Blogs from Russia, Europe - page 302

Yesterday's bad mood had gone when I woke up today. I was still tired, so I got up late and stayed in the obshezhitie for most of the afternoon. I watched the Swedish ice hockey team beat the Czech Republic with Karin and Linda, eating smoked cheese and cookies.... read more

Hi There again... How to tell in brief all the things I have experienced, seen and learned already in the first days... Generally speaking, Russians are quiete nice people, as long as you can either speak Russian, were introduced to the person ... foreigners in the street are not that friendly... they are muttering and unfriendly... to say sorry for stepping on somebody's foot... why??? During Rushour Metro is so packed with people, that everybody bumps into everybody... sometimes I feel like a cow in a herd, drove to somewhere. Metro doors open hundrets of people surge out of it, either to the exit, or through up and down leading floors to the next platform to be pressen back into another Metro and stand on other people's feet until they reach their final destination... cosy ;o) ... read more

This lesson this morning was 'Russia Today'. I don't know the name of the teacher yet, a thin lady in her fifties with greying blonde hair. We watched the morning news - with reports about Iran, bird 'flu and another Russian figure skating medal at the winter olympics - then read through some articles. Lessons are far more formal here in comparison with Yartek. The teachers had organised a 'meet and greet' afternoon for the international students - the idea was that we should be introduced to a few of the students from the university. It took place in a large hall across the courtyard. I was told to sit at one of the six tables, with Henrietta from Germany and four girls from Tver. The event was ghastly. The speech that the thin lady gave ... read more

The water in the flat was cleaner this morning and by 10 I had taken a shower and had half a cup of coffee. Just needing to go downstairs to get to class I was only five minutes late for my first lesson. It was Russian Literature with Zhanna, who is about 30 with long dark red hair. Our classroom is quite small, with a circular wooden table in the middle for seven students and a teachers' desk at the front. The wallpaper is light pink, the view from the window overlooks ulitsa Zhelyabova. For the first half of the 90 minute 'para' the class introduced ourselves, so I finally got to know the names of the girls from Finland. The very attractive blonde haired girl is Tuuli, her friend Haidie sits next to her, Emi ... read more

nur mal die wichtigsten (Photos/Diplomaten), ein typischer Empfang halt... Auch wenn die Photos nur uns Praktikanten zeigen. Der Grund weshalb ich ein Namensschild habe ist, dass ich dort quasi auf Arbeit war, meine Abteilung hat den Empfang ausgerichtet und somit war ich der einzige der Praktikanten welcher offiziell dort war. Alles halb so wild, die anderen haben von mir noch eine Einladung gesteckt bekommen. Das einzig dumme war, das ein weiterer Praktikant welcher hier immer die photos gemacht hat, auch noch die Tombola gewonnen hat. Da wurde schon kurz komisch geschaut. Also, was haben wir gelernt (zumindest die welche es nicht schon vorher wussten): wenn man irgendwo auf einer Party nicht eingeladen ist, sollte man sich nicht unbedingt an dem vergreifen, was alle haben wollen. Gilt sicherlich ebenso für Buffetspeisen, teuren Alkohol und Frauen. Gruss martin ... read more