В Принсипе

So remember how I said I'd write on say, Wednesday? (Note that it is now Friday.) Today's lesson in Russia: the concept of "in principle". In principle, Russia has everything. In principle, we had an hour of internet time on Tuesday. This is how things ACTUALLY worked out:
EVIL HEAD TEACHER: Everyone going on the mosque trip needs to be downstairs in 10 minutes.
STUDENTS: But the schedule says it doesn't start for another hour!
EHT: That's nice. Ten minutes.
STUDENTS: But, but....
EHT: *stony silence*
Please note, in principle doesn't really go both ways. I may be able to use it in order to turn my diary in on Monday instead of Friday (it was due on Friday in principle), but gosh darnit, they're still going to have get it, even if they have to pry it from my cold, dead hands. (This is, in fact, more related to such things as theoretical academic progress, but I'm a touch bitter that I just got the darn thing back today and it's due again tomorrow...)

Only one week left of classes! Finals are on Thursday. Of course, said finals may or may not be actually related to what we've done to date, but what can you do? It'll be nice that come up to a period of final exams that I'm not stressing about, since as far as I'm concerned, things are as they are.

As alluded to earlier, we went to a mosque on Tuesday. It was pretty cool - we got to talk to the imam and the guy who runs the school at the mosque. The professor talked the same we do - English and Russian run together (except he threw in Arabic from time to time, just to be special). Nothing of great import was said, though we did learn where to find halal meat in Astrakhan, should you ever need this vital information.

After the mosque, we had tea with a Tatar (nationality in Russia) family, which I enjoyed. Our director summed it up as "Classic Russia - lots of little babyshkas running around, tossing meat pastries down your throat". The highlight was definitely the honey cake, which several people announced that they would do just about anything for. The one downside was the heat - we had quite a few people crammed into a rather small room, and since we were eating with all the important people, all of the girls had to stay veiled. The guys got hot, the girls with scarves simply tied over their hair got hotter, and since I was wearing my scarf hijab-style (it's what I'm used to, my shirt was kind of open, and my scarf's too big to tie any other way), I melted. When the important people left, the babyshkas told us we could unveil, the comment, "Poor dear, you must be so hot," was definitely made to me.

For everyone who thinks Russia is all snow and balalaikas, I hereby invite you to Astrakhan in the summer. It's hot. And there's no A/C most of the time, since Russians are convinced that A/C causes illness. How hot is hot? It's supposed to be up to 40C today - that's 104F, and there's been rumors that it may get as high as 50F before we leave (that would be 122F). So enjoy your nice air conditioning for me, okay?

That's about it for the moment - I'll be home in half a month! Stay cool!