The Eyjafjallajokull Blog

No, that wasn’t me just typing in a bunch of random letters, if you haven’t memorized it by now that’s the name of the volcano in Iceland that stranded millions of people, including my parents (luckily they were stranded at home rather than somewhere en route) over the past week and a half. Europe’s air space is now open again, and flights are at close to 100%, but unfortunately its too little too late, and my parents back in the US and my mom here in Russia will have to wait to meet each other in person – which neither of them are happy about. But there’s no controlling mother nature, and I am grateful that it wasn’t my wedding or something of the sort that they had to miss. We made the most of the week as best we could, and though we’re definitely all disappointed, I know now I’ll definitely be back in Russia, because I think either my host mom or my biological mom would be really irritated if they don’t get to meet each other soon. And Ira is convinced that if we come as a family we’ll have to bring grandma too, so Grandma Jan looks like you’re coming to Russia with us soon ☺.

The week started off with a concert by a cello – ensemble, (well after I took a test in grammar) an evening of chamber music that turned out to be one of the most fun concerts I have attended in St. Petersburg. The young men (I believe there were 12 cellos) looked at each other and at the cellist in the middle who served as their director to make sure they stayed together, and the looks they gave each other were more often hysterical or hysterically serious than simple glances. They played a great mix of music, from classical pieces by Shostakovich to jazz and ragtime and even the theme from Jesus Christ Superstar. I think they played at least five encores. It was a great evening, and Jeremy and Ira, who were standing in for madre and padre, had a wonderful time too and were grateful for the surprise chance to spend another cultural evening in this incredible city.

Classes are still going well, I was unfortunately hit by some lovely springtime sinuses and allergies this week so I missed a couple but since I was planning on missing many more as the result of my parents being here its all worked out just fine. I was also glad I hadn’t bought tickets to Swan Lake yet – the traditional ballet we were going to see – as there were plenty of seats, which left Wednesday night open to attend a Russian rap concert that one of my Russian friends had been talking about. It was a fairly famous group – and turns out most white rappers look the same everywhere. It was a good concert, they played some rock music too, and it was maybe the loudest concert I have ever been at. Our ears were ringing for the rest of the night and for most of the next day too. That night, Irina, Eric, and I headed to the Mariinsky Theater for a performance of Giselle by a French ballet company. This was going to be our modern ballet night, and I enjoyed recognizing some of the techniques that I have seen many times in Mary’s choreography and at shows/on videos I’ve watched with her. Modern ballet isn’t for everyone – including small children, as I’m pretty sure that the guy at the end was completely naked though it was pretty dark and well camouflaged – but I’ve definitely gained an appreciation for it and the variations it brings to the stage beyond that of traditional ballet. It was great to be back in the Mariinsky, and I can’t wait until I get to show it off to my family whenever we all make it over here together.

Friday evening was occupied by the CIEE/CMOO (CMOO is the acronym for CIEE when its written in Russian, so that’s what my host mom, for example, knows the program as) Spring Ball 2010. Last year someone had the idea for a traditional ball – 18th/19th century – to be held at Smolny, our campus, which is from that period, complete with costumes, dance lessons, a swordfight, and other craziness. They’ve decided to turn it into an annual tradition, and it really turned out to be a lot of fun. Over the past few weeks we have gone to a woman’s apartment that functions as her costume studio and tried on and picked out traditional ball gowns and cavalier costumes. Her reaction to me walking through the door was ‘oh you’re too tall’, which I found rather funny since in reality I’m really not very tall…the result was that my dress wasn’t floor length but a little shorter, meaning I just had to wear my cute Irish ankle boots (yes Kate that we bought in the pouring rain just before explaining the American Constitution to that crazy guy in the park) since they look slightly period. Anyway, after classes on Friday we all crammed into a couple of the classrooms to curl hair, add layers of mascara, and get dressed in our gowns, hoop skirts and all. A couple of our professors were also attending, and we ran into our St. Petersburg State academic director in a white wig and a dress reminiscent of Catherine the Great in an upstairs hallway, which was quite entertaining. Andrey came as well, and had a great time enjoying the fact that he wasn’t in costumes and all his guy friends from the program looked rather like drunken pirates. He brought me beautiful flowers that magically matched my dress perfectly, there are plenty of pictures on facebook and I will post the link to the professional photos from the photographer on here when we get it. There was also a professional videographer running around all night so we’ll see what comes of that. We danced the waltz, polonaise, and polka, played some ball games, and listened to a few people sing and play instruments – and then watched some of the guys swordfight in the yard with real rapiers. There was a room full of finger sandwiches and small treats as well as champagne, water, and juice, and we had a great time waving our fans and giggling behind them and taking pictures of each others hair and laughing about sitting on each others hoop skirts. The last little bit we were allowed to dance to modern music, which was quite a sight, and everyone headed out smiling but rather exhausted about 10 pm. I only wish we could have taken pictures outside, unfortunately it was threatening to rain and we didn’t want to risk ruining the costumes in a deluge. The weather all week had been beautiful until Thursday when it turned gloomy and gray – though there are green buds on the trees in front of my building which gives me considerable hope that I will see spring before the end of May (it was 32 degrees here today).

So that is a quick recap of what some of the highlights would have been had my parents been able to make it through the ash cloud. Of course there would have been incredible amounts of sightseeing on top of all of that, I really only mentioned the evenings, but as you can see there are always plenty of things going on in this city outside of classes, meetings, and general sightseeing. The week passed quickly, even without goldfish and Cheez Its, and I know that the next month is going to fly. Next weekend we head to Pskov – a town southwest of St. Petersburg where Pushkin wrote some of the most beautiful and famous poetry in the Russian language – and then the following Monday I am going to Finland for the day with my host family! The weekend after that is ‘Victory Day’, celebrating the great Russian victory in WWII, and then the weekend after that is our last weekend as my flight home is Saturday, May 22nd. Not sure where the time goes. I’m finishing up another travel week blog, but wanted to post this one first. Thanks for reading, much love from this beautiful city!