I seem to have fallen into a habit of doing a weekly update so I will keep up the tradition for this week at least.
Sunday's trip to the chinese market, or китай город, was quite awesome. The market ended up being just a large building with probably over 200 little stores. They were all selling about the same thing, cheaply priced shoes, clothes and jackets. It was so cool to walk around and see if we could find the same thing we had seen in another store for cheaper in the next one. Looking at the shoes was great because I may need to invest in a new pair after all the rain this week has kinda left mind looking a bit ragged. We were also informed by Anna's host dad, who took us to the market, that we could haggle here so it could be even cheaper which is always good.
The main reason we went to the chinese market was so Anna could buy a jacket. So when she did not find one she liked there, her host dad continued to drive us around to about five more shopping centers to look for one. Seeing that we didn't understand what he was saying to us half the time and that we kinda just wanted to go hang out at Anna's home stay, we were less than enthusiastic about going from store to store. Although it was a very nice gesture, Russians have a way of "killing with kindness" that is unusual for us Americans. So we were very relieved when we heard the word home (in Russian of course) come out of Anna's host dad's mouth. While we mainly went to Anna's house just to hang out, we ended up with a full meal out if it and it was absolutely delicious!
After a wonderful day at Anna's house we headed home cause I needed to do my all my homework seeing as we still do not have a set schedule. Monday was fairly uneventful we had three classes and in our last one we watched a very interesting Russian movie. It was about this girl Olesya who was the daughter of a witch and so she grew up in the forest. Then one day these three hunters saw her in the woods and fell in love with her. After that I'm kinda not clear on what was going on. All three of the hunters were competing for her love and the other two were jealous when she picked one of them. Then when the one hunter asked her to marry him and move to the village, she went to church in the village and got beat up for being a witch. Then she walked off and next thing you know the village was being attacked (I think) and Olesya had disappeared. I was quite confused by what was going on but when I tried to find a synopsis of the movie (or the story) all that came up was the story in Russian. So if any one wants to try to look it up in the US and tell me if I got the story right its by Aleksander Kuprin.
Following that wonderful movie we headed over to the book store. I really wanted to go there because I was looking for a handwriting practice book because all Russians seem to have the most beautiful handwriting and I wanted to to. After searching through what seemed like hundreds of books I finally found one and now I am working on my beautiful handwriting :) Although we will have to see how it turns out, surely Russians aren't just born with amazing handwriting. After a quite jaunt into the grocery store for a juice box (you can buy individual juice boxes!!!) we headed back to Volshky. And when I got home my host mom surprised me with Хачапури, the Armenian cheese biscuits for dinner!
On Tuesday, we had two classes and we all managed to forget about our homework but luckily she wasn't upset at us for it and things proceeded as normal. When we got of class it was cold, grey and raining so we got blinis and went from shop to shop on the street mainly to get warm and also to look for some kinds game in Russian that we could play. We didn't manage to find any however and headed home instead.
Wednesday classes were uneventful and the highlight of the day came at lunch. We decided to try another shwarma stand to find a better one than the ones from two weeks ago and apparently while we are still zero for three on the movie front, second time was the charm for shwarmas! The guy who made these shwarmas took his time and they were amazing!!! We were going to walk down to the river front to eat them but mine did not last that long it was that delicious. I will definitely be taking Eric and my family there when they come to visit (which I am very excited for by the way!). The shwarmas made my day complete so following a long rest in the park, where I'm proud to report that I worked on some of my Russian grammar book, we headed back to the bus for the day.
With our free day on Thursday we made plans with one of our Russian friends to hang out in Volgograd. We had originally planned to go on a boat ride on the Volga but the boat needs a minimum of 18 people to launch and we were sadly the only four people there. So instead Irina took us to a pub that she really likes. There Irina's boyfriend and one of his friends met us and since they don't speak any english we actually used our Russian and when we didn't know how to say it Irina worked as a translator. It turned out that they are actually in a band and so they were asking us what we thought about their band names which were in English actually. It was really cool to get a chance to hang out with some more Russians our age and legally be able to order drinks with dinner.
Yesterday for our excursion to the botanical gardens the weather was less than cooperative. It poured down rain all day and considering the botanical gardens are outside it was quite a wet experience. Luckily I had my umbrella and had worn my gym shoes because the rain turned the walkways into mud in the city and at the gardens. Nevertheless, the gardens were still really beautiful and they have trees from everywhere you could think of. We even got to eat the berries off a few of the different trees and one tree's leaves smelled like chips, it was so cool! I didn't take too many pictures because it was hard to juggle an umbrella and a camera but I did get a few so here they are.
Im not sure what the weekend has in store for us yet but I'll be sure to keep you updated :)
Sunday's trip to the chinese market, or китай город, was quite awesome. The market ended up being just a large building with probably over 200 little stores. They were all selling about the same thing, cheaply priced shoes, clothes and jackets. It was so cool to walk around and see if we could find the same thing we had seen in another store for cheaper in the next one. Looking at the shoes was great because I may need to invest in a new pair after all the rain this week has kinda left mind looking a bit ragged. We were also informed by Anna's host dad, who took us to the market, that we could haggle here so it could be even cheaper which is always good.
The main reason we went to the chinese market was so Anna could buy a jacket. So when she did not find one she liked there, her host dad continued to drive us around to about five more shopping centers to look for one. Seeing that we didn't understand what he was saying to us half the time and that we kinda just wanted to go hang out at Anna's home stay, we were less than enthusiastic about going from store to store. Although it was a very nice gesture, Russians have a way of "killing with kindness" that is unusual for us Americans. So we were very relieved when we heard the word home (in Russian of course) come out of Anna's host dad's mouth. While we mainly went to Anna's house just to hang out, we ended up with a full meal out if it and it was absolutely delicious!
After a wonderful day at Anna's house we headed home cause I needed to do my all my homework seeing as we still do not have a set schedule. Monday was fairly uneventful we had three classes and in our last one we watched a very interesting Russian movie. It was about this girl Olesya who was the daughter of a witch and so she grew up in the forest. Then one day these three hunters saw her in the woods and fell in love with her. After that I'm kinda not clear on what was going on. All three of the hunters were competing for her love and the other two were jealous when she picked one of them. Then when the one hunter asked her to marry him and move to the village, she went to church in the village and got beat up for being a witch. Then she walked off and next thing you know the village was being attacked (I think) and Olesya had disappeared. I was quite confused by what was going on but when I tried to find a synopsis of the movie (or the story) all that came up was the story in Russian. So if any one wants to try to look it up in the US and tell me if I got the story right its by Aleksander Kuprin.
Following that wonderful movie we headed over to the book store. I really wanted to go there because I was looking for a handwriting practice book because all Russians seem to have the most beautiful handwriting and I wanted to to. After searching through what seemed like hundreds of books I finally found one and now I am working on my beautiful handwriting :) Although we will have to see how it turns out, surely Russians aren't just born with amazing handwriting. After a quite jaunt into the grocery store for a juice box (you can buy individual juice boxes!!!) we headed back to Volshky. And when I got home my host mom surprised me with Хачапури, the Armenian cheese biscuits for dinner!
On Tuesday, we had two classes and we all managed to forget about our homework but luckily she wasn't upset at us for it and things proceeded as normal. When we got of class it was cold, grey and raining so we got blinis and went from shop to shop on the street mainly to get warm and also to look for some kinds game in Russian that we could play. We didn't manage to find any however and headed home instead.
Wednesday classes were uneventful and the highlight of the day came at lunch. We decided to try another shwarma stand to find a better one than the ones from two weeks ago and apparently while we are still zero for three on the movie front, second time was the charm for shwarmas! The guy who made these shwarmas took his time and they were amazing!!! We were going to walk down to the river front to eat them but mine did not last that long it was that delicious. I will definitely be taking Eric and my family there when they come to visit (which I am very excited for by the way!). The shwarmas made my day complete so following a long rest in the park, where I'm proud to report that I worked on some of my Russian grammar book, we headed back to the bus for the day.
 |
| View from the shwarmas :) |
Yesterday for our excursion to the botanical gardens the weather was less than cooperative. It poured down rain all day and considering the botanical gardens are outside it was quite a wet experience. Luckily I had my umbrella and had worn my gym shoes because the rain turned the walkways into mud in the city and at the gardens. Nevertheless, the gardens were still really beautiful and they have trees from everywhere you could think of. We even got to eat the berries off a few of the different trees and one tree's leaves smelled like chips, it was so cool! I didn't take too many pictures because it was hard to juggle an umbrella and a camera but I did get a few so here they are.
 |
| The water was so high because of all the rain |
 |
| Our guide standing in front of a house from Russian folklore about the house of a witch, Baba Ega. |
 |
| Baba Ega herself |
 |
| Some of the berries we got to eat. They look like cherries but they are hard and bitter. I'm still not sure what we ate... |
Im not sure what the weekend has in store for us yet but I'll be sure to keep you updated :)
Well you pictures from the soggy botanical gardens look great. Maybe you will get a sunny day next time you try to visit again! I cannot wait to try the shwarma stand - yummy! Hope you are enjoying the weekend, where ever your adventures lead you! Cant wait to read all about them
ReplyDelete