Perekop - Platzcart - Petersburg

Been pretty slack with my blog writing recently, but as we have now dipped our toes into the festive month of December, I thought it high time to get back on it!  The end of October feels like only yesterday.  The prospect of the entirety of November stretched out before me, really didn’t fill me with joy.  In fact, sticking it out for two months more seemed like a big ask.  But here I am, with November behind me and just 20 days until I come home.  Time is certainly flying, but it’s incredible to think back to when I first arrived in Russia.  For a start, it feels like it was six months ago.  Every single thing about living here has become normality for me and despite craving pretty much everything about home, I dare say that being back in England could even take some getting used to.  I mean, three-pin plugs?  WRONG.

Ok, so I shall begin with talking about the clear highlight of November, which was my visit to St. Petersburg.  I travelled with Kate, Harry and Jemma on the overnight train which left Yaroslavl at about 10.30pm and got us to SPB at about lunch time the following day.  Not only was this my first ever experience of a sleeper train, but it was in fact my first time on a Russian train of any kind.  So naturally, I was excited and a little nervous about what was to come.  Russian trains are split into three different classes.  First class is called ‘Spalny Vagon’, second class is called ‘Kupé’ which has lockable sleeping compartments and third class is called ‘Platzcart’. As students, we opted to travel Platzcart.  Platzcart is all open-plan, with two sets of bunkbeds facing outwards on one side of the aisle and a single set of bunks sideways on the other side.  (see inserted picture if that made no sense.)  I had been told a fair few horror stories about third class travel (in the least snobby way possible).  Other people had experienced really smelly, stuffy, cramped and hot carriages which carried people who had been travelling for days and days across Russia.  Before I left to catch the train, Natasha advised me, in the kitchen, how you should use the toilet on the train because it’s so unpleasant.  So I felt well informed and reasonably prepared for the impending doom of Platzcart. 

As the four of us stood with our bags on the dark platform, the snow began to fall.  Hovering with our tickets and passports ready to board the train, we eagerly looked for our carriage, but it wasn’t there.  We then realised that our carriage was approaching from a little way away and would join the rest of the train.  I thought this was a bad sign, and we did wonder whether this was going to be some dodgy kind of ‘add-on’ carriage.  But to my huge delight, when we boarded, the carriage appeared to be a new one.  With clean, blue seats and crisp, white bed linen, it was a pleasant surprise.  Although I did feel slightly jammy that the train seemed so clean and civilised, I have to admit that I don’t feel like I’ve fully proved myself yet when it comes to Russian travel. But anyway, we had taken lots of food with us so sat in the bottom bunks eating, drinking, chatting and having the added bonus of the neighbouring bunks being unoccupied.  It was 27 degrees though, which was a little too hot...and we got told off for opening the windows. 

On the way to SPB, I took one of the bottom bunks and it was surprisingly easy to sleep whilst the train was moving.  The rhythmic motion of the journey was quite relaxing, but every time the train stopped I woke up, which got quite annoying.  Anyway, after a stress-free journey, we arrived safe and sound, if a little sleepy, in Petersburg the following day.  I split up from Kate, Harry and Jemma because they had friends from Bristol who they were visiting and I wanted to go and catch up with my Exeter friends who are living there.  So after we ate a bit of lunch, I went to meet Charlotte from Exeter.  I stayed with Charlotte and her landlady for the two nights I was there.  Tatyana was a lovely lady who miraculously made porridge which I liked.  Her house was brilliant – full of bits and pieces and looked very Russian.  Her typically Russian kitchen was great, especially because there were lots of homemade concoctions underway like a huge glass container which was somehow filtering (for want of a better word) berries and things into another container to make wine.  It was brilliant. 

Meeting Charlotte on a street in SPB was just fantastic.  She was the first person from home who I had seen for the whole time I’d been in Russia and her cheeriness and familiar face just made me instantly feel at home.  The weather was much warmer there than in Yaroslavl and I found that I was able to reduce the number of gloves I wear on each hand, from two to none and not feel like my hands were breaking.  So Charlotte took me back to her flat on the amazing metro! Absolutely loved being on the metro, because as much resentment as I have for the tube in London, being a Londoner I kind of feel at home when on a tube train.  On the SPB metro, I got all the perks of the London Undergound, just without signal failures at Stratford. Perfect!  The metro has a great system, where instead of buying tickets, you buy a coin for each journey.  I don’t know why, but I found this really quite revolutionary.

We packed so much into the weekend and at the end, I felt shattered.  I saw lots of famous sights, for example the Hermitage and Winter Palace, the ‘Bronze Horseman’ statue, the Church of ‘Spilled Blood’ (the one you always see in pictures of SPB with the multicoloured onion domes on top) and I walked down the fantastic Nevsky Prospekt, which is the main street.  The souvenir market was also so much fun and it’s a skill in itself to be able to walk away from chatty stall owners. Coming from Yaroslavl, I was taken aback (in a good way) by the hustle and bustle of the city.  It was so refreshing and exciting to be caught up in crowds again and to see flashing lights and a huge mix of people.  But despite the big western influence on St. Petersburg, with European shops (even an M&S), great cafes, restaurants and a cosmopolitan feel, it is bursting to the brim with culture, history, architecture and everything you could ask for in a big city.  I was trying to compare it with other cities I have visited, but I realised that SPB is truly unique.  It’s hard to explain, but even with my very hazy and generally crap knowledge of Russian history, I could almost sense ghosts in the city.  I know that sounds really ridiculous, but with the imposing buildings and the unforgettable character of the city, with the river woven through it, it retains all the charm and splendour that I imagine it had generations ago.  In an odd way, it made me really want to start properly reading Russian literature.

I went for some lovely meals with Charlotte, Tom, Emily, Dan and Lauren from Exeter and also lots of their friends which they have made on their language course.  It was so nice to meet everyone and chat over good food, catching up on all our Russian experiences, especially because they are all so different!

So, the journey back in Platzcart was fine, although I just really wanted to stay longer in St. Petersburg! It was so much fun and the thought of getting back to the monotonous days in Yaroslavl didn’t appeal.  But after a sad goodbye to Charlotte at the train station, we boarded the carriage again and set off home.  This time we had a humungous babushka woman sitting across from us with a face like thunder for the whole time and when we opened the window (again at 27 degrees) she put her coat on. She was really angry at us for no apparent reason..probably because we were talking.  But luckily she was only on there for about six hours.  I took the top bunk on the way back, and there are no ladders.  Those of you who have known me for a considerable amount of time, will know that I am a girl of particular elegance and agility.  So naturally, I hauled myself up to the top bunk and managed to almost knock angry woman’s teeth out with my foot.  Her face was so horrible that she kind of deserved it, but I didn’t dare look down after that..so just lie on my bunk laughing to myself.  With the roof feeling very close to my nose, I managed to get to sleep and before I knew it, there I was in downtown Yaro, ready to tackle another week.  It was a phenomenal weekend.

So here I am, at the end of that very week, feeling contemplative and quite pleased with life, because apart from the smell in the stairwell of my flat, cinnamon coated cabbage and the pile of buckwheat with liver on top of it that I ate last night, nothing is particularly offending me at the moment.  I will add, as I always do, that I am thrilled at the thought of coming home, but it’s not long now.  I was thinking the other day, that even though I’m excited at the prospect of leaving on 23^rd, if somebody was turn round tomorrow and give me a ticket to go home there and then, in a strange way, I don’t think I’d want to go.  This means only one thing- I have been here far too long.

We’ve now reached a point, where it’s not unrealistic to count down to Christmas.  Apparently Perekop will be getting a Christmas tree next to our beloved statue of Lenin at some point soon.  So I’m on tenterhooks for that.

Charlotte, if you read this at any point, then thank you for having me last weekend and thank you to all the Exeter guys for a wonderful weekend.

Всё !!

p.s. I've added a Yaroslavl weather forecast thing at the bottom of the page.  This is mainly for my own benefit, but some other person might be interested as well at some point.

Cha Cha Slide

Yes, I have slid to the right. And slid to the left.  A couple of days ago, Perekop became an ice rink.  Now, we were told that one day we would get out of bed, draw the curtains and see thick, beautiful snow.  This was not the case.  I’ve got used to it now, but the ice has been really annoying! At least snow is soft and pretty! In hindsight though, the image of Kate and I walking to school is one I will not forget.  We have to walk through a park to get there, and it was so unbelievably slippery, even in our snow boots, that we were doing baby shuffles the whole way across the path.  We did pretty much end up standing there in hysterics, but I know this was delirious laughter on my part because I really wanted to just sit down, right there in the middle of the park and just give up walking.

Anyway, as you can imagine, the temperature has dropped considerably.  I think we hit a chilly -16 one night, but generally speaking we have had quite a bit of -10 and some random hopping to and from a high of 0 degrees.  The thermals are well and truly out of the wardrobe and looking like Michelin woman feels normal.  I’ve been wearing boots for so long now, that the other day when I popped on a pair of trainers to go downstairs, my feet felt naked.

So what has been going down in Yaroslavl and my insignificant life as of late?  Well, as a class we have been rehearsing for the play which we will be putting on for our babushkas this weekend.  We are performing a version of the Russian fairy tale called ‘Teremok’ which means ‘Pretty Little Cottage’.  We have all been assigned different animals and people to play.  I’m going to put it out there- I am the frog.  I was not initially pleased with this news! But with further consideration, I am pleased because it is a very small part.  I’m a bit worried though because I’m yet to make it through the whole play without crumbling into laughter.  It’s just so funny.  Our teacher Anna also has some specific asks of us.  She has demonstrated how I should jump across the stage in the most frog-like way.  She also said that in Russia, frogs don’t “ribbit”, but they  “kvark”.  Need I say any more? Apart from, frogs blatantly “ribbit.”

Things at home are okay, although I’m missing proper home for some particular reasons.  It’s really starting to get to me that I’m living in somebody else’s house.  Even though I pay rent, I am beginning to feel rude when I spend a long time in my room doing my own thing.  I worry that I wash my clothes too often and that I put my shoes in the wrong place.  And I’m fed up of being told that I don’t eat.  I really do like Natasha, but last night’s food really hit rock bottom.  Natasha put in front of me a plate piled up with really soft cauliflower, slices of slimy mushrooms and cheese.  This could quite easily sound vaguely edible, but in all seriousness, it was the most vile thing I have eaten here so far.  It was just a plate of grey slop.  I narrowly missed having to eat a fish cutlet as well.  I’m very open to trying new food here.  I always give things a go, but basically there was no way on earth that what was on that plate could be good in any way.

I’m very pleased that I have come this far, but my body feels exhausted.  A combination of sitting in the cold, eating very unsatisfying food and generally doing a lot of work has made me feel quite tired and my legs and arms hurt!  Cannot wait until I can just sit in my own living room, sleep in my own bed, and just eat some piping hot food that hasn’t been tampered with by any babushka.

Anyway, today we went on a school trip to the town of Rostov, which is just an hour away from Yaroslavl.  I had such a good day!  On the journey there we had a group discussion about various deaths over the years in ‘Neighbours’.  This is what we’re becoming.  So when we arrived there, we first of all went to Rostov’s Kremlin and had a guided tour.  It was really fascinating and just beautiful to see.  We went into an odd shop where they sell ceramic whistles in the shape of various animals.  I considered buying one, but then thought:

1) I don’t want a whistle

2) Who would want a whistle?

3) I wouldn’t buy one of those bird whistles being sold by that guy outside the Tate Modern, so why would I want to buy one in Russia? 

So I just ooed and ahhed a little bit and then left.

We then went to a gallery of Russian art, which I really enjoyed.  A lot of the art there was Icon paintings.  Icons are hugely important in Russia.  Not only can you buy them pretty much everywhere, but people have them in their houses and in their cars.  Ordinarily, I would take little interest in this kind of art, but our guide was so thorough and good that she really got me interested.  She explained everything from the way in which they are painted, to the meanings of the different images and even what each colour signified.  It was truly fascinating and I couldn’t believe that I was seeing 500 year old works of art.  The icon artists have to follow strict guidelines of how they are to paint.   So in a way, I found it a bit surreal being surrounded by wall upon wall of identical faces looking at me with the same expression.  After the icons, we saw a range of Russian art through the ages which I also loved. 

Finift Jewellery

Rostov is famous for a certain type of craft called ‘Finift’.  ‘Finifit’ has a very unique style which is used most commonly to make jewellery and ornaments.  It takes incredible skill to make jewellery in this way, as we saw when we visited the factory and museum.  The process consists of many, many complex stages.  But the general idea is that images of flowers, scenes or icons are finely and delicately painted with extremely thin brushes, onto a plate of enamel.  This design is then set into a very decorative frame, which can be compared to what we would describe as filigree.  The filigree is painstakingly crafted with tiny, individual strands of thin metal which are shaped into beautifully elegant curls and swirls.  Each layer of paint on the enamel must be dried before applying the next coat and the special paint will never dry if not put into the kiln.  I cannot describe how incredible it was to see the artists painting in this way.  Some of them were copying scenes from photographs onto the enamel and they were like exact replicas.  It really was such a unique and unbelievable skill to watch.

My Finift Ring 

When we got home, there was a small blizzard in Yaroslavl.  The weather was alternating between very heavy snow and hail.  When I got into my flat, I was oddly able to pick bits of ice out of my hair.  But after a very enjoyable day and a well earned small break from Yaroslavl, I am very tired and happy to be in the warm.

It’s good be a nice chunk of the way into November now.  Hopefully the snow will arrive for good soon and will brighten everything up a bit.  Hope it’s not too cold in England. (not). J

Ciao!

Performers of every shape and size

A fresh month and it feels good!  I’m relieved that we have begun November,  because  I can now officially say that I am coming home next month!  I’m being careful not to wish my time away here, but there are no two ways about it- there is absolutely no place like home and more importantly, London is better than Yaroslavl.

Now that the clocks have gone back at home, we have a 4 hour time difference, which just makes it even more difficult to speak to people.  The days are quite dark at the moment and the sky just looks grey.  Trudging through thick, sloppy mud to school and back each day is getting tiring as well.  I could write endlessly about things that annoy me here, but I am not going to...so don’t flick back to facebook just yet.  On a positive note, I have seen a fabulous selection of berets in recent weeks.  Prime beret territory is, naturally, on the wise old heads of babushkas.   I have appreciated many an adventurous beret, and the furry leopard print number I spotted on ‘Ulitsa Balshoya Fyodorovskaya’ gets my vote.

The main event of last weekend was our trip to the circus.   Moscow circus had come to Yaroslavl and we were lucky enough to get tickets.  I was so excited about it, but actually left pretty disturbed. We were pretty much the only group there without children under the age of eight...but we’re tourists so it’s fine.  The show opened with a guy performing some kind of miming story (despite it containing no Russian, I still failed to follow) and there was a lot of taking dogs out of bins and various dogs running on and off the stage.  This was followed by very cute small pigs which were running around the edge of the circle and being made to jump over little hurdles.  Look, I know this will all sound hilarious, the further I get into this description.  But you have to believe me, when I say how sad it all looked. Obviously, most people (especially Russians) adore this kind of entertainment.  But as this is MY blog, I will say what I thought of it.  Then a massive pig made a brief appearance as well.  We had general annoying plate spinning and people falling over etc.  But things started to hot up when the bear made an entrance.  I was so sad!  He was such a cute bear and he was wearing dungarees.  He was phenomenally talented (as were all of the animals) and I couldn’t believe some of the acts I was seeing.  I don’t know HOW they train them to do some of these things, although I can’t help but hate it.  The bear did a really long performance of a story alongside a man and a woman.  And they also drove the bear round and round in circles in a car.  After the bear, we also saw a horrible bird which swooped over our heads (could have done without that), followed by a few monkeys dressed in little outfits, dogs dressed up in full costumes (including their faces) and possibly the most surreal of all were the sealions.  These sealions were huge.  There were four of them and they slid around the floor before each sitting on a mini platform.   They did all kinds of tricks which were incredible.  However, I felt slightly better about the sealions because they weren’t wearing clothes.  To be honest, if they managed to get sealions in clothes, I would give them credit.

Other things we saw at the circus were a big water fountain show, a really annoying man blowing a whistle instead of talking and banging a drum-kit and a boy doing some extremely impressive juggling with hats.  I have to show sincere admiration though, for the acrobats.  We saw quite a few performers doing that swingy thing from the ceiling and also an amazing pair who did some incredible acrobatic things.  Can’t even describe it really!  Had I not been in a rush after the show, I would have had a word with them and told them where they could improve next time.  All in all, the circus was shocking and interesting in lots of ways.  If I’m truthful though, I wouldn’t go again because I think it’s really cruel to do that to animals.  I talked about it with Natasha when I got home, and she was surprised that they only had bears and sealions.  She said usually they have tigers and elephants, so at least I didn’t have to watch that!  She said that bears are terrible animals and they hate people.  Especially because the Yaroslavl bear, which lives in the Kremlin tried to eat someone’s hand.   That is not nice, I agree.  But has anyone considered, that the bear might be a bit pissed off that it lives on its own in a cage in the Yaroslavl Kremlin? Hand or no hand, I am not sympathetic.

Moving on from the circus, I have realised that you don’t have to go to a strip club to see near-naked women.  Spending some of Saturday evening in a simple cocktail bar in the city centre,  we saw slaggily (word?!) dressed women dancing on the top of the bar.  It was so unnecessary, but nevertheless we were all pretty astounded at what they looked like.  They were so thin, it was quite annoying.  We all told ourselves that they must be really hungry, but continued to feel a mixture of envy and repulsion.

As for this month, we have a few juicy plans up our sleeves! This week we want to visit a ‘hunting restaurant’ in which you can try all kinds of meat.  Apparently they have bear on the menu there, which I would be willing to sample, providing it’s not served up wearing dungarees.  I know this is quite hypocritical of me, after slating the circus but at least this bear will have been dead regardless of whether I eat it or not.  We also want to spend a weekend in St. Petersberg at some point, which I am very excited about! And also hope to go to Moscow. 

Well, I think I’ll wrap this blogski up and I apologise if it’s been a bit of a rant.  As you can see, I have spiced up my page with splash of raspberry and various shades of red.  I decided that blue was too cold a colour and I wanted my blog to match the exotic climates we are enjoying here.

Hope you had a good Halloween.  I’m not going to hide the fact that I took great pleasure in trick or treating not being a Russian custom. Here’s to a November full of banter and hilarity. xxx

Moose or Elk? Ostrich or Emu? Rabbit or Terrier?

Time for a very overdue blog I think!

All is well in Russia! It is getting very cold and we’ve had a few flurries of snow, but nothing major yet.  I have no doubt that the snow will hit us hard soon though.  Really hoping it doesn’t affect my flight home, because last year the guys flying home from Russia got stranded in Moscow airport for three days.  If that happens to me this year, it will mean I have to spend Christmas eve, Christmas day and probably boxing day in the airport- so fingers crossed this does not happen as I think this might deflate my soul.

Anyway, I’ve got this week off school for a well earned break.  So Amber, Fiona, Zoe and I decided to organise a two day trip away.  Our plan was to visit the towns of Kastroma and Plios.  For a really good price, we managed to book a minibus to take us to these places.  The driver turned out to be the absolute lad that is Sasha- A plump man with a minor mullet going on.  He was not impressed with anything at all and driving us around seemed like the last thing he wanted to be doing. 

I have to include the first notable event of the holiday, which occurred prior to boarding the minibus.  At 9am, the four of us were minding our own business, waiting outside the theatre to be picked up.  All of a sudden, my attention was turned to a pretty much intoxicated man striding towards me with a look of sheer insanity in his eyes.  Unfortunately, even at this time in the morning, this was no mirage.  He just came right up to me, placed his hand on my shoulder and tried to hug me.  In disbelief and slight terror I escaped his drunken embrace and thankfully we spotted the bus and legged it fast.

The Moose Whisperer

The journey to Kastroma gave us the privilege of another Andrei-style car experience (See blog #2).  With tinted windows and the bass blaring, I felt reassured that this was going to be another truly Russian trip.  I cannot explain how terrible the roads are here.  The final road to the moose farm we were going to, was just full of huge holes and generally unsurfaced muddy tracks.  After a sufficient amount of being thrown about in the bus, we arrived at the farm.  It was good fun and we had a good guide, or moose man as I prefer to refer to him.  The ladette that is Polly, very appropriately captioned one of my pictures of him as ‘the moose whisperer’, which I will post on this blog for everyone to appreciate.  So we walked around the farm, patted loads of mooses, debated about the plural of the word moose, I personally discovered that mooses yell like men (See youtube video ‘bear yells like a man’), commented on how thin mooses’ legs are and also fed them carrots.  Fiona also bought some rather special moose coasters.

we had a guided tour of the town of Kastroma, where we saw the spectacularly decorated monastery and some other landmarks and generally had a nice day.  We then went to our hotel which was just outside the town.  Then, we ran into a slight issue.  Russia has this big policy of ‘registration’, which unfortunately I still don’t fully understand.  It’s something along the lines of you have to be ‘registered’ when you’re staying somewhere in Russia.  And if you move about, for example, to spend a week in Moscow, you have re-register in that place (a procedure that can usually be done for you by the hotel you stay in).  So we arrived at the hotel and the receptionist asked us for passports.  Then we realised that this was not enough, because they needed to see our actual visas, which three of us had left at home because we had been told to never take them out with us.  It’s illegal to be somewhere without being registered, and you get fined.  So with the receptionists basically telling us we couldn’t stay in the hotel, we stood there like four sad foreign puppies and were running through scenarios like how we were going to get back to Yaroslavl that night because we couldn’t stay in Kastroma.  Luckily, after a lot of discussion and shuffling around, the hotel people ‘did us a favour’ and let us stay for the night. 

That evening, we had a nice dinner and then hired out the pool, sauna and steam room for around just £8 each.  I was sceptical about the sauna, because I have always stuck to my theory that sitting down and sweating your face off cannot be enjoyable.  However, as the sauna (Banya) is as traditional and popular in Russia as vodka, I decided to give it a go.  I have to admit, it wasn’t as fabulous as everyone tells me it is, but I did feel quite healthy after it.

The next day we travelled further to the town of Plios, which I have to say, was absolutely gorgeous.  We were pretty much the only people in the town on that day and it was so peaceful and quaint.  By the Volga, Plios had beautiful trees and cobbled hills (which I was not finding gorgeous at the time because I am very anti-cobbles and anti-hills.)  After some walking around chilled out Plios, we went up to visit the Russian izba.  An izba is a traditional Russian log house in the countryside.  We went inside and had a talk from the izba lady, who was wearing full traditional dress and I was particularly approving of her two gold teeth.  Couldn’t look at anyone else when she broke into song (it was only the four of us in there) because I didn’t want to offend anyone’s culture.  She gave us some porridge which I usually hate, but all credit to the izba..this was the best porridge ever, with sugar and honey.  We then had a mini tour of the outside izba museum from the man who I have named ‘guide of guides’.  He was quite old but we all admitted that we had a tiny crush on him because he just  emitted this aura of Russian amazingness and knowledge and was wearing an overcoat and flatcap.  He looked like he’d just popped out of a Russian book and we all agreed that he had very kind eyes.  Yes, we are all losing the plot here.  Anyway, he was explaining to us all about the traditional culture and showed us a load of artefacts.  Zoe got to sport a fetching poncho as well.

Rabbit/terrier/duster

Now to the final stage of our trip – arrival at ‘Romanov Les’.  ‘Romanov Les’ is an eco-hotel situated in the forest.  It says ‘hotel’, but really it’s a collection of log cabins of different sizes. It was so Scandinavian and beautiful.  We had booked to stay there for one night, but at the end of the trip we did not want to leave.  I was sharing a ‘standard’ cabin with Amber.  I can honestly say, I have never slept in a bed that big before.  It was the lushest place I have ever stayed in.  After spending seven weeks living in Yaroslavl’s mafia district, I was absolutely in awe of this whole place.  Surrounded by birch trees, our warm and luxurious log cabin seemed like the best thing on earth!  On further exploration of the forest, we found two ostriches/ emus (still don’t know the difference), a rabbit, another rabbit which we mistook for an extremely small terrier dog and Fiona diagnosed with myxamotosis, a wide selection of chickens and a BEAR!!!! Oh my god, it was so amazing there..i feel like weeping.  The other three girls booked themselves in for a massage and we spent a little while debating whether it was weird that Amber’s masseuse half stripped off during her massage. 

A log cabin in Romanov Les

So that’s the main gist of the trip, which was very very relaxing and lovely.  But it went too quickly, as it always does, and here I am back in Perekop.  Natasha made a pizza from Mayonnaise and other questionable ingredients the day BEFORE I went away.  And she was trying to give me the same pizza when I returned yesterday.  I pretended that I was enjoying the cabbage too much to eat the pizza.  Every time I go into the shop under my flat, the woman keeps striking up conversation with me.  Cannot understand what she’s saying, and also  at the moments she chooses to speak to me, I really don’t want to be thinking of anything apart from the snickers that I want to buy.  The other day, one of the cats pooed in the bath and Natasha practically picked it up by its head and started telling it off.  The cat that is, not the poo.  Things are weird here, but poo is not animate. But generally, I have a lot of love for Natasha at the moment, because I feel like I’ve known her for a long time.  Really having a wonderful and bizarre time here, but not going to lie- I think about coming home every day!  Cannot wait till I am back in England!

Sorry for the length of this blog, it is full of drivel I know.  Hope everyone is alright!

Over and outski  
xxx

Baba Yaga etc.

I’ve had to muster up the motivation to do this blog, because I honestly don’t know how to put a lot of things that happen here into words.   So we’ll just go with whatever spills out from my brain onto this virtual page. 



Leshi



The one and only place I can begin has to be the day trip we went on last Sunday.  Our friend Svetlana arranged the opportunity for us to visit ‘Baba Yaga’.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with old Babz Yagz, this is what Wikipedia has to say about her:

"In Russian tales, Baba Yaga is portrayed as a hag who flies through the air in a mortar, using the pestle as a rudder and sweeping away the tracks behind her with a broom made of silver birch. She lives in a log cabin that either moves around on a pair of dancing chicken legs, is surrounded by a palisade with a skull on each pole, or both. The keyhole to her front door is a mouth filled with sharp teeth; the fence outside is made with human bones with skulls on top, often with one pole lacking its skull, leaving space for the hero or heroes."

So, we took a 2 ½ journey on a minibus to Kukoboy, which is the birth place of Baba Yaga and is on the Yaroslavl border.  The journey itself was good, because it’s actually quite fun feeling like you can count the seconds you are in the air when the bus flies over potholes and generally non-surfaced roads.  It’s amazing driving past all these dilapidated shacks, old houses and roads lined with forests.  As we got closer to Kukoboy, we realised how far out this place was.  With no phone signal and nobody for miles around, I was genuinely wondering who would rescue us if the bus turned over.  But luckily we didn’t have to deal with that eventuality, and we pulled up at the place. 

As per usual, I have a toilet story to report.   Basically I will never complain about the state of a toilet ever again.  Even the one in my apartment which often has a nice tray of cat poo waiting for a lucky guest.  Kukoboy hasn’t reached the era of the flushing toilet yet, so we were faced with a stinking hole in a wooden shack.   As funny as I will find this experience for years to come,  at the time I was conjuring up scenarios in my head of me slipping in my wellies and getting a leg stuck down this pit.  I’m not even going to get started on the smell. 

Anyway, back to the actual point.   We got to meet Baba Yaga and also Leshi the tree spirit.  Absolutely terrifying.  This whole thing is targeted towards to children.  Russian kids clearly have a different horror threshold, because they were loving it.  So these two people dressed up as a tree spirit and a hag were jumping around talking into microphones.  Had no idea what they were saying, so just found myself sitting and praying that they didn’t include me in their audience interaction.  The whole thing was so surreal, but brilliant at the same time because I just couldn’t really believe what I was seeing.  It’s quite frustrating  trying to explain because if you weren’t there, there is no way you can possibly fully understand how nuts it was. 

So to cut a very long story slightly shorter, we stood outside and listened  to Baba Yaga talk from her hut.  Things only got progressively weirder, when they made us stand in a circle, hold hands and dance.   Then they decided to swing beanbags on ropes at our faces and then made us jump over them.  The entire trip would have been a health and safety scandal in the UK.  Love it!  The grand finale was when Baba Yaga took a liking to our very own George, kissed him, made him wear a beard and dance with her in the middle of the circle.  To set the scene a little more accurately, take all of the above and set it to techno dance music blasting out in a forest. 

SO that’s the gist of the trip.  It was so much fun and something I will never forget for comedy’s sake.  In other news, the snow seems to be on its way.  I think it’s forecast for the beginning of October.  I’ve eaten some more classic things like onion and egg pies, cabbage soup and pizza made from cake and egg.  We went to a traditional Russian restaurant which was nice, but the Russians have a completely different idea of customer service.  I waited about an hour for a glass of apple juice, and the food always take so long! But it was quite nice anyway. 

I’m having such a good time actually.  Starting to understand things a bit better language wise and also just love the fact that I’m in RUSSIA!  I feel like a microscopic dot in this enormous country, but there’s just something about it that I really like.  Will have been here for a month on Sunday! Everyone is heading back to uni now, so hope you all have a really good time being back!

xxx

Russian Lesley Garrett

Exciting as it may sound, this week has mainly consisted of going to school.  It’s really good getting into a routine but the school is freezing.  They’re not going to put the heating on until the end of October but right now it is so cold even with my thermal socks.  Last night and today I’ve been feeling pretty ill as well, which made the cold even more miserable.  I was up all of last night with an awful headache which continued today. So I was faced with quite possibly the most helpful of activities. A singing lesson.  To tell the truth, it was absolutely hilarious and you could really hear everyone’s enthusiasm.. we had to sing two famous Russian songs, accompanied by Russian Lesley Garrett (she did actually look like Lesley Garrett) on piano.  The piano is painfully out of tune and it has a horrible echoey warble to it.  So just imagine the eight of us singing these sombre, traditional Russian songs in a minor key with this battered piano.  It would have been video gold.

On Tuesday we also had an art lesson.  We’re going to be painting Russian chopping boards (just what I need) so we had to plan our designs with the teacher.  The teacher doesn’t speak a word of English and she was telling me over and over again that I was doing something wrong but I just gave up trying to understand her.  I think she hated me a little bit actually. But at least I will have a nice bit of toot at the end of term to take home for my mum.  Don’t worry mum, that won’t be your only present.  Lessons have generally been going well though.  Apart from our reading teacher.  She’s quite odd and comes out with some really strange comments.  Today she held me back at the end of the class and told me to relax.  I felt like saying, ‘do you not realise that I have spent this entire lesson trying not to throw up on this Chekhov story?’ Rough times.

On to more pressing matters, my hostess Natasha told me yesterday, ‘If anyone asks you if you are paying to live here, say no.’  She then went on to explain to me, that the woman who lives below us is a bit of a nut job and she  cornered Natasha saying ‘you have an English person living in your house and you have to pay money to the state’ or something like that.  Basically she’s a massive anti-ladette. (that one was for my lolburgering Pollyanna Cotterill).  So anyway, it’s nice to feel legit, with a mad old bag stalking me and probably trying to get me reported to the state.  But, as Misha would say...’THIS IS RUSSIA!’

Yesterday I saw a half dead, twitching dog lying outside the gym.  Apart from that, it’s absolutely buzzing.  Tomorrow I think we’re going to go to the cinema J  Oh yes and I also started my volunteering as an English teacher.  It was really good fun actually.  I was actually the youngest one there as the students are a group of eight girls aged 21-24.  So I will be doing an hour and a half of teaching every Wednesday after school at the Yaroslavl Institute.

Hope everything’s ship shape in England.  I suggest that everyone goes to tesco and eat something normal like hovis, or coco pops, or fish fingers on my behalf.  Seeing as I’m starting to forget what stuff like that tastes like.  However, I just went and bought some grape flavour fanta and a snickers to cheer myself up.  It’s a shame that the shop smells like cheese.

Love J xxx

Я НЕ ГОВОРЮ ПО-РУССКИЙ!

I’m writing this blog on 6^th September, but who knows when it’ll end up online, seeing as I have no internet.  It’s so frustrating- I managed to connect for about 15 minutes yesterday and that was it.  It’s like living in the dark ages blerrgh! Just want a bit of contact with home.

Anyway, I started at the language school yesterday, which was good.  We were given an in depth talk about many aspects of our new lives here, including safety, bus routes, food, entertainment etc.  We might venture to the Russian student club called ‘Joy party’.  We’ve all admitted though, that the prospect of going to the club isn’t what scares us..rather the  journey home.  You basically can’t go anywhere on your own here.  And I don’t want to bump into drunk neighbour guy either.  

So after school, we took the bus into town and explored a lot.  The Volga is beautiful and the churches are SO Russian looking and amazing.  Got lots of good photos :)  We went to a cafe to get a drink, and even 7up is disgusting here.  But the supermarkets are so good.  So many different things, loads of odd flavours of juice and stuff.   When I got home, I was given omelette to eat. Although not omelette as we know it.  This was omelette made from noodles, with milk, sausage and cheese.  Natasha always cooks dinner the night before and then microwaves it the next day.  Things always seem to be luke warm which just makes it harder to tolerate!  To be fair, that omelette wasn’t bad and I did actually eat it...but what followed was nearly enough to make me say hello again to that omelette I had just eaten.  Kate had warned me that her babushka made a dessert with Кефир/Keffeer (fermented milk drink), gelatine and fruit and apparently it wasn’t all that.  Lucky for me, it was babushka recipe trading time and I got the privilege of trying this thing.  It was actually vile.  And I had to watch Natasha devouring it quite happily.  It just tasted like sour banana sloppy yoghurt.

My School

So today I went to school again. Got off to a bad start because I realised how good all the Bristol people are and how awful I am at translations.  They were telling me all about the way they’re taught and compared to Exeter, it’s no wonder I struggle.  But things started to look up when I had my grammar class because I have to say, it was the best grammar class I’ve ever had.  Just so nice to have a complete grammar expert teach you patiently and explain things to you properly.  So I have high hopes for my progress this year!  The teachers are great, but the school itself is unpleasant.  Basically, the YRLC is a small organisation for us foreign students and it takes up just a couple of classrooms of a big school for Russian children.  There’s a primary school, middle school and high school in the same building as us.  A lot of poor children go to this school.  Some of them have two alcoholic parents.  Anna told us that we are welcome to leave any clothes behind at the end of our year for the children.  This is so sad, but what’s good is that us lot are all encouraged to volunteer in teaching the children English.  A massive bonus for me is that the other language taught at the school is German! So I’ll be able to go to the German lessons and help out as well.  The school toilets are terrible.  They are unisex loos and you can see over each cubicle.  There are no toilet seats or toilet paper, none of the doors lock and no water comes out of the taps.  So, all in all, they don’t resemble toilets at all.  The canteen is like something out of ‘Oliver!’.  There are dinner ladies wearing socks and slippers and they serve up food which I, personally, cannot stomach.  Today I tried this bun which looked quite plain and safe.  However I bit into it and it just tasted so horrible, with little bits of cottage cheese in it.

 

The shops here are bizarre.  There are no ‘shop windows’ so you can’t tell at a glance what the shop actually sells.  It’s just really hard to find decent things to buy.  Can’t believe it’s so different from home.  I have spotted only three western shops.  These are Mango, United Colours of Benneton and Mcdonalds.  But we have discovered an amazing place called ‘Travellers Coffee’ which is a cafe that feels a bit starbucksy.  It’s so nice to go in there and switch off from Russian for a couple of hours..we’ve been here less than a week and are already regulars.

Now for the really, really bad news.    As people at home might have heard, a tragedy happened in Yaroslavl.  Yaroslavl had pretty much the best ice hockey team.  We were all going to go and watch a game at some point.  Yesterday, the team’s plane took off to take them to Minsk, Belarus.  The plane struck a tower mast, caught fire and crashed into the Volga river.  Forty three people were killed.  This is absolutely horrendous regardless of where it happened.  But I can’t believe the terrible coincidence that it happened in Yaroslavl just a few days after I arrived here.  Most people at home hadn’t heard of this city before but now, under terrible circumstances, it has been put on the map.  Last night a huge amount of people went to the stadium to lay flowers and light candles.   I’m hoping to go along there tomorrow with some people.

Anyway, my mind has gone blank and I can’t actually think of anything else to say!  Hope everybody is fine at home.  God, I really want some roast potatoes. Just a massive bowl of roast potatoes.

  

  

Bass and Borscht.

My Borscht

Well, I am officially in Russia! Currently sitting on my bed indulging in some itunes. God, I don’t even know where to start really. I’ll try with the beginning. The flight was absolutely fine, although I’ll try to avoid British Airways scrambled egg in future. Managed not to cry at the airport. I then thought I would cry when the plane took off, but I had a really unexpected feeling of excitement so was chuffed with that. Met the Bristol uni lot just before boarding the plane and they’re really lovely which was the first relief! So we got off the plane and waited around for a bit to meet our driver Andrei who was to take us from Moscow Domodedovo airport to Yaroslavl.

When we finally found Andrei, the eight of us got into this minibus thing. Out of nowhere came what I can only describe as Russian dance music or something. I’m not kidding, it was so loud and I just sat there thinking...how am I going to tolerate this for three hours? (Actually ended up being five hours). The minibus had inbuilt speakers which were just blasting out this surreal music, which, initially, only Andrei was appreciating. There was serious bass going on and the whole car was buzzing. I’m not gonna lie, I did get weirdly used to it after a while. A couple of hours into the journey everyone fell asleep. And it was only when we all woke up that we realised the music had gone off for a bit. Anyway, Russian driving. Oh my god. People just cut you up and swerve in front of you. You seem to always be able to see the scene of at least one minor accident at any one time. There are loads of old bangers about...some cars with their whole back window boarded up and smashed in sides. They literally look like they’re about to disintegrate. I was taking all this in and Andrei meanwhile, was driving extremely fast on the Moscow motorway whilst texting on his phone. The surroundings were so strange. There were lots of restaurants and things along the way but they were ALL deserted. It was quite unsettling. What I did like though, was watching babushkas walk along the side of the roads arm in arm. Half way through the journey, we stopped off to get something to eat. We went to a really strange restaurant which was empty, but there was a bear stuck to the wall, as you do. None of us knew what to order, but some of us got borscht (beetroot soup). It was actually really nice! We got back into the car and continued the journey.

Finally, and I mean after what seemed like days, we arrived in Yaroslavl. By this time it was very dark outside. Anna, the organiser of our language school came to meet us and she was going to take us each to our hosts. We had stopped in a little area with some apartment blocks, and the first three people were taken to their flats. At this point, I was freaking out because they were all together and I really, really didn’t want to be stranded somewhere on my own. Anna came back and said that two people were going to have to take the bus to school..and I was just thinking- please don’t let that be me. But we drove on a little further and luckily my name was called along with Kate. From the outside, our apartment block looks dreadful. There’s no denying this, it just looks a state and you really do feel like you’re stepping back in time. My host lady Natasha came to meet me outside and I immediately knew she was going to be nice. She was there with her son Misha who I think is about sixteen or seventeen. We got up to the apartment which has two doors. One of the doors is a massive metal one, and the other door is covered in leather. Yes, Leather. It’s a nice place actually. I have a nice bedroom with balalaikas on the wall. There are some quite odd aspects of the flat though. The toilet just looks like it’s going to fall over. And there is no bathroom sink. You therefore have to wash your hands in the bath and brush your teeth over the bath. Oh and the toilet paper is dark grey tracing paper. Ooooh lovely! Was so happy to discover the two cats that live here though. I think they’re called Darcy and Masyana. Darcy’s mouth is all red because she fell of the balcony four days ago apparently. Anyway, Natasha was talking to me in Russian at an incredible speed and I had no idea what she was saying. I feel like a stuck record saying “Da, da, da, da, da, harosho” all the time. Well awkward. But Natasha and Misha are really nice. It’s amazing how little I actually know how to say though. I was trying to act out “shellfish”. Unsuccessfully. Definitely going to have a dictionary on hand all the time now. It’s also massively awkward watching tv with them, because they’re both sitting there laughing and I just know that whatever I do I’m going to like an idiot. If I just keep a straight face then I look much too serious, but it’s really hard to laugh when you blatantly don’t know what’s going on. I was then presented with a huge slab of cake.

Took me ages to get to sleep because I had been awake so long and was thinking about everything that happened during the day. But when I finally did I slept through till morning. I got to try “Kasha” which is Russian porridge. I absolutely hate porridge and this wasn’t any better. It just wasn’t going down well...but I was helped by a big cup of black tea. Then I was told that I had to be ready to be shown where my school is in fifteen minutes...so I didn’t even have time to have a shower. Grim times indeed. Misha, Kate and I walked to the school and met Harry. I’m not going to remember where it is in the morning. And also really panicking about how to open and close the front doors..it’s not straightforward. Anyway, we went into town on the bus, which costs twelve roubles per journey. Everyone around you just looks deeply troubled all the time. All the old ladies wear scarves round their heads, proper babushka style. Fashion wise, it’s all very 90’s here. Small children with mullets galore and plenty of tracksuits to go around. We were walking around one part of town and there were big speakers blasting out patriotic music. Misha kindly told me and Kate that this area of Yaroslavl has the most crime (as we watched a boy walk past shooting a toy gun). I replied, “well I come from London” only to be told, “London crime, that is kindergarten.” Schweeet. He also told me never to speak to the man who lives nextdoor to us because he has a drink problem and is crazy.

So anyway, I have taken lots of photos of the town. There are some beautiful parts but also some quite depressing parts. I was so relieved to talk to Kate and Harry today because they had experienced all the same weirdness as I had. For example, Kate also doesn’t have a sink. I also visited a Russian shop for the first time. They really do know how to welcome you. The drinks counter looks like a tombola stall and you have to ask for what you want. The women behind the counters just glare at you. Quite intimidating. Misha also just goes up to guys in the street and gets cigarettes off them which is an interesting way of doing things.

So I got home and had some lunch which consisted of some form of chicken. They were like..little mini burgers. Accompanied by shredded beetroot which tasted a bit creamy, cabbage, spaghetti and tea. And that’s everything. If you’ve read up until this point, then good effort. I wouldn’t have.

I’ll be getting to school for ten tomorrow morning. I’m really looking forward to it actually. All in all, I’ve got off to a good start here. It’s all quite daunting for obvious reasons and the language barrier is very difficult. I think after a while it will do my head in, but being as hopeless as I am at Russian conversation, the only way is up. And I will improve my acting skills. I really, really like it here. Not because the area is particularly welcoming, because it’s not. But I love it because everything is just so, so different from what I know and it is oddly refreshing! I really do feel such a long way from home, but for now I’m just fine. Can’t believe I’m finally here and that I have four months of this ahead of me. It’s certainly going to make me appreciate home comforts. Good news though, I’ve spotted a few snickers bars about.

Russia Bound

I'm Russia bound! 3rd September 2011 I will be flying to Moscow before reaching my final destination of Yaroslavl (about 4-5 hours away).   To say I'm scared is an understatement but I will keep trying to convince myself that I will be absolutely fine.  I'll be spending around 9 months there, during which time I will be living with a family and studying Russian at a language school.  I also want to do other things such as teaching English and volunteering but who knows if this will actually materialise.  We shall see!


 I plan to use this blog to record whatever trials and tribulations come my way, and who knows, there may even be some hilarity! Either way, it is undoubtedly going to be an incredible experience and I hope to have lots of amusing tales to report back with.  Next task: buy thermals.