Red October

Last Friday was the  91st anniversary of Bolshevik Revolution. It's called the October Revolution because Russia was still using the Julian calendar at that point, which is 13 days behind our Gregorian calendar. I had a Russian lesson that night, and my tutor always begins by asking the date. I told her it was 7th of November, "Krasny Oktyabr" (Red October) and it got a chuckle from her. I told her I was planning to go to Palace Square (where it started) and check out the Communist Party members gathering there. She told me it was a bad idea and not safe. From what I understood, it's not so much the commies I had to worry about, but how the police dealt with them. Since the commies are one of the main opposition parties here, it sounded like it was going to be an anti-government rally, and it could get nasty. I thought I probably don't want to get caught up in an anti-government riot (especially with my visa situation being so fragile). However, looking back, I kinda regret not going. It could have been a lot fun!

Last weekend I played soccer with my Russian friends. I call them "Subotta Mal'chiki" (Saturday Boys). It was -1.6 degrees! It was cold, but that -1.6 degrees is Celsius (29 degrees F). I was lauded in the post-match report for playing in shorts. The Russian guys were impressed until I told them it was because I didn't bring any sweatpants or warm-ups with me to Russia. Despite it growing colder, the mosquitoes are still eating me alive. I think I sleep with my arm over my face; so, on the 4 inch by 4 inch space of my arm that is the only place the mosquitoes can get during the night, I have 7 bites. Some nearly on top of the another. I was wondering why the mosquitoes were still around, and someone told me it was because they hatch in the basement where it's warm and wet and then spread through the building that way. So, I have to go outside now to get away from the mozzies.

School's going well. Time is flying by and I'm confronted with the age old history teacher's conundrum: how do I get through all the information I want to get through in time for the end of the year? I'll tell you, though, it is incredible how much more enjoyable teaching is when you are well-prepared. It was funny, we were watching this film about the tsars for my Russian history class and they'd show clips of these places that are about 10-15 minute walk from the classroom; next week we are doing some fieldtrips, hopefully.

It's getting darker here earlier and getting light later. The sun here is full-time: only works 9 AM to 5 PM (doesn't take lunch breaks, comes in on weekends). Because it's getting so dark so early, right around 7-8 PM I start getting tired and body starts preparing for bed, but around 9-11 PM I get a second wind or something because I'm always so keyed up I can never get to sleep when I want to.

I just had my life severely rocked by learning the imperfective and perfective aspects to Russian verbs. So far, my language study was going very well; I felt like I could really dominate Russian. I was wondering why everybody was saying it was so hard... then... I had my life severely rocked by learning the imperfective (action done in the past, but not completed) and perfective (action done in the past, completed, with a result) aspects to Russian verbs. Before, I thought the verbs were pretty easy. They followed fairly rigid conjugation/tense rules. But it seems like every single verb has a different perfective prefix or suffix. There aren't any rules anymore. It's just plain memorization. I haven't even got gotten to cases yet. I'm pretty sure those will also rock my world (not in a good way). Well, I think this paragraph is just about boring enough, so I will end there.