For the first time in nearly a month, I have no grading to do tonight. What should have been cause for a celebration, however, is turning out to be cause for a nap. I'm exhausted. I love the summer teaching gig, but it's draining the life out of me.

But no! I'm fighting it! Ostensibly I'm working on my dissertation at the moment.

***

Every week I give the students some fun, short outside reading as a way of expanding their Russian cultural base. For those of you who are interested (read: bored), here's the short list. Each ranges from about 5 to 10 pages, max:

Babel, "Salt" and "My First Goose" from The Red Cavalry
Pushkin, "The Stationmaster" from Tales of Belkin
Zoshchenko, "The Bathhouse," "The Aristocratic Lady," and "Shortage" from Tales from the Bathhouse
Olesha, "Love"
Chekhov, Act One of The Seagull
Ratushinksaya, "The Meaning of Life" from A Tale of Three Heads
Bulgakov, chapter 5 of Heart of a Dog

and some poems, which we've done in Russian:

Lermontov, "Парус"
Pushkin, "Ты и Вы" and "Еще одно, последнее сказанье" from Boris Godunov
Tiutchev, "Умом Россию не понять"
Akhmatova,"Он любил три вещи на свете"
Esenin, "До свиданья, друг мой, до свиданья"

Fun stuff, for the nerd-inclined.