I am so TIRED! It seems like I can't recover from the St. Petersburg trip this weekend. And we have a lot of work to do this week because it's the last week of school before our vacation. Blergh. But, we leave for Moscow on Friday! So much to do! Laundry, print out tickets, packing, obtaining money, planning things to do, oh, and homework.
Today we had a test in Leksika class. The whole point of this class is to teach us minute differences between very similar words in Russian. For example, there are two words that mean whole, or entire: весь and целый. They are almost interchangeable, except for very stupid circumstances. If a whole watermelon is sitting on a table, it is целый арбуз. But, if you are eating the entire watermelon, it has to be весь арбуз. Our teacher thought we'd come to this understanding naturally, even though she'd never told us this weird distinction before the test. The explanation for this usage is sooooo convoluted, I don't know if I can even attempt it. It has to do with watermelon being a food, but if no one has eaten any part of it, it is still whole in a container. Russian is so WEIRD! So anyway, we had a 6 page long test to fill in these types of words in sentences. Before the test our teacher said that she knew it was a lot, but that we shouldn't have to think about it very hard. By now it should be intuition. PFFFFTT! It might become intuitive after a long period of acquaintance with these words, and hearing them used all the time, but that is just not the case. It took us way too long to do that test.
Well, St. Petersburg was awesome, thanks for asking. It is so much better when it's not -100 degrees and windy. The sun was even shining on Saturday, so it was beautiful. We spent more than 3 hours wandering around the Hermitage, and boy did that wear us out. It was just too much to take in! Every room of the Hermitage is decorated differently and more beautifully than the last. We would walk into a room and our jaws would literally drop open in amazement. They also have such great art there! It probably has the best collection of art anywhere in the world. They have Da Vinci, Bernini, Van Gogh, Renoir, Cezanne, Manet, Monet, Degas, Rembrandt, El Greco, and basically any famous artist you can think of. Plus, they have a huge collection of ancient statues and art. I discovered that actually seeing a painting in person is much better than seeing a print of it. Especially for Van Gogh. His paintings have so much texture. I had always liked them before, but now I really know how awesome they really are.
After recovering from all the excitement of the Hermitage we went to Dom Knigi (House of Book). It really should be house of books, but the name literally means house of book, as in one book. It should be Dom Knig. It's the best bookstore in the world. It's located in the old Singer Sewing machine company building, which is gorgeous. It still says "Компания Зингерь" (singer company) above the door. I have now accomplished my goal of buying some Russian literature in Russian. I got some short stories by Pushkin, and A Hero of Our Time by Lermontov. Oh, and I musn't forget my purchase of HARRY POTTER IN RUSSIAN! So excited to begin the long process of reading that book.
We went to Shokolodnitsa for dinner. MMMMMMM. I had some melted chocolate in a cup. Not really, but that is what their hot chocolate is like. It is so powerful that they give you a tiny espresso cup, and also a large cup of water. I think it is the most delicious thing on earth.
We went to a Czech pub that night, after shopping at H&M, because it was Lindsay's birthday and we had to celebrate. I had some Czech beer, which was pretty good. I can admit that some beer is tasty, but I still don't prefer to drink it over other things. It's just kind of weird-tasting.
Ok, this is a completely different topic, but while I'm thinking of it I have to write it. No one here wants to make change. It is so annoying! The bank-o-mats usually only give out 1000 ruble bills, or 500's. But when you actually want to buy something, the cashiers look at your giant bill and ask you to look for correct change. And when you say that, unfortunately no, you do not have correct change, they all sigh heavily and rifle about in the cash drawer to plop down your change. Also, if you try to pay with a 100 ruble bill when your total was 67.87 or so, the cashier will always ask for a strange amount of rubles and kopecks. Like, 23.13. Plus, they talk very quietly and quickly, so a Russian may be able to understand the exact amount the cashier wants, but we most definitely cannot. I usually just poke around in my change purse and then woefully say, "Nyet," when I should say, "No! It's your JOB to make change! So do it!"
I'm getting really tired of potatoes. Come on now, not EVERY SINGLE DISH has to include potatoes. Seriously, what did Russia eat before they discovered potatoes? Gruel 24/7?
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