Dear Mr. Harvey Fancy Paws,I’m sitting in my room fighting the desire to eat more of Justin’s cookies (which he doesn’t know but probably assumes I’ve been taking all night) while I eat a lemon with honey in addition to, but separate from my jasmine green tea. It’s a Wednesday. I’m writing midweek since we were in Saint Petersburg Saturday and Sunday. So, let us rewind to last week.
First of all, it snowed. Two days of beautiful, perfect snow that I didn’t even bother to photograph, since it wouldn’t have done any justice to the real thing. You know, I’m trying to remember everything that happened last week, and it’s difficult – that’s why I shouldn’t wait this long before blogging. I know that I saw a show called Existence No. 2…I really had a hard time being awake for that one, though when I was conscious, it was lovely. Russia leaves little time for sleep, which has forced me to become very creative in the ways in which I keep myself awake in shows and lecture classes. I eat a lot of mints and bite my fingers, drink a lot of water, and whenever possible, send blood to my head by going into an inversion. So, you’d think that when I get the chance, I would go to be early. You would be wrong if you did in fact think that. No, instead I spend my nights in the kitchen doing impromptu etudes till 3am.
I should mention that acting class has gotten a bit better, now that we are actually working with scripts. At least I sort of know what to do with that. There is this interesting thing happening…we are being directed more than coached – at least with the teacher I am working with (we have two). I wish I had more freedom to discover things on my own. Still, acting has become fun again, and that’s huge. And singing class has suddenly become very fun for me. Movement is still my favorite, though Ballet is a close second. And I’m really enjoying singing now-a-days. The coolest thing about Russia is that not only are you allowed to do pretty much whatever you want within your training, it’s expected. I wasn’t having fun singing songs that I was told to sing in class, so I started finding my own. The same is true to an extent in acting class. And in movement, you can do pretty much whatever you are willing to push yourself to do.
On Friday we finished with acting class and scurried home to pack and buy snacks for the train. We left at like…10:15 pm. We took the metro to the Train Station and boarded around 12 am. I’ve never traveled by train before…let alone by sleeper train. It’s very claustrophobic, fairly unsanitary, and totally cool. Obviously we didn’t sleep very much. I was up till 2 am doing nothing too productive and missing opportunities to be productive. We got off the train at 6:30 am when everything was still dark and trouped to our nearby Hostel – the Puppet Hostel. It was also my first hostel experience. It involved a lot of dust. We couldn’t check in when we got there, so we stored our stuff in the luggage room. I used the shower and made myself sort of presentable for the day, then climbed onto a bus for a tour of Petersburg.
Saint Petersburg is beautiful. The history there blows my mind…I remember learning Russian History in school and feeling a combination of awe, terror, and fascination. Physically being in the middle of that history was a little overwhelming. I especially felt this during our visit to the winter Palace. I can’t quite wrap my brain around the power that used to reside in that palace. I’m struggling here to express myself in an even remotely articulate way. Imagine your footsteps echoing in the ballrooms; imagine feeling the cold through the walls, the babushka glaring at you from the corner, the blurry view through the warped glass windows, and priceless world treasures to your left and to your right. Just look at the pictures.
After our tour of the Petersburg and the winter Palace, we were left to fend for ourselves. We made our way through the cold, cold, cold streets back to the hostel. We stopped several times to ask for directions…mostly because Marcin seemed to enjoy it.
I had a lovely nap, woke up, got ready, and made the unfortunate mistake of going to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Mexican-Russian fusion isn’t great. The strawberry margarita however, was divine.
Because it was Sarah Jane’s birthday, we were supposed to go to a club called ‘Pierre’s.’ Pierre’s either doesn’t exist or it is invisible. Cause that didn’t happen. We went somewhere else where I got and Irish coffee and watched Russians dance through the glass floor. Russians don’t dance the way Americans do. They don’t move their hips. I watched a relationship drama unfold on the dance floor. It was a wonderful observation…I was taking mental notes for my acting the whole time. Then home and to bed.
We woke up at about 7 am and packed, showered, all that jazz, and ate a very unsatisfying breakfast. Then back on the buss and to the Summer Palace. I slept on the way there, and when I awoke, I was in the most beautiful fairy tale. It was a winter paradise, and the Summer Palace itself was just as, if not more beautiful than the Winter Palace. Again, see the pictures.
We bussed home and were gifted with more free time. I went to lunch with Kirsten, Lizzie, Kylie, Kenya, and Austin. It was delicious, relaxing, and complimented with drinks. Then, I’m sorry Mom, I went shopping. BUT I WAS FREEZING. I bought another coat. A perfect coat. The Coat of my dreams. I’m sorry I spent that money, but it was so very worth it. Just wait till you see the pictures. Then to see Hamlet. I don’t want to write about Hamlet. Someone else can do that.
Then some Middle Eastern cuisine for dinner, which was actually quite tasty and cheap, and then back on the train. I was not a happy camper at this point. Nastia and I had the deep misfortune of sharing a compartment with a foul, mean-spirited man. He was not happy about the American sharing his train compartment and decided that this was Nastia’s fault. He called her all sorts of really vile things (in Russian) and made the atmosphere decidedly unpleasant for the duration of the train ride.
Monday morning we got of the train and took the metro back home – had a brief break, and then went to Theater History and then to Acting. How’s that for an anticlimactic ending?
Fin.
Hannah
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