I ran a few errands on my way home: buy cards to pay for the internet, buy a new lightbulb, stop by the ATM. On my way out of the internet place, I saw a guy sitting in the post office at a desk, with a bear cub. I have the picture to prove it:
Poor bear was really hot. It's been unusually hot for the past few days, getting up into the 90s. There's not a lot of air-conditioning here, since there really only are a few days a year that would call for it, but on the bright side, hot water seems so unnecessary now!
This week is off to a busy start. I have a few things to take care of with some students in terms of their health and getting everyone into the right level of language class. It takes a few days for the brain to get used to hearing Russian all the time, and now people are realizing that their classes are too easy or too difficult. Also, as the initial euphoria of being here wares off, the group is starting to get tired. After all, they are in class for 20 hours a week, which may sound like an easy summer for those who work full time. But imagine feeling slightly confused for 5 hours a day, and then having to go home and try to make sense of it all. It's truly exhausting.
Again, the heat doesn't help. We had our first excursion of the summer to a small town called Suzdal. Vladimir, as I may have mentioned, is a very old city, and was in fact founded to be one of the capitals of ancient Rus (pre-Russia). Suzdal was another important city in the middle ages, but because the railroad was not built to stop there, industry never developed and the city has not grown in hundreds of years. However, the old churches and other buildings still draw tourists from Russia and around the world. Despite the heat, it was a good excursion. Very quick, unfortunately, because there is a lot to see and we only had 4 or 5 hours. Probably the most interesting thing I learned was that churches were almost always built in pairs: one large, and one small, right next to each other. Why? One was larger and used during the summer, and the other was smaller, and used during the winter, and thus was built with means for heating it. The weather here is so extreme: 90 degrees in the summer, and below zero in the winter. We also visited a monastery, which was once a psychiatric prison and a juvenile prison, and an open-air museum of wooden architecture. The latter was a collection of original wooden buildings from the region that had been brought together to form a historic village. We happened to be there on the day of a festival, with old-timey Russian feats of strength and puppets. It also turns out that Suzdal is known not only for its historic monuments, but its cucumbers and its honey. Thus, they brew honey beer. I bought a bottle to bring home and try (no drinking on official program activities!).
Inside the monastery
Selling honey beer (and other beverages)
One of the cathedrals
Me at the cathedral!
Inside one of the churches. All the walls were painted.
We got to hear the men sing the traditional music of worship
Ignore the little wooden buildings. They are for a movie.
Everything in this picture is authentic.
A wooden bar.
A wooden church.
Another wooden church
A wooden wheel-well.
A wooden bear
A see-saw (also wooden)
Over the weekend we had a visitor from the office in DC. She and I went out for a drink on Friday night, and then visited the local Chinese restaurant (called Shanghai). I couldn't pass up an opportunity to see how this place was, since I normally eat at home. The first good sign was that, aside from the waitresses, we were the only white people there. Wow, there were actually Chinese people in the Chinese restaurant! The menu looked like it had some viable options, including egg rolls and potstickers. Oh, and frog legs. Why don't we get frog legs at our Chinese take-out in the U.S.? I decided to go for the spicy pork with eggplant (and an order of potstickers), and my friend had pork with cloud ear mushrooms. It was salty, but pretty good. Being Russia, there were a few things that were different. First, you can order regular old bread to go with your meal. Because it's not a meal unless you have bread. Second, the rice is not included. Sure it's only 65 cents a portion, but you have to remember to order it. Third, they charge for the chopsticks. I guess the logic behind this is that they are wooden, disposable chopsticks, so it's something you technically "consume". And finally, "spicy" usually isn't quite spicy. Maybe I'll go back and ask for it extra spicy. They way the chef would eat it.
My pork with eggplant. No fortune cookie.
After spending all day Saturday in the heat, I spent Sunday inside. My apartment faces south, so I was still pretty warm. I finally left the house around 7 to get some groceries. I managed to weigh my fruits and vegetables without making anyone angry. (Ok, I admit it. I went to a different store to avoid the mean scale lady!) The biggest triumph was finding chickpeas! Dried, not canned, but still. I could get them all the time in Lithuania, but I haven't seen them here. Best part: the bag had a recipe for falafel. This little corner of western (eastern?) legumes also had red lentils, mung beans, plus couscous and mixes for some soups. I think I'll be making "Italian mix soup" this week. Mmmm, with some parmesan and French bread. That is, after I finish my leftover pelmeni and Korean carrot salad.
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