Russia a World Power?

Recently my mother told me that people are beginning
to talk of Russia returning to "world power" status,
and I could nearly not contain my laughter, it's not
that I wouldn't be happy for the Russians, more power
to them, but if their a world power that doesn't say
much for the status of the world. Today I was walking
down the street, it's finally spring here and crews
are beginning to fix St. Petes up for the summer
tourist season. I saw three men painting little street
side fences along Nevsky, 2 of them with paintbrushes
and one of them supervising, now there is only one
color and really it only needed one guy with a can of
spray paint. Then we proceeded a little farther and we
saw two men cleaning the aluminum siding put up for
construction, fair enough with all the winter mud it
was looking pretty gross, but again instead of hosing
it off in like 4 minutes they had 5 gallon buckets of
water and little paintbrushes, going over each spot
like 4 times. then we continue on, now we've been
talking amongst our selves how someone with a pressure
washer could really make a fortune in St. Petes
because all the street facades are gross and
blackened, but we were pretty sure they didn't have a
clue what a pressure washer is, nope today I saw a man
pressure washing the gutter and the bottom of street
signs, good choice. and that is just what I saw today,
the inefficiency of this country is shocking (and
really quite amusing, I don't think it would be any
fun if it was easy) they have men who's only job is to
come out with their brooms when it rains and push the
water around (they try and move puddles with brooms,
fat chance!) they are the same people I believe who
now that it has dried swept all the grassy areas of
the litter and topsoil(again good idea) but then
interestingly enough no one comes and picks up the
piles so as you walk down the street there are these
huge piles of month old litter, and they've just been
sitting there for about 2 weeks slowly dispersing
again into the street. And you think these people can
pull it together and regain world power status???
But as for my time in Russia, it's simply amazing,
I’ve become culturally active, attending plays,
opera's and jazz concerts (turns out there was a
reason I preferred soccer games and sightseeing).
Monday we went to see “Samson and Delilah”, which
really wasn't that bad, a little over the top with the
"artistic interpretation" but not too shabby, then
Sunday we went to see "Three Sisters" a play by
Chekhov. Now I like Chekhov, really I do, but this was
one of those in your face versions where the audience
is part of the stage, well let me tell you the
drawback of this, you can't get up, not at all in fact
the entrance is behind where the actors are acting,
and how long was this play?? 3 hours. Now surely your
thinking to yourself "well it probably isn't that bad,
they must have had an intermission or 2" nope no
intermission, 3 hours in Russian, people, not just me
were freaking out, the old babushkas really looked
like they were going to jump out the windows (i was
gonna use them to cushion my fall) then at the end
when we thought things were over with the actor came
out for applause about 8 times until one fed up
American screamed at everyone "get up! get up! for the
love of god get up!" and promptly pushed the person in
front of her off her chair and made a mad dash for it.
we were all quickly at her heals, it wasn't that we
hated it, but for some reason the play was extremely
over acted and people kept screaming "i want tea" and
then would start crying then one man started crying
and said "but I like coffee" I’m not sure that they
didn't take some liberty with Chekhov's script and
concept.
Lately I have been going on what most of my friends
here call "death marches" where some poor sap says
"boy Ellery I’d really like to see some of the city,
you walk around a lot, can i come with you" 7 hours
later they hobble back to school and say never again,
what can I say, anyone who knows what traveling with
my mom is like knows that's an easy day.
I finally went to Jarrod’s home stay the other day
for the first time, depressing is the word for it,
cramped also comes to mind. They appear to have had a
small fire in the bathroom (I suspect the son lit the
toilet paper on fire not knowing the result) Jarrod
has yet to be able to figure out what happened or why
they don't paint over the scorch marks. the hanging
electrical cords and partitioned rooms are rather
nicer than I thought (although I never thought you
could split a closet into two rooms).
Next weekend I head to Tallinn and we lose another
girl, she's going home, but when she is supposed to, a
quarter student.
A lot of the year round students have become openly
hostile to everything Russian, and just watch American
movies and receive shipments of mac and cheese and
tootsie rolls, most not going out at all, rarely even
to class as a protest (one can sympathize, Russia’s
tough, but then again they were the ones who signed up
for a year) even the semester students are getting
antsy, especially with restaurant service, which is
militantly slow to say the least (I don't really like
going out to eat with Jarrod because I’m afraid of
landing in jail). But now that we're getting vitamin
d from the sun about 16 hours a day things will
improve, now it's time for me to go, it's 5 o clock
and I’ve only got another 5 before the sun goes down
and I promised Joe we'd see the rest of the city in 3
hours max, he doesn't know what he's gotten into!! ell