I so win. (But warning...translating russian = not winningness)

What an amazing day this turned out to be!!! I'm so thankful that I finally spent an amazing day, it was so more than neccesary for me and my mood...Endorphins are my friend...but first homework to be finished, and then more to update...But I'm so glad that we decided to loose our symphony tickets and go on the outting, it was so more than worth it...

I so dont want to do homework right now...Oy. But two hours, with a break for tea and cake. Its only rarely that I ever have legitamate work to do, and everytime it does happen and I start hearing myself bitch about it, I just remind myself that in four months I'll be back in real life, and this is nothing. It's sad that my semester abroad is probably going to end up being the easiest, academics wise, of my college career.

So this morning I met Fred at my metro stop, we headed down to the trains, and then the fun began. We were supposed to head from Gorkovskaya, my stop, to Teknologicheskoy Institute, then switch to the red line, and then just one stop to Pushkinskaja where the train station was. Then, for some unknown reason, the metro we were on magically eneded up on the orange line, completely skipping Gostiny Dvor, the transfer point downtown of all the lines. They probably said something about when and why, but I eather didnt hear or didnt understand or both. But at any rate, we arrived at Sadovaya, the first stop on the orange, and had no friggin' clue how it was that we got there. Only about 20 minutes later of arguing with a map did we figure out where we were and how to get the the train station, not bad in Peggy land. After that no more huge issues finding the train station, not even finding the part where local trains leave from. Only that we didnt know how to buy tickets to Pavlovsk, but it was still a good half hour early from the time we were all supposed to be meeting, so we just stood and waited, hoping to look conspicious enough to catch someones eye from the group. Thankfully some girl recognized us, and starts waving frantically for us to come and join her in line. With out here, yea, we'd have stood around for a while more, and than probably given up and gone home. Later she told us that most of the choir kids were just going to leave from Kuchin, a stop at the end of the blue metro, because there you dont have to have proof of ticket, you can just hop the train and hope the controller doesn't come through. Even if he does, you can just slip him 10 rubles (like...30 cents...) and not a problem. Her name is Yulia, I think she sings soprano two, so I hadn't met her yet in rehearsals. In the train we found another guy from the choir, Artur, John, and later on Masha in Pushkin where she lives. We had one of those random ass train conversations, but it lasted all the way to Pavlovsk, so I was happy. The whole crew met us on the platform at Pavlovsk, and we set out for the park. It was a beautiful day, gorgeous fall folliage, warm-ish...Once we got to the gates of the park the fun began. Everyone decided that paying the entrance fee wasn't really worth it, so we started off around the fence line looking for another way into the grounds. Keep in mind this fences is maybe 6 feet tall, rusty, and pointy looking. People started scalling it, but I decided I didn't think I'd make it up and over with no footholds or nothing. We walked for a hile, trying old locks to see if one would crack for us, but no luck. Eventually the group had dwindled to just me, Fred, John, Ania the head alto one, Yulia from the train, and some soprano girl I don't know. After walking for 20 minutes or so we got caught by some babushki gate guards at a second entrance, and it was obvious we were trying to break in that we had to give up and pay them, but atleast finally actually made it onto the grounds of the park. Then we wandered for a while trying to find the rest of the group, who had scattered in all directions trying to make it over the fence without paying. THey had all set up this huge picnic by the time we got there, I mean huge, like 40 people were sitting around all the food spread out on newspaper. As we sat and ate they started singing folk songs, which somehow everyone magically knew but the Americans of course, so I sat in awe and listened. The spontaneity of it was just awesome, one person would start a song and everyone would instantly join in. Or some songs Edvard the director would lead, or Vitja the pianist, but mostly it was just people throwing a song out there for the world. After we ate, it was proclaimed sports time. It felt so good to run around and get disgustingly sweaty, so much more than I was expecting or remembering. Soccer was eh, but running around acting stupid was a decend compromise. Somehow any game that pits girls vs. boys usually ends up like that? Then in good russian spirit we ate again, sang some more, and gradually people started to leave. In the end we stood in a big circle, the last 20 or so of us, and sang like ever folk song or piece that they'd performed in the past five years. We drew a crowd, it was fantastic. Everytime we tried to stop and leave, they'd shout "Brava Brava! More more!" Granted I use the word we loosly, since I didn't know any of the songs, but some I pretended, some I picked up relatively quickly, some I sang without words. It was nice just to be in the middle, even if I really had no idea what was going on for most of the day. What a cool tradition though, every year on the first Sunday in October they meet in the same place of the same park. SO all the former or inactive members of the choir know about it, and alot of them came. It was so friendly...just plain...merriment.

The weirdest thing was the trip there and back though, so much deja vus. The train was exactly like the trains out to bumfuck, exactly my trains from Kostelec, and the landscape, all the nature and the villages, everything might as well have been exactly the same. Even the people in the train, just so very familiar. I think this trip back to Czech Republic in November is going to be more difficult than I'm expecting, and I think I'm only just realizing in which dimensions. Particularly if Bruno does actually end up coming with me, it'll just all the more expose everything that I've lost. I sat with my russian-czech dictionary the other night, just reading words, looking up things I'd like to be able to say, but just keep coming out in Russian instead of czech. Sometimes I feel like going back there speaking Russian is an even greater insult than just plain forgetting all my Czech...So much right now I'm praying is purely and simply the influence of here and now...so much.