Back to school...

Little cultural reference for you. Yesterday was 'Knowledge Day' according to the Russian calender and as evidenced by the hordes of school kids dressed in their Sunday best and on their way to the first day of school.

It certainly seemed like a happier time for them than I ever remember the end of summer holidays feeling. Maybe the festivities are intended as a way to soften the blow.

The evening news was full of images of the new intake, bells being rung, flowers handed to teachers and photo-opportunities for President and Prime Minister alike. A great deal of optimism was on display not to mention freshly painted classrooms, new computer suites and attentive, quiet students. Still I can't imagine, after the festivities have died down, school life will prove that much different from what I remember...

He's got a ticket to ride...

What an anti-climax! I've had a harder time buying a train ticket in the UK. Still, no complaints and for anyone reading this, I'd recommend doing your homework before hand and come as over prepared as I did.

With all the relevant details of train and required ticket (the cheapest going) printed off all I had to do was hand over my passport, registration and the money.

I used the following guide to navigate my way through the Russian state rail network website (RZD) where you can find the relevant details for the day you want to travel. Its pretty much just a case of running the site through 'Google Translate' once you've inputted the relevant stations in Russian. [Санкт-Петербург / Москва]

Similar info is on the guide above but the important things from my experience are:

1. The date, time and tickets for each train are only released up to 45 days in advance.
2. The cheapest tickets [плацкартный ] sell quickly so get in there early. Even a week and a half in advance didn't give me much choice.
3. There are high-speed services (3-4 hours) from St Petersburg to Moscow but they're, unsurprisingly, quite a bit more expensive.
4. I went to the ticket office at about 10:30am on a Wednesday and there was no queue. The office is open from 08:00 - 20:00 so probably best to avoid peak times in morning and evening.
5. My train is going overnight, comes in at a pretty awful time (04:47) but only cost me about £15! Yes, £15! Considering what I'd pay for an equivalent trip from say London to Edinburgh this is incredible. And I get a bed to sleep in!
6. Though I'm planning on coming back to St Petersburg when I return to the UK it doesn't seem to be the norm to book return tickets. I think each journey has to booked seperately.

Happy travels!

P.S - For someone who doesn't own a single Beatles album I'm doing well with my song references!

There's a right way and a wrong way...

...and I seem to keep choosing the wrong way!

This is my fifth time in Russia, you'd think I'd have noticed before now but I can't seem to stop myself from getting in people's way. It should be such a simple change to make but after 24 years of apparently walking on the left hand side of the pavement, I can't learn to walk on the right.

I guess we - the Russians and English - operate on the same principle as our roads. However, based on my experiences of Russian driving you'd think they'd follow the 'rules' just a loosely as pedestrians. A minor issue maybe, but if I'm ever going to stop looking like a tourist I better get in the right lane and start going with the flow!

The grass is actually greener...

My first impressions (fourth impressions?) of this city yesterday were taken by the obvious amount of development work that has been going on in my absence. The area I'm based at the school has definitely enjoyed a little TLC in recent months. Its noticeable, perhaps because of how rough and ready some of the surrounding area is, but its clear there's some money coming into the place and some of its old Soviet debris is being cleared away.

Obviously it helps being here while the grass is still green and the leaves remain on the trees, but beyond that you notice the freshly dug flower begs around apartment entrances. A few more are scattered in pots and planters around the roads with their freshly painted white lines and newly laid paving. Two new children's areas have sprung up where before it was the sorry, rusted skeleton of Soviet era apparatus. Even car parking, with perimeter fencing, marked out spaces and an organised line of autos has found its place among the plethora of machines still swamping every available kerb and corner.

I don't know what I'll find when I make it into the centre but its just nice to see such a marked change. The buildings are still their tired old selves for the most part and I don't want to give the impression its a paradise on earth, but at least its moving in the right direction. Hell, there even seems to be a greater proportion of pretty girls walking around...

Back in the USSR...

I'm back! And this time I mean business. Literally. Well sort of. It says as much on my [3 month!!!] visa and if anyone asks I'm here for various seminars and other commercially minded reasons...

The real reason for my trip, besides the obligatory Russian lessons - still very much needed despite steady progress over the summer months while I had a willing Russian speaking Pole to practice on in Oxford - is that I'll be travelling down to Moscow for a couple of months in the archives. Yes! Those archives!

Allow me to bring you all(?...hello mum x) up to speed...

Managed to get involved in a week long workshop in Moscow in Easter aimed at introducing DPhil students to working and researching in them. Largely a chance to have someone experienced there to help navigate us through the endless form filling and beaurocracy. Now a proud owner of two Russian library cards - one for the old state 'Lenin Library' and the other for the state history library - and the necessary paperwork for entry into the former Party archives in RGASPI and (hopefully) the more general holdings of GARF.

Besides access to real, dusty, history in your hands, butterflies in your belly (just me still?) documents, most of the above still boast their old Soviet era kitchens that continue to provide a decent meal for a student friendly price. Hopefully won't starve at least while I'm there.

After that it was the obligatory revision / exam run that Oxford loves to make us all suffer. The fear wasn't there after getting through finals in my undergrad days and I was pleasantly surprised by the overall performance. Aced the history paper - which I really should be doing if I'm at all serious about playing this game long term - and comfortable passes in the other two.

That left me with a summer ahead to work every hour available to earn the money to come here and stay here for any decent amount of time..."I don't know how lucky [I] are!"

P.S - The photo is from that earlier Moscow trip. Currently sat tapping away in St Petersburg so will start updating properly as of tomorrow.

Passed the test...

I thought it deserved mentioning that I got news the other day of my successfully passing the qualification exam for the Russian language component of my MPhil.

I have to say its a load off my mind and makes me appreciate again just how much progress I've made over the last year thanks to my regular trips to St Petersburg.

I can only hope that progress continues and now that the academic requirement is fulfilled I can get back to the process of learning the language primarily for its enjoyment and the opportunity for personal development it promises.

Prospects for the future...

Its been a hectic few weeks since my last post. I'm aware I didn't reflect much on my progress during my trip in December. I guess my time in Russia is starting to feel a little more 'normal'. I'll take that as a positive.

I've not left the snow behind though, thats for sure. Maybe those guys in Copenhagen have done a better job than we give them credit for...Either way the thermostat seems to have been turned down for time being, I'm almost glad to have experienced those big negative figures, Oxford was practically tropical in comparison...

The subject of this post reflects the opportunity I've been given to return to Russia in Easter, this time not just to my adopted 'home' of St Petersburg, but to Moscow and my chance at last to feel like a proper historian again. Through an organisation connected to my academic studies at Oxford - CEELBAS for those with any interest - I have successfully applied for a place in workshop that will offer my first introduction to the state archives of Russia and the former Soviet Union. You've seen how excited I get in the museums over there, I'll probably need to wear bib my saliva glands will be working so hard...

In the meantime I return to my studies for another term. After being a little frustrated by the teaching thus far being geared purely for the academic side of things, I am nevertheless hoping to complete my qualification exam next week. This is really just to give me the chance to take off some of the pressure and get back to enjoying the process of learning the language again.

In the classroom things are going to get a little more current too, with papers focused on politics and economics during the transition from Communist power. I'm hoping it will fill in some gaps, I just hope it won't dillute my enjoyment with a lot of mind-numbing statistics and analytical modelling. Only time will tell.

Its been a wonderful start to the new year for me so far. Though none of that is really connected to my Russian. I'm now looking forward to the next step, trying to get my head round how to spend my Summer and getting my hands on some documents. One of my presents at Christmas was a big dictionary. I'm so cool.