Well, another week gone by. As I woke up this morning I realized that I only have about twoo weeks left in St. Petersburg. Ahhhh! I have so much to do before I have to leave the city. I need to make a few more trips to the Hermitage (you can never make too many trips there - I always end up seeing something different AND getting lost). I also want to go to the Kunstkamera (the city's first museum). And Benjamin (one of our fellow students - I'm still not sure where exactly he's from) agreed to go with Lindsey and me on a little "literary tour" of the city - to visit all the places where authors like Dostoevsky hung out and wrote about.
I borrowed Lindsey's copy of The Master and Margarita (by Mikhail Bulgakov) and have been busy reading it for the last week or so. I have a copy at home actually - it was one of the Provost's books at the Christmas Party last year - yet I haven't had a lot of time for extracurricular reading this semester (Faulkner will do that to you). I'm about halfway through it and enjoying it. It's a very ... odd book, but it's wonderfully humourous and I recognize a lot of the places he writes about (it takes place in Moscow). I don't know what book will be next but I'm not to worried about finding one - I found a good English bookstore yesterday as I was walking along the Fontanka Embankment.
Oh, and I don't remember if I mentioned this before, but I managed to find a copy of Dr. Strangelove: of How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb in one of the many DVD shops here. Gotta love the irony of such a purchase. I'm addicted to these damn DVD shops - it's cheaper to buy a DVD here than it is to rent one at Blockbuster back home. Of course, that could have something to do with the fact that they're usually not exactly geniune products. They're not always of the highest quality either. Sometimes they'll say that they have English language tracks but end up only having Russian audio, and it's really difficult to find English subtitles (they're still really into dubbing here). And then there are the pirated new releases. Those can be hilarious at times - the quality is so bad. A friend of mine bought a copy of Silent Hill the other day and there was actually a point when a "low battery" warning popped up from the camcorder being used to copy it. Oh man...
I did have a bit of excitement this week. When I got home from class on Thursday evening, I was told by my roommate and the "Obschezhitiye (Dorm) Nazi" that I had an hour to move all my stuff. They are apparently re-doing the entire 9th floor, so we had to move to the 18th for the rest of our stay. I wish I had had a little notice - I don't have a whole lot of stuff but it was in an advanced state of disarray at that point. Still, our new room is slightly cleaner and the view is better (now that we're on the top floor). Lindsey and Katya are still with me but we have a new suite-mate. I don't know her name because she's only said three words to me since we arrived - "Who are you?" I don't think she likes Americans much. And her boyfriend (that's who I'm assuming the random Russian guy in her room/the kitchen is) doesn't seem to think it necessary to wear much besides underwear. But at least he's wearing those.
Okay, time on the computer is running out, so I'm off for now. I hope everyone heading to Santa Fe this week has a good time. Say hello to Traugott for me (and check out the Marsden Hartley show if it's still up).