Some pictures

 This is the Kremlin of Novgorod.  The word kremlin comes from an ancient slavic word for fortress.  It is the heart of Velikiy Novgorod.  This brick kremlin was built in the 15th century, after the destruction of the original stone walls.

This is a fountain of the sea god.  A very old legend of Novgorod tells of the musician Sadko.  He played such beautiful music that the sea god called him to his palace to play under the sea.  After he played, the sea god married Sadko to one of his daughters, the Princess Volkhova.  But Sadko could never be happy under the sea, because he loved his fair city of Novgorod, which is situated on the Volkhov river. 

Here's a view of the beach by the Kremlin, and the river heading to Lake Ilmen.

This is one of the Kremlin towers that I thought was cool.  They are all cool, but this one has a fresco of sorts, and a cross in the side.  

This is the monument of 1000 years of Russia.  It was made in 1862 all out of brass.  There are figures on it from all of Russian history.  There's a bride and groom in front, getting their pictures taken.  It seems to be a tradition here to get pictures in front of this statue, and in front of the art museum nearby.  I have seen so many weddings!  

Another week

Well, not much very exciting happened this week.  Other than finally acquiring a Рив Гош plastic bag.  It goes against my bargain senses to buy anything from this makeup store, because nothing is very cheap there.  But, I had to have the bag!!!  I'm not sure what the attraction is for carrying this specific plastic bag everywhere.  I know Russians are especially fond of makeup, so maybe this store is their mecca, full of all the makeup anyone could ever want.  I got some purple mascara.  I can't wait to wear it everywhere!

The nice blue tights I had brought from home got a run the first time I wore them.  Stupidly, they were the only pair of tights I brought.  I finally bought some the other day, from a little store in the giant mall next to the university.  Can I just say I hate shopping like that?  Where you have to look at all the options behind glass cases, and then talk to the shop owner to find out which ones are actually available and in your size.  Of course, here I have no idea what my size is.  So, with my limited vocabulary, I pointed to different pairs and none of them were available.  She suggested a black pair with an argyle pattern, so I was like, "Sure."  Anything to be done with this uncomfortable situation trying to talk with a surly Russian seller.  I got them, even though they were $10.  Way too much for tights!  I  wore them the next day with my new high heels and my black dress.  I felt so Russian!  Until we had to walk about 50 miles to the grade school to talk with the 17 year olds again.  Halfway there it started to feel like the skin was being scratched off my feet from the friction with the tights.  I was limping all the way there and sweating all over in my leather jacket.  Turns out my new tights, which kind of resemble fishnets only with tiny holes, had given me giant blisters.  Fun!  The one on my left foot was kind of shaped like India.  I'm not wearing those tights again without other softer socks beneath them.

Living here is expensive.  My host sister Marina and her husband are looking for an apartment (I think?) and they are all expensive.  Even the ones with only 3 rooms!  Those are about $150,000.  A nice apartment, that seems more like a condo, with two floors, a garage, 2 bathrooms, and 5 rooms in all is $300,000.  My host brother Sasha has been looking for a car for the entire month that I've been here.  The men in the family discuss cars every single time they are together, and debate tiny little details of the benefits to one kind over another.  I think Sasha's planning to go to Moscow to get his car, which seems really weird.  There are car sellers here, and I'm sure they have cheap cars, why go 9 hours away to get one?  Maybe they only sell old Ladas here, and he doesn't want one of those.  Good for him, I say.  Too many people here still have old Ladas.

Yesterday was such a nice day.  No one else wanted to do anything, so I took a bus to the Kremlin park and walked all the way around the Kremlin.  It was so beautiful!  There were lots of gnats that liked to get in my hair, which was GROSS, but it was such a beautiful day I didn't really mind.  There were lots of little kids riding on horses throughout the park, and even a donkey pulling a carriage.  Some guy running an archery stall called me over and asked for change for his 100 ruble bill.  I totally understood him and was able to give him two 50's!  I took lots and lots of pictures of all the towers of the Kremlin, which I will upload when I have access to reasonable speed internet.  I then went to Lenta, which is kind of like Wal-Mart.  It was so much like shopping at home!  Except for everything being in Cyrillic, and the million cans of pate in the canned food aisle.  I got me some Italian trouser socks for $1.  And some chocolate covered halva.  MMMMMM.  That stuff is better than Reese's.  Really, it is.  The guy in front of me at the checkout asked me if he could use my Lenta card, and I had to tell him I didn't have one.  At least I hope that's what he wanted.
Stay tuned for further developments.

Livi, Lydia and the Antechamber of Doom

Ok, so Russians are kind of paranoid about home security.  The doors all have four locking mechanisms, so you have to turn the key four times to get in or out.  In most of these buildings, there are some apartments that share a big safe outer door, and then have two inner doors to different apartments.  Livi has one like this.  So.  I went over to Livi's today, we were all going to do homework and hang out together.  Lindsay was arriving, and Livi and I started to leave the apartment to go meet her.  We walked out the first door into the antechamber without any of our stuff; we figured it would be a short trip.  Livi locks the door behind us, turns around, sticks her hand in her pocket for the keys to the outer door, then looks at me with a horrified wide-eyed stare.  We were trapped!!  Livi had left her keys inside!  She immediately starts freaking out, "I can't believe I did that!  What are we going to do!  I'm so sorry!  What's Lindsay going to think?  Oh God, I'm going to throw up."  I'm trying to remain calm, to reason how we are going to get out of this mess.  I say, "It's ok, it's an adventure.  We will laugh when we tell this story."  I try wiggling the handle of the inner door, hoping the lock will pop out. No luck.  I try seriously yanking on the door, willing something to give, but no luck.  Livi spotted a loose wire on the doormat, so we pried that off and straightened it, and then attempted to pick the lock.  Again, no luck.  I think those doors are built to be unpickable.  About this time (maybe after 15-20 mins?) I was noticing a lack of fresh air.  I looked again at the outside door and saw that it was pretty much all sealed up around there.  I thought there were gaps, but no.  Now I had to worry about air!  I thought, "We are going to suffocate in this vestibule because Russians are too good at security."  And because Livi's neighbor appeared not to be home.  We had knocked before.  Livi knocked very loudly again, out of desperation, and a wish to not have to shout "POMOGI MNE!"  Luckily, she answered!!!  We explained in very broken terms our situation, and she invited us in to sit in her living room.  She thought we would just wait for Livi's parents to get home, but then we had to tell her that they were at the dacha.  She went, "Ohhhh."  She went downstairs to talk to someone, because she didn't have the mobile number for Mama Lena.  Eventually she returned and explained that Livi's host sister Nastya was walking from her apartment to come open the door.  We were saved!!!  We thanked everyone profusely for going to so much trouble for us, and then sat in Livi's room trying to calm our nerves.  First we had to call Lindsay and explain why we never responded to her calls or came outside.  She thought we must have gotten carbon monoxide poisoning. Once that was all straightened out, we popped open our cans of watermelon cocktail and grapefruit gin and tonic and took a few deep breaths.
TODAY'S LESSON:  Never EVER leave your house without your keys and a phone.  Also, learn how to pick locks.

We no speak Americano

Have you heard this song?  It is ridiculously popular here.  Everyone has it as their ringtones, and I hear it being played ALL the TIME!  It's a very catchy tune.
So on Thursday Lindsay, Livi, and I went to a grade school after classes.  We thought we were going to be talking with little kids in English, but nooo.  We were shown to the 11th grade classroom full of 17 year old boys who are going to be engineers.  Needless to say, they found us very entertaining.  It was such a relief to go and talk about our favorite movies and hobbies, etc.  after a class spent trying to understand Russian literature.  I shouldn't complain too much about the Russian literature though, because it's the best class EVER.  It is so helpful to read Pushkin in Russian, and learn new words and phrases in context, and then talk about what these phrases mean very simply in Russian.  Pushkin writes so cleverly, it's really wonderful to read his actual phrases, rather than English translations.
But back to 17 year old Russian boys...  They are so cool!  After we chatted with them in the classroom, they escorted us home.  A big group of 7 or so teenage boys walked us back to our street.  Mikael and Aleks in particular are characters.  Mikael was wearing saggy jeans, a huge hoodie and a backwards cap.  He listens to a bunch of rap, and also does parkour, which is says is not very scary or dangerous, just very exciting.  Except for the time when he fell on his head, of course, but he was lucky that time and didn't have to get stitches.  Aleks is a break dancer.  He says he will teach us how to do it, and that it is not very hard.  Ha!  Several of these boys are dancers, but only hip hop and break dancing.  They didn't seem too excited when I told them I do ballroom dancing.  They were very excited when I said I could drive.  Aleks was all, "Wow, that is so cool!"  They were trying to convince us to go to this club, "Night Ocean" which we have heard is somewhere never to go from people our age.  Mikael thinks it is awesome.
Hahaha!!!  These boys are so hilarious, because they are so eager to talk to us and entertain us.  I think Thursdays will be fun every week.
Yesterday we had an excursion about the Kremlin.  Our tour guide told us all about the statue in the middle that everyone in Novgorod is practically in love with, the statue for the millennium of Russia, built in 1862.  It has figures from all of Russian history all over it from Rurik the founder of Novgorod to Catherine the Great.  The Germans were going to steal it during World War II, as a sign that they had conquered Russia, but lo and behold, the day they were going to move it became the day Novgorod was liberated.  Hah!  We also went in St. Sofia's cathedral, which was built in 1040 something, and talked about all the inscriptions Novgorodians had scribed in the walls of churches.  They found one from the 13th century that said, "Clergymen, please stop drinking!"  There was a wedding going on in the cathedral while we were there, with a small choir singing all the bits of the liturgy in lovely a Capella harmony.

This is a really bad picture of me in my purple leather jacket, and my new scarf.

Then they took us to the humanities campus of the university, which is situated in an old monastery, from the 12th century.  It's really beautiful over there.  But, they didn't let us eat lunch!!!!  We had to talk to the English students of the university for a long time.  They were nice and all, but we were all starving!!  As soon as that was over we went and got shawerma, which totally hit the spot.

Strange Love

So yesterday I bought some green apple juice boxes, because I was so thirsty.  It seems like Russia is trying its best to dehydrate us.  Russians only drink tea after meals, and alcohol if so inclined.  They think it is really weird that all of us Americans drink so much water.  Like water isn't worth drinking or something.  And coffee!  They don't believe in real coffee here.  It's instant everywhere.  Lindsay's family is so lucky to have a coffee maker!  Andrew's family has a french press, but they think it's for tea.  Instant coffee is SO GROSS!  I can't wait to get to shokolodnitsa in Moscow and have some real coffee drinks.
We finally decided what to do for our two week break!  Going to Irkutsk was toooo expensive.  $600 for a round trip ticket!  The train was kinda spensive too, and it would have taken too long.  We'll just have to get to Lake Baikal some other time.  This time we're going to Sochi, where the 2014 winter Olympics will be.  It's in the south, on the Black Sea.  It will be warm!  And there are beaches!  And mountains!  It will be a real vacation.  And the best part is the ridiculously cheap hostel we found to stay in.  My host mom said we should just show up in the train station and there would be people there holding signs saying they are renting rooms.  I thought that sounded like a scary idea, but she said it is really cheap.  I guess I'd rather pay for knowing that we have a place to stay.  We're stopping in Moscow first, before Sochi, for 5 days.  I will get to show everybody around the city, especially because we're staying at Godzilla's hostel again.  Maybe this time I will finally get to the space museum!  Unless it's only open from 2:00 to 2:30 for tours
Oh, the name of this post refers to the name of the ice cream treat I ate yesterday.  It was a waffle cone lined with chocolate, with vanilla ice cream and black currant flavor in the middle.  MMMMM.  It sure was my "Strange Love."  Why don't we have black currants in the U.S. everywhere?  They are DELICIOUS.

Holodets

The one thing I hoped I'd never have to eat in Russia was meat jello, which I have discovered is called holodets. This first week I never heard anything about it, but last night I sat down to dinner and my host mom brings this bowl out of the fridge and sets it down in front of me.  As soon as I saw it, I knew- this was meat jello.  The family was very interested in my reactions to this new food substance.  The kept urging me to try it.  I asked, "Is it tasty?"  They just said, "Well, just try it!"  Meanwhile my host sister Marina was digging in, scooping up large pieces of gelatin and chicken.  So, I dipped my fork in and took a bite.  My eyebrows went up in surprise, because it is actually not bad!  The chicken was really good, at least.  I told the family that I was surprised that it was tasty, because I'd heard of it before and thought it would be nasty.  I would still much rather have the chicken on its own rather than suspended in gelatin, but at least now I know I can eat it, and that  it's way better than lutefisk.
I told my host mom that I was thinking of buying new shoes because my tennis shoes are "not beautiful."  And nobody wears them.  So Marina took me shopping yesterday, and I got some real Russian heeled shoes.  They are not ridiculous heels, but higher than I've ever worn before.  And they were more expensive than any shoes I have bought before!  $70, or so.  I said that seemed expensive, but Marina said it's a very normal price.  Her husband Lyosha bought some shoes recently for $150.  They pay a heck of a lot for clothes and shoes here, which is odd, because the food is so darn cheap.
We have found the perfect cafe to go to after school and drink coffee- called Black Continent.  It is the coziest little place, and not too expensive.  I had some delicious coffee there yesterday that had peppercorns in it!  I found this out when I drank the last bits from the cup and unpleasantly discovered that the crunchy bits on the bottom were not bits from the sugar/honey lump I put in, but peppercorns.  This cafe also has great ice cream, including cheese flavor.   We saw this on the menu and thought it must mean cheesecake, or something.  But no, it was really cheese flavor, including little bits of cheese in the ice cream.  It was surprisingly good, but sooooooo strange!
I now have internet on my laptop.  I bought a mobile modem for $20, and have internet for no extra money all the way until December!  WOOT!

Germs

There isn't any soap in the bathroom at the university so I had to buy some.  I wanted hand sanitizer, but they didn't have any.  Russians don't care very much about germs.  They don't wash their hands after using the bathroom, and they are not fond of using tissues.  It makes me wonder why they aren't sick all the time.  Maybe their home remedies are really reallly good or something. 
So yesterday was an adventure.  We walked a long way to the center of town.  (Within walking distance, my foot.  Maybe if you aren't carrying a heavy bag and a jacket and wearing comfortable shoes.)  And then we took our favorite bus number 16 back.  16 goes everywhere!  It goes right by the two sections of town where all of us live, right by the university, pretty much anywhere.  We went to an Irish pub last night.  It's always interesting to see how the Russians think of England and such.  Phil Collins and Amy Winehouse were playing the whole time.  Livi convinced me to try some Hoegarten (sp?) beer.  It was inoffensive, but still tasted like beer.  We tried to head back around 10:30, but the buses run rarely at that time.  We had to get on 6, and we'd never ridden that before.  So we ended up having to walk half an hour through the maze of apartment buildings and double back the way the bus went to find our houses.  But we made it!  What adventures. 
Today we ate at Chainaya Loshka!  One of my favorite places!  They have real coffee!!! 
Why did I bring my tennis shoes??!?!  No one wears them!  I stick out so badly like a foreigner!  I might just have to buy some real Russian heeled boots.  If anyone carries size ginormous feets. 
I'm going to Livi's to do homework and pet cats! 
Do zaftra...

Mushrooms

Hello!
This has been quite a lazy weekend for me.  I actually got up at around 9 both today and yesterday, so I feel special.  My host mom tells me she will teach me how to cook borshch!  Yesterday, my host sister Marina and her husband Lyosha went in the forest near the family's dacha and picked mushrooms.  Lots and lots of mushrooms.  There were some really gigantic ones, and so many different kinds I couldn't count.  Some orange ones were eventually deemed to be poisonous after much discussion and consultation of mushroom authority books.  Thank goodness for that!  Then they asked me what kinds of mushrooms we had in America.  I had to look through all the pictures of hundreds of kinds of mushrooms to find recognizable ones.  I saw the Champignon mushrooms, and morels.  The others I have no idea.  Yesterday we were eating prunes.  Lyosha told me what they are by saying that old people drink their juice a lot.  Got it: sliva= prune.  They are really tart!  I bought a phone yesterday too, a really cheap one for only 850 rubles.  Marina's brother Sasha had to bring my a sim card.  So now I can call people!  But only 50 rubles worth of calls.  Later they will tell me how to add money.  Sasha's little son doesn't quite know what to make of me.  He'll run into the room and then just stare at me with a little smile.  He's really cute, and can't pronounce tomato (pomidorka).  He calls them opidorka, which the whole family thinks is hilarious.  It was supposed to be sunny today, but there are still some clouds.  I don't think it has rained yet today, but it's still kind of cold.  The Dad and Lyosha went out hunting today.  I wonder if they will bring back a huge boar head to put in the shower room to match the one in the bathroom.  Lyosha says my host Dad is the best hunter in the country.
Well, I can't wait for school to start so I'll have stuff to do.  I'm over jet lag, I think, and ready to feel like I'm living here.

Here I am!

So far, everything's good.  I have a really nice family that has hosted Oles before, so they are pros.  They know just how slow to talk, and are very good at synonyms when I don't know a word.  I have my own room with a TV!  I am always being fed.  When I am in the kitchen it's constantly, "Will you have tea?  Cheese?  Butter?  Jam?  Sour Cream?  Sauce? Compote?"  The food's pretty delicious.  There are fresh home-grown tomatoes, cucumbers, and apples from their dacha.  And my host mom makes really good juice from their home-grown strawberries.  I have a family with a Dad, Mom, daughter and her husband, and the son lives a couple minutes away in another apartment building.  I have the only real bed in the apartment, everyone else sleeps on foldout couches.  I suppose there isn't much comfort difference between them.  The Mom likes to eat mayonnaise in her soup.  I can't imagine that being good.  Some of the family speak a little English, and they are so cute trying it out and trying to remember how to say things.  Today we were shown around the center of the city, which is pretty far from where I live.  It was just as I remember from January, but way less cold!  There were four weddings going on inside the Kremlin today.  And it's not even a very nice day!  The brides kept having to hold up their dresses from the puddles.  I haven't given the family their chocolates yet, because Livi told us to wait to give them their gifts.  Maybe I'll give those tonight.  I hope the bourbon balls are good. 
Hopefully sometime this weekend we'll get to go shopping so I can buy an alarm clock and a cell phone.  And some new tights.  The first time I wore these nice blue tights, and they get a run!  I'm so bad at tights.  I should just stock up on wool ones.  Those are sturdier. 
It's going to rain some more.  My family says it's supposed to get nicer on Sunday.  That would be nice.