Student Experience

The days of 10:30 a.m. sunrises and 4:00 p.m. sunsets are no longer here in St. Petersburg. It is 8:30 a.m. and the sun is out. Our academic-year students are out of hibernation and our spring semester students are full of energy and eager to discover the city.

On Monday, February 25, we returned from a three-day, two-night trip to one of Russia’s oldest cities, Pskov, founded in the late 9th century. We left St. Petersburg at 7 a.m. Saturday morning and arrived in Pskov at noon. The ride helped all students get visually acquainted with Russian life and culture outside of a major city. We passed miles and miles of snow-covered forests, small villages, farms and ancient churches and abandoned Soviet factories and monuments. When we stopped in the provincial town of Luga for a bathroom-break, the students experienced the train station’s communal (with no stall dividers) “Turkish” toilets.

When we arrived in Pskov, we immediately began a tour of the Kremlin, a medieval Russian fortress, and the main cathedral within its walls. This small city boasts more historic and architectural monuments than present-day Moscow, having been at one time the most powerful city in all of ancient Rus; There are 245 Russian Orthodox churches in the city, 203 of which are underground. While referring to a giant map of medieval Pskov, our wonderful tour guide and professor of 15th, 16th and 17th century Russian history, informed our group that the Pskov fortress was once bigger in territory than even the fortresses of Paris and Berlin. It is also unique in withstanding more than 450 years of constant war.

Later in the day we toured several museums and a famous 17th century administrative building, where we learned about the day-to-day civic, business and legal operations of Pskov, which was annexed to Muskovy in the early 16th century.

After a long day of touring we checked into our hotel. We were pleased to find that the windows in our rooms overlooked the Kremlin walls and many of the city’s major cathedrals and churches.

On Sunday morning, we took a two-hour bus ride to the Pushkin Hills, where we toured Pushkin’s family’s estate; his friends’ estates; the sites of inspiration for many of his poems and stories; and the church next to which he was buried. Everyone agreed that hilly countryside and landscaped estates were breathtaking, even on such a damp and rainy day.

On Monday morning (Monday was a national day-off in honor of the Defenders of the Fatherland Day), we left the hotel for good and traveled to the nearby rural town of Izborsk, the site of the Pskov region’s first settlement and fortress. Our tour guide pointed out ever-so-tiny seashell fossils embedded within the fortress’ walls (the Izbork fortress is the only fortress in Russia that still has some of its original walls remaining). According to our tour guide, oceanographers say that 200 million years ago Izbork was part of the Baltic sea. From the fortress we headed down a dirt path to the “streams of the 12 apostles” that flowed into a beautiful lake. The water from these 12 streams is claimed to be holy and thus many students chose to sip a little or wash their faces with it.

Jessica Bachman, St. Petersburg

Greetings again from Vladimir! This semester we have 15 students studying Russian on our program – 11 spring semester students and 4 who have been here since September of last year. It's great to have so many students from all over the US. We have students from New Mexico, Wisconsin, Georgia, and New York, just to name just a few. In addition to classes, the Vladimir students are taking part in a number of organized activities after school including a Russian folklore class, our Russian-American roundtable discussion, and we even have a few students who have started playing basketball with some of the Russians who also study in our building! In addition to our planned excursions, everyone is making the most of the holiday weekends this spring. We have students traveling to Novgorod, Kaliningrad, and even to the northern city of Arkhangelsk during our upcoming holiday! It’s great to see our students taking the initiative to really explore Russia on their own.

Tom Kiekhafer, Vladimir

It is hard to believe that we are already halfway through the fall semester! This fall we have 7 students studying in Vladimir, ranging in age from 20-32. They all live with host families and attend Russian-language classes for 20 hours/week at our host partner institute KORA. On Fridays we have been checking out many of the cultural sights in and around Vladimir, the center of Russia’s Golden Ring. Early in the semester we spent 3 days in Moscow, and on Monday we returned from a week in Saint Petersburg!

When students are not in class or on excursions they meet with their tutors or explore Russia on their own. I was happy to learn yesterday that four of my students found a Russian banya in town that they were planning to check out on their own. They have also found a great Azerbaijani restaurant where they have learned about the wonders of Caucasian cuisine! Also, despite its smaller size, there is an excellent drama theater in town where students have been going to get some culture. We also meet on Thursdays with students from a local university and next week we will be celebrating Halloween with them-they have been spending the weekend trying to come up with costume ideas and we might even be able to carve a pumpkin or two!

Tom Kiekhafer, Vladimir