When I left Finland for Russia, I had an imagination of similar country and culture waiting for me on the other side of the border, but it did not remain the same after arriving. Our Coordinator had already fed enough fear on in my mind about Russia. I was not supposed to drink the water directly from tap as I used to do in Finland. I was not supposed to enjoy the evening and night life there. Russian friends of Lappeenranta had already warned to be more careful and not to interact with unnecessary people there. "You can get robbed so easily there, you won't even notice that you are already robbed", one of my Russian friends told me before leaving to Russia. The well heard quote was bugging me in my mind, "Everything is supposed to be normal, but you never know, since Russia is always Russia".
When train left me on Saint Petersburg train station, the only thing was in my mind was the fear fed by different people. But, there came an angel with bright smile on her face. She guided me with very warm welcome. She helped me on every stage on leading to hotel, dealing with dinner menu, translating Russian to English and making a way to communicate with people. In deed, she was an angel who helped on every aspect. She was also one of the students of Winter School, so, she helped on very friendly manner being conscious on very small details to make my Russia trip unforgettable. It was growing a sense of security inside me, fading out the fear of my mind. Another few days made me really comfortable with Russia. University people, teachers and all of my friends here helped me a lot to wash out the fear about Russia. I was being much comfortable with it. But all days did not remain as I felt during those first few days. I got very 'exciting' opportunities to explore Russia.
Winter School 2008
I was very excited about winter school and its contents. I was highly encouraged for a new flavor of studies and education system. Meantime, the day came, when Prof. Evgeny I. Veremey started our first lesson on 'Introduction to Digital systems'. He was really a good professor. His teaching style and caring about whether students are understanding his lectures or not was really good point which we hardly get even in Finnish Education system. Prof. Varemey was really a good professor. But, my happiness did not last a long when we started second session with Prof. Vitaly Klyuev from University of Aizu, Japan. Primarily, I thought, I was the only one who was having difficulty on understanding his tone of language. But, later on, after discussing with other participants of the session, I realized, everybody was facing the same problem. I am sorry to say so, but I could understand neither pronunciation nor tone of his language. He was teaching "Introduction to Information Retrieval", which was very interesting subject for me, but, I could not get expected input from him. But, our third lecture on "Document Clustering" by Prof. Vladimir Dobrynin fulfilled the gap. He was another wonderful professor with enormous idea about the subject and very comfortable technique to make it understandable to students about the content. Study was our primary motive of this Russia trip. So, it was really good enough to gain new knowledge for me.
Managing Time
I had different perception about Winter School. Might be, I expected too much from it. I thought, the primary motive of Winter school was to familiarize with Russian culture, tradition and historic city along with the study. I did not mean to underestimate the importance of study during those period. But, I felt, I was abandoned to hotel just like, do what ever you want and we don't have any obligations towards you except inside the classroom. One of the CBU student, the angel, took us to University every day from Hotel and brought us back on a local bus. She really struggle enough to manage comfortableness for us on our journey though she was also one of the students of Winter School. No body came and care about what we were eating on dinner and breakfast during those ten days. She really fought with them and argued a lot to manage better breakfast and dinner as they are provided by Hotel. She translated each items of the menu for us in each individual morning and evening and discussed with them about our necessity and interest. We were supposed to take dinner by 7:00 evening. So, at any cost, I needed to be there in Hotel by 7:00 as the restaurant closes down on 8:00. So, what after 8:00, I didn't have Internet on hotel. I didn't have English channel on TV. I didn't have any study materials in English in hotel. The only solution was to engage myself with the my laptop without Internet for regular 10 days. Other days, I tried to manage by downloading some study materials from college and spending time with them during evening and night. It is very interesting that our schedule is very much tight on college as well. I had classes till 17:15. Then, we are free to use Internet and computer for our own purposes. I believe, everybody realizes the need of using Internet for personal purposes is also really important. But, I was allowed only for next 45 minutes. After 18:00, either there would be some other classes on the room or some other difficulties. And, I didn't have any other alternative computer labs to work for me. I needed to do project and I needed to do it within the same time table. Definitely, we could not do it, so we canceled the half day visiting program of Saturday to allocate time for project since we did not have another computer labs available for us to work after 18:00.
Visiting Petersburg city
I was asked to arrive city center on Sunday to enjoy the city panorama. The angel took us there with the same local bus. The university people were waiting there for us. They took us to Hermitage Museum. They paid for entrance ticket. The museum was really wonderful. It showed the history of Russia with wonderful paintings and scriptures. I felt, I saw something that is really memorable throughout my life. It was really wonderful experience. Then, they led us to a historic church. It was also too good. The internals of the church was so beautifully decorated and painted. I was really in praising the historicity of the city. Then the university people disappeared. Now, I was led by the same and wonderful guide, the angel. She took me to many interesting parts of the city. Then, we went to view the high tide on the river. We climbed upstairs of a church to have bird's view of Saint Petersburg City. The view was simply awesome. Wind was very strong, it was pushing us backwards and we struggle enough to walk forward. It was really wonderful experience.
The tragedy
While going back to hotel from Petersburg city on Sunday, I need to take metro train first before getting the local bus. It was my fourth metro travel on Saint Petersburg, so I was being more comfortable with it. But this time crowd was bit more. Me and one of my friends Idres were getting inside the train. Three Russian young guys were behind us. When we just stepped inside the train, they pushed us so abnormally, so I took out my left hand from the pocket and get support of Idres to resist their pressure from behind. There were no other people behind them, so its really unnatural to me that why they pushed me. My right hand was still inside the right pocket of my jeans. It contained my purse which contains my cards, bank information, student details and some Russian currency. I had just now taken out my left hand from pocket which contains a Camera to resist their pressure. Immediately after few seconds, I felt an unknown hand inside my right pocket. I immediately caught that hand and jerked it out of my pocket. After jerking his hand out of my pocket, all of those three guys immediately get off from the train. I turned my head to view his face. He was showing some wired expressions. Suddenly I remembered my left pocket which contained my Camera. I had just now taken out my hands to resist their pushing pressure from behind. Unfortunately, Camera was not there. They were already successful. Though I was successful on protecting my purse, I had already lost my Camera. I was really surprised by their courage that they tried to sweep out both of my pockets. It all happened within maximum 2 minutes. But now, its too late, since the speed train had already taken its speed and those 'courageous' robbers won't be waiting me back to return it. I was speechless. I was expressionless.
Camera, for me, is very important. It was one of my best friends. I really enjoy photography. And, that was only the camera I had these days. The realization that I won't be able to buy any new camera in immediate new future really scared me that I would be living without a camera. My friend's warning was repeatedly bugging me in my mind like, 'I had told you before'. "Anything can happen in Russia, be alive", "You will get robbed in a flash that you won't even notice that you are already robbed" and "Russia is always Russia" were making an iterative loop inside my mind for reminding my carelessness and my foolishness to being confident on new place. I was laughing myself for my foolishness that I lost it because of my feeling it secure and comfortable on new place despite of several warnings of my Russian friends of Lappeenranta.
