I just found out that I got an internship at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard for the summer! The administrative director and I have been emailing back and forth since December, and we were finally able to have an interview this evening via Skype, along with two other members of the center, and she got back to me within a few hours saying that they would be happy to have me. My Russian professor Andrea was accepted into their very prestigious and competitive Fellows Program at the Davis Center for the 2013-14 academic year, and I don’t know exactly what she said to whom, but just like my fortune last summer with the UC Berkeley program, I owe another shred of my soul to this woman. Needless to say, I AM SO. HAPPY. There is such a relief that comes with knowing that I no longer have to figure out what to do with my summer.
In other Russian news, I went to the Institution of Russian Literature (Pushkin’s House) on Tuesday with Jackie. The museum really only consists of 3 large rooms (a fourth was under renovation), and we were the only ones there. The rooms contained a nice combination of historical furniture, paintings, photographs, drafts/manuscripts, some sculptures, and a bunch of cool personal items from Russia’s most famous writers. For example, I saw Turgenev’s pen (and a lock of his hair), Dostoevsky’s coin pouch, Tolstoy’s boots and shirt, and there were even death masks of Pushkin and Tolstoy... Crazy! We also saw some drafts of War and Peace and Anna Karenina with Tolstoy’s markings in the margins. How unreal.
Yesterday, on the walk to Smolny (the days are getting longer; the sun didn’t set until past 7 today I want to say...) I heard a helicopter fly over my head. No big deal, right? I’ve seen a few here before, but after watching it for a while, I noticed that the helicopter started to descend and eventually land on the English embankment right in front of the Bronze Horseman statue (I had a clear view from the bridge). I was beyond curious as to what the helicopter’s purpose for being there was, but by the time I crossed the English embankment myself, the helicopter took off again. I continued on my way to classes, perplexed and intrigued.
Even though we have been advised to avoid any sort of crowd or protest here, my first reaction when I saw the helicopter land was whether or not I should walk to it and be late to class. You know how the Discovery, National Geographic, or Weather channels always show videos of freak storms? Usually tornados and hurricanes? And how there are always a few idiots who completely ignore all the evacuation warnings and decide to film what it’s like inside the eye of the storm? Well, that’s sort of how I feel about watching any form of political unrest here in Russia. Of course, I have no doubt in my mind that if I saw any form of trouble I would take off in the other direction, possibly screaming, as fast as I could, but what I REALLY want to do is get in the middle of it and take pictures. Let’s just hope I never have to be presented with such a situation...
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