Dosvedanya, Russia

The hardest words in the English language are "I am sorry" and "Good-bye". Fortunately I only had to use one of those phrases this past Saturday, July 23. It is a pity that I had to use it at all, though.

Friday the 22nd was our real last night together as a group, 16 Americans and just as many Russian students all cramped into a little place called Alma Mater, fed copious amounts and of beer and meat. We were given these lovely laminated certificates of completion.

The St. Petersburg students gave all 16 of us tiny souvenir jars. Inside each was a task. I was first and mine was to speak in 3 different American accents in rapid succession. Patrick from Chicago had to draw all of us and is actually quite the artist. Heather from Iowa had to give a random task to Jeff from Utah and he gave us an impressive rendition of the classic song "Milkshake".

After dinner we said those terrible words to each other, hugged each other, wished each other well (even the people we did not like). It hurts. Even here and now in this moment days later at a 7-11 in Stockholm it still stings to know that all these incredible people in Russia behind a wall of money and visa paperwork and a language barrier.

The greatest skill you can ever learn, ever cultivate, is an ability to make new friends. I am glad that I have tried and successfully made some friends that I will never ever forget. Two of them will be in America studying next year and I will hopefully see them in Florida. There is also email and skype and Facebook and Kontakte and postcards from around the world and the United Stastes. I will make it back there eventually. I need to.

The pain of missing them is worth the joy I had being around them. We should all be so lucky to have such experiences in this life, no matter how fleeting they may be.

This is my last blog post for now. If you have any questions about Russia or would like more information, feel free to email me at abarr033@fiu.edu. So if you are reading this and you have not gone but you have the chance to do so, go to Russia. Seriously. It is amazing. Can I go back next year? PLEASE, Professor Brill? Pretty please?

-Alexander Barrio

Water Water Everywhere

Some people love the rain. In literature it symbolizes a cleansing, a washing away of the past to make way for some new future, some change in the lives of the characters or plot of the story.

I hate the rain so I think about that when I am forced to deal with it. It's just that I love the sun so much that when it's hidden by dark clouds and gloomy wetness soaking me from head to toe I can't help but feel just a little depressed.

We went to Peterhof on the morning of Saturday the 16th. Peterhof is home to a beautiful palace and huge garden with numerous fountains of varying shape and size scattered throughout. On a nice day one could spend hours wandering the grounds, jumping through some of the fountains and admiring the architecture and style of the others.

I wandered for a while in the rain, taking pictures of the various fountains and statues. I saw a path up a hill and climbed up to see what was on the other side. There was a parking lot. I frowned and walked back down the hill. The entire thing was a slippery muddy mess. I tried to go down slowly to stay steady but there's only so much you can do when you're wearing tennis shoes in inches of mud on an incline. I slipped and slide down. Literally just fall back on my butt and slid about ten feet down, covering the back of my shorts, my backpack, even my camera with the stuff. I sat in my filth for a minute and laughed.

Sometimes a little terribleness is all you need to feel better. I stood up and looked up at the sky. The clouds were breaking. I rejoined the group that was shocked to see me so dirty but glad I was in better spirits.

In the Peterhoff there is a statue of a man with boots. You are supposed to try to throw coins into the openings in the back of boots while making a wish. If it lands inside the wish will supposedly come true.

I tried for about ten minutes, always wishing for the same thing ("Less ways to wish for and more ways to work toward."- Metric). I could not land anything. My friend told me to try a different angle. I did and it got up there! However, I didn't think of my wish when I threw it because I was too busy focusing on getting it. So it was like I was wishing to get it in and my wish came true. C'est la vie.

The day started out dark and gloomy and unlucky but the night was sunny and beautiful. The night is always a second chance. Don't waste it.

-Alexander Barrio

Out of Sight Friendships

So my glasses broke. For those of you that do not know me personally, that's a rather big deal. I am not blind without them by any means but without them everything is a blur. The colors of the world all run together and faces become unrecognizable at a distance of greater than five feet.

When I woke up Saturday morning a half-hour before our excursion to Pushkin, home of the Catherine Palace with the flamboyant amber room and gold-adorned ballroom, I was noticeably upset. I went to the dorm lobby with my glasses in two pieces, torn almost down the middle. Professor Brill's wife brought me some medical tape to try to put them back together but it wouldn't work.

We had a half-hour train ride ahead of us. Margarita volunteered to take me to an "Optika" to try to find a new frame. Margarita is a student from Samara who will be spending a year in law school in the States next year. Why she chooses to subject herself to that torture I will never understand, but I'm sure she'll have a great time. She is one of those people who never ever stop smiling. She takes everything in stride and literally brightens up a room when she walks in and starts talking, her short bouncing as she excitedly nods her head while speaking.

We went to two places nearby that were closed. Third time's the charm, however, and she explained to the optomatrist my situation. They found a frame and said they'd have them ready for me Monday. Margarita gave them her number, I paid for my glasses, and we headed to the train station.

When we got there everyone asked why I wasn't wearing glasses. Valentina, one of the Russian professors teaching us Russian criminal law, told me that I looked like a "very serious" Russian man without them. I was very annoyed. Here I was surrounded by beauty and unable to enjoy it. It's rather frustrating.

Luckily I had Lera. Lera is one of the first Russian people we met. She is from Novgorod. She took the bus from there to the St. Petersburg airport to meet our group as it arrived. She's incredibly friendly and madly in love with her little town. She was a great tour guide in the city and showed us some great sights that even our professors missed. She forgot her camera at home and so I offered mine. She excitedly took it and snapped pictures for the next hour during our tour of Catherine Palace. Though for me the place was a blur, thanks to her I am now able to relive the experience and really see what I thought I saw when I was there.

Whit Cox is one of the University of Arkansas students. He's a relatively quiet guy with a very dry and clever sense of humor. He said he had a spare pair if I needed it that night. I tried on his glasses and we are nearly the same prescription. He's just a bit blinder than I so though everything up close for me looked good, far-off objects were still blurry. It worked for the night I needed them and for that I will be forever thankful.

By the way, I can't mention all these people without mentioning Masha Luneva. She is the reason I am able to write any of these blog posts. She has an air card and lets me use her computer without objection or question. She was on the bus with Lera, too, on the first day and she's probably the sweetest person on this entire trip.

I love meeting new people. The great thing about meeting new people is that it creates a foundation for a long-term friendship and a better life. We are nothing without each other. I'm glad I've met these people and so many others on this trip. Every moment, every conversation, every person, has given me a new way of looking at the world. It's a good feeling.

-Alexander Barrio

Art is Art as Art

Art is all around us. It's in the architecture of every building, in the curvature of every smile. It's in every song and  every laugh and every shout for joy.

In St. Petersburg this holds even more true than most places (save Fayetteville, of course). Yesterday, July the 5th, we visited St. Isaac's Cathedral and today we visited the Hermitage.

St. Isaac's Cathedral is one of the largest in the world. At their peak the main dome reachs over 100 meters high. Our tour guide, who had the voice of an angel on dramamine, explained to us the rich history of the museum and the many mosaics made of rare glass. There are also over 100 columns within and surrounding the giant church, the second-largest Orthodox Church in the world.

We went up to the top of the building and saw what could most accurately be described as one of the most beautiful views in Europe. It is difficult to even conceive of words that could convey how spectacularly beautiful the city is, the Hermitage and Palaces and even government buildings with the hammer and sickle still etched into them. Check Facebook or the Internet but remember that no picture does justice to seeing the landscape with your own eyes, feeling that cool Russian breeze blowing through your hair as you quickly try to snap pictures while tourists rush past you.

Today, July 6, we went to the Hermitage, one of the largest and oldest museums in the world. It is composed of six buildings and the collection is said to have over 3 million pieces of art. A guide told us that if you took one minute to look at every single piece of art in the Hermitage it would take nearly 8 years straight to see it all.

I'm not going to go into every detail but I will discuss my favorite piece I saw today: "Daedalus and Icarus" by Charles Lebrun You can see it here: http://www.arthermitage.org/Charles-Lebrun/Daedalus-and-Icarus.

The story of Icarus is one of my favorite from Greek Mythology. For me, the painting conveys all that art should convey: emotion. In this case the emotion is sadness at the loss of one's own son to one's own creation; the loss of that which is most important to you in such a way that is too easy to blame yourself. The way the shadow falls on Daedalus's face as he cradles his dying son . . . It's so amazing. I could go on all day.

But I won't. I'm drowning in art, the kind of art where everything you see conveys a feeling. It's like my eyes are trying to overwhelm my heart and I am just absolutely loving it.

-Alex Barrio

When I Fell in Love with Russia

The best thing about falling in love is the surprise. You never know when or how it's going to happen; it just strikes, like a shock of static electricity when you touch a door knob on your way out of the bedroom.

I fell in love on the last night in Novgorod last Friday. We began the night doing a tour of a monastery. This was followed by a tour of a little wooden village that's best described as their version of Colonial Williamsburg. We were done touring it around 5:30 and had an hour until dinner. We played some children's games like Duck-Duck-Goose, Red Rover, and some Russian game where pairs of people stand in line and run around and quickly descend into chaos.

At 6:30 we were lead to a banquet hall opposite another banquet hall where a wedding was taking place (Cole got his picture taken with the Bride). We sat at a long table, more than twenty of us, and we ate like kings for the next two and a half hours.

From there we rode a bus from this place to some field of tall grasses. As we rode the sounds of music, strange singing, grew louder and louder. We were greeted by about ten girls, beautiful young girls with long dark hair and big dark eyes and sweet coy smiles serenading us the middle of the field. They gave us bread from a large round loaf. We tore off a piece and dipped it in salt.

The girls lead us down a path to a lake and we danced in a circle, occasionally partnering up and spinning and laughing with one of our classmates or one of the locals performing for us whose number had now swelled to about twenty and included four guys. One of our classmates said that in that moment when were dancing and singing he felt like he was a part of something so beautiful, so epic and incredible, and he became so overwhelmed with emotion that tears welled up in his eyes.

But there was no time for tears. The Games were starting. We played a game where men and women sat in alternating spots. A man with a belt walked up to the girl and asked "Are you in love with this man?" If the girl said yes she would have to kiss him. If she said no the man would beat the suitor sitting down until he ran to another girl. Then the guy that had been sitting there would have to run.

We played a game where four of the local guys locked arms and one of us American guys would have to leap with our hands behind our back into the center of them and kiss a girl on the other side. We played a game where we wore horse costumes and tried to steal ribbons from each other without losing our own. The Hat Game required two participants in large floppy hats to try to steal the hat off the other with one arm behind his back. There was a game where the men sat on a big wooden log and hit each other with sacks of sand to try to knock the other over.

After these games we were given soup and bread and were once again sang to by the girls. The song they sang here had a tragic sound. It was some kind of love song and it sounded like they were trying to sing a sad song in a happy voice.

Standing there, watching them sing this incredible song, drinking this soup, looking around at everyone laughing and smiling and having a good time, is when I fell in love. This place, these people, are so fun and friendly and beautiful and they were bringing us into this ritual, this annual event they have for each other that usually takes place on Saturday but they were putting on Friday especially for us. I felt like I was knee-deep in this culture, of this culture, and it was the best I've felt in a long time.

To close the festivities they light a big bonfire. Everyone jumps in the lake to cleanse themselves. They light little candles and put them in tiny boats. Each candle is a wish and when you put one in the lake you get to wish for something for the coming year. After swimming around the lake everyone takes turns jumping over the bonfire in pairs or in large groups, the fire now being little more than smoldering ash.

By the time it was all over it was near midnight. Everyone was exhausted but smiling uncontrollably. In that moment none of us wanted to leave Novgorod the next day or Russia in the next few weeks. In that moment we were truly in love with these people and this country.

-Alex Barrio

Around the World in 40ish Days or Something

I know I should be studying for Administrative Law right now but that exam is two whole days away so instead I'm going to write this blog post while daydreaming about traveling.

My name is Alex Barrio and I'm a law student at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami. Yes, it is always 100 degrees down here and yes, it is awesome. I'm a Dolphins fan, which is probably the most painful part of living down here. I mean, how hard is it really to find a decent quarterback?

But I digress. In about six and a half weeks I'm going to begin my journey around the world. It is my first time traveling the circumference of the Earth! How exciting, I know. You must be on the edge of your seats.

Every year since 2008 I've visited a different country. Then it was Guatemala, the cheapest country to fly to in all of central and south America from south Florida (yes, that's the reason my friends and I picked it). It was actually pretty awesome and super cheap so I highly recommend it.

In 2009 I went to Paris, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Berlin, and Zurich with a friend. Almost went to England but had some problems with the British Home Office. Those people are such sticks in the mud.

In 2010 I did a study abroad with FIU in Sevilla, Spain. Spain is amazing. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys friendly people and good times and especially those who like to sleep all day and stay up all night. After that I went back to Paris and then London, finally, where I was once again detained by the Home Office but this time let into the country. Afterward I hit up Kiel, Germany and Budapest before returning to London, where I was once again detained and released (see a pattern here?) before making my way back to the States.

Now, earlier I said I was traveling around the world for the first time in a few weeks. On June 11, I'm visiting a friend in Taiwan. From there I'm off to Frankfurt and then back to visit a friend in Kiel. I'm flying into St. Petersburg from Hamburg and after that I plan to hit Helsinki, Stockholm, and Reykjavik before making my way back to New York and then Florida. See, around the world! Feel free to join me if you like. I could always use some new travel buddies.

So that's a whole lot about me. What about you?

For my next post, I will tell you how I think you should prepare for a big trip like the one you're about to embark upon in St. Petersburg, Russia. Hint: Work on your vodka tolerance. It's in the coffee!

Bon voyage!