Finals

Friday was the last day of classes, so we naturally decided to commemorate it with a big, long test. That was what I had thought, anyway. The test was relatively short and easy, though (especially when compared to the initial test--no competition, there), and even the conversation section was easy. (Here I plead luck: it was supposed to be based off the themes we discussed in class, which were things like "the Russian education system" and "the Russian economy" and "Russian health care." Seriously, stuff I could make two or three intelligent comments about in English. Well, my question was "what would you tell Russians from Moscow about St. Petersburg?" Like breaking a toothpick.)

After that we had one of our Friday-afternoon gatherings, where they did things like tell us how where to meet for the cruise, confirm who was going home when, and tell us how we're going to get to the airport. Oh, and pay us. All in all, very useful.

Since it seemed appropriate, we commemorated the test by renting out a Georgian restaurant for the evening. Georgian cuisine, from what I can tell, is very well respected in Russia, and not without reason. Georgian wine is also very well respected, and there was plenty of that, too. The natural extension of this is that lots of toasts were made--the teachers toasted us (those of them that were there--two had some excuse that I don't think anyone ever actually heard), we toasted them (individually, and with flowers), plus some change. We may have also sung every single one of the songs we learned for phonetics, in some cases more than once. I have some of this recorded. I'd like to point out, though, that just because English doesn't have a 'we-exclusive' form (neither does Russian, in case you were wondering) doesn't mean I'm not using it.

By the kind of coincidence that I tend to think of as hilarious, Friday was also the birthday of the most reserved student in our program, who therefore got dragged into far more dancing and singing than she obviously would have preferred--after she was forced to make a speech, in which she thanked the teachers for presenting her with a large important test on her birthday. Hopefully she secretly found it as amusing as the rest of us did--and if not, hopefully she'll come to forgive eventually.

There was also a lot of dancing, which ranged from amusing to amusing. That's supposed to mean that some of it was more or less decent, but if I'm going to call the bad dancing amusing I have to admit that I found the good dancing amusing too.

All told, I think I was there about four and a half hours, and I was about in the middle of the departures. After that, I went with Tyler and Larissa (you remember them from Moscow?) and some others to meet with Misha (Misha is a boy's name--and he's done with his studies in Moscow for the moment), et al., to go up onto a building roof. This, apparently, is an essential part of life in St. Petersburg. It turned into a fairly tedious production, though, so by the time we got up to the roof those of us who needed to get home by any kind of public transportation had to turn around pretty much immediately and go catch the last train on the metro. The view is nice, though.

Today I went to the Russian Museum (earlier than I would have liked, but I agreed to meet someone there) and the Russian Ethnographic Museum. Both of them are pretty cool, and the second one's a communist monument, too. I don't think I have anything special to say about them, though.

I'll think of it later. I just know I will.

In between museums, we had lunch at the Stray Dog, which I'm afraid only means anything to Tatiana Aleksandrovna. Her favorite poet is Anna Akhmatova, you see, and Anna Akhmatova and her friends (also poets, because bad things come in groups) used to hang out at that cafe. I'm afraid it'll have to serve as a substitute for going to the Anna Akhmatova museum, which I may have said I'd try to do. Oh well.

That's all.