Отличный день!

Seriously, such a great day. It feels like Friday. I am so relaxed. And you know why? Because I took time for myself for once. Hell yeah.

I didn't hit my 11pm goal last night but was asleep by midnight and got a solid eight hours, so for once I wasn't sleeping with my eyes open in class. It's amazing how much sleep helps. I was in such a better mood and felt like I was good at Russian -- well, not good but not atrocious, you know, I could understand what people were staying to me and could get across what I wanted to express and was really enthusiastic about writing down new words in my little notebook. My excitement about learning Russian came back. So that was a good start to things.

And then after school I ran out and ditched everyone and had time to be alone. I didn't even do anything exciting, I just wandered around Vasileostrovsky Island doing errands. But I was by myself for the first time in ages and so I just did what I wanted without having to consult anyone which was refreshing. I picked up some prints I had made at the photo store near the metro from digital images of the dacha to put in a thank you note for Ludmilia Evgenevna. I bought a pair of Russian high heels that don't look very Russian at all as they are very simple, black closed toe shoes, but now at least I'll feel dressier when I go out, and we all know that dressier = more Russian. I picked up my very first package at the post office on the 1st line. It was from Mom, of course, and it was so funny to see this Russian post office lady searching through these packages and then pull out a large white envelope with Mom's big, loopy, friendly handwriting in the middle of this small, hot, yellowing Russian post office. It felt so out of place, but was so welcoming. And then I just sat by myself in Stolle for an hour and a half, writing in my journal, drinking wild berry flavored tea, making my thank you card for Ludmilia Evgenevna and refreshing myself. And then I walked to the Sportivnaya metro stop on Petrograd because it is never crowded at rush hour and came home. Perfection.

Now it is rainy and gross and no one felt like going to the concert tonight because it's in this snazzy club and they'll be doing "фейс-контрол" (face control) so it'd be a bitch to get in and blah blah blah we're all lame. Plus, this weekend is going to be full of lots of no-sleeping. So, instead, I am resting now at home, doing some homework, maybe a quick nap, and then at 10pm Olga, Katya and I are going to go see "Across the Universe" at the Aurora movie theatre. Olga was horrified to hear I hadn't seen "Across the Universe" yet as it is one of her favorite movies, and I said it had gotten mixed reviews so I hadn't bothered. Now though the idea of seeing a movie in English with Russian subtitles (instead of dubbing, oh my god how much I hate dubbing already and it has only been a month), any English language movie, is so exciting.... kind of a vacation for my brain. So that's what I'll be up to tonight.