Hi
So, I have been here a week now and am feeling a lot better. I have just got back from a walk around the centre and I feel like I am slowly getting my bearings (I did it all without a map!) I STILL haven’t seen Lenin yet, I tried again to go into the Kremlin, but it was closed, again. But I had a lovely walk and it has been really lovely weather. Took some pictures of Gogol and the house he lived in, walked down to the Lenin library which is pretty impressive. I also got very excited because in one of the films I studied last year, a young woman goes to the Lenin library to look for dateable men! I then walked to the Kremlin and watched the guards being changed. Then to Revolution Square where there were two men dressed as Stalin and Lenin that you could have your pictures taken with. I did not have my picture taken!
Anyway, onto less recent news...
We have had our first week of lessons, and we have Friday’s off which is great! As we have been doing an intensive week of study we have also been having lessons outside the classroom as well to take stress off a bit. On Tuesday we had a task where we were given envelopes which had a place, or statue or something that we had to find. We would then meet someone at this place. So, we went to the metro station, opened our envelopes and our secret destination was revealed! I had to end up at a statue of a Russian general whose name I can’t remember! So, I asked the metro babushka if she knew what station it was near. She had no idea and neither did the lady on the information phone! Eventually we found a babushka who knew, so off I went. When I got to the metro station I was told to go right. But I then came out of the station and went right, but no statue! So, 5 mins walk and a trolleybus later, I found the statue. I waited and waited, but no one came! Next day in class, it turned out that I had managed to find another statue of the same man, miles away from the right statue which was next to the Kremlin! Ah well, I managed to find a statue even my teacher didn’t know about! Yesterday, we went for a ‘biiznes lanch’ (fixed lunch menu) with the class and had to speak Russian the whole time. Then today, we were given pieces of paper which had items that we had to find in the shopping centre near the uni. Our teacher had tried to think of things which we wouldn’t know... she succeeded. I asked around and people were miming things like shorts, so I went to a clothes shop, no luck. I then went to a sport shop, thinking they were maybe lycra shorts. In the sport shop they looked very bemused. We worked out though that they were just for women and were something to do with underwear. Went to the underwear shop and discovered that they were stockings! That explains the bemused embarrassed men at the sport shop!
We have made another new Russian friend. He is the brother of a guy who Eva stayed with when she was in Moscow for a week 2 summers ago. We met him for the first time yesterday and him and a friend took us to the botanical gardens by MGU. They were really beautiful and it was a really nice day as well. We might go out with him tonight to a Cuban bar. But if not, Eva and I might just find somewhere to go on our own!
Anyway, lots of love x x x
So, I have been here a week now and am feeling a lot better. I have just got back from a walk around the centre and I feel like I am slowly getting my bearings (I did it all without a map!) I STILL haven’t seen Lenin yet, I tried again to go into the Kremlin, but it was closed, again. But I had a lovely walk and it has been really lovely weather. Took some pictures of Gogol and the house he lived in, walked down to the Lenin library which is pretty impressive. I also got very excited because in one of the films I studied last year, a young woman goes to the Lenin library to look for dateable men! I then walked to the Kremlin and watched the guards being changed. Then to Revolution Square where there were two men dressed as Stalin and Lenin that you could have your pictures taken with. I did not have my picture taken!
Anyway, onto less recent news...
We have had our first week of lessons, and we have Friday’s off which is great! As we have been doing an intensive week of study we have also been having lessons outside the classroom as well to take stress off a bit. On Tuesday we had a task where we were given envelopes which had a place, or statue or something that we had to find. We would then meet someone at this place. So, we went to the metro station, opened our envelopes and our secret destination was revealed! I had to end up at a statue of a Russian general whose name I can’t remember! So, I asked the metro babushka if she knew what station it was near. She had no idea and neither did the lady on the information phone! Eventually we found a babushka who knew, so off I went. When I got to the metro station I was told to go right. But I then came out of the station and went right, but no statue! So, 5 mins walk and a trolleybus later, I found the statue. I waited and waited, but no one came! Next day in class, it turned out that I had managed to find another statue of the same man, miles away from the right statue which was next to the Kremlin! Ah well, I managed to find a statue even my teacher didn’t know about! Yesterday, we went for a ‘biiznes lanch’ (fixed lunch menu) with the class and had to speak Russian the whole time. Then today, we were given pieces of paper which had items that we had to find in the shopping centre near the uni. Our teacher had tried to think of things which we wouldn’t know... she succeeded. I asked around and people were miming things like shorts, so I went to a clothes shop, no luck. I then went to a sport shop, thinking they were maybe lycra shorts. In the sport shop they looked very bemused. We worked out though that they were just for women and were something to do with underwear. Went to the underwear shop and discovered that they were stockings! That explains the bemused embarrassed men at the sport shop!
We have made another new Russian friend. He is the brother of a guy who Eva stayed with when she was in Moscow for a week 2 summers ago. We met him for the first time yesterday and him and a friend took us to the botanical gardens by MGU. They were really beautiful and it was a really nice day as well. We might go out with him tonight to a Cuban bar. But if not, Eva and I might just find somewhere to go on our own!
Anyway, lots of love x x x
Just read through the whole blog in our trailer... it all sounds exciting - I hope you finding a new home isn't still posing problems.
ReplyDeletenice pictures... what is the blueish building the guard is standing in front of?
Lots and lots of love from your cold war nemisis.
xxxxxxx