Final Preparatory 2!!!! Canada Commences...

We leave for Canada in about an hour! It still doesn't really feel like its real. Russia has just become so much of who I am right now that to leave it all behind seems impossible. You can read my first post about leaving for Russia here where I mostly just talked about how crazy it sounded to go to Russia. Now it seems crazy to leave.  The last day here went really well, the weather warmed, souvenirs were purchased, and blini's were scarfed. It has been kinda sad saying goodbye to all our Russian friends, my roomate already left for work about 4 hours ago. Anyhow, time to say goodbye to internet here, I will never forget the good times we had YOTA. That being said, I can't wait to be home for Christmas and see all my friends again. See yeah soon Canada. "EH" (can't wait to use that in regular conversation)!!

Russia Update 4 - The End is Nigh!!

Last Thursday was the very last class of my semester in Russia. Since then it has been non-stop busy trying to it in all those last minute trips we've wanted to do all semester long but never did for song reason. If I had a real camera I would put up some photo's on this blog once in in a while to show you what I mean, but I only have a film camera and can't work scanners. Somehow, in the past three days, I visited a museum of city horrors, bought some pirated films, visited Vyborg near Finland border, chilled in a legit medieval castle, checked out Rembrandt, Rubens, and Van Dyck at the Hermitage (and a giant ancient Roman statue of Jupiter), toured Yusipov Palace, had a Russian walk around Nevsky with all the Christmas and New Years decorations up, visited Church on the Spilt Blood, visited St. Isaacs Cathedral, and seen a modern take on Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. I have been busy to say the least. It has been a good busy though. In less then a week I will be in Canada, relaxing with my family enjoying the frosty Saskatchewan air (Saskatchewan is colder then Petersburg BTW) Though I cannot wait to be home for the holiday's, I am going to miss this city dearly.

St. Vincent's "Marrow": Imagination or Reality??

This song has been stuck in my head for at least a week. It's obviously a cry for help, but from what is the question. The video is really well done and adds to the mystery of the song when people from different scenes simply forget what they were doing and follow her. One article suggests that they are all dead people, or maybe she herself is dead. Maybe the whole thing is her imagination, and therefore a cry for help in such situation's is outside of reality. Its up for speculation, and the video rules.

The Christmas Planet

Getting into the Christmas spirit I looked at a couple studies done that try to show the date of Christ's birth. What's really interesting is trying to define what exactly is the Star of Bethlehem. There is a good chance that it wasn't just a star, but rather a conjunction of stars a planets. If we assume that Christ was born in 3 BC, this starts to make sense as there were nine of these types of conjunctions from 3 BC - 2BC. When trying to solidify Herod and Augustus' ruling dates, there are many difficulties. Let's assume that this helpful study, which looks at the works of Josephus, Tertullian, and others, is at least close. This means that the census Joseph and Mary had to get to took place at the end of August, and then Jesus was born a few weeks later probably at the start of September 3 BC. You may be asking, "Then what is all this December 25th snickerbappin' all abouts?!" Well, aside from pagan calendar connotations, its most likely the night when Jupiter shone particularly bright over Jerusalem in 2 BC and when the Magi arrived with their gifts. Of course, giving any actual dates is risky, its easier just to say it happened within this or that six month time frame. But at least we are close.

What's more is all the cool implication's this has for the historicity of Christ's life, that he would have started teaching in 29 AD and been crucified a couple years later. This Christmas I asseverate we include the coolness of Jupiter into our celebration, that way at least we could be more confused about the already ambiguous holiday!