Last day in Russia

Our greeting to the museum.

The last day was a free day. We were let loose upon the city, and St. Petersburg did not know what hit it. First, many of us went to the Museum of Curiosity, aka Kunstkamera. For the most part, it was like a scaled down Museum of Natural History. Bu then here were dead babies in jars. It was gross and I tried to avoid looking. I walked through that room as quickly as possible. The rest was interesting, though, and less disturbing.

After the museum our group split. Some went to more museums and some went shopping. I was in the shopping crew.

Russia: Day 10, Last day of being official!

Our last day of official activities was spent at Peterhof. To get there we took a hydrofoil, which was super fancy. 
Another large and impressive palace. I feel like all of them are blending together. Each one we have visited has been in a similar style: grand entrance, rooms covered in gold and mirrors, some rooms that are gold and red, and one or two rooms that are a different style from the others. In Peterhof the different rooms were oriental inspired rooms. They were quite ornate. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed, and in the oriental rooms we were not even allowed to stop to look. We had to walk through, though we walked super slow.

Our greeting onto the hydrofoil

We're on a boat

Russia: Day 9

I know, I know. I am very behind. I have not been faithful to posting in my adventures in Russia. In fact, I am back in the U.S.A now. But I will still post what I did during my last few days in St. Petersburg. On day 9 we went to two libraries: Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library and the Pushkin Children's library. 
The Presidential library was rich. Not rich in history or rich in culture or rich in character. Money rich. 
Its collection was also completely digital.

Having a completely digital library was both a dream and a nightmare come true. Dream because having things online makes the materials accessible to a much wider audience. We were told that people all over the world have access to materials through the library website. All you need is to make a free account, and you have access to all of the databases, manuscripts and books available in the digital archives. What was really cool was the 3D view of book covers you can get on the website. Our guide was correct in saying that while conducting research the book cover can play a major part.

Other parts of the dream were the cool little techie parts such as turning a projected book with your hand using sensors. I'm proud to say I turned it on my first try.

Russia: Day 8

Today was very Russian. Not that the other days were not very Russian, but today we went to the Russian National Library (RNL) and Russian Museum. So I suppose it would be better to say it was Russian Culture day.

We were only allowed to take photos in one room of RNL, so I don't have too much to show. It was a beautiful library; floor to ceiling books and tons of shelves everywhere. We even got to see Voltaire's personal library, which was purchased by Catherine the Great. She seemed to take being a fan to a new level. While Voltaire was alive, she corresponded with him on a regular basis, though they never met. When he died, she bought his entire library and also ordered a replica of his house be built. Wow.

National Library of Russia

Russia: Day 7

I am so tired. But in a good way. In an "I've spent the last two days seeing things that were 100% worth seeing and if I had the chance I'd do it all again" kind of way. We crammed quite a bit into our restful exploration. 

Group at the Gulf of Finland

Sculpture in the Summer Garden

Russia: Day 6

So far my quest for a nice little summer home has been unsuccessful. The Hermitage was a good size, but the rooms were too simple for me. I like a bit more pizzaz in my life. Today, I checked out Catherine's Palace, which was a bargain, by the way, but is was too small. I only looked at a few of the rooms, but I could already tell I would feel claustrophobic living there. The architect tried to hide how tiny the rooms were by adding mirrors and little decorations here and there, but I could see right through what the mirrors were hiding: a living area that is too small to fill the needs of any decent person's life.

I think everyone will agree that this is simply too small. 

And the entry is not nearly grand enough.

Russia: Day 5

My class started a blog that everyone is contributing to, and we are all writing about our experiences on this adventure. Today, I posted. Do you know what that means? That means I'm going to be lazy, and instead of writing another post for this blog, I'm going to post the link to my class blog!

http://librarieswithoutborders-ischool.blogspot.com/

For the adventures of what I did, check it out, and you can also see what my classmates have been up to.

Enjoy!

Met a bear on my way to dinner.

Below the hotel. So classy.