Peoples of Americacountry,
First of all, I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July. In this country it’s called, as a friend put it, “Russian Day of Annoyance.” I would make some cheesy comment about pride in red, white and blue, though that might accidentally come off as pro-Russian instead of pro-American.
To celebrate the holiday yesterday, Smolny served us “American” food at lunch, including cherry strudel and veggie burgers that were comprised of a bun, slice of cheese, slice of cucumber, and no patty.
It’s hard to believe I’m now typing on the Internetmachine—complaining about shared flag colors and nonexistent burger patties—when I was literally on a dirt road in middle-of-nowhere Russia a couple days ago. I probably won’t have time tonight to write all about the weekend trip and the last two days, but here’s a brief summary:
We left early Saturday morning for Pskov, toured the town for the day and spent the night there, then went to Izborsk on Sunday, returning home very late Sunday night/Monday morning. What an unbelievable trip.
Yesterday! Yesterday we were all exhausted from the trip, and after classes I played a game of Russian Scrabble and won all by myself against…Russians. Heck, I can’t even win Scrabble when I play in English. The last three years spent slogging through Russian grammar were, honestly, worth it just for this one victory. Also, a shopkeeper told me today that I speak Russian very well, and I’m going to pretend that she made this comment because it’s entirely true and not because she wanted me to buy a garish and overpriced skirt.
As for the rest of today, I went with a friend/excellent figure skater to a big rink at the other end of town where the St. Petersburg hockey team practices. I was hoping to appreciate every second of slipping along the breeding ground for Russian skaters who have been cheating since the beginning of time while, obviously, clinging to the wall of the rink for dear life. Unfortunately, the rink was closed for today and probably will be for a while. Also unfortunately, buildings in Russia often close without warning. I suppose this is because the idea of a world that even mildly caters to the consumer’s needs is pretty new in Russia, so nobody really cares if you walk across Siberia only to find that a skating rink is closed for no apparent reason. And now I’m sitting in Café Dubai again, which is a wi-fi oasis. Pun intended?
More to come soon--just thought I'd give a brief update to let you know I haven't been shipped off to Siberia yet, especially since there aren't even open skating rinks there. Miss you all and, of course, hope you enjoyed the holiday.
Love from Leningrad,
Даша/Dasha/Dana
No comments:
Post a Comment