WHEEEEEEE

I HAVE HARRY POTTER!

Copies of the book are like contraband here- in order to get my copy, I sidle up to a lot of people and said I was looking for a copy. They in turn could only repeat rumors of people, locations, and waiting lists. Finally I got a tip that there was a free copy that no one knew about. After a little more sidling and whispering, I got my grubby little paws on it.

Of course, I had to force myself to write my essay and eat and things before I started reading it, but I chewed my way through 220 glorious pages last night. Mmmmm lovely.

ANYWAY you probably want to hear about Russia now.

After I posted yesterday, we had a joint lecture that was... controversial. I'm too tired of arguing about it to go into much detail, but suffice to say that it was being presented to the wrong audience- it was tips for English speakers in Russia, and was a bit too heavy on generalization and overcaution. The poor presenters had a tough crowd- they didn't quite deserve the reception they got.

Then we all went outside and argued about the presentation (and did some whispering and sidling about a certain Book) until we were all late for the movie.

Then we went in, and the guy who introduces the movies as usual got sidetracked and talked for an extra fifteen minutes, and then we had a lovely hour and a half of a Soviet heist movie.

After that, I turned my weary way home (alone, since everyone else was still arguing about the presentation).

As I was nearing my building, I heard someone calling "girl! girl!" behind me. I havу made a rule of not turning around when people call me thus, because it's usually someone of the drunk and stubbly sort, but this was a lady's voice and a bit distressed.

So I turned around, and a very nicely dressed and very distressed young woman came up to me and explained in a teary rush that either her cat was dead or her bag had been stolen (koshka umerla or meshok ukrali, not so easy to differentiate in those conditions), and in either case she didn't know what to do. I told her I didn't speak the best Russian, and could she please speak a little more slowly. Her bag had been stolen, it turned out, and she had no way to get home. I gave her fifty rubles for the metro ($2), and she offered to meet me to return the money later. I think she was worried that, as a foreigner, I might actually ACCEPT this offer, because an extra splash of relief washed over her when I gave the russian reply of nonononono. Then she turned and hustled to the metro station.

Let me mention at this point that there was a Militia (police) van in the middle of the road not fifty meters away. That's the rule around here- avoid the police, and if you need something- directions or anything- find a woman going somewhere carrying something. That's actually the advice they gave us when we came.

Then I got home to find that Lyuba was out, so I had the whole apartment to myself, and did my essay and ate dinner and buried myself in happy reading for a few hours.

I seem to have forgotten to recount the end of the Big Repair.

I mentioned awhile ago that we were going to have some repairs in my room, and that I had, after stage one, a pipe going halfway up my wall. Then three weeks went by, or however long, and then there was a pipe, not only going halfway up my wall, but another one coming out of the cieling to the floor, rather impeding my desk. Finally, another flood of workmen has come and gone, and there is a nice shiny new pipe going from floor to ceiling, with a brief stop at the radiator.

It's very hard to say "repair", because it's not really repair. The Russian word is "remont". Technically, it just means repair, but remont is not a process. Remont is a way of life. there's a whole pack of purely Russian connotations that go along when you say "remont" that just don't get through when you say "repair."

Comments

I have been to St. Isaacs- even climbed up and looked at the panorama. I've got some lovely pictures from there, whenever I manage to upload them. Lovely, but very different from the Church of the Spilled Blood.

I'll try and do people pictures soon, too... I was going to earlier, but my housemates have been a mite scarce.

Anв yes, Orthodox services are long, long and also have no sitting allowed. Even the Tzar had to stand, though he had the privilege of standing a step above everyone else on a little velvet platform.

Joshy washy! See email.