Another blog post, because I don’t really have that much to do

I got home around 8:00 this today, and I kept turning on the TV, as I had nothing to do all evening, but all there ever was on the only channel we really get was a bunch of loons with trumpets marching about Red Square. I kept turning it off, holding out for less martial entertainment, but around 9:30, when I was eating the dinner that was left on the store and hopefully intended for me, I gave up and just watched it. And at some point there were bagpipers- a lot of them, in kilt and such- marching about Red Square and playing Amazing Grace, soon to fade into some jazzy tunes that the audience seemed to recognize and find very amusing. Eventually I figured out that it was the First Annual International Military Band Exposition or something- there were those funny tall black furry British hats involved, and choirs, and fire works, and goofy commentators, and lots and lots of Russian soldiers. It was out of control. There were Canadians.

I saw the movie Mongol today, in a really pretty old movie theater downtown, with chandeliers and balconies and heavy curtains for both the screen and the doors, and bustling babushka-ushers. Now I want to be a Mongol. Or maybe just have a Mongolian hat. It was a good movie for the language-handicapped portion of the audience - apparently Genghis Khan and company didn’t do a lot of talking, and when they did it was in short, declarative sentences.

Did I do anything else interesting today? I ran for 40 minutes, and worked out at Alex’s Gym as Alex nailed on the baseboard or whatever that’s called along the bottom of the wall (Alex’s Gym is sort of a work in progress. While Natasha was there later in the day the apparently took down a wall.); I went into various clothing stores and ran away when I discovered that the t-shirts were $80; it was a rainy day, so I spent a lot of time inside stores pretending to shop. I went to a bookstore and declined to buy books about how to be on the apple diet, or how to cast household spells. There was a book called “300 Salads” or something, from which I fled when the first recipe to which I opened was called “bird salad.” My favorite, though, is always the learning English books. Today I looked through the literature-for-english-learning books - they mainly seem to be compiled by sadistic Brits. This one amazing “reader” contained: Ivanhoe, Robinson Crusoe, Wuthering Heights, Huckleberry Finn, some Jack London novel, and three other similarly-impossible selections. I love Wuthering Heights, but I remember most of my AP English Literature class regarding it as having being written practically in a foreign language, not entirely without justification. Within every novel, the editor would print ¾ of a page or so of text, and then insert a short “simplified” (actually in very awkward, difficult to read language) explanation of what had happened, sometimes very funny.

More of the same tomorrow, I think - wandering around, and getting tired of the Cafe Fiesta, and trying to motivate myself to do homework. I’m not really a fan of weekends in Irkutsk, all in all. Luckily we have our group trip soon, to Baikal and points west.

Sunday morning update:
I went to church, finally, this morning, which is good considering I’m a religion major and stuff. It was this pretty church I always see when going to the History Department, with a turquoise roof. It turned out to be the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, and very cool inside, with a sort of catacomb feel which I think is odd for an Orthodox church, though I judge based only on pictures I’ve seen of others. The dome-y ceiling and the walls were white, it was fairly small, and the icons were not all that great in number but all cool. Not a very good description- I’ll go sometime when there’s not a service going on and take pictures. As for the service itself, there was a lot of bowing and crossing involved, but not any other expectation of external congregation involvement, so it was fairly easy to follow along. After the main service there were various little optional liturgical activities going on, which I wandered around and looked at but never really figured out. It was fun.

Not too many people on the streets today, but lots of people out painting their shutters. Gives the morning a rather fresh, cheerful feel. Also, they’ve finally filled in the huge ditch running the length the sidewalk along Karla Marxa, one of the main streets - it makes walking considerably easier.