Blogs from Centre, Russia, Europe - page 26

The unthinkable happened this morning; I woke up feeling awake and ready for the day! The last week's temperature game started with a draw. Minus 3 this morning but it felt considerably colder. We had our last classes with Yulia in the morning. We continued reading part of a novel by Tolstoi about vampires, translating it paragraph by paragraph then discussed what had happened at the end of a page. In the break I went to speak to Valentina Ivanovna to ask her if I could sleep on the sofa in one of the rooms on the night of the 6th, before our journey to the airport. She agreed without too much complaining. I don't want to pay for a hotel, and I would have stayed with Michael for a night but Natasha will have guests. ... read more

Friday night's concert was certainly entertaining. It took place in a small room in Yaroslavl's 'House of Friendship', also on ulitsa Nekrasova. The televised part was four of the girls from Oxford singing and dancing to the traditional song "Kalinka", then a New Year's greeting in five languages: Uju in Ibo, Alessandra in Spanish, Anna in Italian and Lois in French. The English part was given to Chris J - who also speaks Czech, Russian, French, Slovak and some Italian! Chris sang a poem by Pushkin, then he joined a man called Dima to sing a duet. He had a good voice but over-acted dreadfully even when the camera wasn't rolling, which de-valued all the hard work that Chris had put in. It was supposed to be Dima's evening but the students that performed around him ... read more

Minus eight outside this morning. I win for the week again! Viktor's conversation lessons were uncomfortable. The topic was terrorism, but it was awkward listening to and reading so much Russian ignorance. In Russia people see only extremes: black or white, good or bad, rich or poor, ours or theirs, right or wrong, and to quote the booklet "the civilised world and the Muslim world". It has made us all angry learning how the majority of people do not believe there is ever cause for further thought. How can anyone answer question 6: 'Describe a typical terrorist'? In my opinion these feelings from the Communist system, when no information was available about culture other than that of the Soviet Union. Russians tend not to question what they read and do not change what they think, and ... read more

Minus 1 this morning. Another surprise, and Chiara guessed closest so our weekly game is 1-1 so far. Because of the overnight thaw the streets are covered in 'slush' again, which is awkward to walk through. Viktor taught us about sects. A million people belong to religious cults in Russia, including three people that he knows. My concensus was that it is a way for con men to trick money out of vulnerable people, others said that it was the only thing to do in Russian small towns. I didn't talk as much as usual, I didn't have much of an opinion on the topic. Olga brought in the video of Ilf and Petrov's "Twelve Chairs" for us to watch in the afternoon. The sense of humour is both slapstick and intelligent; two men, a charming ... read more

I didn't know what type of day out Katya and her father had planned, but I hoped it would be worth getting up in the dark at 7 for. They picked me up outside my building at 8 and we drove for three hours - in Oleg Viktorovich's very expensive and very comfortable car - to his friend's village, 60 kilometres from Rybinsk. The journey itself was memorable. Katya slept on my shoulder for most of the way so I had time to admire the scenery of Yaroslavskaya province. The roads were lined with pine trees, covered in thick snow and seemingly frozen. The sun hadn't risen so everything was still, white and grey in the dawn light. I took in everything to the sound of classic Soviet music: a man growling thoughtful lyrics and playing ... read more