A strange little week

Privyet :)

It's really lovely to know you're enjoying reading this attempt at a blog :) I've decided Sunday can be blogging day, so now you know!

Today was supposed to be find-a-Church-day for me, and I really did aim to do this, but then when I got to what I thought was the building it did not look inviting in the slightest - in fact I was a teeny bit scared for my life when I opened the door, it was that grim, and there were no people around. I'd say that was a fairly unsuccessful mission and I very much deserved the trip to Russian Ikea (ИКЕА!) that followed. And yes, we had meatballs. It was a lot of fun and I also bought a much needed mirror (there isn't one in the house and it was always quite a shock getting to school and discovering what I actually looked like each day.)

Anyway, this week has been a little bit odd; it all started on Monday (as weeks do) when I wasn't feeling very well, and I don't have a clue how my babushka found out about this but she just knew. I was walking down the corridor when I turned around to see her pointing at me, and then she said "Liza (my Russian name, pronounced "Leeza") Liza, you're ill". I just sort of nodded and tootled off. Time for lesson number one: never EVER let a Russian old lady find out you're ill, it's just not worth it. I was minding my own business in my room getting ready for school when she held a spoon up to my mouth which had some sort of medicine on it and said "Gargle" now I can't gargle so this was a rather scary experience for me, not least because she said "Don't swallow"in the end I just had to swallow it, I don't know what else you do in this situation, and I'm still alive so all is well. Throughout the day (and in fact week) she tried to get me to take various medicines and also a few glasses of warm milk with butter in - yum. She also told me that Russians don't wash when they're ill, so I shouldn't have showers, but I just pretended I didn't understand. All very funny but I'm hoping I won't be feeling ill again any time soon. Other Russians just told me that when they're ill they just drink vodka, I feel that may have been an easier solution!


More on the babushka front. I don't know what's happened but we seem to be doing everything wrong. We've been told off for not using lids on saucepans, not turning off lights, trying to tidy up, not opening curtains (I'll have you know I didn't open my curtains at uni for about 3 weeks at one point, no harm done!) and many other things, but hey, what can you do. At one point I was asked "Liza, do English people not pay for electricity?"Awkward, very awkward.

Worked some more at the hermitage this week, definitely spent two hours with my friend putting rocks in order, I try and tell myself this is good for my Russian but frankly it was dull. Another day was a lot more exciting, we were helping tourists do this sort of treasure trail thing, AND highlight of my week, we got told our English was very very good and asked how we spoke it so well. Great. I also had quite a bad moment to counteract this when I just flung my cardigan on a random table in a room..  Rule number 2: NEVER do that, it turned out to be a very important exhibit and I got a little bit told off, this wasn't helped by the fact that I burst out laughing. Whoops.

More on the job front: I got myself a job as an English teacher! I was a tad nervous about the interview, but when I got there the questions were pretty much "When can you start?" and "How many hours a week?" So that's all well and good.

Another highlight of the week. I saw a lady on the metro with her pet ferrets.

The end.

Hope you're having a lovely weekend. I'll try and make this next week a bit more interesting!

In fact. Next weeks blog will probably be quite amusing as, well, as if I haven't been told off already, I've now gone and lost my keys to the flat. My babushka will not be happy. I have spent today trying to come up with excuses or at least a way to break it to her. But the fact of the matter is that I may well be homeless this time next week.

Лиза xxx

and here's the Rye bread. No words.