(no subject)
So crazy thing, on tuesday we had a halloween party and at the bar we met this american guy that cooks there. apparently he goes to lewis and clark...and knows clark. and broke his shin freshman year of college. it's crazy how small the world is sometimes. i randomly ran into some of the moscow kids at a bookstore today. it's weird. i shouldn't see people i know here.
on the flip-side, jess saw a dead guy on the metro platform this morning.
the day after halloween was our hungover trip through kresti prison. it was pretty terrible...and that's only where they hold the accused. well some people are there for up to two years but it's just absolutely disgusting and creepy. i have american prisons to compare it to and i can tell you, if you want to get arrested, do it at home, because it's scarier here.
friday night i went bowling with reid, jess and candice and some russians and an american for reid's repetitor's birthday and it was pretty fun. random image of bowling in russian needs to be saved in my mind. there was a guy in the lane next to us wearing a trashy shirt that said "sex instructor: first time's free." he was the only guy not getting laid in that group that night. After that i went to afishka to meet people and some russian dude kept asking phoebe for gloves and was talking about the difference between american and russian cigarettes. the only REAL difference being the fact that russian cigarettes are without cancer. the difference between cigarettes and CLOVES, is huge. we just didn't know how to explain "clove" in russian.
saturday i finally went to the hermitage and saw some amazing stuff. i really liked the rembrandt and picasso as well as some random french stuff. i can't get into monet or gogan, sadly. there was also a beautiful painting by hippolyte debrauche or something like that of a christian martyr in the tiber, it's my favorite so far. apparently their matisse stuff is also very famous...but...any 13 year old could do it and i just really don't FEEL anything looking at it, and there's nothing to think about really. where as i starred at a rembrandt of the crucifixion (it took me forever to remember that word in english and now i don't think i can spell it anymore) for ten minutes trying to figure out where the light was coming from. and it was just gorgeous and sunny outside. i can deal with the cold as long as once the sun actually rises it isn't hiding behind clouds all the time.
i picked up an AMAZING volume of pushkin for pretty cheap at the bookstore today (where i ran into the moscow kids). i first saw it yesterday but went back today for it. and dinner yesterday was amazing, there were 8 people in the kitchen. i felt like it was thanksgiving dinner, my host parent's, my host mom's brother, her daughters, her daughter's daughters and me. the only difference is everything was in russian. their dacha actually burned down a couple days ago so they were talking about that, and the granddaughter wanted to build a swimming pool. we all just laughed at my host mom's reaction. ужас was all she could mutter for a while. it's also the first time i heard her say какой кашмар.
last night we went to phoebe's and watched hedwig and the night somehow ended with me, clark and phoebe sitting around her kitchen table with a book of pushkin and akhmatova and katzner's dictionary (critics say: definitive! a book that bridges nations) while smoking cloves and translating poetry. we're such nerds. it's just one of those IMAGES though.
oh life.
we have a long weekend so i don't have class tomorrow and everything is probably going to be closed. what the hell am i supposed to do with myself? homework? i hope not. but i do have a grammar test on tuesday. and a presentation coming up. crap.
on the flip-side, jess saw a dead guy on the metro platform this morning.
the day after halloween was our hungover trip through kresti prison. it was pretty terrible...and that's only where they hold the accused. well some people are there for up to two years but it's just absolutely disgusting and creepy. i have american prisons to compare it to and i can tell you, if you want to get arrested, do it at home, because it's scarier here.
friday night i went bowling with reid, jess and candice and some russians and an american for reid's repetitor's birthday and it was pretty fun. random image of bowling in russian needs to be saved in my mind. there was a guy in the lane next to us wearing a trashy shirt that said "sex instructor: first time's free." he was the only guy not getting laid in that group that night. After that i went to afishka to meet people and some russian dude kept asking phoebe for gloves and was talking about the difference between american and russian cigarettes. the only REAL difference being the fact that russian cigarettes are without cancer. the difference between cigarettes and CLOVES, is huge. we just didn't know how to explain "clove" in russian.
saturday i finally went to the hermitage and saw some amazing stuff. i really liked the rembrandt and picasso as well as some random french stuff. i can't get into monet or gogan, sadly. there was also a beautiful painting by hippolyte debrauche or something like that of a christian martyr in the tiber, it's my favorite so far. apparently their matisse stuff is also very famous...but...any 13 year old could do it and i just really don't FEEL anything looking at it, and there's nothing to think about really. where as i starred at a rembrandt of the crucifixion (it took me forever to remember that word in english and now i don't think i can spell it anymore) for ten minutes trying to figure out where the light was coming from. and it was just gorgeous and sunny outside. i can deal with the cold as long as once the sun actually rises it isn't hiding behind clouds all the time.
i picked up an AMAZING volume of pushkin for pretty cheap at the bookstore today (where i ran into the moscow kids). i first saw it yesterday but went back today for it. and dinner yesterday was amazing, there were 8 people in the kitchen. i felt like it was thanksgiving dinner, my host parent's, my host mom's brother, her daughters, her daughter's daughters and me. the only difference is everything was in russian. their dacha actually burned down a couple days ago so they were talking about that, and the granddaughter wanted to build a swimming pool. we all just laughed at my host mom's reaction. ужас was all she could mutter for a while. it's also the first time i heard her say какой кашмар.
last night we went to phoebe's and watched hedwig and the night somehow ended with me, clark and phoebe sitting around her kitchen table with a book of pushkin and akhmatova and katzner's dictionary (critics say: definitive! a book that bridges nations) while smoking cloves and translating poetry. we're such nerds. it's just one of those IMAGES though.
oh life.
we have a long weekend so i don't have class tomorrow and everything is probably going to be closed. what the hell am i supposed to do with myself? homework? i hope not. but i do have a grammar test on tuesday. and a presentation coming up. crap.