I like my internet!  I like it regular and fast.  Kind of like…but so… it has been neither so far.  Yes, I am happy to have internet included in my rental of the PR Palace.  I am EXTREMELY appreciative!!!!!!  However…the palace is more expansive than the range of the wi-fi router and this has been a bummer.  I don’t like to be teased with things I know I can have!  SO…today, Brittany and I FIXED that problem.  Basically, we just got signal boosters that work like a phuqing charm!!!!  Weeeee!  We can sit in our ROOM and do web-y things!  Talk to friends and family without borrowing someone else’s room or hoping no one walks in on us in the livingroom.  YAY!!!  Today was a GLORIOUS day!!!

AND it seems that once I return to the land mass I call home…I will be an official Grad-U-ate!!!  As long as I can email the paperwork to the people it needs to get to and things beyond my control are in order.  It’ll only cost me $55!  With that piece of papyrus and $4.50…I can get a Mocha (peppermint…it’ll be the holidays) at Starbucks!!!!

Yesterday afternoon, we went to see THE FORTUNE at the Alexandrinsky Theater.  Maybe it was called Happiness…or The Blue Bird.  I’ve tried to google it and come up with all those names.  It’s a children’s show unlike what WE would think of as a children’s show because it was kinda dark and a little scary but as a nerdy adult, it was AWESOME!  Because we were sitting in the last row in the center section it was easy for me to take some pics.  They might be a little blurry but I was trying to be a little bit covert.

MY take on it is that it was a story of 2 kids (boy & girl) who’s mother was about to have a baby, the kids got freaked out when mom was taken away in an ambulance.  Their babysitter was a dream fairy-type and they had nightmares about what would happen if their mother died.  There was comic relief by 2 guys dressed as dogs and a girl dressed as a cat.  The girl did some wire work cuz…cats are crazy and jump and pounce and crawl out super high windows…  And the LAST scene is the kids understanding what was going on and picking the baby out.  Mom comes home and everyone lives happily ever after!

There are only about 22 ballets and 46 operas we’d like to see in the next 3 months…we’ll see how many we can cram in.

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I don’t know what it was about it, the intimate space…the friendly connection with the performers…the high physicality of the performance but I *GOT* this show better than any of the shows I saw in Berlin!  I *KNEW* what was happening and the language is more different than German.  It was great!!!!  There were some moments that the lack of language was not as impactful than if I spoke Russian but it was REALLY good!!!!  It was derived from improv and has had almost a full turn over in cast since it’s creation 3ish years ago.

Tonight we will see HAPPINESS.

It’s been a lazy Sunday.  Everyone slept late and are slow to start.  It’s ok.

I succumbed to the iTunes and purchased the whole season.  I can NOT live without my WHO fix.  I’ve only watched Asylum of the Daleks so far.  It seems…campier this season?  I don’t like when they write Amy and Rory NOT together!!

I do believe I have figured out how to publish photos onto my blog!!!  Now if I could figure out how to change my IP so I can watch the Dexter…Project Runway…etc, OR if I can get the wi-fi boosted just another 15′ into my bedroom, I’d be a GEEEEEEE-nyus!

Today, instead of going to rehearsal, I’m sorting out graduation and NYU application stuff.  Need to figure out a resume, an essay, file for graduation and DRAW!  Seems odd to me that in the 21st century, my submission to graduate has to be HAND carried into the office with a check??  Which is  a bit difficult to do from half way around the world BUT maybe they will accept 45 rubles as payment.  It could happen!

We haven’t done a whole lot of deep exploring of the city.  There are still some general things to contend with.  We registered our Visas, got phones with local numbers (the last 3 weeks we’ve been communicating with email HOPING that people check it to know what’s going on!  What did we do before the internet???) and meeting Danila’s theater group.  There are some very talented performers in the group.  Tonight we will see a show at D’s Theater.  I believe it’s an original piece called The Table.

I’m adding photos of the apartment today.  We got EXTREMELY lucky with our place.  It’s inexpensive for what we get, it’s HUUUUUUUUUGE and it’s very nice.

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My magnetic draw is on high lately and messing with all my computer-y gadgets.  For some reason, MY computer only gets 2 bars of internet, my iPad keeps falling off the internet and then “unable to connect” and that’s when only *I* am online!  Clearly Zeus does NOT want me to spend my free time surfing the web and checking in with my friends.  Bastard…

We went for a boat ride yesterday along the canals of St. Petersburg.  It’s really beautiful.  It was a lovely overcast day and the sky was just incredible.

We found the supermarket last night (YAY!) and there is an advertisement that plays every 2 minutes with Everyday and now it’s stuck in my head.  It’s actually rather humorous because the voice over is more the breathy, sexy Spanish v.o. than the “Sunday!  Sunday!  Someday!!!” v.o.  If I could JUST download to The Matrix, you all could hear it.

I’m in effing Russia!!!!  I’ve spent the last 2 days just kinda unloading, trying to get organized and just relaxing.  We are EXCEPTIONALLY fortunate to be in this apartment!!!!!!!!!!  We are paying a lot but NOT for what we are getting.  The smallest room is the single which is about 10′ x 17′.  Brittney and I are sharing a room and it’s the largest one but we currently have to share a bed.  It’s basically what we were doing in Berlin so no big.  Olga is going to help us get an air mattress soon.  There will STILL be enough space to have dance parties and possibly a bounce house!  The curtains are a beautiful plum and gold satin brocade.  (right???!) and there is a cute kitty cuddling painting over the bed that made us both miss our furry beasts.

There is a weird thing that happens with total submersion.  There is a moment of panic…oh phuq!  I have NO idea what ANYTHING says.  I can’t read a street sign, I don’t know where I’m going, I don’t know how to ask for help if I need it and couldn’t find the place that could help me even if I tried!!  And then you realize, you ARE a reasonable adult-type, with a brain and logic and your other senses kick in and you figure out where you are.  It’s bizarre.  AND then my nerd brain jumps to light speed and tries to make sense of the words.  Kagaroo Donuts is what it says at Carl’s Jr.  There is the TM star, so I know it’s Carl’s but my head reads Kangaroo Donuts every time I see it.  How can B-pi-H-dbl atari-3-space invader-space invader-U be a REAL word?

We’re going on a boat ride today!!!!

I’m in St. Petersburg, Russia and it is Sept. 11.  It will never be forgotten and I may be even more affected by a date after visiting the remains of one of the world’s OTHER most notorious big bad.

But I am here in this city, where I can look out the window of one of the bedrooms and see the statue Dostoyevsky describes in CRIME AND PUNISHMENT.  (…dammit…guess I’ll have to re-read it now…fuuuuuuuuuuuuudge).  We were fortunate enough to get an IMMENSE apartment for a reasonable rate.  There is a real kitchen, *2* bathrooms and a giant common room.  OH, and a washing machine!!!!  There’s a milk, meat, & fruit store across the street, a couple 24hr markets 2 blocks away and McDonald’s near by.  There is NOT a Starbucks on the corner like I requested but…

We went to dinner last night with the group.  (Minus 2 who arrive tomorrow).  It was a Russian fusion restaurant.  We all tried pickled herring with Vodka (as it is SUPPOSED to be enjoyed).  I wouldn’t choose to eat the herring everyday, but with a little potato and a little onion, it was a very tasty appetizer.  Beef stroganoff for dinner.  Delish!!!

We have embarked on an interesting adventure.

The unfortunate part of no internet at “home”…I am a slave to Starbuck’s.  I am at the mercy of  THEIR bandwidth traffic no matter how much coffee I buy…they will still sell to other people who will sit online too!  When *I* rule the galaxy, things will be different!!

Last couple days, photos have been easier to upload to FB.  Sorry.

Rewind…The neue Nationalgalerie…the most brightly lit painting was of a shark!  Then into the next room I was drawn to a gorgeous blue painting.  THAT blue that makes my eyes go mwrAWr!  As I go into the room, I hear All You Need Is Love to my right…I look and there’s a giant Double Elvis on the wall.  A few rooms latter is an exquisite 3D painting that I set off the alarm to while taking pictures.  Miss Julie was that evening.  WITH English subtitles!  It was staged as a movie set and choreographed such that actors that were not on camera were helping to set up the next scene or filming from another angle.  There were REAL foley artists and a sound booth for the performers to do their voice overs.  It was projected in real time above the set.  Really interesting!

The next day was the Jewish museum.  One of the buildings was designed by Daniel Libeskind.  SOOOOOO many awkward angles and corners!!  The museum was interesting…a little scary but the space was just neat!  LULU was that night at the Berliner Ensemble…directed by Robert Wilson with music by Lou Reed.  There were a few songs that were VERY Lou Reed!  It was more entertaining than I expected.

Saturday was wandering the neighborhoods of East Berlin with Stefan and Jeremy.  In the rain then I had to go grab my costumes to do a show in the woods…at 7:30p!  SUPER fun…and rather unusual.  Jeb from the San Francisco cast (…who lives in SC) was my Brad AAaaand we kicked it!  But because it was outside and had rained, the stage was SUPER slippery…Floorshow in Converse!!  LOVE!!!

It’s our last day in Berlin…I have a bag full of dirty clothes and no place to wash them, for less than 4Euro/load…I ought to pack but I’m meeting Todd, possibly Stefan & Jeremy and hopefully the new international member of my Enchanted Entourage at the East Side Gallery for photos!!!

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It’s a sad day when uploading and updating FB is easier than anything else…I’ll try a FORTH time on this post later.  I have to go meet Stefan!!!!!!!!

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Yesterday we went to Gemaldegallerie.  Talk about sensory overload!!!  Soooooo many amazing pieces of art in a labyrinth of rooms.  It completely disoriented me in space and time.  AND I didn’t get through the whole place.  Guess there’s a reason to come back now!  I’m trying to upload pics but I have to pick through a 1000 of them and then hope *I* have the stronger magnetic force on the bandwidth.  Mwahahahahahahaha!!!  Enjoy what goes up and there will be more later!

Started the application process…it looks too easy…it’s freaking me out…     d’UH-mmm

…the upload is painfully slow.  I got some Pergamon pics up.  The main part of the Ishtar Gates will have to wait.  I’m off to the National Gallerie and MISS JULIE tonight…WITH English super titles.  YEAH!!!

Our apartment is near a church (in Europe????  Weird, right??) and the church bells sound every 1/2 hour…except at 7a M-Sa and 9a Su when they ring-the-phuq-forever!!!  I count things…it’s an OCD thing…up stairs – must count…down stairs – must count even if they are the same stairs I use 20 times a day.  Apparently, I do this in my sleep as well b/c at 7a every morning I wake up at about 38-42…rings…and IT KEEPS RINGING!!!  There is no melody to the bells, they just ring.  I call it 100-o-clock…

Rewind a bit…we didn’t go to FAUST on Sunday night as planned.  Robert read the reviews and they were HORRIBLE!!!  We went to see EUGENE ONEGIN instead.  I enjoyed it.  The stage was a shallow 4′-ish deep and crammed with furniture!  There were 5 distinct rooms that morphed into each other.  The performers entered in street clothes and the story was performed in a narrator style.  I’m not familiar with the original text/story so I’m not sure of the style of the piece but the performers didn’t say “lines,” instead it was monologues to the audience.  It was in German so I have no idea what they were really talking about but the story in my head was great!  About 40 minutes into it, Eugene began putting on make up…and then the most amazing period costume(!!!!!!!) period fasteners!!!  A dresser had to come onstage to help him.  It was magnificent.  Each performer put on a period costume, one of the characters was Alexander Pushkin, the author.  There wasn’t a lot of movement so it made sense to have the shallow stage.  There were sooooo many old books!!!  And they threw them on the floor.  Aaaaagh!

Monday we tried to go to 3 different museums…but they were closed.  We ended up at the Bauhaus museum.  Soooo wonderful!  There was only 1 Kandinsky but it was very interesting to listen to the audio tour.  …no photos… Monday night was Robert Wilson’s show.  I guess it was only performed the 1 time and put together for THAT space.  After having my ears raped for what seemed like 3 days (screechy white noise-y thing…) RW started reading the Lecture on Nothing text by John Cage.  It was…about nothing and kinda awesome!  I don’t remember the lines specifically…even though they were repeated pretty much for an hour but it was basically (or what *I* took from it) enjoy the moment and be IN it.

Yesterday we went to the Museum of Photography.  The exhibit was Vogue covers…and most things Conde Naste’.  FABULOUS!!!  …no photos again…and the catalog was 60Euros and about 80lbs!  Bummer because there were some amazing photos I will now have to prowl for.  We saw Minna Von Barnhelm last night.  It was a comedy at a children’t theater.  It was silly and fun with a song about pickled eggs…which were offered to the audience.

Today it is raining.  My computer works (YEAH!!!!) and just because it is 9/5 here…it’s not the right 9/5 in NY for NYU to post their 2013 application.  Yes, I have no patience.  Pictures will come soon…need to TCB first!