Journal 81
Monday - 11-15-10
School
"I am horrified to discover that it was (is???) taught in Russia that the United States dropped the atomic bombs on Japan AFTER the capitulation of Japan, simply to show the world / the Soviet Union that we had such weaponry, and were the strongest country in the world. ... I am truly disturbed. I just had this discussion with my teacher - we left class agreeing to go look up dates to see who was right!" -- Facebook Post
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Lessons in the Evening
Partner late 30 min -- He brought my shoes today (my real heels) -- How surprised I was to find out that to replace two heels, it was only $3 USD!!!!!!! I was thinking the bill was going to be $100 or something!!!
While Vitaly and I were waiting for Roma, Vitaly and I had a good time sitting together, chatting -- like old times.
He shared part of a clementine (which I love!) and we talked books (which I love more!!) !! I had just been thinking the other day, "I miss when we talked books, and things were nice."
Had one brief moment where things almost got awkward - brought up the conversation I'd had with my teacher earlier in the morning, about when exactly did the US drop the Atomic Bombs on Japan, and why… Vitaly said something to the effect that, "The US needed to test the bombs." I said, haltingly, "We *already* tested them, in the US." "They needed to test them on live people." … I sat in stunned silence for a moment -- gave as much of a defense of our actions as I'm qualified to give -- and then I think we both recognized we'd rather be talking about happier things, and went back to books!
He brought up, "The Little Prince" again, which surprised me. I guess he really did like it.
[For anyone who missed it -- he accidentally stole the first Russian copy of, "The Little Prince," that I bought. He thought it was a present for him. At the time, three factors contributed to this happening: 1. My Russian was not good enough to say, "That's not for you," in a kind manner; 2. I was having a TERRIBLE day (had just received some awful news from home), and didn't have the mental capacity to contradict anything; 3. Once I saw he thought the book was a present, I didn't have the heart to take it back.
I thought he would never read it at all, let alone like it, let alone catch all the deeper meaning. I was wrong, on all three counts.]
We also share a mutual distrust of electronic book readers. "That's not a book!!!!!"
So, I was truly content. … Until Roma showed up, and the lesson started.
*****
We started Paso. … I've never danced Paso before, truly.
And apparently, something was wrong with me today… I was dancing so badly… Almost every few minutes, I was hearing from Vitaly:
"Katya!! Why are you learning your steps so badly!??!"
"Think!"
"Turn your brain on!!"
"What are you doing?!?!"
"Kat'!! What's with you?!?!"
= @_@ = It was awful.
The lesson finally ended, Roma and I paid, and Vitaly said he'd call me later with the time for my lessons on Tuesday.
…
Then Roma and I started to practice. And things just kept going downhill.
I went to take one break, and was pressing the, "De-Stress" pressure point in the middle of both palms -- and apparently I just looked all sorts of miserable, because the girl from this SUPER amazing couple, whom I just adore, but never speak to, actually came up to me and asked, "Are you ok?? Are you hurt??"
I looked up, startled -- both because she was speaking to me, and because she thought I was hurt -- and managed to say something to the effect of, "No no, I'm okay… Just not… Dancing well… You know…"
The show of concern was surprising, but very, very touching, to me.
I tried to get back on the horse, but again, things were just bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.
I sat down again, back to pressing the pressure points, trying to stave off what would be my first fit of crying about anything dance-related, in-studio, and then Vitaly walked by.
Again, apparently, I was looking far more miserable than I knew, because he looked at me, and said, "Katya?"
"Mm?" I picked my head up.
"Katya… Maybe it would be best if you don't do lessons tomorrow… You should rest. I'll rest, too."
I was crestfallen. This is because I hear people telling me to take a break as, "You're not good enough to keep going." It's totally *not* what people are saying -- but that's what I hear it as. What with the insane drive to work I have.
Roma and I kept working a little more after that, and then there was one last surprise to the evening.
You see, as we were practicing, Vitaly and his partner were practicing. But it also seemed that Vitaly was paying a fair amount of attention to Roma and I -- which is just odd. It's not like him to do that, as far as I've seen. So I figured, maybe I was seeing things. But when Roma and I were doing something in Cha Cha, and it wasn't going well, Vitaly actually *came up to us* and started helping us with it!! … I have absolutely zero idea of what brought it on.
… I still did pretty terribly. Ha ha ha. So I can't help but thinking I was a catalyst for it. But it was awful nice of him to just come and help like that. I don't think I've ever seen him do that. Hmm.
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