2-18-07

2-18-07

We didn’t go out last night, by the time plans were formulated, we were all too tired to go out knowing full well that we all wanted to get back before midnight when the Metro was still running. I woke up early this morning, when the water was still hot, and took a shower, and then promptly went back to sleep. Had pumpkin kasha for breakfast. Me? Pumpkin? Get out of town! Yeah, I really still don’t care for it. But I can stomach it. My comfort zone is now so far gone it’s hanging out with the Great Pumpkin.

After breakfast I lazed around a bit in my PJs and then finally got my sorry butt dressed and out the door. I read last night in the St. Petersburg Times in Kofe Haus about a new exhibit at the Ermitage about Alexander the Great and wanted to check it out. It was snowing like mad this morning, big flat flakes flying every which way, somehow coating the entire front of my coat and flying up my nose and hitting the back of my neck in the one spot my scarf wasn’t covering as well. Of course, the snow was blowing directly into my face for both my walk to the Metro and the walk from the Metro to the Ermitage.

Because it’s the weekend, there was a line outside of the Ermitage to get in. I waited about 5 minutes, it wasn’t too bad. Got inside, got my free ticket, and went to check my coat. Problem. Every hanger in the coat check was full, so we were just waiting for people to get back to retrieve their coats and every time someone came back, a new person got to hang up their coat. Yeah, I waited about 45 minutes at the coat check before a large school group got back and opened up about a third of the hooks.

Then I took the most bassackwards route to the Alexander the Great exhibit. Had I just taken the main staircase, I would’ve been there in roughly 30 seconds. Instead it was more like 30 minutes. I did find the French and Dutch rooms that we had missed the first time through when we mostly saw Italian, ancient Roman, and ancient Egyptian stuff. I really liked Rembrandt’s “Return of the Prodigal Son.”

So this exhibit was really great. I’ve always had a fascination with Alexander the Great. Maybe I’m just compelled to really epic tales, but it’s really mind-blowing to think about how much ground he covered and how much more he could have if he hadn’t been so obsessed with his own image. But, I mean, think about it—Greece to India, all under the control of one man. Staggering. It’s such a weird culture clash. Great empires of both east and west—Greece, Egypt, Persia, India all coming together and being one, if only momentarily. I guess it’s not surprising, then, with this fascination that I ended up here, in Russia, where the same East-meets-West battle goes on every day. Really, is Russia European or Asian? Both? Neither? Of course, Western Russian life isn’t exactly the same as Classical Greek culture, and Siberia isn’t India, but it’s still fascinating. That’s probably one of the reasons the Ermitage put on this exhibit.

So, after that ridiculously long paragraph about nothing, the exhibit! The first half was devoted to depictions of Alexander in art—Sculptures, paintings, coins, and the like. Probably the weirdest was a huge painting of Alexander the Great and Constantine as toddlers wearing armor and holding adult-sized spears. That crazy Renaissance.

The second room was devoted to artifacts from the era that Alexander the Great was in business. It started out with purely Greek pieces, and then Egyptian, and then Persian, and then Indian, and finally Central Asian. It was really awe-inspiring to see all these kinds of things in one room, and picturing the vast territory these artifacts represented. Good times.

So then I met up with Hannah at Chainaya Loshka, and she had run into Cadence as well. We had our last blini of Maslentisa. I think next week I’ll cut back. Yeah, we’ll see how that goes. At this point it was like 3 o’clock so we both went to Café Max and used the internet and met up with Tappert, Kate, and Lael and hung out for a bit. Hannah and I discussed how much we were craving movies to watch. So when I left Café Max, I popped into the sketchy DVD store next door. Of course, everything there’s pirated. But I found a copy of Pan’s Labyrinth (Of course, not out on DVD yet) that said it was in English and Russian for cheap and bought it. Of course, it’s only in Russian. Drat. I’ll see if anyone at school wants it and maybe we can arrange a trade. I feel like it’s the kind of movie you really need to see in the language in which it is meant to be seen. Maybe I’ll just wait and rent it this summer when I do my big “catch Mom and Dad up on all the movies they should have seen already” fest.

Speaking of Mom, Marina never reminds me of her. Especially not her cooking. But last night was an exception. I was sitting in the kitchen finishing my dinner, and Marina was in the other room watching TV. I was watching it through the doorway. Marina changes the channel and then, I believe, tries to change the channel again and instead hits the “Menu” button her remote. Instead of going to where it says “Exit,” she just turns the TV off, waits a few seconds, and then turns it back on again. Good job, Marina.

Wow, I just realized I haven’t indented a single paragraph in any single blog entry. That’s an odd stylistic choice, don’t you think? I usually indent without even thinking about it. Yeah, I really don’t want to do this Grammar homework we have. Maybe I’m just stalling.

Oh, so today is officially one month of me being in Russia! Ring the bells, sound the horns, I’m still alive, I’m still here! Hannah and I were discussing it at lunch, and it’s pretty crazy to think about. I mean, this past month has gone so fast and when we think about the fact that it’s that same amount of time times 2 1/2 to go, then, well, it’s just weird. I just counted; we have 9 weekends left, not counting the weekend in Moscow or the weekend of travel week. That makes it sound a bit better. Considering I still have to visit the Yusopov Palace, the Russian Museum, Pushkin’s Last Apartment, the Dostoevsky Museum, Tsarskoe selo, and Peterhof, those will be filled weekends. So 6 things to visit. Maybe I can talk some people into going to some of these places on days of short classes so are weekends aren’t as full. I mean, I know I want to spend a good amount of time at the Russian Museum, and Peterhof and Tsarskoe selo are day trips, so those’ll have to be weekends, but the rest could be done in an afternoon, right? We’ll see.

So in one month I’ve been to the Ermitage twice. I think that’s a good deal. I still need to go at least once, maybe twice more. It’s weird, this past month I haven’t felt at all like I was just sitting on my butt, but now that I’m looking at how much I want to do and how much time is left, I feel like I really need to push myself harder. I don’t know, that doesn’t really make sense; I’ve been doing all kinds of stuff. Obviously the only solution is unlimited time and unlimited cash. I’ll let you know when I figure out how to obtain those.