Women's Day

Today, March 8, is Women's Day. The joke surrounding this day is that women get one day out of the year, while men get 364. We woke up this morning and the boys on the floor had given each girl a rose. Pretty sweet of them. And while the joke may seem to be a bit of an exaggeration, I really do not think it is.

When my Russian professor asked what I was studying in the states, I replied "international business." She looked confused and explained that there is no word for "business woman" in Russian. They do not exist. While more and more women join the workforce here, hopefully much of this will change. Right now, St. Petersburg has made an enormous step and elected a woman Mayor, but there is still a vivid gap between the rights of men and the rights of women.

Onto a lighter subject, I attended a hockey game featuring St. Petersburg's professional team, CKA, and some relatively unknown town from Siberia. The game was a blast and CKA is considered the best hockey team in Russia at the moment. They even had the riot police in the stands surrounding the opposing team's fans.

We also had an excursion to Pavlovsk, the palace of Paul I. The palace itself is classically beautiful, very simple and elegant. But the amazing part of the estate is the garden. An enormous garden stands behind the palace, covering many many acres. The garden has many treasures hidden in the garden, you might be walking an suprisingly come across a clearing containing numerous statues, randomly spewed about. The more you explore the more small buildings, temples and statues you find all hidden in the woods. The students who saw the garden last semester (when it was not covered in snow) say that it was much more beautiful when it was green. I can imagine. Don;t get me wrong, the snow is beautiful, but this is a garden and supposed to be green. I am pretty excited for everything to not be covered in snow.

It is actually warming up a bit. We have even seen a bit of green grass poking through the snow. When I saw that, it really was the highlight of my day. We decided to go back to Pavlovsk on one of our last days here. I would love to see it in the spring.

Next week is already semester break, everything goes by so fast here. We will be heading to Moscow with the program for 3 days and after that my roommate and I will be spending the remainder of the week in the city on our own. I am not only excited to travel around the city on our own, but it will also be a great test of our Russian.