Russian winter is coming...


Today when I arrived home, I casually said "Как холодно сегодня!" (It's cold today!) to the guard at the door. Whilst still trying to warm up from the snow flurry and subzero temperatures (-4!) outside, I got a scary, yet familiar answer - "Да девушка, русская зима приближается!" (Yes girl, Russian winter is coming!") - the key word there being coming. It hasn't gotten above -1 today, it's been snowing for about 5 hours straight and even with gloves on I could hardly feel my hands by the time I got home, but winter is still coming - it's apparently still autumn! Granted, there hasn't been much snow and it hasn't really got down below -5 in the day, but the dryness of the cold is what kills. The wind is so sharp and icy - leaving any exposed skin burning within minutes. It's actually quite strange - it's so dry that you don't get frost here, and when it snows, the snow isn't all slushy and wet, it's powdery and almost looks fake, which means you don't get wet when it snows! Basically, cold here feels so much colder than at home - so I'm intrigued to see what -10 here will be like! Well, I've rambled enough for now, so I thought I'd treat you to some snaps taken during the last few days - enjoy!

Beautiful winter morning
Frozen puddles
Tyla and I in all our clothes!
Идёт снег! It's snowing!

Until next time,
Isobel
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Chilly mornings and doll making...

Здравствуйте! How is everyone? The temperatures have started to drop again in Voronezh, but to be honest, I still feel like we've been a bit cheated. The lowest we've had so far is -5 degrees, which is definitely cold, but it isn't exactly Russia-cold. I really think that I would be ashamed to go back to England and only be able to boast a low of -5. Hopefully, by the looks of the forecast, we should be getting some snow next week and may even dip into minus double-digits! You may think that I'm crazy for wishing for such low temperatures - but what's the point of coming to Russia if you can't boast about surviving -18 degrees? Below are some pictures from the last week; bright winter mornings, me in my winter get-up and dark mornings (9.20am to be exact!)


On Friday, instead of out normal culture lesson, we got to go to a museum. We all met on Площадь Ленина - shivering and unsure of what laid ahead. After months in Russia, when we were lead a dodgy looking back street and then into a block of Soviet-looking flats, we were't in the slightest big fazed despite not knowing exactly where we were going. Once we reached the top of the staircase, we all (about 20 of us) were ushered into an apartment. Little did we know that we were entering the formet flat of famous singer Мария Николаевна Мордасова which has been preserved and is now also known as the Музей-квартира им. М.Н. Мордасовой (Museum-apartment of Maria Nikolaevna Mordasova). From 1943 to 1972, Maria was a soloist in the Voronezh Russian Folk Choir, then later she was part of the Voronezh Oblast Philharmonic. She was also famous for performing Russian folk music and wearing dresses like the ones below.


Once we'd been told about her life and treated (I say this loosely!) to a performance of a few of her songs, we were told that we going to be taught how to make a Russian doll with an outfit like one of Maria's with just the material provided - no scissors! The pictures below show the transition from material to a fully formed doll - I am actually quite proud of mine as I am absolutely useless at anything crafty or practical! You may be wondering why they don't have face, well there is a reason behind that but lord knows that I can't remember it!!

Meet Anastasia (Анастасия)! 

So that's a basic roundup of this week - well of everything interesting that's happened anyway! Yesterday was the 3 week mark until we go home - I'm quite excited! We realistically have only 2 weekends left so hopefully we'll find something somewhat cultural to do :)

Until next time,
Isobel
xx
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Moskva Photo Diary

Hello! Like I mentioned in my last post, I was preparing to pop to Moscow for a long week with my Mum. I've put together a quick summary of out trip with a few photos of what we saw. If you're friends with me on Facebook, I have all of my photos up on there so feel free to take a look! Right, onto the photo diary...

DAY 1:
Day 1 was pretty jam-packed as we wanted to make the most of out limited time in Moscow. By 10.30 we were up and out, on our way to Красная Площадь (Red Square), which was conveniently about 5 minutes from our hotel. Luckily the weather was absolutely gorgeous (although a bit nippy!) so I got some great photos. We wandered around Red Square then I went into Lenin's Mausoleum which was surreal as you can see his embalmed body in state. I have always wanted to see him, but it was pretty scary as it felt as though he was just about to open his eyes! We then got some good photos of St. Basil's Cathedral and headed back towards the hotel as that is where we hopped onto one of those hop-on/off tour busses. In my opinion, they are the best way to see a city (especially one as large as Moscow!) as you can get your bearings and get on and off as you please for about £2-3 for 24 hours. From the bus I got some great photos and managed to see pretty much everything I wanted to.

В аэропорте Домодедово / At Domodedovo Airport (Moscow)
Большой Театр / The Bolshoi Theatre
Полиция в Москве / Police in Moscow
Музей Отечественной Войны 1812 Года / The Patriotic War of 1812 Museum
Государственный Исторический Музей / The State History Museum
Красная Площадь / Red Square
Красная Площадь / Red Square
Красная Площадь / Red Square
Собор Василия Блаженного / St. Basil's Catherdral
ГУМ / GUM Shopping Centre
Могила Неизвестного Солдата / The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
Государственный Исторический Музей / The State History Museum
Государственная Дума / The State Duma (parliament)
На Красной Площади / On Red Square
Москва Река / The Moscow River
Кремль / The Kremlin
Храм Христа Спасителя / Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

DAY 2:
We weren't as lucky with the weather on day two, but luckily is was marginally warmer so my fingers didn't threaten to fall off! After a lot of confusion the day before (Moscow is NOT user friendly, even with some Russian under your belt), we were determined to visit the Kremlin. It was not immediately obvious where to enter from but after a bit of wandering (and luck) we managed to find the entrance and purchase the tickets. It was a lot different that I thought it would be inside the Kremlin - there are a few very Soviet-looking buildings, but the majority were gorgeous gold-tipped churches. I wasn't able to take any photos inside said churches, but the insides were covered with paintings and murals, and one of them (The Cathedral of the Archangel) was filled with many famous tombs including the tomb of Иван Грозный (Ivan the Terrible), his son and his grandson. They are very strict about where you walk within the grounds of the Kremlin (despite not having many signs) and we got whistled at a number of times (as did others, I may add)! We then strolled along the river and made our way back to Red Square and popped into ГУМ, a grand shopping centre (often compared to Harrods). All of the christmas decorations were up and it was quite magical. Of course we didn't buy anything other than a drink because everything was so expensive! To top off a busy weekend, we headed back to the hotel and were treated to a lovely spa treatment before having a last delicious dinner overlooking the Bolshoi Theatre and the Kremlin!

В Кремле / In the Kremlin
В Кремле / In the Kremlin
В Кремле / In the Kremlin
В Кремле / In the Kremlin
ГУМ / GUM Shopping Centre
ГУМ / GUM Shopping Centre
Вид из гостиницы / View from the hotel
Вид из гостиницы / View from the hotel

So that's it! The next morning I was back in the car back to the airport at 10am. Moscow was really great to see - even though I think I may prefer St. Petersburg. However, having learnt a lot of Soviet history and politics, it was really exciting so see all of these places that I've read about. Overall it was a lovely trip and I'm glad that I finally got to go!

Until next time,
Isobel
xx
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2 months in!

Hello!
So today I am officially two thirds of the way through my time in Russia! This both excited me (as I am getting seriously food-homesick, if that's even a thing, and ready to return back to the good 'ol UK) but at the same time, I am absolutely terrified as although I have learnt a hell of a lot, I definitely do not feel ready to leave my Russian-focused part of my YA behind. I definitely think that I will be returning to the motherland (perhaps St. P?) for a month or so after my return from Madrid next summer as my Russian needs all the help it can get.

Moving on, let's take a little look at what's happened since my '1 month down' update...

- Tyla coming out with her best line yet; "You can't assume anything here. I mean I didn't assume that I'd get run over by a car this morning". Don't worry, it only tapped her ;)

- A lovely trip to an aquarium that also turned out to be the home to meerkats, monkeys and squirrels. #onlyinrussia (full post coming soon!)

- Sveta (Katya's housemate) teaching me useful vocab likе пьяная (drunk).

- Oh, and now it truly looks like winter in Воронеж (despite only having a few nippy days, -2° I'm looking at you...)

Frozen puddles in the morning
Afternoon sun

So that's what's been going on - it's been a lot less eventful this month as we are much more used to our surroundings and are no longer shocked at general Russian antics. However, I've got a post about our trip to Град-Парк (a big shopping centre about 40 minutes from the centre) where there was an aquarium! Plus, tomorrow I'm off to Moscow for the weekend with to meet my Mum and do some sightseeing. Hopefully we will have lovely weather like we did in St. Petersburg! 

So, until next time!

Isobel
xx
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Isobel Rose. 22.
London-born, Hong Kong raised.
Language graduate. Frequent traveller.
London/Bath, UK


PR Emails & General Emails isobel@isobel-rose.com


Third culture kid (TCK) is a term used to refer to children who were raised in a culture outside of their parents' culture for a significant part of their development years.

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