A Belated Update

Okay, AGAIN, apologies for not posting more often....as dumb as it sounds, I've been reading Joseph Conrad's Nostromo for the last week and a half, and it's just been too engrossing for me to put down. If you haven't read Conrad, I strongly recommend that you check him out.

Anyway, I should probably summarize what I've been up to for the last week or two. Unfortunately, I've done quite a lot, so in the interest of saving time, I will present it to you in bullet form.

• I had my first Russian theatre-going experience...went to see Rimsky-Korsakov's opera "The Tsar's Bride" at the Mikhailovsky Theater, which is next to the Russian Museum. The music was good, if a bit flowery for my taste, and the set was absolutely gorgeous. I honestly felt like I was in the throne room of Tsar Ivan, and I was sitting in the back row!
• I've toured three of the five major cathedrals of St. Petersburg: the elegant Kazansky Sobor, the massive and stately Isaakyevsky Sobor and the entrancingly beautiful Xram Spassa na Krovi (Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood). In Kazansky, I witnessed my first Orthodox liturgy, while in Isaakyevsky, I got to climb to the colonnade on the main dome and take pictures of what might be the finest view in the entire city. In Spilled Blood, I got to see the stunning interior of the most beautiful building in all Russia, as well as the site of Tsar Alexander II's assassination.
• I went to an Anglo-Russian pub with my friend Marina (not my host mother) to watch the World Cup qualifier between Russia and Germany...great game, with an unfortunate ending (Germany won), but I have never felt more Russian than when I sat with a bunch of drunken soccer hooligans laughing and cheering when the camera cut to Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin in the skybox, wearing their Team Russia scarves.
• Speaking of Putin and Medvedev, I went to see their presidential meeting hall, which is located at Konstantinskii Palace, in the southeastern suburbs. I even got to see Putin's private billiards room, which is as nice as you would imagine it to be.
• I'm making friends with some non-American students finally, and not only Russians, but also some Georgian and British students.
• I went to a Russian restaurant called Hot Wings, and ate - you guessed it - hot wings for the first time since leaving the states. And it was glorious...maybe not quite the same as in America, but my stomach wasn't picky.
• I have a volunteer internship at the State Hermitage Museum, one of the largest in the world, and might even get to write an article for their English newsletter.
• In another day or two, I travel to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, for a weekend...it ought to be a lot of fun, and I'll be sure to take a lot of pictures!

That's all I really have time for; in my next post, I'll be sure to add some pictures as well!