darcy_fitzwilliam

I've come to the end of week 3 and time has flown by this week. We only just got back from St. Petersburg and I'm heading to Moscow this afternoon... We've had a final test today on the vocabulary part and considering my lack of Russian intellect I think I didn't do too bad at all. Now there's a week of Russian Grammar left which is boring as hell because she starts from the beginning - Nominative, Genitive, Accusative, etc. The grammar we covered in class this year at uni was of a slightly different level and I fear we might all fall asleep this week. Remember I told you we were filmed in class so people in Riazan would know who we are? We're actually being recognized on the street, on the bus, in shops,... ... read more

So we left on the 5PM Express train to Moscow. We were seated in 2nd class which was comfortable but oddily spaced. There's 4 classes on the trains in Russia. 1st class looks nearly luxurious in Western European terms with comfortable seating sitting opposite each other with a little table. 2nd class, where we were seated had comfy seats with 3 chairs next to each other facing one way of the train, then the corridor and then another 2 chairs facing the other way. It felt rather anti-social. 3rd class, as we discovered on the way back home was slighly less comfortable but still doable for a 3 hour journey. 4th class we haven't seen yet as it's not present on all trains, but I'm sure this is where wooden benches and chickens in boxes come ... read more

It's been a while since I've been in touch but things have been busy and internet sometimes not an option... Last Sunday we were going to go on a picknick combined with some swimming in a beautiful lake but this got cancelled after they'd predicted a thunderstorm. We didn't see one drop of rain all day so we simply had another boiling day in town. We went to the biggest book shop here in Riazan and headed straight for the children's section - which is still far above my level of Russian. I bought some children's books and the typical Russian fairy tales which are always illustrated with beautiful prints, and on top of things I bought Garry Potter! I thought this might be easier as I've read the story before - and I could always ... read more

Today was a superb day!! Today was exactly what I've come to Russia for... to fully soak up the Russian way of life and participate in it. We were picked up in the morning by the same crazy van as they picked us up with from the airport - we had more seats now as there was no luggage. We then drove an hour into the country side. It was nice to escape the buzzing of town. You could compare Riazan with London with regard to traffic, only add some more sand, bad roads and more coloursful buses. At crossroads (where they are lights) all pedestrians get green at the same time, so it's really normal people seeing people cross the street diagonally. Where there aren't any lights you more or less need to risk your ... read more

I didn't sleep at all last night. Perhaps the mozzies got upset from the thunder storm last night, I don't know, but I had to kill some vicious ancle biters in the middle of the night. Petra and I were both awake at various times discussing murder tactics. Today we had a new teacher - 3 all together. And yes, the problem of ordering food is slightly being resolved. We've been introduced to some food vocabulary and decided to go and buy some products in the break to try some more Russian food. During class a camera crew from television entered the class room and started filming us!! Apparently they wanted us on tv so people in Riazan would know who we are and what we are doing here - instead of just rudily stare at ... read more

Oh my god, I dreamt in Russian!!!! This must be a good sign... Not that what I was saying made any sense, but surely I'm making proces. For our speaking class this morning we had to learn an entire paragraph by heart. Nobody really felt we were learning anything from this, but I guess this is the Russian way of 'drilling'. Class was very tiresome this morning and concentrating was hard. I'm sure I dozed off a couple of times. Having had salad for lunch for the 5th time in a row, I kind of had it now. Might adventure into some more Russian food flavours tomorrow/ We walked to the Kremlin in the afternoon (the same way as 2 days ago - my request - so I could take some funcky pictures of the holes ... read more

I'm so tired now, I'm sweaty, sticky and I'm really craving for hot water. Another Russian speaking class this morning - I'm becoming increasingly frustrated! The question "why did I choose Russian" is coming to mind again... I don't know why I'm having such issues remembering things, perhaps I'm getting old (as my class mates regularly remind me of). Perhaps it's just the fact that Russian doesn't sound anything like any other language I know or after all it could just be me of course. In the afternoon they took us to the museum of fine arts. The guide was in Russian but Roman (on the guys from uni) kindly interpreted for us. Each hall had a person guarding the paintings even though I think apart from us there hadn't been any visitors for a long ... read more

First speaking class today. I'm so frustrated!!!!!! There's so much you want to say but you simply can't find the words - who am I kidding - I simply don't "know" the words. Irinia, our teacher is a proper teacher and teaches according to the methods I sue when teaching. So it's all good! I can now (after 2 years - about bloody time!) properly introduce myself and ask people some basic questions. Finding the toilet is no longer a problem - reading the menu still causes some issues. But we'll get there! I think we're also not doing a bad job speaking Russian to each other as we've told to do so. This sometimes leads to hilarious situations with certain words: if in doubt - make them up! How about showerovat and pluginovat? I also ... read more

This morning we were picked up from our dorms by Natasha. She's one of the people who guides us around town and makes sure we get to our lessons on time. We took the bus to uni which costs us 6 roubles. (about 15 euro cents!) And believe me, you get what you pay for! There's definitely no shortage in public transport over here. They have buses (which look like they are falling apart - let me rephrase that - they are falling apart), there's trolleybuses, taxis and taxibuses. This was a totally new phenomena for me. Taxibuses are vans driving around, acting like taxis, stoppping at each bus stop and carrying 9 people (it should only be 9 but I've seen ones driving with another 5 people standing up - it reminds me a little ... read more

I'm about 3 days behind on my blog so it's about time for an update on my crazy adventures in this even more crazy country! There's a reason why I'm 3 days behind - the internet is running like a dog, it's like being on dial-up again, therefore it's quite tedious sitting in an internet cafe for hours on end trying to connect to a website... (forget about uploading pictures - I might need to sit here for the rest of my life) Today it's so hot outside, I've found the patience to lock myself inside the internet cafe and start writing, so here we go! Day 1 was our travelling day which all went well without any hick-ups. The 9 of us met up at the airport and checked in no probs. Getting on the ... read more