Monday, 11:20 pm. Just got in from what we’re all calling Russian speed dating! The sobesedniki mixer featured a motley crew of Russians and Americans eating chips and salsa and trying to speak each other’s languages, with varying degrees of success. We had five minutes to get to know each other, then moved on to the next conversation partner. If the gender balance had been a little more equal (more guys than girls tonight, for once!), it would’ve been true speed dating. :)
I’m actually amazed at the conversations one can get into in five minutes with a total stranger. I’m not great with names, but I can remember discussing the use of the word ‘Snowpocalypse’ with Anya, American comedy with Olga, the merits of Antonio Banderas songs with Roman, and even the incredible variety in the music of Billy Joel and Queen with Ilya. Actually, if this works out, I may be joining Ilya’s band for a while with my violin. :D All in all, it was a wonderful way to break out of our little American group and realize that Russian students are truly friendly people once you start talking to them. Actually, that generalization can really be applied to Russians in general. Pass them on the street and they’ll look suspicious if you smile, but strike up a conversation about violin-piano duets with Masha and you’re instantly a friend.
The only drawback to a blast of an evening out is the fact of ten o’clock classes tomorrow. Time to get to sleep for tomorrow’s grammar lesson.
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Tuesday, 10:00 pm. Not a lot to write today. Ethnic Studies was canceled when Leonid Vladimirovich failed to show up after half an hour for the class before mine, so I went home. I would like to report, though, that I successfully managed to buy a battery charger! This is a minor annoyance, because I brought one from home, but it appears to have given up the ghost here in Russia. Either that, or it needs intense computer psychological counseling that is beyond me…maybe I’ll get Alec, the computer science major on the program, to take a look at it. :P Anyway, this one cost me a little less than US$17 and charges two batteries at a time. As far as I’m concerned, it’s perfect—cheap, functional, and a nice stand-in until I can get mine back to the States and see what’s wrong with it.
About twelve of us went out for Zoltan’s birthday this evening and had blini. We realize it’s not Maslenitsa anymore, but there’s really no occasion on which I would pass up a blin with chocolate sauce. :D Oh, and Olympic fever has officially gripped Russia. Even in Teremok, the city’s blini chain, they were showing the biathlon, which involves skiing and shooting. In my humble and ill-informed opinion, this is not a great combination—sure, let’s start an avalanche and then race away from it!—but it seems to be of great importance to the Russian sports fan community, so it’s time to learn. :)
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