Given that its not you, it’s me, I will continue. This morning I had the Russian version of oatmeal, and some bread with some slice of sausage and cheese. Fairly typical, but I gobbled it up. For lunch I had fish soup. The soup had in it, besides the boiled fish, potatoes, carrots, onions, and other green herbs. My dad would have licked the bowl clean and gone back for thirds, but this fish soup conquered me. I ate everything minus the fish, which was too slippery for me to swallow. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE fish. I eat it all the time at home and at Conn, but texture matters to me, and I prefer my fish baked. When I can see scaly fish heads floating in a pot on the stove, and then parts of its still grey body in my soup, I wasn’t sure I could do it. When Nina Vasilievna asked me if I liked it, I hesitated and said that I liked it but with a tone that said I was seriously unsure. I felt bad leaving the bowl empty minus the fish; Nina Vasilievna and her husband do not waste food, and I usually don’t like to either. Thousands of lectures growing up under my dad's roof has taught me that. I felt pretty bad, but I have since clarified my disposition towards this soup with my host mom, and I don’t think she’ll make me eat it again. Thankfully she didn’t eat with me either so she didn’t have to see me hesitate through each gulp. At one point I couldn’t get the song “fish heads” out of my head. In fourth or fifth grade Meghan made me a mixed CD (“Dig it” from the Holes sound track as well as Uncle Cracker’s “Fish in the Sea” were also featured on it) and one of the songs was called “Fish Heads.” The only line you really remember from it, even 10 years later goes like this: “Fish heads, fish heads, rollie pollie fish heads/ Fish heads fish heads floating in your soup! Fish heads, fish heads, rollie pollie fish heads/ Fish heads fish heads eat them up yum!” I can’t believe I still remember that, and no, rollie pollie fish heads, I will not eat you up yum.
After lunch I took the metro to Gostiny Dvor on Nevsky Prospekt where I met Jackie, Beryl, Hunter and Sierra for the Hermitage part deux. It was very warm outside. I had to take my jacket off in the metro, and while you could still see your breath when you walked outside, you have to believe me when I say the temperature wasn’t bad. It didn’t take us that long from there to get to palace square and then into the Hermitage. There were much longer lines this week, and we had to wait for 20 minutes before reaching the ticket offices. We all showed our student ID’s, I payed 200 rubles to take pictures, we checked our coats, and we were off. We resumed where Jackie, Beryl and I left off. In short, we spent another 3 hours in the Hermitage, and we covered most of the second half of the first floor. I don’t think we got through it all, but pretty darn close. I don’t know what it is, but there’s something about museums that seriously drains me of all my energy. Just standing and looking at art I guess exhausts me! When we got done, I think I was ready to have been done half an hour before that.
We mostly saw Greek and Italian art today. The first half of our time there was spent walking through Greek sculptures whose stone looked so soft and cold I just wanted to touch every statue I walked past. What do those curls feel like? How about that beard? Your chiseled abs? Touch, touch, touch. If I did, however, I probably wouldn’t be here to write about it, for they would have thrown me into one of Russia’s toughest prisons by now for having caused an entire statue to disintegrate by merely touching it (remember what happened when I went to get Sochi gear?). No matter. We walked through more statues and vases, busts and tables with coins and jewels. We passed briefly through an Egyptian section where there was a mummy. Now, I don’t know how old he or she is, but damn. It’s really hard to imagine that that body (and those teeth!) have not been reduced to dust by this point. Very impressive. After the Greek and Roman section we continued onto rooms and rooms of Italian paintings, that, after a while, all started to look the same. The people started to look the same, the babies all seemed to become one little roll of pink pudge, and all the angels became the backgrounds of the paintings instead of something worth focusing on. I’m sorry for all of you that love and appreciate art. I sincerely wish I knew what I was looking at most of the time, but these were my reactions. Nevertheless, I’m really glad I saw it all. There were even a few Leonardo Da Vincis and Michelangelos which was cool.
We concluded our time at the Hermitage with a look through the medieval armor (?) section. There, full suits of armor, complete with heavy swords, knives, and guns were presented behind glass cages. There were also four stuffed horses with suits of armor riding them in the middle of the exhibit which was wicked cool. Meanwhile I kept thinking about how excited I was for the new Game of Thrones season to come out...
Okie dokes, I’m going to get ready to go out and I don't have time to edit so excuse all my typos! Tomorrow we’re having an excurison to St. Isaac’s Cathedral. Sweet!
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