Sunday, May 31, 2009

Bodies in Urban Spaces (Pro Arte)

On Friday the St. Petersburg art institute Pro Arte celebrated its tenth anniversary at Peter and Paul fortress. The event included a choir singing soviet-style patriotic songs about Pro Arte, video installations by students and the visiting US artist Billy Viola, and one of the best performance art pieces I've seen: Bodies in Urban Spaces. The performance was exactly what the title implies. Photos below:








(we were incredibly impressed by this girl- she was so compact!):






Drainpipes galore!



These kids added to the performance and yelled "no! we're not part of it" to me when i snapped their picture, just in case i was confused:

And Only a Month Remains... or I (heart) SpB

I pasted hand-drawn calendar pages on my dresser a month ago to make sure I'd get everything done before i leave. Tonight I'll cross off the last day on page one, which means I'm well into white nights, but have little time left in Piter. Leaving in summer is tricky, but the way to go in Russia. Everyone has thawed from winter and is taking full advantage of light past midnight. City walks are warm and the breeze blowing accross the neva carries that refreshing water smell that brought Peter to build this city 306 years ago (yesterday was the celebration of the city's birth, so we're all counting).



Here are some things I've been up to since the weather has gotten nice:

spending time in parks with friends
performing feats of strength



Sasha turned 22 so we had a party for her here at the apartment. We made a bunch of food including some American treats- ants on a log, banana bread, and salsa (to go with recently found tortilla chips!):

The spread:


we bought this pie and then forgot to serve it during the party:
we ate some of it for breakfast the next day, but it was a lot more beautiful than it was delicious, so the guests didn't miss out on too much.

Thursday, May 7, 2009


, originally uploaded by laurichka.

way better than any balcony


way better than any balcony, originally uploaded by laurichka.

This afternoon Olga and I climbed through a mess of stairs and sat up on the roof of her school. I love a good view of St. Petersburg rooftops. We enjoyed the sunshine as the threat of rainclouds were collecting on the horizon. I took a lot of pictures today and put them up on my flickr page.

rooftop romance


rooftop romance, originally uploaded by laurichka.