Whew, tired….
This morning in Geography, I got called on being sleepy; but I "fought" back! *laughs*
The teacher had told me not to sleep, and then asked a question; I responded fervently that I *wasn't* sleeping, and luckily for me, I'd been still "there" enough at least to understand what he was saying: "If we're at this Longitudinal line, what problem do we have?" -- But because the line he was pointing at at first, didn't mean anything to me, I had to say I don't know… Of course, it dawned on me about 5 seconds later that the only line which could possibly present a problem would be the International Date Line -- so when the next kid he asked said they didn't know, I gave him the correct answer. "All's Well That Ends Well," as the Shakespeare play said.
Galina Mikhailovna (our Phonetics teacher) was sick today, unfortunately, so our SMI professor came in and told us that we would be going to the Lecture from the guest speaker that day. To be truthful, I:
a. Didn't understand most anything that was said
b. probably nodded off/spaced out during most of it (In my defense, I was tired and cold, which are not conducive to staying conscious when it comes to me…)
and c. was only *really* trying to stay awake because there were people wandering around with cameras, etc., taking pictures of the guy, and the audience -- and the last thing I really wanted was for the university to wind up with a picture of an American student zonked out in the middle of some prestigious, guest-speaker's presentation. = o///o =
(2-20-2010 Note: To this day, I actually still don't know who the guy was. I really should ask. I think I heard that he used to be someone very high up in the University. Maybe a former President or something? I will have to ask.)
We still had half an hour left of what would have been our SMI class, by the time the Lecture got out, but we didn't know if we'd actually have class. To be safe, my group waited for him for a few minutes, but when he didn't show, we all went to lunch.
As it turns out, I saw him while on the way out of the cafeteria, and I said hello -- but he gave me a bit of the "cold shoulder," and said that he'd already looked my way at least 3 times before I'd noticed!! (He was just kidding around, no worries.) So, of course, I played along, and apologized in a rather dramatic fashion -- and when that didn't work, I just turned the tables on him! I told him how we'd waited for him to come back to class, and that my entire day was ruined ("I can't be happy now!), because we didn't have his class! He had *zero* comeback for that tactic, and even the other teacher he was with (female) gave him the look of, "She got you!" He basically rolled his eyes at me in a very, "Quit being so silly," sort of way, and we all went on our way with smiles.
The first Russian-American club was supposed to be that evening, at 5:30; but because it takes me 40-45 minutes one way to/from the University, I figured it wasn't worth it to try and go home (We got out at 3 PM.). So, I figured I'd stick around and do homework in the library.
That didn't happen, of course! One of the Academic Year (AY) kids saw me, and invited me to come to the café to chat and get to know each other for a bit. I don't like the café much (people can smoke there, and they do), but in the interest of being genial, I said ok. It wasn't a bad time. Eric (his name) surprised me at one point by telling me that I'd apparently been a topic of conversation for the AY kids shortly after the first weekly meeting for us students. From what he said, it appeared to have come up as some function of the following: "Who's the girl who always speaks Russian during the meeting?" It seems that they came to the conclusion that I have a "kind face" and a "warm character" that makes people feel good; and they like my smile. Awww.
The Russian-American club meeting was quite a bit of fun, and I got some really great notes -- but those will all go into a separate section.
The ride home on the Metro was both fun and disappointing. Fun, because all the cute boys came out on the Metro tonight!!! I was quite surprised -- because I hadn't really seen to many cute guys around, and then *wham!* All of a sudden, there they all were, in *my* Metro car!
The ladies may be wondering why I'd say this was disappointing then. It was disappointing because I couldn't flirt with any of them!! Another girl from the program had left when I did, and I didn't exactly want to leave her in the dust and start having a little bit of fun. She said they were all looking at me though… Ha ha ha. I did manage to speak to at least one of them though -- he was singing on the way off the train, and I just told him it was a pretty song on the way out. He smiled, I smiled -- happy feelings all around -- and I continued on my way home.
I had dinner with Pol'ya (Diminutive of Polina) again, and afterwards, I chatted with Olga about the differences between dinners here in Russia vs. in America. Here, people will hang out in the kitchen for hours, chatting, enjoying each others' company, etc. In the US, we're more apt to move to the living room or something; but it's really rather cozy there in the kitchen. (And of course, all of the food, drink, and sweets are right there!!!) I told Olga it was nice to eat together and stick around. I *adore* big long dinners like that. We had them in Paris, and in China, and now, here in Russia -- I wonder why in the US, we don't seem to do that. I'm starting to feel like we're the only ones that don't stick around the table!
Here's a first, while we're on the food discussion: tonight, and the night before, I actually *haven't* liked the sweets we've had! But hey, Baranki still rock!! (Baranki = the little, crunchy, bagel-looking things, in case you've forgotten.)
I chatted around online for a bit, got my email, and read the news. It'll be an early-ish night: I'll be in bed by midnight.
We have the excursion to City Planning tomorrow; then I'll be at the John Donne expat bar; I have the Competition on Sat./Sun. (I still don't know which -- and I'm still nervous!!); and it's Maslenitsa on Sunday!! It's going to be a busy, busy weekend!
Sleepy!!!!
Love,
Moscow Kitty; 11:51 PM
=^__^=
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