Monthly Archives: September 2008
Back in the U.S. of A.
We touched down in D.C. this afternoon and are approaching hour 24 of being awake. I’m hoping to end that streak soon by sinking into bed, so I’m sorry but you won’t be getting much of a coherent post out of us tonight. But as I made the trip back across the pond, I was contemplating the difficulties of traveling across multiple time differences and debating which is worse: traveling east or traveling west. I decided that for me it’s …
Russia in Review
UPDATE: You can now link to our photos from the Russia page. Check them out! If you take a look at the navigation bar at the top of the page, you’ll see we’ve added a new section: Country Summaries. We’ll be creating a page in this section for every country we visit. You’ll get a quick link to our posts and photos related to that country, along with a summary of our experience in that country. I’ve got the Russia …
You Can Call Him Doctor
Great success! Jeff successfully presented his Ph.D. dissertation research, smoothly answered all his opponent’s questions (or nicely evaded them), wowed his committee, and was, as a result, awarded his Ph.D. yesterday. This was the capstone of our pre-trip preparation, so now it’s just a matter of tying up a few loose ends. Then it’s infinity and beyond…or South America and beyond. Dr. Jeff with his mentor, opponent, and three committee members. Did you like this? Share it:
Observed in St. Petersburg
*Street sweepers use birch branch brooms, though they use them very efficiently. By mid-morning, the streets were always clean and tidy. But they definitely had their work cut out for them, since Russians leave their beer and vodka bottles absolutely everywhere, most times broken. *Garbage cans apparently set fire often, because we passed one near a busy bus stop and everyone acted completely unsurprised. *A communist era holdover, three people commonly occupy the job of one. Every museum we went …
St. Petersburg by Moonlight
I am not a night person. When midnight strikes, I like to be in my pajamas (well, okay, let’s be honest—I’d live in my pajamas if that were socially acceptable) and on my way to bed. I’ve always been a person who requires a good night’s sleep, and I seem to have been born without the ability to truly sleep in, so this generally means that I don’t party into the wee hours of the morning. Jeff, much more of …
Looking Up
St. Petersburg is perhaps best known for the Hermitage, its amazing collection of art spanning 3000 years of human civilization and an entire globe. What I found more impressive than this, though, was the building it was housed in, the Winter Palace. Built in the 1750′s by Italian architects, it was the winter residence of the Russian Tsars. The sheer opulence and grandeur of so many of the room was simply astounding. The intricacy and detail in the ceilings impressed …
Hermitage Ceiling Gallery
KPICASA_GALLERY(HermitageCeiling) Did you like this? Share it:
Technical Difficulties
We’re having a bit of a problem with being able to post here in St. Petersburg due to the fact that our computer’s power supply failed (taking out with it the rest of the plugs in the room), so you’ll have to do without pictures for another day. We’ll be back in Stockholm tomorrow night, so expect a flurry of posts then about our experiences and thoughts about St. Petersburg. Till then, please stand by. Did you like this? Share …
First Impressions of St. Petersburg
At the Russian embassy in Stockholm: Wow, this is easy. And she’s actually nice and helpful. I thought that this was supposed to be so difficult that you threw your hands up in despair and just gave up. Am I missing something? Am I going to show back up to get my visa only to find out that I didn’t do some obscure task and now I can’t have one? Upon arrival at the St. Petersburg airport: I think that …
Down is Up and Up is Down
So there’s been plenty of thinking and talking and hand-wringing these last couple of weeks over finalizing our route, since we need to up and book our major airline tickets relatively soon (what with us leaving in now less than a month!). I wrote earlier about our first realization that all of our ducks were not in a row. Since then, we’ve called Continental and talked about our flight options. We’ve looked over weather patterns and high seasons and low …
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