The White Nights

This photo is a typical street as seen from a boat on the canal. It made me feel like I was in Venice (not that I've ever been in Venice!). I like the way all the buildings are painted different colors. We are beginning our experience with the White Nights of St. Petersburg, which is from now until the middle of July. Following is a little blurb about them taken from a guide book:

"Although the phenomenon known as the "White Nights" is not unique to St Petersburg, in no other northern city have they received such poetic and literary acclaim. What could be more romantic than a walk along the banks of the city's rivers and canals in almost broad daylight, no matter what the time of day? No other major European city can rival this experience nor the atmosphere on the streets of St. Petersburg during the summer months - lively, friendly, romantic and bustling with people throughout the night as well as the day!
From late May to early July the nights are bright in St Petersburg, with the brightest period, the White Nights, normally lasting from June 11th to July 2nd. The White Nights (Beliye Nochi) are a curious phenomenon caused by St. Petersburg's very northerly geographical location - at 59 degrees 57' North (roughly on the same latitude as Oslo, Norway, the southern tip of Greenland and Seward, Alaska). St. Petersburg is the world's most northern city with a population over 1 million, and its stands at such a high latitude that the sun does not descend below the horizon enough for the sky to grow dark. In fact night becomes curiously indistinguishable from day, so much so that the authorities never need to turn the city's streetlights on!"

While visiting the elder's apartments the other day they showed us how to feed the pigeons. I had always thought them such a nusiance (the pigeons, not the elders) because they are under foot and flying up in your face everywhere you walk. But it was fun to make friends with them.

Photos of the Cathedral on Spilled Blood

These photos of the inside of the cathedral shown in our first post go along with Lou's comments below.

I want to make a comment about the challenges of cooking here. In the first place, we can't read any labels on the products. Even though we can sound out the Russian words, usually they aren't words that correspond with the English words. And you often can't recognize a product by sight. For instance, we hunted and hunted for mayonnaise and finally were shown to it in packets much like the kid's juice drinks at home -- but it tastes good. Vanilla comes powdered in little envelopes, as does baking powder, etc. (much like our yeast packets). We went to the Ikea store one day and I was able to buy some kitchen utensils. But even there the only baking pan I could find is a little smaller than a 9 x 13". No loaf pans, pie pans or cookie sheets. I'm still looking for more. And I was so foolish to not bring measuring cups or spoons (I was told you could buy anything here). Of course, the only ones here are in metric measurements. Anyway, I'm not doing much cooking and no baking, yet.

Two things I'm very thankful for -- filtered water and hearing. We just got a water filter last week and are so happy to not have to lug home big jugs of water every few days. (Okay, Lou did the lugging, but I commiserated.) The Church is very committed to providing all missionaries with good water filters on the kitchen faucet so they have good drinking and cooking water. But since ours is a new apartment for the mission, it took some time (and much difficulty) to get it installed. Be thankful for your good water at home (especially in Rexburg!). I think ours is one of the very few countries that has clean tap water.

And I'm thankful for hearing because while in the MTC I got an ear infection which caused my eardrum to burst. I lived on pain killers for the next week until it healed but then had no hearing in that ear. The doctor told me it would come back in a month or so, and it is now beginning to. It takes some time for the scar tissue to thin out so that the ear drum works again. It has been very annoying, especially when someone is always translating softly in my ear. I think I needed to learn patience.

Each week we get a better understanding of just what our work is here. Maybe we are slow learners!

Diane

May Day

Yesterday was official May Day. All the Elders were told to wear p-day clothes and no name tags and they had to be in by 5:30. We went with two Elders on an adventure. The Branch Mission Leader had organized a clean up detail to go to a non-member house, actually his dasha, out in the countryside. So we got on the Metro and went eight or so stops north. Then we got on an electric train and went even further into the countryside. What a delight to be out of the city and out where there were pine trees and birch looking trees. Lots of water, though, and a few snow drifts still in evidence. We got to the place and I promptly started raking trees from last year. We worked for a couple of hours. The object of our visit, the husband, came and visited with me a couple of times and we seem to hit it off. He could speak halting English and I spoke my bit of Russian. His wife has wanted baptism for some time but he has refused to see the Elders or allow her to be baptized. The Branch mission leader is a cook also. He made these "shishcabobs" of pork and there was tomatoes cut up, cucumbers, and several other vegetables. It was quite a good meal. The apple turnovers were from the fellow's own trees as was the drink. I was quite wary of the drink as it was in these large, at least gallon jugs, and had things floating in it. Come to find out, the things were apple slices and it tasted quite good. Can you see this, Sister Clements and I out in the middle of nowhere, some twenty miles north of St. Peterburg, in this rural setting, having a bar-b-que. We got home in time for the curfew, but it was a bit of a challenge as we got lost at one point after getting off the metro too soon.
We have been to Dostevsky's museum, interesting but a little boring after the first half hour. We had English ear phones there and that was good. Two days ago we went back to the Cathederal of Spilt Blood that is shown above. We went in this time to look around. It is a spectacular building but the inside is not what I expected. It is quite open and there are mosaics covering every wall clear up to the 40 foot ceiling. The pictures are of all the Saints and Jesus in different parts of His life. Tremendous work went into this and it took many years. But it is not the kind of thing we will go back to as there is really nothing there but this big open room with all this intricate art. But as this is a major tourist attraction, there are vendors there who have all the traditional souveniors. We must have looked at thousands of "matyrusaka" dolls. We have our eyes on a few and will go back and barter. There is also a famous three bridges place there and it is a favorite for weddings. There were at least four wedding groups on the bridge while we were there.
We had District Conference this past weekend. Our General Authority visitor was Elder Paul and his wife. He is the 1st Counselor of the Europe East Area. The talks and training was great. We had the change to visit quite a bit with his wife and for a while with him as he interviewed and we discussed what he wanted us to do. Seems like they are quite worried about the return missionaries from Russia and want them to all be active in the institute.
We will have a set down with our area institute director in the next two weeks and figure out what is exactly expected. Right now institute is winding down and they don't seem to be able to plan very far ahead. The Elders tell us it is a Russian thing. They don't feel a need make plans very far ahead. In fact, they don't want to commit to an appointment till the night before or even the day of the appointment. Interesting culture.
So we have been out and about walking about the city. I am beginning to recognize many of the buildings and palaces. They are all the same architecture and drab paint, well almost all the same. But they have a lot of history. We did find the major market that is hidden inside a city block. We got some things there like a summer jacket for Diane and a cap for me.