2-8-07

2-8-07

Today was a short class day, ending at 12:50. I don’t know what it was about today that just made our only two classes just drag on and on. I think since this is our first free weekend, everyone’s just kind of feeling it just over the horizon, and it’s really hard to concentrate.

Tomorrow will be way worse, of course. All of us are always slaphappy in Phonetics class anyway. There’s just something about all of us having to just make noises over and over that always gets us cracking up. Luckily the instructor laughs at us as well, so it’s a fun class and usually goes by pretty quickly. Gazeta drags like nobody’s business, plus we have an undue amount of homework that I need to do tonight. And then, after brown bag lunch, everyone’s least favorite class: Civilization. At least the Area Studies students got to watch White Nights with Gregory Hines. She just sits there and lectures to us. There used to be about 13 people in the class, but it was apparently too big, so now there are only 6 of us. Two people fell asleep last week so she let us go early. At least she understands that Friday afternoon is really the worst possible time to have a class. But still, she doesn’t try to generate debate or discussion. She just goes on and on making sweeping generalizations about Russian and American civilization. Whatever.

I think I’m going to be going to the Russian Museum this weekend, but plans won’t solidify til tomorrow, probably after school at Kolobok while we all sit around with our laptops. I’m afraid of museum burnout, though. We’ll see what happens.

Today after classes we went to CityBar and a few people got online and we had a nice American-style lunch. Ah, tuna melts. After that, Hannah, Hillary, Lael, and I went shoe shopping. Success! I bought boots! I’ll post pictures soon. They’re brown and fur-lined. Marina was super excited when I showed her because I’m sure she’s not convinced that I’m warm enough every day. I’m very excited about them, and I think I’m going to wear them tomorrow. Fun times.

On the Metro ride home, I kept seeing something yellow flash by in my peripheral vision. So when I turned my head to look, I see a little ways down the train there’s a woman with a large (I almost said life-sized…I don’t think that applies in this situation) SpongeBob Squarepants balloon and she’s trying to adjust it so that it won’t get popped. So there’s SpongeBob, bopping around over peoples’ heads. I smiled, at which point everyone around me probably thought, “AMERICAN!”

The last time I cracked up in public like that was when I was waiting for the CIEE bus outside of Cherneshevskaya one morning. I was the first person to arrive (Like always) and I was just inconspicuously people watching. I see a large, beefy military man in full fatigues heading my direction. He stops and turns around, and starts talking and waving his arms like he’s trying to coax someone or something to follow him. A second later, a tiny pug in a sweater follows behind him, far more interested in sniffing everything around him than following anyone. Mr. Military was really not thrilled with being seen in the dog’s company, and kept trying to get it to just hurry up. Luckily, I was not the only person on the street laughing at this. Speaking of dogs, we saw the big Great Dane on the frozen lake again today. I took a picture, but it’s from a distance. I also saw a Newfie this morning the size of a bear.

I’m so excited about my boots! They’re so warm; I might actually wear less thick socks tomorrow! It is supposed to be a little bit warmer. I took pictures of the Smolny campus as well, and pictures from the park we cut through on the way to Cherneshevskaya and Kolobok. I’ll post those tomorrow from Kolobok as well. Maybe we’ll go there so often that they’ll treat us as regulars? Doubt it. I’m going to listen to some music on here, finish my homework, and then play some chess on the computer.