Anyway, before your departure you also have to make a list of courses you want to take in Russia.

Study Report – Russia - Saint Petersburg – Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Last semester I had the opportunity to go abroad. So I did. I went to Saint Petersburg, the second biggest city of the Motherland, a country also known as Russia. Actually the first sentence isn’t correct, because if you are a student studying European Languages and Cultures, like me, this Erasmus exchange is mandatory. In the first year of my study I had to choose a language I wanted to learn. Probably not very shocking; I chose Russian as a language.

Before you are leaving and want to apply for the Marco Polo fund you have to hand in a bunch of documents. For Russia there are two extra documents: one that declares you don’t have HIV and you will have to make an X-ray (photo) of your lungs as well, they want to eliminate the chance that you might have tuberculosis, I guess. To this day I have no clue why I had to do the X-ray, because when I arrived in my flat in Saint Petersburg they didn’t ask me about this.

Anyway, before your departure you also have to make a list of courses you want to take in Russia.

The faculty that you want to apply to has a website where you can see the offer of courses, but please don’t expect you will actually be able to attend these courses: there’s a great chance you will discover that they don’t even exist when you are at your faculty. I went to the faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences. This faculty was organized really well. Sure, most courses which were listed on their website did not exist, but in the first two weeks (from 1

to 14

of September) you were allowed to walk into and join every course given there. You can test any course. After these two weeks you had to gather some signatures on a piece of paper from the teachers who were in charge of the courses you wanted to join and give this to the coordinator, who was practically always around somewhere. No stress! My contact with the faculty during and after my stay was pretty good too. If you really need to talk to your coordinator, she will make some time for you.

The only downside, I think this applies to whole Russia, not only this Faculty, is that sending things by mail (not e-mail, but old school mail) will take a very incredible long time. No

exaggeration. So be aware of this while applying for your visa and while waiting for your official Transcript of Records.

Another thing which is very well organized in Saint Pete (very cute nickname for the city that people actually use) is housing for international students. The only thing you have to do is answer ‘yes’ to the question ‘do you want us to arrange housing for you?’ in an online document you will get access to when you are applying for the exchange. They will put you in a flat with around 300-400 other international students on Kapitanskaya street. At first glance and the first couple of days you probably will ponder how on earth you are going to survive there. But for me, to live in this flat was one of the best experiences during my whole stay in Russia. There are only international students living there from all over the world, so making friends is quite easy (less of a language barrier, because you can communicate in English) and the atmosphere is amazing.

You pay around €70 each month. You will have to share a room with one other person (that was something I had to get used to a lot, but it will become normal quicker than you think). I think I learned more there than at my faculty. If you want to speak Russian only (and no English) during the five months, this is not the place for you though.

When you arrive all alone in Saint Petersburg and see nothing but flats, flats and flats with a

gloomy and sad huddle of thick clouds hovering above them, you might want to turn right back around and catch the first plane back home. I certainly felt that. Luckily the introduction week (welcome week) of the State University of Saint Petersburg makes sure you get a heartwarming welcome. Actually, this ‘week’ continues for about three weeks and there is an activity you can join almost daily. Don’t forget to sign up though. I would like to stress how much this

introduction week helped me on this exchange. I can really advise everyone to go to as much activities as possible. You will meet a lot of new people who are just as you in a new surrounding, out of their comfort zone and presumably also without friends. So that is a perfect starting point for new friendships!

What really struck me about the culture in Russia is the presence of bureaucracy. Doing the laundry in the flat I lived in could easily turn out to be a three of four hour journey. You do the laundry at one address, then get a receipt at another place and eventually pay at yet another location. The same goes for paying the rent. My point being is that you have to plan these trivial things into your day better than you are used to. Or, of course, don’t plan and go where the Russian flow takes you. Speaking about flows, Russian deadlines are not very solid. The teachers are very accommodating with their students, so if you have some study related troubles on the way, they are happy to help you.

If you want to travel, the best time is probably in January. Most students will have two or three weeks after all of the exams and essays. Remember that when you apply for your visa extension (the first visa you will receive is only valid for three months, so you need to extend it there) your passport will be taken away from you for at least one month (for me it was almost two months).

During this time you cannot travel anywhere outside of the city. But no need to be sad, travelling in the city itself is also very valuable. Not in the literal meaning of the word, because public transport is ridiculously cheap, even taxis are affordable. The metro is the most convenient way of transport: cheap, fast and it will take you to all the corners of the city. As for walking, I can definitely recommend walking in this beautiful city, but don’t get fooled by the city map: even if your point of destination is only four streets away from you, it can still take like 40 minutes to get there. The city is so vast and the streets so long, you can get lost in your thoughts and even forget where you are heading.

The last point I have to write about in this study report: free time. Everyone spends their free time in a different manner, so I am not sure what to say about this. The only thing is if you study in Russia you will have a lot of free time on your hand. Spend that time wisely, because before you know the exchange semester is over and you are back in your home country writing a study report.

If you have any further questions, if you want more information about the city or the faculty or if you want to contact me without any specific reasons, don’t hesitate to send me an e-mail.

Timon van Schie – timonvanschie@hotmail.com