CONTENTS:
The Program
Cultural Activities
Saint Petersburg - Background
Living Conditions
What to take
Visa
Optional Moscow Excursion Program
The American firm White Nights, in conjunction with its Russian sister firm Belije Nochi offers a Russian study/cultural immersion program in Saint Petersburg, Russia, at the reasonable price of $1175 for four weeks (Students receive a $30 discount. Additional weeks available at $275/week. Netherlands:2350f, 50f student discount; Switzerland: 1760sFr, 50sFr student discount; Germany: 2120DM, 50DM student discount). Participants live with Russian families and are provided with breakfast and dinner. Russian language classes are offered five days a week, three hours a day, with the instruction site situated in the heart of one of the most beautiful areas of Saint Petersburg. (For those desiring, individual Russian lessons are available at additional fee. If group lessons have three persons or less, study site may be at the teacher's home.)
Program participants choose themselves when they would like to arrive in Saint Petersburg, making it easy to accommodate all travel itineraries (beginners may choose to arrive at the beginning of a Russian language program for beginners, the first Monday of every month, or simply "dive in" into the course upon arrival). If desired, cheap airline flights to Russia are available through White Nights. Participants are picked-up at train stations or at the airport and taken to their host families in the city. City transport passes are distributed, good for all trams, buses, trolleys and in the efficient and beautiful Saint Petersburg metro system.
Cultural immersion - that is a goal that White Nights endeavors to provide to program participants. Living with Russians, not simply travelling with a tour group staying in hotels, should reveal facets of Russian life that may prove interesting - if not astonishing - to those coming from western countries. (See, for example, how many Russians, as a legacy of the Soviet system of life, have become self-sufficient, able to fix their own refrigerators, cars, TVs, grow their own food in dachas, sow their own clothes, etc.) In most cases there will be strong incentive to learn Russian, since host families may have only a limited background of English, if at all. As more Russian is learned while living in Russia, the Russian perspective of life should become clearer.
It should prove additionally stimulating for participants as they associate with other participants from other countries, as White Nights is advertising its Russian language program in both Western Europe and in the United States.
Besides being provided with Russian language instruction, participants are offered cultural outings on an average of every two to three days during their stay in Saint Petersburg. As examples, such outings may include combinations of the following activities:
Saint Petersburg - Background:
The most European and perhaps most romantic of Russian cities, Saint Petersburg was founded by Peter the Great, the legendary Tsar of Russia, early in the 18th century, who was eager to open up a gateway from Russia to the Western world. The center of the city is bedecked with baroque and neoclassical mansions designed by French and Italian architects, and most of the city as a whole is graced with broad, carefully landscaped parks. Situated on the edge of the Gulf of Finland and in the Neva delta, Saint Petersburg is intersected by a network of canals and connected together by stylistic bridges that give the city its distinctive flavor.
Especially renown are the "white nights" ("belije nochi") of Saint Petersburg, a time of year extending from late May through June when the nights are never completely dark, when even in the wee hours of the morning the sky is kept dimly aglow by the bending light of the hidden sun.
In the application form participants are asked to give their preferences as far as living arrangements are concerned, and efforts will be made to accommodate such preferences when possible (i.e., reasonable requests, such as living with families with no pets, no small children, or no smokers, etc., can in most cases be met).
In most cases participants will be given their own private rooms, although in some cases a room may be accessible by others in the day but which is converted into a bedroom at night. In Russian households, it is typically expected for people to take their shoes off and put on slippers before entering the main premises. Russians are generally polite and reserved people, and loud and boisterous activities by western guests may be frowned upon. As a concern for safety, it should be understood that Russian acquaintances should not be invited into Russian households before first receiving permission from your host.
Russia, it should be understood, is an underdeveloped country, and as such standards of living are not at par to Western conditions. The water in Saint Petersburg, for instance, should not be drunk without first boiling it (Russian families realize this and themselves almost always drink water first boiled, or tea or coffee). Hot water is available in households, although during the summer whole areas of the city are hit by a maintenance shutdown of hot water facilities for periods of several weeks, and consequently hot water for group participants cannot always be guaranteed.
Russian cuisine provided for by Russian families will be different from that in Western countries, which may offer its surprises. Breakfasts in Russia, for instance, are oftentimes heavy, when it might be possible to receive a meal of macaroni and cheese or hot dogs, which may be topped off by a desert. Dinners are generally the lightest meal of the day, when, perhaps say, sandwiches, or blini (mini-pancakes) with sour cream/jam, or maybe a bowl of borscht may be served. A paradox of Russian food products is that at first glance they may appear unappetizing and bland because they lack Western food colorings and preservatives, but then in the West sometimes people pay extra for "natural" products. More and more, however, Western food products are inundating food markets.
Russia, in general, is a country wracked by change. Many Russians reminisce to the days of Brezhnez when at least life was predictable and people were isolated from the heady world of Western competitiveness. Now, as is widely lamented, the once scorned, "evil" speculators of the past are the nouveau riche of the present, and the division between rich and poor in the present day is stark. Once perceived as a land of law and order, Russia today is beset by the criminal element, although the extent of such crime as it affects tourists has been overblown and may be comparable with that found in large cities of the West. (Program participants are nevertheless advised to exercise normal precautions related to their personal safety as if, say, they were in New York City. For instance, strollings in the city alone late at night should be avoided.)
During summer light clothes are generally adequate for Saint Petersburg, although at times a light frost or even a sprinkle of snow may occur. An umbrella could come in handy for the frequent rains that occur. Classroom materials for Russian language instruction will be provided as part of the program cost, but participants may wish to bring along a favorite Russian textbook for reference. Stomach medicine, aspirin, prescription drugs, etc., are recommended, since Russian pharmacies are generally poorly stocked. For summers, mosquito repellent is recommended.
Two- or three-hundred dollars, say, as general spending money is suggested for a four-week stay, although half this amount could suffice if entertainment expenses are minimized (visits to Western bars and restaurants can be expensive). Traveller checks can be cashed in Saint Petersburg or in Moscow, and generally a 3% commission fee is charged. Please note that sometimes Russian exchange offices refuse to accept banknotes that are worn, torn, or scribbled upon as they are hard to verify with their counterfeit detectors. If possible, do not bring "old" USA $100 bills, but the new ones recently issued. Prices for items in Russia can either be cheap or expensive, dependent on whether they are locally manufactured or imported. Inflation in Russia, lately, has subsided, although prices when valued against the dollar rise perhaps several procent every month. In the past fluctuations of the ruble against the dollar have been dramatic; lately, however, the ruble has stabilized at around 5000 rubles to the dollar.
Russian hosts and friends are sure to be interested in the backgrounds of participants, and so it is suggested that photos of family, friends and your home town are brought along. If it is desired to give a small gift to your Russian hosts, to Russian men: a bottle or two of wine, to Russian women: a small assortment of cosmetics, to children: chocolate.
A visa is required to enter the Russian Federation, and the visa fee is not included as part of the program cost. Visa fees vary depending on the nationality of the applicant, and in the country where the visa is applied for (Russian visas issued in Helsinki may be the cheapest). After the program deposit fee is received, White Nights will send a visa invitation (travel voucher) to participants as well as a visa application form and instruction sheet. The Russian embassy/consulate requires three passport photos from applicants and a photocopy of their passport, which should be valid for six months after the entry date to Russia (Some Russian Embassies/consulates require for the applicant to send his/her passport along with the visa application form.)
IMPORTANT: On the application form to White Nights, please indicate the desired dates when you would like to enter and leave the Russian Federation. Allow yourself a few days of buffering time to account for any unexpected changes to travelling plans. It is time-consuming and expensive to change the period of validity of a Russian visa once it is issued. If two entries into Russia are desired, be sure to specify this to your White Nights agent who can issue you two vouchers needed to obtain two Russian visas (participants may be interested in hopping over to Estonia or Finland for a weekend jaunt).
Reminder: The Russian visa is a separate document that is not entered into your passport. Do not lose it. It is also just as important to not lose your customs declaration form which you fill out upon arriving at the Russian border and which you must present upon leaving the country. Customs officials do not always "force" you to fill out a customs declaration form at the border, although it is STRONGLY in your own best interest to do so. Oftentimes customs officials, especially in trains, expect YOU to cry out for validation of a customs declaration form. Customs officials are NOT the same people as immigration officials who stamp your passport and visa. Lacking a customs declaration, you may be permitted to export a maximum of $50 ONLY and not be permitted to take with you undeclared jewelry/watches upon leaving the country!
Optional Moscow Excursion Program:
Program participants may choose to participate in an optional excursion to Moscow, which consists of 5-nights duration (these nights are in addition to the program length selected for the Russian Language Immersion Program). A three-person minimum is needed for an excursion to Moscow to take place, although, if three persons are not participating a person can travel individually to Moscow and will be given a refund of group services and activities not rendered. For groups of three to six persons, accommodations may be given at a centrally-located apartment, with up to four persons in a common room. For groups larger than six persons accommodations will be provided at a hotel, with participants sharing double or triple rooms.
Departure: From Moscow train station in St. Petersburg. Sleeping compartment in night train departing late evening, arriving early morning in Moscow.
Day one: Group met by White Nights representative at the Leningrad train station in Moscow and guided by public transport to a hotel (or apartment for small groups). Breakfast. English (and Russian) speaking guide takes group to the Kremlin and Red Square. Lunch. Visit to Kitai-gorod. Dinner. Free evening.
Day two: After breakfast walking tour of the city: old and new "Arbat," ulitsa "Vorovskaya," "Nikitskiye" Gate, Church of the Ascension; Lunch; "Tverskoi" Bulvar, Monument Eseniny, Pushkin Square and Monument to Puskin, ulitsa "Tverskaya" (Gorky), "Mossoveta" Building, Monument to Dolgarykomy, Theater Square, "Bolshoi" Theater, "Mali" Theater. Dinner. Evening theater excursion.
Day three: After breakfast, excursion to Kolomenskoye Museum Preserve (estate of numerous Russian princes and tsars). Lunch. Tretyakov Art Gallery (one of the world's largest Russian and Soviet art collections). Dinner. Evening theater excursion.
Day four: After breakfast excursion by "elektichka" train to Sergiev Posad (Zagorsk), jewel among jewel of old Russian towns. Troitse-Sergiyev Lavra (Trinity Monastery), center of Russian Orthodoxy for centuries. Lunch in Sergiev Posad. Dinner either in Sergiev Posad or back in Moscow. Night train back to St. Petersburg.
Day five: Arrival back in St. Petersburg early morning.
Note: all meals included. For groups less than twenty persons public transport is used (lead by guide). The "elektrichka" train to Sergiev Posad (about 60 km from Moscow) may be crowded, and only hard, wooden seats may be available.
Excursion cost: $345 (Netherlands:575f; Switzerland: 450sFr; Germany: 490DM)
If less than three persons participate in the excursion to Moscow, only accommodations and train transportation to/from Moscow is provided. Cost is reduced to $140 (if staying in apartment) or $280 (for single room in hotel). Difference in money is refunded in St. Petersburg or, upon request, in home country.
Questions: E-mail our St Petersburg office:wn@wnights.com