Goodness, I hate writing journals when the day has already changed… It looks like I'm a day late, but feels like it's still the same day…
Here are the notes for 2-9-2010:
I was still über sleepy in History; but it was better than yesterday, at least.
Following that class, we had Video -- which it's confirmed, I *adore.* We finished, "Dvoe" ("Two" -- which I don't think I've talked about yet, and will put into a different post.) and started a new film called "Rysalka" ("Water-Nymph").
From what we've seen so far of "Rysalka," the movie is following the life of a little girl, Alisa, who lives with her mother and grandmother, but no father. Alisa's never met him, and runs out to the ocean to wait for him to come, every day. (He was a sailor.)
At one point, early on in the movie, another sailor comes to rent the little shack her family seems to own, and the mother starts hooking up with him. To Alisa, this looks like adultery, and this is confirmed when she bursts in on the two of them, mid-coitus. In her fury, she shouts at her mother, "I hope you die!!" and runs off to do the only sensible thing a six year old can do: she burns the house down!! While the two are still inside, I should add. (Don't worry, nobody dies; but it does a good job of driving the poor guy off.) Gotta love little girls setting things on fire -- can't go wrong!
I realize that it sounds like I'm being rather sarcastic here, but that scene is actually a lead-up to a very emotional scene between Alisa and her mum: as the mother, grandmother, and Alisa are all sitting looking at the wreckage of the spare house, Alisa says, "When Papa comes back, I'm going to tell him everything." Her mother then responds rather caustically, revealing that her father would never be coming back -- the implication being that he'd slept with Alisa's mum, and taken off. It's an interesting movie so far. We'll see where it goes.
Razvitie Rechi was fun, but slightly frustrating today. Things started out very lightly, as Tamara Evgen'evna greeted us and asked how we were. The other three people in my group answered something to the effect of, "Not bad," or "OK," and as per usual, I answered with a pretty cheerful, "Very good!" Tamara smiled and said, "They're all Russians, but you are American!" And then asked us, "Why?" The answer is, that in Russia, people typically *never* say that they're anything better than OK, because it's thought to invite bad luck. But I just can't say that I'm, "Not bad," or "OK" if I'm truly happy, or wonderful -- which is typically an everyday occurrence! Ahh, the running battle: fit in or be truthful?
Things took a turn for frustrating however, as we were working on conversational topics related to asking for directions. This in and of itself isn't terrible, but the problem comes in when you try to direct how the conversation goes. For instance, all of us students, as Americans, if someone asks us, "Do you know where X is?" immediately launch into giving directions, if we do know where it is. Unfortunately, this bypasses at least half of the information Tamara Evgen'evna wanted us to work on! So she would have to stop us and remind us that we were getting ahead of things, and to really take everything one step at a time.
Because that was how she wanted it, I wanted to write a model of the conversation, so I could study exactly what she was looking for, but there were two problems with this: 1. I write slowly enough as is, and 2. today somehow wound up as the day where I got to do most of the talking -- and you can't write quickly and speak, all in a new language, at the same time.
Tamara did see at one point that I was getting rather frustrated, and I tried to explain to her what I was doing -- like in Math, how there's always an "example problem" in the book, so that you know how to do the rest of the problems, and I needed to have that for the conversation. ("I need my model, dammit!!" = the thought process) She understood.
At the end of class, actually, after everyone else had left, and I was gathering up my things, I apologized for having held things up to write, and she smiled and looked at me and said, "You're serious, hmm?" (As in, a serious student.) I felt a rather large part of the frustration I'd been feeling lift off my shoulders, to know that she appreciated, and knew, how hard I wanted to work.
For a funny bit of fluff here in the journal: some of the group saw what happens when I eat cheese today…! Oh, it was so awful!! We were at lunch, and I'd bought some puff pastry thing that looked fantastic; and I'd assumed that it was some kind of sweet item. …. Au contraire!! It was filled with cheese!!! Gawd awful to eat. And, being puff pastry, etc -- it turns into something you can't spit out… =>_<= But, everyone else thought it was hilaaaarious! (And it was, I can admit.) Misha bought the rest of it off of me, and life went on….
While I was home in the afternoon, Polina and I had a lovely time chatting, as normal; and then I left later in the evening for my meeting with Pete, back at the John Donne, to discuss the Job he'd offered me. (The end of my last journal was written just before I left for this meeting.)
Unfortunately, as it turned out, when I talked with John (RD), he said it would basically be impossible for me to "intern" as a bartender, because no matter how you look at it, if I were to actually be bartending, it would be "working," and I could get in big trouble for that. So could "The John Donne;" and because it is an expat hang out, it is likely to be checked much more often.
When I mentioned this to Pete, he was rather disappointed, but understood. He also agreed that yes, his papers and the bar got checked fairly often by whatever group it is that is responsible for making sure everything is legitimate. That unfortunateness aside, John and I had a great time hanging out, and generally just getting to know each other. One of the more memorable quotes came from a tangent that wound up likening Pete to Godzilla: "I've been known to destroy small, Asian cities when I get upset."
The end result is, I will most likely be heading to the John Donne at least once every week to hang out, visit, and use the internet! It's possible I may wind up there a little more, or a little less, depending on my schedule, and Pete's work schedule. (It'd get expensive to go there all the time, and buy a little something, to not feel bad about using the internet/taking up space. It's easier to go if Pete, as the manager, is around.)
I came home slightly later than I'd meant to -- given that Pete and I got to chatting -- and everyone was basically headed to bed by that time. I thought, "Okay, I will catch a quick shower, and then get off to bed." Here, I should mention that I was wearing my glasses today. So when one of Polina's little, yellow clips that marks her shelf in the shower fell off…. …. I couldn't see it…. Stepped on it… And, "Humpty Dumpty Had A Great Fall," best describes the result… I took the shower curtain down and EVERYTHING. =@///@= !!!!! How *embarrassing!*
It all made such a commotion, I was *sure* -- and deathly afraid -- that I'd have woken everyone up, and they'd have come running: but I never heard *anything* stir! Good for me, I suppose. It's a testament to the Orientation of this program, where they warn us about the plumbing, and all the drama that can ensue from it (things being broken, etc.) that my first thought as I was falling was NOT, "Please, don't let me break anything or maim myself horribly [so that I cannot dance]," but instead was, "Oh, God, don't let any of the plumbing break!!!!!!!" Conditioning -- gotta love it.
And now, of course, I'm not doing homework again! Eek!
Love,
Moscow Kitty; 12:47 AM
=^__^=
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