Russian Holidays

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So, the nice long post that I have written disappeared! I hate technology and the way it can make you lose so much time! I don't want to repeat everything I wrote, so this one will be very brief. I got back from Russia and have been in Paris for more than a week now. But only now it is starting to feel like before and not so weird. I got used to Russia very quickly and getting "unused" to it was rough. But that is what friends are for and then have unintentionally helped me a lot. The weather here has been very different - almost springtime, but it has been raining a bit too much, which does not help to get the mood up.

In Russia, I spent my time between the usual visits, walks around the city, dinners and tea drinking with friends and my family and occasional parties. I know it doesn't sound like much, but when you don't see people for long periods of time, you just want to be with them, not doing anything in particular. I did manage to go to the theatre, to a museum (expo about Paris 😊 and to an ice ring. I also came at a very festive time - with lots of holidays and celebrations. First one was St. Valentines, which we celebrated with Olya and her friends, then Maslenica (a traditional Russian holiday, with many fun traditions, one of which is making blini). Right before I left, we celebrated The Day of Protectors of the Motherland with Olya and her sisters again. In Moscow, I spent very little time, but I managed to go to Tretyakov Gallery and see a bit of the city. Overall, I don't love Moscow, it depresses me too much, just not that pretty and nice of a city like the others I have seen. So every time, I am a bit happy to leave.

Here, in Paris, I have started the new semester, with little enthusiasm at first, but now it is getting more and more promising. I also have March 8th ahead and it gives me some happy emotions. I told myself I would not be travelling for a long time now, but I broke that promise - there was a good deal to go Bruxelles, so I just bought the ticket and we are going in a couple of weeks for the weekend! I will try to post as many pics as possible, and if not, they will be coming as I have more time. Adios!

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Photos

Moscow river
outside of Marina's house

Train ride
out of the window, approaching Ulyanovsk

Train ride
The traditional tea cup

Train ride
out of the window, approaching Ulyanovsk

Ulyanovsk
Volga

Ulyanovsk
Berezka

Ulyanovsk
Berezka

Ulyanovsk
Lenin and his mommy

Ulyanovsk
My grandma

Ulyanovsk
Volga again

St. Valentine's
Wine opening that took about 30 minutes

St. Valentines
little dress up :)

St. Valentines
little dress up :)

Ulyanovsk
Olya and I

Ulyanovsk
Dinara and I ice skating

Comments

[mama]

Oi kakaya zima !!!!!! kak ya hochy !!!!!!!! Photos ochen' horoshie, a pamyat' - neizgladimaya na vsu zhizn' Zdorovo !!!!!!! Celyu,mama.

[Eric "I love Ulechka" Liu]

Hey!!!!
Hey there beautiful! Haven't heard from you in such a long time. Glad to see you're having so much fun. But don't forget about us! Hurry and come back so we can have tea and dinner together too. ^_^ ~Eric

[Mark "can't quite commute to Pitr" Gilbert]

Tea cup?
Was für ein Samovar ist dass im hintergrund denn?! Tisk tisk, ich bin sehr enttäuscht von dir... although I have to give you credit for the choice of attire - I always respected the uniform in its typical setting, but had certain historic junctures appeared more like that, the map would probably look quite a bit different today (-;