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The Best Museum in Europe

9/20/2016

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By David Rainbow
PicturePhoto credit David Rainbow 2011.
During our trip to Russia next May, we will see a lot of great sites. In fact, four of the places we’ll visit in and around Moscow and St. Petersburg are included in UNESCO’s World Heritage List [link: http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/ru]. 

Another must-see for any visitor to St. Petersburg is the Hermitage Museum. We’ll visit the Hermitage, too. The Museum houses a massive collection (over three million pieces, though not all are on display all the time) of some of the best art and artifacts from around the world dating from antiquity to the modern period. If you spent one minute looking at each of the Hermitage’s treasures for six hours a day, it would take you nearly 23 years to see them all. Clearly you’ll have to do some picking and choosing when you visit it for a day, but you’ll nevertheless get to see some of the world’s most amazing artistic treasures. You can do a virtual tour of the Hermitage here, on Google Arts & Culture [link: https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/partner/the-state-hermitage-museum]

On top of housing so much great art, the Hermitage Museum building itself is a sight to see. The Empress Catherine the Great, who ruled in the late eighteenth century, worked to make the imperial capital, St. Petersburg, a thoroughly European city, distinguishing it from the older Slavic cities of Moscow and Novgorod. In this respect, she followed in the footsteps of Tsar Peter the Great, the founder of the city of St. Petersburg (1703). When Catherine commissioned the construction of the Hermitage as a palace residence on the banks of the Neva River, she hired one of the great Italian architects of the day, Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli. The building served as the tsars’ Winter Palace until February 1917 when the last tsar, Nicholas II, was overthrown. Then, in October 1917, the storming of the Winter Palace became for the Bolsheviks the important (and highly romanticized) founding moment for the Soviet Union. The Hermitage encompasses many layers of Russian history. And because it looks today like it did in 1917, you can peruse the masterpieces of da Vinci and Rembrandt and Picasso all the while reminded of the fact that you’re walking in the house of the tsar.

For all of these reasons and more, the Hermitage was recently named the best museum in Europe (and the third best in the world) [link: http://rbth.com/arts/2016/09/15/st-petersburgs-hermitage-again-tops-list-of-europes-best-museums_630173]. And you’ll get to see it on our trip!


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Passport for Coogs...wish they had this when I was a student!

9/13/2016

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To travel to Russia in May 2017 with a U.S. passport, you'll need to have an expiration date at least 6 months after you plan to return (go here for State Department info, and check with your own embassy or consulate if you're traveling with a passport from a non-U.S. country).

The good news is that you can apply for a U.S. passport on campus through the Passport for Coogs program (link), and even have the $110 fee reimbursed. They also do free passport photos.
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International Education Fee Scholarship

9/13/2016

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This scholarship gives between $500 and $2000. You'll need to apply between January and February for our May 2017 trip. Here's the link.

If you're a UH student, you pay into this fund when you sign up for classes--this is your money, so be sure to take advantage of the scholarship!
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Gilman Scholarship Program

9/9/2016

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I found out about a scholarship opportunity at today's pitch party--the Gilman scholarship. It's for students who are receiving Pell Grants, and the folks from the UH Learning Abroad office encouraged me to pass it on to students going on the Russia trip.

The website (kind of hard to see in the photo at right) is www.iie.org/gilman. Good luck! And don't forget to apply for an IEFS scholarship through UH Learning Abroad.

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The Pitch Party was a great success!!

9/9/2016

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It was great to see so many of you at our table at the pitch party. If you wrote down your name and email, you'll be hearing from me soon with details on how to sign up for the trip. Or, you can fill out the interest form on this page.

If you are looking for scholarship support for the trip, check out www.uh.edu/learningabroad. You will especially want to apply for the IEFS scholarship. UH students needing a US Passport can apply and campus and even get the cost of the passport reimbursed. See the Learning Abroad website for details on the Passport for Coogs program.

If you've already signed up for the trip, help us spread the word by talking to your friends! We are anticipating filling the trip, and registration is first-come, first-served.
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Registration is now open!

9/8/2016

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Registration for our trip is now open. I'm posting the registration form below. Submit it in person or to my email at jjrainbow@uh.edu. Registration is first-come, first-served.

No coursework is required to go on the trip, but Dr. David Rainbow will teach a Russia-themed course in the spring that you are welcome to take as preparation for the trip. Look for that in the upcoming Honors College Coursebook.

Come see us tomorrow, September 9, at the Study Abroad/Study Away pitch party in Rockwell Pavilion from 1 to 2.
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    Trip details

    Dates: May 15-25, 2017

    Destination: Moscow, St. Petersburg, and environs

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