In which Amanda decides to stick to browsing in bookstores

Saturday, 2:00 pm. Russian libraries are INTENSE. I brought my bookbag and massive amounts of vocabulary to attempt to organize…on a Saturday. Yes, I know. Erica and I had yet to visit the actual university library, as opposed to the one on the Smolny campus, and Zoltan agreed to show us. It’s a fantastic day outside, though—probably only -5C and sunny—so Erica and I parted ways; she’s planning to walk around the city and do a Dostoevsky tour. This would probably be more meaningful for me if I’d actually read more than half a book of Dostoevsky, so I left her to her adventure and met up with Zoltan at the Vasileostrovskaya Metro anyway.

Good news: the library is obviously big, quiet, and well-stocked. Bad news: the library is tough. They make you lock up your bags when you enter, and this included my purse, which always makes me nervous. I mean, the receptionist keeps the key, and in my opinion, you NEVER part a girl from her purse and keep the key. That’s just wrong. I am thus left with my computer (sans power cord, but there’s no place to plug it in, anyway), my folder-o’-worksheets, my notebook, a pen in my pocket, my dictionary, and a Tom Clancy novel. Also, you’re not allowed to check out books; what a library card allows you to do is request a book to look at for a certain period of time. Clearly, this place does not encourage browsing, which is mostly what I was hoping to do anyway. But, hey, now I know.

Week in review: Wednesday was Russian Civilization, spent discussing Nina Mikhailovna’s reasons why young people today are less than intelligent for believing fervently in Stalin. To be fair, she does try to cover both sides of the issue, but it’s still fun to listen to what is clearly her strongly held opinion. Following this class, the Russian chorus met again, singing first a very sad song about a deserted lover and then a bouncy number about—what else?—blini! The chorus is mostly made up of the words ‘vkusni blini,’ which means ‘tasty blini,’ repeated over and over. Erica and Ella and I were among the girls completely unable to keep a straight face until the end of the song. It’s great fun. :D

Wednesday was also another English class day, spent discussing one of my areas of very, very little expertise: shopping, film memorabilia, and spending large amounts of money. Four girls and Kolya (Nikolai) made it to class, so the six females in the room spent perhaps a leetle more time than absolutely necessary seeking his opinions on Paris Hilton and hairstyles. But, hey, he has a mullet, so it’s reasonable to think he has something to contribute to the discussion. :) After class, Erica and I (who both teach on Wednesdays) met at the steampunk café on Furshtatskaya (which I have since learned is called Factory Eggs…???) for a beer, blini (mmmmm), and girl talk. Many, many thanks to whoever placed the two of us in homestays next door to each other. :D

Thursday: class and orchestra. Since we’ve missed several Mondays this semester due to holidays, it’s been decided that we now have rehearsal on Saturday evenings until the concert. This is a minor inconvenience, but at least public transportation schedules don’t change on the weekend.  We also met the big-boss conductor tonight! Konstantin Fyodorovich is actually our principal violinist, though he conducts most of the rehearsals; our real conductor is Andrei Vladimirovich Alekseev. He’s…an interesting character. He sort of lolls back in his chair while he conducts, speaks very rapidly and in short bursts, leaves in the middle of a piece if he thinks we’re doing well enough, and has long, lank black hair that’s usually in his eyes. Basically, the quintessential artiste. :) He’s a fun guy, though…and I think he was sort of wondering where the blonde in the back of the viola section came from, because I distinctly heard my name when he and Konstantin Fyodorovich were talking as we were packing up. (I understand that our main conductor is part of the orchestra and not long out of the university himself, but it’s SO WEIRD for the orchestra to call him by first name and patronymic, and Andrei Vladimirovich to call him Kostya.)

Friday: classes, including our FIRST QUIZ in Russian language! It really wasn’t much of a challenge, I am proud to note, though the lack of directions on the activities made it interesting until Albina Vitalievna explained what was going on. Russian teachers figure that the students are going to try to help each other, so they leave the room for a smoke break while the actual quiz is taking place…whereas an American teacher would be watching all eight of us like a hawk. We were good, though. We only explained a couple of the activities to those who hadn’t caught the directions the first time around. :)

Friday night, we had an event at Nikolaevsky Palace at 6:45, which is a bit of a stretch for those who had to run home after class ends at 5 and shower, dry their hair, and then take a forty-five minute trolleybus ride to get there. In my case, it was THREE trolleybus rides, as I ended up leaving both the 5 and the 7 when the fare-collectors announced route changes. :P I was only ten minutes late, thankfully. Part of the purpose of the event was to allow us to mingle with our host mothers, but Lyudmila Afanasyevna had tickets to the opera instead. :) So I met up with Devon and her host mom on the third bus and entered with them.

The event itself was a stage production called Feel Yourself Russian! (I’ll put in the Russian title once I have the invitation in hand again.) It was a music and dance show that was obviously put together for tourists, but despite the cheese, it was great fun. Russian ballerinas are exquisitely beautiful; Russian male dancers are unbelievably acrobatic; and Russian singers are also very, very talented. Even the band was wonderful, featuring a couple of accordions, miscellaneous hand percussion, a couple of mandolins, and the BIGGEST BALALAIKA IN HISTORY. Seriously, I’m not sure how they made this one; it may have involved seeking out some historic giant pine in Siberia and felling it for wood. I think this instrument was as big as me, and that’s not counting the neck. Incredible. :D They also had a reception, at which I tried both champagne (tasty) and caviar (not so much). It was red caviar, not the truly expensive black stuff, but still, it’s overrated. The small salty gobbets of fishy flavor were not greatly improved by the mayonnaise in which they were placed on a small piece of bread. I get the idea that caviar is better with toppings…like hard-boiled eggs. With about twice as much egg as fish.

A few of us went out after the show, and Erica and I once again ended up taking the metro home together and standing outside talking for quite some time once we made it home. It’s great fun when you don’t notice how cold it is until you’ve been standing outside deep in conversation for half an hour. :D I’m not sure what today’s plans are, but they don’t involve me going home until after orchestra rehearsal. My host mom is at her dacha for the weekend (the note she left on the table said she’d be back sometime tomorrow afternoon), so at least she’s not expecting me home for dinner. I’m two buildings away from the rehearsal room anyway, so I’ll probably stay here putting together vocab lists for a while and then go enjoy the glorious weather. :)