Hey everyone!
A while back I wrote a post called "the sentimentality of places," all about different places in the world that I've been and forged some kind of special relationship with, and what they mean to me. In the intervening months since I published that post, I've had some wonderful chances to explore new places that have presented wonderful new experiences for me, and today I wanted to share those with you all.
So this is the sentimentality of places, continued.
The first two have a shared characteristic between them, at least within the context of college life:
Whenever I talk to people about my life and experiences at Beloit, one of the things I usually end up highlighting is that, although the school is situated in a fairly small community compared to what I and many of my classmates are used to, it's fairly easy, cheap, and efficient to reach Madison and Chicago from there. I've visited both of them from Beloit many times, and as such have come to form ample impressions of them, and have many great memories from these places.
1) Madison, Wisconsin:
Madison, in many ways, reminds me a lot of home. It's quite a bit bigger than Ann Arbor, and also has a bit more political weight as the state capital. But the presence of the University of Wisconsin's main campus, which is similar in size and scope to the University of Michigan back home, gives it a comparable feel. Many of the buildings are very pretty, and admission to most of the main landmarks of the city is free of charge. The Capitol Building in particular is a big one, being at the literal heart of the city, and very aesthetically pleasing to look at inside and out. Madison is the one of the two cities that I tended to visit more often - as Beloiters can get a $9 roundtrip discount on bus tickets from campus, compared to $44 roundtrip to Chicago, it usually was the one I'd visit if I was just wanting to leave Beloit and explore on a whim. And it's a great place to do that. I love being able to blend in in the city's sleek coffee shops and eccentric shops, losing myself in the greater anonymity compared to Beloit. I've also stayed in Madison with my parents on a couple of weekend visits of theirs, and have fond memories of strolling the city's streets in highly contrasting seasons. I'm always up for a day in Madtown.
2) Chicago, Illinois:
I've been to Chicago many times even well before I came to Beloit; as it was a comfortable three-ish hours away from my hometown of Ann Arbor, it was popular as a destination for weekends or short trips during school breaks. Indeed, for a long time I'd go at least once a year, more or less, and I have many fond memories from when I was small of bright lakeside views in spring time, and energetically enjoying the children's playground at Navy Pier. More recently, since I started college, Chicago has become the second most common destination of my brief escapades from Beloit whenever I start to feel bogged down or stifled on campus, one of my main logistical transit points for when I'm moving between campus and home (regardless of the method of transport), the site of a couple of cool conferences I've attended, and also gained a bit of a homey side as well as I've grown closer with my bestie Paula and been most graciously and generously hosted at her cosy Libertyville domicile, exploring the city with a local to guide me. Aesthetically and architecturally I think Chicago is breathtaking, with hypnotically tall steel and glass buildings making for an elegant contrast between the blue of Lake Michigan and the open skies. And I love how grand and worldly it is, without losing that relaxed, laid back Midwestern touch.
3) New York City:
New York is a place I've been a fair number of times in my life, as it's quite familiar territory for my parents, who lived there for ten years before I or my sister came into the world, and we have lots of relatives on my father's side who live nearby in New Jersey, so trips to visit Jersey-based relatives over the years have often included passages of varying lengths through the City on the side as well.
It wasn't until my visit to the New York/New Jersey area last September right before I left for Russia, when I went into the City two days in a row, once for my good friend Sikander's violin recital and once just to hang out with him for a while, that I started to see the City in a new light and truly, properly fall in love with it.
I think that because, to my previous point, I visited New York as a side part of bigger trips, I'd always associated it with movement, with passage, and thinking about New York as a place often came with a feeling of nostalgia for travel. However, going back two days in a row last year, spending part of the time moving around it introspectively by myself and the other parts with a dear friend who is a well-established local, I got to see it in a whole different light.
4) Turku, Finland:
As I've not shied away from mentioning in my posts about my experience in Finland, it was certainly not without challenges. My life in Turku was by no means perfect, and there were times when I felt touches of resentment towards the elements of monotony and difficulty that made it challenging. But overall, the town was a comfortable and fascinating home base through which to experience Finland. It had everything I felt I needed - plenty of cute cafes and tasty restaurants, a welcoming riverfront promenade, well-connected transportation systems, and a patchwork of elegant little towns and pristine parks in its surroundings. Turku is something of a special place in Finnish history, as it was the capital through all of Finland's six-hundred year stint as a Swedish province, and that history is truly perceptible in the parts of the city that have been preserved since that era, such as the Cathedral, the Old Square, and the area around the Castle. The presence of five different universities make it an intellectual powerhouse, with academia and the related tendencies towards reflection and learning a staple part of the city's culture. It also brings a distinct element of inter-regional and international flair, since people come from all over the country and all over the world to study at the universities and work in the city. People prattle on in all means of local and international languages as the stroll around town, going about their days.
In spite of the social challenges that I may have felt in my specific experience as an undergraduate exchange student, Turku was a comfortable and fun city in which to live, and it will always have a special place in my heart as my Finnish home, the place where I finally got to form a life and a daily routine in a place I dreamed of visiting since childhood.
5) Helsinki, Finland:
As much as I like Turku, I cannot deny my love for Helsinki, and its status as my very favorite city in Finland (and one of my favorites in the whole world). I got to visit five times over the course of my five months in Finland, which enabled me to explore the city thoroughly and get to know it well. And it's become one of my favorite places in the whole world. In many ways, I've found, Helsinki is my ideal city. It's just the right size; big enough to have the right kinds of worldly outreach, opportunities, and communities, but also small enough to have a more intimate sense of place and connection to the environment. It has lovely bookstores and libraries, calm cafes with tasty fare, beautiful cobblestone historic streets, and of course, in true Finnish fashion, positively crawling with saunas of all sorts, sizes, and calibers. Even being the capital and largest city in the whole country, it's surrounded by a wide arsenal of lush conifer forests, hidden lakes, and islands strewn in the Baltic waters like an archipelago of jewels, which are all easily and quickly accessible even from the most urbanized areas of the city. It combines so many of the best qualities of Finnish culture and life with a balanced, worldly outlook. As can probably be seen, I miss Helsinki greatly, and dearly hope to go back and spend a longer period of time there at some point in the future, weather it's grad school, doing some sort of job, or anything in-between.
6) Stockholm, Sweden:
My trip to Stockholm was one that had a personal significance that I cannot understate. My attraction to the Nordic world was born out of a curiosity about my Swedish roots on my American grandmother's side of my family, and so I had always hoped to visit their ancestral homeland. Stockholm's beauty can also not be understated - the first morning after I had arrived, I exited my hostel, and after not even ten minutes walking through the neighborhood near my hostel, admiring the cobblestone streets and bright red and yellow buildings gently illuminated by the sun, I burst into tears from how beautiful it was. I also cannot begin to describe the satisfaction and happiness I felt in the successful Swedish interaction I was able to have navigating through the city; even if it was just simple things, like ordering a Nutella crepe with bananas, or buying my bus ticket back to the airport, every word I uttered and interaction I had there helped me feel a connection to the city, to the land, to my heritage. Even in just a few days of introspective exploration through the city my great-great grandparents left for New Jersey, I felt a feeling of natural connection, of homeliness, almost, that I've only felt in places like Turkey, Iceland, and Finland. I can only say that I hope to go back sometime for longer, and continue cementing my connections to this place so important to my familial history.
7) Copenhagen, Denmark:
Among all of the Nordic capitals that I visited, Copenhagen stands out as a true favorite in so many senses. Helsinki holds a special place in my heart, and Stockholm is without a doubt the most beautiful. But if I have to pick a favorite among them, I go to Copenhagen every time.
Of course it's a beautiful city, with pretty beige, red-roofed older buildings and sleek, glassy newer architecture stretching over bright blue canals that look surprisingly clean. But Copenhagen's charm goes far beyond that. The biggest thing that captivated me while I was there was the energy, and how positive and warm it felt. Granted, I was there in the first week or so of beautiful spring weather after a winter that had been unusually harsh and cold throughout northern Europe, even by local standards, and everyone was flocking outside in droves as a result. But there was just such a palpably positive atmosphere, with everyone going outside for walks and boat rides, playing music and dancing along the sides of the canals, and celebrating. The vast majority of the locals I talked to were incredibly kind and friendly, and seemed to truly go out of their way to make me and other visitors feel welcome. The iconic Danish and Norwegian word hygge, described as "a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being," a truly staple quality of both Danish and Norwegian culture, hangs over the atmosphere of the whole city, and will become a defining aspect of any visitor's Danish experience. Although I was only in Copenhagen for four days, my time there was truly lovely, and having fallen deeply in love with the city, I look forward to going back and hopefully spending more time there at the earliest opportunity that comes my way.
8) Oslo, Norway:
9) Tallinn, Estonia:
I can honestly say that I didn't expect to be nearly as captivated by Tallinn as I was. I'd heard from people who had been there that it's very beautiful, but I the beauty of the Old Town in particular, with it's cobbled streets, reddish towers, and light green and blue buildings truly blew me away. It looked like the miniature architectural lovechild of St. Petersburg and Stockholm, which are two of my favorite cities I've visited. And it was truly fascinating to see the different ways that Finno-Ugric/Nordic and Russophone histories intersected in the city's culture, people, and overall feeling. Being two regions that have been very important to me in personal and academic ways alike, I was delighted to see a place like Tallinn, where they came together in such elegant and beautiful ways. I only spent two days there, but I hope to go back for longer than that at some point in the future.
10) St. Petersburg, Russia:
St. Petersburg is beyond any shadow of a doubt my favorite city in Russia, and one of my favorites that I've visited in the world so far. I have a good friend from Peter (as it's affectionately or casually called in Russian for short) who I met several years before I went anywhere near studying Russian or going to Russia, and was well aware of how proud the people there are of their city. After having been there, I can say for sure that they have every right and reason to be proud. It's beautiful beyond words, filled with exquisite and ornate buildings built in old European styles with lavender, coral, and sky blue hues. The history of Imperial Russia is palpable in nearly every street corner. And comparing my time in St. Petersburg to living in Moscow, I can say that personally I felt a bit more comfortable there by comparison - people moved noticeably slower in the streets, taking more time to savor the moment and appreciate life. The whole spirit and mannerisms of interaction felt very European; people smiled more easily and were a bit more respectful in their interactions. In my time in St. Petersburg, I fell completely in love with the city, and how it elegantly combines all the best of Russian culture and history, with a distinct northern European touch.
11) Moscow, Russia:
As I've not shied away from discussing in numerous posts that I've made in the past, my time in Russia was one of the most challenging periods of my entire life. As a result, I have a very complicated relationship to my experience there, and to the city of Moscow itself, which are fraught by mixed feelings. But even in spite of all the numerous challenges I had to battle through, I found Moscow to be a truly dynamic and fascinating city, with a multifaceted past and bustling, changeable present. I made friendships during my time in Moscow that provided me with all the support I was needing to deal with my issues, allowed me to learn so much about unfamiliar parts of the world, and even explore key aspects of my own identity, which have now become some of the most important connections in my life. And I got to know so many places intimately within the city. I'll let one of my assignments from my Moscow in Transitions class sum it up better:
One of the things that I always strive towards the most by far when spending extended periods of time in a new city or country is building a relationship through a sense of regularity and routine. At the time that I submitted my first Moscow map assignment, through a desire to immediately begin exploring some of the city’s most well-known areas, as well as random objects of my own interest, I had already begun to form a certain degree of experiential knowledge, even over the course of just under two weeks. However, the greatest difference that the new version demonstrates is the regularity and routine, and how those have changed my relationship to the city.
In the Green Door anti-cafe near Chistiye Prudi, I have cried from laughter with both international and Russian friends while playing mafia and board games, strengthening my command of the language through practice rooted in laid-back and fun memories. At the Frau Brotchen cafe between RSUH and Novoslobodskaya, I have forged a friendship with the owner and a few specific members of her staff who have seen me in there nearly every day, as I stop by for a revitalizing cappucino and fluffy, heavenly tvorozhnoe kaltso in breaks between classes or to power up on my way to the metro. At Pinza Maestrello in Chistiye Prudi, I have deepened my knowledge of the cuisine of one of my own cultures, this delicious new flatbread-like take on pizza that has become quite prevalent in Italy in recent years. At Gorky Park, I have danced and laughed with friends through some of the final bright sunsets and open blue skies of the fleeting fall, and returned for some introspective snow walks alone on brighter, overcast winter days. I have come to identify Kievskaya and Belorusskaya as my favorite metro stations I have seen, admiring the beauty of their bright patterns and cultural homage to Russia’s neighbors.
On multiple occasions this year, friends coming to visit me in cities that I’m staying or living temporarily, but don’t fully call home, has made them feel more like home to me. In the first week of December, a good friend of mine who I had met on my FEG program in Iceland during the summer of 2016 came to visit me here in Moscow from Germany. It was in the week of her visit that I was able to see how much my relationship to my surroundings in this city have deepend. Though I certainly don’t have all the informations or answers, I was able to lead, direct, help, and translate for a friend who could not speak a word of Russian or recognize any Cyrillic letters, and was successfully able to ensure her a comfortable stay. Because of the inner turmoil and self-doubt that I have admittedly experienced in my time here, particularly during the tumultuous first days of adjustment following my arrival, realizing that I was able to act as a makeshift Muscovite guide and comfortably use my Russian to ask for, order, or contest the price of almost anything with no issues was incredibly empowering. Having this newfound map encompassing so many places in the city already in my mind upon her arrival, I was already able to propose itineraries day by day, keeping in mind what clusters of monuments to visit and restaurants to try were close to each other, sometimes even remembering how to get to them without having to consult the Yandex Metro app I’ve long since downloaded on my phone.
12) Baku, Azerbaijan:
A lot of what I described about my complicated feelings towards my time in Russia also apply in the context of my experience in Azerbaijan. Although my Critical Language Scholarship program surely provided ample support in a great many instances where it was needed and had good structures in place to do so, it was no secret that my host family switch I went through (more on that to come some time), the immense cultural differences, and the extensive communication issues I had being there to learn Turkish, which is not spoken there, made my time in Baku extremely challenging and got in the way of my enjoyment of my own experience quite a bit. But even so, despite the complicated aspects of the relationship I have to my time on CLS and to Baku as a place, I lived there for two months, and it's still special to me all the same. There are many aspects of my time there I look back on fondly: all the adventures I had with the sweet and interesting people that accompanied me on my program. Getting to know the eclectic combination of traditional Persian and Russian architecture, alongside typical Soviet and sleek modernist constructions. Getting acquainted with all the little cafes and restaurants. Long strolls along the Caspian shore. The constant linguistic flux of Azerbaijani and Russian rolling off the same tongues, and then blending together until the lines between them were completely blurred. And just the general exhilaration of being so far away from anything familiar, in a new place where I probably never would have ventured otherwise. Even in spite of the challenges, it will remain special to me.
These are the main places of importance that I wanted to add for now. In the future, as I hopefully visit and leave pieces of my heart in new places the world over, I will continue to add other places to this list.
All the best for now,
Nico
A while back I wrote a post called "the sentimentality of places," all about different places in the world that I've been and forged some kind of special relationship with, and what they mean to me. In the intervening months since I published that post, I've had some wonderful chances to explore new places that have presented wonderful new experiences for me, and today I wanted to share those with you all.
So this is the sentimentality of places, continued.
The first two have a shared characteristic between them, at least within the context of college life:
Whenever I talk to people about my life and experiences at Beloit, one of the things I usually end up highlighting is that, although the school is situated in a fairly small community compared to what I and many of my classmates are used to, it's fairly easy, cheap, and efficient to reach Madison and Chicago from there. I've visited both of them from Beloit many times, and as such have come to form ample impressions of them, and have many great memories from these places.
1) Madison, Wisconsin:
Madison, in many ways, reminds me a lot of home. It's quite a bit bigger than Ann Arbor, and also has a bit more political weight as the state capital. But the presence of the University of Wisconsin's main campus, which is similar in size and scope to the University of Michigan back home, gives it a comparable feel. Many of the buildings are very pretty, and admission to most of the main landmarks of the city is free of charge. The Capitol Building in particular is a big one, being at the literal heart of the city, and very aesthetically pleasing to look at inside and out. Madison is the one of the two cities that I tended to visit more often - as Beloiters can get a $9 roundtrip discount on bus tickets from campus, compared to $44 roundtrip to Chicago, it usually was the one I'd visit if I was just wanting to leave Beloit and explore on a whim. And it's a great place to do that. I love being able to blend in in the city's sleek coffee shops and eccentric shops, losing myself in the greater anonymity compared to Beloit. I've also stayed in Madison with my parents on a couple of weekend visits of theirs, and have fond memories of strolling the city's streets in highly contrasting seasons. I'm always up for a day in Madtown.
I've been to Chicago many times even well before I came to Beloit; as it was a comfortable three-ish hours away from my hometown of Ann Arbor, it was popular as a destination for weekends or short trips during school breaks. Indeed, for a long time I'd go at least once a year, more or less, and I have many fond memories from when I was small of bright lakeside views in spring time, and energetically enjoying the children's playground at Navy Pier. More recently, since I started college, Chicago has become the second most common destination of my brief escapades from Beloit whenever I start to feel bogged down or stifled on campus, one of my main logistical transit points for when I'm moving between campus and home (regardless of the method of transport), the site of a couple of cool conferences I've attended, and also gained a bit of a homey side as well as I've grown closer with my bestie Paula and been most graciously and generously hosted at her cosy Libertyville domicile, exploring the city with a local to guide me. Aesthetically and architecturally I think Chicago is breathtaking, with hypnotically tall steel and glass buildings making for an elegant contrast between the blue of Lake Michigan and the open skies. And I love how grand and worldly it is, without losing that relaxed, laid back Midwestern touch.
3) New York City:
New York is a place I've been a fair number of times in my life, as it's quite familiar territory for my parents, who lived there for ten years before I or my sister came into the world, and we have lots of relatives on my father's side who live nearby in New Jersey, so trips to visit Jersey-based relatives over the years have often included passages of varying lengths through the City on the side as well.
It wasn't until my visit to the New York/New Jersey area last September right before I left for Russia, when I went into the City two days in a row, once for my good friend Sikander's violin recital and once just to hang out with him for a while, that I started to see the City in a new light and truly, properly fall in love with it.
I think that because, to my previous point, I visited New York as a side part of bigger trips, I'd always associated it with movement, with passage, and thinking about New York as a place often came with a feeling of nostalgia for travel. However, going back two days in a row last year, spending part of the time moving around it introspectively by myself and the other parts with a dear friend who is a well-established local, I got to see it in a whole different light.
4) Turku, Finland:
As I've not shied away from mentioning in my posts about my experience in Finland, it was certainly not without challenges. My life in Turku was by no means perfect, and there were times when I felt touches of resentment towards the elements of monotony and difficulty that made it challenging. But overall, the town was a comfortable and fascinating home base through which to experience Finland. It had everything I felt I needed - plenty of cute cafes and tasty restaurants, a welcoming riverfront promenade, well-connected transportation systems, and a patchwork of elegant little towns and pristine parks in its surroundings. Turku is something of a special place in Finnish history, as it was the capital through all of Finland's six-hundred year stint as a Swedish province, and that history is truly perceptible in the parts of the city that have been preserved since that era, such as the Cathedral, the Old Square, and the area around the Castle. The presence of five different universities make it an intellectual powerhouse, with academia and the related tendencies towards reflection and learning a staple part of the city's culture. It also brings a distinct element of inter-regional and international flair, since people come from all over the country and all over the world to study at the universities and work in the city. People prattle on in all means of local and international languages as the stroll around town, going about their days.
In spite of the social challenges that I may have felt in my specific experience as an undergraduate exchange student, Turku was a comfortable and fun city in which to live, and it will always have a special place in my heart as my Finnish home, the place where I finally got to form a life and a daily routine in a place I dreamed of visiting since childhood.
5) Helsinki, Finland:
As much as I like Turku, I cannot deny my love for Helsinki, and its status as my very favorite city in Finland (and one of my favorites in the whole world). I got to visit five times over the course of my five months in Finland, which enabled me to explore the city thoroughly and get to know it well. And it's become one of my favorite places in the whole world. In many ways, I've found, Helsinki is my ideal city. It's just the right size; big enough to have the right kinds of worldly outreach, opportunities, and communities, but also small enough to have a more intimate sense of place and connection to the environment. It has lovely bookstores and libraries, calm cafes with tasty fare, beautiful cobblestone historic streets, and of course, in true Finnish fashion, positively crawling with saunas of all sorts, sizes, and calibers. Even being the capital and largest city in the whole country, it's surrounded by a wide arsenal of lush conifer forests, hidden lakes, and islands strewn in the Baltic waters like an archipelago of jewels, which are all easily and quickly accessible even from the most urbanized areas of the city. It combines so many of the best qualities of Finnish culture and life with a balanced, worldly outlook. As can probably be seen, I miss Helsinki greatly, and dearly hope to go back and spend a longer period of time there at some point in the future, weather it's grad school, doing some sort of job, or anything in-between.
6) Stockholm, Sweden:
My trip to Stockholm was one that had a personal significance that I cannot understate. My attraction to the Nordic world was born out of a curiosity about my Swedish roots on my American grandmother's side of my family, and so I had always hoped to visit their ancestral homeland. Stockholm's beauty can also not be understated - the first morning after I had arrived, I exited my hostel, and after not even ten minutes walking through the neighborhood near my hostel, admiring the cobblestone streets and bright red and yellow buildings gently illuminated by the sun, I burst into tears from how beautiful it was. I also cannot begin to describe the satisfaction and happiness I felt in the successful Swedish interaction I was able to have navigating through the city; even if it was just simple things, like ordering a Nutella crepe with bananas, or buying my bus ticket back to the airport, every word I uttered and interaction I had there helped me feel a connection to the city, to the land, to my heritage. Even in just a few days of introspective exploration through the city my great-great grandparents left for New Jersey, I felt a feeling of natural connection, of homeliness, almost, that I've only felt in places like Turkey, Iceland, and Finland. I can only say that I hope to go back sometime for longer, and continue cementing my connections to this place so important to my familial history.
7) Copenhagen, Denmark:
Among all of the Nordic capitals that I visited, Copenhagen stands out as a true favorite in so many senses. Helsinki holds a special place in my heart, and Stockholm is without a doubt the most beautiful. But if I have to pick a favorite among them, I go to Copenhagen every time.
Of course it's a beautiful city, with pretty beige, red-roofed older buildings and sleek, glassy newer architecture stretching over bright blue canals that look surprisingly clean. But Copenhagen's charm goes far beyond that. The biggest thing that captivated me while I was there was the energy, and how positive and warm it felt. Granted, I was there in the first week or so of beautiful spring weather after a winter that had been unusually harsh and cold throughout northern Europe, even by local standards, and everyone was flocking outside in droves as a result. But there was just such a palpably positive atmosphere, with everyone going outside for walks and boat rides, playing music and dancing along the sides of the canals, and celebrating. The vast majority of the locals I talked to were incredibly kind and friendly, and seemed to truly go out of their way to make me and other visitors feel welcome. The iconic Danish and Norwegian word hygge, described as "a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being," a truly staple quality of both Danish and Norwegian culture, hangs over the atmosphere of the whole city, and will become a defining aspect of any visitor's Danish experience. Although I was only in Copenhagen for four days, my time there was truly lovely, and having fallen deeply in love with the city, I look forward to going back and hopefully spending more time there at the earliest opportunity that comes my way.
8) Oslo, Norway:
My decision to visit Oslo earlier this spring was nearly on a whim, motivated by a nerdy attraction to Norway's innumerable, divergent dialects, as well as an overnight addiction to the excellent Norwegian teen drama of SKAM (possible future post to follow on this subject). And I was honestly taken aback by the surprise of what awaited me upon arrival. In my opinion, Oslo is greatly underrated in the context of the Nordic capitals, which I guess is in some ways kind of understandable when Stockholm is as beautiful and Copenhagen as fun and friendly as they are. But it's truly a shame, because Oslo is a dynamic, fun city that has all sorts of bustling and active neighborhoods, with a central square right along the shores of one of the country's iconic fjords, and the city spills out onto a myriad of picturesque islands out on the water. The way in which the city happily marries lively urban hustle and insanely beautiful scenery truly deserves to be seen (though the rumors of it's exorbitant prices are sadly quite true).
9) Tallinn, Estonia:
I can honestly say that I didn't expect to be nearly as captivated by Tallinn as I was. I'd heard from people who had been there that it's very beautiful, but I the beauty of the Old Town in particular, with it's cobbled streets, reddish towers, and light green and blue buildings truly blew me away. It looked like the miniature architectural lovechild of St. Petersburg and Stockholm, which are two of my favorite cities I've visited. And it was truly fascinating to see the different ways that Finno-Ugric/Nordic and Russophone histories intersected in the city's culture, people, and overall feeling. Being two regions that have been very important to me in personal and academic ways alike, I was delighted to see a place like Tallinn, where they came together in such elegant and beautiful ways. I only spent two days there, but I hope to go back for longer than that at some point in the future.
10) St. Petersburg, Russia:
St. Petersburg is beyond any shadow of a doubt my favorite city in Russia, and one of my favorites that I've visited in the world so far. I have a good friend from Peter (as it's affectionately or casually called in Russian for short) who I met several years before I went anywhere near studying Russian or going to Russia, and was well aware of how proud the people there are of their city. After having been there, I can say for sure that they have every right and reason to be proud. It's beautiful beyond words, filled with exquisite and ornate buildings built in old European styles with lavender, coral, and sky blue hues. The history of Imperial Russia is palpable in nearly every street corner. And comparing my time in St. Petersburg to living in Moscow, I can say that personally I felt a bit more comfortable there by comparison - people moved noticeably slower in the streets, taking more time to savor the moment and appreciate life. The whole spirit and mannerisms of interaction felt very European; people smiled more easily and were a bit more respectful in their interactions. In my time in St. Petersburg, I fell completely in love with the city, and how it elegantly combines all the best of Russian culture and history, with a distinct northern European touch.
11) Moscow, Russia:
As I've not shied away from discussing in numerous posts that I've made in the past, my time in Russia was one of the most challenging periods of my entire life. As a result, I have a very complicated relationship to my experience there, and to the city of Moscow itself, which are fraught by mixed feelings. But even in spite of all the numerous challenges I had to battle through, I found Moscow to be a truly dynamic and fascinating city, with a multifaceted past and bustling, changeable present. I made friendships during my time in Moscow that provided me with all the support I was needing to deal with my issues, allowed me to learn so much about unfamiliar parts of the world, and even explore key aspects of my own identity, which have now become some of the most important connections in my life. And I got to know so many places intimately within the city. I'll let one of my assignments from my Moscow in Transitions class sum it up better:
One of the things that I always strive towards the most by far when spending extended periods of time in a new city or country is building a relationship through a sense of regularity and routine. At the time that I submitted my first Moscow map assignment, through a desire to immediately begin exploring some of the city’s most well-known areas, as well as random objects of my own interest, I had already begun to form a certain degree of experiential knowledge, even over the course of just under two weeks. However, the greatest difference that the new version demonstrates is the regularity and routine, and how those have changed my relationship to the city.
In the Green Door anti-cafe near Chistiye Prudi, I have cried from laughter with both international and Russian friends while playing mafia and board games, strengthening my command of the language through practice rooted in laid-back and fun memories. At the Frau Brotchen cafe between RSUH and Novoslobodskaya, I have forged a friendship with the owner and a few specific members of her staff who have seen me in there nearly every day, as I stop by for a revitalizing cappucino and fluffy, heavenly tvorozhnoe kaltso in breaks between classes or to power up on my way to the metro. At Pinza Maestrello in Chistiye Prudi, I have deepened my knowledge of the cuisine of one of my own cultures, this delicious new flatbread-like take on pizza that has become quite prevalent in Italy in recent years. At Gorky Park, I have danced and laughed with friends through some of the final bright sunsets and open blue skies of the fleeting fall, and returned for some introspective snow walks alone on brighter, overcast winter days. I have come to identify Kievskaya and Belorusskaya as my favorite metro stations I have seen, admiring the beauty of their bright patterns and cultural homage to Russia’s neighbors.
On multiple occasions this year, friends coming to visit me in cities that I’m staying or living temporarily, but don’t fully call home, has made them feel more like home to me. In the first week of December, a good friend of mine who I had met on my FEG program in Iceland during the summer of 2016 came to visit me here in Moscow from Germany. It was in the week of her visit that I was able to see how much my relationship to my surroundings in this city have deepend. Though I certainly don’t have all the informations or answers, I was able to lead, direct, help, and translate for a friend who could not speak a word of Russian or recognize any Cyrillic letters, and was successfully able to ensure her a comfortable stay. Because of the inner turmoil and self-doubt that I have admittedly experienced in my time here, particularly during the tumultuous first days of adjustment following my arrival, realizing that I was able to act as a makeshift Muscovite guide and comfortably use my Russian to ask for, order, or contest the price of almost anything with no issues was incredibly empowering. Having this newfound map encompassing so many places in the city already in my mind upon her arrival, I was already able to propose itineraries day by day, keeping in mind what clusters of monuments to visit and restaurants to try were close to each other, sometimes even remembering how to get to them without having to consult the Yandex Metro app I’ve long since downloaded on my phone.
As such, I now know that whatever adversity I may have faced here, both situational and purely psychological, has been worthwhile. I’ve made roots in this city, and expanded the boundaries of my familiarity with it far beyond Korpus 4 and the RSUH campus. I feel proud of the relationship that I have succesfully been able to build with Moscow, and know that I will be able to easily return to and strengthen it at will in the future.
12) Baku, Azerbaijan:
A lot of what I described about my complicated feelings towards my time in Russia also apply in the context of my experience in Azerbaijan. Although my Critical Language Scholarship program surely provided ample support in a great many instances where it was needed and had good structures in place to do so, it was no secret that my host family switch I went through (more on that to come some time), the immense cultural differences, and the extensive communication issues I had being there to learn Turkish, which is not spoken there, made my time in Baku extremely challenging and got in the way of my enjoyment of my own experience quite a bit. But even so, despite the complicated aspects of the relationship I have to my time on CLS and to Baku as a place, I lived there for two months, and it's still special to me all the same. There are many aspects of my time there I look back on fondly: all the adventures I had with the sweet and interesting people that accompanied me on my program. Getting to know the eclectic combination of traditional Persian and Russian architecture, alongside typical Soviet and sleek modernist constructions. Getting acquainted with all the little cafes and restaurants. Long strolls along the Caspian shore. The constant linguistic flux of Azerbaijani and Russian rolling off the same tongues, and then blending together until the lines between them were completely blurred. And just the general exhilaration of being so far away from anything familiar, in a new place where I probably never would have ventured otherwise. Even in spite of the challenges, it will remain special to me.
These are the main places of importance that I wanted to add for now. In the future, as I hopefully visit and leave pieces of my heart in new places the world over, I will continue to add other places to this list.
All the best for now,
Nico
