Peter and Paul Fortress

Today Sveta took us to "bunny island" to see Peter and Paul Fortress. On our way there from the metro she pointed out this lovely memorial. It depicts Russian sailors opening the windows of their ship to sink it rather than have it taken during a war with Asia. It was quite lovely I thought. 

Here I am on the bridge that leads to the fortress:

It is hard to see in the picture, but in the distance there are people ice fishing and skiing on the Neva river. 

Here we are at the entrance to the fortress:

Once inside, there were lots of triumphal arches and gates. I really liked this one. The Russian crest is awesome - you can see it over the arch. It is an eagle with two heads looking in either direction.

The group:

Me and Peter the Great are pretty good friends now. He let me sit on his lap.

Cobblestones with snow. So pretty.

Sveta seemed to think that we were "unamerican" because we weren't loud or crazy enough, so we posed like this for the next photo, which is ironically the gate that all of the prisoners were lead through to be executed.

And this is the view of across the river including the Hermitage and other palaces. All of that snow that appears to be solid ground is actually a frozen river.

There were a bunch of really cool chairs sitting in a circle outside, so I obviously tested some of them out.

Here is a panoramic shot that one of the girls took of the chairs:

Being a student in Russia has really paid off. We got to visit the cathedral for free! And it was stunning.

This is the inside:

All of the Romanovs are buried in the Cathedral. Most of them just have caskets in the main room, but this side chapel holds the remains of Nicholas II's family and servants who were killed together. 

The plaque on the right is for Anastasia.

Another shot of the inside. Aren't the ceilings incredible?

The caskets for Peter the great and his wife:

The iconostasys was recently restored, so it just reopened after being covered for 15 years. It is absolutely stunning.

After the cathedral, we toured the political prison. Here we are in one of the cells. It was pretty scary.

Sveta said that it was a dreaded prison because everyone was in solitary confinement and the guards wore special shoes that would tread quietly so that the prisoners were maintained in complete silence. Sounds awful.

So I finally got a feel for the "russia-cold" that I had been anticipating. Not to worry though, my fur hood fits right in here.

On our way back to the metro we passed this beautiful mosque:

Megan and I in front of it:

Sveta took us to see "little Petersburg," which is a series of small model sculptures of St. Petersburg. This is the square that we went to the first weekend. I'm sure it will be even cooler to see when the snow melts.

These are many of Russia's greatest contributors from history all together at one table. It is a really cool concept.

And it makes for a great photo-op.

Cute Kids

Here is a smorgasbord of pictures of the different classes I teach.

These are some of the kids I teach at the kindergarten across the street. Affectionately still known as "the crazies." We had just made paper butterflies. 

This is half of my basic reading class (the oldest group I teach). We made little ocean scenes together, which they were all about.

Here is the other half of the class. Adorable.

Ok, this picture has a story. At the end of each class the kids count the tokens they have received throughout the day (for saying certain things). We record how many they have and they can save up and buy prizes with them. Andre (center of the picture) somehow lost his token bag in the 2 hours that we were teaching him, so when I told them to put their tokens on the charts to count them, he simply put everything that he had in his pocket on the chart.

Just some rubles, a paperclip, a pair of eyes, and a token. He kept telling me he had 5 tokens, so I had to point out that he actually only had one. Poor kid. 

 Today one of my girls, Sabina, was dressed pretty much exactly like Tinkerbell  Obveiously she is the girl on the far left. The girls were trying to explain something about why they were dressed fancy, but I couldn't understand them. I think they had some sort of performance today.

They also made the ocean scenes and loved them. Nikita loved his so much that he is kissing the fish in this photo.

Spilled Blood (but not mine)

After church on Sunday I went into the city with a couple of girls to do some exploring. We came across this lovely little park. Potentially more lovely come spring, but it has its own little snowy charm I thought. 

This statue was in the center of the park. I read the sign, but didn't know what it mean. One day I will understand Russian. Perhaps.

We really wanted to see the Church on Spilled Blood up close, but we didn't know exactly how to get there, but we figured we would just wander until we found it. We passed this cathedral, which looks pretty epic.

After 20 minutes or so of just following our gut, we found it.

It is absolutely stunning up close.

I love it.

Sarah and Jessica, my travel buddies:

The church from the side:

Talk about a nice fence. I would put this around my house:

Just on the other side of the fence is the Mikhailovsky Garden - aka the backyard of a giant palace. I guess you could say it has a nice view.

I found a swing set just inside the garden, so obviously I tried it out. 

So fun!

Anastasia probably used to swing here. No big deal. 

I must say that I love Spilled Blood. As long as it refers to the name of a church in St. Petersburg and not anything else (like me slipping on the ice and bleeding everywhere, which luckily hasn't happened yet to me or anyone I've seen walking).