What to say today . . .

I’ve been to the local tex-mex resturaunt twice in the last . . . two days. Both times I have attempted to eat two chimmichangas. Both times I have failed. Both times Vanya and Natalie have finished the last of my second would-be victim. This is part of my “be willing to spend way too much money” initiative, which is involved in the general “don’t ever be bored again” offensive. I mean, just reasons to be wandering around with other students and getting into situations where I have to speak Russian are good, and I guess the best way to learn.

A much bigger deal than the good tex-mex (which is a big deal!) is the cool concert I went to last night. Originally I wasn’t gonna go, because I was too lazy (people having been planning this for like two weeks or something), but because of the new offensive (which I declared after “publishing” my last note/entry), I spent yesterday buying last minute tickets for Joseph and I (I was just getting his ticket, he paid me back of course) to the “Zemfira” concert (can you believe there are no soft signs in that?! I can’t. I don’t base my expectation of soft signs on anything legitimate, just how weird a word is). I didn’t expect to like it (I don’t know why, she’s a girl or something). But I really did. It wasn’t Helsinki 1972, but it was interesting and I thought the band had some nice not-totally stale licks. And they keyboard player got a lot of play, and there was a guy on trumpet – pluses for me. There was good energy. I drank beer in a bar/club setting. It was great.

Today I bought the album this tour was in support of, and am so far enjoying it. Though not as much as the actual concert, of course. I don’t really get people who don’t like live music, or people who don’t like concert discs.

My classes are not very good. I don’t like them. Little is expected, so that’s what I do. I suppose you can make an argument for self-motivation, except what are you PAYING a college for? If you had the self-motivation, you could probably learn most of this stuff yourself. What’s lacking in people is usually not mental ability, but discipline. So you pay someone to make you care about learning well and in a timely fashion. According to this philosophy, I am not getting Mom and Dad’s money out of the classes here. Though of course there are lots of other perks about being in Russia of course, especially as relate to learning Russian. I have a very hard time in class making myself pay enough attention, so I’m understanding, probably, significantly less than I hypothetically could. Which is not to say nothing. And that’s enough Nietzschean conscience-gnawing.

I finished “The Red and the Black” a coupla days ago, finally. It is interesting for being a book that is fascinating but, for me, was a huge pain in the ass to read because all the characters are so obnoxious. It’s like a parody of love, with all these characters raving about being in love, and then falling out of it in like two days, and then loving someone else hysterically, and then going back to the other person. Ugh. But I certainly get why Nietzsche liked Stendhal so much, and why he’s highly regarded. His depiction of the more detestable/commonplace elements of the human psyche is erudite, to say the least. And it has that sort of narrator-as-a-character voice that is neat when Stendhal does it and bad when Stephen King does it. And Stendhal was probably a Napoleon-worshipper, as is Julien Sorel, as am I. Man, Napoleon was just awesome. This Felix Markham biography is just great. I even mostly agree with it for once.

St. Petersburg is coming up in like three days. Wow am I ever excited. Sara says the hotel she found for me has free internet.

I mean I can’t wait to see the city!