This past week has been pretty eventful. We went out to see our Russian teacher singing and playing live in a cafe, which was amazing, although when we came in in the morning he apologised for the fact that he made mistakes 'in almost every song'. We thought he was amazing though, and it was a really fun night.
The next day, it was Sophia's birthday, so we obviously greeted her in the morning with cake, chocolate, biscuits, and a hat made out of a newspaper with Putin and Obama on it. She was, naturally, a bit embarrassed when we made her wear the hat until the teacher arrived! After class we headed to Kivach for birthday borsch and after we had cake at the lake. Me and Nadia had also been asked whether we wanted to go to an english class in another part of the university and help out a bit, so we headed there with a babushka who showed us how to take the bus for the first time. Buses in Russia are pretty random- there are 'троллейбусы' which are cheaper, but slower, and electrified, and 'автобусы' which are sometimes just like a minivan and sometimes actually resemble a bus but are a considerable amount smaller and a bit more expensive (if you can call 40p for a bus expensive). It was great fun helping out in the class- we also had to do some speaking in Russian which was ok, because their english wasn't amazing. We are definitely planning on going back! After the class we also met our first real Russian friend who we went out with on Friday too. That night we also went out for a few drinks in москва кафе, and we talked about a lot of hilarious things, and me and Clara ended up having a conversation in French about taxes and social housing in France.
On friday night, we decided to book a table in Neu Brandenburg, a german pub, to have a few drinks before hitting the karaoke again. It has an amazing atmosphere, and me, Erik and Eva had an amazing discussion about Harry Potter (the books and the films and their pros and cons) and His Dark Materials. A few of us also shared a huge beer container which I think held 7 pints? We then headed on to Sigmund Freud, had vodka for the first time here (which comes as a 50ml shot!) and did lots of singing- me and Nadia did Don't Speak by No Doubt, Sk8er Boi by Avril Lavigne and Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler. It was hilarious, and our teacher even started dancing in front of us while we were singing. Robin and Maddy also sung Roxanne, which was equally hilarious, although Maddy's mic didn't really work so we have yet to hear the extent of her singing :P We walked home with some of the new people we met, and Ruslan took us on a shortcut over the train tracks and through a forest!! We didn't get home till about quarter to 5 though!
Yesterday we decided to cure Friday's hangover by going for a swim in Lake Onega. This was, even by the Russians' accounts, pretty crazy. My hozyaika's response to it was 'Почему??!! Молодци!!!' which roughly translates as 'why on earth?!! well done!' Anyway, it was pretty freezing when we got in but after that it wasn't too bad, once we swam around for a bit, but the water was soooo clean, we could see the bottom and there was only tiny bits of algae in it otherwise. It really was an amazing experience, and I really hope I can do it again before it freezes!
Later yesterday, me, Nadia, Clara and some of the people who we met on Friday night went to watch the German vs Russia volleyball match. We managed to order two extra beers by accident but also got charged about 500 rubles less than we should have been... it was strange. We managed to order 6 beers, 2 other drinks, 2 schnitzels, 3 portions of chips, and two meals for 950 rubles. Which is about £18. Ridiculously cheap. Eventually the Russians won the match and the gold medal (much to the disappointment of Daniel, the German guy who we were with) although the whole time they were trying to convince us to bet as to who would win. Luckily, nobody fell for it, which may have had something to do with the fact that the Russian man's wife was telling us to say 'I don't understand' to stop him betting. After the match ended, we all headed home, although when we got near to my house we decided that we weren't actually tired, and also that there was a dog sat in front of my door preventing me from getting inside easily. We sat/ stood on the pavement outside my apartment and chatted about all sorts of random things in a mixture of English and German for about an hour.
All in all it has been a pretty damn amazing week. I am super excited for the next 14 weeks still to come....
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