Hello again, all. Hope the weather is lovely where you are. It certainly isn't here. I mentioned the other day to a friend of mine that no one back home would believe how the weather usually is here, because we had gorgeous weather for pretty much every picture I've taken. Hahaha. But rest assured, it is normally cloudy, cold, and wet.
Anyway, Friday was a pretty uneventful day. I met with Dr. Phillips after class to discuss which classes I will be receiving credit for. We had planned to go to St. Issac's Cathedral, but by the time I got out (I was last) it was much too late. Instead, we just went out for lunch/dinner and then went home.
Saturday we had our excursion to Novgorod. The bus ride was long and impossible to sleep on, thanks to the absolutely terrible roads, but it was only about 4 hours and I'm more than used to that. When we got there and picked up our tourguide, the trip started going to pot. I'm pretty sure that Natalya was the worst tourguide in the entire country. Honestly, I don't understand how you could make an outing in Novgorod on both Novgorod's Den Goroda and Russia Day a boring one. But by golly, she managed it. Despite all of the cultural entertainment and shows and booths, we went to about 5 churches and a statue. And also to a lunch that was wholly disappointing, except for the juice, though that ran out after the first serving. We went to an open-air museum of wooden architecture (basically a fancy name for a bunch of old houses) and got to look around inside a couple, where she insisted on explaining to us that the boards made up the floor, and that people sometimes put food in the oven (they put it in there to cook, just fyi.). She also repeatedly (read: probably 30 times or more) made reference to things in "her country," as though we didn't know she was Russian or something, and got very upset when we couldn't understand her accent on some words. In any event, she rather ruined the trip, and I'm wondering if it would be possible to go again without her, but I doubt it. Sad day. But it wasn't the worst thing ever, so I guess I shouldn't complain too badly. It was also really pretty hilarious because the bus driver and the tourguide didn't get along at all, and fought in Russian the whole time, apparently thinking that no one could understand them.
When we got back at around 9, we decided to head to a bar close by to watch the US vs. England soccer game in the World Cup. There were several tables of Americans and several tables of Brits, so we had some good-natured bantering going on. The US ended up tying England (a surprising outcome, of course) and so it's likely that we'll play them again.
Yesterday was pretty uneventful as well. I slept in pretty late, then spent most of the day lazing around. We went out again to watch the Germany vs. Australia game (Germany won 4 to 0!!!). Some of the gang wanted to stay out all night, but I didn't, so I had to leave a bit early to make it back before they lock the dorms at 1AM. If you're not back before then, you just have to stay outside until they reopen at 6AM. Not a fun proposition, to my mind. I also discovered yesterday that the hot water has been shut off in the dorms until about the time we are leaving again. Joy. This wouldn't be such a big deal if the cold water wasn't actually ice water. My brilliant plan to combat this involves heating water in our electric kettle, pouring it into a laundry bucket, putting cold water in it until it is bearable, and then using a washrag to wash myself and washing my hair in the leftovers. Hopefully this will work...
Planning to go to the Philharmonia tonight to see some wonderful music. Will fill you in tomorrow probably, or maybe later today.
Edit: Oops, almost forgot that translation I said I would find for you guys!
A girl was singing in the choir with fervor
of all who have known exile and distress,
of all the vessels that have left the harbor,
of all who have forgotten happiness.
Her voice soared up to the dome. Glistening,
a sunbeam brushed her shoulder in its flight,
and from the darkness all were listening
to the white dress singing in the beam of light.
It seemed to everyone that happiness
would come back, that the vessels were all safe,
that those who had known exile and distress
had rediscovered a radiant life.
The voice was beautiful, the sunbeam slender,
but up by the holy gates, under the dome,
a boy at communion wept to remember
that none of them would ever come home.
-A. Blok
August 1905
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