Blogs from Tver, Centre, Russia, Europe - page 3

In Lyudmila Georgevna's lesson this morning we spoke about adoption, especially of Russian children to european and american families. It was good to have another debate as a group, and the articles we were given were useful. There are more than a million children in Russia with no parents. Some have died, many have abandoned them as alcoholism or drugs have ruined their own lives. Christa used to work in an orphanage in Russia, and said that the lady in control of it was as cruel as she could imagine. Natasha invited a lot of us to her dacha in the afternoon. I felt slightly guilty for leaving the flat again when I hadn't done any work for my essay, but on such a beautiful day an invitation to a summer cottage was too good to ... read more

Today followed the same pattern as the last few. I got up late, and read and wrote a part of my essay in my kitchen without ever really getting anything done. It doesn't help that one of the books I found to research from doesn't have an index, or even chapter headings. I went back to the river with Liisa at 8. We sat on the stone wall for an hour, talked and drank beer, while the sun went down over the bridge. ... read more

As I was on my way out this morning I bumped into Kseniya in the lounge. I hadn't spoken any proper Russian for about a week so it was good to have a conversation again. When I sat down to write some more of my essay I realised something. My brain hasn't fully realised how much my Russian has progressed since September, and I am still used to thinking that I will struggle for things to say when I don't any more. If the essay was 5000 words in English and not 3000 in Russian I am convinced I would have finished by now, instead of procrastinating over a couple of hundred. The barriers that stop me working are now much smaller; maybe that is why I enjoy speaking so much more than writing, as it ... read more

Lyudmila Giorgevna gave a lecture about religion this morning. Her friday classes are always interesting but never too formal, perhaps a way to get everyone into a good mood before the weekend. All the international students at Tv.G.U sit around a table in the middle of a classroom and listen for an hour without taking any notes. Every five minutes or so she loses her train of thought and moves on to talking about something else, which comfortingly is usually how we are all feeling. Russia is a religious country. Many old people kept the Russian Orthodox faith through the years when it was forbidden and still go to church regularly, as do a lot of young people. Islam is the national religion of the former Soviet republics in the south, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, where many ... read more

In Aleksandr Ivanovich's class this afternoon we translated into Russian 12 signs from shop windows - the type that have their own section in joke books because of an unintentional second meaning. "To anyone who has children and doesn't know it, there is a creche on the first floor." Karin left the obshezhitie today. In the evening we went for a long walk along ulitsa Trekhsvyatskaya and as far as the river, so she could see the town for the last time. It feels as if spring has already passed and it is summer already. The temperature was 20 degrees earlier; too hot for babushki to be outside (I'm sure they only own thick heavy winter clothes) but warm enough for young people to sit on benches in the street, drinking beer and chatting. Most groups ... read more