Drama
School
I
was on my way to the University with a yellow teddy bear under my
arm. I met my sister in the lobby. She too had a teddy bear with her.
'Good
that you took your bedtime toy with you.'
'How so?' I asked.
'The University has a teddy bear day. Everyone is supposed to bring
one.'
I
looked around. Sure enough, every student had a teddy bear in their
arms.
'I
had no idea,' I said. 'I just felt like taking a toy with me this
morning.'
Apparently,
the purpose of the theme was to promote soft values.
I
hadn't been in the University in ages but, as I walked into the Department
of Languages, I noticed that everything was just as it was at the
beginning of the 1990s. The Russian department had the newspaper clippings
glued to the notice board in a tangled mess: a collage of pictures
from the Boris Yeltsin era after the fall of communism. Most of the
clippings had turned yellow over time. Some of the pictures had been
torn.
The
overall look needed reform. The pictures from two decades ago gave
the impression of an outdated atmosphere. It was as if the language
department was out of synch with the current time.
The
English department had a more lively atmosphere. The corridor was
built in the form of a miniature-sized traffic park. Double-decker
buses and idyllic houses brought to mind places such as Essex and
Sussex. Students could drive along the labyrinthine streets with miniature
cars. Ine had to be careful in the intersections.
In
the narrow streets of the mini-park you could think that you really
were in England. The effect was complete with the lousy weather. On
the horizon I could see dark clouds gathering. Soon it would start
to rain. The sound of thunder was accompanied by flashes of lightning
in my immediate vicinity, as the rain turned into a torrent.
The
storm was ferocious. There was an obvious danger of being struck.
Then I realized that it wouldn't really matter.
'This
is just a dream,' I said to an old friend of mine.
'What do you mean?'
'The thunderstorm began too suddenly. The colours on the horizon are
too purple. Lightnings cannot harm us, because they do not extend
to that part of us that sleeps in the physical reality.'
'Can I really believe that?' my friend answered.
'As long as we are asleep we're in another world. In this world anything
can happen. We could even be struck by a lightning. But in the morning
when we wake up, everything is just okay.'
Realizing
that I was dreaming, I paid particular attention to details. The old-fashioned
paving of the road, the decorative facades of the houses, the peculiar
shades of the skyline. To prove my point, I glided along the road
in a way that was not possible in the physical reality.
