Rock Rock Rock n Roll Pedagogical Institute

Hey friends (my but that feels nicer than “Dear Diary”). It’s the middle of October, it’s snowing, I’ve been here about a month and a half and am feeling groovy. Today I gave my lecture at the American Center on the history of Rock n Roll. From my notes I didn’t think I’d be able to fill up the two-hour time slot, but actually I ran out of time before I even got through the eighties! Still, I managed to end my presentation with Josh Goldberg/Double Murder Suicide’s “Ballad of Eddie Guerrero” and the message that in the 21st century, everyone has the power to be a rock star. My Mac-version PowerPoint didn’t work, so it was a good thing I remembered to put JPEGs of the musicians on my flash (please note: that is the most technologically sophisticated sentence I’ve ever written). The turn-out was amazing; a ton of my students came, plus a dozen or so people I didn’t know, including a local journalist. The American Center staff asked me for next time to warn them how many people would come, because tonight they barely had enough chairs. I think everyone really enjoyed it, hopefully as much as I did. When the lecture was over, an older gentleman came up to me and gave me a CD of his son’s band, Dead Alice. It doesn’t look like my cup of chai, but I’ve never been a girl to turn down a free CD. Plus it came with a bonus pin! Also one of my students gave me a flash drive full of music, including a really good Russian indie band that’s playing here this weekend. I feel like Don Quixote, getting ready to go out on his first sally. Let’s hope mine doesn’t end with a drubbing!

In other news, I paid my second month’s rent. I had agreed to meet with my landlords sometime tonight after seven, so I figured they would call me then. Inopportunely, I forgot my cellphone at home today, so when I came home a little after seven-thirty, my houseguest Katie was outside the door waiting. My landlords had come and gone, leaving a huge bag of garden-fresh produce for me. They were very understanding when I called them, came back and were politely bemused when I didn’t understand the extra money they wanted. “It’s your money,” they kept saying, “for our safety.” Eventually I realized it was a security deposit and paid it happily. When they left, having met Katie, they asked if there would be another ETA here next year who might want this apartment. How’s that for a show of confidence? I can’t overemphasize the rarity in Russia, or anywhere for that matter, of such respectful, helpful, kind-hearted landlords, and what a difference it makes.

Tomorrow I don’t have class until the late afternoon. I have a second class in the evening, but thinking I was going to the ballet, I got a real teacher to substitute. Now it turns out the ballet was sold-out, so I think I’d better show up to class because I might get tickets for another Thursday. I’ve already made a bad impression on this teacher by not being where I was expected. Which is worse, to be flip-flopper or a total flake? I just hope I didn’t lie and tell her I already had the tickets... I guess we’ll never know.