Of books and poodles..

Another week is beginning in St. Petersburg, and while the rumored snow never quite materialized this weekend it is now consistently cold and wet on the streets of the imperial capital. And we are starting to notice the dark skies in the morning and earlier in the evening, a hint of what’s to come. Fortunately, most of our group haven’t been deterred by the weather and have continued our excursions – though now usually accompanied by a hat and gloves, even if they’re not wool or fur just yet. (aside: Angela Lansbury is on the TV just now, miraculously speaking Russian, in Murder She Wrote and its making me wish I had gotten to see her in Blithe Spirit this summer!) For those of you who don’t tweet, apparently traveling to a foreign country has little effect on your fundamental nature – referring of course to that part of my fundamental nature which requires that I lose at least one umbrella every two months. In true form, I left my umbrella in the university cafeteria on Friday as far as I can tell. So, I will soon be the owner of a Russian umbrella, hopefully for less than $10 though it would be much easier to find one costing more than $50 or $100.

Last week ended rather uneventfully, classes are still going very well and I survived my first tests in grammar and ethnic studies. Friday evening a few of us met at Jay's apartment to watch a movie and have a relaxing night, complete with microwave popcorn from Adam's care package! We walked around afterwards, buying snacks and drinks in one of the million 24-hour 'producti' stores. We eventually wandered our way towards my apartment building (where Adam also lives) so we opted to pack it in about 1:30. It was a nice evening with friends, popcorn, and an old Brad Pitt heist movie. Saturday I went to the Kunstkamer Museum, essentially a natural history museum with incredible collections of clothing, jewelry, and other artifacts from the American Plains to Yemen, India, and Japan. With the added feature of Peter I's collection of malformed, deformed, and otherwise strange animals, skeletons, fetuses, and infants. While perhaps scientifically interesting and relevant, it was an almost haunting room for me and I moved through it quickly. I didn't feel disgusted or excited, but somewhere uncomfortably in limbo. I was grateful that the antechamber to the next room contained photos largely of Machu Picchu and the villages of Peru, I have never been to Peru but the cobblestones, jungle waterfalls, and smiling faces under baseball hats reminded me of my little part of paradise that it was a breath of comfort and fresh air. I know many people visit that particular museum just for those collections but it was the carvings of tusks done by African tribes, exquisite hand-painted shells from Japan, and the ivory-ebony jewelry box from India that left the greatest impression. After a day at the museum, however, it was off to a night at the circus.

The Circus on the Fontanke is something of an institution in St. Petersburg. It is its own building and has been around for decades at the very least. My host mom has gone every time it has been performed since she has been in St. Petersburg. I met my host mom, grandmother, brother, and cousin on Nevsky Prospect (survived my first set of phone conversations in Russian!) and we walked the short distance to the circus arm in arm. Before the show started, the live orchestra played in the ring and seemingly every child in the building successfully persuaded their guardian to buy them a glow-in-the-dark-twirling-spinning-flashing toy or a giant balloon in the shape of a flower. I remember a similar experience (was it at the colluseum in Cleveland, oh parents?) and so when the young boy next to me lit up his giant sword and blinded me I just smiled and laughed with my host mom. The show was set to run 6-8:30, and by 6:05 the impatient crowd began to clap, which my host mom explained was meant to help get the show on the road! When the lights went out it was completely dark except for the toys, there really is nothing like that moment at the circus.

During the show itself I was torn between awe and guilt – the human performers were incredible but honestly the animal acts were more sad than anything. Yes the horses were glitzed to the max, and the dogs did actually appear to be enjoying themselves, but the chimps (and I suspected their was also a gorilla) were physically tethered and the horses were obviously hit a few times with the whip meant only to compel. So it was an interesting exercise in deciphering my own emotions. But the acrobatics were truly incredible – though maybe sad in their own way, since there are no such things as safety nets or life-wires in the circuses here. My host mom called it 'performing without insurance' which is an interesting way to put it. I'm just not sure trapeze jumping in a dark stadium lit only by blacklights is a good idea without some sort of safety net. But, I'll never be a circus performer. In all honesty, I had thought the 2 ½ hours would seem like an age but when they brought everyone back out for a curtain call, I was astonished that it was the final curtain call, it was already 8:40! Maybe worrying makes the time pass faster. Overall it was a great cultural experience and a lot of fun to spend the evening with my extended host family!

Sunday I went to Mass and caught up with a few of the ex-pats before heading to an internet café so Tom could use his laptop. A couple other people keep saying that they will come to Mass but not coming, so its nice to see Tom and get to know my friends in the choir a little bit better. It was a pretty cold and rainy day, so I headed home to get some work done and start reading for class. I must have fallen asleep for a little bit at some point, and woke up to eclairs with my host mom beating fresh cream at the kitchen table! They were delicious – of course! Mom called that evening (congratulations on the new car!!) so I had a nice break from the reading. This week is going to be quite busy. Wednesday evening we are going to the ballet Sleeping Beauty after interning at the Hermitage after choir practice, Thursday we may be going to a hockey game, Friday Vika has a choir concert so some of us are going to that, and Saturday we are hoping to all go out to Vika's dad's apartment for the night (long story short, he is Russian and has an apartment here but also spends time in Finland) where we will cook and watch movies and relax! Sunday we have an excursion in the afternoon to a palace in the city. And then it will be next week, and next weekend we will be in Estonia! Quite crazy, how time flies! In the meantime, it has of course continued to get colder though I still haven't seen many fur coats. Guess that just means there is more to come.

All my love to all of you back home, I miss you all and hope fall is treating you well. I'm devouring books on the trolleyrides to and from school so if you have any good suggestions that we could get on the kindle/my ipod post them here or email, tweet, facebook me about them! Reading on the bus helps pass the time – but this morning on the bus the image of reading curled up on my couch at home with hot chocolate and mom's apple pie made me want to smile and cry at the same time. So eat lots of apple pie for me and I'll be eating it with you before you know it! All my love from this beautiful city – bee