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[Hobot]

Last month, I took a day trip with fellow members of the Russian Club to New York City to see the Russia! exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum.  Has anyone else seen the exhibit? If you haven't and you're in or near NYC, I highly recommend checking it out, as it runs only until January 11.  I particularly enjoyed the beautiful icons from the 13th and 14th centuries and the post-Soviet era protest works.

For more information and a better description of what the exhibit has to offer, click here.

[miles]

Wait, you're in high school, right?  You have a Russian Club?  Somehow, I think life would have been better for me in high school had there have been a Russian Club.  I studied it for a couple semesters in college, but then somehow I got caught up in German.  And although I'm slowly working my way through Dostoevsky's novels, I haven't gone back to study the language.  One of these days, though, I want to make a trip to St. Petersburg.

I wish I was closer to NYC, or that the exhibit happened at a time when I wasn't so broke.  I would especially be interested in the icons, as Tarkovsky's "Andrei Rublev" is one of the things that really piqued my interest in the language and culture (along with "The Mirror," also by Tarkovsky, which remains a favorite to this day).

[side_show]

Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

[Hobot]

I'm actually in my first year at Smith College.  I, too, am studying Russian -- after nine years of French in school, it was about time for a change.  I'm hoping to spend at least one semester in St. Petersburg in my junior year; ideally I'd stay for the whole year, but I have hell of credits to fulfill for my double major (Biology & Psychology), and the idea of taking upper-level science courses in Russian is more than a little daunting.

I don't know much (or anything) about art history, but I've always loved iconography.  The Orthodox Church has such lovely, ornate traditional art.  It was quite a treat to see such a fine collection in person.

Years ago, there was a huge exhibit of Fabergé eggs at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, which is located a convenient fifteen minutes from my house.  I don't remember much, as I was just a child when I saw it, but I do recall the exhibit making a big impression on me.  I've always been something of a russophile.

[Golfhaus]

I'm hoping to spend at least one semester in St. Petersburg in my junior year

Wow. I'm reminded of an Internet friend of mine of many years, who counts amongst the things she's proudest of the fact that her passport is stamped with a lot of stamps from countries the gub'mint would rather you didn't go to (lots of countries with few vowels that end in -stan). She's in Russia for a year studying. It makes me kind of sad that I'm not so adventurous, especially since I'M the one with the airline job that lets me fly for free.

St. Petersburg... man, I consider it a trip to make it to Petersburg... Virginia.

[Hobot]

You know, Golfhaus, I never considered myself the adventurous type.  In fact, I'm painfully introverted and shy, and I fear change to boot.  I always marvelled at my high school classmates who spent a year abroad in Italy or a summer in Switzerland, and wondered how they summoned the courage to do so.  Like I said before, I took French for nine years in school; despite my near-fluency, however, I was never comfortable with the thought of going abroad to test my linguistic prowess.

I've taken Russian for just one semester, but I already know that I want to study in St. Petersburg before I graduate.  I think the reason I'm willing to do something different is because I'm truly passionate about Russian, and I find Russia endlessly fascinating.  Maybe you haven't experienced such an interest in a foreign language and culture? Extreme interest is the only explanation I can find for my sudden change of heart regarding study abroad.

[Turbo Ninja]

I went to Moscow and St. Pete in 1992.  I was 15 years old and not really wise enough to appreciate everything I was seeing, but I remember that we seemed to split our time between museums/palaces and flea markets.  After maybe the third hallway stuffed with Faberge eggs and gilt mirrors, everything started to bleed together into one opulent blur.  Then we'd go to Arbot Street or someplace like that and barter our little capitalist fingers off.  The idea of today's Moscow scares me a little (we had bodyguards on our visit and the mob was still establishing itself) but I'd throw caution to the wind if I got to see St. Pete again.  It was bright, lively and wonderful in ways that were hugely relieving after the gray misery of Moscow.

Learning to write in Russian was hell of difficult for me.  Cyrillic AND cursive?  That's like learning two new languages at once.  I took one quarter of it in college, changed it to pass/fail halfway through, and ran away from Russian to the non-language-lab-requirin' paradise of Latin.

[jough]

Hobot - that's probably because you weren't alive during the Cold War, and thus cannot remember when the Russians were the BAD GUYS.  Seriously, every American movie of the period had people either fighting Russians or Nazis.  Now it's nothing but brown people as bad guys.  It's already starting to get old.

We need to focus on the true threat: Bora-Borans.

[wombat]

Stinking Bora-Borans and their picturesque lagoons and volcanic peaks and marine life.  Damn.

[AugustWest]

They change our money to puka shells and make us attach outriggers to our cars if we aren't eternally vigilant.

[AlohaDawg]

They change our money to puka shells and make us attach outriggers to our cars if we aren't eternally vigilant.

Oh, shit. I guess I know where those filthy surfin' little coconut eaters are coming first.

[wombat]

Oh, sure, AD, try to fool us, from your island with - more than coincidence? -  picturesque lagoons, volcanos, and marine life.  Can you really swear that you are not and never have been a Bora-Boran?

[Bozack]

I'm actually in my first year at Smith College.

An ex-ladyfriend of mine goes there. I hope you're not her because wow. That could be awkward.

[Hobot]

Bozack, I can assure you that I am not the lady of whom you speak.  I posted a picture of myself in this thread, if you don't believe me.

[Bozack]

Double true, but just for safety's sake, did you ever have the Clap?

because she did.

I apologize for drunken ramblings. Sorry, Hobot! I'm usually a better person. I can provide references.