Yes, Virginia, there is a Sun! (1/28/2002)

Hi Everyone,

I understand that my last couple emails didn't come in their entirety, or at all, so I'm just going to assume that no one got anything and go from there.

Anyway, the biggest news in St. Petersburg is the appearance of the "sun," which I was beginning to believe to be a Russian fairy tale until (ironically enough) Sunday, the first time I saw it since I've been over here. Not to say that the presence of a sun positively influences temperatures, though: today it hovered at around 20-25 degrees (not factoring in the windchill) and the past weekend was even colder. So while enduring near sub-zero temperatures, I've been exploring the city and trying to improve my Russian. The latter, of course, is giving me the problems I'd expected. (And people say German is hard?!?!?!) To improve my reading, I picked up a copy of "Garry Potter i Taynaya Komnata" ("Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets") and am already through the first chapter. Not to say it didn't take me forever, though...

School is good and completely in Russian. I take classes in grammar (3x a week), translation (2x), conversation (3x), newspaper (2x), civilization (1x) and literature (1x). The latter two are lecture classes with about 18 students in them, whereas the rest have about nine. Not bad for individual attention, and of course, the more you hear and speak Russian, the better it gets (At least I keep telling myself that.)Next weekend we (the group) are off to Novgorod for two days and a night, a trip that should be a lot of fun should barring ungodly temperatures (which, of course, we will get). More on that after we get back. As to how I'm going to stay up till 6 a.m. watching the Super Bowl I haven't figured out yet, but I'll figure something out. Granted that Boston teams get to play for a championship once every 57 years, this is a no-miss opportunity.

OK, I should go.

Keep in touch.
Matt

"tri - elfiiskim vkadykam v podzbednyi predyel;
sem - dlya gnomov, tsaryashchikh v podgornom prosmore;
devyat - smertnym, chey vyveren srok i udel,
i odno - blastelinu na chyornom prestolyev Mordore, gdye vekobehnaya tma:
Chtoby vsekh otyckat, voedino sozvatI edinoyu chyornoyu volyey skovat
V Mordore, gdye vekobehnaya tma."