In Which the Opera is Attended, Again

18.12.2008

Today I realised that I have never so much as LOOKED at the Bronze Horseman. Which is quite sad, since it is one of the most famous statues in all of Petersburg.

Well, that's a lie. I have glanced at it, before. But I didn't know it was the Bronze Horseman. I saw it, and all I could think was "Ew, that is a hideous statue" and just walked on. Today, I received a farewell postcard from the program managers that featured the Bronze Horseman on the front, and I was like, "OMG, THAT'S the Bronze horseman?" Yeah, alright, call me uncultured. I don't care.

I had my final two exams, today -- SMI and Phonetics (EVERY TIME I GO TO SPELL THAT FUCKING WORD I START WRITING 'FONETIKS' BECAUSE OF HOW IT IS SPELLED IN RUSSIAN. AAAAAH!!). Both had oral portions, and both teachers said that I did well, so, I suppose I did well. I got an A on the mid-terms for those classes, plus did well in them, so I shouldn't have anything to worry about. The thing is, I was completely out of it all day and certainly didn't do my best.

After that we had our final 'awards' lunch. Not sure why it was called an 'awards' lunch. We were all given ... a posterbook. From the same collection I've been buying from. So, uh, now I have .... 62 Soviet posters.... Know what that means? DON'T HAVE TO BUY GIFTS ANYMORE!! WHOOO. Well, either I could WALLPAPER my room with Soviet posters, or I could give out a bunch of them as gifts. YOU ALL KNOW WHAT YOOOU'RE GETTING! Bahaha.

I have to say, I'll really miss Lyudmila Petrovna and Olga Valentinovna. Best personalities ever, and they were almost always late to class. Well, Olga Valentinovna was, anyway.

So, Tatyana gave me black bread with crushed garlic smeared atop for dinner, tonight. Yum. One thing I've also noticed, here: French fries are considered to be a legitimate side to a meal. Hmm.

Tomorrow, Maneka and I are going out to buy train and bus tickets to Lithuania and back. Then we're going to book hotel rooms. This is actually pretty exciting since it's the first time I get to take a vacation like this. I am displeased that I never made it to Finland, though -- I wish I went towards the beginning of the semester when I had less to do. But I figured after the 25th I would be free. LITTLE DID I KNOW. Little did I know... Anyway, if anyone is BORED out of their MINDS and has some freetime, find strange and interesting things to do in Vilnius and Riga. Because Maneka and I are just kind of going to ... drop ourselves off in the cities and walk around trying to find things to do. Of course, we can't speak Lithuanian or Latvian so we're hoping knowing English and Russian will be enough to get us by.

And, from now to the 10th, my posts will probably be very sporadic. And long. Since the days will accumulate. After next week I don't really have ANY access to the internet, unless I go to the cafe, which requires me to lug my laptop around, and pay, neither of which I'm particularly willing to do. There will be a MASSIVE photo update, though, when I return home, as I plan on taking photos around Petersburg and of course in Lithuania and Latvia. SO, LOOK FORWARD TO THAT, KIDDIES.

For now, however, I am going to write a massive paper.

19.12.2008

Today, Maneka and I went to buy train tickets, which was successful. Then, we wanted to buy bus tickets ASAP, so at least our transportation is guaranteed for the trip. So we stopped into McDonalds, which, by the way, seems to be where ALL Russian youth congregate, as the place was FILLED with young college aged-high school types. Except for some poor smiling man in the corner, seeming to live vicariously through everyone around him ... Or scoping out the young dainties. I couldn't tell which. Maneka suggested, “Maybe he just loved гамбургеры(gamburgery!!).” Unfortunately, some sort of failure occurred on the internet (surprise surprise) so we got no bus tickets.

After that we went to the Nord shopping centre, and after searching forever and a day I bought a jacket. So now I look like a basic Russian sleazy-jackass. I mean, I like the jacket. And it looks good on me. But, uhm, at the same time, it doesn't exactly fit my 'style.' That is to say, it's a goose down puff polyester jacket with a large fur collar.

Then I came home and wasted the entire day by not even glancing at anything having to do with my paper, instead watching bad shows and movies all evening and night. But tomorrow I definitely plan on spending most all of the day writing the paper. In the evening, I'll be going to “La Traviata” at the St. Petersburg Opera. So. There's that. My CULTURAL REQUIREMENT for the week.

Aaaand so I just watched a horrifying tragic romance film, Московский Жигило (Muscovite Giggolo). And by horrifying I mean it involved blood and beatings and those sorts of things. It was actually a really good movie, however.

21.12.2008

Yesterday basically wasted the entire day sitting around and feeling like shit. Wrote a little over a page of my paper so now I'm at ... almost two pages. I'm going to try to get at least up to five, today. I'm not that worried about actually writing it, anymore, I'm just worried about it turning into a pile of crap. Well, it already is that, since basically I just ranted on for two pages about the pointlessness of NATO, and I'm about to rant for another couple pages on the pointlessness of ties to Georgia and the West's total misconception of the whole affair. Oh, I think I threw a paragraph about the hopeless political situation in Ukraine, too. Maybe I should expand on that one. But then again I already ranted on for 50 minutes on that very topic, in class, so maybe I shouldn't.

Oh, and I seem to have sidestepped illness for the third time since being here. This past Friday I woke up with a mild sore throat that persisted through most of the day, so I drank a lot of water and tea, and ate some lemon and honey (plus took a nice strong dose of vitamin C, but that usually just prevents sickness before it happens as opposed to actually 'curing' you) and the sore throat was completely gone by yesterday. Which was a relief, because I just sorely did not want to be ill in my last weeks here.

So, I went to La Traviata at the St. Petersburg Opera last night. Vika told me to go, a long time ago, because she said it was cheap, good quality, and a good break from the Mariinskij and Mikhailovsky. She also said it was beautiful. So I took my camera.

AND OH MY GOD IT WAS FUCKING GORGEOUS. Very very small, and surprisingly few people were there. Basically I can't even describe it, but the place is a restored palace (small palace) with its own private theatre. Easily THE most beautiful theatre I've ever seen. Even beats the Mariinskij. I took photos, but they don't do it justice. Especially since the lighting was really soft, so a lot of the photos turned out too blurry, and I used flash for a couple, which made everything look like shit. EXCEPT, ONE OF THE PHOTOS I TOOK WOULD BE ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL, IF THERE WASN'T A GIGANTIC LIGHTING FIXTURE IN THE WAY. ARGH. Oh, and the room right before the theatre itself was decorated like a... cave. Yes. Apparently this was fashionable in the 19th century or something. It was kind of ugly. But I took photos anyway because it was really weird.

As for the opera itself, I realised after I bought the tickets that the opera was probably translated from the Italian into Russian, which would have ruined the entire point of me going to see a non-Russian play, but for some reason they translate them all, here (I thank GOD they don't do that in America, usually). HOWEVER, it turned out that they DIDN'T translate it, so it was in Italian, and that was good. But, then, I walked in ... aand ... based on the way the stage was set up, it was a contemporary take on the opera. Which made me really apprehensive. But they actually did a really good job of it, and it was still absolutely beautiful regardless. AND, they had classical masquerade ball costumes on during the second act, so that was good. The only thing that annoyed me was that in the second scene it was like ... tropical. So Alfretto (is that his name...?) had a ... hawaiian shirt on? And there was an umbrella. And at one point they were singing to a gigantic plush crab. But I looked past that since the singers were fantastic, and they came down into the audience a few times which was unsual, since I never see them do that in operas. But I guess since the theatre was so tiny, they did it.

Oh, and another strange thing was that Alfretto (or is it Alfredo? Wait, no, that's a pasta sauce...) was wearing this absolutely hideous outfit during the ball scene, when everyone else was in matching gold and black costumes. I don't know what it was, but it looked like a football under-jersey with a big “1” on the back, black slacks, and sneakers? Violetta was wearing a classy cocktail dress, which was different but at least acceptable, but what the hell? It makes me think that something technical happened, like he couldn't get dressed in time or someone forgot his costume. I don't know, but it was terrible.

Basically, that's that. I don't plan on doing much of anything, tonight. Just going to write my paper, today, and see if I can hit the 5 page mark. Oh, and it's snowing. Not that that's news.