It's a small world (after all)

Time flies so, so fast.  I cannot believe that I’ve been in St. Petersburg for over a month now.  I have roughly 100 days left in this wonderful place.  I’m trying to hold onto every moment and savor its wonder, but most of the time it feels like time is slipping through my fingers.  Every moment that passes is a moment that I’ll never have again.  Sometimes I just want time to stop to hold onto a moment, but most of the time I’m glad that it keeps moving because everyday, every second brings me something new to love, live, and experience.  Today was the first day of spring, and although there was little change in the weather, a fresh hope for the future was tangible in the air.  Smolny students celebrated the beginning of the new season, but also the beginning of a new chapter in the life of our school.  Yesterday the Academic Council of St. Petersburg State University voted to create a new Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences from Smolny College.  While I’m sure that this fact means nothing to 99% of people who are reading this blog, it’s a really big deal to the people around me right now.  This development has major implications for the future of Smolny.  It’s really cool to not just be studying abroad but to be a part of a project that is working to change the system of education in Russia. 

So, I thought that living in a foreign country would help me to understand the expanses of this big world in which I live, but I’ve found that quite the opposite has occurred.  The more I travel and the more that I experience, the more I realize the truth of that slightly annoying song: it actually is a small world (after all).  I’m sure that this wasn’t always the case.  It probably felt pretty darn big to the dudes that discovered new pieces of land and all, but in our globalized, tech savvy world of today it feels a little cramped.  Of course when I came to St. Petersburg, the window to the West, I expected to feel the influence of the global world on Russian culture, but I’ve still found so many things that I didn’t expect to experience here.  For example: I didn’t expect to buy the exact same shampoo/conditioner that I use at home (same brand, same scent, just in Russian) in a corner beauty shop.  I didn’t expect to walk into a club and realize that 90% of the music played is either American or British and that everyone there knows every word (and I don’t).  I didn’t expect to watch Friends (dubbed in Russian) with my host mama every night after dinner (or Sex in the City or Desperate Housewives or ER).  I didn’t expect to see more iPads and Kindles than I’ve seen in the States.  To be honest these things don’t really surprise me, but they do make me so aware of how life in Russia can be so similar yet so different from life in the states.  It’s such a beautiful paradox, and because of it I never know when something will feel foreign or familiar. 

When I first got here I had this great desire to avoid all things that seemed “American” and to live a very “Russian” life.  I tried to be that anti-American girl.  I boycotted McDonalds runs, tried to limit my English usage, avoided eating foods that I could eat in America, didn’t watch/listen to any American movies/music, etc.  I didn’t want anything to do with America.  I’d come here to be Russian after all, but I have quickly realized that no clear line can be drawn between what is strictly American culture and what is strictly Russian culture.  Our cultures are hopelessly tangled with one another.  Things that I am accustomed to at home are often still considered normal here, and indulging in these things does not make my Russian experience any less authentic.  Actually such indulgences probably makes my life more true to normal life in St. Petersburg.  But despite my ability to find tastes of home all around me, I’m most definitely in a foreign country.  For every similarity, there are a hundred differences.  Russia is its own place with its own character, and for that I love it dearly.  It daily captures my heart, and I find that my love for this place is growing deeper and deeper.  If someone knows a way that I can live in two places at once, please let me know.  I don’t know how I’m this blessed to love life on two continents so much.  I’m such a lucky girl.   

All my love from Russia.