Preparation....South Korea's Got Seoul!Well, we're here.....We are gloopy....Have a great weekend!Hello, Friends!Snow! Snow! Snow!Another Monday....Where is the sneg of yesteryear?!?Merry Christmas!С Новым Годом!Наш Рай!Back to School.....NovgorodAnother week has passed......Very quickly....
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St. Petersburg (Saint Petersburg), Russia
In other exciting news, we cooked a tasty meal last night! To fully appreciate this, I think you all need some background information about our room. We have a kitchen, with two hotplates, a sink and a fridge. But only one of the hotplates works, we only have one frying pan and it's kind of hard to find things that can be opened without a can opener.....which we haven't been able to find yet, so we have all these unopened cans sitting sadly on a shelf in out room. Nooo! So far we've just been toasting bread in the pan, maybe boiling some potatoes....the other day we were able to poach eggs, which was definitely a highlight! But last night was a true masterpiece - boiled potatoes, canned corn and kidney beans and these crazy tinned tomatoes with dill. It was pretty delicious, let me tell you......
Well, on a slightly less exciting note, we saw Swan Lake at the Mariinsky on Wednesday night! It was so wonderful....it was a bit of an adventure, because when we went to buy tickets, the lady at the ticket booth sold us 'Russian' priced tickets (they're significantly cheaper) and told us just not to talk when we got to the theatre. I think she felt sorry for us......but it was pretty exciting, because we got a bit of a bargain! So, we dressed up (as much as we could, anyway), and set off in style to the Mariinsky. It was a beautiful night - the theatre itself is incredible, and the ballet was wonderful. We had such a nice night!
Everything else is going pretty well. We made some Russian friends the other night, at a bar in the city - we happened to go on 'English Conversation Night', so everyone was pretty keen for a chat. A litre and a half of Baltika later, and we had a couple of new Russian friends, one of whom we're going to go to the Russian Museum with tomorrow. Actually, this guy we met - Igor - is really interesting. He's an artist, and he's learning English to travel to the States to do an exhibition there next year. He was telling us about how he participated in the riots against Putin in May, and he was beaten so badly that he has all this trouble with his shoulders now. It's pretty crazy.... it was good that he wanted to talk to us about politics though, we're trying to be pretty careful with our opinions about Putin and the government and everything, so when people are willing to discuss it with us it's really interesting to hear their opinions. Another guy we met that night, Sasha, was telling us that he supported Putin, so it was really good to hear the different points of view. So that was pretty exciting.....
Speaking of opinions, we had a couple of interesting conversation classes at school this week, as well. We have a couple of English girls in our group, two girls from Japan, a German girl, and a guy and a girl from China. The topic of conversation this week was terrorism, and it continued onto whether or not there should be a death penalty for terrorists. The argument got fairly heated - as it was bound to, I'm sure - but the good thing was, because it's so hard to really express your opinion when you're not proficient in the language, I think it really helps you define your argument down to the bare essentials, and it's certainly good practice when everyone has a different opinion. I'm really glad that we're not in a class where everyone speaks English - it's really hard to try to express what you're trying to say, but I think we're both improving a lot in our understanding of Russian as well. Just from observing Zoe, I think the improvement of her Russian is amazing - she has already learnt heaps of stuff, and her speaking is improving every day. It's really exciting!
Anyway, I should get going - off to dinner! Have a great weekend everyone, and we'll write again soon!
Love, Meg and Zoe
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Jim and Di
Written by jim.ross 14 months ago
Hi Meg, Thanks for keeping us up-to-date. Sounds like you're having a great time. It's nice to see that the next generation is more culturally appreciative. Jim went to the Bolshoi Ballet's Swan Lake in 1973 where he fell asleep following a hard night out on the Vodka! Meg, would you please ask Zoe to check her e-mails and respond quickly. We might be able to visit you in Jan for a couple of days. Love to you both, Jim&Di
sneg glorious sneg
Written by linda nilovna 13 months ago
Dear Meg and Zoe, Yes, there is something absolutely wonderful about snow and the effect it has on the landscape. I just loved the way it had of making everything look brand new again. It sounds as though you are having a ball. When Russians are kind they can be very very kind, witness the tickets. And I was not surprised to hear of the divergent opinions of Putin. There was an article in the Saturday Courier Mail to the effect that the leading purchasers of Gold Coast real estate are Russians who are buying up just in case things get difficult at home. I am still slaving away on the journal at work and am finding lots of other things too to keep me busy, like writing references for past students and catching up on new titles in the library. James finds out his OP today. He is very relaxed about it, wish I was. He has been going through a dvd viewing phase so together we have watched Road to Perdition, Saving Private Ryan, Shawshank Redemption and we have another five or so to get through before Friday. I am starting to wilt as after a hard day at the office my concentration is not what it could be. James and I went to the Andy Warhol exhibition at GoMA on Saturday afternoon which I enjoyed and James didn't. The only thing that rescued it for him was that he saw Julian Morrow (from the Chaser )in the flesh a couple of times as we walked around and that was the highlight of his afternoon. John and I send our very best, Lyndall