Day 9 and 10 ~ Staraya Russa and Sunday

12. July ~ Saturday and Sunday

So, its Sunday! I haven’t done much at all today. Olga is still away, her mother comes in and checks on me. She’s nice, and spends a lot of time trying to teach me vocabulary when we are eating. She will point to different things, like body parts and tell me what they are. I know I wont remember much of it unless I look it up again or write it down, which I didn’t at the time, but still it was nice.

Honestly, I got up after sleeping in, then ate some left over’s that Olga had for me with her mom and have just been relaxing listening to some music. We ate dinner, and I had food that I had had before so it wasn’t anything new, but I still liked it a lot. Soon I have to start studying again for tomorrow test. Eek!

Yesterday the group and I went to Staraya Russa, a small town in the Russian countryside, about an hour and a half ride in the countryside. I love the Russian countryside, more than the city personally. I guess that’s the country person in me. It was a very bumpy van ride. I took way too many pictures again, but oh well.
At this place is the home of a famous Russian writer Dostoevsky. He’s in the top of well known Russian writers, above Tolstoy and loved by many in Russia.

Dostoevsky lived for the last 8 years of his life and wrote his masterpiece, Братья Карамазовы (The Brothers Karamazov). It is really a beautiful town and the weather was so nice today. We walked and talked and ate and enjoyed.

Anyways, we got a tour of the only home he owned and a cathedral that is also located in the town. The house and cathedral are located on a small river. It’s beautiful! I loved it soo much. The houses were a different style, I really liked them. Dostoevsky’s house is amazing and built fantastically. I don’t remember how old it is, but I like it a lot. I guess I just like the feel of a very old house on the countryside. I wonder why? Haha.

We also ate at a party house in the city. It was a big place that looked like it hosted a lot of parties and such. I had borsch for the first time, it’s basically made of beets for those who don’t know. I loved it! It smelled amazing, and the color of it is actually really pretty too! We were served borsch first and then some chicken and rice as the second dish and then a small pastry thing with tea for dessert. I still can’t get over how much I loved the borsch and the bread was also really good too. Borsch was different that I expected it to be, I thought it would be thicker and have more in it than beets, perhaps it depends on how it’s made, I don’t know. Either way, I enjoyed it. A Russian who doesn’t like borsch would be a crazy concept.

All in all, yesterday was a really good day, I enjoyed the place a lot. It’s a beautiful small town and the country side is so pretty. There are lots of tall trees, open land and lots of space, small cute houses, and some dacha’s. I also saw some cows too.. there are cows in Russia for those who ask.

When we got back a bunch of people went home, Michelle, Steve and I walked around town, went to the Telecom place to check our emails, then to Baskin Robbins because Steve wanted ice cream. We purchased a quart of Rocky Road and then sat and ate the whole thing, it was a fun experience. We were laughing because all the Russians were in buying little pints of ice cream and here are the Americans with a whole quart. After we went to Michelle’s house and visited Lena. Her house is very pretty. It’s recently been remodeled so it looks fairly new inside. The elevator to the top of the building was kind of scary, it was old and pretty small. Lena’s cat, also named Masha, is adorable. From there the three of us came back to my house and hung out and studied some vocabulary. It was fun.

All In all a pretty busy day yesterday. Today I decided to just relax and chill out. This coming week is going to be a pretty quick one. We have class Monday- Wednesday and then Thursday – Sunday we are going to St. Petersburg. Art class is over, so instead of that we will have Russian history class after language class. Oh how fun, I don’t really like history but I hope it will be interesting anyways. I know for some of the classes we will be taking some trips here and there.
So, I guess now I should go and study some Russian!


Alrighty, talk to you all soon!

Love,
Sasha

Day 9 Album 1 ~ Staraya Russa
(This link is in the previous post too, so if you wonder why the pictures look similar.)


More Pictures to come when I get back from Petersburg.