So... Archangelsk!

After feeling rather jealous of people who went to exotic places (eg. Lake Baikal) in their reading week, my friend Katherine and I decided that we too wanted to go away! I don’t really know why I chose Archangelsk, but it seemed further enough away to be an adventure! Soon after making this decision, I met a girl called Elizabeth. She is a Peruvian girl who moved to Russia, on her own, when she was about 15. Coincidently, she had moved to Archangelsk from Peru to study. She lived there for about 5 years and in that time, married a Russian and had a child with him. She moved to Moscow a couple of months ago and now studies here. Anyway, so she decided to come along with Katherine and I to visit her husband. She also brought along her 4 year old son... this I did not find out until we were booking out train tickets!

So the train journey was just under 24 hours, so we packed lots of supplies to keep us going. It was quite an eventful journey. Artur, Elizabeth’s little boy was very, very annoying at times and I think by the end of the journey most people in our carriage wanted to strangle him! But it was fun anyway and we made friends with a bloke in the neighbouring booth. We had lots of beer and then went to bed! After arriving at 6 in the morning in Archangelsk, we went to one of Elizabeth's friends’ flat for a bit of a rest and some breakfast. We then went to go and find a place for Katherine and I to stay. Elizabeth knew of an ‘общежитие’, which is communal living apartment blocks, usually where students live. There is always a grumpy babushka whose sole job is to sit in an office monitoring who goes in and out and trying to make life as difficult as they can for everyone! So after encountering the grumpy bab, we dumped out bags in our room, which was very cosy indeed, very self sufficient, and for only £7 a night! We decided that as we were all a bit knackered, the best plan of action would be to go and sit in a ‘banya’ for a couple of hours and get rid of all the train grime. Now this was an experience! I had never been to a banya before, but knew pretty much what to expect! So, a banya is made up of two rooms, one wet room and then the actual sauna room. In the wet room there are loads of buckets which you fill up with water to cool down after the sauna and then later you scrub, soap, moisturise... when you are finished. So, we walk into the changing room and are confronted by about 10 babushkas of varying shapes and sizes, though mainly short and fat, all of them naked, hot and red! So, we follow suite and get ourselves ready, none of us had a towel and really had no idea of banya etiquette! We got our buckets and had a bit of a splash about and then went into the banya. The women in there kept telling us what to do and what not to do and there were some real bitches, but we also spoke to some really nice ladies who were very excited to meet some young foreigners! So it went like that for the hour or so we were there: sauna, pour a bucket of water on yourself, sauna, bucket... then once you are all sauna’d out, then come the birch twigs! Basically, you leave some twigs to soften and then when you are ready, you just whip one another with them! Its a lot of fun, and also feels amazing. At one point, I was lying down on a bench in the sauna being whipped by a very small, naked, plump little babushka! Amazing! After the whipping, you give yourself a good wash and rub down. When we came out, I felt like a new woman, I felt so clean and so refreshed and ready for anything! It was brilliant!

We then went for some incredibly cheap food and for a walk around the town centre. It gets dark up there at about 3.00 pm and only really gets light at about 10.00 am. So by this point it was already dark. We walked along the river bank, which at this point had already frozen. There were lots of people cross-country skiing and instead of prams, people push their kids around in sledges! That evening, we went to a friend of Elizabeth’s for dinner. At first she seemed nice and normal, but then as time passed, we both realised that she was completely mental! She was 50 and only had a couple of teeth and I have my suspicions that she was an alcoholic! She was really lovely and sweet to us, but she was just a bit mental!

The next day started as a bit of a disaster, as we had planned to meet Elizabeth at 9.30, though by 11 when we still hadn’t heard anything from her we decided to make our own way into town. Amazingly though, she spotted us from the bus and we managed to meet up! We got another bus to this small place outside of the city called ‘Mali Kareli’ where there is a tourist village which has loads of wooden architecture. It was really incredibly beautiful, the wooden houses against the background of the snowy woods was just really lovely. But again, we were constricted by the lack of light! I managed to take quite a lot of photos though before it got too dark though. I just began to get a bit worried of getting lost in the forest! After a couple of hours walking in the winter wonderland, we came back to the room and chilled out for a bit, had some tea and watched Russian cartoons! We went back to Vera’s again for dinner and then decided to experience Archangelsk nightlife. We persuaded Vera to come out with us, this was perhaps a mistake! She disappeared into her room to get changed and about 10 mins later, we heard cries for help. We all bundled into her bedroom to find her on her back with nothing but tights and a bra on trying to squeeze her leg into a pair of too-small purple suede heeled boots! We all had to help her encase her legs in these boots, which was a very funny, if a bit of a disturbing experience! She then put on a full length black evening gown and was good to go! Anyway, it was a fun evening and the club lived up to all my expectations. It was the same as the club in Kazan and Yaroslavl!

The next day, again after a ropey start, we decided to visit the island where Elizabeth and her husband had lived. It was the best part of the trip, we had to cross the frozen river to get to this island and it was just the most incredible thing. The river was frozen, so this little tug boat makes its way through the ice pushing it all apart. It was amazing, I felt like I was on the titanic! You just look around you at all this frozen expanse and it just makes you appreciate the great force of nature! (sorry, that was a bit much!!) Anyway, so about 20 mins later, absolutely frozen, we get to this island and there is just nothing there! You look left, right and straight on and there is just nothing but snowy nothingness! So, I started wondering where the hell we were going to warm up! We walk for a few minutes and start to see small wooden houses and buildings. These houses are the only thing there, why people live there I have no clue. After popping in briefly at Elizabeth’s husbands house, we went to a banya again! This one was very much the same, but with a lot more banya bitches than the other one. I think because it was more rural, they wanted everything done just so! After the banya, we got back on the boat and got a taxi back to Vera’s where we had left our rucksacks. After a quick dinner we headed for the station. It was a very emotional parting (for Vera that is!), but to be honest, Katherine and I were quite glad to be getting away from her! The journey home was pretty uneventful, the ladies in our carriage were learning English and doing their homework, so from time to time would ask us how to say things!

So that’s that... defiantly an experience!

We got back to Moscow and the following day the temperature dropped to minus 27, so a lovely welcome back present for us!

A quick catch up x

So, I’m very sorry that I haven’t written for so long. I have either been really busy, or had nothing to report! Since I last wrote, I have been trying to think of the things that I have been doing, and it’s not very much! I went on a school trip (only four of us actually turned up!) to Tolstoy’s house. It was pretty amazing because it still had all of his and his family’s things in tact as they were left. I particularly liked seeing his study where he would have written many of his novels. There was a bin underneath the desk and you could just imagine him sitting there and throwing away pages of Anna Karenina that weren’t quite up to scratch! It also had a pair of winter boots that Lev himself made! After the museum, the four of us went to a cafe and sat for a good while chatting away. This was all in Russian as our literature teacher doesn’t speak any English. That was a couple of Saturdays ago and that was the evening that Eva and I decided to have a party! Irina had told us that she would be away for the weekend, so we decided to have a few people round for drinks before we went out. Well, all was going swimmingly, we made brownies and other people had brought snacks and everyone was having a good time. However, then Irina came home and was unimpressed to say the least! There were not that many people round, but I think it was just the fact that we had not told her the complete truth! Eva had only asked if a ‘few’ people could come round for dinner. Well I think a few had been interpreted as only two. Anyway, we cleared off pretty sharpish after that! Things were pretty cool for the rest of that week... but I bought her a couple of smelly things for the bath to apologise and things got better after that!!

The week after that, I seriously have nothing to report! A couple of our good friends left, so we had some leaving drinks at this amazing bar named after Mendeleev. The bar was chemistry themed and all the drinks were foaming and steaming, so that was the excitement of my week! Katherine and I tried and failed to get tickets for the Nutcracker at the Bolshoi. If you want the student tickets, you have to go two hours before the performance and queue up along with the other students! Although we got there with plenty of time, and had a good place in the queue, it turned out that there was a list. We were not on the list! After about an hour of standing in the snow waiting, we were pretty cold, so thawed out in a sushi restaurant!

On Monday of this week, it snowed all day. We were all very excited and couldn’t concentrate in class at all! After class, a few of us went to have a look at red square in the snow! It was pretty cool because they hadn’t cleared any of the snow away yet! The next day, we had the day off school because we were all going on another school trip to the Literature museum. So, Tom, Fred and I decided to meet up a couple of hours before and take advantage of the ice-skating ring that has been put up in red square outside GUM. I was so nervous, because the last time I went ice skating was in Berlin with Tom and I was absolutely appalling! I even fell over and dragged him with me resulting in a black eve for him and nothing for me! But to my shock, I was actually alright! I only fell over once. It was such a fantastic experience as well to be ice skating on red square! The literature museum was actually really good, thought there was a lot of random crap in there such as a photo of Pushkin’s doctor who looked after him after a duel and then a photo of the doctor with his wife’s ex best friends dog!

On Wednesday, Katherine, our Peruvian friend Elizabeth went to Archangelsk... that however, is another story!

Love you all

xxxxxx

A grey Tuesday morning...

To carry on from last time... on Saturday evening, Eva’s dad came and stayed with us for two nights. It was really lovely to meet him and he was really sweet, he doesn’t speak a word of English, but we got along just fine! Half of his suitcase was filled with delicious ham and salami, he hardly brought any clothes, just a hell of a lot of cold meat! We still have enough to last us for about a month! The next day the three of us went for lunch together and then I left them to go to the cinema. There is a very famous cinema which has been open for 100 years and from the 11^th -23^rd there was a film festival on and all the films screened were free! So I made the most of it and have been popping in throughout the week! On Sunday night I saw a film called ‘Mother’, which was based on Gorky’s book by the same name. Then I watched the first soviet sound film another night and the first colour film another night!

On Monday, feeling pretty blue after tom’s departure and with nothing better to do I dyed my hair. That is the only thing to say about Monday! I decided to pick myself up on Tuesday, so I went round to a friend’s house in the evening. He cooked us all dinner and then we watched The Devil Wears Prada in Russian and then chatted away. So I was feeling fully cheered up by the end of the evening! His house is brilliant, his host sounds a bit crazy though! There are frogs absolutely everywhere around the flat and every inch of space is filled up with something! We found an old copy of a lonely planet which was from the late 70’s for the USSR. I had a bit of a read and it’s fascinating. There is a lot which seems to have changed, but there is a lot which is still ingrained into society today, all the grim elements of society such as corruption, and mafia etc.

On Thursday, as is tradition we went out in the evening. We went to my favourite club which is called Gogol! They had on brilliant 40’s style swing music on so we were all jiving away! It was so much fun, though having had a drink, I thought I was a master at swing dancing, and kept trying to get my friend to swing me round his waist... needless to say this was not successfull. On Friday evening, Katherine and I went to watch the first colour film. It was a very strange film which culminated in a scene with hundreds of female factory workers pelting soldiers with plates! But it was still quite good and I understood the majority of it!

On Saturday, a friend and I went to the souvenir market (this is seriously the last time for me; I think 5 times is definitely enough!). I bought a few things, can’t tell you though, because they may well be little Christmas pressies! In the evening, I went round to my friend Nathans house again. It was supposed to be a party, but it just ended up being Katherine, Nathan and I! We had a great evening though, it was very Russian inspired. We had ‘zakuski’, which are little snacks to have when you are drinking (we had olives, gherkins, pickled tomatoes, some salami on toast and some crisps) and then because zakuski would be no good without the drink, we had some Soviet Champagne and chilled vodka! We ended up playing Russian scrabble, which I was surprisingly good at considering that I am absolutely terrible at scrabble in English! I came second, Katherine first and Nathan last! We had to give up eventually as no one could think of anymore Russian words! The next morning, we woke up to a beautiful day, the first show of the sun since mum and dad had left! So we went to Cafe Pushkin for breakfast. It is this incredible restaurant which is in this beautiful old building. The cloakroom and toilets were downstairs in an underground cellar with candle lights lighting the way down! It was all ever so romantic! Katherine and I had fried eggs on toast, though as you have never seen them. It was like a plate sized fried egg with squares of toast cooked into the white of the egg, with three sunny yolks in the middle. It was delicious! We felt like royalty because the service is amazing and they really look after you, which is a huge change from what usually happens in a restaurant!

Anyway, that was my week!

Lots of love to you all

xxxxxx

Tom's visit

So, another busy week. Being a tour guide is definitely knackering! I have had a brilliant week with Tom and was very sad to see him go today. But not long until I’m home for Christmas now though! We have had a very busy week. Lots of socialist stuff (concrete buildings, statues, Stalin) but also a very busy social week (lots of drinking, meeting friends and hanging out!)
The day tom arrived, it was snowing really heavily, so that was a nice little treat. We went for a lovely winter walk around the centre and got to see St. Basils, Lenin Library and GUM all lit up and covered in snow. It was very picturesque and a nice welcome. The following day, we had read that there was some kind of procession in Red Square commemorating a procession that took place there in 1941 when the city was besieged by Germans and troops were leaving Red Square straight to the front lines. However, upon leaving the metro we found that red square was unreachable by any means. I have found that this seems to be quite normal and even when you ask the guard what is going on, no one knows or rather just won’t tell you! So anyway, we walked a bit further and stumbled upon a Socialist demonstration. Tom of course was in his element. Lots of communist flags, soviet sounding songs, revolutionary shouting, we were given a copy of Pravda, and there was even a guy carrying a massive poster of Stalin! I was busy taking sneaky photos of people (yes I know I have been told of before!) and a woman started telling me off saying that I shouldn’t just take photos of the old people, but that there were young people there protesting as well. I said that I wasn’t just taking the old peoples photos, but I found there faces more interesting. To be honest, I couldn’t have cared less if it was a socialist protest or not, it was just a good opportunity to take pictures of people without them noticing. She was a moronic woman on her high horse and she really wound me up! We then went to the Contemporary History Museum which is quite good, had lots of stuff from the Tsars all the way up to Medvedev, but really poorly laid out. In the evening, Tom and I went out to a couple of places and then ended back at our hostel at about 6!
The next day we went to the tourist market. Tom spent a very long time looking at postcards trying to find pictures of “workers, concrete or buildings”. We went to the massive supermarket by my house after that, though had to quickly rush home as we were running late for the ballet! We went to the theatre in the Kremlin, which was a pretty special experience, though the theatre itself was pretty grim. It was absolutely massive and very soviet-esque inside, so you didn’t get a very intimate experience. Though, in a way it was interesting to feel like you were a soviet audience in this huge theatre, big enough to educate the masses! We watched Figaro, though as a ballet. It was a bit odd, though there were some dancers who were absolutely incredible. It was like panto-ballet, in the first half, but the second half was brilliant.
On Monday I took tom to a monastery which has this massive cemetary. I think I may have mentioned it before. (I took M&D too.) We spent a while strolling amongst the graves spotting names we knew. Yeltsin, Khrushchev, Eizenstein, Chekov and Bulgakov to name a few... we then went to a bar and had a warm-up drink with a few friends. In the evening we went to see the Nutcracker. It was at the same theatre that Mum, Dad and I watched Swan Lake and again it was absolutely amazing. The dancers are all just incredible, perfectly in time and so graceful.
The next day we went to a sculpture park which houses some of the disgraced statues from around Moscow. So there was a few of defaced Stalin’s and some of Lenin too. Also some of Brezhnev, Dzerzhinsky and other once powerful soviets. After a stroll along the river we went into the same Pushkin fine arts museum that I took Mum and Dad to. We then walked up to red square and went into St Basils. In the evening we met up with friends at a bar, where I am quite embarrassed to admit that you can have as much beer as you can drink for only about £3! So we did.
After we had drunk all we could, it was a slightly later start than usual. But still we proceeded. Tom went to look around the Kremlin while I nipped home to go and get more clothes. We reunited and then decided it was best to go home and have a wee nap! Refreshed and alive, we went watch an ice hockey game. Again, I thought it was brilliant and some of my friends had come along too, so it was a lot of fun. There could have been more fights and at least some kind of serious injury or blood on the ice, but still a good game. Our team however lost 3-2. Tom and I then left the others and went back to the hostel to make spag bol.
On Thursday, for the first time since being in Moscow, I saw Lenin! Very odd indeed! There were about 5 guards in the mausoleum alone whose sole job seems to be to point you in the right direction and tell you to move along and be quiet! After paying our respects to the man himself, we went to a massive park which was full of different styles of soviet buildings, a memorial to Gagarin and the space race and lots of strong looking soviets. Although, today it seems to be some kind of out of town shopping area; inside many of these massive soviet relics would be a garden centre or a supermarket. It was very strange. There was also some kind of theme park. It was like a sad and forgotten place which in its hay day was probably designed to be full of happy, healthy people strolling about enjoying Moscow life!??
The next day was a pretty lazy one, we watched a film and then went to see Moscow State University in twilight. We went for a delicious Uzbek meal for dinner and strolled along the Arbat.
And that is that for Tom’s visit. Sorry if I have gone on a bit. I just wanted to make sure I remembered it all!
Anyway, lots of love to you all.
X x x

Quick catch-up

Sorry that this is so delayed, I have been a very busy bee though!
I am going to start where I left off in the last blog. That was two weeks ago I think. So, the only memorable event that I can recall of two weeks ago was that I went to see a Chekov play. My friend had a spare ticket to go and see ‘The Seagull’ so I went along with her. I’m not a huge fan of Chekov and usually find his plays quite dull. Unfortunately, this play lived up to my expectations. It was a very good production and the actors were fantastic, but just not my cup of tea at all! My friend had a brilliant time though, so I kept my thoughts to myself!
Last weekend, I went to Yaroslavl with three other girls from my course to visit Imogen, who is a friend of Katherine’s and studying in Yaroslavl. It only took us about 4 hours on the train and is one of the towns in the Golden ring. It was a nice little place, but the weather was pretty grey and drizzly the whole time we were there. It is quite similar to Kazan I thought, same kind of size and style. We visited the Kremlin which was really lovely. Apparently though there is a bear chained up there, but we didn’t see it. I’m glad! Imogen had arranged for us to rent a flat for one evening which was brilliant. After walking around in the rain all day, we went back to the flat and crashed out for a bit and then we had a party! Imogen had invited loads of her English and Russian friends and it was really nice. We then went on to a club called ‘Joy Party’!
Last week was our last week of school, so we were all a bit restless! But for our last lesson we persuaded our teacher to have our ‘lesson’ in TGI Friday’s which was fun! But the major highlight of my week was MUM AND DAD COMING! I was so excited all week and spent the majority of my week planning what to do, where to go and what to eat! I met them at the airport and brought them flowers! I’m sure they will tell you all about it but I will just give you a quick synopsis!
The first night I just took them back to their hotel and then we went for dinner at a Ukrainian restaurant. It was good food, though Bapcha’s is far far superior! The restaurant was decorated in full Ukrainian style with lots of red, white and black. On the second day, I took them to my favourite park in Moscow and we walked through the woods to Moscow State University. After a short taxi ride, I took them to this cafe which specialises in hot chocolate to warm up. Then onto an art gallery which had an amazing collection of art, any famous name you could think of there was three or four paintings. We then walked to red square and caught the metro home. That night, after a rather rushed meal at an Uzbek restaurant, we went to the ballet. The restaurant was amazing though, very luxuriously decorated like a palace! We watched Snow Lake and I thought it was absolutely amazing. I was smiling throughout the whole thing! The next day was a bit of a failure. My plan was to see red square and the Kremlin... both of which turned out to be closed for no apparent reason and no one could tell me why! So we went to the armoury which was the only building in the Kremlin which was open. By this point though, we had done a lot of waiting about and standing around and we all got a bit cold. So by the time I got in the armoury, I wasn’t really enthused anymore! Mum and Dad really enjoyed it though! After that we went back to mum and dad’s hotel armed with some cakes and had plenty of tea to revitalise. We then walked up to my house, which is about a 10 min walk from when M &D were staying and I made us dinner. It was really nice for them to see where I live and to meet Eva as well. The next day we went to the big tourist market (where the photos of the fur hats are from), then onto a convent where there is a big cemetery which is full of artists, directors, writers and also a lot of politicians. Dad suddenly started to feel a bit crap and shivery, so we made a swift exit back to the hotel, where more tea was drunk! Dad stayed in bed for the rest of the evening and Mum and I went for dinner to another Uzbek restaurant with my friend Katherine. It was a lovely relaxed girly affair! Next day we took it easy and were actually able to go into the Kremlin. So we admired all the churches inside and mocked the hideous soviet style monstrosities. After a lengthy lunch I sent M & D home for a nap whilst I bought some ballet tickets for Tom and I. We re-grouped in the evening and took a stroll down the Arbat. Unfortunately, because it was a Monday evening, there were very few musicians playing and it was jolly cold too! But we had a really nice meal at a nice little hidden away restaurant.
I left Mum and Dad this morning, as I have started to feel a bit rough now... too much touristy marching around in the cold I think! I am off to Petersburg this evening with Katherine to visit a friend from uni who is studying there, so I spent the day in bed trying to get better. I feel pretty good now after resting, so I should be fine!
I had a brilliant time with them both, although I am just a bit worried that I have knackered us all out! It was lovely to be looked after and taken to nice restaurants and things. I made the most of the Hilton breakfasts as well, often eating enough to last me through to dinner!
Anyway, sorry this has been so rushed but I still need to pack and have dinner! Anyway, I will write again soon, not sure when though because TOM COMES ON FRIDAY!!! Woo hoo, I’m so excited!
Lots of love to you all. X x x x

x

Hello!
So, I thought I was going to have nothing to write for this week, but I have just made a list and I actually have done quite a lot! One flew over the cuckoo's nest turned out to be a bit of a disaster. The director had made it into a comedy/musical. So it was very odd indeed, but we had to be very polite about it becasue the girl who took us had seen it 8 times!

The next day, Eva and I decided to go out of town to this massive tourist market where they sell all the usual touristy stuff such as fur hats, matrioshka dolls, icons... We had a really great day though and had a nice time chatting away with all the market sellers too. It was an absolutely freezing day and we ended up having to buy some gloves!

On Tuesday, pretty much the whole group of us English students went to watch an ice hockey match. It was absolutely brilliant! We didn’t get off to a great start because we ended up at an empty stadium where there was no one else to be seen! Luckily though, two men were rushing past and when we asked them if they knew where the stadium was they told us they were going too! So we followed them and weren’t actually too late. Apparently we missed the national anthem though! The match was really exciting though! I don’t usually like watching sport, but I got really into it and even surprised myself when I jumped up after ‘our team’ had scored! In my opinion, there could have been a few more fights; I wanted to see blood on the ice! By the end of the game, we were drawing 3 all, so it went into extra time, but even after this no one had scored. So it then went to penalties and then even after the 3 chosen men had gone, we were still drawing. So it then went into sudden death! It was brilliant, very exciting!
On Thursday, I went for a very civilised one drink and then decided to take some photos around the area I live in. We have been told that there is a photo competition at school and we all have to bring in a selection of our favourite photos. The theme of course is ‘your impressions of Moscow’. So I thought I would try and capture Russian life at its grimiest! Snapping away at a market stall, a man noticed that my flash went off and proceeded to give me a very nasty look. Needless to say, I quickly moved on and went to ask a lady selling magazines if I could take her photo. The man who had seen my before came storming up to me and saying that I couldn’t just take pictures of who I wanted and what was I taking pictures for anyway. I explained that they were for a competition at school and that I was very sorry for getting him in the background! He was very grumpy indeed and just kept saying, yeah sure you’re sorry, you’re sorry! The magazine lady thought it was all very amusing and told him not to be so paranoid! Anyway, so I am a bit more careful now and make sure I always ask! After that little episode, I went to go and meet my friend Katherine, who lives nearby and we went for a walk and found this very spectacular little church, gold and icons galore!
On Friday, I decided to actually use my day off and did some revision of vocab. I also decided to go for a run! Very out of character I know! Turns out though, there is nowhere to run near where we live and also I really don’t enjoy running. So maybe first and last run for me! I came back and did some sit ups, I’m still aching a bit! Health kick, done.
On Saturday, two girls from school, Eva and I went to do some volunteer work. One of the girls from school found out about a charity called Maria’s children which is involved with many orphanages around Moscow. They have a few centres where they invite the children to come and hang out every week. So we went and were there for a few hours just painting, drawing and teaching them a bit of English. It was really fun actually, they were really great kids aged from about 6-12. They were really happy and excited to see us, but I think it is important for them to have some kind of continuity and routine, so I think I will go again next Saturday.
On Sunday, after a very late start I decided to treat myself and spend my birthday money! So you will all be pleased to know that I bought a lovely grey woollen dress!
Anyway, that is all for now.
Big love x x

x

Hi there,
Not much to tell this week. I have had a culturally rich week though! On Wednesday I went to the Bolshoi Theatre with three other boys from my class. It was really great, we got really dressed up and went to see Macbeth. It was an Italian opera with Russian subtitles, so it was quite hard to understand, but I knew the story anyway so it was fine. The Bolshoi is amazing though and we went for 20 roubles (fifty roubles is £1, so about 20p) because students can go an hour before and get amazingly cheap tickets! Our view was fantastic as well, I could see everything. The Opera itself was fantastic, the set was absolutely fantastic and there were loads of extras. Instead of having three witches, there were about 20. They were my favourite, dressed all in black and all young slim beautiful women with really long hair which they kept swishing about. All the costumes were mainly dark, but then one of the extras would have a pair of scarlet gloves or a red flower which was really effective. It was really good and an amazing experience just to be at the Bolshoi, I couldn’t stop smiling for the first 10 minutes!
I went for a drink with my friend Maja and she brought along Kostya, a Russian friend. I introduced myself and he then asked me if I was Russian. I said no but asked him why he thought I was and he said that my pronunciation was perfect! Woo hoo! I’m getting somewhere! Anyway we had a couple of drinks with him, but after that I was absolutely exhausted because he likes to talk a lot and he talks very fast. But he was telling us about his views on gay people, it was really interesting and also really frustrating as well. He is a really nice guy, but then he was saying that if he found out that one of his friends was gay then he would break of all ties with him and most probably beat him up! I couldn’t believe it! This is why I think Russians are so odd; they have just have such strange views on some things and will never even consider changing these views because they are so ingrained into society. A lot of Russians once you get to know them are lovely and really willing to open up and offer you everything, but if you don’t know them then they will tread all over you to get what they want. It’s just crazy!
Thursday has been re-named ‘Imperial Thursday’ because we finish lessons on a Thursday and then what usually happens is that a group of people spend the afternoon in the pub occasionally drinking vodka (hence imperial lavish behaviour!). Anyway, I decided I didn’t want to do that this week, so I went to a place called Vorobyovy Gory which has a nature reserve of the same name. Anyway, I decided I just wanted to go and take some photos as it was a nice day at the time. It was so beautiful and autumnal with lots of yellow, burnt orange and red leaves. I was with Eva, so we had a little photo shoot so she could show her family and friends her black hair! So after taking lots of photos I set off in search of the nearest metro station, which turned out to be about 40 mins walk away by which time it had started raining! But still in good spirits I rang they boys to see where they were. Unsurprisingly they were in a bar about 5 mins away from school. So I went to see them, which was a bad idea, they were already on bottle number two of vodka and all a bit worse for wear. After about 30 mins, they started dropping like flies and had to go and be sick. So to cut a long story short, I had to pay their obscenely large bill and even take one of them home before going home myself! No good comes of imperial Thursday!
Tonight I am going to watch ‘One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ at the theatre with some Russian and English friends. So, not quite sure what it is going to be like, but I know the story so should be good.
Anyway, lots of love
X x x x x x

New pad!

So, very exciting news... Eva and I have moved into our new flat! Well, in fact we had very little choice in the matter. Our babushka pretty much kicked us out with an evening’s notice! Eva and I got home from a friend’s house where he hosts a film club and suddenly the babushka asked us when we were moving out. We told her that we planned to go at the end of the month, which would have been Friday. This was apparently unacceptable! She told us that we had to move out the next evening (which was Monday!) and that after that it was over! I have to live my life too and if you two are leaving then I want you out tomorrow! I was just in shock, so it was all very funny at the time! So, on Monday, Eva and I trekked back for the last time to her house, made ourselves a nice cup of tea and sat patiently waiting for our taxi! Our new house is lovely and we are so much happier here! No nagging babushka, internet and a really nice flatmate!
On Tuesday night, we explored our surroundings a bit and found this gigantic supermarket which is spread over two floors of a shopping centre and has everything that you could ever desire from pickled anything to mobile phones and from ice-skates to power tools. Also something that I got really excited about was that they have dispensers where you can weigh out your own tea, coffee, cereal, rice, sweets... I enjoyed it!
On Saturday, a small group of us had agreed to meet our literature teacher to go to one of the Pushkin museums. She had organised for us to have a tour of the museum which was really great and it was really interesting... they even had a posthumous mask that was made and lock of his hair. Bit creepy! After the museum, we walked to a little Georgian restaurant and had lunch together. It was really delicious food: a salad followed by a broth with rice and then meatballs with boiled potatoes. Yummy! We then walked to where Pushkin used to live and then all had a drink together in a lovely little French cafe! In the evening two friends and I went to go and see The Queen of Spades. It is a short story written by Pushkin about a man who never gambles though is fascinated with card games. One day he finds out that an old crazy woman knows of three cards which are always guaranteed to win. He is driven mad by this and eventually kills the old woman. Anyway, I thought it was very good. The set was brilliant, very detailed and the costumes were fantastic!
So today is Sunday... never really an interesting day! Done lots of homework. I also gave Eva a restyle: cut her hair and dyed it very dark brown almost black. It looks really nice and suits her dark colouring well! Now that people know that I cut hair everyone wants to book in an appointment! I should start charging a pint a haircut!
Anyway... I’m off to buy myself a coat tomorrow as it is already bloody cold here! Apparently it is uncharacteristically cold for October, so that doesn’t really bode well for the coming winter then. Oh dear, I’m starting to get very worried! I bought a coat last week and then after one wear on Saturday realised that it was no way near enough! So, that is being returned and I am hoping to buy something warm and nice. This may well be a problem as the big thing here is shiny black duffle coats with an elasticted waist. Not exactly my style!
Lots of love to you all
X x x x x

Post birthday message

Receiving birthday wishes from Tom. We had to sit in the outside bit of the bar because there were too many of us! It was cold!

The view from Irina’s flat. It’s the business district of Moskva.

Birthday cheesecake from Sveta and Maja

Ice sculpture museum.

So, this week has been a lot busier than last week... the best news is that Eva and I have found a flat! It is about four stops away on the metro from our university, a five minute walk from the metro and really lovely and modern (very uncommon in Russia!) Eva and I will be sharing a really big spacious room which has a big double bed and a desk and a humungous wardrobe! The room is separated a big by the desk, so there are two areas to the room which is really good. Also the flat has a big living room big kitchen and bathroom. We will be living with a 22 year old girl who is studying English. She is married to a Canadian, but he is doing a PhD at the moment, so lives in student halls. She is really nice, within about 5 mins of meeting us she had already invited us to go to her dacha (holiday home) at the weekend! Also her English isn’t brilliant, which is good for us as we can speak to her in Russian and also teach her English!
So, we told our babushka that we are moving out and she has been a real bitch ever since! So we have decided to move out as soon as possible. We spoke to the accommodation people at uni and they said that they would make an exception for us. Normally we would have to pay for the next month, but as the bab is being so rude and nasty they are going to let us go now without paying for October. As of Thursday, Eva and I will be in a new place! Woo hoo!
Some more cultural things I have been doing. I went to the Tretyakov gallery on Monday. There are two of them, we went to the old one which is full of portraits of wealthy, fat people! It was quite like the national portrait gallery in London, similar kinds of paintings. But also it had (obviously!) lots of Russian art, which I really liked. Lots of peasants with gruff looking faces, hungry looking children and of course lots and lots of icons and religious art. Today a friend and I set out to find this ice sculpture gallery that she had heard about. It took quite a while to find as she had been told the wrong metro stop, but it was a lovely sunny crisp day so it was nice walking weather. Anyway, so when we got there, this ‘gallery’ was in fact a single, fairly small room in the back of a very non-descript garage type building! We had a fun time though because you have to wear these gigantic duvet like coats over your clothes and fleecy little booties!
Thank you all for the birthday messages! I had a really nice couple of days actually. On the Thursday, Eva and I went round to our friend Irina’s house to watch a film. At 12.00pm, Irina came in, blindfolded me and took me into the kitchen where I was greeted by a big apricot sponge cake and some of her friends! So we all had some cake and wine and then at 2.00 decided to go out for a walk! Anyway, we stayed at Irina’s that night and then in the morning Eva made me chocolate blini’s for a birthday breakfast! On the evening of my birthday a group of us went out together and had a really nice evening! I got lots of texts from people from my class wishing me happy birthday and in the evening even got calls from Kate and Helen! So all in all a good birthday!
Love you all loads and missing you!
Next time you hear from me, I shall be in a new place!
X x x x