3-2-06

3-2-07

Welcome, March!

Man, oh man, does it ever feel like a whole new month. Today while we were in Moskovskiy Railway Station, the big board said the temperature was zero degrees. Icicles are melting like crazy. For the past couple of days, the sidewalks on both sides of my street were blocked off by red tape and signs that said, “Warning! Danger Zone!” This meant I would walk down the center of the street, giving me a good perspective on just how big the icicles were. Now, I’ll post some pictures, but you really can’t get a sense of how big they are from the pictures. But by my rough estimation, the one right by our entrance was about two meters across and at least a meter long. They’re also wicked thick.

Well, they were. I got home today and there was barely any sign of the once grand icicles. Many of them fell, some simply melted. The past two nights, I’ve been woken up by the sound of falling icicles. It reminded—haha, another just fell—me of the ice storm two years ago. Anyway, in St. Petersburg, the thaw has begun. It sounds like it’s raining outside, but really it’s just the drips from the icicles. While walking on the sidewalk, you get soaked as if you were out in the rain, because water is dripping from everything. From the tops of the buildings, from windowsills, from awnings, and from signs. Everything had an icicle on it, so now everything’s its own little rain cloud.

And, of course, now that spring is on its way, it would seem that I’m getting sick. Just a sore throat at this point, but with me that’s always a sign of things to come. If I’m lucky, it’s just what a couple of other of people have had, just a run-of-the-mill cold, lasting no more than a week.

Of course, it’s very important that this cold not last too long. Because, wouldn’t you know it, travel week is almost here. Next Wednesday night we board the night train to Moscow, and after Moscow travel week begins. I suppose since today we bought our tickets back from Moscow (We’re leaving the night before everyone else), the trip is official enough to discuss.

We’re in Moscow from the 8th to the 10th. Then on the night of the 10th, Becky, Hillary, and I are taking the night train from Moscow back to St. Petersburg, arriving here the morning of the 11th, naturally. The 11th will be a very useful day. I expect to shower, upload pictures from my camera, repack, and—fingers crossed—get online to post about Moscow.

Then, Monday morning, the three of us board a train to Helsinki. We arrive in Helsinki about midday. We’ll have time to relax, buy our boat tickets, and get a meal. What’s that, you say? Boat tickets? Well, I suppose in this case, the correct word would be “ship.” That’s right, Monday night we get on a ship—technically a cruise liner—bound for Stockholm from Helsinki. We spend the night on the ship, arriving in Stockholm Tuesday morning.

We’re then spending Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights in a great hostel right in downtown Stockholm with free pasta and a free sauna. I’m really looking forward to it. Brandon, one of the students who was here last semester, visited Stockholm in the fall, and had an absolutely amazing time. We’re going to paint that town red.

Then, Friday night, we board the same ship, this time headed for Helsinki. We spend Friday night on the ship before arriving in Stockholm Saturday morning. We’ve got a whole day in Helsinki, and then we’re staying that night in a hostel built into the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki. Lastly, Sunday afternoon, we get on a train back to St. Petersburg, getting in Sunday night.

So that’s why I’m hoping I’m not getting too sick.

Today we had our essay for Civilization due. It was lame. None of us really minded having to write the whole paper in Russian. I mean, that’s what we’re here for, obviously. But our teacher was incredibly vague about what exactly the theme was supposed to be. Luckily for everyone in this 7-person class, when each of us read our papers out loud, she was thrilled with us. Had there been one clunker, it might’ve ruined it for the rest of us. I wrote mostly about Russian food—the desire to have grease or butter or sour cream with everything. Haha, sorry, Emily. Looks like I’m not going to be able to fit in that bridesmaids dress come June, because by then I’m going to be 500 pounds.

Maybe because it’s Friday, but everyone was in a crazy mood today. I came close to tears from laughing in every single class today. Twice it was at myself. Firstly, in Gazeta, when I was trying to eat a pretzel (Not really a pretzel, it’s more of a poppy seed ring thing…whatever), and I was crunching so loudly that I was disturbing the class. I was trying so hard to be quiet, it was a disaster. It didn’t help any when, by the time I finished mine, Hannah had started on hers, so I got to hear just how loud I was. Every time I would think I would regain my composure, I would hear Hannah crunch and see her shaking from silent laughing out of the corner of my eye. At least our teacher was nice about it.

Then, in Phonetics, I was just confused. The word for dense is „ÛÒÚÓÈ. But when our teacher was trying to explain to us what it means, she used the example "Dense Soup." She also used the example "Dense Forest," but I didn't hear that. So I thought «ÉÛÒÚÓÈ ÒÛÔ» was soup made from goose, because the Russian word for goose is, logically, „ÛÒ. So when she said, “What does it mean?” I said, in Russian, “Oh, soup made from goose.” She laughed at me. “Goose forest? What is a goose forest? A forest where only geese live?” Me: “Maybe?”

So, perhaps, when retold, the story is not as funny as it was at the time. Looks like tomorrow some of us will be visiting the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, which includes a cemetery with the graves of Tchaikovsky and Bulgakov and other famous Russians. For now, as I am, inexplicably exhausted at only 9:20, I think I’m going to read a little bit more of the book I checked out yesterday (John le Carre’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and fall asleep. Hope everything is well with all of you.