Sunday, 7:30 pm. Spring has sprung! Actually, I’m reluctant to use the word ‘sprung’, as that implies a degree of subtlety, sort of as though spring snuck up on us. Spring didn’t so much sneak up on St. Petersburg as fall out of the sky. I swear, I came back from Tallinn, and…no more snow! I can walk outside with just my red hooded sweater instead of my giant winter coat! There is actual GRASS in places, among the mud! The paths around Smolny are made of cobblestones and sand, not ice! Temperatures have been in the fifties! This is mind-boggling after the winter we thought would never end. And it’s fantastic. :D About the only problem is that I brought perhaps four shirts that are appropriate to this weather…three of which are black. A bunch of us girls are planning an excursion in the near future to a couple of nearby second-hand shops, to see if we can’t find some really cheap spring clothing.
It’s been kind of a slow week, which is why I haven’t posted previously. Monday and Tuesday just consisted of classes and evenings at home, which were very nice indeed. I’ve been doing a lot of sleeping this week…I think I can blame my allergies for making all of my muscles feel like they’ve been shrunk in the dryer. I’ve managed to make a leetle more progress in War and Peace, too…which is good; if I’m going to finish that book by the end of the semester, I have work to do! Specifically, over 800 pages of work to do. :P I may be taking a few days to read Crime and Punishment, if I can get my hands on a copy, before the Crime and Punishment Walk sometime in May. It’s supposed to be THE quintessential St. Petersburg novel, so what better time to read it than while I’m here?
Steering back from my literary rambles now…Wednesday: Civilization class, chorus (six girls, and Moskva Zlatoglavaya, a new tune I rather love), and English class. We spent English class talking about fears, superstitions, and the supernatural, then somehow segued from that into vegetarianism. That class rambles almost as much as my own language classes, and I LOVE it. :D Thursday, after classes, I went back to the Times and chased down misplaced commas and the substitution of ‘Poland’ for ‘Putin’ in one caption. Nobody takes a lot of notice of the rather quiet copy editing intern when I’m there, though the editor-in-chief, Toby, is very impressed with how fast I work. And thoroughly, let me add, because I know you’re going to ask, Mom. :)
Then came Friday, where about thirty of us stayed after classes for a dance rehearsal for the ball. Katya and Anya, our coordinator and her friend who are organizing the event, actually hired two professional dance teachers to whip us into shape on the polonaise and the waltz. I’d be willing to say they succeeded…maybe forty percent. The polonaise mostly consists of processing (proceeding? Walking in a procession, anyway) in straight lines and circles, in pairs, with a little bit of fancy pair work in the middle. It’s the particular not-quite-in-three pattern of walking that continues to elude most of us. The waltzing instruction was possibly more frustrating, as everyone already knows how to waltz, but we all know how to waltz…differently. Eventually, Eric, who made it through the polonaise with me relatively unscathed, got frustrated and led me out into the hall to teach me to waltz properly. (I can waltz just fine solo. It’s the partner bit that I can’t quite manage.) I am proud to report that I can now follow a lead, as long as the guy is actually leading (yes, Adam, there DOES need to be someone leading a waltz). There may be hope for the family that doesn’t dance, after all. :D
Yesterday and today were the most exciting parts of the week! Yesterday afternoon was our excursion to Yusupov Palace, where Rasputin was murdered. The actual palace looks much the same as the other, um, dozen or so palaces we’ve toured at this point, though it did have some cool chandeliers. The rooms where the plot to murder Rasputin was carried out were pretty cool…and they’re populated by wax figures of the conspirators and the victim. Rasputin’s actual body was destroyed, so you can’t visit him like Lenin, but I’m sure he’s nearly as scary in wax as he was in person. Not to mention the wax figure of Prince Felix Yusupov, who looks like he’ll be offering visitors some poisoned fruit at any moment. It’s a relief to get back into the sunlight after that one.
Saturday evening, five of us ventured to the end of the Orange Line of the metro, Ulitsa Dybenko, and met the ball costumer at her apartment. I still don’t know her name, actually, but this woman welcomed Devon, Lizzie, Julia, Eric and myself into her home, two rooms of which were stuffed almost to bursting with costumes. While some of us played ‘fetch the squeaky ball’ with the costumer’s two tiny dogs, Busik and Margo, we tried on gowns one by one and marveled at the transformations. I won’t post the pictures here, partly not to spoil the surprise and partly because the one of myself is, in fact, a terrible photo. But I will say that Devon looks like a Disney princess; Julia looks straight out of Gone with the Wind; Lizzie looks like English royalty; Eric looks like he’s just stepped offstage from The Nutcracker; and I? I’m quite happy with my Renaissance Fair look. :D The next step will be figuring out what to perform for the between-dance acts. I have some fiddle music ready in my head, and if possible, I’ll do a couple of vocal numbers as well. There’s also figuring out what to do with my hair, but I already have a line of friends who are plotting elaborate creations, so I don’t think I have much of a choice in the matter. ;) The ball is two Fridays from now, and it’s a welcome addition to the list of things to think about when not mulling over the dative case or the Chechen war.
Today, seven of us went to a production of Chekhov’s Three Sisters at a library-cum-performance space near Ligovsky Prospekt. The play was three hours long and entirely in Russian, so it was rather a challenge; however, we had an English-language summary to hand, which helped quite a bit. Plus, I’d read the play in English (two years ago). Actually, though, once I started watching, it was a very pleasant surprise just how much I understood. It was slightly disorienting to be watching a play about three twenty-something sisters when all of the actresses had to be at least forty, but then, all theater involves some suspension of disbelief, doesn’t it? :) Anyway, it was a very interesting experience, and very well done. Not the Mariinsky, but I’ll make it there, don’t worry. It’s a very nice day outside, but sitting for three hours is surprisingly tiring, so Kim, Ella and I walked to a little bakery by the Vladimirskaya metro, where I had what I swear will be my last dessert before the ball…that was probably a week’s worth of chocolate, right there. :P We split up afterwards and Ella and I both came home to eat a proper dinner and write our blogs.
I’m spending the rest of the evening in, folding laundry, practicing my viola a bit, and reading up on the Revolution of 1905 in preparation for tomorrow’s history class. We’ll be polonaise-ing into class tomorrow, and I may or may not be waltzing through the apartment. There’s nothing quite as exciting as a girl’s first ball, now, is there? :)
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