“To see everything, and to see clearly, one must be in Petersburg.”
-Fyodor Dostoevsky
This morning we presented on our Dostoevsky topics and then before leaving for the day we went up to sing Happy Birthday to Babson College Provost Dennis Hanno. Two years ago I was partnered with Provost Hanno’s class as Peer Menor and two of our mentees are with me on BRIC.
Ryan, Provost Hanno, Sammy and I representing First Year Seminar section 25 in Russia
We spent the rest of the day walking around St. Petersburg visiting the homes of fictional characters in Dostoevsky’s novels, specifically Crime and Punishment. As someone who has never read Crime and Punishment, actually I have only read one of Dostoevsky’s works, I had no idea what we were looking at or who we were talking about. Regardless, it was nice to spend six hours walking around the city, in the rain, without an umbrella.
The Courtyard where Raskolnikov murdered the old lady in Crime & Punishment
Behind Cristina, Sam and I is the house where Raskolnikov lived from Crime and Punishment
The Nose from Gogol’s short story “The Nose”
The walking tour ended at Dostoevsky’s house which has since been turned into a museum and houses many of his children’s toys, his wife’s antiques and their furniture from when they lived there. 
The Church Dostoevsky frequented
After the museum we hurried back to the Mariott, ate a quick dinner and then made our way to the Undergraduate School of Management. We then got to meet Professor Coyle’s auditing student and had the opportunity to make lots of new Russian friends!
