Saturday night we had our District Leaders, Elder Jensen and Elder Jorgensen, come over for dinner and they brought with them a young man who is a member of the ward. Sue cooked chili and cornbread and snickerdoodles, so the boys all enjoyed a real American dinner. But Ken forgot to take pictures!
We were going to do an apartment tour for the blog this week. Sue measured it--a bit less than 500 square feet. ut there are too many pictures below of the Hermitage. So we'll do the apartment another time.
We are finding connections between St. Petersburg and home in California. There was a young couple visiting in Church on Sunday. They are summer interns in Moscow. She served a mission in Yekaterinburg and he served in Novisibirsk. They've been married a year or two. But the small world is that she's from Los Altos. Her grandmother is a friend of Sue's, Barbara Lindsey, and her across-the-street neighbors are also friends, the Harwoods. And her father is a lawyer friend of Ken's, Wayne Whitlock.
And going the other direction, on Wednesday night we went to the apartment of the Shaikhulin family. They have a daughter, Yulia, who lives in Palo Alto. She moved there several years ago and is working as an accountant. We actually met her before we came to St. Petersburg, so it was good to spend an evening with her parents and younger brother.
Sunday Sue came home from church discouraged and ready to give up trying to learn Russian. It's hard! We still understand so little. Senior volunteers are not required to learn the language. We can do our jobs without it. Between bi-lingual office workers and Google Translate, we cope. But then we had a Skype with our son Reed and his family. [Those grandkids are so cute!!] It was a good conversation with Reed. He encouraged and gave good suggestions. We need to immerse ourselves more in listening. So Sue has started playing LDS Church General Conference talks in the background while working. He also suggested we learn songs, because singing words makes them easier to memorize. We decided to start with "Sehet Ihr Völker!" (Behold Ye People)--at least that's the German name. It's a favorite German LDS Hymn about spreading the Gospel all over the World. In Russian it's "Голос Небесный Слушай Народ!" (Voice of Heaven, Listen People). English is "Hark All Ye Nations!" And Reed reminded us of Mosiah 4:27 . We are back working on the language -- step by slow, halting, step, and all in good order. It will come.
Speaking of step-by-step... These are the steps from the parking lot up to the door of the Mission Office where we work. (Ken's office window it just up to the right.) In evident Russian style, the rise for all the steps is not uniform. Generally here on a flight of stairs, they pick a height for each step, but either the top step or the bottom step will be different so the steps fit into the space. In the case of these steps the very bottom step was about three inches, the next step up was about twelve(!) inches, and then all the others were about eight inches. Each step has a one-inch-thick tile on the top and on the face of the rise. Many of the tiles had come loose after the harsh winter, so it was being repaired. When he saw this, Ken went out there with a ruler and somehow in his barely-Russian explanation, convinced the worker to raise the bottom step so the next step up wouldn't be so tall. Sue and others thought it was a wasted effort to even ask. But it worked! The worker poured about three inches of concrete on the bottom step. And then it started to pour buckets of rain. The steps project sat all torn apart for about three days waiting for some dry weather. But now the right half is finished and looks pretty good! We look forward to its completion. Before next winter.
Wednesday afternoon we went to the Hermitage again to volunteer. To get there this time we took the Metro instead of the bus to Admiralty Station. All the Metro stations in St. Petersburg have beautiful artwork. This is a big mosiac on the wall as you come in to this station. The Admirality building is the headquarters of the Russian navy and is just around the corner from this stop. The mosiac is a tribute to the sailors.
Admiralty Station is also the deepest metro station in Russia, and one of the deepest in the world. This is one of the two escalators. You can't even see the top from the bottom. The train tracks are 83 meters underground--272 feet--well below sea level. And these escalators move fast! But it still takes almost three minutes to get to the top.
After we worked our three-hour shift checking people in (see last week's blog) we took a couple of hours to wander around a bit. One of the advantages of volunteering is that we get free entry to the museum whenever we want, and also free use of the individual audio guides. We spent almost two hours, and covered a couple of dozen of the 300 rooms.
This is part of the Grand Staircase up to the formal rooms.
All of the rooms have these amazing parquet floors--many kinds of exotic woods in intricate patterns. They look gorgeous, and thousands of people walk across them every da --in street shoes!
This is the small throne room. The arch above the chair is all gilded wood in many different patterns. The walls are covered in silk embroidery.
The throne in the large throne room. Notice the double-headed eagle on the wall and thrown. That is the sign of the Romanov Family--Tsars of Russia from Peter I before 1700 to the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.
This is a gilded motif on the ceiling.
And the same pattern is reflected in the parquet floor. But the double-headed eagle on the ceiling is not repeated on the floor because it would be disrespectful to walk on the symbol of the Crown.
The gold room--used by guests waiting to see the Queen.
Besides the large reception rooms there are hundreds of smaller rooms and hallways full of artwork. This is one we decided to photograph, because it is the story of Christ healing the blind man on the road to Jerico. We have a print of another painting of this same story hanging on our wall at home. This was the "theme story"of our mission to Germany twelve years ago. When we reach out to Christ, he will reach out to bless us also.
And this is just for fun. Ken titles this "St. George Sleighing the Draggin'." Can't you just imagine some Romanov princeling putting his horse in front of this sleigh and prancing around the city?
Thursday afternoon we got a call from basketball star Ryan Toolson inviting us to dinner that evening. Ryan and Jess are moving back to Utah for the summer on Saturday, and won't be back to play for the St. Petersburg Zenit. He'll find out in July where he'll play next year. We enjoyed a 'clean out the fridge' dinner of pasta and sauce, pizza and salad, and cheesecake for dessert. Then Jess had us all take turns choosing a few items from the fridge or pantry. Sue got some chocolate to cut up into chocolate chips for cookies, as well as taco sauce, pumpkin pie filling and lots of frozen berries.
Next week we will share some of the little miracles we have witnessed.
We were going to do an apartment tour for the blog this week. Sue measured it--a bit less than 500 square feet. ut there are too many pictures below of the Hermitage. So we'll do the apartment another time.
We are finding connections between St. Petersburg and home in California. There was a young couple visiting in Church on Sunday. They are summer interns in Moscow. She served a mission in Yekaterinburg and he served in Novisibirsk. They've been married a year or two. But the small world is that she's from Los Altos. Her grandmother is a friend of Sue's, Barbara Lindsey, and her across-the-street neighbors are also friends, the Harwoods. And her father is a lawyer friend of Ken's, Wayne Whitlock.
And going the other direction, on Wednesday night we went to the apartment of the Shaikhulin family. They have a daughter, Yulia, who lives in Palo Alto. She moved there several years ago and is working as an accountant. We actually met her before we came to St. Petersburg, so it was good to spend an evening with her parents and younger brother.
Sunday Sue came home from church discouraged and ready to give up trying to learn Russian. It's hard! We still understand so little. Senior volunteers are not required to learn the language. We can do our jobs without it. Between bi-lingual office workers and Google Translate, we cope. But then we had a Skype with our son Reed and his family. [Those grandkids are so cute!!] It was a good conversation with Reed. He encouraged and gave good suggestions. We need to immerse ourselves more in listening. So Sue has started playing LDS Church General Conference talks in the background while working. He also suggested we learn songs, because singing words makes them easier to memorize. We decided to start with "Sehet Ihr Völker!" (Behold Ye People)--at least that's the German name. It's a favorite German LDS Hymn about spreading the Gospel all over the World. In Russian it's "Голос Небесный Слушай Народ!" (Voice of Heaven, Listen People). English is "Hark All Ye Nations!" And Reed reminded us of Mosiah 4:27 . We are back working on the language -- step by slow, halting, step, and all in good order. It will come.
Speaking of step-by-step... These are the steps from the parking lot up to the door of the Mission Office where we work. (Ken's office window it just up to the right.) In evident Russian style, the rise for all the steps is not uniform. Generally here on a flight of stairs, they pick a height for each step, but either the top step or the bottom step will be different so the steps fit into the space. In the case of these steps the very bottom step was about three inches, the next step up was about twelve(!) inches, and then all the others were about eight inches. Each step has a one-inch-thick tile on the top and on the face of the rise. Many of the tiles had come loose after the harsh winter, so it was being repaired. When he saw this, Ken went out there with a ruler and somehow in his barely-Russian explanation, convinced the worker to raise the bottom step so the next step up wouldn't be so tall. Sue and others thought it was a wasted effort to even ask. But it worked! The worker poured about three inches of concrete on the bottom step. And then it started to pour buckets of rain. The steps project sat all torn apart for about three days waiting for some dry weather. But now the right half is finished and looks pretty good! We look forward to its completion. Before next winter.
Wednesday afternoon we went to the Hermitage again to volunteer. To get there this time we took the Metro instead of the bus to Admiralty Station. All the Metro stations in St. Petersburg have beautiful artwork. This is a big mosiac on the wall as you come in to this station. The Admirality building is the headquarters of the Russian navy and is just around the corner from this stop. The mosiac is a tribute to the sailors.
Admiralty Station is also the deepest metro station in Russia, and one of the deepest in the world. This is one of the two escalators. You can't even see the top from the bottom. The train tracks are 83 meters underground--272 feet--well below sea level. And these escalators move fast! But it still takes almost three minutes to get to the top.
 |
A beautiful day outside the Hermitage in Palace Square with Sister Kayla Spilker and
Sister Aubrey Eaton.
[slide the window left/right to see the whole panorama.
All these buildings are part of the Hermitage Palace]
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After we worked our three-hour shift checking people in (see last week's blog) we took a couple of hours to wander around a bit. One of the advantages of volunteering is that we get free entry to the museum whenever we want, and also free use of the individual audio guides. We spent almost two hours, and covered a couple of dozen of the 300 rooms.
This is part of the Grand Staircase up to the formal rooms.
 |
| The large gallery -- used for dinners and balls. The windows overlook the Neva River. |
All of the rooms have these amazing parquet floors--many kinds of exotic woods in intricate patterns. They look gorgeous, and thousands of people walk across them every da --in street shoes!
 |
| View of Palace Square from the Queen's waiting room. |
This is the small throne room. The arch above the chair is all gilded wood in many different patterns. The walls are covered in silk embroidery.
 |
This room has incredible tapestries. The large center one is done with wonderful depth perspective.
The elaborate gadget under glass next to Sue is an ink holder!
[Scan the window left/right to see the whole panorama.]
|
This is a gilded motif on the ceiling.
And the same pattern is reflected in the parquet floor. But the double-headed eagle on the ceiling is not repeated on the floor because it would be disrespectful to walk on the symbol of the Crown.
The gold room--used by guests waiting to see the Queen.
Besides the large reception rooms there are hundreds of smaller rooms and hallways full of artwork. This is one we decided to photograph, because it is the story of Christ healing the blind man on the road to Jerico. We have a print of another painting of this same story hanging on our wall at home. This was the "theme story"of our mission to Germany twelve years ago. When we reach out to Christ, he will reach out to bless us also.
And this is just for fun. Ken titles this "St. George Sleighing the Draggin'." Can't you just imagine some Romanov princeling putting his horse in front of this sleigh and prancing around the city?
 |
| Standing in the back: Masha & Kostya Serebrennikov, Elder Ward, Elder Folkman, Elder Hallstrom, Sue, Ken Sitting: Ryan Toolson, Elder Coleman, Katie (friend of Jess), Jess Toolson. |
Thursday afternoon we got a call from basketball star Ryan Toolson inviting us to dinner that evening. Ryan and Jess are moving back to Utah for the summer on Saturday, and won't be back to play for the St. Petersburg Zenit. He'll find out in July where he'll play next year. We enjoyed a 'clean out the fridge' dinner of pasta and sauce, pizza and salad, and cheesecake for dessert. Then Jess had us all take turns choosing a few items from the fridge or pantry. Sue got some chocolate to cut up into chocolate chips for cookies, as well as taco sauce, pumpkin pie filling and lots of frozen berries.
 |
| On Friday morning June 9, Sue woke up about 3 a.m. and decided to hang up the load of wash. She glanced out the window and saw the sky and had to take a photo. In St. Petersburg this time of year is called "White Nights" because it never does get dark. |
Next week we will share some of the little miracles we have witnessed.
Karl served in a Stake Presidency here with Barbara Lindsey's son-in-law. I think all roads must lead to Palo Alto!
ReplyDeleteWhere impressed that you're even trying to learn the language. Don't get discouraged. After all, it's not required. You're just going extra mile. The pictures from inside that palace are just magnificent.
ReplyDelete