In Which Things are Bought

24.12.2008

Wow, it's Christmas eve. Someone actually pointed this out to me and it didn't quite hit me until later. AND MY PARENTS HAVEN'T CALLED ME. Oh well, they'll probably call me tomorrow.

Today was somewhat interesting. I guess. I had to go to Bobrinskij to turn in my paper. Which I did. And then he had each of us go in one at a time and explain to him what our papers were about. Then he told us our grades. Well, he said, 'barring any unforeseen surprises' in the papers. Aaand he said I will probably get an A. Which is nice, since I worked hard in that class all semester. And I loved it. I learned a lot, personally, as well as academically, I suppose. Before I came here, I really didn't have a firm idea about the affairs and relations between Russia and the US. Now I feel like I really know what I'm talking about, and I'm passionate about it. That's always good.

After that I went to Smolny to do research for my Human Rights paper. I got a lot more than I expected that I would. I'm going to shoot for three pages with this paper. Yeah, it's tiny, but it's in Russian. And it actually kind of worries me, because Olga only wrote five pages for her Russia/USA paper, and her English is excellent. I mean, she plans on going to the Central European University in a couple years, so for god's sakes... I don't know. She probably had a lot other stuff going on, though, while I really have nothing to worry about for the next ... Well, until I have to pack up to go home, really. What makes me worried is that I actually have no one to look over my paper before I turn it in, so grammatical mistakes are going to be atrocious. Andrei Vladimirovich is really patient, though, and seems to like me, so, that's good.

Speaking of that particular professor, we're getting together before the oral exam on Monday. I told him I wanted to discuss the state of human rights in relation to gays in Russia today, and he said we could get together for coffee on Monday and discuss. I don't like coffee, but that's beside the point. So I'm really looking forward to that. I hope I understand whatever he happens to say sufficiently. It took a bit of courage for me to even ask him, but I figure since he's a HUMAN RIGHTS professor in Russia's ONLY liberal arts college, he can't be THAT reactionary for god's sakes.

After I finished up at Smolny, I decided to go out and do gift buying because I didn't feel like going straight home and moping around. Clearly I can't say exactly what I bought, BUT ....

IRISHKA AND SARAH - DO NOT READ THIS PART IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW HOW YOUR GIFTS WERE ACQUIRED. I can retell the story to you when I give you said gifts.



So, I went to Indigo, which is the queer-themed store on Nevsky (Amusing note: they have a sign right next to the metro that says "Индиго: Необычный магазин для особенных людей" -- Indigo: Unusual store for specific people). I just kind of looked around at what they had, and wasn''t really sure what to buy. Well, I go up to the front, where the two cashiers were, and asked them what I should buy "for two lesbian friends in America, one of whom can read Russian because she's Ukrainian." While I'm asking my question, they both start grinning, either because they were excited that some foreigner was shopping around in their little store, or because my Russian is terrible and I'm a stupid American. This adorable guy (WHO, by the way, I wish had shown up in my life THREE MONTHS EARLIER) immediately leads me through the store to the lesbian bookshelf and starts giving me book after book after book, talking about each of the authors and saying which city they're from, and so forth. He was completely at a loss as to what to give a non-Russian reading lesbian, however, so, oh well about that. I shopped around a little bit more and came across a book called "69 Russian Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transsexuals" (in Russian, of course) and immediately grabbed that. They tried to pawn off some tremendously expensive gay-themed jewelery to me, and I was like, "uhm, I'll look around a little bit first." Then, when I was making my purchases (which came to 799 rubles), I handed her a 1000, and she gave me too much change. I think she thought I was trying to cheat them when I tried to explain that the change wasn't correct, then I showed her the check and what she had given me and she was tremendously grateful for my honesty. So, that was a very pleasant shopping experience. Actually, probably one of the most pleasant I've had, here.



IRISHKA AND SARAH. You may read now.

In terms of gifts, I only have to buy both mom and dad one more thing each, and then.. Aislyn's ring, a couple small things for a few people, aaaand something else. I'm kind of worried as to suitcase limit, though. I'm not sure if I'll have enough room. I SHOULD ... But who knows. I'm going to wait until I'm packed to make my last shopping trips.

After that, I went to the dorms to say goodbye to people, since half the program is leaving tonight.

Oh, and a button fell off my jacket, today. I think I'm going to go sew that on, now...