I had a hard time sleeping last night because the street cats were in full howl right outside my window. Normally I feel sorry for them, but at 2 am I was wishing for some big heavy boots to throw.

Three of the teachers left this morning, so it's quiet and a bit sad around the AH today. I put up some pictures of Suzdal and other sights from ( Read more... )

Had my first Russian lesson with my old Russian tutor, Tanya, yesterday morning. She said (I don't know how truthfully) that I hadn't forgotten anything and that she was proud of me. Yay! She was definitely dealing me some tougher vocab words then she used to, and though I'm still making tons of mistakes with case endings (stupid genitive plural ( Read more... )

Put up some random photos from around town. Not much to report - it's been raining for the past two days so I've been hanging out at home with my host family. On Wednesday my host mom took me to a somewhat bizarre event that was half an Indian music and dance concert and half an introduction to the teachings of a famous yoga practitioner. I ( Read more... )

While I was eating lunch after yoga today (kefir, black bread, and salat - yum), I heard the tiniest little meow coming from our backyard. I looked out the window and saw a teeny little all black kitten, and his calico mama giving him a bath. SO CUTE. I watched him romp wobbly-legged around the backyard for a bit, 'til his mom got tangled up ( Read more... )

On Saturday I went with my host family to visit their friends' "dacha". I say "dacha" because, to me, that word conjures up the image of a small wooden house, probably over a hundred years old, maybe with electricity, definitely without plumbing, with a big garden for vegetables and a small banya and a babushka in a head scarf sitting on a bench ( Read more... )

After dinner last night my host father asked me if I believed in Darwin's theory. Um, yes? Well, he doesn't. I think he said it was because there are still monkeys around now, so clearly they didn't become us. Even if my Russian was good enough to argue about evolution, I think I might leave this one alone. He went on to explain that there's ( Read more... )

I dreamed in Russian the other night, something that hasn't happened to me in a long time. In the dream I was shouting for my host family to come see the snow falling in the middle of the summer. I guess it was inspired by all the hail we've been having. It was reassuring to have a sign that I have integrated the language to some extent, because ( Read more... )

I spent the weekend getting reacquainted with all the various pleasures of life in Vladimir. If you want to skip straight to the pictures, they’re here. First up: Russia, the land of many holidays. Friday was Russia’s independence day, so in the morning my host father Andrei took me, my host brother Yarik (a diminutive of Yaraslav), and sister ( Read more... )

It is HAILING right now. Seriously. It's been clouding up for an hour or so and now it is pouring rain, thundering, and little tidbits of hail are battering the windows. Look out below ( Read more... )

Back in Vladimir for the first time in three years. It's pretty surreal. The home is the same (mostly - some furniture rearranging), the staff is the same (mostly - Olya dyed her hair red), and the city is the same (mostly-lots of new stores have sprung up, though my host mom says the economic crisis has forced many of them to shut down already ( Read more... )