The Olympics

Seeing as I am in the same country as this year's Olympic Games, I feel that I can't have them pass by without dedicating a blog post to talking about them. (And they almost have passed me by, since the closing ceremony is happening tomorrow). Though I'm much closer to Sochi than the vast majority of my friends and relatives, Saint Petersburg and Sochi are still a pretty significant ways apart. Out of Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Sochi, Sochi is the most southern city and Saint Petersburg is the northernmost. Moscow falls approximately halfway between the two. Traveling by train between Moscow and Saint Petersburg takes several hours on a high-speed train or overnight on a standard-speed one, so it would take about twice as long to get between Saint Petersburg and Sochi.

The distance between the cities has definitely been no barrier to the spread of excitement about the Olympics. There is a big clock of sorts on the large street near the school that has been counting down the time remaining until the start of the Games. Here's a picture of it that I took at in the beginning of December.

Students at the Academy and pedestrians on the streets can frequently be seen wearing the official Russia Olympics-wear manufactured by the company Bosco or carrying bags of similar style made by the same company. I've even seen students taking Olympics-themed notebooks to class and a girl with a yoga mat decorated with the diamond-based design that you can see on the left side of the countdown clock. On the night of the Opening Ceremony, the teacher told us to go home as soon as we had finished rehearsing our own pieces rather than stick around for the remainder of the rehearsal so that we would be able to watch as much of the Opening Ceremony on TV as possible. Two days ago, another teacher handed me the English section from his newspaper, the whole front page of which was dedicated to the Olympics, and told me to read it.

Unfortunately, a lot of rehearsals and general exhaustion has kept me from watching too much of the actual competitions. Seeing as tomorrow is Sunday, the one day of the week when I don't have to wake up and go to class, I can afford to stay up late without worrying about being exhausted the next day. I think I'll spend some dedicated Olympics-watching TV time this evening after I finish with my rehearsal. It'll be a good way to relax after a long, exhausting week.