Why I love Russian

Hello out there in Winthrop-land, in Cape Cod-land, in Rhode "I"-Land (sorry for the cheap pun), in Russia-land, in England-land, and elsewhere! How are you this fine Saturday? I have to say I am soooooo grateful for this four day weekend! As some of you know, Thursday was the day of unity in Russia, so we got a day off, and we got yesterday off as well, resulting in a fantastic four day weekend. Unfortunately, we have to work next Saturday to make it up, and because we'll be on a Friday schedule for that day, I'll be teaching from 3:30-9:35 in the evening. Boo. Oh well, Christmas is coming, and with Christmas...our choir concerts! :D

Before I expand upon why Sergei was in his element today, I want to share an example of why I love the Russian language. Some of you think may think me crazy for devoting my free time to reading books about punctuation, syntax and linguistics in Russian. Well, you would be right. But occasionally textbooks provide some really hilarious sentences. For example, to demonstrate the importance of logic in speech, and how an illogical sentence (or text) can have unintended humorous results, I will write an sentence in Russian from a textbook by professor И.В. Голуб.

Обешаю не жить. (There was a sentence preceding this, but I don't remember it, and besides, it lacks the ridiculousness of the sentiment implied here. I promise not to live. What the hell? Oh Russian. I really should write these down, just as I write down Sergei quotes, Sara Greene quotes from the infamous trip to NYC, Philly and D.C, and Maureen quotes, which will stand the test of time and live on for all eternity.

But now we move on to the choir. Sergei, as you know, is conductor of the Moscow International Choir. His directions are, well, unique, to say the least. He tells us to "be beautiful", to "not squeeze the juice", and to "not sing like mice". Today, however, was epic. In one song, he implored the sopranos not to yell, but instead of yelling, he said "Don't cry." I nearly cried from laughter. In "Carol of the Bells", Sergei implored the sopranos (he often gives these hilarious directions to the sopranos, LOL), to sing piano, but text fortissimo. :) At the end of rehearsal, he told us that we had panic in our eyes. One of my favorite moments, was when Sergei told us to sing either piano and then forte, or громко, а потом очень громко (this was during Joy to the World), and then after we sang "Небо и земля", во время которой Сергей сказал, что у сопрано хорошо получается пиано. ("Heaven and earth", during which Sergei said that the sopranos sang piano amazingly, even though they should have sang loud). :D Gotta love our Sergei. :)

I love this time of year. I won't love having to work an absurd amount of hours next week, but I love singing Christmas carols. We're even singing my favorite, O Holy Night, hooray! And I even got the French pronunciation down for "Il est ne le divin enfant", yay! One more French song to go...and I'm still confused has to how a tango (yes, Chris and Ester, we're doing the Tango..pa rum pum param piram) relates to the Christmas season, but Sergei has spoken. And so has my quill. ;) Have a lovely day, my friends! Further updates to come! For now, this is Comrade Jon, signing out! Peace and love to all!