Winter Palace was within walking distance of our hostel. Go over a street or two, and you’re suddenly in the square outside the front entrance. Winter Palace makes up one of the five buildings of the Hermitage, which is essentially the biggest museum you’ve ever seen. We had two guides to take us through everything-we just skidded through the highlights (including: one Rembrandt, one Goya, two da Vinci’s) and it took us three hours. We were given free time afterward... I remained at the museum, and got to see a mummy (with excellent teeth), and the largest collection of greek and roman statuary ever. It was fascinating to see all the different representations of gods, goddesses, etc... Eros (Cupid) and Psyche seemed to be a popular myth to reconstruct.
Went to a Georgian restaurant for dinner (Georgia as in the former province of Russia)-full of garlic and spices and red meat, which made ordering a little more difficult for me. But the food was oh so good. Crashed at the hostel that night-the beds were comfier than the ones here in the dorms...
Out of the hostel by 8 the next morning, went to breakfast at the same small hotel as before, then hopped in what seemed like yet another bus. We drove to Pushkin, which is a small town that is also called Tsar’s Village. There, we saw the monstrosity of a palace that the Russian royalty was responsible for constructing. Only it wasn’t, quite. The building is gorgeous, and true to form, but it’s a recreation. It’s not the original. And I don’t mean in terms of renovation-I mean that the palace was essentially destroyed during WWII, then rebuilt. Lots of gold, mirrors, enamel, brocade, and jewels. Beautiful, but a little repetitious. My favorite part of the excursion was the park surrounding the palace, complete with a lake, a man-made creek, and several little pavilions. Fast forward back to St Petersburg, and some free time, which I spent at the Cathedral of the Savior of Spilled Blood.
This church is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen or ever will see. It’s very literally covered in tile mosaics of both Orthodox saints and stories of Christ’s life. So I’m wandering around the inside of the church (along with other curious tourists with audio guides and tour groups with small children), my neck tilted back in order to see the ceiling, and I bump into Jacquie. I mentioned that I was surprised at how much I remembered of the stories, although I didn’t recognize many of the saints. I ended up circling the inside of the Cathedral, explaining all of the stories to the girls that I went with. It really was interesting how much I remembered. Granted, I went to Catholic school for 12 years, but I haven’t really and truly practiced for the past two years. So it’s not all that surprising, having written it out, but it seemed so at the time.
We had a quick dinner, then went to see Comedy of Errors at the Studio Theater of St Petersburg Academy of Drama, a student production from out of time. It was awful. I will give them this-they had a lot of energy. But that was about it. All of the physicality was very strange... it was strangely put together... and the theme music... dear God. That’s all I can say... As a result, I exited the show an a slightly slap-happy crazy person. I practically sprinted to a restaurant close to the hostel (half because we knew it was a good restaurant and half because I felt the intense urge to run). But they were closed, so I went with Greg, Jacquie, Donovan, and Tess to an Azerbaijan restaurant two blocks away, and that was a fabulous alternative.
Return to the hostel, at around 10:45. Assemble outside, and walk to the train station. Hop on the midnight train, which departs half an hour later. Make our way to the cabins, collapse. And then Jacquie, Donovan (roomies), and Greg and I planned the group etude for the next day. You know what group etudes are, so I’m not going to explain again.
And then we all fell apart until about 8 the next morning. Depart train, return home. I make a beeline for the shower, and succeed in getting second in line. Get in the shower and have a seizure. Which made for an interesting rest of the day, because I had to go to two classes later. I managed to sort of kind of pull myself together enough to walk the half hour to school and grab a coffee (poor choice?) before going to Theatre History and then to Acting class...
I’m not entirely sure what’s up with all of this seizure stuff. I mean, I suppose the lack of sleep/food and stress has something to do with it, but this is just silly. The same factors apply back in New York, and by all accounts I should be shaking all of the time. But at least I’ve got a sense of humor about it. My seizure jokes are a big hit.
So classes on Monday were good, despite the strange sense of spatial awareness and occasional lapse into space cadet mode. My partner etude with Darren went very well. (We’re scene partners-Ivanov and Sarah in Act One. An awesome scene.) The etudes we all did on Monday were themed-Ivanov scenes had the title “To Stay or Go.” Darren and I decided on a mildly abstract etude. Desks across the room facing each other, lots of sheets of paper, a pen each. Wait for each others’ energy to hit, and dive onto our papers and write “I miss you” over and over. And then begin to fold the paper into a paper airplane and repeat “I miss you” with different meanings until the airplane was completed. Shoot them across the room to each other. Then, the same with “I love you.” And “I don’t think I can leave here.” Beat. Beat. Beat, as we wait for each other to change our minds. Another bout of energy. “I need you.” But we don’t even get so far as to finish folding. We crumple it up and run over to each others’ desks, only to find that the other is missing... It was a lot of fun. But Sasha pointed out that it wasn’t exactly a partner etude-it was a solo etude for each of us.
So we did another one today, something a little more realistic. Sitting there, at the breakfast table. Him, working. Me, studying (grad school). He gets a phone call, has to go out of town. I have to convince him to stay home. He has to go because he’s moving up in the company very quickly and needs to make money to pay for my schooling. I need him to stay home because I need him to stay home (which, if you think about it for a moment longer, makes all the sense in the world...). The resolution-he stays home, but things aren’t exactly right between us. It went very, very well. Difficult to describe via blog post. Love working with Darren.
Russian language this morning. Yeah. Enough said.
Movement after Russian, which was awesome. We’re moving on to a lot of balancing exercises-partner exercises. Lots of trust, lots of learning about the center of weight, etc. Slowly succeeding with my shoulder stand and moving forward pretty quickly with my handstand. Really psyched for each. Just have to talk myself into the fact that physically, I can do these things. It’s merely a psychological hurdle.
Saw another show tonight- Demon. (Katie, you and I saw this when we were here in January.) Staged at the same theater as Opus 7, and staged by the same director. Not quite as epic, and had a bit less of a storyline, but still beautiful. Because it was mostly visual, it’s difficult to describe. Sufficient to say that there was a lot of paint, rubber gloves, paper (and more paper, and more paper), vinyl records, a ton of other props, etc...
And I suppose I haven’t updated you on my classes in a while... As I said before, I now have a scene and a scene partner. Absolutely in love with Ivanov and all the work we’ve been doing in Acting (more training exercises, feeling energy and whatnot, and lots of etudes, including the daily group etude). Working on a set design for Ivanov for my design class, and working on a Cherry Orchard presentation for Theatre History. Have the dorm rehearsal space reserved for Thursday to practice movement exercises and ballet combinations with my group, because we have Thursday off due to a national holiday. And attempting work on the Russian language.
The Internet sucks recently, so that’s annoying. I’ll post this as soon as it’s back up.
Hope you crazies are doing well and haven’t shot yourselves or each other in the whirlwind of shows and the usual drama that makes up the Fordham social life. Made it halfway through the semester... Not sure what to think of it. Don’t want to leave. Know that it’s not an option. Psyched to bring all of this inside of me back to the States.
Ready to be fearless.
That’s it for now, I suppose.
Peace. Love. Happiness. Hugs and kisses all around.
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