Oh, this week is going to be AWFUL. I have two exams on Wednesday and another due Friday, but I know that if I were studying at Conn this semester that wouldn’t seem as ужасно as I’m making it out to be, but considering I really haven’t done that much work here, my capacity to do work and stay motivated academically has diminished at a pitiful rate. Sure, I most definitely have work here. I have assignments due for all my Russian classes, but everything else is... whatevahhh. Senior year, which, if all goes according to plan includes writing an honors thesis, is going to be a rude awakening to say the least when I return to Conn in the fall.
I hate listening to myself complain (I bet you do too).
So, the past few days have been fairly normal. I’ve been getting back into my routine after Meghan’s visit, and I’ve been enjoying the sun (although it decided to snow for about an hour this afternoon). The week went by quickly, and I went out with some friends on Friday and Saturday night. Yesterday we went out for sushi (thank goodness that craving has been sated), and then we went directly to the Mariinsky theater to see the opera, “Tale of Tsar Sultan.” And on our way there, aboard the 6 bus, there was a man with a mullet sitting on one of the seats with his friggin’ pet falcon, complete with bird-mask-whatever and scary talons and all. I know I learned that staring at people was rude at a young age, but I decided to disregard this and stared with a what-in-the-world-are-you-doing?! look on my face.
Moving on, if you haven’t heard of the Mariinsky, well, then you really should. I don’t know that much about it, aside from the fact that it’s like the Bolshoi in terms of opera and ballet but in St. Petersburg instead of Moscow. The outside, whose architecture is full of what look like superfluous angles and shapes, is a delicious mint chocolate chip ice cream color, but besides all that, it has a very subtle appearance. I’m not sure I’d know it was the prestigious Mariinsky if I walked past it. Anyway, the inside is something else entirely. First of all, it’s a goddam maze. There are so many corridors and stairs that I was afraid I was going to get lost multiple times, and did a few. When you finally sat down in your seat, after having basically fallen over everybody else who was already sitting in your row in order to get to your seat, you, or at least I, had a hard time believing that I was about to watch an opera in such an extravagant theater. The theater looks like it could have been taken out of any of the palace interiors I’ve visited here in Petersburg. What that means is that there was plenty of gold, intricate paintings on the ceilings, sparkiling chandeliers, and that old-but-charming, royal feeling that only comes with being in some European capital (I want to say, not that I’ve been to more than two). These crappy photos from my iPhone will give you a better idea of what I’m trying to describe. 
Fortunately, the opera had subtitles in English (there was a small screen at the top of the theater), but to be completely honest (I hate what I’m about to write), I began to space out like a champ after the first quarter of the opera. I am so glad I went, and I was really into the costumes and the orchestra, but after the show got done I can safely say that I really had no clue about what I just watched. I tuned back in to the opera every once in a while, but I was just really watching with glazed eyes while my thoughts dipped in and out of all the random corners of my mind. I guess I was tired because I just could not pay attention. As a result, I’m not going to bother with explaining what the opera was about (or what I thought it was about). It was definitely cool though, and if you, my dear reader, are an opera fan and find yourself currently scowling at the computer screen, I would still recommend that you read about the opera and see it if you ever got the chance. Sorry for all you opera fans out there (I KNOW I WAS A WASTE OF A PERFECTLY GOOD TICKET), but I was very grateful nevertheless to have seen something at the Mariinsky (just around the corner from the Tsar’s box too!). 
Well, I should probably start studying for my exams, but before I quit, I have to tell you that Will, Beryl and I were walking through the usual hoards of people walking along Nevsky the other day when, all of a sudden, a man carrying a raccoon appeared right in front of my face. It took me a few seconds to register what I just witnessed, and by the time I turned my head to say something to Will and Beryl, Beryl had already made her way to the opposite end of the sidewalk, shrieking with disgust. You know, after a while these things here get less weird. A falcon on a bus? A raccoon on Nevsky? Just another day in Russia, apparently...
(above = our Ellen-Degeneres-at-the- 2014-oscars selfie)
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