4th of July in St Petes

The weather on the 4th wasn't exactly what you would expect in the middle of the summer. At least it wasn't raining (yet anyway).

The spring and fall jackets were definitely in order.

We went to the other side of the river to experience the cannon firing from the top of the wall surrounding Peter and Paul cathedral. (Click here to learn more about Peter and Paul Cathedral)
The cannon is fired everyday promptly at noon, on the 4th of July the city government agreed to allow the US Consulate General (The senior representative of the US Government in St Petersburg) fire the cannon in celebration of the 4th of July. It was somewhat embarrassing to me that almost every Russian acquaintance I know wished me a happy independence day, I found this embarrassing because I hardly know the US Holiday schedule and I certainly do not know the Russian Holiday calendar, as is evident by my twice showing up at School for class to learn later that class was cancelled because of a Russian Holiday.

Anyhow above is the view from the wall around the Cathedral and below is the CG Firing the Gun.. The explosion was unimpressive (hey I am still a tanker at heart, fixed position artillery is rather unimpressive in the shock and awe department)

Also very reminiscient of 4th of July festivities in the states there was a boat race on the Neva river, quite exciting to watch the speed boats flying by.

We also watched a military parade, which happens every Saturday, as much as we would like to think it was for the 4th of July you can see this demonstration every Saturday (at leas tin the summer, not sure about the winter) For you drill and ceremony buffs out there, yes that is on cobblestone, (ouch) yes bayonets are fixed, (scary) and yes there was a lot of rifle throwing. (Danger) I was quite impressed.

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th yourselves...

Back in the....

DARK AGES, people didn't have access to this crazy internet... well we just experienced about a week of life without internet, our second such week in the past month. Apologies for dropping off the face of the planet, but it was unavoidable from this end. Our landlord has graciously (ok if you knew what we paid in rent maybe not so graciously) agreed to install two seperate provider's systems of internet in the apartment, so maybe there will be an end to this on again off again not so joyous ride.
pictures and posts from the previous weeks to follow

Christmas in July

If you were to walk around St. Petersburg lately you might at first think that it is snowing. There is an incredible amount of white stuff floating around the air. It takes just one step outside for your eyes to start watering, and your nose running to realize that the little white fluff balls are not snow but instead some type of tree pollen.

I have never seen so much fluffy stuff flying around it is incredible to see, there is so much fluff that the ground is even covered! But one question remains to be answered where is all this fluffy stuff coming from? There just are not that many trees in the city and the two trees I do know of are not fluffy? This would normally be something I would find really neat, but I seem to be terribly allergic to the summer snow storm.

Russian Frogs!

At this point I should warn all blog viewers the below pictures are not pleasant- young eyes not advised!

Josh and I were out and about today enjoying the beautiful weather- we saw some cute ducks, and of course amazing buildings. Little did we know the day would take such a grim turn…..

All that know me are aware of the fact that I like frogs. There is something so happy about little green lily pads and happy little frogs hopping around. SO as you can imagine when I happened upon this water reserve today my first thought was – Lily pads! Frogs! Russian frogs!

I was so excited I sat very patiently awaiting my first Russian frog sighting…….

Instead I found this- not a frog- the lily pads suddenly didn’t seem so happy anymore.
On a side note I will mention that this water reserve backs up to the city zoo. Not that I am pointing any fingers…

I am not sure what type of dead animal is this- nor did I want to take a closer look to find out- but I am sure of two things- 1. there were no frogs in this water and 2. don't drink the water when coming to Russia!