Наконец!

(this entry was written two days ago)

Its finals time here in Russia.

The long definition of this means that I am swamped with work and need to do the following:

15 minute oral presentation on the group “KINO” for Русская Култура (already done)
3, 3 page essays for Culture class
A 12 page analytical essay on Gorky’s early prose (the official thesis is “How Gorky’s portrayal of landscapes works in conjunction with his romantic hero and the idea of freedom in earlier works”)
A Russian Grammar test
And an acting presentation for Phonetics

All of these, of course, in Russian.

The short definition of this means that I have rediscovered the joys of “3D Space Cadet Pinball” on my computer. My procrastination has resulted in a whole slew of new high scores, most notably the 2,341,500 highest score.

To make myself feel better about it all, the names that correspond to each High Score all include my name and a description of what project I am supposed to be working on while playing pinball.

Example: the aforementioned 2,341,500 high score has a corresponding name of «Гриша (работая на доклад)” or, in English “Greg (working on report)” This specific one was for history. But there are other ones there “Greg (working on essay)”, “Greg (working on homework)” etc.

Ok, this really isn’t about Russia.

On Saturday I saw a play, Chekhov’s “Two Funny Stories About Love” (the title sounds much better in Russian) and, amazingly, I understood almost all of it (about 80 percent). It was hilarious-there is one actor there who is incredibly talented. He is the kind of actor you could watch for hours on end and never get tired of. A friend of mine works at the theater and has offered to sneak me in any time I want to see a play.

Oh, before the play, while walking to the theater, I saw something absolutely incredible. It was sunny out but half the sky was covered in dark clouds. And then, all of a sudden, it started to hail. I have seen sun showers but I have never, in my life seen a..I don’t even know what to call it, a Sun Hailing? Anyways, it was beautiful and if I wasn’t so tired I’d do a better job of describing it here, but, sufficed to stay, I delayed my trip to the theater by a good 10 minutes by just stopping and standing and watching the square in front of me, the sun right above me shining, a bit farther off darkened clouds, and all around me streams of little white circles.
I was supposed to see Spiderman 3 in Russian tonight with some friends but unfortunately tickets were sold out.

Tomorrow is День Победы (Day of Victory [WWII]). This is an incredibly important day in Russia (I believe I have already touched upon the significance of the second World War in Russian history and the unimaginable toll it took). There will be a parade tomorrow and many, many veterans will be out on the streets, it will be very interesting to see.

It’s a very odd feeling that this is already my last month here. In fact, I have even less, since soon I will be buying a train ticket to head to Siberia, see Lake Baikal, and then head on a tour of Mongolia. So I actually leave here, if all goes as planned, on the 27th, and don’t return to just a few days before my plane flight back on the 16th of June.

By the way, the train to Irkutsk (Siberia) is 3 days long.

That grammar was incorrect. The train ride is 3 days long. The train is probably about 20 cars or so. I’m already forgetting English.

Like I said earlier, its strange that I only have a month left. The other day, after coming home late, I happened to look at the two large suitcases I had brought with me to Russia, now stuffed in the corner of my room. And these suitcases, that months ago seemed so heavy while I dragged them anxiously and expectantly out of the freezing night and up the dirty stairs to my Babooshka’s apartment, the suitcases, in which I had absurdly “prepared” all my clothes and books and emotions for something you can never truly prepare for, these suitcases that now lay forgotten in the corner – they had dust on them.

You can take that for whatever kind of metaphor you want.

ok, I have to get back to work, hope all is well with everyone,

-Гриша