Wherefore Art Thou, Mr. Sandman

(Back-logged post from last week)

Well, I just finished a long, but fun week (yes, I said week, not weekend) filled with lots of adventures and very little sleep. Joe left for the International Petroleum Conference (snicker) in London this week, leaving me with free use of his apartment. I planned for a nice, quiet week with long baths and lots of tea drinking. Oh how wrong I was. I met Natasha on Sunday night to talk over dinner and drinks. We met with some of her friends and I made plans with one of them (Valentina) to get together during the week. Monday was classes as usual and Tuesday I spent lounging around Joe's apartment and translating menus (don't ask). That night, I headed over to the IRI headquarters and, after getting lost (it is directly across the street from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and somehow I still managed to get lost), hung out with Natasha and Nastia in the office. We ate cake (it was Nastia's boyfriend's birthday) and drank tea. Then, we then went out for drinks with Nastia's boyfriend, Gosha, and one of the leading reporters in Russia. Cool, no?

Wednesday, I met up with Valentina after classes. We tried to get into the Mayakovsky Museum (for a second time) but were unsuccessful (for a second time). Instead, we went to the Polytechnical Museum (she knows the owner) and looked at lots of stuff I didn't understand but thought was cool anyways. Valentina speaks some English (a lot better than I speak Russian, that's for sure) so we spent the day trying to communicate in a weird mixture of Russian and English. I still can't speak well (i.e. at all), but my listening comprehension is getting much better.
After the museum, we went to dinner and then...the theatre! Yea! Apparently, her mother has season tickets to this small, little theater by Lubyanka and she gave us her tickets for the night. We saw “A Profitable Place” by A. Ostrovski. It was, of course, completely in Russian, so I didn't understand a lot of it. But what I did understand was, wait for it, funny. People were laughing. Regularly. There was dancing (Russians have cool dances) and singing and psychedelic dresses... It was terrfying... But, fear not, for it got depressing about an hour into the play, which made me feel much better. I did not come to Russia to see happy plays. Death! Destruction! Poverty! That is the essence of Russian theater. Not happy people who dance and smile and sing.

After the play, we went and waited for Natasha to get out of a meeting with some American Congressmen who wouldn't stop telling stories about their grandchildren. We gave up around midnight and headed back to the university. We had some adventures on the way and she got stopped by policemen twice on her way back. Policemen are paid pitiful salaries here so they will regularly stop people to get bribes.
I had work early in the morning, so I was pretty tired, but a rousing breakfast of kasha was a great pick-me-upper. I love kasha... Anyways, after work I met up with Valentina and one of her friends for ice-skating. I fell down a lot and am still sore but it was fun. We had some weird malted wine with fruit in a cafe right in the middle of the rink (only in Russia...) and I found that I speak Russian much better after a drink. Grammar? What's that? Pfft! :-)

We left the rink to meet up with Natasha for tea at the Golden Apple Hotel. You see, Joe keeps talking about this tea he had one time there that was the best he ever had. So, since it was his birthday on Friday (Happy Birthday, Joe!) I decided I would fine the tea for him and get it for his birthday. We found it at the hotel but couldn't buy it, so we went shopping, but still couldn't find it. I am going to go out this weekend to see if I can't find it in one of the tea shops around the city. Wish me luck... Anyways, after tea shopping, we headed back to Valentina's flat where we hung out, ate dinner around 1am and watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in Russian. Oh yeah, and I got invited to go to St. Petersburg at midnight by a drunken Gosha. Apparently, I made the biggest mistake of my life by turning him down... Ah, drunken Russian men are funny.

I got home around 4am while Natasha headed off to pick up Joe from the airport and then headed to classes around 10ish. I almost made it through, but around 40 minutes before it was over I crashed. This might not be so bad except for the fact that I am the only student said class. So, I went home and slept. Then had dinner and slept some more...

Now it is Saturday. I had a good night's sleep and am now headed off to do the weekend exploring deal. I think we will go to the Alexei Tolstoy House, Church of the Ascension, and Gorky House-Museum today. Tomorrow, more sightseeing No plans yet, but I am thinking a day of “goolyats” sounds good. Basically, just waling around and hanging out with friends. I think we will try to hit a lot of stops on the red line and just look around. There was this tea house was wanting to check out, a couple of restaurants, and some smaller museums we missed. Sunday is also “Man's Day,” so I think all use girls are going to go do something stupid in celebration. Maybe buy lots of flowers and pass them out to strangers on the street. Hmmmm......

Monday starts Maslenitsa week so we'll plan to do something for that. I'll keep you all updated. Loves!