“We only have one night in St. Petersburg, so we decided to go to a Britney Spears concert.”

Note: pictures to come.

Meeting other native English speakers almost makes up for the inadequacy I feel when I meet other foreigners — while my Russian is nothing next to, say, that of the Polish girl I work with, at least I can get a full sentence out, which is more than I can say for most of the Americans I meet. Two cases in point:

The other day, I received a phone call from an unknown number. The conversation went something like this:
Him: “Allo? Sara? Allo?”
Me: “Da, da, eto Sara.”
Him: “Ah! Sara! Privet.”
Me: “Privet.”
Long silence.
Him: “Kevin.”
Me: “Kevin?”
Him: “Kevin.”
Long silence.

(at this point, I start getting excited — my friend Katie and I were recently drinking on the embankment of the Neva when a guy who supposedly neither drinks nor smokes (go figure why he wanted to talk to two devushki drinking at 5 pm on a Tuesday) tried to pick us up. I ended up giving him my number, mostly to get rid of him, and he’s been calling me every day since. Unfortunately, neither Katie nor I can remember his name, so we’ve named him Ruslan. Ruslan is kind of awkward and sometimes has trouble getting a full sentence out, so I figured maybe Kevin was actually his name — mystery solved!)

Me: “Ah! Privet!”
Him: “Privet.”
Long silence.

Him: “Uhh po-angliski?”
Me: “Uhh da…?”
Him: “Oh, ok, hi, is this Sarah the Canadian?”

What this kid, who can’t even say, “this is Kevin” (TWO words, one of which is his own name, in Russian: eto Kevin) is doing in Russia, God only knows.

Then on Sunday was one of the many highlights of the summer: the Britney Spears concert. I figure that, having been here 6 months and having gone to the ballet three times, the theatre, the symphony, a Duran Duran concert — I’m entitled to a guilty pleasure in the form of some good old fashioned American pop. This does not apply, however, to the Australian and South African guys I met at the concert.

How did I meet them? Katie and I were standing in the popcorn line (Britney’s theme is Circus so popcorn is obligatory) and heard someone say, “does anyone speak English?!?” These guys were looking around hopefully for someone willing to translate the beer menu. Turns out they were on a cruise and, rather than take advantage of being in Russia’s cultural capital, and one of the most culturally/artistically interesting cities in the world, they chose to go to a Britney concert. In retrospect, this may have been a cunning move on their parts: they were able to witness Russian women in a natural setting and saw a variety of outfits, ranging from prom dresses to a 7-year old and mother wearing matching leopard print outfits.

One quick note about the Circus theme: maybe her performers’ tricks are exciting in America, but this is Russia for crying out loud — the Russian circus is renowned for its dangerous acts including but not limited to no safety nets or cords, animal abuse, anti-Semitism, and so on. After a horrifying display in Moscow of chimps involved in a Jewish wedding, it’s tough to be impressed by Britney’s mediocre performers.