Sunday 9/16

Just before leaving I ordered a pair of Adidas Gazelles from Zappos. They’re simple, cheap, and from what I understand hold up pretty well, all things considered. I also figured that they wouldn’t attract much attention, being the classic design and all all the more so as they’re black and white. At any rate, they’re a little bit too small, but it was too late to send them back and I figured they’d break in soon enough. They’re also the only shoes I brought with me, figuring that I’d buy some proper winter boots here, at some point. Well they’re about broken in now, but in the meantime they wreaked havoc on my poor feet. It reminds me of, I think, George Orwell and 1984 where somebody explains that he wears his shoes a size to small because that provides each day with at least one thing to look forward to. It turns out I was also wrong about not attracting attention. Apparently the gazelles are incredibly hard to find in Russia, and they’re in high demand by Adidas aficionados. Yesterday within a couple hours two people asked me where I bought my shoes, envious looks and everything. At least it gives me something to talk about. Apologies if the Orwell reference is incorrect, I can’t remember exactly and I am, obviously, without access to my books.

Speaking of books, I recommend the English Patient. As hot as Ray(ph?) Feins is, forget the movie, Michael Ondaatje is a master and his novel is magnificent. Or Velikolepnii, as Diana and, in fact, my little blue dictionary quite correctly informed me. Please excuse my incompetence.

I spent most of the day yesterday lazing about, doing odd bits of work and reading. Then after dinner I met up with something like 15 Russian kids near my friend Yulia. They were originally going to a concert at the legendary club Kamchatka (where Kino’s Victor Tsoi worked, the walls surrounding it are full of Tsoi-reverent graffiti), but the singer had an accident and so they relocated to a small bar adjacent. It was pretty much glorious, a huge wooden table, the expected vodka and beer, and general merriment. In addition to Yulia I was already familiar with Sasha, who hung out with us last summer at the Bunker club Griboedov. He is very tall, always grinning, and a decent-humored lad; back then he earned our affection when a drunk started accosting our table and he resolved the situation like a nastoyashii muzhik.

At first they treated me like something of a novelty, sort of bemused that I’d come to Russia and wanted to hang out with them, but after some jokes, some drinks conversation flowed and I met a bunch of interesting people. Anton, wearing a dark blazer and turtle neck sweater, to whom they pointed after the usual Chicago-gangster exchange (that is, upon finding out that I live(d) in Chicago, many people ask about Al Capone), and who is actually an econ student (so maybe the gangster thing is appropriate…). Misha the programming student who is making more money working part time now than his Doctor of Physics father, who also happens to live right next to my old building near Akademicheskaya. David, the socialite who is determined to practice his minimal english with me (I told him I’d be happy). Misha’s girlfriend, who spent time in Seattle. Prosto zdorovo. Needless to say, it was all quite merry and hopefully I’ll see them again.

Afterwards, I was to meet up with some students from Smolny in the center, but by the time I had arrived they had already left. Maria (from Belgium/Bulgaria) was going to be around later in the evening and her friends and I had promised to stay out all night, so I stayed in the center by myself. I bought 0.5 of Nevskoe, and walked around the Moika and the Palace square in the rain. It was actually quite, nice in spite of the damp cold; citys like Piter are at their most beautiful to the midnight carouser.

To my regret I discovered that they’ve closed down Novus, a tiny hipster dance bar just off of the Palace square and above an anonymous bistro. Luckily some the old haunts are still around and kicking, the obvious Dacha and Fidel (although the former is nowadays so crowded there’s little point in going, Fidel has the better music anyways) along with a new place “Belgrad” next door also owned by the Petersburg ska band Dva Samoleta. I haven’t been to Griboedov (the bunker club above) but Sasha, or as he would have you call him “Aleksandr Makedonskii” (we decided that I would also revert to my extended, more regal name), has declared our going back there essential. I’m also longing for Fish Fabrique, and I’m wondering if our crew of regulars are still going there. And of course, there is Tsinik where we spent last night and part of the night before. It’s even more crowded nowadays, particularly among the grunged hipster crowd, but it’s still reasonably priced, the grenki are delicious, and last night it was jumping, and mostly to Russian music.
Give me a week or two to
go absolutely cuckoo
then when you see your error
you can flee in terror.

Also, it sure is not as exciting to be out all night when it’s winter and still dark. I miss the white nights. And every day, pretty much, we lose a couple minutes of lightness. Supposedly soon enough it will dark on both ways to the university.

Tomorrow is my day off, but I’ll probably spend most of it trying to cut through bureaucracy and get the HIV test required for my extended visa. I shudder to think how much this, and the Visa process will cost me. And speaking of, I got killed by the exchange rates this week. My tuition payment got mixed up when it was wired over and so they canceled the payment and credited it back to my account. Only problem was the Euro > Dollar rate is lower than the the Dollar > Euro rate, making a difference of two hundred dollars at the end of the day. I don’t know a lot about currency and all of this, and I understand that they’re going to always give me the lower rate, but I would think that I’d actually get a little more if not the same back because the payment was in Euros, and the dollar has been falling so rapidly over the last two weeks. Almost as if I made a short-term investment. On top of that, the new payment must be made by credit card (I can’t wire money from abroad) which, apparently, means I have to pay the University’s bank another three percent of the payment. Anyways, relatively it’s nothing to hyperventilate about, and if I were to do so about every similar situation in the last month that’s ended up costing me I’d probably go ape shit. Russia is pretty good at teaching people to be calm in mind-bogglingly frustrating situations, particularly those involving one’s consciousness of one’s own insignificance before the vast, bureaucratic machines of governments and corporations.

I just got in a long conversation with TP about studying, money, her children, and etc. She even showed me her Soviet Почетные Грамоты (a government commendation for good work) from her time as a nurse. After a whole hour she talked about how boring it is for her much of the time, especially in the winter because usually there aren’t many students for her after the new year. This made me real sad, especially given my recent thoughts about moving. I know she would understand, particularly because it’s a matter of money (I don’t know that I would mention the part about needing my own space), but this doesn’t make it any less difficult to leave. Of course everything depends on money and availability and all that. If I moved it probably wouldn’t even be until after October anyways.

And finally: Zhenya responded to my emails! She’s in the Crimea right now, but she’ll be back at the end of the month. This is so exciting I will use another two exclamation points!! The timing is proper too, because I’m starting to crave some live music, underground clubs, and other things of which she is a specialist. It’s only too bad that I didn’t ever get her a Miles Davis T-shirt… I looked around charlotte on my last day, but to no avail. There was just not enough time. At any rate, hopefully she’ll be as happy to see me as I am to see her.

Also: I promise, I will take some new pictures, at some point.

And so, all for now, time for a movie and a book, and maybe, at some point, sleep.