Apologies again for the lack of updates. I would like to blame it on the heat and so-on, but really I just got lazy. Still, I have been keeping detailed notes, so I will be able to tell you all about the past two weeks.
So, two Saturdays ago we had an excursion to Red Square to see Lenin's Mausoleum and the graves along the Kremlin Wall. The majority of the group went to a little nearby town named Seusdal, so there were very few of us that went on this excursion. Poor Matthew had been drinking quite a bit the previous evening, and so he spent the morning searching for places the throw up. Eventually, after standing in line for an hour and a half, we got to go through the mausoleum. Honestly, the best part of it was the fact that it was so much colder in there. It was a little freaky seeing him there, and I kept expecting him to sit up and yell "Boo!" The guards were also amusing, as their sole purpose seemed to be standing there to shush people. The graves along the Kremlin wall were actually more interesting to me, and I ended up reading the names to the group of British tourists in front of me as we walked along. After that Kim and I went to Starbucks, which wasn't quite as good as home, and then to the mall, and then home.
That Sunday, we did absolutely nothing, seeing as how it was so ungodly hot. However, the Monday after that we had class and I had my individual. In this individual, I began reading a book of Russian history for foreigners, and we focused on the 1917 Revolution. The vocab is quite difficult, and there is a lot of it, but I am greatly enjoying it.
Tuesday, as usual, we went to class. Afterwards, we had an excursion to the museum of Contemporary Russian History. This was not a particularly interesting museum, despite my hopes, and the fact that it was not air conditioned and therefore stiflingly hot did not help matters. Even worse was the fact that the tour guide they hired for us was probably the worst tour guide in history, and "spoke English" about as well as I speak Swahili. When he didn't know a word, he would just mumble something under his breath and move on to the next room, leaving us to scramble after him. After we left, Kim, Anna, Matthew, and I went to TGI Friday's across the street for some American cuisine. It ended up being delicious, as close to true American food as we could get, and the cherry on top of the sundae was the fact that they had cold fountain drinks on ice--a true anomaly here in Russia.
Wednesday was lecture day, as usual, and, also as usual, it was tragically boring. I still don't understand how this man could make ethnic tensions a boring topic, but boy-howdy, he succeeded. So, somewhere along the line of the 4 hour lecture, I started studying words for my vocab test the next day rather than listening.
Due to this voracious studying, I went into class on Thursday feeling quite confident that I would do what our teacher said had never been done. I would score 100% on a vocab quiz. I flew through the test, confident that I had succeeded, only to discover that I missed that mark by one letter. One misspelled letter dashed my dreams. After a few minutes to whine and moan over it, I returned my attention to class. However, near the end of class, she offered me a second chance to correct that one mistake, since I didn't know what it was. I tried, and though I correctly identified which word was incorrect, I did not manage to correct it, and so my hopes were once again dashed on the cold, hard rocks of disappointment.
Friday was even hotter than previous days, and so after class, Kim and I took a walk down to the mall at the end of the street so we could sit in the air conditioning. We went up to the Italian restaurant on the top floor to have lunch. I chose lasagna and she chose a shashlik. I should have known better, because my lasagna, while not terrible, was definitely not lasagna, and lacked any meat or red sauce at all. In fact, it was more like cheese between lasagna noodles floating in a sea of strange cheese/cream something or other.
Saturday we had plans to all go to the Armory museum together, and since Kim and I hadn't done much else, we decided to go early while the others were going through the mausoleum they had missed and go into St. Basil's instead. The cathedral was pretty on the inside, but it looked a great deal like every other cathedral we've been in, and the main interesting point was the view out one of the the windows of Red Square. Afterwards we headed to the ticket office, only to find, just before we got to the window, that they had just sold out tickets for the day. Disappointed, Kim, Anna, Matthew, and I went to the mall instead to window shop our troubles away. When we returned home, we were informed that some of the group was going to an ice bar with some girls they had met in St. Pete's, where the bar was actually made of ice, and it was -10 degrees C. We were all very excited, but when we got there, we discovered that it was actually just a room in a grocery store. Before we got there, I had gotten an email from Dr. Mozur telling me that his nephew, Mark, was in town, and we should meet up with him. He had given us his number, so we sent him a text on the metro, and found out that he was actually meeting some friends at about 10:30 that evening, close to where we were. We agreed to join him, and so Anna and I left early to go meet him. After quite a while of wandering back and forth on the phone, totally lost (for the record, there are two giant cross statues in the park near Kitai Gorod), we finally found him and went to a little bar called Bourbon Street. I imagine it was supposed to evoke the feel of the street for which it was named, but I'm afraid the cramped quarters and Elvis impersonator screaming at us all night made the resemblance shaky at best. Nonetheless, we had fun, and I was sad when Anna and I had to leave early to catch the last metro.
On Sunday, we went to a soccer game, which proved to be more strictly policed than the airports here. My bag was searched 3 times before I was allowed to sit. The first time, the woman said she saw a fork. I was very confused, as I was certain there could not be a fork in my bag. I assumed she must be talking about my comb with the pick on the end, and she decided that must have been what she saw, and let me through. Not 5 minutes later, I discovered that I actually did have a fork in my purse. It was one that broke in the cafeteria that I had kept as a funny souvenir. I hid it in the bag that my sunglasses are in, and didn't have any more trouble with that. The game itself was rather ridiculous, between the cheering and jeering and shouting, but it was fun. We left a little early to beat the crowds, walked through the intimidating aisle of Militsia, and went home.
The following Monday, I finally achieved the goal I had set for myself from the start of the month. I scored 100% on a vocab test. This set the tone of the rest of the class, and I was giddy with excitement. However, I had my individual after lunch, and I actually did rather poorly. Still not sure what was up with me, but Lyudmilla accused the coke I was drinking of destroying my brain. Still, nothing could get me down after that 100.
Tuesday was uneventful, and Wednesday marked our last lecture. I couldn't have been more pleased. After sitting through 4 hours of boring lecturing again, I sat at home for quite a while until Mitch and I decided to go out and ride the metro. We rode all the way around the circle line and then out to the end of the dark blue line, so we could see the new stations that just opened this year and last year. They were nice, and large, but they seemed to lack the character of the inner stations, and so on the way back we stopped by Park Pobedy (Victory Park) and took some pictures, before doing the same at Taganka Square.
Thursday was uneventful, save for the fact that I got a phone and a few other things from a girl who is also leaving and didn't want to have to pack them. The phone is in perfect order, and I had a card already, so I popped it in and was quite pleased to find that it worked just fine. Among the things I took, I also got a dictionary that, get this, isn't in alphabetical order. Oh, the joys of Soviet publishing.
Friday was class as usual, and that evening we all went to the Malii Theater to see Swan Lake. It was excrutiatingly hot inside, and the worst part of it all was that the performance itself was not that good. Everything felt very sleepy and uninteresting. The second act was better than the first, but still not unbelievable, and the end was very anticlimactic, sad to say.
And finally, that brings us to today. Another record high, another day without air conditioning. We went to the Izmailova Souvenir fair, where I purchased quite a few gifts for people. I truly hope that I haven't forgotten or jilted anyone, and I would hope that if I did, no one would string me up by my toenails.
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