Trapped

My bedroom in Russia has one major issue with it: the door has only one handle. I guess that to be truthful I should say that it only had one handle when I got here. I don't know how this came to be or why no one thought it would be a good idea to fix. Instead, someone who lived here before me just put this sign on the door:

Paige and I have bee very careful about not shutting the door all the way as we always want to be able to leave our bedroom. That is, until Thursday morning.

Megan texted me early in the morning asking if I wanted to skype. I said sure. Paige was already gone teaching, but I didn't want to disturb my other roommate who sleeps in the living room, so I got up to close the door most of the way. I guess that I pushed a little too hard because BAM the door shut all the way. 

I wish I had a picture of my face when it happened. I was shocked and immediately began pulling as hard as I could on the one door handle conveniently found inside the room. Unfortunately I am stronger than I look because the handle came right off after a good tug. I then proceeded to slide my fingers under the door and pull as hard as I could, to no avail. 

I figured I wouldn't be able to get out on my own, so I called out to my roommate Megan to see if she was awake. She said she wasn't, so rather than bother her, I called Samantha, my other roommate who sleeps down the hall. 

She answered her phone and I said, "Samantha, I'm trapped in my room. Can you please get me out?" and she immediately started laughing so hard that it woke Megan up and they both came over to help.

They unscrewed the covers off of where the handles go to reveal this:

Here are the pieces that came off on my end:

After several minutes of trying different things to get the door open, they finally inserted a knife and twisted it and I was released from my bedroom. Hallelujah!

So if you ever only have one door handle, I would advise you to just get it fixed rather than run the risk  of getting trapped.

Maslenitsa Part 3

Sunday was the main celebration of Maslenitsa in Russia, so obviously I was determined to partake in the festivities. Sveta told us she knew there would be celebrations in the summer gardens and then I looked online and saw that there would be a large celebration and Peter and Paul Fortress. We decided to check out the summer gardens first and then head to the fortress a little later on in the day. Unfortunately the summer garden celebrations were less than epic, so we walked across a long bridge over the Neva river and then crossed another bridge onto the island where the fortress is. 

As you can see in this picture, the second bridge was not entirely necessary as the river was frozen solid. We ventured down to walk on it. When in Russia...

The ice was thick, but very slippery.

Samantha discovered this the hard way. But it was oh so funny and she was fine once she got up.

The celebrations were epic at Peter and Paul Fortress.

Laura, me, Samantha, and Paige at the stage just after dancing our hearts out for several songs:

There was a variety of live entertainment. These guys were the hosts throughout the festivities. They were very entertaining, even without my understanding most of what they said.

After a series of dance and musical performances they invited several couples on stage and gave the girls the tops of brooms with which to continually hit their men with. They started with all their clothes and heavy coats on and then they kept making them remove layers until they were shirtless. It was unusual, but also funny.

Then thy had them switch and the boys beat up on the girls, but only one round, so they didn't have to take their clothes off. Luckily. 

They brought the Maslenitsa woman on stage (the large red doll in the back). Based on the sun flag and what I've read about the celebration, Maslenitsa is a celebration of winter ending and spring beginning.

Toward the end of the event they had chidren dressed in traditional Russian clothing come out and sing. They were adorable.

They also did what appeared to be some traditional dances.

Here is a little clip of the singing and dancing:

After the performance was over, they carried the Maslenitsa doll away and a crowd was following, so we naturally followed to. I did my best to sneak up as close as possible because I had read they were going to burn it and I wanted o see it up close.

Not too shabby of a view, eh? Here is what went down.

They brought the two straw effigies together.

And they lit them on FIRE!

Here is a snippet of the burning on video:

Then people danced. Notice that these two men are literally spinning these women in the air.

We couldn't help but notice that everyone was walking away with ash on their faces and we wanted to be a part of it, so we made our way to the ashes and stuck our fingers in them, possibly burning them slightly - it was hard to tell because they were already frozen from standing outside for 5 hours - and rubbed them on our faces. A little Russian girl gave me a thumbs up after I did it, so it was good to have some native approval.

Samantha and I were immediately obsessed with Malenitsa. We loved everything about it.

We even chased down this guy for the most perfect photo-op:

The group with ash on our faces:

I love Russia.

Maslenitsa Part 2

Maslenita, or Blini Week, continued with Sveta taking us to two different parks. The first park was Miracle Island in Victory Park. It is a small amusement park, like a mini Disneyland. 

Here is the group with the Wizard of Oz trio:

Me and Yoda:

A firefighter ride:

One of the firefighters I met there:

A three-headed dragon under a roller coaster:

Sveta, our adorable coordinator:

The group with the Maslenitsa doll behind us:

We started a dance party that many Russians joined.

It was so much fun!

Here is one of the men who joined us. He had some serious moves!

The group with our new friend:

There was a "wild west" section of the park, so obviously I had to snap a photo with the covered wagon. Maybe they've heard of the Mormon Battalion in Russia?

A Russian cowboy.

After our fun experience at Miracle Island, we headed over a bridge and onto an actual island. There were tons of people cross country skiing on the island. Gotta love it.

There were these adorable little bird houses all over.

This is probably one of my favorite things I have seen so far. The Kiss by Klimt as a statue on a random island in St. Petersburg. Who would have known? But isn't it incredible?

We are just as graceful as these dancers:

Stunning.

The palace of the mother of Alexander I:

I can't wait to come back to this island in the spring, though I may have to come back once before then to ice skate. This is just like how I imagined the ice skating scene in Anna Karenina. A large outdoor rink surrounded by snow:

Apparently Christmas lives on in St. Petersburg until the snow and ice melt.