obsession

If I were to rate today on a scale of 1 - 10, it would be a 1000000000000000000000.
Today was a fantastic day.
Today I had one of the most unique experiences I've yet to experience.
I still can't get over what happened today.

Curious yet?



Today we went to Переделкино (Peredelkino), a little place about a 20 minute electrichka (commuter train) ride away from Moscow.
Does the name Boris Pasternak ring any bells? He was a poet and author extraordinaire, most known in the West for writing Dr. Zhivago. He lived in Peredelkino from 1939 until his death in 1960 and his house is now a museum.

I admit, I wasn't very excited to go on another excursion to another museum about another famous dead Russian guy who I didn't really know anything about.
However, this was not to be just any ordinary excursion!

The museum wasn't really like a museum at all; it's just his house. The museum people kept everything like it was when Pasternak lived there. It was like Pasternak had just stepped out and would return any moment to find a group of Americans looking at the pictures on his walls.
The woman who works there and gave us a tour of the house was so obviously in love with her work and Pasternak; when she talked about him, you could tell how important he was to her. It made me want to know everything she knew and feel how she felt about Pasternak. My Russian has also improved a lot and I understood most of what our guide told us, making it that much better.

After our guide explained a little about Pasternak's growing up years and education, she showed us the room where his piano is. I was longingly looking at the piano as the guide started talking about the room, and Kelly mentioned to her that I play the piano. To my extreme surprise and shock and disbelief and so on and so forth, our guide said: "Well, you can play something if you want!"

Yes.
That's right.
I played Pasternak's piano.
I played THE piano that Pasternak played.
Little old me played Pasternak's piano. Pasternak!

After warning everyone that it probably wouldn't sound good because I haven't played in months, I started to play Chopin's Waltz #7 in C Sharp Minor. I could only get a few measures out before I forgot how the waltz went, but it was one of the coolest things I've ever done.
I'm probably never going to wash my hands again.
Just kidding.
Kind of.


Upon our return to Moscow I went to a bookstore and bought a book of Pasternak poems.
I might be a little obsessed.




Next post will have football videos. Sadly my computer crashed and I lost everything; luckily I have it all backed up and just haven't had time to put everything back yet.
I guess I was too busy playing Pasternak's piano.
Hope you don't mind.