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Dear Sir or Madam,

Greetings in 2003 ! Hope you're ready&waiting for my new stories.

In the December 2002 issue I invited you to participate in a survey. 
I'd like to say a big thanks to those 70 people, who did it. Now I know that 60-70% of my subscribers would prefer the size and periodicy of the newsletter to stay the same, while they asked me to put more info on various topics of life in St. Petersburg, and add at least 2-3 photos in each newsletter. I also received a lot of useful advice : to create bulletin board, to use stories of Western people, who have been in St. Pete, to create an "ask the editor" section where anybody can answer any question on St. Pete. People also were asking for recommendations on pubs, restaraunts, and clubs , claiming that I can earn free beer by each publication. That's great idea !

But even when you know where to go, you should also know how to reach this place. One pal of mine gave me a "free dinner" card from one of the exclusive St. Pete restaraunts, and I was going to use this card, but the place was located somewhere where I've never been, so I was just afraid I couldn't find the way to it - so that would be a thing to learn today:

Russian lessons from Peter
or how to find your way in St. Pete

Today we'll speak about asking for directions. First, you need to know your destination, and it's better to know the Russian name of it. I've got a story from my Russian friend, who was astonished by a question from old American couple: "Where is St.Isaac?". He answered "What kind of synthetic do you need, clothing ? Or you need a music shop with synthesizers, or do you need a club where synthetic music is being played?". The sweet image of a raving old couple disappeared only after these Americans started to talk about a cathedral, dome, etc. In Russian, "St.Isaac" is "Isaakiivskij sobor", that was the point. 

If you know the Russian name of the place where you are going, and nothing else in Russian, it can be enough - catch someone from the crowd and surprise him/her by shouting this name, while making "I'm looking for this" gestures. Everybody knows, that body language accompanied by REALLY LOUD asking, works as a foreign language substitute.

On body language: two friends meet on the chair lift half-way to the mountain ski resort: one is going up, and the other one down. The first one asks: "Hi ! What are you going to do there?", the second one shows he is going to ski (with body language), the first one shouts "Hey, I'm happy to know you're going to get laid, but why are you wearing this helmet, ski and ski boots then?".

To make your experience with body language less comical, just learn a couple of sentences in Russian. When you need to say "How can I get to ... ", you can use two sentences: "Kak mne proyty + name", when you are gonna walk to the destination, or "Kak mne proechat + name" when you are gonna use the bus, metro, etc. For instance "Kak mne proechat na Nevsky prospekt". Technically, you need to remember all the variatons of appropriate prepositions and endings, but I wonder how this can fit one newsletter, because Russians use three different variations of "in". If you need grammatically correct Russian, you know where to go [hint: EducaCentre].

Dining out with Peter
or free beer earning campaign

With the help of my city map and using spells "Kak mne proechat" and "Kak mne proyti" ,  I finally reached the place called "Le Paris" restaraunt. I had heard a lot about it before and now I had a chance to experience it for myself. 

When I came in, I felt like I had found a secret passage to the Hermitage (see photo). The place looks and feels like something exclusive, and it is so. Luckily, there is no strong dress code. Otherwise, I doubt I would have been there - my good old tuxedo doesn't fit my healthy torso anymore :(

The menu showed that the restaraunt is 100% French cuisine oriented. They also claim they import most of ingredients directly from France, and fresh meat from their own duck farm, located 60 miles away of 
St. Pete. 

Okay then, I ran my way through foie gras to beef with potato, followed by capuchino and "1000 islands" desert. That was an experience - delicious with an unexpected mix of various tastes, as French cuisine should be. Meals were accompanied with traditional French wines, and I finished with a shot of calvados. I would like to mention the good choice of music that was playing. The Le Paris staff look and work in such a way that you feel yourself like the Prime Minister, but it's very easy to break this ice with questions on menu "What does it mean? How does it taste? What is your recommendation?". Typical answer on "How does it being cooked?" works as very powerful appetizer, if you're on a diet, beware asking !

Personally, I found that Le Paris restaurant should be an obligatory ingredient of your VIE, or Very Important Events, such as making a marriage proposal, talking about the mega deal of your life, or just bringing a gastronomic sacrifice to your stomach, tired of fast-food and snacks. Le Paris web is www.leparis.ru (pity, it's in Russian only), and e-mail is mail@leparis.ru. 

What's new in EducaCentre

Today we have news on a new girl joining International Department, educational exhibition, Spanish version of Russian language page, Russian St. Petersburg web site major update, and Miss Mirage will study in EducaCentre. 

Service manager
The EducaCentre team is expanding, with the new position of Service Manager, taken by Eugenia - a young, perspective travel service specialist. Eugenia will be responsible for handling passport and visa enquires, providing support with how-to and where-to-go questions from RST/EducaCentre customers. Eugenia's e-mail is service@russian-st-petersburg.com , feel free to drop her a line. 

EducaCentre to participate in Begin.Ru exhibition
On February 3th, EducaCentre will participate in a Business and Economic education exhibition by Begin.Ru informational agency. The exhibition will take place in Europa hotel, it is planned to reach the audience of 1 000 young professionals, interested in language education and study abroad options.

Word in Spanish - about EducaCentre
Roxanna Viira, a private St. Pete guide and very nice girl, now living in Spain, 
has added information on the EducaCentre Russian language course to her homepage. If your Spanish is better than your English, we kindly invite you to visit EducaCentre page in Spanish at http://www.roxana.spb.ru/ruslanges.htm. 

Miss Mirage  
Beautiful Oxana, winner of the Miss Mirage contest, has received a gift certificate for an English as foreign language course in the EducaCentre. The contest was taking place in Mirage cinema complex, the award was granted by Slava Bochkov, head of International Dept. He says: "We plan to participate in events like this periodically, and bring more and more nice girls into the school". 

Russian St. Petersburg site major update
A major update of www.russian-st-petersburg.com finished on 3rd February. Check out the new detailed desciptions of tours and excursions plus lots of information on specific services.

This month in St-Petersburg and Russia.

Exhibition dedicated to 300th anniversary 
of St. Petersburg launched in Washington D.C. 

The Myths of St. Petersburg exposition celebrating the 300th anniversary of Russia's northern capital has been inaugurated at Hillwood Museum, Washington. The exhibition to run through December 31st, 2003, is the first large-scale event within the program of celebrating St. Petersburg's anniversary in Washington and Baltimore. The exposition is called to show visitors the uniqueness of the city on the Neva and the multi-layer nature of its cultural and historical heritage - from Peter the Great's ambition to hack open "a window to Europe" to the Russophils of the latter half of the 19th-early 20th century.
source : www.lenpravda.ru

St. Petersburg to be illuminated for 300th anniversary
In celebration of the city's 300th anniversary there are plans to illuminate 163 monuments, all the city's triumphal arches, 24 bridges, 12 hotels, as well as replace 60 thousand street lamps. This was announced by the press office of the Lensvet state lighting agency. Work is currently under way to improve the lighting on Palace Square including the construction of new illuminating poles and the illumination of all the buildings leading onto the square. 
source : www.lenpravda.ru 

Hermitage exhibition schedule for 2003 
State Hemitage museum has announced the exhibition schedule for 2003. Click here for future exhibitions, here for current expositions, or here for exhibitions "on tour" in USA and European Community.
source : www.hermitage.ru 

French President to open Voltaire library in St. Petersburg 
French President Jacques Chirac will open the European Centre of the 
Age of Enlightenment - the Voltaire Library in the Russian National Library. This was announced at a press conference in Saint Petersburg on Friday by writer Marek Halter, France's representative for the city's anniversary. He also said that Mr Chirac would take part in the opening of the Tower of Peace on Sennaya Ploschad. Mr Halter also spoke about other French projects for the anniversary. It is expected that French events will be held throughout 2003. Of particular interest will be a demonstration of aerobatics by French pilots. No exact date has yet been set for this event although veterans of the French regiment Normandy-Neman who fought in Russia during the Second World War are expected to attend. There will also be a night of French rock music in Saint Petersburg during the night of July 13-14. In September there will be an economic forum Russia-France-Europe and in October the exhibition 300 Years of France in Saint Petersburg will open in the Marble Palace.
source : www.lenpravda.ru

Opening of the III International Ballet Festival in Mariinsky 
In February, the Mariinsky Theatre will premiere the ballet Princess Pirlipat or Worthiness Punished. It will be staged on February 27 in the framework of the Third International Mariinsky Ballet Festival. The one-act ballet will be an original prologue to The Nutcracker. The story of Drosselmeier's nephew's transformation into the Nutcracker (Drosselmeier enchants Princess Pirlipat) serves as the basis for the ballet's libretto. The show's authors hope that it will be organically linked with Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker premiered in the Mariinsky Theatre in February, 2001 by Mikhail Chemiakin and Kirill Simonov. For the first time in the theatre history, Mariinsky stages a ballet covering in full the famous tale. 
source : http://www.mariinsky.ru/en

Russian Gems Exhibition to Open in St. Petersburg on February 5
The 11th JUNWEX-2003 international jewellery exhibition (Russian Gems) will open in St. Petersburg's Central Manezh Exhibition Hall on February 5. The exhibition will run until February 9. According to the exhibition's organising committee, the exhibition will feature jewellery by 350 companies and designers from St. Petersburg, Moscow, the Moscow and Leningrad Regions, Yekaterinburg, Zlatoust, Irkutsk, Kostroma, Smolensk, Chelyabinsk, Kazan, Novosibirsk, Daghestan, and Yakutia. Foreign participants will come from Turkey, the Czech Republic, Germany, India, and Japan.
source : http://www.petersburgcity.com

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