Cat People

I laughed so much today! The day wasn’t even that special, but all the little great things added up. Firstly, its still warm outside. The downside of that is how wet the streets are and how frequently you have to jump over gross puddles. At some point I wondered if it was raining, but I think it was just unusually wet snow. Thankfully my bean boots persevered, and I was able to make it through the day with dry toes. 

We started off the day with grammatika, and the first conversation we had was so random, yet so incredibly wonderful. When we all sat down (at seats and desks that make more noise than a tractor anytime you move or touch anything), our grammar professor asked us how our afternoons were yesterday. Most of us didn’t have anything to report, but good ol’ Jackie told us that she and Beryl went to Cat Republic yesterday afternoon. Yes, I just said Cat Republic. Apparently, this is a cafe where you can enjoy coffee or tea in the company of 12 cats (or was it 19? Двенадцать или двадцать?). Jackie went on to explain that there was a room specifically for customers to pet the cats and another entirely for the drinking part of the cafe experience. There was a cat, according to Jackie, who the woman in charge of the place described as Tsarist because he was such a prince. There was another cat whose face had to be trimmed in order for him to smell and see. There was also mention of hairless cats (this sounds like the beginning of a Dr. Seuss book...). If you’re still intrigued, there’s no need to fret. Memberships are available. 

Oh I can almost feel Becca Skelton shake in her chair at her desk in Wright! Same goes for anyone on Camel Throws or Dasein that reads this. 

Yes, Russia is most certainly a cat country (Dogs > Cats, sorry). Or so explained my grammar professor Natalia. Now, before I go any further, I must describe Natalia. I can see how some people might find her boring, but I personally get a kick out of her. I love people that are shy and perhaps hard on the outside but occasionally show their funny or goofy side (always with a little regret and embarrassment on their part). Every time I notice that someone who otherwise appears cold or too serious is actually secretly hilarious or strange its like I get a whiff of my favorite pasta dish its so lovely. I almost seem to perk up and want to like, stand up in my chair and shout AHA! Your secret is out! I KNOW you’re fun deep down! COME OUT OF YOUR SHELL NOW!! Obviously I am not a shy person. As much as I’ve wanted to be come more mysterious and less open about myself when meeting new groups of people, I fail every single time (college would be example numero uno). Just this morning when Jenna mentioned that she is a bit embarrassed of her attraction to Tierian Lannister on Game of Thrones (our Bard-Smolny program is all obsessed), instead of sitting quietly and soaking up everybody else’s reactions, what do I do? I say something weird like, “Jenna, please. I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW MUCH I WANT SER JORAH.” I just cannot shut up, ever. What can I say? I love to share stories because I think it helps me to become closer to people and to get to know them better. The weirder and more exposing the story, the closer and faster you get to know others. 

But I digress. The whole point of that little rant is that my grammar professor Natalia is one of those shy, quiet, perhaps too-serious-for-her-own-good people who has given us a taste of her funny bone. Even though I am aware that she can be funny and enjoys humor, I still find taciturn people especially funny when they make jokes or say silly things. Talking about cats was like throwing a dart (and we all know about my aim ;) directly on soft spot. After Jackie finished describing Cat Republic, Natalia asked the only logical question that one could devise at that point, “Well, do they work there? Cats work in the Hermitage...” with a snicker, but she was dead serious! Haha, I am laughing as I write this. Russia is sooo weird!!

Natalia went on to talk about how there are special cats that work in the Hermitage, apparently employed to eat all the mice there. When Elena showed us where the post office was last week she said the same thing. Wow. Even the CATS must work! HAhahaha!! Ok, focus Liv. So after telling us that cats are hired to work at the Hermitage to eat the mice, Natalia just kept going with this joke. Of course it was all in Russian, so please forgive me for my lack of details, but Natalia started to say that these cats required interviews (was that some sort of joke? I mean, you can assess a cat’s behavior, but could that qualify for an “interview” of sorts? Let’s just roll with it). They must be nice she said. They must be tame, they must be nice to the tourists, they must know their art. And then we all chimed in. No, the cats must be EXPERTS in their field of art (suggested one of my classmates)! Better yet, you hire one cat and have it work in only one exhibit, so they become more familiar with that particular section (suggested another)! THE CAT MUST BE ABLE TO GIVE DIRECTIONS TO LOST TOURISTS. 

Oh god, this is too funny. But anyways, that was the opening of my grammar class. After our fun with the cat jokes, we got down to business. An hour and a half later, we managed to cover grammatical constructions such as то, нибудь, кое and all its lovely variants. My brain felt like a skipping DVD player by the end. I think I got most of it, but I just a ton of practice. Good thing we have a test on Friday so I’ll be forced to study haaaaah naht.

Phonetika, thanks to Jackie, also featured a lovely fou rire (Madame, thank you for teaching us that expression! I desperately wish English had a translation). So, in my phonetics class we are currently going over food vocabulary. We were being quizzed on different words when our professor Elena (not the program coordinator Elena) asked us in Russian what prunes were in English while showing us a picture, and Jackie, with so much confidence, just shouted “PORN!” She covered her mouth the second the word escaped from her mouth. As expected, she became beet red and pressed her face to the table, her body shaking the whole table with laughter. I, meanwhile, was on the other side of the table blatantly cracking up without any restrictions. When I caught my breath I told her that that was some kind of Freudian slip. You got porn from prune? Were you thinking of the word “prude”? But even if you were, why...? I couldn’t stop giggling. Common, Jackie. That’s something I would do now. Let’s be a little bit more mature here. 

Oh boy. Whoever said laughter makes everything better was spot on. 

Anyways, after classes we had a quick meeting with Mike and Darya Bulatovna who is our academic advisor. Throughout the rest of week we will be meeting with her individually to select our classes. She went to Reed College in Oregon and got her PhD from Maryland. She speaks English better than I ever will, and she seems like she’ll be able to give me some excellent advice about selecting courses. I look forward to meeting with her tomorrow!

After that a bunch of us set off to the Chamber of Curiosities. Many of you may have heard about this before, but I haven’t really. From the little that I do know, the museum is a collection of different things that Peter the Great found... curious. Is that correct? Either way, there are apparently a bunch of fetuses in jars. Some people have told me to prepare myself and that the Chamber is quite disturbing. So, you’re telling me its a must-see? Sold. Unfortunately the museum closes at 4:30, and because of the meeting, we wouldn’t have had enough time to get there and look around. The Chamber of Weirdness will have to wait for another day. 

Instead, me, Jackie, Hunter, Sean and Fabi found a cafe right off of St. Isaac’s Square. When we found out that it was called the Decembrist Cafe (I almost named this blog post “Revolution” [see the Decembrist Revolt on wiki]), there was no question; we were going! When you walk in you have the option of staying on the ground floor, where there was a bar and wooden tables throughout (it was small though), or you could take two steps forward and walk down the stairs to the basement, where there are more wooden tables. There was nobody there, but I lead us downstairs for some reason. The cafe itself is so cool! The basement walls are brick and there are old posters, pictures, and paintings hanging on them. The wooden tables are also made with large boards, so almost like a picnic table, but hipster cool I guess. The music inside was also totally chill. Lots of the Arctic Monkeys and bands that sounded like Franz Ferdinand, but “Africa” by Toto also came on which I appreciated (“its going to take a lot to drag me away from youuuuuu/theres nothing that a hundred men or more could ever dooooooo/ I bless the rains down in Aaaaaafricaaaa...”). I ended up ordering a black current cider, while others ordered apple ciders and some food. Hunter, sitting to my right, ordered a burger (YES they have burgers!) that arrived on a slab of tree... Our waiter was a guy around our age who spoke decent English. He also liked to joke with us and he just seemed cool (we gave him a nice tip). So there we were, sitting, drinking and speaking in Russian (heeeeeey!) with each other. After the first two minutes of arriving there, I knew that I was coming back. While it’s a little far away from where I live, it’s less than a 10 minute walk from Smolny and it’s everything I need to become a regular. I think I found my place! 

When we went our separate ways, I walked back to a bus stop with Jenna and Will (who showed up later). We waited for Bus 6 for half an hour, and when we finally got on, we didn’t really get on. It was packed so tightly the bus attempted to close its doors twice before people could shuffle to make room for our limbs that were obstructing the doors. I didn’t even get off at my stop it was that packed. I ended up walking a few minutes back from a different bus stop to the apartment, but that was fine with me. I wanted to see if I could find any grocery stores around. I’m currently on a mission for snacks and stuff with which to make sandwiches for lunch. I didn’t see any bigger stores (there were only продукты, or producty), but I also needed to get water, so I thought I would just go in, buy water, and anything else if it was there. I found water, but while looking for snacks, I saw some dried apples on a shelf behind a counter. I stood in front of the counter while I decided if I even wanted to buy them or not, and if so, how much of it I actually wanted, and then suddenly woman came out of nowhere and asked me what I wanted. Not even considering trying to tell her that I was thinking and wasn’t sure I was actually going to buy anything, I panicked and quickly pointed to the dried apples. She brought a huge bag down in front of me and placed it on the scale. Pssh, like kilograms mean ANYTHING to me. I asked her how much it was. About $3. Okay, I guess I’m buying like 10 lbs (exaggeration) of dried apples! I payed for the water and the dried fruit and went home, just around the corner. I guess I know what to expect when I go back there! 

I literally just got up to try some. They’re big, fluffy, and a healthy snack. Soo worth it.

P.S. I ran out of my last clean pair of socks 3 DAYS AGO. Waah I need to build up the courage to ask about laundry!