Where does the time go?

Saturday, 5:30 pm. The last few weeks in Russia are coming up really fast, and I’m realizing quickly how much I still have to do, or want to do. But at the same time, the weather’s been so nice, and it’s a shame to spend more time inside than we have to. This week sort of reflected that, really.

Monday was a holiday, so there was no orchestra rehearsal. I’d intended to spend the day hopping from museum to museum, but it was so sunny and warm (nearly 70 degrees Fahrenheit!) that I couldn’t bring myself to stay inside. Instead, I strolled through some of the city’s many parks, tried to find a souvenir market at Yelizarovskaya station (and failed), and ended up celebrating Ella’s birthday in the Tauride Gardens with cake, philosophical discussions, and tree-climbing. It was truly lovely, even though we all agreed that pine nuts are not a suitable ingredient for a cake. Tuesday, on the other hand, was rainy and back down to about fifty degrees, so I came home after classes and reviewed the instrumental case.

Wednesday afternoon, I museum-hopped for a little while, visiting Anna Akhmatova’s apartment-museum and the Museum of Music. Below is a picture of the collection of miniature violins they displayed! That evening, I joined in a lovely event that would become a tradition if we had more of the semester left: poetry night! Eight of us met at a little café near Primorskaya station and shared all sorts of poetry, in English, Spanish and Russian, and good times were had by all. I quote to you the hit of the night, entitled ‘Abraham Lincoln is My Name,’ by none other than (gasp) Abraham Lincoln:
-quote-
Thursday was mainly taken up with preparing for a job interview, and I’m pretty happy with how it went…let’s just hope they’re happy with me too! I booked it over to the Times as soon as the interview was over and got there in plenty of time, walking in on Toby shouting ‘noooooooooooo’ again (it’s not a normal evening unless he does that two or three times). I find it funny that I noted the several interesting errors I dug up this evening with pride. Friday night I spent in, getting more and more into The First Circle, Solzhenitsyn’s account of life in a specialized concentration camp.

I hadn’t actually planned to spend Saturday with a large group of friends; I ran into them purely by accident at the Udelnaya station flea market. I’d hoped to find some more souvenirs there, but it turned out to be almost entirely second-hand clothes. Eight of us set off for Peter and Paul Fortress to do a little more shopping there, stopped to enjoy some ice cream in the park near Gorkovskaya, then wandered around the fortress for a while. Brenna and Evan texted the rest of us with a great find: a full-fledged beach behind the fortress, with sand, volleyball, too many guys in Speedos, the works. Delighted, we promptly kicked off our shoes and flopped down in the sand, abandoning all thoughts of the world for a sunny hour. When it started to cloud over, we fled the beach for a café just in time to avoid the torrential downpour. Later in the evening, someone (I think it was Wes) scouted out a dance club with REAL ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC, played by a REAL LIVE BAND! For at least myself, Wes, and Fred, this was an incredible break from the seemingly inescapable techno, and we danced a good part of the night away (and ended up in conversation with the band between sets). :)

I shouldn’t give away my next post, but let’s just say that Sunday was the exciting finish to a very exciting week! :)