So last Sunday, as it is now, was relaxing after the trip to Peterhof. Tania, Alisa, and I studied some at a café and walked around. It has been insanely hot here, which meant coming home to find my host mother doing housework in just her panties, a t-shirt and an apron. She didn’t seem the least bit phased that I was there. Russians seem to lack certain level of modesty that us Americans have. Perhaps that’s a result of the communal living during the Soviet Union or something... Zach’s host father has been known to wear only a thong on a regular basis around the house (a very manly fashion statement here). I’m glad to say I haven’t seen my host father in such a state.
This was a bee caught in the lantern next to the kitchen table.
I also did some laundry, which is interesting here. We have a tiny “washing machine” in the bathroom. You can fit little more than an armful of clothes in at a time (which is fine since I didn’t bring a lot of clothes with me and it’s summer so clothes are less bulky). The worst part is what the clothes are washed in. I said no fragrancey stuff or anything, besides regular soap, so I can’t imagine what it would be like if I had my clothes washed in true Russian fashion. There is no dryer of course, so everything is hang dried, which tends to make clothes rather crispy. But in Russia, they must use some kind of starch in the soap to wash clothes because they dry like plaster. I could do some serious damage with a pair of underwear let alone with a pair of jeans. Also, if you get water on your clothes you can actually see the starch run off. It’s wonderful. Sometimes I wonder whether Russians deliberately try to make their lives less comfortable.
Sunday evening was the World Cup. I watched the last 30-45 minutes of the game (in Russian), which made me remember why I really don’t like soccer. I understand that being a whiny little drama queen is part of the game of soccer (probably why I hate it), but I feel like it’s completely unnecessary. Not to mention the game is rather boring, especially on tv. You just wait, and wait, and wait till a goal is made (like one or two the entire game). And the rest of the game is constant time outs to decide about penalties, I guess, during which I’m disgusted with the childish behavior of the players (I love the feigned grimaces of pain, and especially the one where you throw up your hands and put on the most outraged and offended expression to the ref as if to say “did you just see THAT!?!”). In all my experience in ballet school (the most catty, bitchy, whiny, cut throat competitive place you can imagine) the ballerinas were bigger men than these fools. But it was fun to watch it with my host father while drinking beers (Russian beer is actually pretty good, especially the dark ones). He’s not really into soccer either, but it’s one of those things you have to watch. He didn’t’ really care who won, but thought it was amusing that his daughter was in Paris (she lives there) and my brother was in Rome (Josh is traveling around Europe for a month or so this summer).
Monday was also pretty relaxed. More studying with classmates, sleeping, and recovering. The heat broke a little, which was wonderful since it’s been unseasonably hot here. Petersburg is usually in the low to mid 70’s for highs, but lately it’s been in the mid to upper 80’s—add pollution and humidity and filthy streets and you have disgusting weather. But there was a huge storm in the early evening, which was amazing to watch. There are a bunch of men working on the roof across from my window, who are some kind of immigrant workers form Ukraine or Belarus (at least that’s what my host dad said). They work insane hours, from morning till as late as 10pm at night. The roof looks pretty treacherous—especially because they’re 6-7 stories up on aluminum (I think) sheets with no safety features whatever. If you slip it’s simply goodbye. These guys get paid by the job, so they work horrible hours for little pay and in not the safest conditions. As I was watching the storm brew I was waiting for them to clean up and go inside. Nope. The storm broke and rain came pelting down. I almost thought it was hail the droplets were so big and violent.
The men tried to gather the loose 15-20 panels so they wouldn’t blow off. I could see them slipping on the slick metal as they tried to secure their materials and themselves (some of them don’t wear shoes either so I was especially worried I’d be witness to a grisly death). Next came the heavy winds which half blew off a satellite from the roof, and then two of the panels ripped up off the roof—one went crashing to the ground below, the other became lodged in the tree. Not really sure when that will come down. Here are a couple of pictures.
Here's the metal lodged in the tree:
All the men seemed to survive and they’re still working their crazy hours. It stayed cool for the rest of the night, but the heat is back up again now.
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