kalinka, kalinka, kalinka moya

I just spent five hours doing homework for tomorrow and thursday, for a class that I'm just taking for kicks. Firstly, there was that little essay on D.S. Likhachov to read, which was all good and fine, but when you start throwing in words like "public figure" and other fun stuff into intermediate level, which is what we supposedly are, it becomes a massive headache. Yes, I know it's funny that I don't know how to say public figure, but.... GAH. We've been doing stuff like "I want to invite you to the party" and "I wsh you happiness on your birthday" and then she (she being darling, adorable Masha who I want to hug and become best friends with) is like "hah! read themes about ancient Russia!" And yes, it's far far FAR more interesting, not to mention more pertinent to what I want / need to know, but... some clarity in the switching? some going over of vocab before throwing us ten essay questions due the next day?

And then, in razgovor we're doing film and theatre. Which is SPLENDID. Too splendid, in fact. I realised I had all these questions to get done, a list of eighteen, and so I started in. Number one: which do you prefer, film or theatre? Why? Fine. Next: Are there some kinds of movies children should avoid? Why? OK. Moral questions here, but can be written off in about four sentences. Let's go further. Couple more like that, interesting, but dealable. then-- the killer one, for me at least. "Who is your favourite actor? Why? What films has he played in? And actress?"

Ok, you have to stop right here and comprehend the EVILNESS of this question. There are many who could just write that off and be done with it, but OH NO. Oh no oh no oh no. ALEX, little miss overacheiver, chooses to go into the comparative merits of Deniro versus Brando. With four months of Russian behind her. The result are such sparkling gems as: "Seichas, igrat' [Streetcar named Desire] v teatre ochen trudno, potomu chto mnogo liodi smotreli etot fil'm i dumali, chto rol Stanleya Koval'skiya bylo napisat' dlya Brando."

Translation: Now, to play "Streetcar named Desre" in the theatre is very hard, because many people saw the film and thought that the role of Stanley Kowalski was written for Brando.

Clumsy in English, even. ACK. I just want a magic fairy to descend and send me back in time to a Russian household. My father speaks Russian. Would it really have been SO hard for him to bring his daughter up speaking it?

Also, we have this fucking Finn in my class who a.) is an actor, or rather aktyorrrrrrr with a thunderrrrrous rrrrrrolling finnish Rrrrrrrrr so he has OPINIONS about theatre and stuff (as he is allowed, as he actually works in the business) but he NEVER SHUTS THE FUCK UP. And he has SO MUCH more vocabulary than ANYONE and SO MUCH better grammar and he should be in a higher class, but OH NO, when I asked him why he didn\'t move up, he smply shrugged and said that he was placed in the class, so it must be the right one. AGH. And he corrects everyone to their face and is always like "Mozhno sprosit?" and busts out some hideously technical thing while all of the rest of us sit there babbling like infants.

I think I'm also annoyed because we had to sing Kalinka in Fonetika today and as a result it\'s been stuck in my head ALL DAY. with full orchestral accompaniment. Not a bad song, but.... ack. Horrid.

Ok, I'm out of time. To give credit where it's due, this was originally an email to Liza. But I needed to re-rant. GAH.