I liiiive...

Feeling quite a bit better. I spent two days in bed going "uurrrrrghachoohackwhine" and reading a very good book in ENGLISH. So there. Then I limped to school on Friday, regretting it almost immediately, but after that five of us girls trooped over to the mall and saw Harry Potter. Whee!

Well, that's not a very accurate rendition of the afternoon. I hadn't petted a dog in two months, I was drowning in sweat, and my morals were starting to scream every time I nodded and smiled at an inappropriate comment. I had just found out that I was in for a three hour mass media class with our crazy teacher. I was SICK of Russia and especially Kazan. I actually kicked the door of the computer lab when it turned out to be locked (I tried to get to you guys! Really, I did!) Sick of the racism, anti-semitism, sexism, filth, heat, food, water, language- I was going to SNAP.

I mentioned this to a friend, and she said that she was in the same boat. Apparently, another girl even yelled at someone on the street the other day. (For mocking her for her not unreasonable weight, which happens a lot apparently. I haven't noticed anyone mocking me, but with the scarecrows around here as contrast, few of us fare well by comparison.)

So we got to the theater and bought tickets. The showing (or seance, in Russian, which always makes me giggle) wasn't for an hour and a half, so we all went to the Schokoladnitza (Russian starbucks) downstairs, sat on the patio, got coffee, and talked in english for an hour and a half. We explained the full plot of the HP series, and then griped. And griped. It was wonderful just to complain to sympathetic ears. Then we compared the motley roads that led us to the study of Russian, explored our educational background, and discovered that we are all horrible dorks. Ahhh.

Then we watched the movie, which was very, very good and very well dubbed. I may just go see it again.

Then we left, hung around until someone called emergency services for the girl who had flopped out of the theater halfway through the movie (at roughly 5 pm... gotta love russia) with what seemed to be severe alcohol poisoning, though her friends just thought her unconsciousness was hilarious, then switched back to our iron obedience to the Russian Only Rule, and went home.

I felt much better after that, especially since that night I didn't have to listen to any more stories about 'the jews' from my hostess.

The next day was Saturday, and we had a lovely field trip to a village an hour and a half out of town, where the most famous Tatar poet spent his childhood. I'm not that interested in tatar poetry, since I don't actually speak tatar, but it was marvelous to be in the village. It wasn't that small- 1500 or so people- but everything was one story, with lots of green space, and many buildings over a hundred years old. There were cows and chickens everywhere, but though I saw dog tracks, I saw no dogs.

There was, however, a kitten in the museum. He followed us in or something, and the guide didn't know where he came from or what to do with him... so I scooped him up and cuddled a kitten for the entire tour. Every museum should have kittens. They should give them out like those crappy audio-tour things.

I set him loose outside, and later saw some of his siblings wandering around, so he must live somewhere near there. We had lunch at a sort of kitcheny/restaraunty place, good tatar food, and then I wandered through a little copse of birches until it was time to leave.

Sunday I felt like crap, so I slept almost the entire day, lying in a pool of sweat and coughing. It was fine, until my hostess's son came home and was horrified to find that I was sitting in a DRAFT, in my condition! Drafts are incredibly harmful to your health, you know, even if it is NINE HUNDRED DEGREES out. I'm forbidden to wash my hair, drink anything cold, sit in a draft, or swim. I am commanded to drink hot things and to cough louder. After all, colds aren't caused by germs. That's just supersition. They're caused by chills. Oh yes.

I shouldn't complain, not really. One of our number is diabetic, and she is constantly dodging leeches, water laced with silver, and anything else her family can think up. They've also put her on a diet. The russian idea of a diet is extremely interesting. For instance, milk is bad but cream is good. Sour cream goes on everything, ESPECIALLY if you want to lose weight.

No one knows what to do.

I just shut up and eat what I'm given, since refusing is a personal insult AND causes concerns about my health. Then, when everyone's gone, I live on fruit and nuts and yogurt, which is a vast relief after slabs of meat and nine kinds of milk product, every day. I'm not sure how to explain why I haven't eaten the entire pot of borscht, or the boiled potatoes, when my hostess gets back, but 'I couldn't eat that much in a week' probably won't go down well.

I forgot to mention that Saturday, when I was feeling particularly charitable towards the human race and was reminding myself that everyone was basically good at heart, a truck full of construction workers revved its engine at me as I crossed the street.

Grr.