Swimming in Lake Onega, more karaoke and late night chats on the road

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....

Karaoke and wolf-rapists

We've been spending a lot of time in the last few days sort of wandering around Petrozavodsk, exploring various places and discovering new and exciting things (like bread that isn't dry and fur coats for the equivalent of £800). During this, we have encountered a few things: 

-dogs
-water in various forms
-karaoke

So firstly, we're all a little bit anxious about dogs here, because there is always the possibility of RABIES. None of us have had our jabs for rabies, and there are a lot of dogs that either aren't on leads or don't even appear to have owners. I tend to roll with the idea that you can't let the dogs know you're scared, they sense your fear, so you have to pretend you're not. That doesn't go for everyone, however, and while we were walking along one day, after passing a dog, we discussed what dogs really are. Eva stated that dogs are 'wolf-rapists'- i.e. small wolves, and like rapists, because they don't pay attention to you saying no, they don't get away from you when you want them too etc. I think this is possibly an extreme reaction to the dogs, not sure about the rapist part, but definitely sure about the wolf part. Anyway, we'd definitely prefer to not encounter dogs. Also, on the way to Lenta (a big supermarket) me and Nadia saw a dog that definitely appeared to be lying on the street dead. It was a bit strange. 

Anyway, a slightly more enjoyable topic is the sheer amount of water in Petrozavodsk- not just the obvious Lake Onega but also lots of little streams, lakes, fountains etc. Turns out that a lot of us really love water, and that it makes us sad when we're not around it. We might have a problem when it all turns to ice though :( :( :( 

The most hilarious thing so far in Russia, however, is karaoke. Russians do karaoke about a million times better than in Britain- probably something to do with the fact that they're not embarrassed about it, and also because they're ridiculously drunk. It was great seeing people sing songs when they definitely don't know what the words are supposed to be, and ending up just making a mumbly singy thing. The atmosphere was fantastic, and I have already planned songs I intend to sing next week (I think we have an advantage just by having english as our first language). One of the most hilarious songs was 'моя бабушка курит трубку' which we thought meant 'my grandma smokes weed' but disappointingly only means 'my grandma smokes a pipe'. Whatever, it was a hilarious song and I think we'll all probably be secretly downloading it....

For some reason pictures aren't working here but I'm uploading onto facebook as we speak!

Strange meetings and amazing food

So in general, Russia is a pretty crazy place. 

I have already experienced some of the Russians' offerings in terms of food: chips with dill on, pizza with dill on, dill and cucumber crisps (yes, there is a lot of dill!) but also some really amazing foods: tonight I had голубцы- cabbage rolls filled with rice and mushrooms and served with a beetroot vinaigrette which was super yummy. It was followed by a strange wafer thing filled with what appeared to be condensed milk, and was really tasty too. Yesterday I also had грибы в сметане- the classic mushrooms and sour cream dish which was soooo fantastic- and the грибы в сметане crisps were almost just as great! I also bought a blini filled with mushrooms and mash(odd I know) for 52 rubles- just over a pound! Luckily I love mushrooms, as they seem to feature a lot in a russian vegetarian diet! I definitely never expected the food to be this great. What's more, they even sell Cathedral City cheddar here!

More interesting events (for those who don't care about intricate details of what I eat)- we were walking by the lake today in a group, chatting in English and a girl came up to us, obviously British too and asked whether we were English! Her name is Emily, and she's studying here in her gap year in a private school, and she seems lovely. That, and brave, as she hasn't even studied Russian before!!! 

After we met Emily, we continued to walk around the lake, and we were sat on a stone wall when a seemingly drunk man asked us for the time. We awkwardly tried to tell/ show him, but he seemed to be more interested in the fact that we were obviously foreign. He introduced himself as Evgeny, and Maddy (who does post-A Level Russian) managed to pick up on the fact that he called Robin gay because he was sitting with 4 girls?! It was a strange conversation, and then he proceeded to root in his pockets for something, and eventually came out with a strange coin, one side saying да and the other нет. It turns out, he wanted Robin to bet a pound on which side it would land. Obviously, he refused, and the man started to leave, but then whispered in Emily's ear 'f**k you'. He eventually left but it was a very strange experience. 

I've also had some interesting situations with the 8 year old, Vanya, who lives with me teasing me a bit- him and his friend seem to find it hilarious to mess with the foreign girl- so shouting my name, repeatedly ringing the intercom, somehow tripping the electricity... and every time I ask them what they were doing they speak really fast Russian and giggle. I think I might just have to pretend they're not doing anything... 

Either way, I'm really happy with my host, Galina, who has let me stick loads of photos on my walls so it looks homely, and cooks me wonderful food! Also, the road we walk to school on is being repaired extremely fast- considering it was basically a dirt track when we arrived it's crazy how efficient they've been- it's almost completely tarmacked now. 
And this weekend, I've been invited to go mushroom-picking with my host family! I'M SO EXCITED!

I'll put up some photos soon, but so far, Russia, so good!  

Arrival in/ Travel to Russia!

On 31st of September I started my longggg journey to Petrozavodsk, Russia. I left at 5pm off on the train to London. My family took me to the station, but annoyingly (typically for East Coast trains) the train was late and they had to leave early so couldn't wave me off wahh.

Me and my sisters at the station

I thought I had a super-clever setup for carrying my bags, but as it turned out the one on the top kept falling off while in the middle of busy areas in King's Cross... whoops. Everyone in my vicinity hated me. ALSO there were engineering works on the Northern Line, which I was taking to get to Nadia's and so I had to first get a train to Euston and then a rail replacement bus to Golder's Green, which was stressful and super busy. I eventually got there, and stayed the night at Nadia's grandma's house, which was fun (and a lot cheaper than paying for a hotel)! 

We got up at 5.15, got a taxi at 6.00 and arrived at the airport really early, and managed to meet with other people from Sheffield, which was great. We had an uneventful but fun flight, which involved drinking free wine, and the fact that Roy Bivon helpfully forgot to organise me a veggie meal. 

Here is a photo of us on the plane

When we arrived at St Petersburg, it was quite stressful going through customs cause the guy seemed to stamp about 50 documents but we all got let through and as far as I can tell nobody lost their luggage! We had a long-ish journey to Petrozavodsk but didn't arrive too late, and I was the first one to leave the coach (which was slightly scary) but my hozyaika seems really lovely, her apartment is great, and has internet!!!! and she half-forced tea and cake on me although I wasn't hungry. My apartment (which is coincidentally right next to Robin's, another guy from Sheffield who is also on our course) looks really soviet, but it is great inside- here are a few pics!

My room!

The kitchen

The view from my window

All in all it's a pretty amazing place, although quite daunting, especially because I basically can't speak any Russian. Communication so far has been fun with a lot of confusion and having to be shown what to do! 

The start of my Year Abroad: Hamburg

This year, as many of you may know, I spent the entire of July in Hamburg. Before I left, I was pretty apprehensive about turning up in a city I'd never been to and living in a house with people I'd never met. But when I left the airport and went on the S-bahn on the way to my home for a month, I knew that I would love this city. 

The first few days were a bit daunting- the day after I arrived we all went to IBH- which is where all our classes were. I didn't know until I got there that we would be starting off with tests and an interview to put us into classes based on our ability. But we did the test, and the interview, and then a lot of us went and sat to have a coffee, and we chatted about who we were, where we were from and what we were doing here. Because we were all in the same situation- none of us knew each other- it wasn't scary or weird. It was tricky though, in the first few days- being on my own with a family meant that it was quite hard to meet up with the other people on the course. 

However, we quickly started to form friendship groups and we started going out- to the Reeperbahn particularly! We had quite a few eventful nights- one resulting in me losing my camera, and other people losing their phones, and one weekend we stayed out until 6 am both Friday and Saturday- we went to the Hafen and looked at the sun rising, and the Fischmarkt to get Fischbrötchen (not me). That part of Hamburg was pretty mental especially- the Reeperbahn is a very weird place, lots of sex-shops and prostitutes on the streets, and also loads and loads of clubs (a lot with high entrance fees and rubbish music). I think it would probably be a better city to go out in when the students were still around!

We also had a really long 'Stadtrundfahrt', a city tour, where we saw all the historical landmarks and looked at the interesting places in Hamburg for tourists. I found the amount of water in Hamburg amazing- not only the Elbe and the Alster, but loads of parks with lakes, the Elbstrand where you can swim and there is a beach, but it's opposite the port, and huge container ships go past. We went swimming loads when we were in Hamburg, considering it isn't by the sea! I found that Hamburg's a really diverse city- there's so many different areas, and it really is huge- it would feel like a capital city if it wasn't so friendly and welcoming. 

I had so many amazing experiences in Hamburg, whether it was going on a train at 9am to Lüneburg hungover, or one to Copenhagen at 7am without any sleep the night before, or the day we went to Cuxhaven and then all cooked tagliatelle together and watched Friends. Playing kicker (table football) in the ground floor of the hostel, celebrating people's birthdays, drinking in loads of different streets (luckily that's legal in Germany), the Mensa. I could go on... More importantly, I met some pretty amazing people- people from all corners of the world, and I really miss all these people still. I really wish I was still in Hamburg, with every single person I met on this summer course, because it was one of the best months of my life. 

P.S. we spoke a lot of German too.