The Inevitable Next One.

Well. I knew this would happen. I have tried to resist but I just can’t help but feel the internet is lacking something without my regular blog updates so…

I’m back, by popular demand!

Yes, popular demand: In the last three months I have had numerous requests to continue blogging (at least 3 separate ones…) and even two emails from Russian people telling me how much they liked reading my blog! Reason enough to spend half an hour trying to remember my blogspot password…

I’m going to start blogging again for two main reasons:
1.Because I like being the centre of attention and blogging is an outlet for this.

2.Because something I and my fellow Russian students are learning is that as hard as you try, Russia never leaves you.

I love the UK. I love living in the UK. I love drinking water from the tap. I love it that in October I can still walk to uni wearing only two layers instead of the four I was wearing this time last year in Moscow. I love my washing machine.
BUT
I can’t shake the feeling that I am not done with Russia yet. This is the first time in four years when I haven’t had my next trip to Russia planned… and it feels weird. I know I will go back to Russia, but when? Where? How? Why? Russia isn’t the kind of country you can go to once and never feel the need to go back. When you go there you catch a bug, the Russia Bug.


I have a full blown case of the Russia bug. I get excited when I hear anything about Russia no matter how far fetched it is (today my friend told me the word for ‘wormwood’ in Ukrainian and I felt a kick of the Russia Bug). My friends and family regularly send me links and cuttings from newspapers about anything Russia – ranging from the diary of a British family who moved to Moscow to photos of two Russians who decided to dress up as cats on their wedding day (side note: this is not normal Russian behaviour).


My Russia Bug has got so bad that I’m even starting to miss living there (but don’t tell anyone – they’ll all shout at me for moaning so much when I did live there!) I miss my friends, I miss the metro and I miss Teremok.

Mmmmmm, Teremok. Fast food pancakey goodness.

I still tell people that I live in Moscow (if I know there is no chance I will ever see them again… it just makes me sound so much cooler!) So from now on I’m going to use my blog to satisfy my Russia Bug.

Vodka, Cabbage and Snow will be the Clearasil to my Russian Bug spots.

The last one (before the inevitable next one)

I’ve been back in the UK for 2 weeks now and my year abroad is well and truly over. Moving back to the UK I experienced the usual culture shock that happens when moving from one country to the other, but experiencing it when moving back to your home country is a lot better. Instead of having to adjust to a new way of life I just have to settle back into my old one!

Some highlights of the last couple of weeks have been drinking water straight from the tap, taking a shower without having to first light a fire and having my washing machine back!!! Ahhh, luxury.

But obviously the best thing has been seeing my friends :D I’ve had a good 6 months of catching up to do with most of them so I’ve been on a little tour of England over the past two weeks visiting people in Birmingham, London and obviously Huddersfield! Obviously everyone has been asking me “How was Russia?” A question that I still just cannot answer. It’s hard to put a year of experience in a completely different culture into a coherent answer. So I just normally say “Russian”, which seems to satisfy most people.

I’ve not started missing anything about Russia yet as I’m actually going back (although to Ryazan not Moscow) at the end of July. I’ve already applied for my next visa so I don’t think it’s really sunk in that the year is over. I think after I get back in August I will start to miss my Russian life, but right now I am LOVING being in the UK!

So I guess this will be my last blog. Writing this blog has really been one of the highlights of my year abroad and it’s been really great to hear that so many people have enjoyed reading it! So to end this blog I will answer the question that I am being asked the most, what was the best thing about my year abroad?

For me the best thing about this year has been experiencing what it is really like to live in Russia. I’ve made some brilliant Russian friends (and I want to say a big SPASIBA especially to Vika for being the best flat mate I could ever have wanted and to Olesya for being such a great teacher and friend!), explored places I would never have been before… and learnt a little bit more Russian! Winston Churchill famously said, “Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” Even after living there a year, I still agree with him. That’s why I love Russia.



So do svidaniya Moskva!

PACKED.

Off to Red Square for what could be the last time ever…

I’m comin’ home baby.

One week today I’m returning to the UK and my year of living in Moscow will be over. I can’t believe how quickly it’s gone!!! It seems like only two minutes ago I was writing statuses like ‘12 weeks, 4 days and like 9 hours and 45 minutes or something until Sarah has left to live in Moscow.’ Now it is my friends in the year below me writing such statuses, this one was stolen from my friend Ben. (WHAT is the plural of status? Statuses? Status’? Stati?)

The journey home has already begun. There is a major ‘schools almost out for the summer’ feeling going around here… aside from the fact that everyone from Birmingham Uni has to finish writing their year abroad project in the next few weeks. The year abroad project really does get in the way of your year abroad. Surely we should be practicing our spoken Russian by DOING things in Russia, instead of being cooped up at home WRITING about it on our own? I’ll stop there before I have a major rant about it.

How do I feel about returning? GOOD. I can’t wait to come home! I can’t sleep at the moment because I’m way too excited! I am SO ready to be able to wash my clothes in a washing machine, cook food in an oven, boil water in a kettle AND drink water straight from the tap! For the first week it will be the little things that will make me smile.

Oh yeah, and it’ll be nice to see my friends too. Not like I missed them or anything…

On the other hand, I know I’m going to miss my life in Moscow… eventually. Although right now I’m trying to think of what I’m going to miss and I really can’t think of anything! Sushi probably. Yeah, I’ll miss sushi.

This year has had some major lows, but with every low there has been a bigger high. It’s been hard but has made me realise that I can do anything! I think ‘surviving living in Russia’ will be at the top of my CV from now on. But now it’s definitely time to live in the UK again. I can’t believe I’ve actually (nearly) done it!

I’M COMIN’ HOME BABY!

The Sofa Bed Trend.

From my previous blogs you could be forgiven for thinking that all Russians are cold, heartless and scary. This is mainly because most of my encounters with Russians that are worth blogging about are normally negative ones, ie. When I make stupid language mistakes in shops/on the street/on the metro/at school/in cafes etc etc. So it’s about time I gave a little bit of love back and shouted from the rooftops:

I LOVE RUSSIANS.

Yes you may not smile at me on the metro, yes you may laugh at me when I try to talk to you, yes you can’t understand why I sit on the floor without the fear of infertility but Russians… I love you!

I have to say that I think Russian people are the best hosts I have ever encountered! For a start literally every flat in Russia has at least 1 (if not 2 or 3) sofa beds so that guests will always be welcome to stay over. The UK really should take this on board – sofa beds are the best! (On the other hand Russia should take on board that a sofa bed is Not.A.Bed. After sleeping on an uneven bed for a year I have come to the conclusion they should only be for guests.)

As well as this I can guarantee that on every table in every Russian flat will be a dish of biscuits and sweets ready for guests. Whenever I visit my lovely friends Lyudmila and Olga in Petrozavodsk their table is full of treats for their guests!



Oh and the food! Going to a Russian house for dinner means you will be fed. Fed well. Russians seem to feed me until I say “STOP”. The first time I lived in Russia for a long period of time I didn’t know how to say “I’m full.” In fact I pretty much only knew how to say “Yes”. I think I put on about 10 stone in a month.

So to my lovely Russian friends, thank you for being so welcoming!
Oh, and to my friends in the UK, if you live in Birmingham or London I will probably want to stay with you at some point over the summer… I expect a sofa bed and sweeties.

Another reason to dislike Stalin:

Pukh. (No, I’m not swearing at you in Russian.)

Recently in the land of mad (Russia) a strange mystical dust-like material has been falling from the sky. At first I just thought it was blossom from the trees near my flat, but then I began to realise it was EVERYWHERE. Literally everywhere… outside my flat, in the parks, near Red Square, at my school etc etc. Moscow is once again covered in a white sheet… but this time it’s not snow, it’s pukh.
Here's a picture of my street this morning:


So what is pukh and why is it falling on Moscow? Well, many years ago when Stalin was in power he decided that Moscow wasn’t green enough so he planted (well he himself probably didn’t plant them!) hundreds and hundreds of poplar trees, not realising that poplar’s have sex lives – every female needs a male. If you plant too many females the males can’t fertilise them… which is what he did. Another brilliant plan from Stalin. So now every June the female poplars release unfertilised seeds: pukh.

It seriously looks and feels like it’s snowing again. And it gets everywhere. EVERYWHERE. My ears, my mouth, my nose, my eyes: I have to walk everywhere with my head down because if I look up the pukh gets stuck to my mascara and I’m temporarily blinded. My skin has erupted into spots because of the irritation from it. So right now I’m looking very sexy… spotty, blind and coughing. Hawt.

Worst of all, there is nowhere to escape the pukh! Open a window and the room will immediately turn into a wonderland of flying pukh. As at the moment it is around 25ºC everyday we have a choice: boil to death inside or put up with the pukh.

I hope it pukh’s off soon. (Ooooh apologises for that terrible, terrible joke.)

Getting married: Russian style.

Do not be alarmed parents! I haven’t given in to any mullet-ed suitors and decided to marry into a Russian family, but over the last couple of weeks the subject of weddings has cropped up many a time. Mainly because my friend Sinead is writing a project on Russian women and so we have been finding out a LOT about the importance of being married in Russian society.

In Russia being married is a lot more important than being married in the UK. In fact recently there was a ‘bride parade’ in Moscow to promote marriage over cohabitation. Both married and unmarried women took part and one participant was quoted in one of the papers saying, “I’m not married yet, but I hope to find a man today.” Crazy.



Anyone that says I am too worried about marriage, think again. At least I do not parade around dressed as a bride looking for a bridegroom!! Good idea though…

Anyway, yes marriage is important and most Russians get married a lot younger than their Western counterparts. So what goes on in a traditional Russian wedding?

Like most weddings it starts with a ceremony at a church or registration office to actually make the marriage legal! These are usually a lot shorter than ceremonies in the West and the bride doesn’t have bridesmaids (sorry Vicky, Lianne, Katie, Sinead, Anabelle, Clare and Emily – no part for you), just one witness (so my girls will have to fight it out for this special position).

After the ceremony the real fun begins. The wedding party tour around their hometown taking photos at all their favourite sights… every Saturday Red Square is literally FULL of brides. Some brides are dressed beautifully and taking elegant pictures. Most however (we are in Russia) are not dressed so well. Here are some examples of some STUNNING wedding photos:





One of the sweetest traditions of a Russian wedding is that the couple place a padlock somewhere in the city.


Usually the couple engrave their names and their wedding date onto the lock:


Some however prefer to just make sure their marriage will last:


Russia really is cheesy gestures central so couples also like to release a dove on their wedding day...


For the final part of the wedding is the reception, involving lots of caviar and vodka. Meaning lots of ‘interesting’ entertainment from the guests.

So will I be having a Russian style wedding? I think not. Mainly because there are no famous sights in Huddersfield... but also because I am way too scared of birds to be able to release a dove.