It took over thirty hours of traveling to get back to here due to a layover in Moscow in the very early hours of this morning (I can now accurately say that I spent parts of both Christmas 2008 and New Year's 2008 in both Moscow and St. Petersburg), but I am back in St. Petersburg just in time to celebrate New Year's in Russian style.
This holiday is definitely more like Christmas for us, as I came back to my warm, clean room to find a miniature New Year's tree (evergreen branches in a vase decorated with tinsel and ornaments) in my room on the desk with a bar of chocolate underneath. Our apartment is yellow and orange and cozy and the TV has a program of Russian singer/actor types singing famous old Russian songs (already heard "Помоги мне" from Бриллиантовая рука) dressed up in their New Year's gowns and I gave the family their presents and Olga seems to really like the album I put together of photos from my past seven months of living with them and it makes me glad to be back and home for the holiday. It's funny, for how crazy and hectic and exhausting this city is and how much I am looking forward to my upcoming break and time away from it, stepping out of Moscovskii Vokzal and into the city was such a relief after traveling so much. It was comforting to know how to get home without even having to think about it. And the sky was dark but clear and a finger nail clipping sliver of the moon was hanging up above the train station with one bright star next to it. Or maybe it was a planet. It was beautiful whatever it was.
I'm quite happy to be back. Not that Kiev wasn't great -- Kiev was wonderful, the hostel was amazing, we actually came so, so, so close to spontaneously changing our plans to stay in Ukraine for the holiday because we were having such a good time -- but I am glad to be back here as I planned. Plus, there appears to be ominous, upcoming conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Before we left, Katy's dad had told us he'd heard Russia decided to cut off Ukraine's gas supply after the New Year. In Kiev we didn't hear much about the situation, but when we did we heard the same thing -- Russia had decided to cut them off. Now back here tonight, hearing Olga's perspective and watching a very serious and somber news release of Medvedev and Putin speaking about the problem (with a very not-serious, goofy, and quite happy New Year's tree blinking away behind Medvedev's head throughout the whole thing) -- it appears that the story here is that Ukraine wanted gas for free or for even cheaper and decided to reject Russia's gas supply and use Europe's instead. Who to believe? I'll never know. Anyway, Misha said it's good we came back when we did. He thinks there is going to be a war between the two countries. Doesn't that make you thrilled, Mom? How is it that whenever I travel outside of Russia in the former Soviet Union conflict arises? First Georgia, now Ukraine.... well, the point is, I'm back. And that's good. And I'm glad I got to see Kiev while I could.
Anyway, you'll hear about Kiev soon enough. I'm off to гулять around the city with everyone and photograph the lights and join in the general merriment. I have a feeling this night is going to be like the winter version of Alye Paruca. I'll let you know how New Year's goes this year.
Think of me at 4:00PM EST when it will already be 2009 in St. Petersburg! I'll think of you guys at 8:00AM tomorrow here!
Happy New Year!!! love, e.b.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Friday, December 26, 2008
ALIVE IN KIEV.
After twenty-four hours of travel, exactly, 1pm on Christmas day until 1pm today when we arrived at our amazing hostel run by these great and helpful British guys.
I like Kiev already. A woman actually went out of her way to help us find the street we were looking for earlier today. Crazy.
Anyway, just an update to say I'm alive.
I like Kiev already. A woman actually went out of her way to help us find the street we were looking for earlier today. Crazy.
Anyway, just an update to say I'm alive.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Merry (weird) Christmas.
Under the category "ways I never though I would spend Christmas," sitting in Kofe Hauz at 5:00AM waiting for the metro to open with Emma, Carrie, Maneka and Zach is definitely on the top of that list.
We didn't quite plan on staying out all night... just saying good bye to everyone on the bus to the airport and then returning home.... but it got later and later.... and then we thought we'd just stay with Yulia and everyone at the airport until everyone went through check in.... and then all our stuff was still on the bus anyway, so we had to wait for that.... and then it was four in the morning and we were dropped off back in the center of the city with the hopes of some 10 ruble McDoland's ice cream but the closest one doesn't open until 7:00am. So we sat in a good old 24 hour Kofe Hauz -- what else are they good for as their coffee is a billion dollars -- and waited until the metro opened and generally bonded over having the weirdest Christmas to date. In fact, the whole evening was just so insanely bizarre that I wasn't even that sad getting left behind by everyone for the third time now. At least the next time I go to that airport on a bus with a group of people leaving, I will also be getting on the flight with everyone, so it won't quite have that abandoned feel that I've gotten so used to.
And so, this is the strangest Christmas of my life, as in six hours I need to be boarding a train to Moscow, and then I will be spending Christmas evening on an overnight train to Kiev. If you had told me even just last year that this is how I would spend December 25th, 2008, I never would have believed it. This is just all so crazy.
But still, merry christmas to everyone at home.
I miss you, I love you, I can't wait to see you in January if possible.
Enjoy this photograph of Putin I found on the internet:
We didn't quite plan on staying out all night... just saying good bye to everyone on the bus to the airport and then returning home.... but it got later and later.... and then we thought we'd just stay with Yulia and everyone at the airport until everyone went through check in.... and then all our stuff was still on the bus anyway, so we had to wait for that.... and then it was four in the morning and we were dropped off back in the center of the city with the hopes of some 10 ruble McDoland's ice cream but the closest one doesn't open until 7:00am. So we sat in a good old 24 hour Kofe Hauz -- what else are they good for as their coffee is a billion dollars -- and waited until the metro opened and generally bonded over having the weirdest Christmas to date. In fact, the whole evening was just so insanely bizarre that I wasn't even that sad getting left behind by everyone for the third time now. At least the next time I go to that airport on a bus with a group of people leaving, I will also be getting on the flight with everyone, so it won't quite have that abandoned feel that I've gotten so used to.
And so, this is the strangest Christmas of my life, as in six hours I need to be boarding a train to Moscow, and then I will be spending Christmas evening on an overnight train to Kiev. If you had told me even just last year that this is how I would spend December 25th, 2008, I never would have believed it. This is just all so crazy.
But still, merry christmas to everyone at home.
I miss you, I love you, I can't wait to see you in January if possible.
Enjoy this photograph of Putin I found on the internet:
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Щелкунчик at the Mikhailovsky Theatre.
So, while I am aware that today is the 24th of December and technically Christmas Eve, I keep forgetting this fact as "Catholic Christmas" (as the 25th of December is called here) is a complete non-holiday and so tomorrow just feels like Thursday, just the day when I'm leaving for Kiev, nothing exciting. I really haven't been in a Christmasy mood at all. Yeah, I've been shopping for gifts for everyone, but it just feels more like general souvenir shopping, not for any holiday occasion. I don't know, everyone talks about how this time of year is the hardest time of studying abroad because that's when you really start to miss your family and feel lonely.... but personally, as I can't even remember that it is Christmas right now, I don't feel all that sad for missing it at home. I'll also be busy in Kiev.
But despite all this, I finally remembered it was Christmastime after seeing The Nutcracker at the Mikhailovsky Theatre last night with what seemed like nearly all of the girls on my program -- me, Liza, Ilana, Emma, Claire, Carrie, Emily, Katy L, Danielle, Amy & Laura. Ilana had warned me in advance that the Russian version of the Nutcracker is different from the version most Americans know and love -- sometimes the choreography involves sacrificing a lamb in the middle of the second act -- and there were things about last night's performance that were different. For example, if anyone knows the Boston Ballet's version of the Nutcracker, you are sure to remember the dance with the huge woman (usually played by a man) and all the little children that come running out from underneath her skirt. Instead of this, two dolls danced to that song. Also, the main girl is named "Masha" or "Maria" in the Russian version not.... Clara. Not really sure how that whole Clara business came about in general. [oh, wait, according to wikipedia: "The story has been published in many book versions including colorful children-friendly versions. The plot revolves around a German girl named Clara Stahlbaum or Clara Silverhaus. In some Nutcracker productions, Clara is called Marie. (In Hoffmann's tale, the girl's name actually is Marie or Maria, while Clara - or "Klärchen" - is the name of one of her dolls.)"] And also the Russian dance at the ball involved a may pole that looked like it was going to fall down the whole time as the dancers did not seem all that comfortable dancing with it. But but but but BUT it was so beautiful. So beautiful. All the costuming and scenery was so classic, and the leads were all really strong -- especially the dancers who played dolls. The guy who played the Nutcracker doll had unbelievable limbs -- he kept his legs bowed in this way that really was so dollish and unnatural, I have no idea how he danced like that. And the music made me so happy and content and finally feel like it is kind of Christmas, in a way. It gave me that nice, calm, goodwill to everyone, peaceful Christmas-feeling I usually get this time of year, but totally missed as I've been writing papers and thinking ahead to New Year's and January instead. Anyway, I am really glad I went and I thoroughly enjoyed myself and it put me in a good mood.And you know what else put me in a good mood? Oh, yes, finishing my paper for Jonathan Platt. YES. DONE. HA.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
So close, so close, so close, so close....
Yesterday was Monday? Weird. It felt like Thursday or something.
I'm done with my film class now too. AHhhhhhhhh yes. All that is left is a paper for Jonathan which I am working on now which is going to be done done done done done soon soon soon soon soon soon and then I am free free free freeeeeee until Februaryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.
Last night we had the final banquet. This involved enough Chinese food for 40 people (even though there were only 30 of us) and me sitting next to Emma and us sending creepy text messages to everyone around the table and watching their reactions from afar. I ate so much -- and it was actually really good Chinese food for Russia, I was surprised -- that I still feel a little ill this morning.... hours and hours later.... It was a good final hurrah though. It still seems weird to me though that the semester is over. I don't know why, but the 8 week summer program at times still feels like it was much, much longer than this semester has been. Maybe it's because I saw less of the group this semester, and we all kind of did our own thing or something, I'm not really sure.... it's just really strange that it's already over and new people will be coming in a month....
Okay, I'm going back to work on my paper. I'm trying to finish it before I go see The Nutcracker tonight with a bunch of girls (Ilana's last trip to the ballet while in Russia! ahh!).
I'm done with my film class now too. AHhhhhhhhh yes. All that is left is a paper for Jonathan which I am working on now which is going to be done done done done done soon soon soon soon soon soon and then I am free free free freeeeeee until Februaryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.
Last night we had the final banquet. This involved enough Chinese food for 40 people (even though there were only 30 of us) and me sitting next to Emma and us sending creepy text messages to everyone around the table and watching their reactions from afar. I ate so much -- and it was actually really good Chinese food for Russia, I was surprised -- that I still feel a little ill this morning.... hours and hours later.... It was a good final hurrah though. It still seems weird to me though that the semester is over. I don't know why, but the 8 week summer program at times still feels like it was much, much longer than this semester has been. Maybe it's because I saw less of the group this semester, and we all kind of did our own thing or something, I'm not really sure.... it's just really strange that it's already over and new people will be coming in a month....
Okay, I'm going back to work on my paper. I'm trying to finish it before I go see The Nutcracker tonight with a bunch of girls (Ilana's last trip to the ballet while in Russia! ahh!).
Sunday, December 21, 2008
The results of the выставка and other things I have been up to since Wednesday.
So, I know I left you all hanging. Sorry about that. I've been busy! But you'll be pleased to know that the result of the cliffhanger of the last entry was successful.
My art opening ("выставка") went really well. So much better than I thought. I left my last film class a little early to set up and add some Christmas lights to the mix (I could not find simple strands of solid, white Christmas lights anywhere, so I thought I purchased solid, white icicle lights... but turns out they blink a little bit.... it seems to be a rule that any and all Christmas lights and New Year's decorations in this country have to flash and/or be as loud and/or tacky as possible. Oh well. The effect still worked). Ilana also ran out for a little wine & champagne & crackers and I contributed my candy from the "awards lunch" which had been earlier that day (the awards lunch is the final lunch to say good bye to the RSL teachers.... and Elena, Yulia & Bryan give out "awards" to all the students who are leaving, and candy to the returning students) and then we waited. And I was genuinely surprised by how many people came by. Ilana, Carrie, Liza, Marianna, Heather, Lauren, Emma, Matt, Bryan..... and the show actually is in a good location, a strange but good location, because it picked up a lot of strays who were just wandering through on their way to or from the library.
It was still unbelievably bizarre to have all these people standing around looking at 184 photos of myself though. Really bizarre. So I mostly hung towards the door and chose music from Ilana's computer to play and drank wine while taking photos of people looking at my photos. People noticed some things though that I had overlooked and were just really observant in general about small details, I was impressed. There were also a lot of comments about how the photos together looked really good, like a kaleidoscope or something. John Nelson suggested I change the name of the show to "Unquestionably E.B." Ha. And I had an idea that when I show the final year at the end of the spring semester (Marianna said she thinks it is going to look really cool with the first six months having one look from one apartment and the second six having a different look in a different apartment), I am going to make scavenger hunt sheets like Where's Waldo? or I Spy and people can go through and hunt for certain things such as: find 4 umbrellas, find 6 Ami Lis, find 1 Russian flag, etc. It'll make it maybe a little more interactive of a show.
Some interesting things I learned about the project from showing it though. These were the top five questions that I was asked throughout the evening:
1. Do you take the photos at the same time every day?
2. Do you use the same camera to take all of the photos?
3. Do you always take the photos at home?
4. Are you going to keep taking the photos when at home in January?
5. You really haven't forgotten a day?
Well, here are the answers for you:
1. No. Sometimes they're before I leave in the morning, sometimes after I come home late at night, sometimes when I happen to be at home in the afternoon between things.
2. Yes. My Nikon D80 digital SLR. I even use the same exact settings.
3. When possible, yes. If I am away from home for more than one night traveling, then I take them sitting on whereever I am sleeping, trying to recreate the same frame as much as possible.
4. Yes. Originally I wasn't sure, but it is a full 365 days.... it would be weird to have a two week vacation in there. Plus, my friend Liza said these photos came be for her, all worried about "how far away" I'll be in the US, just like how the photos were originally for my mom, worried about "how far away" I am in Russia.
5. Not yet.
Also, if you are interested, here is my artist statement that I hung up on the wall:
artist statement:
My mother is a nervous lady, and when I decided to live in Russia for a year, she was not very pleased with the idea.
“How will I know you’re still alive?!?” she asked me.
So, as a joke, I said I would photograph myself every day the whole time I would be there, and then put the photos on my website for her.
And then I thought why not? and actually began the project. Then it became more than a joke.
While certainly a satire of my life sometimes, it is also a study of how I am changing every day during this year.
Just look at how much longer my hair is!
-- Elizabeth “E.B.” Andersen Bartels
The project continues:
www.pbase.com/theeeebster/self_portrait_project
заявление художника:
Моя мама очень нервная женщина, и когда, я решила жить в России один год, ей не очень понравилась идея.
«Как я буду знать, что ты ещё живая?!?» она сросила меня.
Поэтому, шутки ради, я сказала, что буду фотографировать себя, каждый день все время моего пребывания в России, а потом помещу фотографии на моем сайте для неё.
А потом, я подумала, почему нет? и на самом деле начала проект. Теперь он перерос в нечто большее, чем просто шутка.
Конечно это в некотором роде сатира на мою жизнь, этот также исследование того, как я изменяюсь каждый день в этом году.
Просто посмотрите какими длинными стали мои волосы!
-- Элизабет «Иби» Андерсен Бартелс
Проект продолжается:
www.pbase.com/theeeebster/self_portrait_project
And, finally, people's favorites? Well, everyone loves the one in Helsinki, 8/11/08, I think because it is simply the best lit and the color of that wall in that hostel is gorgeous. It's too bad I couldn't do my entire project in that room.
Over all, I'm really pleased with how the show came out. It forced me to make a final product out of one of my many ongoing projects -- something I rarely get my act together to do unless I am getting a grade in an art class -- and it made me really think about the whole project. So that was really good.
And then on Friday, in our final Bakhtin class, I presented my project and discussed it in terms of Bakhtin and how he would view it, and while at first I thought this is going to be super dumb and pointless, we actually had a really good, helpful and interesting conversation about aspects of my project. We talked about how I incorporated text with the photos (for the show, I actually wrote the dates on the photos themselves, on the top usually, to the left side usually, in Sharpie, and then any comments that are usually found below the photos on the site were written on the photos themselves, sometimes with arrows pointng out the guests or certain items/props in the photographs) and what this meant, and if it was too much or too little or helpful or distracting. We talked about that famous Roland Barthes book about photography, Camera Lucida, and the "look" of who I am addressing in the photographs and who I am imagining I am looking at when I take each picture. We talked about whether this project was creating "violence" on my life, and the journal-ness of the idea, and how the project will be different when I present it when the 365 days are over and complete, and if maybe the show is more effective when it is in the process of happening, but that could really only happen right here, in Russia, right now, in the middle of the year. It was a good talk, and I have to summarize it for my final paper, which actually might be kind of enjoyable.
So, that took up the end of my week pretty solidly. As for my weekend, it was also busy as hell, but in a different way. I spent a lot of time hanging out with people who are leaving soon such as Cathy (already gone) and Bryan (leaving tomorrow). There was a little outing to The Other Side, the expat bar, where I ran into Meri's friend from Georgetown, Tim. There was an intense game of Rook, which Emma and I won because we can now communicate telepathically. Our last printmaking class was also last-minute canceled, so on Saturday I finished my Christmas shopping (heyyooooo!) and had perhaps THE most successful day ever at Udelnaya yesterday with Emma, Pinski and Will. I can't list all of the amazing old shitty treasures I found as some of them are Christmas presents (you lucky dogs you), but it was amazing. I came in with a little list and came out with everything on it that I had been intending to find. What the hell. Udelnaya isn't Stop & Shop. What is going on here?
This is a very short week that is starting today -- only three days long really -- full of one film class exam and one paper about Bakhtin and art, but also one last excursion to the ballet, our final dinner, and then sending off the first batch of people from the group who are flying out on Thursday. And then, I'm off for six days of traveling with Emma and Katy, which I am quited excited about as by the time we leave, I should be done, done, done, done, DONE, with all of my nonsense. Thank god. Then I'll come back and just have to focus on moving my shit over to the apartment and trying to run into Wellesley girls in some Russian city or another.
So, that's the written update. But also so many photo updates for you!
Finally two homemade darkroom prints in the film section, starting here.... a random roll of black & white I shot with my Nikon SLR after it snowed for the first time.... self portraits since December 14th, including my play with infinity..... and a shitload of new digital photos including highlights such as saying good bye to Vanessa, my birthday, a rowdy game of Clue and my 365 days show opening....
WHEW.
My art opening ("выставка") went really well. So much better than I thought. I left my last film class a little early to set up and add some Christmas lights to the mix (I could not find simple strands of solid, white Christmas lights anywhere, so I thought I purchased solid, white icicle lights... but turns out they blink a little bit.... it seems to be a rule that any and all Christmas lights and New Year's decorations in this country have to flash and/or be as loud and/or tacky as possible. Oh well. The effect still worked). Ilana also ran out for a little wine & champagne & crackers and I contributed my candy from the "awards lunch" which had been earlier that day (the awards lunch is the final lunch to say good bye to the RSL teachers.... and Elena, Yulia & Bryan give out "awards" to all the students who are leaving, and candy to the returning students) and then we waited. And I was genuinely surprised by how many people came by. Ilana, Carrie, Liza, Marianna, Heather, Lauren, Emma, Matt, Bryan..... and the show actually is in a good location, a strange but good location, because it picked up a lot of strays who were just wandering through on their way to or from the library.
It was still unbelievably bizarre to have all these people standing around looking at 184 photos of myself though. Really bizarre. So I mostly hung towards the door and chose music from Ilana's computer to play and drank wine while taking photos of people looking at my photos. People noticed some things though that I had overlooked and were just really observant in general about small details, I was impressed. There were also a lot of comments about how the photos together looked really good, like a kaleidoscope or something. John Nelson suggested I change the name of the show to "Unquestionably E.B." Ha. And I had an idea that when I show the final year at the end of the spring semester (Marianna said she thinks it is going to look really cool with the first six months having one look from one apartment and the second six having a different look in a different apartment), I am going to make scavenger hunt sheets like Where's Waldo? or I Spy and people can go through and hunt for certain things such as: find 4 umbrellas, find 6 Ami Lis, find 1 Russian flag, etc. It'll make it maybe a little more interactive of a show.
Some interesting things I learned about the project from showing it though. These were the top five questions that I was asked throughout the evening:
1. Do you take the photos at the same time every day?
2. Do you use the same camera to take all of the photos?
3. Do you always take the photos at home?
4. Are you going to keep taking the photos when at home in January?
5. You really haven't forgotten a day?
Well, here are the answers for you:
1. No. Sometimes they're before I leave in the morning, sometimes after I come home late at night, sometimes when I happen to be at home in the afternoon between things.
2. Yes. My Nikon D80 digital SLR. I even use the same exact settings.
3. When possible, yes. If I am away from home for more than one night traveling, then I take them sitting on whereever I am sleeping, trying to recreate the same frame as much as possible.
4. Yes. Originally I wasn't sure, but it is a full 365 days.... it would be weird to have a two week vacation in there. Plus, my friend Liza said these photos came be for her, all worried about "how far away" I'll be in the US, just like how the photos were originally for my mom, worried about "how far away" I am in Russia.
5. Not yet.
Also, if you are interested, here is my artist statement that I hung up on the wall:
artist statement:
My mother is a nervous lady, and when I decided to live in Russia for a year, she was not very pleased with the idea.
“How will I know you’re still alive?!?” she asked me.
So, as a joke, I said I would photograph myself every day the whole time I would be there, and then put the photos on my website for her.
And then I thought why not? and actually began the project. Then it became more than a joke.
While certainly a satire of my life sometimes, it is also a study of how I am changing every day during this year.
Just look at how much longer my hair is!
-- Elizabeth “E.B.” Andersen Bartels
The project continues:
www.pbase.com/theeeebster/self_portrait_project
заявление художника:
Моя мама очень нервная женщина, и когда, я решила жить в России один год, ей не очень понравилась идея.
«Как я буду знать, что ты ещё живая?!?» она сросила меня.
Поэтому, шутки ради, я сказала, что буду фотографировать себя, каждый день все время моего пребывания в России, а потом помещу фотографии на моем сайте для неё.
А потом, я подумала, почему нет? и на самом деле начала проект. Теперь он перерос в нечто большее, чем просто шутка.
Конечно это в некотором роде сатира на мою жизнь, этот также исследование того, как я изменяюсь каждый день в этом году.
Просто посмотрите какими длинными стали мои волосы!
-- Элизабет «Иби» Андерсен Бартелс
Проект продолжается:
www.pbase.com/theeeebster/self_portrait_project
And, finally, people's favorites? Well, everyone loves the one in Helsinki, 8/11/08, I think because it is simply the best lit and the color of that wall in that hostel is gorgeous. It's too bad I couldn't do my entire project in that room.
Over all, I'm really pleased with how the show came out. It forced me to make a final product out of one of my many ongoing projects -- something I rarely get my act together to do unless I am getting a grade in an art class -- and it made me really think about the whole project. So that was really good.
And then on Friday, in our final Bakhtin class, I presented my project and discussed it in terms of Bakhtin and how he would view it, and while at first I thought this is going to be super dumb and pointless, we actually had a really good, helpful and interesting conversation about aspects of my project. We talked about how I incorporated text with the photos (for the show, I actually wrote the dates on the photos themselves, on the top usually, to the left side usually, in Sharpie, and then any comments that are usually found below the photos on the site were written on the photos themselves, sometimes with arrows pointng out the guests or certain items/props in the photographs) and what this meant, and if it was too much or too little or helpful or distracting. We talked about that famous Roland Barthes book about photography, Camera Lucida, and the "look" of who I am addressing in the photographs and who I am imagining I am looking at when I take each picture. We talked about whether this project was creating "violence" on my life, and the journal-ness of the idea, and how the project will be different when I present it when the 365 days are over and complete, and if maybe the show is more effective when it is in the process of happening, but that could really only happen right here, in Russia, right now, in the middle of the year. It was a good talk, and I have to summarize it for my final paper, which actually might be kind of enjoyable.
So, that took up the end of my week pretty solidly. As for my weekend, it was also busy as hell, but in a different way. I spent a lot of time hanging out with people who are leaving soon such as Cathy (already gone) and Bryan (leaving tomorrow). There was a little outing to The Other Side, the expat bar, where I ran into Meri's friend from Georgetown, Tim. There was an intense game of Rook, which Emma and I won because we can now communicate telepathically. Our last printmaking class was also last-minute canceled, so on Saturday I finished my Christmas shopping (heyyooooo!) and had perhaps THE most successful day ever at Udelnaya yesterday with Emma, Pinski and Will. I can't list all of the amazing old shitty treasures I found as some of them are Christmas presents (you lucky dogs you), but it was amazing. I came in with a little list and came out with everything on it that I had been intending to find. What the hell. Udelnaya isn't Stop & Shop. What is going on here?
This is a very short week that is starting today -- only three days long really -- full of one film class exam and one paper about Bakhtin and art, but also one last excursion to the ballet, our final dinner, and then sending off the first batch of people from the group who are flying out on Thursday. And then, I'm off for six days of traveling with Emma and Katy, which I am quited excited about as by the time we leave, I should be done, done, done, done, DONE, with all of my nonsense. Thank god. Then I'll come back and just have to focus on moving my shit over to the apartment and trying to run into Wellesley girls in some Russian city or another.
So, that's the written update. But also so many photo updates for you!
Finally two homemade darkroom prints in the film section, starting here.... a random roll of black & white I shot with my Nikon SLR after it snowed for the first time.... self portraits since December 14th, including my play with infinity..... and a shitload of new digital photos including highlights such as saying good bye to Vanessa, my birthday, a rowdy game of Clue and my 365 days show opening....
WHEW.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Все готово?
After going through two rolls of tape and spending four and a half hours in the Bobrinsky Palace, I think my show is ready.
"Show" = large grid of photos in an hallway-room full of unused mailboxes. A sneak-peak e.b. in p.b. blog exclusive preview:
Ohhhhh god. It's going to be strange having people stand around and just look at me 184 photos of me being a goof in my room every day. At least when they're on the internet I don't have to stand there and see people's reactions. Why did I agree to this ahhhhhhhhhh ahhhhh and it goes down to the right a little even though I used a level ahhhhh ahhhh wish me luck.
"Show" = large grid of photos in an hallway-room full of unused mailboxes. A sneak-peak e.b. in p.b. blog exclusive preview:
Ohhhhh god. It's going to be strange having people stand around and just look at me 184 photos of me being a goof in my room every day. At least when they're on the internet I don't have to stand there and see people's reactions. Why did I agree to this ahhhhhhhhhh ahhhhh and it goes down to the right a little even though I used a level ahhhhh ahhhh wish me luck.
21 in Russia.
So, I had pretty low expectations for this birthday. Not that I wasn't looking forward to it, but I just wasn't expecting much. Come on, turning 21 in a country where the drinking age was described to me last summer in Siberia as "when you can see over the counter"? What else is exciting about 21? Notttthing.
But you know what, I was pleasantly surprised. Really surprised. I had such a good time.
Basically, I reenacted what I did all summer yesterday..... after taking my exam, I went to the photo store to pick up prints, ate lunch at Stolle with Emma, and then went out to Fidel with my friends. Simple, but exactly what I wanted.
Here's the great thing though..... so I sent out an email to the group saying I'd be holding "office hours" in Fidel last night, and anyone or everyone was free to stop by if they'd like. But being in the middle of exam week, a lot of people didn't make it. In fact, only two Americans from the program made it: the one Ms. Ilana Tabby, of course, and the unbelievable, infallible Ms. Carolyn Clark. And the only other American to drop by was Will. Everyone else was Russian, and I was kind of thrilled with this fact. If it had been a night at Fidel during the summer, I would have been with 20 other Americans speaking English. Last night I spoke Russian probably 90% of the evening. Liza & Marianna came by.... Erin's friend Masha..... friends I've met through Ilana & Danya -- Kirill, Goga, Roma.... Will's girlfriend and my friend Olga.... and it was just such a good change. I felt like I've actually met people here, for real, not just through the program, not just "paid friends" (a.k.a. tutors). And we had a really good time, drinking Bochkarov and talking and later dancing to "classic rock night." And I was just really happy, and in a really good state of mind, and anyone who knows me knows that exactly a year ago that was not the case at all. Turning 20 really kind of sucked. Turning 21 was amazing. And never in a million years would I have thought that is how I would turn 21 years old.
Though, I am starting to feel kind of ancient. Especially when I realize things like one of my friend's Russian boyfriends was born in 1978.... the same year as Genny..... and people I hang out with now are anywhere between the ages of 17 and 32.... It makes me feel like I actually am starting to catch up with Genny, Chad, Sara and Mike, after spending 21 years chasing after their always older, always more glamorous lives. That's a weird feeling. It's odd when you start to realize how little age actually matters..... that's when you know you are getting old.....
But enough of that. I have to go take my СМИ exam now, and then I will be done with all my RSL classes for the semester. That's going to feel even better than last night.
So, in summary, thanks to everyone who made my 21st birthday really special, despite the anticlimactic nature of the event.
Faithful readers Abman & Vanessa, wish you two hadn't been in America for the occassion.
But you know what, I was pleasantly surprised. Really surprised. I had such a good time.
Basically, I reenacted what I did all summer yesterday..... after taking my exam, I went to the photo store to pick up prints, ate lunch at Stolle with Emma, and then went out to Fidel with my friends. Simple, but exactly what I wanted.
Here's the great thing though..... so I sent out an email to the group saying I'd be holding "office hours" in Fidel last night, and anyone or everyone was free to stop by if they'd like. But being in the middle of exam week, a lot of people didn't make it. In fact, only two Americans from the program made it: the one Ms. Ilana Tabby, of course, and the unbelievable, infallible Ms. Carolyn Clark. And the only other American to drop by was Will. Everyone else was Russian, and I was kind of thrilled with this fact. If it had been a night at Fidel during the summer, I would have been with 20 other Americans speaking English. Last night I spoke Russian probably 90% of the evening. Liza & Marianna came by.... Erin's friend Masha..... friends I've met through Ilana & Danya -- Kirill, Goga, Roma.... Will's girlfriend and my friend Olga.... and it was just such a good change. I felt like I've actually met people here, for real, not just through the program, not just "paid friends" (a.k.a. tutors). And we had a really good time, drinking Bochkarov and talking and later dancing to "classic rock night." And I was just really happy, and in a really good state of mind, and anyone who knows me knows that exactly a year ago that was not the case at all. Turning 20 really kind of sucked. Turning 21 was amazing. And never in a million years would I have thought that is how I would turn 21 years old.
Though, I am starting to feel kind of ancient. Especially when I realize things like one of my friend's Russian boyfriends was born in 1978.... the same year as Genny..... and people I hang out with now are anywhere between the ages of 17 and 32.... It makes me feel like I actually am starting to catch up with Genny, Chad, Sara and Mike, after spending 21 years chasing after their always older, always more glamorous lives. That's a weird feeling. It's odd when you start to realize how little age actually matters..... that's when you know you are getting old.....
But enough of that. I have to go take my СМИ exam now, and then I will be done with all my RSL classes for the semester. That's going to feel even better than last night.
So, in summary, thanks to everyone who made my 21st birthday really special, despite the anticlimactic nature of the event.
Faithful readers Abman & Vanessa, wish you two hadn't been in America for the occassion.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Two nights in a row at the Mariinsky.
Well, I am now officially done with 3/5 ths of my RSL crap, and to celebrate this I went to the theatre tonight.... and last night..... as a preemptive celebration.....
So, last night might have been the best one of my little "alone time" excursions I have taken so far in the past six months in this city. I found out that at the little Mariinsky theatre (the concert hall), they were showing the movie Battleship Potemkin, which we studied in my film class this semester, with the amazing, fabulous, flawless Mariinsky orchestra accompianing it live. So I was like hey, cool, it's how a silent movie was really supposed to be watched, and for 150 rubles (approximately $5) I was like yeah, why not, who cares that I have two exams the next morning, the movie is only 75 minutes long. And so I went by myself to this viewing, and I am so glad I did.
Okay, not only was that how a silent film was really supposed to be watched, but how a silent film NEEDS to be watched. Every silent film should be so lucky to have the Mariinsky orchestra playing its score live. I don't know, it just blew my mind. I'm always so impressed by ballet/opera orchestras in general because they have to work with five bajillion actors and dancers and singers and have to respond to their mistakes and all work together to make everything run smoothly.... but I think that accompianing a film must be even harder because the film can't adjust itself to your music.... you have to stay on top of your shit, and on top of their shit they are, that Mariinsky orchestra. It was so cool, there would be guys on the screens blowing horns and then, oh, hey look at the brass section tooting their own horns. And the sound was just overwhelming and made the movie so much more effective than listening to the crappy recorded score we heard from the video we watched in class.... I got chills at several key moments, felt quite patriotic and communist most of the time, and even was shaking my foot along to the music unaware of this tick until I noticed the woman on my right making fun of me to her friend.
Oh man, it was SO GOOD. Mom, I am so upset that this seems to be a one-time kind of thing, as part of a German film festival (makes no sense as Potemkin is a Russian film.... but according to future roommate Lauren Abman it was first aired in Germany before it was shown in Russia so they have a soft spot for it....... anyway, some German dude introduced the film with a translator and then the film was shown with German subtitles. it was kind of a trippy experience.... I kept thinking I was understanding the German guy when he was talking because it kind of sounded like mumbled English but didn't actually understand him and then got confused when the Russian translator woman would speak and I would actually understand her when it was a language that seems like I shouldn't understand it at all.... ANYWAY THIS IS A HUGE TANGENT AND BESIDE THE POINT), it was really an amazing experience and I wish they did that kind of thing more often. It was SO GOOD. I cannot emphasize this enough.
It was also cool to see something in the small Mariinsky, in the concert hall. I'd never been there before, and it's kind of ridiculous how it is the exact opposite of the old, real Mariinsky.... it is a brand new building, just finished over a year ago or something, the place still smells of plaster and new wood. Unlike the Mariinsky, it is quite modern in design, the inside wooden paneling and stuff for acoustics reminded me of Jewett at Wellesley or the concert hall at Longy.... only less 70s and not hideous. It is also a small, fairly intimate venue with amazing acoustics and really not a bad seat anywhere in the house.... though I got to sit in the second row with no one in front of me and a perfect view of the skinny string bean conductor and the cello section. Ahh, I miss the cello.
Speaking of missing the cello, the ballet I went to at the real Mariinsky tonight with Ilana, The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, had one of the most beautiful cello solos I have ever heard in my life. There is this long scene in the third? fourth? (I lost count) act where the kidnapped princess is getting ready for bed and her lady-in-waiting is helping her, and it is just one cello on its own for about ten minutes.... I almost started crying.... and then this solo builds as the crazy head wife of the sultan guy comes into the princess's room and then a piano joins in (MOM THERE WAS A PIANO IN THE ORCHESTRA TONIGHT!) and then the whole orchestra as the crazy wife tries to stab the princess -- which she ends up successfully doing as the beautiful yet dumb princess was like "oh let me hide with my face in my hands and my back perfectly exposed to knife wounds" -- and it was chilling. Swelling. Something. The composer isn't anyone even super famous, one Boris Asafiev, but it was so beautiful.
The ballet itself was also totally badass. There was this huge fight scene at the beginning with all this crazy choreographed sword fighting and dudes dying. At one point one guy jumped through two other guys -- all three holding swords -- and then spun around and started sparring with each other. It was so fucking cool. And then they all fell down and died all over the stage really dramatically and Ilana and I laughed and the bitchy woman next to us told us to be quiet and then at intermission asked, "Do you speak Russian? Are you aware you are at a play?" We were really tempted to answer, "What? No! We're at a play? Shit, how did we get here?!" but decided just to shrug off her off as just another grumpy old Russian woman with a touch of xenophobia.
Man. What a good decision going tonight. I don't know what I am going to do without Ilana next semester telling me which ballets to see. I never would have picked this one to go to -- "The Fountain of what? Give me Swan Lake or Romeo and Juliet or the Nutcracker..." -- but she told me it would be good and she was right. I told her she's going to have to keep reading the playbill for the Mariinsky while back in Chicago and tell me what to go see so she can live vicariously through me. Though, I have a secret. I think that actually you can see any ballet at the Mariinsky and it will be amazing. I really have not been disappointed by any of the ballets there yet (the opera of The Nose this summer was another story....). So I'm going to keep going, even after I lose my ballet-going buddy.
Anyway, that was all well and good. I have another exam tomorrow, and my last RSL one on Wednesday, and that will be beautiful when all that shit is out of the way. If I swing things right I will be done with everything by December 25th, and then I can go off on round #2 of Travels with Emma (for a week between Christmas and New Year's eve, this time the awesome Katy is joining us on our adventures) with everything over and done with. So. Yeah.
Also, in a side note, as it is past midnight in Russia, I guess I can now legally drink everywhere in the world except for those parts of India where the drinking age is 25 and all those Muslim countries were alcohol is just, you know, illegal. I'm so old. Just look at that. But not as old as Beethoven. If he were still alive celebrating his birthday he'd be 238 years old, while Jane Austen would only be 233, and the Boston Tea Party only happened 235 years ago. Look at that trivia.
Oh, and Katya and Stas just got home. Sorry guys, Katya beat everyone to it and was the first to wish me a happy birthday. Stas was second. They are on top of their stuff, those two.
So, last night might have been the best one of my little "alone time" excursions I have taken so far in the past six months in this city. I found out that at the little Mariinsky theatre (the concert hall), they were showing the movie Battleship Potemkin, which we studied in my film class this semester, with the amazing, fabulous, flawless Mariinsky orchestra accompianing it live. So I was like hey, cool, it's how a silent movie was really supposed to be watched, and for 150 rubles (approximately $5) I was like yeah, why not, who cares that I have two exams the next morning, the movie is only 75 minutes long. And so I went by myself to this viewing, and I am so glad I did.
Okay, not only was that how a silent film was really supposed to be watched, but how a silent film NEEDS to be watched. Every silent film should be so lucky to have the Mariinsky orchestra playing its score live. I don't know, it just blew my mind. I'm always so impressed by ballet/opera orchestras in general because they have to work with five bajillion actors and dancers and singers and have to respond to their mistakes and all work together to make everything run smoothly.... but I think that accompianing a film must be even harder because the film can't adjust itself to your music.... you have to stay on top of your shit, and on top of their shit they are, that Mariinsky orchestra. It was so cool, there would be guys on the screens blowing horns and then, oh, hey look at the brass section tooting their own horns. And the sound was just overwhelming and made the movie so much more effective than listening to the crappy recorded score we heard from the video we watched in class.... I got chills at several key moments, felt quite patriotic and communist most of the time, and even was shaking my foot along to the music unaware of this tick until I noticed the woman on my right making fun of me to her friend.
Oh man, it was SO GOOD. Mom, I am so upset that this seems to be a one-time kind of thing, as part of a German film festival (makes no sense as Potemkin is a Russian film.... but according to future roommate Lauren Abman it was first aired in Germany before it was shown in Russia so they have a soft spot for it....... anyway, some German dude introduced the film with a translator and then the film was shown with German subtitles. it was kind of a trippy experience.... I kept thinking I was understanding the German guy when he was talking because it kind of sounded like mumbled English but didn't actually understand him and then got confused when the Russian translator woman would speak and I would actually understand her when it was a language that seems like I shouldn't understand it at all.... ANYWAY THIS IS A HUGE TANGENT AND BESIDE THE POINT), it was really an amazing experience and I wish they did that kind of thing more often. It was SO GOOD. I cannot emphasize this enough.
It was also cool to see something in the small Mariinsky, in the concert hall. I'd never been there before, and it's kind of ridiculous how it is the exact opposite of the old, real Mariinsky.... it is a brand new building, just finished over a year ago or something, the place still smells of plaster and new wood. Unlike the Mariinsky, it is quite modern in design, the inside wooden paneling and stuff for acoustics reminded me of Jewett at Wellesley or the concert hall at Longy.... only less 70s and not hideous. It is also a small, fairly intimate venue with amazing acoustics and really not a bad seat anywhere in the house.... though I got to sit in the second row with no one in front of me and a perfect view of the skinny string bean conductor and the cello section. Ahh, I miss the cello.
Speaking of missing the cello, the ballet I went to at the real Mariinsky tonight with Ilana, The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, had one of the most beautiful cello solos I have ever heard in my life. There is this long scene in the third? fourth? (I lost count) act where the kidnapped princess is getting ready for bed and her lady-in-waiting is helping her, and it is just one cello on its own for about ten minutes.... I almost started crying.... and then this solo builds as the crazy head wife of the sultan guy comes into the princess's room and then a piano joins in (MOM THERE WAS A PIANO IN THE ORCHESTRA TONIGHT!) and then the whole orchestra as the crazy wife tries to stab the princess -- which she ends up successfully doing as the beautiful yet dumb princess was like "oh let me hide with my face in my hands and my back perfectly exposed to knife wounds" -- and it was chilling. Swelling. Something. The composer isn't anyone even super famous, one Boris Asafiev, but it was so beautiful.
The ballet itself was also totally badass. There was this huge fight scene at the beginning with all this crazy choreographed sword fighting and dudes dying. At one point one guy jumped through two other guys -- all three holding swords -- and then spun around and started sparring with each other. It was so fucking cool. And then they all fell down and died all over the stage really dramatically and Ilana and I laughed and the bitchy woman next to us told us to be quiet and then at intermission asked, "Do you speak Russian? Are you aware you are at a play?" We were really tempted to answer, "What? No! We're at a play? Shit, how did we get here?!" but decided just to shrug off her off as just another grumpy old Russian woman with a touch of xenophobia.
Man. What a good decision going tonight. I don't know what I am going to do without Ilana next semester telling me which ballets to see. I never would have picked this one to go to -- "The Fountain of what? Give me Swan Lake or Romeo and Juliet or the Nutcracker..." -- but she told me it would be good and she was right. I told her she's going to have to keep reading the playbill for the Mariinsky while back in Chicago and tell me what to go see so she can live vicariously through me. Though, I have a secret. I think that actually you can see any ballet at the Mariinsky and it will be amazing. I really have not been disappointed by any of the ballets there yet (the opera of The Nose this summer was another story....). So I'm going to keep going, even after I lose my ballet-going buddy.
Anyway, that was all well and good. I have another exam tomorrow, and my last RSL one on Wednesday, and that will be beautiful when all that shit is out of the way. If I swing things right I will be done with everything by December 25th, and then I can go off on round #2 of Travels with Emma (for a week between Christmas and New Year's eve, this time the awesome Katy is joining us on our adventures) with everything over and done with. So. Yeah.
Also, in a side note, as it is past midnight in Russia, I guess I can now legally drink everywhere in the world except for those parts of India where the drinking age is 25 and all those Muslim countries were alcohol is just, you know, illegal. I'm so old. Just look at that. But not as old as Beethoven. If he were still alive celebrating his birthday he'd be 238 years old, while Jane Austen would only be 233, and the Boston Tea Party only happened 235 years ago. Look at that trivia.
Oh, and Katya and Stas just got home. Sorry guys, Katya beat everyone to it and was the first to wish me a happy birthday. Stas was second. They are on top of their stuff, those two.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Today is six months.
This morning I took my 184th self portrait for the project which I started exactly six months ago today.
See all 184 of them here.
What a weird feeling.
I go home in twenty-eight days. What a weirder feeling.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Booo-oooorinnng.
That's what you get when I've been sick. Dull reading material.
I made it out of the house to class yesterday, but had strict orders to return home immediately after to rest. So I did. And slept for 12 hours. That was nice.
But I am done with my RSL classes now, which is a good feeling.
I'm going to not do much of anything this weekend and rest more as next week is going to be insane..... here's a brief summary of everything that is going down starting Sunday night 12/14 and running through Saturday afternoon 12/20:
1. four RSL exams.
2. one performance of the Mariinsky orchestra.
3. one performance of the Mariinsky ballet.
4. a presentation in Bakhtin.
5. the installation of my photo project.
6. the opening of my photo project/small show.
7. my final printmaking class.
8. the awards lunch/good bye dinner thing.
9. my final film class.
10. my final Bakhtin class.
11. and my 21st birthday.
So. Get ready. This is the lull before the storm.
I made it out of the house to class yesterday, but had strict orders to return home immediately after to rest. So I did. And slept for 12 hours. That was nice.
But I am done with my RSL classes now, which is a good feeling.
I'm going to not do much of anything this weekend and rest more as next week is going to be insane..... here's a brief summary of everything that is going down starting Sunday night 12/14 and running through Saturday afternoon 12/20:
1. four RSL exams.
2. one performance of the Mariinsky orchestra.
3. one performance of the Mariinsky ballet.
4. a presentation in Bakhtin.
5. the installation of my photo project.
6. the opening of my photo project/small show.
7. my final printmaking class.
8. the awards lunch/good bye dinner thing.
9. my final film class.
10. my final Bakhtin class.
11. and my 21st birthday.
So. Get ready. This is the lull before the storm.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Blarrgghghhlkladdkllllllllllllllllllllll.................
My throat feels slightly better, I'm curled up in bed though, drinking tea and watching the 1988 movie The Heart of a Dog. It's so good! And beautiful! And sepia! I love it. The guy's calming smooth monotone voice that narrates the thoughts of the dog when he's still a dog is exactly how I heard it when reading the story.... and the film even quotes some older films, and has clips from older films in them that I understand thanks to film class. Oh, just look at those connections. At one point some of the characters go to see Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks. Hey, hey!
Also, the dog who plays Sharik in the film looks exactly like the dog I photographed (twice) in Pskov....... and like every other stray dog in Russia...... see the comparison?
(the dog in Собачье сердце)
(the Pskov dog, fall 2008)
(the Pskov dog, summer 2008)
Ahh, this movie is so good. The novella by Bulgakov is so good. Bulgakov is so good. I love that man. I need to go back to Moscow just to make a pilgrimage to his grave and all the places in The Master and Margarita.
He's so attractive too, in that early-20th-century-Russian-writer kind of way:
Also, according to Wikipedia: "The Master and Margarita novel is said to have been read by Mick Jagger and influenced his writing of the song "Sympathy for the Devil". Just look at that!
And did you know there is a planet named after Bulgakov?
So, I am going to back to do curling up and doing nothing after this long pointless entry.
Also, the dog who plays Sharik in the film looks exactly like the dog I photographed (twice) in Pskov....... and like every other stray dog in Russia...... see the comparison?
(the dog in Собачье сердце)
(the Pskov dog, fall 2008)
(the Pskov dog, summer 2008)Ahh, this movie is so good. The novella by Bulgakov is so good. Bulgakov is so good. I love that man. I need to go back to Moscow just to make a pilgrimage to his grave and all the places in The Master and Margarita.
He's so attractive too, in that early-20th-century-Russian-writer kind of way:
Also, according to Wikipedia: "The Master and Margarita novel is said to have been read by Mick Jagger and influenced his writing of the song "Sympathy for the Devil". Just look at that!
And did you know there is a planet named after Bulgakov?
So, I am going to back to do curling up and doing nothing after this long pointless entry.
Bitch, bitch, moan, moan.
Finally, FINALLY, I get to whine for once.
After everyone and their mom has been bitching to me for weeks about all their difffficult lives, apparently I did a poor job at avoiding the throat infection and now I feel like hell.
HELL YOU HEAR!
Okay, well I'm done. But that felt pretty good.
After everyone and their mom has been bitching to me for weeks about all their difffficult lives, apparently I did a poor job at avoiding the throat infection and now I feel like hell.
HELL YOU HEAR!
Okay, well I'm done. But that felt pretty good.
As promised....
.... photos of Ilana from yesterday. There were 77 in total from the shoot, but these are my favorites:
These photos are now also up on my site, here (portfolio --> experiments --> studio work).
These photos are now also up on my site, here (portfolio --> experiments --> studio work).
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Hey hey heyyyy
A few photos up. Some Katy/Katie birthday party stuff. Some of me sitting around.
Nothing that exciting compared to the photos I took today though!
So, I don't think I have mentioned this yet, but I got this gig a few weeks ago through a Cool! English connection tutoring a Russian man in English. He's a friend of the editor of the magazine, and the reason I got the job is because we have a common interest in photography. See, this man, who shall remain nameless in this entry, is a fairly well-known photographer of fashion and..... Playboy and Maxim. Both the Russian versions and the American versions. Another English-speaking individual, who shall also remain nameless, was extremely jealous to hear of this job, saying he only gets neurotic business people while I get to tutor a "god among men." Ha. But this photographer guy is hilarious and a vegetarian and into yoga, and is clearly a pretty good photographer to be hired by such big name magazines both here and abroad. So, he knows his stuff and, not only does he pay me just to chat with him in my mother tongue for two hours, but he also agreed to show me some photography stuff. Today he taught me about professional lighting techniques, and, as Ilana agreed to model, timing action shots of ballet jumps in the air and such. It was a great time, actually and, once I get the disc of photos back from Ilana, I'll put some up here from the shoot.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, even though he usually photographs women in bikinis on the beach, Ilana is fully clothed in all the photos. Sorry to disappoint any of you creeps out there.
Nothing that exciting compared to the photos I took today though!
So, I don't think I have mentioned this yet, but I got this gig a few weeks ago through a Cool! English connection tutoring a Russian man in English. He's a friend of the editor of the magazine, and the reason I got the job is because we have a common interest in photography. See, this man, who shall remain nameless in this entry, is a fairly well-known photographer of fashion and..... Playboy and Maxim. Both the Russian versions and the American versions. Another English-speaking individual, who shall also remain nameless, was extremely jealous to hear of this job, saying he only gets neurotic business people while I get to tutor a "god among men." Ha. But this photographer guy is hilarious and a vegetarian and into yoga, and is clearly a pretty good photographer to be hired by such big name magazines both here and abroad. So, he knows his stuff and, not only does he pay me just to chat with him in my mother tongue for two hours, but he also agreed to show me some photography stuff. Today he taught me about professional lighting techniques, and, as Ilana agreed to model, timing action shots of ballet jumps in the air and such. It was a great time, actually and, once I get the disc of photos back from Ilana, I'll put some up here from the shoot.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, even though he usually photographs women in bikinis on the beach, Ilana is fully clothed in all the photos. Sorry to disappoint any of you creeps out there.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Well, I tried to keep up the pattern.
But failed. Emma and I started watching 40 Year Old Virgin on Friday night, but fell asleep in the middle of it due to the fact it was 3-something-am and we were tired after the Katies birthday party in the dorm and lots of life talking in everyone's favorite Irish Café Bar with the badass waitress. Well, at least we tried.
Last night there was not even an effort to watch a movie. I went to a concert at Mod instead with Ilana, Emma, Zach and Vanessa which was a lot of fun.... you wouldn't really expect it but the Russian hipster crowd is really into reggae-sounding bands that seem like they are from the No Doubt "Tragic Kingdom" era. And dreadlocks. I don't think I'd seen so many white kids with dreadlocks until I came to Russia. It was fun though.
And tonight we had an excursion to go see a play, "Дневники нечестного человек" (translated as: "The Diary of a Scoundrel") by Alexandr Ostrovsky at a small little artsy theatre called Ostrov near the Petrogradskaya metro station. As a dialogue-heavy play, I was generally, vaguely confused the whole time and understood about, oh 70% of it, especially as it is one of those plays with a bunch of main characters all connected to each other in some random subtle way, the kind of storyline I often have trouble following in English, let alone Russian, but the actors were all so good and engaging that I still found I was interested the whole time even if I didn't always get what was going on. Also, the parts that I did understand were really funny, so it was an enjoyable experience in the end.
So, yeah. Fucked up the pattern. Oh well. It was worth it.
Other exciting things from the past few days:
As Jonathan Platt's class is technically called "Bakhtin for Practicing Artists," the final project in the class is to present a piece of our own art and analyze it from a Bakhtinian perspective. So I was planning on showing some of my photo projects, the self portrait project in particular, and talking about the author/hero relationship, yadda yadda yadda whatever. But Jonathan chatted with his wife Emily, who was wanting me to have a show in the Open Studio Gallery space already, and suggested I install a small photo show there to present my art to everyone before my presentation in class on Friday the 19th. Basically, I'm using this class as an excuse to finalize a piece of my work and have a show. And I'm really excited about it. SO for all of you who are in the area who read this..... meaning Vanessa and Abman, though I think Abman will be in America at this point, which is sucky..... I'm installing the show on Wednesday night the 17th, and on Thursday night the 18th, circa 7:30pm or so, we're going to have a little opening reception (I'm going to buy cheap wine and cheese) and Aaron, the master student in the Bakhtin class, is going to do his piece of performance art and then you can admire 184 photographs of me taped to a wall. It'll be great. I hope. We'll see.
Speaking of art, I had printmaking for a really long time on Saturday, due to our lack of it last week because Friday was Yuri's 50th birthday and so he hungover and/or still drunk on Saturday and canceled class. We finished our metal engraving prints though, and it might be my favorite technique. I love how finely you can draw in the laquer with a needle and then the acid just burns it all away in just the right small spots. I also enjoyed adding tone to the print using resin and more acid. It's a really cool process and I'm a big fan. I might do my final project using that technique next semester....
And I only have two more weeks of classes and exams, which feels pretty good. I'm really looking forward to this break as it will be the longest I have gone without being in class since..... last January.... I've basically been in school for a full calendar year, with only two brief breaks in June and then in August. It's time.
Last night there was not even an effort to watch a movie. I went to a concert at Mod instead with Ilana, Emma, Zach and Vanessa which was a lot of fun.... you wouldn't really expect it but the Russian hipster crowd is really into reggae-sounding bands that seem like they are from the No Doubt "Tragic Kingdom" era. And dreadlocks. I don't think I'd seen so many white kids with dreadlocks until I came to Russia. It was fun though.
And tonight we had an excursion to go see a play, "Дневники нечестного человек" (translated as: "The Diary of a Scoundrel") by Alexandr Ostrovsky at a small little artsy theatre called Ostrov near the Petrogradskaya metro station. As a dialogue-heavy play, I was generally, vaguely confused the whole time and understood about, oh 70% of it, especially as it is one of those plays with a bunch of main characters all connected to each other in some random subtle way, the kind of storyline I often have trouble following in English, let alone Russian, but the actors were all so good and engaging that I still found I was interested the whole time even if I didn't always get what was going on. Also, the parts that I did understand were really funny, so it was an enjoyable experience in the end.
So, yeah. Fucked up the pattern. Oh well. It was worth it.
Other exciting things from the past few days:
As Jonathan Platt's class is technically called "Bakhtin for Practicing Artists," the final project in the class is to present a piece of our own art and analyze it from a Bakhtinian perspective. So I was planning on showing some of my photo projects, the self portrait project in particular, and talking about the author/hero relationship, yadda yadda yadda whatever. But Jonathan chatted with his wife Emily, who was wanting me to have a show in the Open Studio Gallery space already, and suggested I install a small photo show there to present my art to everyone before my presentation in class on Friday the 19th. Basically, I'm using this class as an excuse to finalize a piece of my work and have a show. And I'm really excited about it. SO for all of you who are in the area who read this..... meaning Vanessa and Abman, though I think Abman will be in America at this point, which is sucky..... I'm installing the show on Wednesday night the 17th, and on Thursday night the 18th, circa 7:30pm or so, we're going to have a little opening reception (I'm going to buy cheap wine and cheese) and Aaron, the master student in the Bakhtin class, is going to do his piece of performance art and then you can admire 184 photographs of me taped to a wall. It'll be great. I hope. We'll see.
Speaking of art, I had printmaking for a really long time on Saturday, due to our lack of it last week because Friday was Yuri's 50th birthday and so he hungover and/or still drunk on Saturday and canceled class. We finished our metal engraving prints though, and it might be my favorite technique. I love how finely you can draw in the laquer with a needle and then the acid just burns it all away in just the right small spots. I also enjoyed adding tone to the print using resin and more acid. It's a really cool process and I'm a big fan. I might do my final project using that technique next semester....
And I only have two more weeks of classes and exams, which feels pretty good. I'm really looking forward to this break as it will be the longest I have gone without being in class since..... last January.... I've basically been in school for a full calendar year, with only two brief breaks in June and then in August. It's time.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
An interesting statistic:
I watched a different movie every night this week.
Okay, maybe this fact isn't so interesting to you, but it's interesting to me as it is probably the biggest highlight of this week since this week mostly just involved staying in and sitting on my bed and focusing on not getting strep throat like everyone and their mom (our СМИ teacher also has strep now! we didn't have class yesterday! we're killing off all the RSL professors!).....
SUNDAY: The 10th Victim (for the fabulous fashion)
MONDAY: House of Wax (for the "scary" 3d effects)
TUESDAY: Man of Marble (for film class)
WEDNESDAY: Rushmore (for the 813th time and for Bakhtin class, actually)
TONIGHT: Daisies (in film class itself)
So, I really liked Daisies. Not everyone agreed with me. It's an insane, avant-garde, Dadaist film without a plot that is too artsy for its own good, but it's also kind of funny. And really visually appealing. And it involved a long, really interesting conversation in class about what makes a film feminist or not.... just putting a woman in a typically male role (ex: Kill Bill) doesn't necessarily make it feminist... does a feminist film have to have a female director to have an accurate female perspective (ex: Themla & Louise).... when a woman becomes an agent but because men made her that way (ex: Monster) is she still really a woman....? Emma, Lauren and I came to the conclusion after class that a highly feminist film and, perhaps the best film of all time, would definitely be A League of Their Own. There's no crying in baseball. Hell yes. But it was an interesting conversation, made me feel like I was back at good ol' Wellesley College for Women who Will again.... someone even used the phrase "heteronormative" and I felt right at home. Mm.
Oh, and speaking of Wellesley College... SUCK ON THIS, JANNA.
So that's it for now. Maybe I'll try to keep up this movie watching pattern all weekend. I mean, I did take out The Heart of a Dog from the 416 Office lending library....
Okay, maybe this fact isn't so interesting to you, but it's interesting to me as it is probably the biggest highlight of this week since this week mostly just involved staying in and sitting on my bed and focusing on not getting strep throat like everyone and their mom (our СМИ teacher also has strep now! we didn't have class yesterday! we're killing off all the RSL professors!).....
SUNDAY: The 10th Victim (for the fabulous fashion)
MONDAY: House of Wax (for the "scary" 3d effects)
TUESDAY: Man of Marble (for film class)
WEDNESDAY: Rushmore (for the 813th time and for Bakhtin class, actually)
TONIGHT: Daisies (in film class itself)
So, I really liked Daisies. Not everyone agreed with me. It's an insane, avant-garde, Dadaist film without a plot that is too artsy for its own good, but it's also kind of funny. And really visually appealing. And it involved a long, really interesting conversation in class about what makes a film feminist or not.... just putting a woman in a typically male role (ex: Kill Bill) doesn't necessarily make it feminist... does a feminist film have to have a female director to have an accurate female perspective (ex: Themla & Louise).... when a woman becomes an agent but because men made her that way (ex: Monster) is she still really a woman....? Emma, Lauren and I came to the conclusion after class that a highly feminist film and, perhaps the best film of all time, would definitely be A League of Their Own. There's no crying in baseball. Hell yes. But it was an interesting conversation, made me feel like I was back at good ol' Wellesley College for Women who Will again.... someone even used the phrase "heteronormative" and I felt right at home. Mm.
Oh, and speaking of Wellesley College... SUCK ON THIS, JANNA.
So that's it for now. Maybe I'll try to keep up this movie watching pattern all weekend. I mean, I did take out The Heart of a Dog from the 416 Office lending library....
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Mmmm still in bed when I'd normally already be getting out of class....
And I updated photos!
We have pictures of snow and Thanksgiving, starting on page 5 of the digital fall in Russia gallery, plus about a week of new self-portraits.
Look at that shit.
We have pictures of snow and Thanksgiving, starting on page 5 of the digital fall in Russia gallery, plus about a week of new self-portraits.
Look at that shit.
You have to love Ludmilia Petrovna...
.... but you also have to love when she gets strep throat and you don't have class tomorrowwww!
Watch me get strep now as payback. My throat already itches vaguely out of guilt.
But yes! Sleeping in! Updating photos instead of grammar! Beautiful!
In other news, I watched House of Wax this evening. Talk about a ridiculous film. And it wasn't even the ridiculous remake with Paris Hilton. I can't even comprehend how ridiculous that film must be.
R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S.
And, yes, that is how you spell that word. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people spell it "rediculous."
ANYWAY now I'm just rambling because I can because I can sleep in tomorrow hurrahhhh.
Watch me get strep now as payback. My throat already itches vaguely out of guilt.
But yes! Sleeping in! Updating photos instead of grammar! Beautiful!
In other news, I watched House of Wax this evening. Talk about a ridiculous film. And it wasn't even the ridiculous remake with Paris Hilton. I can't even comprehend how ridiculous that film must be.
R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S.
And, yes, that is how you spell that word. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people spell it "rediculous."
ANYWAY now I'm just rambling because I can because I can sleep in tomorrow hurrahhhh.
Monday, December 1, 2008
The long-awaited entry about Thanksgiving.... in Russia....
And it's already December. Just look at that. I'll be home in a month and ten days. I mean, a lot is going to happen between now and then.... exams, my birthday, New Year's, everyone from the semester leaving, Christmas.... I was nervous about this time of year coming up because I do so damn much with my family usually about now that I might start getting depressed about things, but Thanksgiving was such a success that maybe it won't be too bad... we'll see...
It really was a success. After all the freak outs about where to cook things and no one had purchased the turkey and all the drama about "I'm not going, no I'll go, no maybe I won't, no I'll come," it was great. I had so much fun I think because I kept myself busy. I went earlier in the day on Thursday to Bryan's to help with Claire, Matt & Zach set up and prepare things. I peeled carrots and rutabaga and washed dishes mainly, and listened to Bryan and Matt rehearse their little "entertainment" for the dinner.
I then went off to film class -- oh, how weird it is having class on actual Thanksgiving day -- which our professor was nice enough to start 40 minutes earlier than usual so we could get to the dinner on time.... except we watched Брат 2 (Brother 2) for our class on sequels and blockbuster films, and that is one hell of a long movie. It's also pretty bad, especially in comparison the original Брат (Brother) which is amazing. We didn't even take our break during our class, in hopes we would get out even earlier -- everyone was so antsy to get out of there and to the party, especially as the smells were killing us.... Laura had a big container of mashed potatoes on the desk next to her books, on the table behind us Danielle had a basket full of stuffing, Lauren had a bag of salad and Amy had a huge box of apple pie she made that must have weighed five pounds. Class went on and on and on -- it actually almost went to the normal time our class ends, 20 minutes over when we were supposed to get out, and our professor finally noticed how antsy we all were and said, "Ok, run!" And off we went.
It was sort of a production getting all of us and all this food to Bryan's via the metro. But we got there, somehow, to find Emily and Bryan trying to fix an issue with the turnips, and Emma desperately trying to whip some cream that just did not want to become fluffy. Claire and Pinski and the Katies were there already too, putting together deviled eggs and setting up the table. Claire had arranged my place cards and napkins just as I would have all around the table, though the purple asters I bought for the centerpiece had to get moved to the sideboard because there was just not enough room on the table because we had that much food.
In past years people apparently promise a lot more than they actually end up bringing, but this year everyone stuck to what they said they'd bring. Twenty out of the twenty five students on the program showed up, along with our three Russian tutors, a couple of guests from the dorms or classes, and former program participants such as Abman, Vanessa and Will. And everyone brought stuff. It was insane. When you think about it, telling everyone to bring one dish big enough to feed thirty people means that everyone has to eat the equivilent of one whole dish.... it was a sort of motley collection of foods as everyone has their own ideas about what is traditional Thanksgiving food as every family does it differently (I did not bring any ravioli and sauce, alas), but it was also kind of nice in a way.... you know, more pilgrim-y.... everyone bring their own idea of it... okay, this is getting to sappy. Anyway, amongst some of the foods that were represented (and the people who made them): corn bread & real bread (Zach), mashed pumpkin (Bryan), butternut squash (Matt), salad (Lauren), mashed potatoes (Laura T), peas & carrots (Bryan), green beans (Eric), deviled eggs (Katy), applesauce (Katy & someone else I forget), the most amazing corn pudding in the world (Ilana), less delicious canned corn (Bryan), one turkey and two chickens (Laura H), cranberry sauce (Bryan), biscuits (Claire), turnips & rutabaga that went kind of badly (Bryan & Emily), stuffing (Danielle), vegetarian stuffing (Bryan).... and that was just the stuff that made it to my end of the hugely long table.
I could only find fairly small-ish plastic plates for us to eat off of, so it was one of those decieving meals where you feel as if you are not eating that much because you're eating only a small plateful.... but then Emma keeps throwing more corn pudding onto your dish and you keep going and going and going until everyone was vaguely ill. At this point Ilana and Danya started opening and pouring out the bottles of Sovietskoe Champagne that people brought, and Bryan and Matt put on their little show which consisted of their renditions of three songs on the guitar: the Muppet Babies themesong (not really sure how that one came about, started as a joke and became a reality, I even had a small role as the mysterious nanny whose face you never see), Vlad and Boris's Song for Sarah Palin (there was even a telescope made from the thing that the wrapping paper comes on), and, finally, with Zach's help, a version of "Victoria" by the Kinks, re-written in Russian about Smolny, RSL and our three tutors. Don't worry, this was all recorded by multiple cameras and will probably be on the internet in the near future.
That gave us enough time to digest for dessert... Emily hit it on the head when she described the mindset of everyone as "no one every makes pies, so I'll make a pie." We had no less than ten pies at this event. There was something like six apple pies, two pumpkin pies and two Jackon pies (this kind of pie that Ilana made that is basically a chocolate chip and nut cookie in pie form)... there was fruit salad too, though no whipped cream (Emma tried her hardest but to no success), and everyone ate so damn much that one girl (who will remain nameless) actually ate herself sick and almost vomitted on the metro and nearly had to miss class on Friday because of it. Ah, yes, that's the spirit of Thanksgiving....
After that the night wound down and some people went home earlier than others and some of us helped clean up a bit and Bryan's neighbors weren't even really upset about the noise..... well, not that upset.... I got home late feeling content, full, and happy. It was a good feeling. And the next day the festivities continued in a way with a group of us (Laura T, Liza, Eric, Ilana and I) went back to help Bryan clean up the disaster zone that was his apartment and kitchen and eat some of the leftovers. As my first Thanksgiving without my family, I would say it definitely was better than expected. Oh, and not to fear, I took something like 200+ pictures I have to sort through. Here's a preview though, so you can get an idea of the atmosphere:
And so that was my Thanksgiving. This weekend afterwards just involved recovering from it, pretty much. A lot of sleeping. A lot of movie-watching. General recovery. It was really nice though. Really nice. It could have been a disaster, but it was actually great. I can't wait to look through all my photos and relive the night.
It really was a success. After all the freak outs about where to cook things and no one had purchased the turkey and all the drama about "I'm not going, no I'll go, no maybe I won't, no I'll come," it was great. I had so much fun I think because I kept myself busy. I went earlier in the day on Thursday to Bryan's to help with Claire, Matt & Zach set up and prepare things. I peeled carrots and rutabaga and washed dishes mainly, and listened to Bryan and Matt rehearse their little "entertainment" for the dinner.
I then went off to film class -- oh, how weird it is having class on actual Thanksgiving day -- which our professor was nice enough to start 40 minutes earlier than usual so we could get to the dinner on time.... except we watched Брат 2 (Brother 2) for our class on sequels and blockbuster films, and that is one hell of a long movie. It's also pretty bad, especially in comparison the original Брат (Brother) which is amazing. We didn't even take our break during our class, in hopes we would get out even earlier -- everyone was so antsy to get out of there and to the party, especially as the smells were killing us.... Laura had a big container of mashed potatoes on the desk next to her books, on the table behind us Danielle had a basket full of stuffing, Lauren had a bag of salad and Amy had a huge box of apple pie she made that must have weighed five pounds. Class went on and on and on -- it actually almost went to the normal time our class ends, 20 minutes over when we were supposed to get out, and our professor finally noticed how antsy we all were and said, "Ok, run!" And off we went.
It was sort of a production getting all of us and all this food to Bryan's via the metro. But we got there, somehow, to find Emily and Bryan trying to fix an issue with the turnips, and Emma desperately trying to whip some cream that just did not want to become fluffy. Claire and Pinski and the Katies were there already too, putting together deviled eggs and setting up the table. Claire had arranged my place cards and napkins just as I would have all around the table, though the purple asters I bought for the centerpiece had to get moved to the sideboard because there was just not enough room on the table because we had that much food.
In past years people apparently promise a lot more than they actually end up bringing, but this year everyone stuck to what they said they'd bring. Twenty out of the twenty five students on the program showed up, along with our three Russian tutors, a couple of guests from the dorms or classes, and former program participants such as Abman, Vanessa and Will. And everyone brought stuff. It was insane. When you think about it, telling everyone to bring one dish big enough to feed thirty people means that everyone has to eat the equivilent of one whole dish.... it was a sort of motley collection of foods as everyone has their own ideas about what is traditional Thanksgiving food as every family does it differently (I did not bring any ravioli and sauce, alas), but it was also kind of nice in a way.... you know, more pilgrim-y.... everyone bring their own idea of it... okay, this is getting to sappy. Anyway, amongst some of the foods that were represented (and the people who made them): corn bread & real bread (Zach), mashed pumpkin (Bryan), butternut squash (Matt), salad (Lauren), mashed potatoes (Laura T), peas & carrots (Bryan), green beans (Eric), deviled eggs (Katy), applesauce (Katy & someone else I forget), the most amazing corn pudding in the world (Ilana), less delicious canned corn (Bryan), one turkey and two chickens (Laura H), cranberry sauce (Bryan), biscuits (Claire), turnips & rutabaga that went kind of badly (Bryan & Emily), stuffing (Danielle), vegetarian stuffing (Bryan).... and that was just the stuff that made it to my end of the hugely long table.
I could only find fairly small-ish plastic plates for us to eat off of, so it was one of those decieving meals where you feel as if you are not eating that much because you're eating only a small plateful.... but then Emma keeps throwing more corn pudding onto your dish and you keep going and going and going until everyone was vaguely ill. At this point Ilana and Danya started opening and pouring out the bottles of Sovietskoe Champagne that people brought, and Bryan and Matt put on their little show which consisted of their renditions of three songs on the guitar: the Muppet Babies themesong (not really sure how that one came about, started as a joke and became a reality, I even had a small role as the mysterious nanny whose face you never see), Vlad and Boris's Song for Sarah Palin (there was even a telescope made from the thing that the wrapping paper comes on), and, finally, with Zach's help, a version of "Victoria" by the Kinks, re-written in Russian about Smolny, RSL and our three tutors. Don't worry, this was all recorded by multiple cameras and will probably be on the internet in the near future.
That gave us enough time to digest for dessert... Emily hit it on the head when she described the mindset of everyone as "no one every makes pies, so I'll make a pie." We had no less than ten pies at this event. There was something like six apple pies, two pumpkin pies and two Jackon pies (this kind of pie that Ilana made that is basically a chocolate chip and nut cookie in pie form)... there was fruit salad too, though no whipped cream (Emma tried her hardest but to no success), and everyone ate so damn much that one girl (who will remain nameless) actually ate herself sick and almost vomitted on the metro and nearly had to miss class on Friday because of it. Ah, yes, that's the spirit of Thanksgiving....
After that the night wound down and some people went home earlier than others and some of us helped clean up a bit and Bryan's neighbors weren't even really upset about the noise..... well, not that upset.... I got home late feeling content, full, and happy. It was a good feeling. And the next day the festivities continued in a way with a group of us (Laura T, Liza, Eric, Ilana and I) went back to help Bryan clean up the disaster zone that was his apartment and kitchen and eat some of the leftovers. As my first Thanksgiving without my family, I would say it definitely was better than expected. Oh, and not to fear, I took something like 200+ pictures I have to sort through. Here's a preview though, so you can get an idea of the atmosphere:
And so that was my Thanksgiving. This weekend afterwards just involved recovering from it, pretty much. A lot of sleeping. A lot of movie-watching. General recovery. It was really nice though. Really nice. It could have been a disaster, but it was actually great. I can't wait to look through all my photos and relive the night.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
And in other, non-Thanksgiving news....
Wellesley women are slowly taking control of the government.
Things Russia Has Made Me Thankful For:
A THANKSGIVING REFLECTION:
53 things either I've learned to appreciate from their absence
or learned to love from their abundance....
Hopefully this won't sound too depressingly negative.
1. personal space.
2. when people are helpful in stores.
3. leafy greens.
4. salad without mayonnaise.
5. fresh snow daily.
6. thick walls and privacy.
7. good pizza (that is NOT from Sbarro).
8. my real, English-speaking family.
9. my long-time friends who know me better than I know myself.
10. being fluent in at least one language.
11. when I can ask questions in English.
12. yogurt and творог in the mornings.
13. the metro not at rush hour.
14. deicer and salt and plows.
15. when books are in English.
16. чай! чай! чай!
17. canals and parks.
18. Stolle cafés for eating and sitting.
19. food that is made without meat or excessive grease.
20. thick, woolly socks.
21. good mattresses.
22. water pressure.
23. water-proof footwear.
24. polar fleece and turtle fur.
25. having access to the internet.
26. wrought iron fences.
27. street lights, christmas lights, lights at night.
28. making the last metro train home.
29. when bridges don't go up.
30. weird themed Wellesley parties.
31. activities like WZLY and Counterpoint.
32. skype, webcams, and hospitals with high-speed internet.
33. black & white film and that Яркий Мир can develop it. and darkrooms.
34. photos of my new niece.
35. when there's toilet paper in the bathrooms.
36. free WiFi that actually works.
37. complimentary water and bread with meals.
38. clean air and clean streets.
39. cobblestones.
40. old, oddly-shaped Russian apartments.
41. moisture cream.
42. the act of flossing.
43. successfully finding something you need.
44. all knitted items and things made from felt.
45. when incoming SMS's are free.
46. any and all Soviet junk.
47. water heaters & water boilers.
48. the days Olga makes перог.
49. the art of printmaking.
50. subtitles over dubbing.
51. produktis where you can actually touch the produce.
52. the warmth of fur.
53. intimate black and white portraits of domestic animals from the 70s.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!
53 things either I've learned to appreciate from their absence
or learned to love from their abundance....
Hopefully this won't sound too depressingly negative.
1. personal space.
2. when people are helpful in stores.
3. leafy greens.
4. salad without mayonnaise.
5. fresh snow daily.
6. thick walls and privacy.
7. good pizza (that is NOT from Sbarro).
8. my real, English-speaking family.
9. my long-time friends who know me better than I know myself.
10. being fluent in at least one language.
11. when I can ask questions in English.
12. yogurt and творог in the mornings.
13. the metro not at rush hour.
14. deicer and salt and plows.
15. when books are in English.
16. чай! чай! чай!
17. canals and parks.
18. Stolle cafés for eating and sitting.
19. food that is made without meat or excessive grease.
20. thick, woolly socks.
21. good mattresses.
22. water pressure.
23. water-proof footwear.
24. polar fleece and turtle fur.
25. having access to the internet.
26. wrought iron fences.
27. street lights, christmas lights, lights at night.
28. making the last metro train home.
29. when bridges don't go up.
30. weird themed Wellesley parties.
31. activities like WZLY and Counterpoint.
32. skype, webcams, and hospitals with high-speed internet.
33. black & white film and that Яркий Мир can develop it. and darkrooms.
34. photos of my new niece.
35. when there's toilet paper in the bathrooms.
36. free WiFi that actually works.
37. complimentary water and bread with meals.
38. clean air and clean streets.
39. cobblestones.
40. old, oddly-shaped Russian apartments.
41. moisture cream.
42. the act of flossing.
43. successfully finding something you need.
44. all knitted items and things made from felt.
45. when incoming SMS's are free.
46. any and all Soviet junk.
47. water heaters & water boilers.
48. the days Olga makes перог.
49. the art of printmaking.
50. subtitles over dubbing.
51. produktis where you can actually touch the produce.
52. the warmth of fur.
53. intimate black and white portraits of domestic animals from the 70s.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!
Thanksgiving Eve....
It's snowing really beautifully outside right now. I took some pictures of it while walking home just now after helping to prepare pie crusts, vegetarian stuffing and cranberry sauce from scratch (THANK YOU VERY MUCH, I am not completely hopeless in the kitchen after all, so there). It's the big sticky flakes that are falling very slowly but clinging like hell to everything. They got all over my coat and eyelashes when I stopped to take pictures.
I didn't go to class today. Maybe I shouldn't be publicizing this in my blog, especially as apparently four out of eight of us didn't go to СМИ today and Elena Nikolaivna, who, by the way, had a heart attack this morning (THOUGH NOT BECAUSE OF US), called to raise hell about this later.... while in the hospital I presume?? But, I just really couldn't go. I needed a personal day. I never skip class. Usually. And it was just too beautiful. There was sun for the first time in a week, and sun and snow might be one of the most beautiful photographic combinations in the world. So I walked around instead. I walked around Юсуповский сад (the park where Emma, Grace & I sat that one day after we got so horribly lost), where, apparently, every Russian child under the age of five, bundled in a snowsuit so adorable I felt my teeth rot from the sweetness of it all, was sledding like mad. I even had a little Russian language conversation practice when an elderly man tried to get me to take pictures of his 86 year old wife (she did not look pleased when he told me her age) who was feeding pigeons from her hand. He talked to me for a while, I understood about 10% of what he said because men mumble like hell in this country, plus I think he was speaking nearly entirely in idioms, and he criticized my pronunciation of the soft "L" and told me I say "ny" and "ahh" too much when I speak and that next I should learn Chinese and then I can go into business.
I walked more. It got overcast. I drank coffee and warmed up. I did homework. I went home and napped. I attempted to be domestic and cook things. And tomorrow is Thanksgiving.
It really doesn't feel like Thanksgiving as a) we have no break from school, b) I am in Russia and no one else is celebrating, and c) I'm not with my family. It's just kind of surreal.... like we are celebrating Christmas in July kind of thing.... this isn't the actual holiday, we are just pretending. But then you see how everyone else's Facebook statuses are things like "... is helping Mom prepare pies!" or "... is so glad to be home for the week!" or "... is already sick of her family!" and then it seems more real. Just far removed.
Anyway, now it's almost 1am, so I guess it's technically Thanksgiving.
So. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone, all the way from Russia.
I didn't go to class today. Maybe I shouldn't be publicizing this in my blog, especially as apparently four out of eight of us didn't go to СМИ today and Elena Nikolaivna, who, by the way, had a heart attack this morning (THOUGH NOT BECAUSE OF US), called to raise hell about this later.... while in the hospital I presume?? But, I just really couldn't go. I needed a personal day. I never skip class. Usually. And it was just too beautiful. There was sun for the first time in a week, and sun and snow might be one of the most beautiful photographic combinations in the world. So I walked around instead. I walked around Юсуповский сад (the park where Emma, Grace & I sat that one day after we got so horribly lost), where, apparently, every Russian child under the age of five, bundled in a snowsuit so adorable I felt my teeth rot from the sweetness of it all, was sledding like mad. I even had a little Russian language conversation practice when an elderly man tried to get me to take pictures of his 86 year old wife (she did not look pleased when he told me her age) who was feeding pigeons from her hand. He talked to me for a while, I understood about 10% of what he said because men mumble like hell in this country, plus I think he was speaking nearly entirely in idioms, and he criticized my pronunciation of the soft "L" and told me I say "ny" and "ahh" too much when I speak and that next I should learn Chinese and then I can go into business.
I walked more. It got overcast. I drank coffee and warmed up. I did homework. I went home and napped. I attempted to be domestic and cook things. And tomorrow is Thanksgiving.
It really doesn't feel like Thanksgiving as a) we have no break from school, b) I am in Russia and no one else is celebrating, and c) I'm not with my family. It's just kind of surreal.... like we are celebrating Christmas in July kind of thing.... this isn't the actual holiday, we are just pretending. But then you see how everyone else's Facebook statuses are things like "... is helping Mom prepare pies!" or "... is so glad to be home for the week!" or "... is already sick of her family!" and then it seems more real. Just far removed.
Anyway, now it's almost 1am, so I guess it's technically Thanksgiving.
So. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone, all the way from Russia.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
How could I forget Tuesday's grammar quotes?
Some gems from грамматика that I forgot to mention yesterday:
Upon seeing me yawn, "Oh, I understand, Liza, I understand. Every morning I wake up and I ask myself: for what do we study?"
Upon being very adamant about making sure we get our grammar correct, "Today I'm a dictator! Like Mussolini! No, better Hitler. I never really liked Mussolini."
Upon asking me to finish the sentence "The monarch asked that...." and me, being tired, unable to think of anything, "Well, of course it's hard for you to think of what a monarch wants. You don't have a monarchy in your country. But we do!"
Upon seeing me yawn, "Oh, I understand, Liza, I understand. Every morning I wake up and I ask myself: for what do we study?"
Upon being very adamant about making sure we get our grammar correct, "Today I'm a dictator! Like Mussolini! No, better Hitler. I never really liked Mussolini."
Upon asking me to finish the sentence "The monarch asked that...." and me, being tired, unable to think of anything, "Well, of course it's hard for you to think of what a monarch wants. You don't have a monarchy in your country. But we do!"
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Fake eyelashes.
When walking back to my house tonight from the metro, I noticed that someone had drawn in the snow of all the windshields that had not been dusted off -- two Us next to each other with lines poking out of them -- as if all these snowy cars were sleeping with their eyes closed and luxurious long lashes demurely down.
Unfortunately, though, my hands were full of a cardboard portfolio from the art store for my printmaking prints and my camera was at the bottom of my bag and I was cold and tired, so, no photos were taken. Use your imagination brush instead.
Unfortunately, though, my hands were full of a cardboard portfolio from the art store for my printmaking prints and my camera was at the bottom of my bag and I was cold and tired, so, no photos were taken. Use your imagination brush instead.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Things apparently happening in this large country where I reside:
Once again, courtesy of Mike "always in the know about weird shit" Broderick. I have highlighted my favorite tidbits in red:
THE GIRL WITH X-RAY EYES
This could very well be a scam, as the Russians are quite good at that kind of thing, but it's still an interesting article nonetheless. Thanks, Mike.
Also, the most exciting part of my day I think was in разговор (conversation class) when Emily told me that Hillary Clinton is going to be Obama's secretary of state. I'm quite pleased with this news, and kind of think it's funny that half of the past four secretaries of state would have been Wellesley graduates then (Madeline Albright = Wellesley class of 1959).... but once again, of course, men always get to be the president -- now, apparently, no matter what their race -- and women are still stuck working as secretaries. Ho, hum.
THE GIRL WITH X-RAY EYES
Natasha Demkina has an extraordinary gift that means she can quite literally see right through people. Her story sounds like it has come straight from the pages of a science fiction comic book, but doctors have yet to disprove her amazing abilities. Natasha is able to look into people’s bodies and correctly diagnose their medical problems, without any help from ultra-sound or x-ray equipment.
Natasha’s mother, Tatyana Vladimovna, says that her daughter appeared to be like any other child as she grew up, although she was mature for her age. Natasha learned to do things more quickly than other children; she was able to talk at just six months and by the time she was a year old she could recite Pushkin. At three she had learned the alphabet and mastered how to operate a snow mobile.
When she was ten Natasha went into hospital to have her appendix removed. There were complications and it was discovered that cotton swabs had been left in her abdomen. Natasha had a second operation to remove the swabs and one month later she began to remark on the fact she could see inside people. She told her mother she saw what looked like a vacuum cleaner hose, two beans and a tomato inside her. Tatyana believed that, although Natasha didn’t know the correct words, her daughter was describing her intestines, kidneys and heart.
At the children’s hospital in her hometown of Saransk, Western Russia, doctors ran a battery of tests to find out if the little girl really did have x-ray vision. In one case Natasha drew a picture of what she saw inside a doctor’s stomach, marking a dark spot exactly where he had an ulcer. She also disagreed with the diagnosis of a cancer patient, saying all she could see was a small cyst. Further tests on the woman proved that Natasha was correct.
Natasha was brought to England by a national newspaper and she successfully spotted all of the fractures and metal pins in a woman who had recently been in a car crash. The woman was fully clothed and had no visible signs of how or where she had been injured.
Natasha is an icon in Russia. She receives dozens of phone calls each day and people queue outside her parents tiny flat to wait for consultations. Natasha wants to go to medical school in Moscow, so she can continue helping people. But the only way her family could afford to send her to university was to charge 400 roubles (£8) for each consultation she gave. Natasha often has headaches after these sessions and finds it emotionally exhausting because of the illnesses she diagnoses.
This could very well be a scam, as the Russians are quite good at that kind of thing, but it's still an interesting article nonetheless. Thanks, Mike.
Also, the most exciting part of my day I think was in разговор (conversation class) when Emily told me that Hillary Clinton is going to be Obama's secretary of state. I'm quite pleased with this news, and kind of think it's funny that half of the past four secretaries of state would have been Wellesley graduates then (Madeline Albright = Wellesley class of 1959).... but once again, of course, men always get to be the president -- now, apparently, no matter what their race -- and women are still stuck working as secretaries. Ho, hum.
Now for more of a real update.
The snow got me a little overwhelmed there briefly. Anyhoo.
I got to see Joan this weekend! Not as much as I'd have liked, but we had a good time Friday night. We had dinner with Emma & Eric and Joan's friends from her program who were visiting with her. We ate not-atrocious Italian food and Emma accidentally ordered the world's largest bucket of beer. We also ate ice cream in the ice cream parlor not far from Church of Spilled Blood that Eric and I are convinced is a mafia front, but the ice cream is so good. Especially when you opt for it in a "waffle horn" over a cup. We hung out at The Other Side for a bit too -- the expat bar run by Doug, who I record with at Cool! English -- and ate things like hummus (!) with fresh vegetables (!!) and potato wedges (!!!) with bleu cheese dressing (!!!!). Doug was even there that night and we chatted and he offered me a beer on the house..... but not just any beer..... a Newcastle beer. Holy shit. It was like being at the Pub at Wellesley again. Insanity. In. San. Ity.
Printmaking this weekend was also really good. We didn't make any new prints but instead just worked on preparing our metal plates to make etching prints next week. I drew the kitchen in my apartment because Yuri told us the style is good for lots of crazy and chaotic little details with writing and nonsense even because you can make very fine marks. So he suggested we draw something detailed. Like a kitchen. For example. Just a suggestion. But anyway, we'll see how that turns out next week.... I'm already feeling like this might be my favorite technique we've done so far....
And then, you know, a shitload of SNOW. Yeah, check that shit out. Uh huh.
So this week promises to be good. I hope. While everyone at home gets a nice little vacation right about now, I'm plowing through with class all week, but we're still celebrating Thanksgiving. Bryan was nice enough to invite everyone from the program over to his house for dinner on Thursday night, as long as no one shows up empty-handed. As I can't really cook things that aren't Annie's instant mac & cheese in a mug (though I'm going to have to learn next semester.... did I mention there was a change and now I'm living in an apartment again? right. anyhoo.), I offered to bring the plasticware/napkins/boring shit, but I'm also following in my grandmother's footsteps and organizing centerpieces and, in Nunni's style, making little place cards with everyone's names. Don't worry, Nunni, I'll take lots of pictures for you to see how well you've taught me.
So that's it. Apparently I come home in seven weeks. That's according to Mom, so I assume it is fairly accurate. You know, to-the-minute kind of accurate.
I got to see Joan this weekend! Not as much as I'd have liked, but we had a good time Friday night. We had dinner with Emma & Eric and Joan's friends from her program who were visiting with her. We ate not-atrocious Italian food and Emma accidentally ordered the world's largest bucket of beer. We also ate ice cream in the ice cream parlor not far from Church of Spilled Blood that Eric and I are convinced is a mafia front, but the ice cream is so good. Especially when you opt for it in a "waffle horn" over a cup. We hung out at The Other Side for a bit too -- the expat bar run by Doug, who I record with at Cool! English -- and ate things like hummus (!) with fresh vegetables (!!) and potato wedges (!!!) with bleu cheese dressing (!!!!). Doug was even there that night and we chatted and he offered me a beer on the house..... but not just any beer..... a Newcastle beer. Holy shit. It was like being at the Pub at Wellesley again. Insanity. In. San. Ity.
Printmaking this weekend was also really good. We didn't make any new prints but instead just worked on preparing our metal plates to make etching prints next week. I drew the kitchen in my apartment because Yuri told us the style is good for lots of crazy and chaotic little details with writing and nonsense even because you can make very fine marks. So he suggested we draw something detailed. Like a kitchen. For example. Just a suggestion. But anyway, we'll see how that turns out next week.... I'm already feeling like this might be my favorite technique we've done so far....
And then, you know, a shitload of SNOW. Yeah, check that shit out. Uh huh.
So this week promises to be good. I hope. While everyone at home gets a nice little vacation right about now, I'm plowing through with class all week, but we're still celebrating Thanksgiving. Bryan was nice enough to invite everyone from the program over to his house for dinner on Thursday night, as long as no one shows up empty-handed. As I can't really cook things that aren't Annie's instant mac & cheese in a mug (though I'm going to have to learn next semester.... did I mention there was a change and now I'm living in an apartment again? right. anyhoo.), I offered to bring the plasticware/napkins/boring shit, but I'm also following in my grandmother's footsteps and organizing centerpieces and, in Nunni's style, making little place cards with everyone's names. Don't worry, Nunni, I'll take lots of pictures for you to see how well you've taught me.
So that's it. Apparently I come home in seven weeks. That's according to Mom, so I assume it is fairly accurate. You know, to-the-minute kind of accurate.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Blizarrd blizarrd blizarrd!!!!
Well, almost! There is a shit ton of snow outside. This is amazing. While talking to Olga this morning about it she said, "Everyone thinks you're in Russia so there must be a lot of snow. Now there actually is!" DAMN.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Thursday, typical.
Once again I made up errands for myself to do so I would have an excuse to spend four hours walking from my house to school. I also shot some film of the new snow, not completely disgusting-looking yet, but pretty close. A lot of it was just melty, but there was some accumulation.... my favorite example of it was the small, perfectly circular, flat little lump of snow that had built up on the top of the head of the statue of Dostoevsky near the Vladimirskaya metro station -- exactly the size and shape of a yarmulke, nonchalantly crowning the head of perhaps Russia's most Christian writer. Ha.
On my walk I also stopped briefly to have a small burning cup of tea and a perozhok and look at my favorite view of the Hermitage from Peter & Paul's fortress and there was, of course, as usual, a Russian wedding photo shoot going on. I thought that the wedding photo thing would die down with the shittier weather or that people would be less enthusiastic about it, but I think that the winter weddings actually have more fun. The one today had the bride wearing a huge fur coat over her dress and the photographer was making the whole wedding party run through piles of snowing screaming and silly stuff like that. Or maybe they just drink more to keep warm so they look like they are having more fun.
And tonight, in film class, we watched a Czech film called Closely Watched Trains. I really liked it and recommend it if you can find it. The beginning part reminded me of Amelie with the voice over against the stills of old photographs.
Tomorrow is Friday, which is nice, especially as Bakhtin is canceled this week, but Joan is visiting this weekend so things promise to still be busy/fun/crazy/nonsensical.
On my walk I also stopped briefly to have a small burning cup of tea and a perozhok and look at my favorite view of the Hermitage from Peter & Paul's fortress and there was, of course, as usual, a Russian wedding photo shoot going on. I thought that the wedding photo thing would die down with the shittier weather or that people would be less enthusiastic about it, but I think that the winter weddings actually have more fun. The one today had the bride wearing a huge fur coat over her dress and the photographer was making the whole wedding party run through piles of snowing screaming and silly stuff like that. Or maybe they just drink more to keep warm so they look like they are having more fun.
And tonight, in film class, we watched a Czech film called Closely Watched Trains. I really liked it and recommend it if you can find it. The beginning part reminded me of Amelie with the voice over against the stills of old photographs.
Tomorrow is Friday, which is nice, especially as Bakhtin is canceled this week, but Joan is visiting this weekend so things promise to still be busy/fun/crazy/nonsensical.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Грамматика today.
LP: "And so when forming the passive perfective gerundive you.... Liza, what is on your necklace? The keys to your house?"
EB: "No, some old keys I found at a market."
LP: "Oh, I see, because we have such strange keys here! And strange doors! Strange, old doors. I have a key that is long like huh and strange and impossible to get the door open, like this..."
And then we had show-and-tell of the different kinds of keys we all had for about ten minutes, followed by a ten-minute rant about how stupid it is that all the apartments in Petersburg have double doors because the middle class is so scared of intruders but, "what of value do we keep in our apartments anyway? Furniture? Who cares!"
Grammar class. Always a good time.
Debbie Downer Abman was right. The snow didn't stick in the least, but the puddles were frozen this morning and there was black ice around which Bryan sent all of us a frantic warning email about. There was even some frozen urine in my courtyard for a change. Ah, I love winter.
I also showed my art to the class today in my audit with Emily Newman which was not that frightening as.... only Emily was there for the first half. Apparently as most people in the class are auditing, very few people have been showing up recently. For example, this was the first time I'd been there in three weeks. Oops. And then the nicest, quietest Russian student showed up for the second half. And we got on a long tangent about students studying abroad and their intentions. Ha. But it was a good one-on-one crit session and she gave me some good ideas and advice about how to tie up my final projects and even suggested I have a photo show in the little Smolny gallery on the way to the library. I might show my self portrait project series on December 14th, the six month anniversary of the project. Speaking of which, small photo update (self portraits & indian food & prints of apples).
Damn. Six months. That's insane.
... and I am still pretty ужасно at speaking Russian.
EB: "No, some old keys I found at a market."
LP: "Oh, I see, because we have such strange keys here! And strange doors! Strange, old doors. I have a key that is long like huh and strange and impossible to get the door open, like this..."
And then we had show-and-tell of the different kinds of keys we all had for about ten minutes, followed by a ten-minute rant about how stupid it is that all the apartments in Petersburg have double doors because the middle class is so scared of intruders but, "what of value do we keep in our apartments anyway? Furniture? Who cares!"
Grammar class. Always a good time.
Debbie Downer Abman was right. The snow didn't stick in the least, but the puddles were frozen this morning and there was black ice around which Bryan sent all of us a frantic warning email about. There was even some frozen urine in my courtyard for a change. Ah, I love winter.
I also showed my art to the class today in my audit with Emily Newman which was not that frightening as.... only Emily was there for the first half. Apparently as most people in the class are auditing, very few people have been showing up recently. For example, this was the first time I'd been there in three weeks. Oops. And then the nicest, quietest Russian student showed up for the second half. And we got on a long tangent about students studying abroad and their intentions. Ha. But it was a good one-on-one crit session and she gave me some good ideas and advice about how to tie up my final projects and even suggested I have a photo show in the little Smolny gallery on the way to the library. I might show my self portrait project series on December 14th, the six month anniversary of the project. Speaking of which, small photo update (self portraits & indian food & prints of apples).
Damn. Six months. That's insane.
... and I am still pretty ужасно at speaking Russian.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
So, today is November 16th.
It's kind of odd to me that it is finally November here, and I'm actually planning things like when I'm going home and all that stuff that six months ago I was like "Oh, sometime in November I'll figure that out..." It's also November 16th, which means I am now in my last month of being 20 years old. That also kind of freaks me out. How old am I? And this month is going by so quickly. And there are only less than two months left now in this semester before I go home for a visit and I am half-way through my year in Russia. That one really blows my mind.
I wasn't planning on doing anything on Friday night, but I ended up sitting in a café for a good long while talking to Emma and Ilana and drinking locally brewed beer and finally fell asleep at Emma's house. The best part of our night though was the waitress who served us. There was one pretty drunk guy who was one of the four other people in the café and he kept wandering over to our table and asking Ilana to dance and telling us we were pretty and at one pointed he petted Emma on the head. He was totally harmless, even kind of cute, just really drunk and annoying. But at the moment of the head-petting our waitress appeared out of nowhere and was suddenly standing in front of Emma asking the young man to leave us alone. When he persisted she simply folded her arms and her generic celtic-weave design tattoo popped out on her upper arm from under her white t-shirt and she just glared. And he left. And we enjoyed the rest of our night untouched. We were so impressed with this waitress that we left her a 30% tip (which is big when in Russia a tip, if given at all, is 10% absolute max) and a note on a piece of paper torn out of my journal written by Ilana: "Dear waitress, thank you for the protection from the drunk young hooligan. We love you!" and we signed our names. So we'll be going back to that establishment.
I had printmaking yesterday. We did more engraving prints, made from boards we prepared last week.... Cathy and I etched drawings we did into plywood type board and then put glue on certain parts that we wanted to be bright white and let them dry for.... two weeks. But, yeah, we made prints from them. And they look really cool. The technique makes everything look murky and dark and mysterious so even two apples on a table looks interesting. I liked the technique a lot, just not the part when you have to rub all the ink off the plate with newspapers before you make a print. My arms were actually tired after that.
We also celebrated Maneka's birthday a little last night. A decision was made to go to one of the three Indian restaurants in St. Petersburg and we ate things that had actual spices (more than just salt) involved and were going to do something afterwards to celebrate further but then everyone got lame and wanted to go home. So we did. And I slept a lot.... the first time I slept without an alarm set for.... years? Who knows. Anyway, now it's Sunday. I'm going to go meet Emma for a little bit to do some coffee-drinking.
I wasn't planning on doing anything on Friday night, but I ended up sitting in a café for a good long while talking to Emma and Ilana and drinking locally brewed beer and finally fell asleep at Emma's house. The best part of our night though was the waitress who served us. There was one pretty drunk guy who was one of the four other people in the café and he kept wandering over to our table and asking Ilana to dance and telling us we were pretty and at one pointed he petted Emma on the head. He was totally harmless, even kind of cute, just really drunk and annoying. But at the moment of the head-petting our waitress appeared out of nowhere and was suddenly standing in front of Emma asking the young man to leave us alone. When he persisted she simply folded her arms and her generic celtic-weave design tattoo popped out on her upper arm from under her white t-shirt and she just glared. And he left. And we enjoyed the rest of our night untouched. We were so impressed with this waitress that we left her a 30% tip (which is big when in Russia a tip, if given at all, is 10% absolute max) and a note on a piece of paper torn out of my journal written by Ilana: "Dear waitress, thank you for the protection from the drunk young hooligan. We love you!" and we signed our names. So we'll be going back to that establishment.
I had printmaking yesterday. We did more engraving prints, made from boards we prepared last week.... Cathy and I etched drawings we did into plywood type board and then put glue on certain parts that we wanted to be bright white and let them dry for.... two weeks. But, yeah, we made prints from them. And they look really cool. The technique makes everything look murky and dark and mysterious so even two apples on a table looks interesting. I liked the technique a lot, just not the part when you have to rub all the ink off the plate with newspapers before you make a print. My arms were actually tired after that.
We also celebrated Maneka's birthday a little last night. A decision was made to go to one of the three Indian restaurants in St. Petersburg and we ate things that had actual spices (more than just salt) involved and were going to do something afterwards to celebrate further but then everyone got lame and wanted to go home. So we did. And I slept a lot.... the first time I slept without an alarm set for.... years? Who knows. Anyway, now it's Sunday. I'm going to go meet Emma for a little bit to do some coffee-drinking.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Lil' update.
Today was an errand day. Followed by getting on the wrong bus before class (okay, the ones and the sevens look exactly the same when you're running late), followed by being a little late for class, followed by getting out of class early because we had technical difficulties and couldn't watch Ashes and Diamonds as planned, followed by experiencing Russian Pizza Hut (pretty damn classy here, a real sit-down establishment). So, basically, a grand day.
Some photos for you. You can see the charred and sinking hydrofoil, the stuff that we thought was snow, the ladybug cake from Maneka's birthday, and some new self-portraits, if you've forgotten what I look like (I'm up to 153 self-portraits... I guess that's how many days are in approximately five months), though I prefer this picture Eric took of me eating ice cream outside in the cold before the opera on Sunday night.
Some photos for you. You can see the charred and sinking hydrofoil, the stuff that we thought was snow, the ladybug cake from Maneka's birthday, and some new self-portraits, if you've forgotten what I look like (I'm up to 153 self-portraits... I guess that's how many days are in approximately five months), though I prefer this picture Eric took of me eating ice cream outside in the cold before the opera on Sunday night.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Mike Broderick, you should be in my film class.
I was just looking at my syllabus for my film class and at the end he has a section with some further resources and stuff. Under the section "Useful Internet Resources" all my professor listed was:
www.imdb.com
This class is so good. Ahhhhhhh!
www.imdb.com
This class is so good. Ahhhhhhh!
Plus, I forgot:
At the opera the woman behind us took no less than fifteen minutes to unwrap one of her candies. Yulia, who works in the Smolny office, was sitting next to me and at one point turned all the way around in her chair and just stared at the woman. Meanwhile the woman's friend was trying to tell her to forget about the damn candy in a hushed voice that only made things worse. That definitely added to the general aesthetic of the experience.
Today was my friend Maneka's birthday, also Caroline Holland's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LADIES. What an exciting day. We ate a not very good cake that looked like a very good lady bug and hung out in the Smolny café.
In СМИ class today we talked about "Бизнес По-Русски" (Business - Russian style) which meant we covered all the vocabulary for bribes and unofficial pay. Surprise, surprise.
Today was my friend Maneka's birthday, also Caroline Holland's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LADIES. What an exciting day. We ate a not very good cake that looked like a very good lady bug and hung out in the Smolny café.
In СМИ class today we talked about "Бизнес По-Русски" (Business - Russian style) which meant we covered all the vocabulary for bribes and unofficial pay. Surprise, surprise.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Oh, and something important I learned today:
The finale of "The Golden Girls" garnered 27.2 million viewers (38 percent of all Americans watching television at the time).
Some things I've been up to...
... besides writing my mid-term paper for my film class.
I went to the opera on Sunday night as part of a group excursion. We saw the opera adaptation of Pushkin's story The Queen of Spades (по-русски: Пиковая Дама). I was super excited about this initially as "The Queen of Spades" was one of my favorite things that I read last fall in Hodge's literature class and the work that I wrote my long midterm paper on. I spent hours going over that story and reading it to death and I was like, hey, an opera adaptation should be pretty cool.
Mm.... not quite. Well. Hm. Let's say they weren't exactly faithful to the story. Mainly all of scene three involved a too-long ball scene which was just an excuse for them to have a lot of dancers and an extra long song. Not only that but the dancers had to dance with these half-circle ropes of flowers but it seemed like the director had just given them to practice with maybe last week because they kept dropping the ends of the ropes or hitting each other with them while dancing. Oh, and then they had a short dance involving men in black face (black ski masks with black gloves..... um....) that was just a tad uncomfortable. And then the main guy who played Hermann who is supposed to be this young, handsome russified German was played by a short, squat old guy who sang off key. Kind of ruined my image. It got to the point though where Maneka and I just found everything funny though, so it was enjoyable in that sense. I also really liked watching the woman sitting in front of us who couldn't even be bothered to watch the opera anymore; she used her opera glasses to observe people in the balconies above us.
As for yesterday, yesterday involved me and Emma being dumb together in various ways. The most memorable incident was when we saw what we thought was snow on the grass by the Neva and were really confused, wondering if it had snowed during the night and the rest melted but it was a large big chunk, the kind that hangs around melting for months after it's already spring. We were really excited and I photographed Emma pointing to it and then in a fit of excitement I stepped in it and.... it was soap. Oops. We also saw a hydrofoil that looked like it had caught on fire sinking in the Neva across from St. Isaac's.
I went to the opera on Sunday night as part of a group excursion. We saw the opera adaptation of Pushkin's story The Queen of Spades (по-русски: Пиковая Дама). I was super excited about this initially as "The Queen of Spades" was one of my favorite things that I read last fall in Hodge's literature class and the work that I wrote my long midterm paper on. I spent hours going over that story and reading it to death and I was like, hey, an opera adaptation should be pretty cool.
Mm.... not quite. Well. Hm. Let's say they weren't exactly faithful to the story. Mainly all of scene three involved a too-long ball scene which was just an excuse for them to have a lot of dancers and an extra long song. Not only that but the dancers had to dance with these half-circle ropes of flowers but it seemed like the director had just given them to practice with maybe last week because they kept dropping the ends of the ropes or hitting each other with them while dancing. Oh, and then they had a short dance involving men in black face (black ski masks with black gloves..... um....) that was just a tad uncomfortable. And then the main guy who played Hermann who is supposed to be this young, handsome russified German was played by a short, squat old guy who sang off key. Kind of ruined my image. It got to the point though where Maneka and I just found everything funny though, so it was enjoyable in that sense. I also really liked watching the woman sitting in front of us who couldn't even be bothered to watch the opera anymore; she used her opera glasses to observe people in the balconies above us.
As for yesterday, yesterday involved me and Emma being dumb together in various ways. The most memorable incident was when we saw what we thought was snow on the grass by the Neva and were really confused, wondering if it had snowed during the night and the rest melted but it was a large big chunk, the kind that hangs around melting for months after it's already spring. We were really excited and I photographed Emma pointing to it and then in a fit of excitement I stepped in it and.... it was soap. Oops. We also saw a hydrofoil that looked like it had caught on fire sinking in the Neva across from St. Isaac's.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Photo update #8471238182.
I'm all caught up on piiiiiiiiicccc-tuuuuuuuuuuuures.
Ha, HA.
Starting on page four of the fall digital photo gallery you can see the photos from Ami's time in Russia, our Halloween festivities and Moscowwwwww. There you go.
Also, for further reading....
This is the circus we went to on Monday night, where the actor -- Yuri Nikulin -- from the Russian film Diamond Arm, which we watched last semester in Russian 202 with Alla L'vovna -- became famous by working as a clown.
This is the monastery we visited, including the cemetery where Emma and I walked around, where actually Yuri Nikulin is apparently also buried, amongst other famous people.
Here's more about the Kremlin, St. Basil's Cathedral, Red Square in general, Lenin in general, his mausoleum in particular, and the Tretyakovskaya Gallery.
Ha, HA.
Starting on page four of the fall digital photo gallery you can see the photos from Ami's time in Russia, our Halloween festivities and Moscowwwwww. There you go.
Also, for further reading....
This is the circus we went to on Monday night, where the actor -- Yuri Nikulin -- from the Russian film Diamond Arm, which we watched last semester in Russian 202 with Alla L'vovna -- became famous by working as a clown.
This is the monastery we visited, including the cemetery where Emma and I walked around, where actually Yuri Nikulin is apparently also buried, amongst other famous people.
Here's more about the Kremlin, St. Basil's Cathedral, Red Square in general, Lenin in general, his mausoleum in particular, and the Tretyakovskaya Gallery.
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