5-3-07

5-3-07

I just ate the weirdest soup. I think Marina’s cleaning out the fridge. The main ingredients seemed to be: Potatoes (duh), orange peppers, and three whole black olives. With pits. And, of course, a giant glop of sour cream in the middle. Plus, the soup had an orangey color, which I’ll assume was caused by the peppers (Even though there weren’t very many in there), because I have no idea what it could have been instead.

So, wow, it’s May. I leave in 10 days. Oh crap, that means tomorrow I’ll be down to the single digits. Scary stuff. I just realized that probably in mid-April I stopped thinking “I’ve been here ____ days/weeks/months!” and started thinking “I only have ____ months/weeks/days left!” An interesting turning point, to be sure.

So, since we got back from Pskov, I’ve managed to stay busy. On Tuesday, since we didn’t have classes, I spent some time online to post pictures and then I wandered around and took more pictures. I’m now 1000+ pictures taken in Russia, not counting everything I took on travel week.

So anyway, I wandered down to the famous statue of Peter the Great, the Bronze Horseman. I took some pictures there and I was walking through the park towards St. Isaac’s to finally set off to find the Nose, when I saw a crowd near an ice cream cart. In the midst of the crowd, I get a glimpse of some fur. I just assumed it’s one of those people with a box of puppies. But I was wrong. It was a baby bear! No, seriously! I’ll post a picture of the owner(???) holding it. You could pay 100 rubles (Roughly $4) to hold it and you could have someone else take a picture of you. Yes, this is definitely a most foreign country. A baby bear!

After that, I finally managed to find the Nose, which was most satisfying. Marina went out after dinner that night to go to a celebration for May Day, but I was pooped and ended up just staying here and watching a dubbed episode of Animal Cops. Last night, 5 of us went to the Mariinskiy and saw the ballet (Bear with me on the transliteration) “Bachisaraiskii Fountain,” based off an epic poem by Pushkin. I wasn’t quite sure what the woman who sold us the tickets meant when she said it was an “Eastern ballet,” but now I understand. Basic plot: Some khan encounters a Slavic people, kidnaps their princess and kills the rest, becomes obsessed with princess, his former favorite from his harem gets jealous, kills princess, khan has harem woman killed. It was pretty cool. The theatre itself is a must-see in this city. The fight scenes were really well done, too—especially when the khan’s men burnt down the palace and were chasing everyone around and killing people. The plot was fairly weak (Forgive me Pushkin, I’m sure the original is better), but I enjoyed the music and dancing and costumes and sets. And who goes to a ballet for the plot, anyway?

We were running late but got there right as the lights went down. Afterwards, I came back here and had an orange because I wasn’t hungry at all. Today we went to Subway on Nevsky for lunch and then went to the souvenir market to finish up that stuff. And success! My souvenir shopping is done! I still need to get my Zenit scarf, but I’m going to check out prices in other places, first. The advantage to the souvenir market is that you can haggle, which is fun. And the vendors there, although they all speak some English, like it when you can speak to them in Russian. But man, those guys don’t give up. Mattison and I made the mistake of looking at one girl’s flasks when she latched on to us and was like, “Flask? Don’t you need? It’s so cold, get warm with flask. Don’t you need? Don’t you need?” Tough to get out of that one. But I must admit, it’s a weight off of my shoulders to get that done.

So the next big weight to be lifted: Shipping a box home. I’m hoping to go to the main post office and buy a box tomorrow, packing it tomorrow night, and then shipping it out on Saturday. Not too much in it, just my huge winter coat and the boots I bought here, and maybe something heavy out of my suitcase. I’m just trying to make room for the souvenirs I’ve bought while I’ve been here. Once that’s gone, things’ll be much easier.

Of course, I’m dealing with finals right now. I had my first one today. Well, it was technically only the first half. It was my written exam for my conversation class. Written? Conversation? Yeah, I know. Anyway, my paper in Russian for Civilization is due Saturday (LAME), my Literature final is oral and is on Monday (I’m discussing Zamyatin for 5 minutes), Grammar and oral exam for Conversation on Thursday, and then Gazeta and Phonetics on Friday. Phonetics is kind of scary—one half of it is marking intonations and intonational pauses in a text, which is no big deal. The other part is a dictation, she says words and we have to write down how they’re spelled. It’s tough.

After that, we have a final ceremony with our teachers, and then a cruise along the river and canals, and then a party at City Bar. I refuse to discuss saying goodbye to people at this time.

We’re all going to Peterhoff on May 9th, the first day the fountains are on, which should be cool. We’ll get back in time to see the fireworks over the Neva. That’s the last thing on my “Required” list, and there are only two more things I want to do, both of which I believe can be accomplished. The weather right now is cold and rainy, but it’s supposed to improve next Wednesday. Hopefully St. Petersburg will send us out with nice weather, instead of driving us away with crappiness like the snow on the ground on the first of May.