Поздравляю с 8 Марта

Hello everyone!  As the title of this post says, Happy March 8th!  It has been a very busy 3-day weekend for me because of the celebration of Women's Day, so time to share what I've been up to!  

Thursday was a beautiful & sunny day in St. Pete, a rare occurrence since the time I've been here.  It was so nice putting on a pair of sunglasses and a light jacket to walk around in rather than my huge coat and gloves that I've become so used to.  Everyone was in high spirits because of the sunshine and fresh air, a Russian man even said "добрый день!" (Good Day!) to my friends and I as we were walking down the street!

We decided to take the metro and walk to the Artillery Museum, which I really enjoyed.  Outside the museum was a huge courtyard filled with tanks, missile launchers, cannons, and a lot of other cool military equipment.  So of course I had to take the opportunity to pose on an artillery cannon with my roommate!

When in Russia...

Don't mess with my suite

Inside the museum were artifacts, weapons, and history about the Russian military throughout the centuries.  Unfortunately, the museum was closing soon after we got inside so we could only see the medieval exhibit.  We still had a lot of fun looking at the armor and iron weapons!

After the museum, we continued the theme of military might and went to a Russian military surplus store!  I was expecting it to be much bigger inside, but it was packed with combat boots, camo jackets, badges, pins, fur hats, and flasks...All in Russian military style!  I didn't feel comfortable actually buying something, but a few of my friends bought scarves and fur hats.

That Thursday was just the beginning of my weekend excursions.  On Saturday, I woke up bright and early after a night out to go on an excursion to Pavlovsk Park with my study abroad group.  First we toured the palace there, but I wasn't allowed to take pictures of the inside.  After the palace tour we had free time to explore the park.  It is one of the largest landscaped parks in the world!  I can only imagine what this place will look like in a few months when the snow and ice has all melted and the trees begin to bloom...I definitely want to come back here in the spring!

 

Horse drawn carriages in front of Pavlovsk Palace

Exploring the park all day was extremely exhausting, but later that night my friends and I had tickets to see the St. Petersburg football team(or in America, soccer team), Zenit!  They are part of the Russian Premiere League and played the Ural team that night.  The game was so much fun.  I don't know much about soccer, but I had a blast standing in the student section cheering on the team in Russian.  They were constantly chanting and singing songs throughout the entire game, by the end of the night I was pretty much able to chant along with everyone!  We won 3-0 with a hat trick, which is when one player scores all three goals in the game.  It was so worth going to the game even after my long day at Pavlovsk and having to endure the freezing cold during the match.  Here's a video clip of the game and Russian football chants!!

Red flares in the stands after scoring a goal! 

So that was what my busy weekend consisted of!  11 days until Moscow, 14 days until Budapest!  I can't wait for these next few weeks, I will definitely have lots to write about.  Also, shout out to the boys in my hall who gave all the girls flowers and chocolate for women's day!
до свидания!
(goodbye!)

Hoping for sunnier days soon...