In Which ... Whatever.

06.12.2008

Alright, so, Thursday was interesting ... well "Interesting" in that Tatyana turned off the power in my ROOM at night. So I just decided to go to bed after that. Thankfully, it's back on today.

Yesterday was somewhat uneventful. I had a short meeting with Lyudmila Petrovna to get her help in translating the letter my mom sent for Tatyana, since I wasn't sure HOW to translate it.I'll give that to her soon enough.

Oh, and apparently I'm going to the banya with Bryan next week... That'll be an interesting experience.

On the bus home, yesterday, there was a TV. That was bizarre. It was just showing news, from the Pervyj Kanal (the main state-owned media station). From what I've been hearing, the state transport system is having a lot of trouble with employment and funding, so I'm not sure why they're installing TVs on their new busses? Then again, that makes sense, since nothing here makes sense. I've heard that the autobus/trolleybus sector has a 50% need of bus drivers, which means almost every driver has to work double shifts in order to just keep the city running. On top of that, they're changing the metro system by the end of next year, which also doesn't make any sense. Right now, you pay 17 rubles, flat, to get to any station in the city. They're trying to make it so that it costs more the farther you go... I don't know how they do that. I know the DC system is the same, but I completely forgot how that worked when I was there. I just put money on my card and went through. I guess you have to go through checkpoints at every station? Who knows.

I've also decided that I actually hate the new busses, because they make me seasick. Indeed, so far, my favorite ride on public transport has been the trolleybusses, which were nice and smooth and quiet. Mmm.

Today, I went to the political museum with Maneka. That was really interesting. On the WAY to the museum, however, some babushka came up and asked for a cigarette. Well, I happened to have a pack on me, and figured I'd just give it to her and walk on. Of course, as soon as I give it to her, she LATCHES on to my arm and BEGS for money to buy bread for her child. I'm like, DRAGGING this woman along with me, until I PRY her hand off my jacket. I was pissed off. If she wanted money for her CHILD, she should have asked for that BEFORE asking for CIGARETTES. And of course, I'm sure this “bread” for her “child” meant VODKA. FOR HERSELF. But anyway.

The museum was neat. And COMPLETELY deserted. Which was surprising, since it's ... a Saturday. In the middle of the day. You'd think it'd be a lot more busy at that time of the week. Actually, it was very ... Soviet. Or what I'd think Soviet would be. Which makes sense, since 90% of the museum was ... Soviet. politics. And such. In any case, it was clearly a museum which the government doesn't care very much about. The kassa and the gift shop were all in one very small partitioned office, run by a very bureaucratic woman who clearly didn't want to do her job. At first she said she didn't have any change, when Maneka pulled out a 100 to pay for a 20 ruble ticket. Then when I said I'd pay, since I thought I had 40 rubles in 10's, the woman asked for 100 .. and gave us change ... She didn't even have a proper register or even a cash box, either. She pulled the money out of a COOKIE tin.

Anyway, the set up of the museum was really interesting. The first room was completely dedicated to Stalin's times, and it was a labyrinth. Literally. There was a description at the beginning that said something like it was the "labyrinth of madness, where you have no freedom and end where you begin." Or something just tremendously bizarre. The lady who took our tickets told us how to follow the exhibits, but we got lost and did it out of order, but whatever. What I found interesting was ... there was very little bias. It was all very factual and systematic, not leaving out details of Stalin's rise to power, his overzealous purging of the party, the horrors of collectivisation, the absurdity of the bureaucracy and propaganda... Of course, at the same time, it didn't condemn it, either. Except, at the transition to the next exhibit, it did state that the end of Stalin's reign was a total mess and left a lot of problems for his successors.

What I also found tremendously interesting was all of the party documentation, student cards, workers cards, etc. Official documentation and whatnot. BECAUSE, GUESS WHAT?! IT HASN'T CHANGED SINCE THE 20'S. AT ALL. My student card could, ignoring the dates, pass for a Soviet student card in the 1920's. Same with my Russian visa. It all. Looks. The same. A lot of other similar things in the museum really just kind of jarred my brain... Like, there was an exhibit with a sewing machine from the 30's, and it is the EXACT same sewing machine that my host mother uses.

This all made me realise something. Well, not really realise, so much as put some of my feelings into context. Sometimes, when I am here, I feel like I was sent back a hundred years. The bureaucracy, the atmosphere ... the elevators in my apartment building ... None of it has really changed at all. At the same time, a LOT HAS changed. Hell, a lot has changed in the past TEN years. In any case, sometimes, I also feel like I'm thrown back to the 80's. Bad mullets, a lot of the music (actually, that's more early-mid 90's trash than 80's), advertisements, bad television. And then, I feel like some aspects are even further AHEAD in time than America. Or, at least, what I'm used to, in America. A lot of the fashion, many restaurants, many of the more recently renovated parts of the cities, shopping complexes, and so on. It's all very pristine, new, and modern.

In any case, that's enough on that subject. Afterward, we went to the gift shop, and I bought a posterbook of TWENTY ultra-high quality, decently sized posters for 14 dollars. I'm really excited. They're all Soviet political posters from the 30's to the 50's, centred around the theme of spies all around and not giving secrets away to the "Enemy." I've actually seen these posters at Dom Knigi, but they were over 100 rubles more expensive, there. So I'm glad I got the good deal.

After that, Maneka and I went to Pizza Hut. Yes. Pizza Hut. We were hungry, and couldn't find anything, so we went around the Petrogradskij metro ... which ... our choices were: Chainaya Lozhka (always ultra busy), McDonalds, KFC, and Pizza Hut ... yep. Well, apparently, here, Pizza Hut is a nice, clean, sit-down restaurant with decent food and FRIENDLY SERVICE?! I was amazed. We were seated by a waitress who SMILED, and asked us if we wanted to sit in a smoking or non-smoking section (also baffled me). In addition, the food was good. And I got a HUGE glass of seven-up, with NO ICE! WHICH MEANS, MORE SEVEN-UP! For very cheap, comparatively!

In other news, I am leaving the television unplugged until classes are finished. It just destroys my productivity. Tomorrow I'm going to try to do work for most of the day until the play, which is in the evening. I hope I'll be able to understand it.

07.12.2008

I'm in one of those moods again where I feel like I've learned nothing, and perhaps have regressed, in my language capabilities. Well, I was this morning, but perhaps less so now, after the play. I think Tatyana's food might be doing something, too. I really wish I could just cook my own food for a week or something, but I'm pretty sure she'd have none of it.

Today, I did do work for most of the day... and I suppose I was productive. I did my grammar homework for tomorrow, but... As far as the other work I tried to do... It took me two hours to get through like two pages of my textbook, today. I was (or so I thought) ploughing on through, understanding pretty much everything, then I suddenly looked up at the clock and an hour and a half had passed and I hadn't even gotten through the INTRODUCTION to the chapter, and it was just hideously demoralising. I'm supposed to read 10 pages by Wednesday, which, when it was ASSIGNED last Wednesday, I was happy for the very light assignment. But now? Whaaat the hell.

Anyway, this is my last week of Russian classes (thank god). I'm not sure how work-heavy it will be. Actually, not at all, since none of the classes will have homework. I know I have a good deal of homework for SMI, but that's about it. Then, I have studying for finals, which I am going to do КАК СЛЕДУЕТ, so that all these new constructions will at least get a foundation in my BRAIN before all my classes end and I'm no longer forced to speak Russian in a classroom setting on a daily basis. I'll have to sit with Tatyana and afternoon tea on a daily basis, or something. Or maybe I'll start dating a girl just so I have someone with whom to converse for a few weeks.

Alright, so, I went to a play, today, which was interesting. We had a choice between a huge professional play based on a Gogol' story, about marriage... and uhm... well... As much as I love Gogol', I'm 90% sure I wouldn't have been able to understand a damn thing, and since it's Gogol' + marriage I'm 99.9% sure that it would be a horrifying tragedy, which I don't need. So I went to a small, more personal contemporary comedy. Which, really, was tremendously uncreative and a compact soap opera, but! It was very enjoyable. I didn't understand anything that was really going on in the beginning, but towards the end I actually understood everything they were saying. And the acting was good, so that was a plus.