Christmas Came Early This Year

At the Vaganova Academy, Saturday night is the new Friday night. Because we have a full day of classes and rehearsals on Saturday, Friday night is just another weeknight. Staying up until two-thirty in the morning while watching a movie has to wait until Saturday night (that is, if you want to be awake during class the next day, which I do).

I didn't quite stay up until two-thirty last night, but I did stay up a lot later than I would have if I hadn't had the luxury of sleeping in as long as I liked this morning. I also didn't spend my time watching a movie; instead, I went for a walk. 

After a disappointing trip to one grocery store with Larry (from Australia), when the cashier rejected my credit card because I didn't have my original passport (which surprised me because I have used my credit card there previously and it hasn't been a problem that I had only my original student card and a copy of my passport), I went walking again with another trainee, Federico (from Italy). We ventured to a grocery store that is farther away from the academy than the first one.

This grocery store, called О'кэй (the Cyrillic phonetic spelling of OK), is actually inside one of St. Petersburg's two main shopping malls. When we rounded the corner and I saw the mall, I almost thought I'd taken a wrong turn on the way there because the mall looked so different than the last time I'd been there. Not only do I usually go there during the day instead of at night, the entire building isn't usually completely covered in a layer of snowflake-shaped Christmas lights. Beautiful? Sure. What I was expecting? Absolutely not. And especially not on November 23. There's still about a month and a half to go before Christmas is celebrated in Russia!

The inside of the mall was heavily decorated, too. The mall is set up with five or so stories of shops forming a triangular-shaped ring, leaving an open area in the middle for the escalators and, as of right now, some giant Christmas ornaments and a floating Christmas tree.

Apparently it became Christmas sometime this week while I was busy rehearsing and taking class inside the academy. I was so shocked to see the Christmas decorations because it made me realize how much time has actually passed since I arrived in St. Petersburg and how quickly that time has flown by. I am so busy during the week that my perception of time consists mainly of a succession of Sundays with hardly any time in between, so it still feels as if I only just arrived a few weeks ago. In reality, I'm far more than halfway done with the semester, and I'll be back at home for break in less than two months.

I also have the idea that the Christmas season kicks off on the day after Thanksgiving ingrained in my mind. In the United States, Black Friday signals the start of Christmas-shopping time, and for many years I would begin a long string of Nutcracker performances on the weekend after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is only a few days away, but I'm still not ready for Christmas season to be upon me. 

The end of this semester will bring me to halfway through my time in St. Petersburg, which makes me sad. I know that it is somewhat premature for me to be sad about the coming of the end of June, but I still am, because I know that I'll blink once and suddenly it will be time for me to leave.