St. Petersburg

As an intern at SAMK this summer I have had the opportunity to join the summer school class in a trip to St. Petersburg, Russia.

This experience of crossing the border between Russia and the EU reminded me so much of the process to cross the mexican-american border but with stricter controls. The wait was not actually long but the fact that everybody has to get out of their car for inspection and for passport and visa control makes it quite slow.

As we crossed the border we could see the difference, Finland is a little bit like Celebration Florida (a Disney created suburb in Florida where people can live in a small town of sorts with strict rules and indeed looks perfect due to its strict rules of conduct and how houses, shops and streets should look) while Russia is more like in my eyes a little bit chaotic and messy like Mexico or Spain. It is indeed a whole different world from Finland or even the US, yet there are McDonalds and Carls Jr's all over the city. St. Petersburg is really cosmopolitan and you can see the great diversity the city has to offer; from architecture to food, to fashion and music. Posters for upcomming concerts in the city let you know how international it really is, Mylene Farmer from France, Madonna and Korn from the US tourists from France, Saudi Arabia, Emirates and China as well as restaurants that range from the Spanish tapas bar to the Shisha Bars where you can smoke arab pipes.
Another of the cool things we got to do was to visit this one university called Engecon where after the formalities we got to talk for a brief time at least with some russian students which indeed had a different point of view from the rest of the europeans I have met. It was refreshing to see that they are actually

Part of what made the experience even more enjoyable was the fact that I went with a really cool group of people from the summer school from SAMK from the US, Netherlands and one german, one japanese and one chinese dude. Looking at the people and their reaction to this new country for all of us made it real cool, we took the subway and even wondered off through the not so touristic sites and it was a great way to actually see what a day in a russian everyday life is like.

It is weird but my favorite building in Saint Petersburg was actually a mosque and my favorite restaurant was a spanish restaurant called Las Torres, the architecture in general was amazing and the museums and the people were great too. Seriously this summer school trip blew my mind and I do think that these kind of experiences helps groups bond and people open themselves to new wonderfull different cultures in a way regular schoolwork does not.

*ESPAÑOL

San Petersburgo es en verdad una ciudad maravillosa y elhecho de haber ido con los alumnos de el curso de verano me ayudo a ver 4 culturas completamente differentes reaccionar ante este nuevo lugar de manera distinta. En cuanto a el shock cultural, creo que la Federacion Rusa es en su manera un poco mas parecida a America Latina de lo que cualquier pais europeo lo es.

La religion, el trafico, la importancia de el trato personal refleja una mentalidad mas colectivista y la manera de ser es sin duda algo que los latinos podriamos apreciar ya que nos es mas que familiar. El viaje en si fue una experiencia muy buena ya que no solo conocimos la ciudad sino que para los chavos del curso de verano fue una pausa y un cambio radical despues de una semana en Finlandia.

Finlandia es muy bonito, paisajes espectaculares y gente muy cordial asi que al llegar a Russia y ver un poco de caos resulta un poco radical, pero por lo menos por mi parte algo bienvenido ya que estoy acostumbrado a las ciudades mas grandes como esta. Ver el contraste entre Europa y Russia es muy bueno para entender como dos sistemas tan diferentes viven lado a lado de manera pacifica a veces, pero tambien violentamente de vez en cuando.