Beer

Kerry, Sasha, and I had a pretty lazy day. Sasha and I got up before eight to see our teachers off. I can't believe how much crap they have to cart back to Petersburg. We spent the day watching the Russian mini-series Esenin, napping (Kerry), reading Russian Cosmo (Sasha), and chatting with Georgians online (me). In the afternoon, we drove over to the Otter Creek Brewery for the free tour and beer samples.

Me and Kerry sport some classy safety glasses:

Sasha with her very first beer ever and the otter:
Kerry with a small, small sausage, me with a small, small beer, and an otter:
After the brewery tour Kerry and I went to dinner at Fire and Ice, where we enjoyed the Salad Ballroom and the kitchy interior. One beer run later, we were back at the dorm, where I bit the bullet and finished packing. Amazingly, everything seems to fit in my suitcase better than it did the first time around. We'll be eating breakfast at an as-yet undetermined eatery, and then Kerry's driving us to the airport in Burlington. Completely by accident, Sasha and I are on the same flight to DC, so we don't have to say bye quite as early.

I've had a fantastic summer in Middlebury, but I feel ready to move on to the next adventure. I'll update again once I'm lodged in the Embassy Suites for our three-day orientation next week.

Goodbyes and Hellos

I'm not a big fan of goodbyes. Even though I'm totally ready to be done with the Middlebury program, I'm not really ready to give up my new friends. Like Patrick, the Level 1 student I've been closest with, who has made enormous progress this summer (as in, when he arrived, he didn't know a word of Russian, but now we have real conversations!):

We had a lovely closing ceremony and final banquet, after which most people gave up the language pledge, even though officially we're still on it until lunchtime tomorrow. In many ways, it was such a relief to be able to fully express myself with people here that I didn't mind forgetting all about speaking Russian for a little while (although for much of the night I found myself switching back and forth somewhat indiscriminately). It's nice to finally hear about some of the really intelligent thoughts and ideas people here have that we've been unable to express until now.

Also, minor language frustration: We've spent the whole summer in conversation practice talking about abstract concepts, like the connection between Russian language and the Russian mindset. This is wonderful, interesting information, and a lot of good vocabulary. However, I still don't know how to properly tell someone I got a haircut today. Some of the most day-to-day language is still lacking in my knowledge of Russian. I worry about some of this stuff, because I'm at a level that's too advanced for these kinds of things to come up in class, but they're rare enough in day-to-day language that I'm unlikely to pick them up from conversation. Pooh.

I found out who my host family is today! I'll be living with Galina Anatolievna on the Petrograd Side, near the Sportivnaya metro station. Galina Anatolievna lives alone, but her daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter often visit. This will be an interesting contrast to my last host family, which was quite large. I'm hoping that Galina Anatolievna and I get along really well and have lots of opportunities for conversation.

Okay, it's almost 3 AM, I'm going to bed. =) Kerry arrives in about 12 hours. Hooray!

Done!

Despite barely sleeping for two days and trying to concentrate on essay writing, despite the constant distraction of the war in Georgia, I made it! I took my last exam this morning. Whoo! This evening is the closing ceremony and banquet. Tomorrow we can start speaking English after lunch!

Sunday our Russian Folk Choir performed, singing and dancing their way through all the steps of a traditional Russian wedding. It was a ton of fun. Pictures here.

War

War has broken out in South Ossetia, Georgia. I have a friend in Georgia. He's not near the fighting at the moment, although Georgia is smaller than Iowa, so it all seems pretty close to me. I'm really worried about him, about what's going on in Georgia in general. His internet or computer or something got disconnected while we were mid-conversation today, so I don't really know what's going on with him at the moment. I feel kind of woozy thinking about it. It's one thing to hear about a war in some far off land, it's another thing when you have friends there. And it's not like they're in a war halfway around the world, like us in Iraq. It's in their country. I hope everything ends quickly and with as little additional bloodshed as possible. 1500 are already dead. Jesus.

Spectacular, Spectacular!

Tuesday was the school play, "The List of Good Deeds." The play was written in the 1930s and is about an actress who gets what's coming to her for criticizing the Soviet government (think Stalinist purges). As an officially sanctioned play, it was, of course, originally written with a direct message: the Soviet Union is good, those who question it are bad. However, it has taken on quite a bit of new meaning since 1931, and our theatre group definitely played up the "actually, censorship and arresting people for thinking 'incorrectly' is bad" aspects of the play. Everyone did a fantastic job, I was really impressed with the level of acting. And I understood most of what was said. =) If you'd like to see more pictures, click here.

Oh, also, Boris Borisovich shaved his magnificent beard right on stage before the beginning of the show! See the picture above for his smooth cheeks, and the video below for a view of The Beard.

The rest of this week has flown by. I managed to scrape together a presentation for today on a wing and a prayer. Now I have two days to write two essays (1000 and 500 words). Eep. I'm already past burned out, but there's only a few more days to go, so I think I'll pull through. My last final is next Wednesday. Kerry is coming to visit on Thursday and Friday, and she'll be taking me to the airport Saturday morning. Then I'm off to DC!

Sunday evening is the Russian choir concert. I'll be sure to update with images from their sure to be stupendous performance.

Last but not least, a video clip from our awesome talent show a couple weeks ago. This is Nathan, a student in Level 1, and Boris Borisovich, the Level 1 teacher, doing a Russian version of "Who's on First" called "Who's in Level 1?" Hilarious.

Stuff I've been doing

Here's our soccer team getting a pep talk before the match with the French school. Despite the patriotically waving Russian flag, we got our butts kicked. It wasn't pretty. But we've got a good team anyway!


Saturday evening there was a concert of Russian folk music by Zolotoi Plios, the musicians who direct our choir. Before the concert, Foma (Tom) and I grabbed a beer at the Two Brothers. He will also be in St. Petersburg this fall, although on a different program, so it was good to get to know him a little bit better. He arrives a week after me, so I fully intend to show him around the city and help him get adjusted.

As we came out of the bar, we saw a rainbow! It was actually a full bow arching all the way across the town, but I could only photograph part of it from where I stood:



These are all pictures from the concert, which was awesome, as expected. Sasha, Elena, and Sergei are all so talented; they all play so many different instruments, and have fantastic voices. At the end, they played a dancing song, and many students got up to dance. Fun!




Tomorrow is the performance of our school play, for which my roommate Stephanie has been rehearsing for weeks. I'm really looking forward to it! In the meantime, I have tons of prep work to be doing for my finals, which start a week from today. Yikes. Hope all is well at home; I'll try to update again as soon as something interesting happens.

Testing, testing, 1 2 3 4 5 6

Ahh, the eternal irony of student life. You get to the end of the semester, you're tired as hell, you spend all your time chatting on the internet instead of doing homework, but justify it by saying, "Well, at least I'm chatting in Russian," and then... exams. Today we have exit exams that partner with the entrance exams we took to see if we've made any progress while we've been here. I have exams from 10-12 this morning and 1:30-5:30 this afternoon. It's gonna suck.

Then, I have a presentation to write for Friday. For finals, which are Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of my last week here, I have to write a 1000 word essay and prepare a 10 minute presentation on it, write another essay of thus-far unspecified length and prepare a 10 minute presentation on it, and study for the written exam which will be Wednesday. Ahhhhhhhhh!

If someone ever invents a way to preserve some of that energy and enthusiasm that you have at the beginning of the semester so you can use it at the end when you really need it, he or she will become a very rich person.