Thursdays Are the Best Days

The first Thursday of every month means one thing here in St. Petersburg: free admission to the Hermitage. Because of the difficulties of the Russian visa process, the Hermitage is "The Best Art Museum You Will Never See." It actually has more pieces of art than any other museum in the world. 

So on Thursday, after school, I fancied seeing some Van Gogh, Picasso, Rembrandt, Bruegel, Caravaggio, etc..., so I headed down to Nevsky Prospekt and went to the Hermitage. I had my school bag with me so I had to leave it at the coat check. So, I went up to the lady and held out my coat and bag. She said something to me that I didn't understand, so I said, "Prostitye, ya nye panimayu pa-Russkiy." ("Sorry, I don't understand Russian."). Now, I don't know exactly what she said after that, but my Russian has improved to the point that I got the gist of it. The gist of it was, "What do you mean you don't understand Russian? I can hear you speak it." She probably muttered something about "idiot foreignors" after that. So I told her, "Ya gavoryu pa-Russkiy, chut-chut." ("I speak Russian, teencey-weencey.") This usually gets a giggle from people, and I caught a barely discernible smile breaking out before she caught herself, remembered that it wasn't in her national character to laugh, and took my coat and bag.

School's going well. I wish I could write something interesting about it, but it's just school. The good news is that it was easy to start up again and it felt like I never stopped last May. The bad news is that it feels like I never stopped last May and I am already eyeing that quarter break at the end of October.