgian history: In 1991, after the fall, the citizens of Leningrad took a vote to see if they would continue to use Leningrad, or they'd restore the original name of St. Petersburg (Happy Pancake City was also in the running, but recieved zero votes) St. Pete won by a narrow margin, with 54% of the vote. The catch phrase 'Leningrad - Hero city' provides some consolation to those who take pride in Leningrad's proud history. St. Pete derives it's heroism from the Siege of Leningrad, an 29-month seige from the Wehrmacht that began in September 1941. During the seige, 800,000 of Leningrad's 3,000,000 died. Also notable is the red shield, which is the seal of St. Petersburg. It consists of crossed anchors, and a scepter topped with a two-headed eagle. The two-headed eagle was actually a symbol of Russian Imperial power (Tsars), but is still used today as a National Symbol. The anchor pointing left is a sea anchor, the right one is a river anchor, which is important because it refers to both St. Petersburg's geographical location and it's role in History. Peter the Great commissioned the city to be built so that it would be A. a window on Western Europe and 2. A port city, as he was a real nautophile.
If you've never seen an entirely frozen river before, here it is. The mighty Neva, which winds through St. Petersburg, freezes for several months of the year. During this time, the bridges don't rise, which makes nocturnal cross-urban travel easy. In the summer, the bridges open for several hours every night, after the metro closes. So, if you're on the other side of the Neva of where you want to be, you're gonna have some time to kill. Also, the 'White Nights' (a period in the summer when it never gets completely dark at night, due to St. Petersburg's latitude) occur during bridge season, so its not at all weird for people to stroll about in the wee hours of the morning. Another thing is that Russians, in general, go to bed later than in the US. Of course, we college students enjoy late bedtimes, but in Russia, midnight is a typical bedtime for anyone. Being stranded is not a problem at this time of year, but it may be in the future, and will make a good story.
To the right is the Russian National Library. Supposedly, my literature class will be going there later this spring to peruse the section on very very old books. What we hope to see is the libraries collection of books copied, by hand, by monks. Copies are usually very large, as big as a tabletop, and are written on pressed leather or even birch bark. As Orthodox Christians love to do, the monks spattered the books in gold and jewels. Our professor said that sometimes they let us in to see the books, but sometimes the don't (TIR), so we'll see.
1 comments:
Post a Comment