Russia

We’re sitting at the kitchen table and Elena, my host mom, is making us Turkish coffee like she does most days. I’m looking at the calendar and planning my week.…

The thing about St. Petersburg is that there is a lot to do. This city has a lot of museums (I mean A LOT of museums), bars, and restaurants. It…

1. I wish I had brought a longer jacket. I believe that having a coat that goes to at least above the knees is essential whether you are in the…

Spring came suddenly — almost all at once. Maslenitsa was in mid-February, an ancient Slavic holiday with both Pagan and Christian roots meant to mark the coming of Spring. In…

Not to find one’s way around a city does not mean much. But to lose one’s way in a city, as one loses one’s way in a forest, requires some…

Built on swampland and at points running beneath the Neva, the Saint Petersburg metro system dives deep into the earth. Admiralteyskaya is the deepest station, burrowed 105 meters beneath the…

On a quay of the Neva River in St. Petersburg, just outside the Academy of the Arts, sit two syenite sphinxes. They were transplanted here in 1832 after being removed…

If you are an art lover, you must visit Moscow. Moscow is home to numerous extraordinary museums and galleries such as the State Tretyakov Gallery, The Pushkin State Museum of…

I chose to study abroad in Russia because it will help me with my international relations major. Yet, when I told my friends that I was going there, their reaction was…

It is day 250 of 263 days I will have spent abroad. That is 250 days of living in a foreign country where the main language is not English, living…