An update -- FINALLY!
I have neglected my LJ for so long that I wonder if any one still bothers to read it… I hope so, because I have met such wonderful people through LJ, and I don’t want to lose that.
UPDATES
The following few paragraphs cover very little of the past month and a half. Nonetheless, they give an idea of what I’ve been up to…
My semester in St. Petersburg
I left Russia two weeks ago, and with that the most wonderful semester of my life came to an end. I already miss St. Petersburg very, very much - I started missing it before I even set foot on the airplane!
This topic deserves a separate LJ entry in which I can reminisce about all of the reasons I loved living and studying in St. Petersburg so much, and I’ll leave that for another day (I will write it, I promise!) For now, I’ll just say that St. Petersburg is probably the most beautiful city I’ve ever seen, and in terms of its artistic offerings, it is unparalleled in Russia or in Europe. The city’s ballet and opera companies - the Mariinsky’s ballet and opera companies in particular - are among the absolute best in the world, and I feel very, very lucky to have seen as many ballets and operas as I did (around 35 in all - the cheap tickets allowed me to go to the theater several times a week). Yes, I did get a bit bored with the almost unbroken stream of nineteenth-century classics (in ballet) - I’m more of a neoclassical type of girl - but I enjoyed almost every single one of the performances, and I saw some amazing, amazing productions (the Mariinsky’s Swan Lake comes to mind). Plus, there were enough twentieth century ballets to keep me happy - I saw some Balanchine and Forsythe works as well as works by contemporary Russian choreographers.
While I can list about a hundred reasons why I loved living in St. Petersburg, the theater will always be at the top of that list.
My summer in East Central Europe
I am currently in Szeged, Hungary, and I don’t plan to return to the US until sometime in mid-August. I won a rather generous summer research grant from my university based on my proposal to study the cultural and political identity of ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia and Romania, so I’m dedicating this month (June) to background research (I have quite a bit of reading to do) and planning my trip to those two countries. I will spend three weeks in Slovakia and three weeks in Romania in July and August, although I have yet to determine my itinerary. Any one have any ideas or suggestions?
This summer research project is a bit (and by bit I mean quite) intimidating - I’ve never done anything of the sort before. What I do is entirely up to me - I just have to produce some sort of comprehensive and impressive final product(s) at the end of the summer. I do have to follow the research proposal and ten week timeline I submitted back in March, but both of those are rather vague - my proposed itinerary names only the counties to which I plan to travel in Romania (and these counties are big, so I have a lot of cities, towns, and villages from which to choose). My one big fear is that I - as an undergraduate with no experience in doing sociological/anthropological fieldwork in any country, let alone in a country like Romania, which I know mainly from books and pictures - simply won’t be able to do it. But that’s not going to happen, right? I will succeed - I have to!
Gymnastics
Today is the last day of the European Championships in Debrecen, Hungary - and I have to be content with watching the competition on TV. I promised myself that I would go if I ended up in Hungary in June, but alas, that’s a promise I did not fulfill. Mostly it’s because a trip to the competition would require time and money - Hungary is a small country, but Debrecen is in the northeastern region, so getting there would require at least half a day on a bus or train. That wouldn’t be costly, money-wise, but rather costly time-wise because I have a lot of work to do on this ethnic Hungarians prohect (see above), and traveling to and from Debrecen - plus watching the competitions - would set me behind a few days.
I’ll console myself by telling myself that I’m also saving money - which I am, since if I wanted to watch the competitions, I would have had to buy tickets. I have no idea how much they cost, as the official website was rather unimpressive. It did not list ticket prices and it certainly did not allow you to order tickets online - those interested have/had to buy them in Budapest or in Debrecen. Had I been able to, I probably would have bought tickets online, and then I would have gone. But I certainly did not want to show up in Debrecen and face the prospect of a sold-out arena!
Anyway, it’s not like (a) the Americans are competing or (b) rhythmic gymnasts are competing (rhythmic Euro Championships are in Moscow later this month). Either of those would have induced me to go without hesitation! I am interested in European artistic gymnastics - I seriously considered going - but I’m not nearly as enthusiastic about it as I am about Paul Hamm and co. (the American men) or Anna Bessonova (my favorite rhythmic gymnast). So as it stands, I have yet to see a gymnastics meet beyond the high school level… Perhaps next summer!
UPDATES
The following few paragraphs cover very little of the past month and a half. Nonetheless, they give an idea of what I’ve been up to…
My semester in St. Petersburg
I left Russia two weeks ago, and with that the most wonderful semester of my life came to an end. I already miss St. Petersburg very, very much - I started missing it before I even set foot on the airplane!
This topic deserves a separate LJ entry in which I can reminisce about all of the reasons I loved living and studying in St. Petersburg so much, and I’ll leave that for another day (I will write it, I promise!) For now, I’ll just say that St. Petersburg is probably the most beautiful city I’ve ever seen, and in terms of its artistic offerings, it is unparalleled in Russia or in Europe. The city’s ballet and opera companies - the Mariinsky’s ballet and opera companies in particular - are among the absolute best in the world, and I feel very, very lucky to have seen as many ballets and operas as I did (around 35 in all - the cheap tickets allowed me to go to the theater several times a week). Yes, I did get a bit bored with the almost unbroken stream of nineteenth-century classics (in ballet) - I’m more of a neoclassical type of girl - but I enjoyed almost every single one of the performances, and I saw some amazing, amazing productions (the Mariinsky’s Swan Lake comes to mind). Plus, there were enough twentieth century ballets to keep me happy - I saw some Balanchine and Forsythe works as well as works by contemporary Russian choreographers.
While I can list about a hundred reasons why I loved living in St. Petersburg, the theater will always be at the top of that list.
My summer in East Central Europe
I am currently in Szeged, Hungary, and I don’t plan to return to the US until sometime in mid-August. I won a rather generous summer research grant from my university based on my proposal to study the cultural and political identity of ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia and Romania, so I’m dedicating this month (June) to background research (I have quite a bit of reading to do) and planning my trip to those two countries. I will spend three weeks in Slovakia and three weeks in Romania in July and August, although I have yet to determine my itinerary. Any one have any ideas or suggestions?
This summer research project is a bit (and by bit I mean quite) intimidating - I’ve never done anything of the sort before. What I do is entirely up to me - I just have to produce some sort of comprehensive and impressive final product(s) at the end of the summer. I do have to follow the research proposal and ten week timeline I submitted back in March, but both of those are rather vague - my proposed itinerary names only the counties to which I plan to travel in Romania (and these counties are big, so I have a lot of cities, towns, and villages from which to choose). My one big fear is that I - as an undergraduate with no experience in doing sociological/anthropological fieldwork in any country, let alone in a country like Romania, which I know mainly from books and pictures - simply won’t be able to do it. But that’s not going to happen, right? I will succeed - I have to!
Gymnastics
Today is the last day of the European Championships in Debrecen, Hungary - and I have to be content with watching the competition on TV. I promised myself that I would go if I ended up in Hungary in June, but alas, that’s a promise I did not fulfill. Mostly it’s because a trip to the competition would require time and money - Hungary is a small country, but Debrecen is in the northeastern region, so getting there would require at least half a day on a bus or train. That wouldn’t be costly, money-wise, but rather costly time-wise because I have a lot of work to do on this ethnic Hungarians prohect (see above), and traveling to and from Debrecen - plus watching the competitions - would set me behind a few days.
I’ll console myself by telling myself that I’m also saving money - which I am, since if I wanted to watch the competitions, I would have had to buy tickets. I have no idea how much they cost, as the official website was rather unimpressive. It did not list ticket prices and it certainly did not allow you to order tickets online - those interested have/had to buy them in Budapest or in Debrecen. Had I been able to, I probably would have bought tickets online, and then I would have gone. But I certainly did not want to show up in Debrecen and face the prospect of a sold-out arena!
Anyway, it’s not like (a) the Americans are competing or (b) rhythmic gymnasts are competing (rhythmic Euro Championships are in Moscow later this month). Either of those would have induced me to go without hesitation! I am interested in European artistic gymnastics - I seriously considered going - but I’m not nearly as enthusiastic about it as I am about Paul Hamm and co. (the American men) or Anna Bessonova (my favorite rhythmic gymnast). So as it stands, I have yet to see a gymnastics meet beyond the high school level… Perhaps next summer!