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Yesterday was a good day, I met a guy from Congo at school. I found out that he's been in Novgorod for a year now and he doesn't like cold weather. There are a couple other students from Congo here. I asked him at one point if people spoke French in Congo, I wasn't sure. And they do, so I told him I also spoke French and from then on we spoke French. It was good to use my French, but I realized very quickly that I've forgotten many words and Russian has surpassed my French speaking skills, but I still can understand everything in French. Then last night Tim and I met a guy from Kazakhstan. We learned some things about how they do tea there, one thing is they don't have handles on their tea cups. They use their hands to hold the cups on the lip. Therefore, they don't fill the cup to the brim, unless they don't like the person, but usually they fill it up 3/4 of the way. We also learned some interesting things about the country. If you didn't know, Kazakhstan was the first of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) to repay all its debts from the collapse of the Soviet Union. We also saw some really neat pictures of Kazakhstan and Abkhazia. We're going to meet him again and he's going to teach us some kung fu and we're going to play floor hockey on Saturday!

Фотографии

Here are some pictures that I've taken over the past month. Enjoy.

Me in Novgorod across the river from the Kremlin

New Moscow (where all the foreign companies are headquartered) I found out later that taking pictures was forbidden.

Christian and I at Red Square

This is Urevev Monastery (I think)

Everyday in Russia You See Something You Wouldn't Normally See

Today, I saw a stray dog wander through the cafeteria. puzzling. yes. Again it has been awhile since I last wrote. Last Friday, we had an excursion to Софиский Соборь it was interesting, a little on the long side but there was a lot of good facts. For example, the original cross that was placed on one of the domes was stolen by spaniards during the Second World War, not Germans. Spaniards. They actually kept good care of it, they kept in a church until two years ago they gave it back to Russia. That night Tim and I hung out with his host sister and her friend, we drank some beers ate pizza and watched TV. I learned a couple new words that night like бабка which is slang for money, and then there is жрать which is to eat like a pig or gobble up. Saturday we learned to never ever take a bus to Saint Petersburg b/c traffic is a nightmare. It is supposed to take 3.5hours, it took us 5 or more. then we took a commercial bus to Petrodvorets and that is supposed to take 40 min, took us 1.5hrs. But it was definately worth it, it was a beautiful day and most of leaves have changed color. I took some great photographs, I'll upload them later. After we decided to take a boat back, it was worth the $10, comfy and no traffic only 30 min. We should've spent the night but we didn't. Sunday was fun. I went to my family's dacha out by a forest. Russians are pretty much self-sustaining. My family grows apples, potatoes, tomatoes, garlic or onions, and they even have their own honeycomb. So they make their own honey. As well as their own jelly and alcohol. I got to use the banya and it was a great experience. I had to wear a hat so as not to burn my head, ears, or hair. My host dad told me that sometimes you have to wear gloves. Anyways I got beaten with birch leaves, then I beat myself them. It was fun. I learned that Russians can also drink a lot too, at dinner I had about 4 shots (as many as everyone else) with my meal. I didn't feel it because of all the food in my stomach. Last night was another story. Last night was my host sister's 28th birthday. So lots of toasts=lots of drinking, I had about 7-8 shots (as many as everyone else). Classes are going well, in grammar class we started learning about verbs of motion and in literature class we finished reading some Dostoevsky and tomorrow we're moving onto Чехов. Life is good, but still need to decide where to go for break...maybe Murmansk and Petrozavodsk?