hooligan

Hey all. I'm finally online at home now, so I should be able to check email and things more regularly now.

I'm settling in fine here with Marina and the family. In one of those crazy Russian situations, I find myself living in Marina's bedroom, while Marina and Alina, her 20 year old daughter share her very small bedroom. And Marina keeps asking if she can go into my room to get something - and I'm not paying them rent! Russian hospitality is one of a kind. They are great though. I could not have ended up in a more perfect place, in terms of finding myself with a bunch of outdoor enthusiasts who like yoga and eastern philosophy. Sasha the 9-year old is crazy. She is INSANE. I have never seen a child with so much energy. I babysat for her last night, which was comical to say the least. She is ADD to the max. Alina is great. So not a typical Russian girl which makes me very happy. She speaks English very well, so we just converse, without any formal lessons.

I"m already at work here. I have to be, since I have such a short time here. So much to read! I work in 3 archives - one is open Mondays and Thursday and I can only order 5 folders at a time. Another is open Mondays and Wednesday (yeah, they clearly did NOT coordinate those schedules, bastards) and I can only order 5 folders and only if they give me the little token giving me access to the reading room because it is so small and too many people want to use it. This one is also a 30 minute walk from the nearest metro in a really not nice neighborhood. The other is closed. Yup. I have to try to make "emergency arrangements" with them. Poor St. Petersburg. They don't get enough funding. But the Russian National Library rocks my world. The main branch is on Nevskii Prospect in a building at least 200 years old, and it feels like it. But its nice, and although bureaucratic, its a good atmostphere. Comfortable to work in. The second branch is not in the center. I went there yesterday for the first time and it was like going to Russian-library Mecca. Its a new building, beautiful, well-built. It has sofas you can sit in and read, a nice cafeteria and not-as-scary bathrooms. Its like a library in America. I very much enjoyed it.

The title, hooligan, refers to Ritchie, the talking parrot. This is one of his favorite words. He sits and talks to himself when no one is around. He can say "hooligan", "hello dear", "Where's the money? What money?", "Come here", "eagle", "Moor", (the cat's name) and other such things. He attacks my head alot.

I"m going to go now. I need coffee and breakfast, and then there is an exhibit downtown I want to see. More about my neighborhood next time, its really cool.