Week 5

Italian flatmates are a riot. They gave the suite a thorough cleaning, scrubbed the floors, replaced the shower curtain, even bought a toilet-bowl air freshener and new sponges for the kitchen. Everything was squeaky clean within a matter of hours after they'd moved in. I see them around the Philology Department at SPBGU, looking glamorous in their big black sunglasses and leather jackets, two classic blonde Italian babes, Consuelo at least a head shorter than Anatolia. They go everywhere together. Every time I step out of the elevator I see them smoking cigarettes together in the stairwell. They yell at each other in Italian and I hear it through the wall, always wondering if they're really angry at each other or just passionate, because it seems like that's the only way to speak Italian, with the full strength of your voice so that your mouth gets to cherish the vowels and consonants rolling around and flipping off your tongue. They speak to me in a mixture of three languages, and somehow our messages get through. They make my flat a little less empty and a little more like a home.

Tomorrow's my day off, and I'm looking forward to filling it with art: there's a contemporary art festival in P-burg right now, with installations scattered across the map of the city, and I've been to a few but they're far apart and I didn't get to all of them on Saturday. At 1:30 I have an appointment with Anna Pushina, the volunteer coordinator at Pushkinskaya 10 Art-Centre, so I can finally start my internship there (which will last throughout the month of October, as far as I can tell). They need English-speaking volunteers to help with an international festival they're holding in October, but I really hope it's a chance to practice my Russian as well.

But now, I'm due to meet some friends in the metro for our guilty little treat of American culture--the new Tim Burton movie, "9", is playing, and if we're lucky we might get the original sound track + subtitles instead of dubbed awfully into Russian. An early night on Nevsky Prospekt, a break from my usual Tuesday night debauchery. I've got things to do!