An unbelievably good day -- or rather evening. Feeling almost as happy as on my birthday; maybe because once again I am so, so sleepy. Have been to Serbian Culture; chat with S.U. and Zh.; then went to have a sandwich and a Serov experience; too many people so I cancelled the second part; went to Leninka and there met SO many people I know! Ar., two girls from folklore practice, N.K. and my ex-teacher of Culture in 1514 who, curiously, studies Serbian Culture with me. What was especially amazing and Chestertonian (in one of his novels all the heroes gather in a single place) is that all these encounters were squeezed in less than half an hour. I said bye to Ar., than in 2-3 minutes met the girls, next minute met N.K.
And one of the reading halls, so weird. Both stuffy and cold, dark and with little lamps above people's desks, and Kremlin wall just outside. And when I got out -- a wonderful blizzard and a white Christmas tree, seen through the narrow passage (they are renovating the columns). Then I had  a stroll to the Red Square and saw Saint Basil's miraculously appear.
Snow on fur hats. Manezh. Zhivago...

"Life is not a bed of roses". I love this disappointed English expression, maybe because I can imagine an actual bed of roses, maybe because it is such a beautiful image to have in your mind when you feel that life is a cruel and an awful experience. They just didn't tell you that when you were a kid.

A hard day's evening in the very centre of Moscow, on Chistye Prudy. Walking along the houses I have seen so many years ago, when I was photo-hunting. The lions. The not-so-dark, wonderful dusks. Chime. Tinkling, magical noise.

*

Underground. A young lady -- blue coat, blue balloon in her hands and light blue eyes, so light and blue that they seem to blind you. A bit clumsy.

Pricala sam majci o nekim konferencijama u Letoniji, nisam mogla odluciti ici tamo ili ne ici. A ona je rekla jednu prostu ali bas pametnu stvar: treba saznati zasta zelim ici tamo. Da li sama konferencija znacajna za mene. Istina je da nije. Ne imam dosta vremena za pripremiti dobar rad; a zadnja dva-tri putovanja su bila bas challenging jer nisam imala dovoljno para za sve. I nece to biti bas uzivancija, znaci. Pa i Letonija, zemlja, jezika koje ne znam. Nije to neki edem, nije bas poznata po svojim lepotama da bih isla ne za jezicne vezbe i kulturno iskustvo.
Hocu u Veliku Britaniju. Ova dugogodisnja (vecinom latentna masta). Dobro je mastati, ali moram i ici tamo.

A surprisingly happy week.
One birthday.
One (almost) completed application.
One passed examination.
One lecture in Serbian.
One meeting with classmates.
One film in English.

Plus Chesterton; online course on English literature; a translation project about psychology and a chance of working as a fiction translator.

Da, i te pokloni iz Skotske...
A stvarno moram ici tamo. Da bih malo zivjeti ko ti lijepi junaci knjiga britanskih autora... Da bi -- prvi put u zivotu -- boraviti dugo u necjoj kuci izvan grada...

ovaj (vec drugi) zimni boravak kod roditelja. hladnoca i puno tople odece (i siroke pajamas), pokloni, pismo za sveuciliste... bas je cozy. i van je zima i sneg