Thursday, 1:15 pm. I got out of the shower this morning to find one of Lyudmila Afanasyevna’s students, Olya, at the table having tea. She’s very interesting to talk to – enough that I was almost late for classes this morning…whoops. I packed a couple of quick blini and ran out the door; thank heavens for my living only ten minutes from campus!
10:45 pm. Not only have I found my happy place with the chamber orchestra – they found me a viola. This keeps getting better and better. :D:D:D:D:D:D:D (It’s one size bigger than I play back home, but that’s really not a problem.) I can’t take it home, but the orchestral manager, Angelina (who is also a violist!), assured me that I’m good enough I don’t need to practice. She’s very much mistaken, but I think I’ll manage. :) Last week was all sight-reading; this week we started the serious detail work on a couple of pieces. I’m happy to report that only about half of Konstantin Fyodorovich’s directions need translation! (The rest are either measure numbers, very general instructions, or nonverbal instructions any musician would understand.)
Angelina was kind enough to inform me that the concert is scheduled for March 31. This is, oddly for me, right in the middle of my spring break. This means I’m going to have to sacrifice my nebulous plans of spending a week in another country, which is a bit of a shame. But all is far from lost! If I’m not going to travel far, I can spend the week visiting the “diamond necklace” of palaces that are a short train ride from St. Petersburg! The weather will be absolutely lovely by this time, so spending a couple of days exploring Peterhof or Yekaterinburg at my leisure sounds to me like an excellent use of the break. (Plus, it’ll definitely save me money, which I always like.) My only regret is that more of my friends won’t be around to hear the concert. :)
The ride home only took about fifty minutes, which was a pleasant surprise. In DC, spending an hour on public transportation to get most of the way across the city would sort of irk me; in St. Petersburg, I’m finding that people don’t mind as much, and I’m starting to mind less, too. To get from my homestay to the main campus of the university, I can take one bus the entire way (trolleybus #11)! Granted, this means I spend an hour in transit thanks to traffic, but at least it’s a warm hour, and the service is practically door-to-door. DC, I suggest taking notes on St. Petersburg’s public transportation system.
And now, as usual, tea and bedtime. I haven’t been able to shake a nasty cough since we got back from Novgorod, so my dear host mother has been making me put honey in EVERYTHING I drink, including milk. Here’s hoping it works!
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