Heather Worley Living in St. Petersburg, Russia
Hi everyone!
Happy Mother's Day! Apparently today is Mother's Day in Russia, although
the only person who seems to be aware of it is my pastor, who wished a good
day to all the mothers and future mothers in the room (looking right at me and
Allison while she said this, for some reason).
Speaking of Allison, she pointed out to me that Tuesday was the end of my third
month in Russia. And Wednesday was hers. It's hard to believe we've
been here that long.
Allison and I went to the Hermitage today, because it was the last day of the
Escher exhibit, and she wanted to see it. So did the rest of St. Petersburg
apparently. I realized today that it was the fourth time I've seen this
particular exhibit - once with Ben, once alone, with Adrianne on Friday, and
today with Allison. And yet I'm still not tired of it.
I went to the Russian State Museum last Saturday with Anya. I don't know
if you've ever gone to an art museum with a 16-year-old girl, but it closely
resembles an aerobic workout. Nevertheless, I got to see many cool
things as I was run past them, and I would be able to tell you what they are
if I could only have stopped long enough to read the titles. Although
the Hermitage is the museum everyone knows, this museum is also seriously cool.
For one thing, it actually has a lot of Russian art. I didn't get to see
The Wave, which was my goal, but maybe next time. I did get to see Malevich's
Red Square, which is uncannily similar to his Black Square, except that it's
red, and not quite squarish. The upper right corner is definitely less
than ninety degrees. http://www.rusmuseum.ru/eng/
Thanksgiving was fabulous. Tatiana Osopovich, a professor at the Nevsky
Institute who also teaches at Lewis and Clark in Oregon, hosted a dinner for
a small group of us American students, complete with a turkey, which was very
hard to find, by the way. It was delish. Pictures will be posted
soon.
Afterward, Peter, Lennae and I headed off to a club to hear a certain band play.
Lennae met them a couple months ago, along with a small crowd of "groupies,"
and we regularly attend their gigs to offer moral support. When we don't
go, their audience is generally middle-aged, drunk "new Russians"
who can't dance, or unattractice girls who hang out in bars hoping to pick up
foreigners. We're much more cheerful. On the way there, as Lennae
and I are tripping down icy Moskovsky Prospekt, Peter points out that it's 11:30,
and the metro will close in 45 minutes, and we're not even at the bar yet, and
we still have to turn around and go back. Lennae said, "Peter, hurrying
won't get us there faster, it will only land us in the hospital."
And Peter, astute boy that he is, said, "I know, but I'm just being an
American man and making sure everyone knows what time it is."
Which is so true!!! Why do men do this? I think it's because they're
aware that we should be in a hurry, and since they don't actually know how to
scurry around and put things in order, they feel they are contributing to the
general rushed feeling of the atmosphere by upping everyone's panic setting.
Or they simply want to absolve themselves of all responsibility for any
possible future lateness. "Well, I told you we were running late!"
It's really funny the things you start to notice about your own culture...
Natalya commented to me once that Americans have a lot of self-confidence.
I'm not really sure she meant by this, because she said it to me in English.
If she'd said it in Russian, she might have used the word "samouverronost,"
which can translate as self-confidence, but which Rachik (teacher at OU) says
is probably more accurately described as arrogance. So I don't know if
she was simply translating the Russian concept for me, or meaning it in the
English sense. Either way, self-confidence is not something valued as
highly in this culture as it is in American culture. I consider self-confidence
to be a positive trait, because I'm an American, but I think in other cultures
it doesn't have a word because it's just normal - you're neither arrogant nor
you're mousy.
I had a funny experience while attending Natalya's English class. She
told one student to write on the board "Moscow is the most beautiful city
in Russia," while they were learning comparatives and superlatives.
All the kids started complaining, so he wrote, "St. Petersburg is the most
beautiful city in Russia," and then crossed it out and wrote "Leningrad
is the most beautiful city in Russia." This was funny on two levels.
One, the students refused to say Moscow is better even in a grammar exercise,
and two, because they called the city Leningrad, not SPB. I often
hear Russians refer to the city as Leningrad even now, sometimes by accident,
sometimes on purpose, but usually it's adults, who are still adjusting to the
"new" name. For a 16-year-old to say it is really funny.
The school is being extremely nice and scheduling all of our tests so that we'll
have Christmas off. And they're trying to get them all done with before
the 23rd, so people who are planning on being out of Russia by Christmas, such
as Allison, will have the opportunity to be in a country that actually celebrates
on December 25th. My Christmas break plans are currently as such: The
week after class I'm going to dork around St. Petersburg and do all the things
I've wanted to do up to now, but haven't been able to, such as see the peacock
clock at the Hermitage come to life at five on Wednesday afternoon, which is
normally during my French class. At some point, I will go to Moscow for
four or five days to see Red Square and anything else in Moscow that interests
me. Sometime after the 15th of January I'm going to go to Spain to see
Scott, and I'll hang out there until he gets tired of me, and then I'll come
back. Classes start February 9th.* That's as concrete as I can be
right now.
Anyway, that's the news for this week. I feel as if I'm leaving out simply
tons of stuff, and it will all occur to me at 3 a.m. as I'm letting the cat
out of my room. (That's when she chases her imaginary mice.) Till
next time -
Heather:)
* The Russian academic year is interesting. The students study until a
week before the New Year, have a week or two of for the New Year, come back
for study sessions and to take tests for about three weeks, and then have two
weeks off for winter break before spring classes start in February.
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Men'she znaesh', luchshe spish'. The less you know, the better you sleep.
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