White Nights

June 21st was the longest day of the year. In northern parts of the world (St. Pete and here too) this means that it gets "dark" at about 2 and light again at 4. It does a doozy on the sleep paterns. But it's cool - and beats -20 degree C.

Friday was also the last day of exams for graduating high schoolers. St. Pete celebrates these events by throwing one massive party. Here's my attempt to descibe:

1. people. a lot of em. 1 million (1/5 of the city). Spread over two parks and the adjoning bridges. As my lungs expanded, they hit other people. 80% of the time. Not the party to go to if you're claustraphobic. The people were young (all of the grads - all wearing Ms. America beauty Pagent sashes - many of the women in gowns), and old (there were a fair number of babushki), and middle aged (who were the only ones we trusted to take photographs of us...)

2. music. for the first time, it was exclusivly Russian music. Which, though good to experience, might be the only exposure to it I ever seek out. We saw two groups perform. The first was a Backstreet Boys + New Kids on the Block group. They must have been really popular, because the crowd went insane - and everyone was singing along to every word. They weren't actually that bad (but don't take that as support for BB or NKOTB (speaking of which - I did see a guy wearing a NKOTB jacket. Reminded me of my old jean jacket. I took a picture. It was too tempting.) The second group was a Spice Girls wannabe - with even less musical ability - or maturity. Scantily clad, they danced across the stage. I felt like I was watching 80s club dancing. It was painful. This group made us wander (or rather let ourselves be pushed (see 1.)) over to a nearby bridge.

3. bridge lifting. St. Pete is the Venice of the North. There are a lot of bridges here. A lot. And - to let ships through, the bridges open from ~2-6. Only, it's Russia - so the times aren't exact. Planning isn't really possible. But, they can keep you on an island for several hours preventing you from getting home. If you're hanging out at a club on the main island - and the bridges open at 1:30 - plan on hanging out in the bar (or others) until morning. No way to get home. So 1/5 of St. Pete was out last night to watch the bridges open. (Hopefully everyone was watching from their proper island...) It's supposed to be magestic - but after growing up with the Coleman Bridge - I was disspointed. but....

4. fountains/fireworks. It was accompanied by some serious fountains (which are seasonally installed in the River Neva) light shows (in the fountains), and fireworks. The fireworks were certainly classy. They were almost all white (uh -- White Nights....) Though it was barely dark. The fountain show lasted several hours and the fireworks a solid 60 minutes.

5. alcohol. So now. I'm not sure there's any way to accurately descibe the alcohol consumption last night. Except to say that I have never seen 999,997 drunkards gathered together (Melissa and I were entirly sober, dad --- :)) Old men, graduates, 8 year olds with beer in their hands. Drinking is so much a part of what it is to be Russian. On the 4th of July, people are surely drinking on the Mall - but clandestinly (open container laws.) The riot police were even drinking. There were piles and piles of empty bottles along the streets. I don't think I've seen anything quite like it. And that's all I'm going to say on that.

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Today's my host mom's birthday. We bought her a cake from the European bakery (above their budget, but not ours....). Going to eat it tonight. Yum. We also ordered SET (we play almost every night now...)

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The White Nights Marathon is today. (Hopefully they've cleaned the streets a bit since last night.) Still a little bitter I can't run. Ok - Really bitter. After my failed marathon attempt this spring, I thought I could let my femurs heal for a few weeks and then finish off training for the White Nights - but I'm still not 100% I knew that that was out of the question within the first week or so of getting to Russia. Sadness. Not going to let this goal get away though. Going out to cheer the runners on now...

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to be continued...