First Impressions
Hello DukeEngagers!
It's hard to believe that those of us who have traveled to Russia have only been here a little over a week and a half. The days are so long because we are so far north. It doesn't actually get "dark" until after midnight, and then for only a few hours. There's so much daylight that the days feel especially long and tiresome. That added with unpredicatable weather has made for a definitely interesting experience.
For myself especially since this is not only my first time in Russia, but also my first time out of the United States. (Technically Finland was my first foreign country because we landed there on the way to St. Petersburg).
My first impression of the city was not only how beautiful it is: full of things so strange, yet so familiar, but how easily it seemed for me to be in such a cultural hub like St. Petersburg that epitomizes Russian culture. I can't say that I'm not impressed with the city's beauty. Our hotel, the Chaika, sits right on the Bay of Finland, so when we do have that twilight period when the sun goes down (only to come up again a few hours later) we see beauitul sunsets on the bay, and reflected in the large windows of the apartment building.
The language issue and food have been the two largest challenges facing not only myself, but our group. I took a semester of Russian (intensive level) but it did not prepare me for the sudden deafness I feel when all around me is this beautiful, yet semi-alien language that I hear and see everywhere. I cannot say I'm not learning, I am but its a slow process and sometimes communicating, or even performing basic transactions has been difficult and at times very frustrating.
Tutoring has been great though, which is the whole reason we're here. We are working with people in the Philological Faculty (linguistics, foreign language department) and helping university and high school students learn English. Mostly it is us talking to them, and answering their questions. They all speak very well, and I'm surprised at how much they know, phrases and words seemingly archaic to us that they use as their everyday speech. I meant for this to be longer, but I will have to update more later. Overall its been tough here adjusting and trying to find recognizeable food, but its so rewarding. DukeEngage is so worth it.