Mar
9
Гуд-бай, Америка – о!
Где я не был никогда,
Прощай навсегда,
Возьми, банджо, сыграй мне на прощанье
Last night I spent the evening with some friends in a cafe/club next to my apartment listening to a Russian band play covers and a few songs of their own. My new roommate, Aleksey, and I sang the words we knew at the top of our lungs and beat the table like a cheap drum as girls danced in the middle of the room. Yesterday was their day. International Women’s Day apparently is a global holiday, although it is not celebrated in the States. It’s nice to know that women are appreciated here. Someone asked me if we don’t celebrate this holiday because Americans don’t love women. After I finished laughing I assured them that is not the case.
But, much has happened in between the holiday of Men when I last wrote and the holiday Women that was yesterday. To begin with, I have moved from the apartment in which I was first living. The price there was astronomical, so I took the advice of the Russian proverb that translates, “I don’t have 100 rubles, but I have 100 friends” (It rhymes in Russian) and I asked around until I found a new place. I now live in a Communal flat, with a strange assortment of neighbors, but overall I love the change of pace from the last residence. Half of my neighbors are musicians, and upon my arrival they promptly tried to get me to drink vodka and play American songs on the guitar. I obliged them the songs.
The next day I went with my new roommate Aleksey to IKEA. It’s identical to the ones everywhere else except for the alphabet they are using. I ended up buying a couch/bed which fits nicely in the corner, but gave me the best night’s sleep I’ve had since I arrived. A good purchase, I think. Anyways, after the IKEA day, I went to a friend’s party and again was asked to oblige them with American and Irish songs. There were several musicians, so we all ended up playing many songs, or bits we knew and sing together. It was a lot of fun.
Music and parties are certainly not the only thing I have been spending my time doing here though. Of course there is the academic aspect, and almost every day I am in Nevsky Institute studying, or perhaps better to say sitting in a class trying to understand what is going on. The classes are interesting, or at least what I understand them to be is interesting to me. The nicest part about being in the school though is that I have made quite a few new friends, and while they are far more often in class, as my schedule is lighter, I can usually find someone to converse with during the day. I can’t express enough how warm the hospitality is here. Over the past several days I’ve met people by chance who just were so happy to meet a foreigner who was interested in their culture and language. It’s nice too that they don’t all think I’m a spy. I’ve been in that situation before.
The downside of all the Russian speaking however, is that I can tell my English has taken a toll. For one class period a week I teach a conversational class to four students, who in my opinion are close to native speakers. I found myself struggling to correctly phrase whatever sentences we were working on at the time while they ran circles around me. My own mother commented that my word order is a bit off, although she seemed excited that this comes from me thinking in the language here. I think it also comes from the fact that emails in English are completed underlined with red squiggly lines, so I try not to doubt myself.
Overrall though, I’m still loving my time here in Piter. The company, the conversation, the food, the music, even the weather has become agreeable. (It’s been above freezing the past few days). I’m amazed at how quickly the time is flying by here, and a little sad to think this little adventure will come to an end soon.
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