Пожалуйста, в гардероб!

"Please, to the cloakroom!"

Sunday morning I volunteered for two hours at the Hermitage museum!! For those of you who are less familiar with St. Petersburg landmarks, the Hermitage is a huge art collection spanning several buildings. The main building is the Winter Palace (see below):

If you aren't instantly reminded of Anastasia or the Romanovs, shame on you because they lived here!

Anyway, my job was to make sure no man, woman, or child entered the ticket checkpoint wearing a coat or backpack. With basically no training and a very small collection of  relevant vocabulary, a friend and I very seriously tried to persuade Russians and foreigners to go drop off their things in the cloakroom. This would be a very boring job in America, but I found standing in the pretty lobby of a very famous museum trying to communicate in Russian fun. More fun - English-speaking tourists!! I could switch to English like it was nobody's business, and I recognized that look of relief on their faces because I often have it on my own. Less fun - getting asked follow-up questions in any language, which I either didn't understand or didn't know the answer to. Where IS your excursion leaving from? CAN you take strollers in? Um, sorry, what? I asked one lady nicely to take her coat to the cloakroom, and she challenged me, asking "Почему (why)?". WHY?! Come back next month and I might have more than a one-word answer for that question. Ridiculous.
Also, a group of young Russian males found it hilarious that we were working at the Hermitage and we didn't speak Russian fluently. Thanks.

Today I went back, hoping for something a little more low-key. I got a nice tour of the backrooms, charming hole-in-the-wall archaeology restoration lab, less charming smoke-break stairwell, and 2ft x 2ft elevator, before being told there was not enough work for all seven volunteers, so I volunteered to leave. Not to worry, the Hermitage will be here for more weeks... and so will I!
Спокойной ночи!
Эмили