4-9-07

4-8-07

So last night I ate dinner and then met up with Hillary and her host sister at about 11 to go to St. Vladimir’s Cathedral, about a 20 minute walk from my apartment. I’d seen the church before in daylight, but it was lit quite gloriously last night. There was a constant procession of people coming and going into and out of the church. We made our way in, with our heads covered with scarves. The cathedral’s interior was grandiose, lots of icons and gold leafing and the like. The service would be nearly unrecognizable to someone expecting a traditional Protestant or Catholic sitting-standing-kneeling service. There are no pews, people just seem to mill about, moving between icons and lighting candles, listening to a priest near the front, or engaged in hushed conversations in corners.

Hillary’s host sister explained to us everything that was going on, and we watched the priest come and bless a table full of kulich, the traditional Russian Easter sweet bread/cake. He said a few words and splashed some holy water on them. As Hillary’s sister said, “They are holy now, I guess. I don’t really understand why, but now they’re holy.”

We stayed there for about an hour before leaving. On the way home, it started to snow. Not a blizzard or anything, just little stinging pellets. Enough to form snaking streams of it in the headlights of cars and to make the streetlamps twinkle a bit. I watched a bit of the service from the Kremlin with Marina and ate some kulich and then went to bed. Kulich is delicious, I must say. It’s sweet bread with raisins and nuts in it, and frosting or powdered sugar on top.

Surprise surprise, I also had kulich for breakfast. That, along with eggs that Marina had dyed. Yay, Easter! We had both slept in a ton, so it was quite a late breakfast. I then set off for Yelagin Island. It’s an island in the city that doesn’t allow cars and is essentially one gigantic park. The day started out rather sunny, but cold. Yeah, I’ve brought the hat with earflaps out of retirement, and it’s enjoying its comeback.

The park itself was very nice, expansive with lakes and trails to wander and get lost, along with the large Yelagin Palace. However, it will be nicer once things are actually green, not a depressing shade of brown. I think a return visit may be in order closer to the time we leave. As is the Russian tradition, large speakers pump music into nearly all areas of the park. I was treated to such Russian classics as “My Way,” “How Deep is Your Love,” “The Way We Were,” and “Chiquita.”

However, when I was near the palace, I heard a band start playing. A military band had set up in front of the palace’s kitchen building and was playing classic songs that I couldn’t name for the life of me. But the old men and women that had gathered were lapping it up, dancing around like kids. There were far more women than men, so the babushkas were dancing with each other, dancing and twirling and dipping each other and it was adorable. I watched them for a while, and then continued wandering.

I made a circuit of the island, seeing a crew team out on the Neva and some unhappy looking swans. I also saw the farthest north Buddhist temple in the world, but didn’t cross the bridge to get a closer look. Maybe next time. About this time, it started snowing, blowing right in my face. The wind coming in off of the Gulf of Finland was killer, but I was determined to make the entire circuit. I’m not really sure why. I remember thinking, “Why am I doing this? Just to do it, I suppose.”

As I neared the end of my circumnavigation, I stumbled onto some weird kind of petting zoo…filled only with birds. It smelled about as bad as one would expect a bird-only petting zoo in Russia to smell. Perhaps a little skunkier than I would’ve predicted. Anyway, there was an angry looking eagle in a cage, three stoic owls, and a small pen full of geese and ducks who apparently weren’t going to fly away. There was also a pen labeled “Pig,” but it was empty. I was disappointed.

By that time I was freezing, and came back here for an early dinner. Then I walked down Kamenoostrovsky Prospekt to meet up with some classmates, because a handful of us were attending a play together. The play was called “Smeshnoi,” and is based off of the Dostoevsky short story “Son Smeshnovo Cheloveka,” which translates as “Dream of a Funny Man.” The man’s not funny in the goofy sense; he’s just funny in that he’s committed to being a good person in a world of evil. Anyway, it was a one-man, one-act play.

We met the woman who sold us our tickets at the Lenfilm Headquarters (“My dears, you are almost in Hollywood!” Almost.), and she led us up to an apartment set up in the style of a typical late 19th-century St. Petersburg apartment. We sat in chairs that lined the walls of one room, lit by a single candle. A woman came in, tidied things up, and then took the candle and shut us in, totally in the dark. Then the large trunk against one wall opened, and out popped our man. It was a strangely interactive play. Also very dreamlike. I can totally imagine myself saying to someone, “I had this weird dream last night, I was seeing this play, but we were like in the same room, and he was, like, talking to us. But it was a play, he wasn’t just talking to us.”

The single candle he had created some exciting shadow effects, and it was awesome when he would just look you in the eye. At the end of the play, he went around the room, touching each of our hands and telling us to treat each other as we would treat ourselves. I won’t describe the plot; I’ll leave it up to you to read the short story. Right.

Then I came back here and called home to wish my mom a Happy Birthday. I don’t know what the week ahead holds, but we only have 5 weeks left. Phil asked me the other day if I was ready to come home. Ah, the question that everyone back home asks and everyone here avoids. Of course I’d like to see my friends and family and Shadow and sleep in a bed that doesn’t have a bar down the middle and take a shower whenever I want, etc. etc. But leaving here has such a weird sense of finality to it that’s kind of terrifying. I’m going to have to reconcile with that feeling before I know it. Oh well. That’s 5 weeks away.

Hope you all had a good Easter!