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