In and Around the City

The Internet was too slow yesterday for me to be able to post anything!

One of the other teachers brought Fumi, the Japanese teacher, and I across the two bridges as the sun was setting on the Pacific Ocean. In the distance, fishing boats sat moored near a small rocky island.

Below you can see the bridge flying across the main street of the city, Svetlanskaya.

Most of the streets leading away from Svetlanskaya are stairs. Quite slimming for this pedestrian! Here some of my students were showing me around the downtown; places of interest: a submarine, a statue of Lenin, and a few hidden remnants of the city's Soviet past. The students treated me to lunch and bought me stamps for my postcards!



Here I am standing at Funicular point, and in the distance, you can see the sun rising over the quiet city, Vladivostok's citizens consider 7am to be very early!



Here I have passed through the ring that you saw above, and I'm now crossing through the tunnel to the sidewalk on the other side of the road. In the distance, you can see ships docked in the Golden Horn Bay.

One Saturday, I went with the sisters (nuns) from Church to their children's centre in a town called Romanovka. You can see from this brief view that the area is quite poor. The children's centre is open to children whose parents are often under the influence of alcohol. Every Saturday, the sisters and other volunteers go to spend time with the kids and teach them music, Spanish, and crafts... The drive there and back was quite beautiful as we rolled through the mountains and caught glimpses of the sea; Russians call this time of year "Golden Autumn."

Fumi and I took the ferry to Russki Island!

There we discovered a monastery; to enter, we had to put our scarves over our heads and wear skirts (they provided them at the door!) The Soviet-style appartment buildings where people live, and the small shed-like houses, all seemed quite poor. The only way to get to the island is by car (the bridge you saw in the first picture) or by a 40 minute ferry ride. New university residences and buildings were built on the opposite side of the island in preparation for the APEC summit this fall. I've heard that the construction was quick and there are a number of problems with the amenities: leakage and water in the air shafts, though I have not seen it for myself.

There are often parties in the teacher's office; here, our administrator cuts a "perozhki"; a typical cake for parties. There is always wine and champagne at these celebrations and little chocolates and cake. These seem to happen almost every week! But this one was especially big; Olga is celebrating her 55th birthday.



Here you can see "The Centre" at market time Saturday morning. I did my grocery shopping here and bought fresh onions, tomatoes, some squash to make soup, apples, as well as some jam, fish, smoked sausage, and fresh baked bread (and a pastry!) The pastries here are quite tasty. Quite popular are "pirozhok," small buns with different fillings such as cream cheese, cabbage, and liver. I find them all tasty!



Here vendors sell fresh (?) fish. I like to buy smoked fish and I usually eat it with cheese on bread and have cucumbers on the side.



A couple of students brought me to an excellent art exhibition by a local painter named Sergei Chersakov. The paintings seemed to be inspired slightly by Jackson Pollock, but at the same time, the few energetic brushstrokes are calmed by the soft blues of the sky and sea. I think this artist captures the spirit of the city perfectly.

Amazingly, he was present at the exhibition and I was able to shake his hand! My students prompted me, but I told him, "Nice paintings! I'm from Canada!" Oi. I wish I could have expressed how inspiring the paintings had been for me.