Blogs from Russia, Europe - page 306

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

Also, nun seit laengerer Zeit mein erster Eintrag. Ich bin wieder zurueck in Deutschland. Bin dabei verschiedene Formulare auszufuellen und so weiter. Doch mittlerweile geniesse ich die deutsche Buerokratie. Ist um einiges besser als die russische. Weiterhin ist hier viel mehr los und das Leben mehrschichtiger als in Russland. Somit komme ich nicht dazu dies hier zu verfollstaendigen. Nur kurz ein Ueberblick: Es ist viel passiert. Ich bin mit dem Zug nach Ufa gefahren und dort 2 Tage geblieben. Neun Stunden im Zug. Und die nette Frau in unserem Wagen hat ganz erstaunt geguckt und gesagt - da ist der ja morgen schon wieder weg. Nun, fuer uns Deutsche ist selbst eine Nacht schon sehr lang. Danach hatte ich noch eine Abschiedsfeier und dann war ich auch schon zu haus. Ging alles viel zu schnell. Aber ... read more

The thermometer read minus 15 this morning, which took Chiara and I by surprise. There was no wind so it didn't feel any more uncomfortable than usual. Lessons were neither good nor bad. Mondays don't require a lot of brain work so I was in a daydream for most of it. Maybe I am sleepy all the time because after taking my overcoat off to go inside I am still wearing four thermal layers in a warm classroom! We read an Azerbaijani love story with Yulia. A man, Seimur, feels lonely at the wedding of his best friend. They choose a random phone number for him to dial and he falls in love with the girl who answers, called Medina. They speak every night but never see each other. A month after their first phone call ... read more

(Quick note...this was posted from a computer in China and the text format gets a bit funny) We did have a few days off the train in Siberia. First we had three days and two nighs at Listyvanka, a small village in a Russian national park on Lake Baikal. Lake Baikal is famous for holding 20 percent of the worlds fresh water and it boasts a huge variety of marine life which is not found elsewhere in the world, including a freshwater seal. The omul fish is eaten by the locals and not exported outside the area, or at least Russia. We toured the musuem and the village with our local guide, Ella. We were the guests of Olga and Victor, staying in their cozy izba. A typical Siberial izba is basically a giant stove/chimney which ... read more