Blogs from Centre, Russia, Europe - page 35

I haven't been in Russia long enough to make any conclusions about the people, but after two weeks I have realised a few things. They have two 'personas', a public one and a private one. People on the street look miserable, teachers and landladies always seem cheerful. When someone chooses to talk to you they are friendly and interested in where you're from, and what you're doing in Russia. When you need help from someone in a shop they are farcically rude. I'm sure women in shops go home and are lovely to their family but they certainly have no time for strangers. Especially non-Russians; they have so little exposure to people who only speak it as a second language that they don't know how to adapt their speech. They simply talk as normal and give ... read more

Success at breakfast when I managed to persuade Tamara Aleksandrovna to put honey in my porridge instead of sour cream. Russians are very proud of their smetana, and the look I receive when I say I'm not too keen on it says "You really can't be Russian if you don't like our sour cream". If I can have milk in my Nescafé instead of half a lemon the first ten minutes of every day will be alright. At the moment I find it very difficult to speak Russian straight away, as at university I am only in a Russian environment for two hours in the middle of the day. Here I have to be ready to speak it with half a second's warning. I'm settling into a routine, so today was a normal day at school. ... read more

I was allowed a lie-in today, and after my kasha I went back to my room to download yesterday's pictures onto my laptop. I've turned a photo of my first Russian beer into my screen-saver. Tamara Aleksandrovna gave me a shopping list, and told me to go to the Universam supermarket downstairs to buy some fizzy drinks for dinner. The supermarket is part of a chain, and therefore feels surprisingly western, the only differences being that vodka has its' own aisle, and they play pop music. I found bottles of Dyushes, Baikal and Tarkhun, bought them from the checkout without too much fuss, and came back feeling very pleased with myself, to be told by my landlady that I was only supposed to choose one of them. All afternoon she knocked on my door every ten ... read more

The end of my first week in Russia. It's been a good experience; I expected to feel a lot more anxious, but it's only yesterday and today that the culture shock and the feeling of being 4000 kilometres from home has caught up with me. I haven't made any Russian friends yet - I didn't want to introduce myself by stuttering and making mistakes as I tend to at the moment - but I am going for a walk with Chris J tomorrow to take some photos, and hopefully we will meet some people then. And then a celebration. It won't be a huge party, just a meal and a couple of bars if we find them, because we're all so tired. Relaxing is definitely the plan for the weekend. Fish for tea, out of a ... read more

Four blinchiki for breakfast (Tamara Aleksandrovna already knows they're my favourite) then four hours of grammar with Olga and a different Lena. They are both middle aged ladies with brown hair. Russian grammar is hard enough in an English classroom but it is even more of a headache here. Most of us went to an outside biker bar down the road for a drink after class. It is on a street near Nekrasova, with three tables and a menu of microwave mini kolbasa pizzas, sausages or soup. I went to the town centre - ulitsa Kirova - on my own afterwards to find my way around, and walked around the 'rynok' (market) to buy some t-shirts and a jumper. It's busy and colourful, with hundreds of stalls selling cheap products or clothes. An Azeri trader gave ... read more