victory day

The family visit went off without any hitches.  Well, one hitch.  They flew into Helsinki and planned on taking the afternoon train to Petersburg, but it was booked so instead of arriving at 6:00pm it was 12:00am, but otherwise everything went smoothly the entire time.  It was nice to have an excuse to be a tourist for a while.  Even though I'm in one of the great historical nations (and a short train from one of the best tourist cities in Europe), living here I sometimes forget to see all the great attractions Russia has to offer because I don't consider myself a tourist mentally.  It was my first time in the Hermitage, which is one of the most breathtaking structures I've ever been in.  More often than not I found myself looking at the sheer detail and opulence of the rooms themselves rather than the world famous works of art housed within them.

Our weekend in the PTZ (again, as the kids are calling it) was comparably less tourist-y and entailed much, much less walking.  By that point, however, I think it was a relief.  The weather wasn't the best; we flirted with the 50-degree mark but mostly stayed under.  All in all, though, I think it was enjoyable for everyone.  Even though the family couldn't stay for my concert, I did take them to one of our rehearsals and they had a really good time.

Today was Victory Day in Russia.  The rest of the Allied powers celebrate V-E Day on May 8, but by the time the papers were signed in Germany it was already the 9th in Russia, which is just fine with me because it means an extra Monday off.  I was invited by some of my students to take part in a parade through town to the main square.  After that the military marched to the second main square and did some precision marching that I couldn't see because there were too many people.  It wasn't exactly as grandiose as columns of Soviet-era tanks streaming through Red Square, but we did okay for a small town and the weather was fantastic.  By far my favorite moment was just before the parade started, when a few kids around 7-8 years old approached a dignified old man resplendent with his war medals standing off to the side with his wife, gave him some flowers and shook his hand.  Even 66 years later, the "Great Patriotic War" is still fresh in the Russian psyche.