In Which the Author is FINISHED!

25.12.2008

This is actually the first Christmas I've spent with my family. Aaaand I don't really like it.

I mean, I suppose all in all the day wasn't that bad. Perhaps a bit of a waste, but not all bad. There are a few things that really bothered me, but I feel tremendously petty complaining about them.

I woke up at 11:30am (which is far, far too late, but I can never get to sleep, anymore, because of the completely screwed up daylight/lackthereof schedule). Well, I couldn't eat breakfast because Dima was working on something in the kitchen, with the door closed, so I felt tremendously awkward going in and getting in the middle of his business. He didn't even finish that until about 1, so I was sitting in here bitterly complaining to myself for an hour and a half. Which is kind of dumb because if I woke up at a decent hour I probably would've eaten breakfast no problem.

When I did eventually get to go into the kitchen, Tatyana left me a gift with a note! That was a nice surprise. The gift was a little candle with Santa in it ... Perhaps a tad tacky, but it's the thought that counts.

I eventually just went to Smolny and wasted a few hours trying to do a little research for my paper and inevitably getting nothing done. Maneka and I went out after that ... Actually, for about five hours. We went to her apartment for about an hour and just talked and tried to figure out what to do, since it was such an awkward hour as most things were closing, it wasn't quite dinner time yet, and there wasn't anywhere to walk (plus it's -5 centigrade). We eventually went to Cheburechnaya (a chebureki restaurant. Chebureki are fried... dough ... things filled with meat). That was dissatisfying. Actually, I liked the atmosphere of the place, because it was sort of a trashy cheap cafeteria type place so there were groups of middle-aged blue collar Russians sitting around chatting and drinking after work. ... I suppose I don't paint the best picture, but there's that.

We weren't sated, so we went to Chainaya Lozhka after that and ate some bliny and talked for hours. I noticed that the guy who took our orders had the nametag of "Vladimir," and the cashier who took our money had the nametag of "Vlad." I thought this was somewhat strange.

Then I just came home and talked on the phone with my parents for a bit.

I really wanted to take a shower, but unfortunately am unable as Tatyana has clothes hanging up and drying in the shower... So... Yeah. That's actually what is making me feel like crap, because I feel gross and kind of ... down, and I'd like to take a nice relaxing shower. HOWEVER. Many others have much less than I do right now, so I AM BLESSED. With a room. And a meal. And opportunities that others do not have. SO I should not complain. BUT, I am human, and understandably will complain no matter how heavenly my situation might be compared to others.

In other news it is actually very cold in my room, and this might be what is contributing to my lack of sleep. Tomorrow, I plan on going to the Russian Museum with Maneka, and then writing my paper. I'm not terribly worried about my paper, now, since I have a target of THREE! WHOLE! PAGES! because I am an underachiever right now, and Vika said she would proofread it and help me on Monday. My main concern is the oral presentation. Apparently, when most Russians present their papers, they just read the paper directly, and that's that. But from what I've heard they expect more out of the American students, so, I don't know ... We'll see. I also realised that I have no idea how to cite a paper Russian-like? To be perfectly honest, though, I never even submitted a works cited page for my presentation on Ukraine (which, in America, would amount to PLAGIARISM and get me EXPELLED), and I didn't cite a ton of things in my final paper. So it's probably not that big of a deal.

WELL, MERRY CHRISTMAS. С РОЖДЕСТВОМ!
26.12.2008

Woke up and took a shower this morning... Then took a nap.. Read a little bit... Then Maneka called me and we headed off to the Russian Museum. Mostly just went for the 20th Century exhibits, since that's really the only part we didn't get to thoroughly see when we went the first time. I spent massive amounts of money in the gift shops for ... gifts ... for people. Actually, I'm pretty much finished with gift shopping as a whole. I still need to buy my dad a thing or two, but other than that, I'm FREEE. Well, I'm not going to really buy much more of anything until I start packing and have an idea of how much room I have. Then, I'm going to go on a massive shopping spree to fill my suitcases. Which might be stupid, BUT HEY, I won't be back for god knows how long.

After the museum we headed over to Shtolle for pirog and tea. That was pleasant. The metro on the way back, however, was quite unpleasant. And the discovery that my heater is not working in my room was also quite unpleasant.

Basically, need to do paper writing, then that's that. Yura invited me to a new years' gathering of his, but Tatyana is saying I should stay in... But she also says that it's up to me ... I'd really like to go to Yura's gathering, because that would be a neat experience. I suppose it would be, here, too, but I feel like I'd feel a little more excluded and awkward, here. So... I don't know. I'm going to call Yura tomorrow and see what he thinks, and what the plans exactly are. We'll see...

27.12.2008

So it's only 5, and I'm bored out of my mind. I kind of want to go out, but that's probably not the best idea. I'm a good ways through my paper, and it's going fast ... Of course, it SHOULD be going 'fast' since my goal is only three pages. Yeah, tiny tiny paper, but not when you're writing in RUSSIAN. In TWO DAYS. And it's an academic paper, clearly, which makes it that much more difficult. At the same time I'm not too terribly worried about it, since Vika agreed to look over it on Monday, with me, so it should be cleaned up then. As of now, it's terrible, of course, but nothing can be done about that.

I called Yura, today, but he didn't answer. Perhaps I'll just end up staying here for New Years.

Speaking of which, I've been seeing people selling light-up horns on the street, here, which confused me. I was thinking that was more of a ... you know ... Halloween thing as opposed to a Christmas thing. But whatever. I just thought it might be due to some strange Pagan tradition or some such. But, Tatyana's younger sister came over with a couple pairs and Tatyana called me in, saying «Look at what we got!» and they were wearing the light-up horns... I was like «Yeah, that's great ... !» not sure what to say, then she said it's the Year of the Bull. SO. Now it makes sense. Kind of. I'm not sure by WHAT calendar it is the Year of the Bull.. Since clearly it isn't the lunar new year ... But whatever. Then she put them on Mysha and she ran around the house.

Alright, so, I just watched the MTV European Music Awards (or at least some of them), and my first WTF is: Why the fuck was that completely dominated by American music acts? Is Europe THAT devoid of any half-decent popular music? Jesus Christ. My second WTF: Katy Perry's voice is SO fucking processed it's kind of sick. I mean, her songs are catchy, I will say, as horrid as the lyrics and even worse the messages are. But her singing LIVE? THAT, friends, is UNBEARABLE. Good lord. Third WTF: I actually like some of Dima Bilan's music, BUT FOR GOD'S SAKES END IT WITH 'BELIEVE.' Actually, most of his songs in English are fairly terrible, but that one just takes the cake. The first time I heard him was in EuroVision, with that song, and I automatically hated him until I came here and heard some of his Russian music. Which isn't half-bad for popsa.

28.12.2008
So last night was basically awful. I couldn't get to sleep until after 4am. At 4am, I heard Tatyana rummaging around and telling Dima to get up because someone was coming. Shortly afterward, his cell phone started to ring and he answered it, then someone opened the door. There were a new pair of shoes at the doorway, today, but I haven't seen anyone in the apartment other than Dima and Tatyana, so either this mysterious person has been sleeping for god knows how long, or the shoes aren't even theirs. Who knows.

Then, I woke up and was BLINDED by some strange light coming through the window. After a moment of confusion, I opened the curtains fully and realised... IT WAS THE SUN! I was so excited. But then I got pissed off because I realised I had to stay in and write my paper, and by the time I finished the sun would probably set. THEN, I turned on the TV and saw that, despite the sun, it was -5 degrees, soo.... I thought it better that I admire the sunrays from inside.

While writing my paper, Mysha decided to jump on the bed and stand on my keyboard, which fucked something up, and I couldn't type my paper up because the keyboard was half broken. After a while of fiddling around I got it to work, though. I threw Mysha off the bed, but she kept coming back and trying to jump up, so I ended up having to chase her out of the room.

THEN. After writing my paper, I realised .... I am finished. This semester is finished. What. The fuck? It's bizarre --- I don't know what to do with myself. I feel like I should be working on SOMETHING, I should be worrying about SOMETHING. Then again, in truth, I'm not really entirely finished. I still have to present my paper tomorrow, which I sorely don't want to do, especially since the last half of it is total shit since I seriously just did not want to write it at that point. Three and a half pages!! Tiny, tiny, I know. Still. It's something.

I called Yura, and uhm... He said he works on the 31st, and that I could go to his house with Sasha and decorate a tree in the morning ... ? Maybe I didn't understand correctly. Sounds mildly strange to me. But he said he's going to call me at 11. I think I'm going to go ahead and spend New Years with them and not here, because to be perfectly honest I don't particularly want to sit around reading the Bible with a family of Russians on New Years. I probably wouldn't understand anything anyway, since I'm not up on my Orthodox Bible vocabulary.

Went to Shtolle with Maneka again, ate pie, then went to Pizza Hut for dinner. ... Again. We need to stop eating there. What the hell? Anyway, we had the same waitress, which was mildly awkward.

... AAAH I GO TO LITHUANIA AND LATVIA THIS WEEK.

Actually, I just realised, that this might be my last entry before I leave Russia. I don't know when I'm going to next have access to the internet. Maybe I'll drop in at MCDONALD'S before I leave to utilise their services. Or something. Or I'll just wait and upload the rest of my journal when I return home.

BY THE WAY. I spoke with my parents today, and my father got my mother a PS3 for Christmas. What in the name of God?