(no subject)
I am sure that nobody wants to read lots of mushy stuff about my boyfriend (who is wonderful, btw) and so shall tell you some of the more interesting details of my first week-and-a-half in Russia.
Firstly, let me state for the record that I absolutely and completely HATE mosquitoes. I have something like thirty bites over my body, 8 of which are on one hand and there are four particularly nasty (ie. big and red) ones on my face. Wonderful!
But besides being plagued by mosquitoes all night (although apparently they only want to bite *me*) I am doing ok, having great fun wading through lots of newly-invented red tape, in order to start my course properly. On Monday I will have a test to see which group to be put in, and then classes will start on the 7th.
You know, I kind of thought that my first week back in Russia would be a bit of a holiday, but really it was nothing of the sort. When we weren’t going back and forth across the city trying to sort out various papers (I said already that he is wonderful, and I mean it - he has spent *days* traipsing round playing translator for me which has been a real help) I have been cleaning the flat.
First, I cleaned the hob (again! I don’t understand how dirty he got it in the 3 months since I last cleaned it), then I was *persuaded* to help clean one of the fridges (yes, we have three fridges between two of us! Though, only one is turned on) which was absolutely disgusting and I dread to think how long it had been festering since he had apparently been ordered to clean it in March… So then we went on to general tidying, then at the weekend visited Olga’s dacha and spent an afternoon collecting fallen apples and weeding (though it was good fun). Then I spent half this afternoon cleaning the oven. Funness. Admittedly it does need doing and as of next week we are both going to be too busy to do much, but still…
Anyway, I shall stop complaining. I really am very happy to be back.
So, on the 31st Pasha invited over four friends for dinner, and I was persuaded to cook something ‘English’. I chose shepherds pie, and then randomly decided to make jam tarts for pudding. So they all came over and ate, and ate, and ate, then drank and drank and drank… we started with some *French* champagne (as opposed to the cheap Russian stuff) then followed by mulled wine, gin and tonic (measures of about 2:1 tonic to gin :-p ) and then I was sent to bed, as in theory I was to have a Russian test on the 1st (though I went there and they just said ‘hello, your test will be on the 5th’) but then they went on without me and drank vodka. In total we had a bottle of champagne, 2 bottles of wine and a litre of gin between 6, then a half litre of vodka between 4. Really! But it was good fun - his friends are really nice although they only spoke Russian… So three (rather than the expected one) people slept over and then stayed the next day (we went for a walk in a park and ended up spending an hour rowing on the lake there) and then the next night… they left about lunch time today. But it was all good fun, if more late nights. I don’t think we’ve got to bed before 1am since I got here. Too many sleepless nights…
I think we might be going to Olga’s dacha again tomorrow, which should be fun. Autumn has finally descended - it is now jumper weather, whereas 2 days ago we were comfortable in t-shirts.
Anyway, I am kind of realizing what a pile of crap I have written, so will sign off for now so as not to torment you any further.
Ali xx
Firstly, let me state for the record that I absolutely and completely HATE mosquitoes. I have something like thirty bites over my body, 8 of which are on one hand and there are four particularly nasty (ie. big and red) ones on my face. Wonderful!
But besides being plagued by mosquitoes all night (although apparently they only want to bite *me*) I am doing ok, having great fun wading through lots of newly-invented red tape, in order to start my course properly. On Monday I will have a test to see which group to be put in, and then classes will start on the 7th.
You know, I kind of thought that my first week back in Russia would be a bit of a holiday, but really it was nothing of the sort. When we weren’t going back and forth across the city trying to sort out various papers (I said already that he is wonderful, and I mean it - he has spent *days* traipsing round playing translator for me which has been a real help) I have been cleaning the flat.
First, I cleaned the hob (again! I don’t understand how dirty he got it in the 3 months since I last cleaned it), then I was *persuaded* to help clean one of the fridges (yes, we have three fridges between two of us! Though, only one is turned on) which was absolutely disgusting and I dread to think how long it had been festering since he had apparently been ordered to clean it in March… So then we went on to general tidying, then at the weekend visited Olga’s dacha and spent an afternoon collecting fallen apples and weeding (though it was good fun). Then I spent half this afternoon cleaning the oven. Funness. Admittedly it does need doing and as of next week we are both going to be too busy to do much, but still…
Anyway, I shall stop complaining. I really am very happy to be back.
So, on the 31st Pasha invited over four friends for dinner, and I was persuaded to cook something ‘English’. I chose shepherds pie, and then randomly decided to make jam tarts for pudding. So they all came over and ate, and ate, and ate, then drank and drank and drank… we started with some *French* champagne (as opposed to the cheap Russian stuff) then followed by mulled wine, gin and tonic (measures of about 2:1 tonic to gin :-p ) and then I was sent to bed, as in theory I was to have a Russian test on the 1st (though I went there and they just said ‘hello, your test will be on the 5th’) but then they went on without me and drank vodka. In total we had a bottle of champagne, 2 bottles of wine and a litre of gin between 6, then a half litre of vodka between 4. Really! But it was good fun - his friends are really nice although they only spoke Russian… So three (rather than the expected one) people slept over and then stayed the next day (we went for a walk in a park and ended up spending an hour rowing on the lake there) and then the next night… they left about lunch time today. But it was all good fun, if more late nights. I don’t think we’ve got to bed before 1am since I got here. Too many sleepless nights…
I think we might be going to Olga’s dacha again tomorrow, which should be fun. Autumn has finally descended - it is now jumper weather, whereas 2 days ago we were comfortable in t-shirts.
Anyway, I am kind of realizing what a pile of crap I have written, so will sign off for now so as not to torment you any further.
Ali xx