15.10.2008

So I was at Smolny from 11.00am - 8.30pm, today, which was pretty awful. I spent the morning doing internet things, though, so that was pleasant. Then I had four and a half hours of class. Which was unpleasant. When I got to my Central Asian class, the professor said that we were going to Bobrinskij Palace (FROM WHICH I HAD JUST COME, AND IT'S A DAMNED 15 MINUTE WALK) for the second half of class in order to attend a short lecture and discussion on ... well, I'm not quite sure what it was about. And it was in English. It was entitled, "Where is Human Rights?" and it was focused around the killing of an Iraqi human rights activist by militants three years ago, and the militants left a note about human rights, so 'we' were dissecting what exactly they meant by human rights and from where they are getting their ideas and discourse and what have you. SOUNDS interesting, but it was overall tremendously painful. I actually left early. Usually I'd stick around because I hate leaving in the middle of something, but...

There was one amusing point during the lecture, though. The lecturer, an American professor, was going on about some French ...article or book or something, and after he said the absurdly long French title, he translated it into English, and it was something aalong the lines of "Vietnamese boat people being attacked by pirates." Well, at this point, I wasn't quite paying attention, and when I heard this sentence I chortled a little, then caught myself, and the more I thought about it, the more I had to hold back laughter. I'm sitting there in pain, because I can't laugh, because that's tremendously unprofessional, and tears are rolling down my cheeks because I'm thinking about Vietnamese BOAT PEOPLE being attacked by PIRATES. Whatever the hell that's supposed to mean. Perhaps I am a terrible person.

My walk home was much more entertaining. After getting off the metro, I'm walking through the square around the station when I see this section blocked off by a couple cement blocks and tape, and I'm like "wonder what happened.." So, I walk by it, and there's a hole in the pavement. Not like someone had DUG a hole, but like it had been MELTED THROUGH from under ground. And steam was rising from it. I was like, "What the hell?" So, now I feel really safe walking around on the pavement sidewalks, here. Because apparently they are really thick and sturdy. (This is also definitely a new development, because I walked right by that place last night and it was perfectly fine).

Then, while walking across the street, this guy in front of me KICKS a moving bus, for some reason, and then is surprised when he loses balance and falls over... That was mildly bizarre.

In other news, I've had bliny for breakfast TWICE in two days. This makes me thoroughly pleased. Mmm, bliny.

Unfortunately, tomorrow is Thursday. I hate Thursdays. I have SMI and Grammar in Situations on Thursdays. It's a struggle for me to decide whether or not to skip these classes, every damned week. I hate them. I hate them so much. I have a quiz re-take in Grammar tomorrow because apparently we did THAT poorly. Of course, I haven't studied. But I don't care. I kind of hate the teacher. He's an American. And a pretentious jackass. I guess I should LOVE Thursdays, though, since I don't have class on Fridays and that's kind of my week end starter. Though I rarely have anything to do on Thursday nights. Maybe I should go to clubs on Thursday instead of the weekend.. Since I always have trouble figuring out if Friday or Saturday is better.

Tomorrow I'm tutoring English. It's a really ... strange program. The person who is organising it, an English teacher (who speaks very broken English, ironically enough), wants us to come up with a "theme" for each section, and she wants there to be some sort of product at the end of the semester to show that the 'students' had improved... I don't know, it seems mildly bizarre, and more work than it should be. So I guess I'm just going to have everyone discuss their interests tomorrow so we can come up with a theme for the section. Assuming anyone shows up. Which, they should, since apparently all the Smolny girls think I'm a fine specimen of a man. Or something. I don't know. I think people tell me stories to get on my good side.

Alright, I've procrastinated for half an hour. That's enough.