No, I'm not dead.

Yes, I'm sure you've all been concerned. I actually got a phone call from one Ms. Karen Bartels yesterday confirming my state of being due to the lack of any recent blog entries.

I must admit I am severely out of the habit, but also, I don't know.... this semester has such a different vibe from last semester that blogging is really off my radar. As I said in my last entry.... a week ago.... I really feel like I live here now, from being in this apartment. I do things like grocery shopping and go work in the office at Smolny on the book/DVD/CD collection and go to my classes and do my homework enough and have people over for tea and sit around in Meri's Middlesex sweatshirt....

.... Basically, my life in Massachusetts. Just. In St. Petersburg.

So that's why it's a little weird for me, or at least not my first instinct, to write long eloquent posts about what a thrill it was to clean off the stove top in the kitchen and then take out the trash and wash my socks in the bathtub and how I remembered our discount card at the grocery store so we got 10% off or whatever it is. The cooking thing is still a exciting, as I said last week, and since I last wrote about it, I have successfully made myself some kind of a stir fry consisting of:
1 green pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 tomato
1 red apple
3 pieces of frozen broccoli
chopped garlic
chopped ginger root
a handful of red grapes
sunflower oil
curry powder
kumin seeds
with white rice (2:1, water:rice ratio. look at me go.)

I've been doing pretty well on my own in the fending for myself department as Lauren has actually been in Ekaterinburg visiting a friend for about a week now. She was so worried I would starve, but I will still be alive and kickin' for when she gets back Thursday morning. I'm even going to attempt to make banana bread to welcome HER home but shhh that's a secret (hopefully she won't be faithfully reading my blog while in the Urals). I also did try to make macaroni and cheese with an actual cheese sauce, but as it is Russian cheese, it really doesn't want to melt, so even heated with milk, it still congealed and got lumpy, but at least it tasted a little less plasticky than when it's just straight up melted on top in a blob. I don't know, Mom, I just might have to ask you to send me some of those little packets of dried Annie's or Kraft cheese powder that comes in boxes of mac & cheese..... except there is always the concern with mailing small packets of white powder that you would then get put on the FBI's watch list as someone potentially sending anthrax....

Well, I have actually been doing some stuff besides domestic nonsense. And working. Classes haven't really started up yet in any form, and this week two of mine were canceled, so I don't really have much "homework" exactly yet. So I've been spending most of my time going back through that damn library in the 416 office, adding in new books, reworking the system, fixing all the errors in the DVD collection that a certain Mr. Philipp S. Penka made while "working" this summer as the intern.....

But! Don't worry. I haven't forgotten where I am. At least not completely yet.

Let's see.

Um.

Well, I went to another art show this weekend, on Sunday with Carrie and Cathy. The show is called "Recycling" -- basically the only time I have or will see that word in Russia -- and is at the Youth Education Center part of the Hermitage. All of the pieces in the show is the work of artists made from old, reused materials. The reason why we wanted to go, besides being environmental freaks and all, is our print making professor, Yuri, had work featured in the show. He makes these beautiful paintings of nudes from white paint and glue on these huge rusty sheet metal pieces that used to be parts of roofs. It was kind of surreal and hilarious to see his work up in a gallery setting. Cathy and I had both seen all of the pieces before, last semester, lying around Yuri's studio, him chucking them to the side to get at something else, slamming them on the floor, smashing them around generally, and then to see them up on a pristine white wall with attractive lighting and a sign that said "don't touch" was kind of ridiculous.

What else..... we had our bowling excursion on Friday. Ah, Bowling City, just as snazzy and black light and full of new Russians as last semester. I also finally went out this weekend. Once. On Sunday night everyone was at Fidel and I finally hung out with some of the new kids in a non-school setting. Everyone was out on Sunday due to the fact that Monday was a holiday -- "Defenders of the Fatherland Day" -- which also is basically "Men's Day" in Russia. It's sort of like Veteran's Day and Father's Day combined, but drunker and rowdier. There was a parade of some sorts, but I slept through it, only hearing a couple of police sirens and such through my window, floating in from Nevsky.

Yeah, the long weekend was nice, but not really a big deal for me. I don't think I ever mentioned that I am completely in love with not just my classes but my schedule itself this semester. Yes, I have class on Saturdays and Friday nights but I never have class on Mondays or Tuesdays.... and only one RSL on Wednesdays...... so every weekend is a three day weekend?! Four day weekend considering how frequently printmaking gets canceled?! Yes, yes indeed. I planned much better this semester. MUCH better.

So. Yeah. That's it. I'm still alive. Even, here are some pictures of me and things I've been doing to prove it. Oh, and film photos are up from Europe.




P.S. what the hell happened to February?