WHOOPS...completely couldn't be arsed to post anything for the past two and a half weeks, so time for a huge update on things. In fact, I've just realised that I've got over one third of the time I've been here to update everyone on. Hold on..
Right. It seems the last anyone is aware of was Carelian Faces, this feels like a very long time ago now. Such a long time that the temperature has dramatically dropped to levels that October really shouldn't see. It hit the hallowed level of minus two on Saturday, which even then, is a whole twenty degrees warmer than it's going to be at it's coldest, so I'm not really sure why I'm complaining.
Without actually remembering absolutely everything that's happened in the past two weeks, I'll just update events as I do remember them, so there's not really going to be any sense of chronology involved.
A couple of weeks ago was Marina's birthday, which involved many English people going over, imbibing from the horn of plenty, and having a lot of fun in the process. After eventually strolling back at near sunrise, it was yet another largely motionless Sunday.
It was so successful, that we were invited back the next week, which was then followed by a taxi to a very odd part of town, to an even odder building guarded by a man in a heavy coat with a lot of noise coming from inside it. Having been advised that it definitely wasn't worth the 10 minute walk to a cash machine if i still had 150 roubles (£3) left in my wallet, I most certainly was not disappointed by the ridiculously cheap drinks on offer inside. This also led to a humorous walk home alone, one of those where you start going for about 20 minutes, then realise you have no idea which direction you actually need to go. Needless to say, after an hour and a half, it was deemed a success.
Amongst the sea of weekend activity, there was bound to be one complete write off of a weekend. That was last weekend. I don't think I've ever been so bored in all my life. In fact, I left the house once, on Sunday, to make the long old walk to the GIPER market (sic.) knowing full well that all I wanted was a bag of crisps I could have got from the end of the road... But yeah, last weekend was truly terrible.
I have a feeling that it's the same for a lot of people here at the moment, when I say that we've all fallen into a routine, and it's a fairly monotonous one at that. Up at 9:30ish, lessons at 11:30, a paltry half hour lunch break, then at 3:30 go to the bar for a bit or go home, wash, rinse, repeat. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't starting to grate a bit, because I don't think I've ever really had any kind of routine, or plan for that matter. It's something that's new to me.
Another funny story (meaning I've done something stupid again). Having built somewhat of a reputation for being really bad at booking bus journeys, starting a couple of months ago when, upon trying to board the bus back to Leeds from London, was informed that I'd actually booked my ticket in the wrong direction fortified a couple of weeks ago when realising that I'd booked my bus ticket to Riga on the wrong day. Having rolled out, in perfect Russian may I add, that I wanted to book my bus to St Petersburg for this date, at this time, I was told that I could book it for 9:00 instead of 10:00. Now Russian doesn't have an AM or PM, it's "in the night" or "in the evening" or "in the morning", therefore I just assumed that I'd misunderstood the timetable, but no, I'd only gone and booked it in the wrong half of the day. I'm just going to stick to planes and trains in future.
Below: Don't know if you can read it properly, but if you look closely, this is a truck from Northampton....which was parked at the end of my road, which I thought was pretty decent
Also quite funny was the time a dog decided to board the trolleybus, causing mayhem, the conductor nearly had an aneurysm. I swear the stray dogs here are significantly more intelligent than a lot of the local drunks.
Oh, just remembered, with my cultural side about to split at the seams, I went to the operatic performance of "Евгений Онегин", or in a real alphabet "Eugene Onegin", at the town's main theatre, which was spectacular. The theatre was a work of art in itself, full of little ornamental design features everywhere, and a chandelier which probably replaced the much needed plans for a children's hospital. It was another reminder of how there is a very polarised society in Russia. The performance itself though was really good, if a little difficult to understand.
Below: The town's theatre, in a lot of its glory
As the weather gets greyer and drearier, seemingly so does the town. As the title of this entry refers to, apart from the big things they've clearly smashed their piggy banks with large hammers to afford, such as the cinema, the grey, cold, drizzly weather tends to enhance the negative aspects of the town, producing huge puddles across the city, allowing passing cars to greatly inconvenience you; making it start to go dark at absurd hours of day (I remember remarking yesterday how it was starting to go dark at 1:00...) and generally providing an unscenic backdrop to the more unsavoury parts of town. Unfortunately there seems a lack of love for this town by its people, demonstrated by the question I've been asked on numerous occasions "Why on earth did you choose Petrozavodsk?!", to which I've got to reply "Don't know love, looked pretty in the brochure though".
I appreciate that this doesn't really account for two weeks of not bothering to update this, but that's just the way it is. I've almost certainly forgotten quite a lot, but if it was important, I'd have surely remembered it. Anyway, I'll endevour to not forget this blog as much as I have done recently. It's reading week soon anyway, so there should be plenty to write about there.
Thank you for reading, and спокойны ночи :D x
