(Sorry, I realise that I haven’t posted about anything other
than food in almost four weeks! Now is definitely the time to catch you all up.
I’ll try to keep it as brief as I can! I was going to record a video blog, but
since I spend most of my time here makeup-less and looking like a foot, I
thought I’d spare you that ghastly sight for the moment.)
PUB CRAWL
I’ll start off way back on 13
th September when
the International Office organised a pub crawl around Tver for all of us
international students. The pub crawl was such a good idea, because it gave us
the opportunity to get to know some of the other international students. We had
several challenges to do during the pub crawl but the only one we managed to do
was to drink a shot of vodka. Now, I absolutely HATE drinking straight vodka!! I
used to occasionally do it in my teen years and the memory still sends a shiver
down my spine. Also, a shot here is 50ml. Therefore, it probably goes without
saying that it took me about 4 attempts to drink it and I then had to sit still
for about 5 minutes afterwards to make sure that I wasn’t going to vom. We got
off lightly though, because we were actually challenged to order this mystery
vodka, which turned out to be horseradish vodka! Luckily our pub didn’t have
any, so we had to make do with plain vodka (there is a God).
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| Most of my lovely pub crawl group! |
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Unisex door sign, it kind of speaks for itself
really. |
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My vodka shot with a
white wine chaser |
ZERKALO - Night Club
After the pub crawl, some of us decided to go to Zerkalo,
which is a club in town. I’d never been before so I was definitely up for
it. It was about a 15 minute walk,
during which we were stopped by a homeless man who wanted money off us to buy
weapons...! Crazy Russia.
Once we got to the club, we walked past a plant pot, with a
pair of legs coming out of it and a sign on it saying, ‘Y нас есть Face
Control’, which means, ‘We have Face Control’. Basically, Russian bouncers use
a thing called ‘face control’ to limit who gets into the club. If they don’t
like you/don’t think you’re attractive enough/don’t think that you’re dressed
well enough then they will just turn you away and say, ‘Face Control’ in a
thick Russian accent. It’s usual for this to happen in the big cities like
Moscow and Petersburg, but I didn’t really expect it to happen in Tver.
Entry to the club was £2 and the drinks were fairly cheap
too! Zerkalo itself is a pretty modern club with a good mix of English and
Russian music. They even played Ricky Martin and The Spice Girls. That being
said, they got points deducted for remixing The Spice Girls. You do not mess
with perfection, Russia.
I’ve noticed that in Russian clubs, men definitely rule the
roost. They will shove women out of the way without a second thought. If you’re
stood in the way and a man wants to get past you, move or be moved. I’m
definitely not used to this and it’s not something that I care for. Also,
something that I’m not used to is the number of pole and cage dancers around
the club. They don’t even get any attention. They just blend in with the
flashing lights and rest of the furniture, it’s quite sad really.
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This was one of the standard Zerkalo club night games that they do. The week before they had a 'hard-on' competition
where men lay on the floor and women had to come up and give them a lap dance, and the girl who was the first to give the guy a hard-on won. None of us understood the game in this pic, the guys just started lifting up the girls' skirts while we all just awkwardly watched on. It just felt so out of place. The lack of respect for the women was disgusting and I couldn't help but cringe.. and heckle. |
TOILET VOCABULARY
I was really disappointed to discover that a huge section of
much needed vocab seems to have been missed off my Russian learning so far! Toilet
vocab. Girls kept speaking to me in the ladies and I had absolutely no idea
what they were saying. Not a clue! One woman started talking to me, so I did
the very polite British thing that we do when we don’t hear what someone’s said,
I just did a little laugh and hoped she hadn’t asked me a question! Her
response to this was to ruffle my hair and say 'Молодец!' which means, ‘Good
for you!’... even now I can't figure out what we were talking about and why she
ruffled my hair. It made me laugh though.
ICE-HOCKEY
The following day we went to an ice hockey match. This also
cost £2 with a student discount card, thank you Russia! I’ve never been to an
ice hockey match before and the atmosphere was amazing. It was Tver vs The Titans.
We lost at penalties, but it was a great match.
Tver even had their own ‘cheerleaders’, who I thought seriously lacked enthusiasm.
My main highlight was probably when a cheerleader fell over and dropped her
pompom during a routine and had to jump up and continue with only one pompom. I
laughed a lot.
MY BIRTHDAY!!
The following Friday (20
th Sept), I reluctantly
turned 22! I awoke to find that the flat had been decorated in ‘Happy Birthday’
banners and before I’d even woken up properly there was a glass of champagne in
my hand! By 11am I’d already been through two bottles... but I shared them with
Saidi and Stefka (sort of).
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| Tiger cake time |
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| The craziest, musical cat card I've ever seen |
Then all of the students on my floor came in to my flat with
a cake and sang happy birthday, while I sat at the table slowly getting more
drunk and more glittery. We then went to the cinema, where I fell asleep during
the film (thanks champagne!) and in the evening we all went to Zerkalo again (I
know, we need to try other places!!). I had such an amazing day. I was
completely overwhelmed by the effort that everyone went to and by the birthday
wishes and beautiful gifts that I received. I’m not really one for soppy messages, but I couldn’t have asked for a better day! Thank you all for being a part of it
♥
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| The majority of the lovely people who made my day super special! |
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| And of course huge thanks to Stefka xx |
MOSCOW
Last Sunday (29
th Sept) I went on the organised
trip to Moscow to see the ballet. We went to the Kremlin and saw the Nutcracker
-it was absolutely incredible. I fell asleep during that too though. I have no
idea why! Apparently sleeping at inappropriate times is just something that I
do now?! Anyway, it goes without saying that Moscow is a beautiful city. The
architecture is stunning and the amount of western shops did make my heart
squeal a little after a month away from them. I’d been looking forward to going
to Krispy Kreme for my much-needed doughnut fix for weeks leading up to this
trip (as I’m sure anyone who follows me on twitter will know). Sadly it was not
to be. Svetlana, our tour guide, hadn’t allocated dougnnut time into the schedule
for some unforgivable reason. I had to leave doughnut-less and with a broken
heart. I’ll be going back to Moscow this weekend though, so don’t worry about
me. I will be dozen deep in heavenly little nuts of dough soon enough!
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| Saint Basil's Cathedral, Red Square, Moscow |
THE MUNDANE MADE INTERESTING
I’ve done some more everyday tasks which would be boring, if
they weren’t so Russian. Here are a few:
- Purchased a blender. Ordinarily that would be a hugely
uneventful task, yeah? Well not here. Locating the store was easy, locating the blender was also easy,
buying the blender.. easy. The difficulty lay in taking the blender out of the
shop. There was a man on the door, checking receipts like they do at Costco. He
checked our receipt and then called over a young man who took our blender away.
The young man then came back three times with different blenders, before they
all realised that it was the first blender that we were supposed to have all
along. Who knew?.. WE KNEW, THAT’S WHY WE BOUGHT IT! Then walking home the most
surreal thing happened. I was with three of my female friends, one of them carrying the big blender box as we walked home. Then five big, hairy,
leather jacket wearing, moustache sporting men walked past us. They were
probably aged 50-60 and looked like they’d climbed out of The Godfather. I just
so happened to glance over as they walked past, in time to see one man lift his
hand from his side, stretch out two fingers and go ‘shoooooop’ straight for my
friend’s vagina. (He actually made the shoop noise!!). Well why not? I mean,
she had both hands full carrying the big box. She’d left her ladyparts unguarded;
of course you’d go straight for a through-the-jeans-finger. FFS RUSSIA. She
managed to jump to the side and the men just walked past as if nothing had
happened. We all just walked home like. What. The. Fuck. Just. Happened. That’s
the thing about Russia, it’s not just in Zerkalo where men rule the roost, but I’ll
save that for another post.
- Second and final mundane task was going to the market. It’s
on every weekend and it’s the place for everyone to get their fresh fruit, veg,
meats, kittens etc. Yes. I said kittens. And puppies too. Chickens, hamsters, turtles! I only
managed to get one picture of the some of the kittens, because the Russians don’t
take too kindly to photography! It took all of my self-control not to buy them
all.
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| One of many boxes of kittens at the market |
The meat section of the market is
something out of the ordinary too. We walked in to see men wandering around
with huge axes ready to chop the carcases that were just lying around on big
tree trunks. We saw horns coming out from under a table...a cow's head. It felt like we were in an abattoir! I would have taken
pictures, but judging by how the Russians with kittens responded to my camera, I didn’t want
to anger those with axes.
If you’ve made if this far, well done and thanks for
sticking with me. I’m almost done, I swear!
This weekend has been a rather reflective one. I’ve had the
flat to myself since Stefka went to Veliky Novgorod for the weekend and Saidi
to Moscow. I watched Eat, Pray, Love and it made
me realise how little I’m actually experiencing here in Tver. If anything, I’ve
almost completely lost my passion for food and I’ve lost that all-important wanderlust.
Over the past few weeks I’ve felt pretty out of touch with myself which is
completely the reverse of what I was hoping to get out of this year. I just
currently have a huge amount of want in me and I’m waiting for Russia to
deliver. I want more. So I’m going to have to start looking for it. Whatever it may be.
XxX
