adventure is out there!

on sunday morning, we took the trolleybus to the bus station, where we got a bus to Borisogleb, about an hour and a half away, where we were met by Natasha, who we met at anglisky klub, and she drove all seven of us up to the Kremlin (all of the towns have Kremlins, and although they are beautiful, they’re all very similar), and then we headed to the hotel. After we had dropped our stuff and changed, she drove us about half an hour away to a village called Ivanovskoye, where she teaches in an Orthodox school.

Ivanovskoye was, unlike Yaroslavl, largely unaffected by cars, and as such, the roads and paths were still covered by white snow. I grabbed on to Ben and Will’s arms, and made them drag me along. Natasha took us to her home. She lives with her daughter in one room of a house, smaller than my bedroom in the flat. There were two beds, along with the fridge, kettle, stove, desk and table, and there was only just room to fit all of us in.There was no running water. By this point I was very hungry, having eaten breakfast at around 10am, and it now being 5pm, and she had made a fish pie. She asked if we all ate fish, and I said yes: it would have felt terribly ungrateful to decline even if I had not been so hungry. 

after this, she took us to the school, for the ball. We were terribly underdressed, not having access to ball gowns, but everyone was welcoming. It felt like pride and prejudice; everyone was dancing, and every so often a young man would come up to a lady standing round the edge to offer her a dance. we joined in with some of the dances. badly, but most of the russians were understanding.

the dances were regularly interrupted by scenes from some kind of pantomime -- i think they were retelling a fairytale, and each of the teachers from the school had a character. occasionally there were games, there was a quiz about the french language as well which was fun even though i wasn’t sure why it was relevant... there was a meal which everyone had brought, i think, and i had a caesar salad.  (i’m thinking about relaxing my vegetarianism slightly. i don’t think i’ll order/cook meat for myself, or ask my bab for meat, but sometimes when people offer me meat i might eat it. i’ve enjoyed fish and chicken when i’ve eaten it so...)

they made us sing auld lang syne as well. it was a very interesting insight into how life is in russia outside of the city.

i don’t think pictures can capture even a fraction of the beauty i saw today

we got on the bus at around 1pm. i was surprised that natalia came with us; she rarely leaves the house as far as i can make out. the fare for the bus has increased to 23 rubles, and i only had a 1000 ruble note (we call them tysyachi). in russia, if you try to pay for anything less than about 700 rubles with a tysyacha, they look askance at you, and you are sometimes refused. there’s no way in hell i’d get a ride on the bus with a tysyacha. fortunately lizzie had some change.

we met up with natalia’s friend, nina, after we got off the bus, and we walked towards what looked like a small russian version of b&q. round the back, however, was a birch forest, covered in snow. the sun shone on our backs and into the forest, which absorbed the light ominously. people were skiing, and sledging, and chatting all around us.

natalia and nina waddled a few paces in front of us. both tiny ladies with huge coats that almost reached the floor and fur-lined hoods, they babbled away to each other, giggling every so often, in a way that reminded me of the ewoks. soon, we came to the banks of the volga.

the view was stunning. the light was perfect and warm, i think it’s the most sun i’ve ever seen in russia (to confirm, the weather was not warm). the volga was frozen over, and people were sliding down the banks onto it, and skiing across it, and children were laughing all around. on the other side, we could see a church with green domes.

we walked across the volga!! the wind was very strong and freezing, i wished i’d put on my big coat (it was higher than -10ºc so i wore my thin one). poor lizzie only had jeans on her legs, and brought her thin scarf.

the wind blew the snow over the river, creating tiny dunes and a rustling sound. the expanse of white played tricks on my eyes, everything looked bluer than usual.

on the far side of the river, some people were cutting the ice with a chainsaw, creating a sculpture of a cross. we crossed onto the other bank, and passed through a gate which lead to the spire we had seen.

this was a women’s monastery, and walking through the door was somewhat like stepping back in time. it was quiet, and beautiful. i think it would make a stunning film set, actually. unfortunately, at this time my phone died from the cold so i couldn’t take any more pictures.

each of the buildings was more beautiful than the last. nina was very knowledgeable about the monastery, and explained all sorts of things; the history, the art etc, but i don’t think i understood that much. we bought a pie and a cup of tea each from the cafe there, i spent about 65p (50 rubles), and then went to the gift shop. natalia bought us each a пряник, a kind of gingerbread cake, which was adorable. after this, we went into the church itself. there was room covered almost entirely in gold. they were also giving out holy water to fill your bottles with and take home.

the sun was setting as we made our way back. everything was clear and bright, the sky pink and orange and the ice was bright white and turquoise. in the distance, a tower smoked against the bright sky.

being outside for less than 30 seconds before the inside of your nose freezes

people brushing their hair? all the time?

food. too much food with too much oil

being forced to keep eating the biscuits

fear of death by falling over every time you leave the house

despite this, russian women always wearing heels???

a 30 degree temperature difference over the course of 2 days

things that i definitely did miss:

people are really lovely

especially on trains

my friends here

the views!!! today we went to a pelmeni (russian dumpling) restaurant and instead of taking the short route home, we walked along the kotorosl river, so i took some pics because it wasn’t too cold - here are a few!

we went to the woods on sunday. there were no bears but it was nice to have a walk

had another balalaika lesson - i don’t think i’m going to buy one, but ashley did. that was a fun trip.

went to zumba for the first time yesterday!! i enjoyed it even though i have absolutely zero coordination. i was fine until this evening and suddenly i ache all over

booked tickets to see the ballet. listened to the entirety of the nutcracker on youtube this evening and it is So Good!!

the facebook page advertised it as a space to see live english music and to sing along.

so we turned up slightly late and when we got there we arrived at what looked like a meeting - everyone was sat around tables and there was a word document on the projector

as we sat down, people were introducing themselves. someone said they were from Bali and they taught surfing, another was from the US, another was from London and their grandmother designed clothes for the queen. after a few minutes, the lady leading the meeting told us that you could introduce yourself as anyone, you could make up an identity and assume it for the night, so it turns out that these people are all russians wanting to learn english, and that we were slightly out of place... 

the actual evening itself felt like some weird kind of church group - there’d be a small discussion followed by a song, and then the guy playing the acoustic guitar would give the story of the song he was about to play next.

except the only songs he played were beatles songs (or beatles-related - there was one by julian lennon and one wings song). every single one. except he only played the ballads - yesterday, till there was you, michelle, blackbird. (he also was a massive paul mccartney fanboy can u tell). the thing i love about the beatles is their variety - why would you only play the sad ones?? 

everyone was really nice and also excited to have native english speakers... i might go again bc they promised to help us with russian

we went to Moscow for the weekend!

boy was it exciting ~~

we skipped the last lesson to catch the train. it was a sleeper train, even though the journey was only four hours from yaro (the total journey from Abakan was three days long!!), and we were on the top bunks which were nigh on impossible to get onto. having struggled up into the bunk, and found a comfortable lying position (the luggage shelf was low enough that I couldn't sit up), the man below me popped his head up and asked me where I was from. a couple of minutes after I told him I was English, he leaned over to (presumably) his wife and whispered, really loudly, "Англичане"; they're English. it was probably one of the least subtle things I've ever seen.

everyone on the train was wearing slippers, and a lady made me borrow hers to go and buy some tea, then afterwards gave us sweets and a bag of vegetables? it was a nice gesture. you know how they say that cats think humans are just really big, hairless, incompetent cats, and that they bring in dead birds because they don't think we can feed ourselves? I felt like all the Russians on that train were cats.

when we arrived at the hostel, there was a small issue with registration - the registration rules in Russia are complex and bureaucratic, and carry a six figure fine if you mess up. we couldn't work out why we had to register because we were staying for less than the required time, and we're still not really sure but we'll sort it out later. after dropping our bags we ate tea and went to bed.

the next day (Saturday) we got up reasonable early and headed down the Arbat, which actually I didn't find that impressive... and then to red square.

red square was breathtaking

st basils is so cool and there's the kremlin and opposite is the beautiful GUM shopping centre.

we saw the inside of st basils which has loads of tiny corridors and circular rooms and stairs, and I bought some postcards which I'll write and send back in yaro.

as we were waiting to go into st basils, we heard news that four of our number had been arrested; they had been staying in an airbnb that apparently was not allowed to be an airbnb, and the police had been phoned after a noise complaint (although they were sure that they weren't making noise at the time of the complaint), and were then taken to the police station. three hours and a couple of calls to the Bulgarian embassy later, they were released.

meanwhile, we met up with the rest of our group and headed out to a vegetarian restaurant for lunch - which, while expensive for Russia, still only came to about £90 for 10 of us (maybe more now, the exchange rate keeps getting worse), and the food was really nice - what luxury to have such choice!

we went to the kremlin since we'd bought tickets earlier. it was slightly underwhelming, but the cathedrals were still beautiful and I was reassured that the depictions of Jesus where not White.

it was beginning to get dark and we went back into red square -  GUM was now completely lit with fairy lights and it felt like christmas. we got ice-cream.

we took the metro to rejoin the group at a restaurant. the moscow metro is absolutely fabulous, it's so ornate and the escalators go on for what feels like miles.

after we decided to go for a drink -could we find anywhere to sell us alcohol? all the bars we found were either closed, permanently closed, or wouldn't let us in because we didn't look like the right type. we walked round for nearly two hours before we found anywhere. I had my very first Bloody Mary, which I weirdly enjoyed? it was just like alcoholic gazpacho.

this morning we checked out at 11, and had French toast (with sour cream, of course) before making our way to the train station

went ice-skating: i was not that good at it but i wasn’t the worst, so that’s something. i had lemon tea afterwards, and then we took a taxi to the bar and i had a “strawberry and basil tini” which was kinda ok, i really love basil, and my first vodka in russia. 

after one drink i wanted to go home, but everyone else was staying, so i ordered a taxi! by myself! in russian! and it got me where i wanted to go! i was nowhere near as nervous for this as i am usually for english phonecalls and i have no idea why... perhaps it was the alcohol? anyway. i’m proud of myself.

part of the problem (it's not really that much of an issue I suppose) is that there's a very similar routine for each day is very similar: lessons from 9:30-1:30, followed by lunch, usually at the main shopping centre, followed by maybe another shop and then home and homework. this makes it difficult to distinguish from day to day. I guess it's just like being back at school, in some ways, except that all our lessons are in the same classroom here. 

Some notable things that have happened, not necessarily in chronological order: 

rang pip, but thought it was a wrong number because he sounded v Russian

went to the 7D experience at the cinema, twice. it's scary. 

visited the library with our teacher 

bab was worried about me, so bought me some soya "meat" to boost my protein intake 

lost my passport, went to the police, found my passport in my cupboard 

went to work in the library. we went to work on the music floor. to work there, you have to have a card stamped, which I did after explaining that I was English and didn't really understand. Ana did the same (except she's Bulgarian), we both sat down to work. they played the Beatles and some Bulgarian music on vinyl to make us feel at home. Lorenzo entered a few minutes later, and they asked him what he was doing wandering round their department, to which he replied that he was looking for some books, a perfectly reasonable thing to do in a library, in my opinion. they quickly escorted him out, and after that we could not find him. 

ate at a Georgian restaurant. The food took a long time and was disappointing. we had been promised that the meal would be too big to have fries as a side, but the reality was a lukewarm tomato, pepper, and an unidentifiable vegetable that was maybe meant to be an aubergine, each topped with a chunk of butter that hadn't even melted. definitely missed out on the fries. 

an eventful few days? where did i leave off? 

on saturday the russian students took us round the city to see the churches (I think i posted a picture of them) and to a sculpture garden which was pretty cool, and then afterwards we went for drinks at “Kokteil bar”, where i had my first tequila. it was gross. i don’t think i’ll do that again.

on sunday, i slept most of the day as i was feeling... Not Very Well... so my hostess made me food at about 2:30 and at we headed to the theatre to see Чайка//The Seagull by Chekhov. I understood very little and it was a rather experimental production, but i think it would have been a good one had i been more engaged. There was cool music and little gull models hanging from the ceiling, and the end was very dramatic. and terrifying. that’s pip’s picture in the top right there, and this is me giving him credit.

 (I also watched back to the future ii and iii on sunday. productive.)

today was super good! i woke up and got the bus on my own for the first time, did our lessons and then we went to get pizza. food here is so cheap - four of us had pizza and lizzie had a drink for about £8 in total. pip had a tiramisu which came with the ghost of a fork. afterwards we went to the bookshop (i got  a rubber and sharpener), which is where we found the zebra notebook pictured, and then to the modem shop to get my money back.

day:

I safely arrived in russia! setting off at 4:30 am was a challenge but we made it, met my friends at the airport and had a good time. flight was smooth, a nice russian man who lived in the us told us about russia - he was, frankly, not very optimistic. moscow airport was terrifying tho, none of us had any idea what to do and i was hit with a wave of “what am i doing here?”, but we got safely through without many obstacles. waited for the coach, followed by a 6 hour journey to yaroslavl. all the roads were lined with tall birches, and we stopped for a loo break halfway in this strange cabin/cafe? i ordered pancakes and water and it was less than £1. tom says he found a giant helmeted head outside, and i believe him. dropped off with my new hostess (hostess are nicknamed “bab”s by the english students but apparently this is not polite, they should be “khozyaika”s instead...) who has a poorly dog named art and a fat cat whose name i forget, but we are good friends. he likes rubbing the right side of his face on things and licking me.

the first full day! woke up with a sore throat... taken by bab on the trolleybus to the uni, where we were introduced and took a short test, then we were lead round the city by some russian anglophone students - they helped us get modems and sims to hook us up to the rest of the world/each other (although the number of problems i’ve had...!) and showed us the river, the statue of a bear with an apple and an axe, and the supermarket. it turns out that the contract i bought doesn’t work for data sharing, so i bought an entire extra phone that i can’t use...

day two, lessons proper started, i’m in a group of 5 which is nice. the teachers all look terrifying but are all very nice. we were talking about birthdays with our speaking teacher, and we told her it was pip’s birthday but we’d forgotten, so she sent us to the shop to get a card before the lesson ended. after school we went to the mobile shop to try and sort out the modem, and then afterwards we went to drink for pip’s birthday. having drunk alcohol helps, actually, and i was much more chatty with my bab than before.

yesterday, i had translation which so far is my favourite class (predictably), and afterwards we went for lunch in aura, the big shopping centre (as usual) and then to buy snow boots for lizzie, and then to sort my modem out Again. after this we walked home rather than take the trolleybus, but got lost a few times. by this time my cold had gotten chesty and all i wanted to do was lie down. i did my homework beforehand though!