Decorah student Peter Swanson is headed to Russia

Peter Swanson

Decorah HS student Peter Swanson will be flying to Russia at the end of January.  Peter graduated from Decorah High School at the end of the semester and plans to attend Russian language school for three months in St. Petersburg, Russia.

St. Petersburg is the second largest city in Russia, with over five million residents.  Moscow is Russia's largest city.  Right now it's winter in Russia.  Peter has warm socks, clothes and a hammock on his list of things to pack.

A typical day will include language school in the morning, then going out into the city each afternoon to practice speaking Russian. There are many museums and restaurants where he will be able to practice what he's learned in class.

Experiencing a different culture is one of the things Peter is looking forward to.  One way Russia is different than Decorah is there are only six to seven hours of daylight during the winter.  It gets dark at 4:30 p.m. and stays dark until 10:00 a.m.  By April there will be sixteen hours of daylight.

Peter tells decorahnews.com he is looking forward to challenging himself by having a different daily routine and experiencing a new culture.  He is currently taking an online course in Russian to learn some basic words and phrases before he leaves.  Peter has traveled to Mongolia on his own, so is not concerned about flying across the country.

Some of Peter's concerns are walking one hour to school, learning how to take the bus and the lack of daylight.  The adventure outweighs the concerns for Peter and he is anxious to start his journey to Russia.