Margo , a russian girl who moved to SPB from Yeketerinburg organized an outing to Pushkin.There were initially 7 of us.But somehow , everyone met friends and other couchsurfers coincidentally at the park and our numbers snowballed to 12 people!
Margo later came over to my place to help me with learning Russian!She's a strict vegan and does not even eat сметана( sour cream ) anymore the comfort food for all russians and hers when she was younger!
Another couchsurfer was Sasha!
On my first week in SPB ,through CS , i met a researcher and curator of the Tibetian Collection at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts.Sasha .
He is a russian who specializes in Tibetian buddhism and enlightened me about buddhism in Russia ,the travel opportunities that his specialization has given him and his hitchhiking experiences around Europe.As we debated and discussed over tea and cakes , i made it a point to myself to read up a little more on this field for I have already been to the 2 republics in Russia where buddhism is the main religion.Buryatia and Kalmykia.And although ,I have absolutely no inclination to travel via hitchhiking , i am always keen to hear about their crazy adventures
Sasha called me a few weeks later to check on how I was doing in SPB!And I invited him over for a dinner at my place with Shakina and Xusu.Acha had to get her thesis done and was unable to join us.
We discussed about practiceses of different types of buddhism and corruption in different countries over chicken rice and wine :)
For those curious , here is the link to his website.
http://www.sashastr.narod.ru/
