Spring

In the past i associated Spring with warmer weather and pretty things

It has now become my least favourite season.Because it is not only raining , the snow is melting.There are dirty puddles everywhere.And  +4 to +10 degrees is not any much warmer than 0 degrees.

I'm getting " paddington bear " boots from Lenta supermarket after school.I hate walking in puddles and having the water seep into my boots which are already thrashed after 6 months of heavy usage.

Extracted from www.yandex.ru , google translated into English

Headline News

One Reason why I'm glad I'm not in Moscow this weekend.

There was a blast in the Moscow Metro.
http://rt.com/Top_News/2010-03-29/moscow-metro-blast-victims.html

And I'm glad the SMU student ,Gina who went to Moscow for her exchange programme this semester was in Saint Petersburg over the weekend.

As for the other friends currently studying Moscow , i pray that they are snuggled up safe and sound in the comforts of their homes and not get too affected by the disruption of metro services.

Play Date

After meeting Nadia , a korean international student at Tomac's dinner party last week , I invited her over to my house on sunday after Sasha had classes at школа ключ.She loves children and was thrilled when she found our that i was living with 2 little boys at home.Naja lives with a babushka ( grandmother ) at Oktabriski Ulitisa who only eats sleeps and watch tv, so it was quite boring for her.Since she was living so close by , visiting me wasn't a problem at all.
( I'm so glad that i asked for a russian host who can speak english , and got a host family that is so amazing )

And guess what .She , like all the other koeans brought her rice cooker along with her. ( it is somehow impossible to cook rice properly here without a rice cooker).

She was excellent with the kids.( It helps when you know the different animals in russian too )
So here is a photo of Nadia , the 2 kid ,my host and dinner which i prepared.The pork chop with "oriental sauce" didn't quite turn out the way i hoped.

The Cartoon Movie

At Lenta supermarket, i chanced upon a Yash Raj Hindi Cartoon "Roadside Romeo "  (http://www.disney.in/movies/roadsideromeo/home.html)
which is dubbed in Russian and has russian and english subtitles for 99 roubles.The cartoon was filled with the bollywood beats that you always expect from any bollywood movie!
AND the kids LOVE IT!

Although they didn't know Bollywood , India or Hindi , the cartoon movie distracted them from fighting with each other and crying on saturday .Guess what , they are watching it again on Sunday, so I'll have a peaceful Sunday while they dance to the bollywood beats outside.

Picture from : http://www.smartproductionz.com/audio/songs/Bollywood/Roadside%20Romeo/pic.jpg

Turning back Time

After doing something stupid, I often wish that I can turn back time or fast forward time, knowingly fully well that it is impossible. But when I came to this side of the world, IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING.

And from this weekend onwards, the clocks fast forward by 1 hour.
I have to wake up one hour earlier for school everyday now.

Snowmobiling on Lake Onega

As spring approaches, I was rushing for time to do some cool stuff ,while Lake Onega (Онежское озеро ) is still frozen. Lake Onega is the 2nd largest fresh water lake in Europe , after Ladoga ( Also in Russia).And in summer , russian rock stars come here to rest!
So I went for a snowmobile excursion. Irina, the attractive manager of Театральное tour agency (http://www.teatralnoe-rk.ru/) called a few companies to find the cheapest option for me, the poor student and eventually settled with УЯ.

At УЯ, I had a snow mobile excursion across Lake Onega to one of the small islands on Lake Onega  .Alexandre , Irina’s husband was my driver for the trip. Yes, he speaks English. Phew! Cool dude who studied history at PSU in his younger days. He now plays bass guitar for 3 jazz bands in Petrozavodsk and is having a jazz gig at FM club on the 30th of March!

Unfortunately, during the half an hour ride to УЯ, Alexandre got a fine by the traffic police for forgetting to switch on the headlights. It was 3pm.The sky was bright and yet Russian drivers have to switch on their headlights.
It was only when I sat in the front seat of a Russian Lada car that I really felt how terrible the Russian road conditions are. One big bump on the road can cause the CD player to switch tracks. According to Alexandre , the government only wants people to buy cars , but don’t want to pay money to maintain the roads.

Itinery
1.40 minutes across the lake to the island
2.20 minutes picnic on остров ивановския ( Island Ivanovskiya )
3.40 minutes back to the island
Includes plenty of picture-taking stops along the way and you will get to steer the snowmobile for about 15 minutes.

Can you spot остров ивановския on the map ? :)

Map from : http://www.clubneva.ru/lib/maps/kr11325.jpg

I did not have the warm clothing required for such an excursion but the people at УЯ convinced me that I had to wear warm clothes and they provided me with them. Well, now that I know the phone number of the company, trips can be arranged directly with the company without going through the tour agency.

Some Hiccups
1. The snowmobile engine got overheated and snow had to be scattered onto the engine on the way back
2. The people at УЯ spoke only Russian, so there were some problems enquiring about excursions directly with them, instead of through the agency. Because of some payment problems and miscommunication, the tour agency eventually found out about my direct enquiries with УЯ. I don’t think they were happy about that.

But anyway, a super cool experience it was.

The difficulties in learning Russian

Learning a new language is difficult.


While being overseas may seem like all play and nice things in the front, I am literally tearing my hair out and becoming extremely stressed and frustrated behind the scenes. The first 2 weeks has been smooth as lessons were revisions and reinforcement of cases which I know. But starting Week 3, I’ve started learning new things. And very often, it is difficult to register a lot of information within a day or 2.

Although I take individual classes, I do speak to the other international students.And a lot more during a party that an Italian student threw at his apartment this week. We speak Russian most of the time, it helps when some of them don’t know much English.

But I often felt demoralized and helpless because I couldn’t understand many things that they say or find the words to express myself. In addition to that, most of the students have learnt the language for a year or 2.Even the Korean students specialize in Russian language in their home university.

So I’m right at the bottom of the steep learning curve. It is a tough climb up.

Anyway, with the help of my teacher correcting my grammar mistakes, I’ve come up with a new weapon to stop the 2 kids from crying. This......

( Translation : When sasha touches Tioma’s things , Tioma cries.When Tioma touches sasha’s things, sasha cry.When the both of you touch my things , I don’t cry.So why do the both of you cry?
DON"T CRY!You are brothers.Brothers must share.When I have chocolates, I give them to you.But next time, if I hear that you cry , I will not give you chocolates )

I am practising this in my room every once in a while.And once i find the right opportunity , i'll whipped it out onto the kids!