Pushkin's Birthday

213 years since the birthday of Russian national hero, Alexandr Sergeyevich Pushkin.
Hence listening to his poetry in loop in the office.

when my work is done

tomorrow is the last day of our course in Tver. (obviously i'm not counting сессия.) Today i had my CEES presentation and almost died of happiness. (this is not, however, how i felt last night at 5am when i realised i wouldn't be able to include any of the graphs i'd made in my powerpoint presentation.)

feeling .... extremely tired

Студвесна

i have made my peace with russia. i am happy and i'm seriously starting to think about moving here "at some point". Ура for socialising and violins and the history department ! i don't care if people are incapable of organising anything or keep changing their plans - in the end все будет хорошо :)

progress check

I had the pleasure to be acquainted with a certain gentleman in St.Petersburg. He found my accent incredibly funny and kept making fun of my pronunciation and repeating everything I said with a "Finnish" accent for two days straight. When I was leaving the city, he pondered: "In fact, your vocabulary in Russian isn't that good. Maybe you can study a bit more so when we meet again you'll understand everything I say."

nasmork

Nyt se on vihdoin viimein tapahtunut: olen vilustunut.
Edes Baikalin yrttitee ei auta.

survived Siberia

Dear friends. It is my pleasure to declare yet another new beginning to life in Russia! As much as I was frightened by the one-way flight to Irkutsk with Utair Airlines I ended up having amazing 10 days in Siberia. Not as bad as they say, first of all. The nature around lake Baikal is more or less similar to Central Finalnd. Nothing to be afraid of. It didn't even get colder than -20.

Overwhelming Russian hospitality in Irkutsk, people smiling and being content about their lives (?!), amazing 2,5 days on a train through Siberia, meeting interesting people. A Женя even inspired me to write my essay. I like hanging out with construction workers. They seem so ... unspoilt my the Western influences unlike the educated masses of Moscow and St.Petersburg.

Spent a sunny election Sunday in Ekaterinbúrg and a grey Monday on a train. I was overjoyed to be back in Tver though. It's spring, no wonder because the чучила was burnt over a week ago already.

Now I'm dreaming of a journey to Tyumen', Krasnojarsk (the importance of being Evgeny), the Buryat lands ... 

CEES honours guide - exciting times

Because it's Russia, you can receive a phone call in the morning telling you that all your classes for the day are cancelled. So I decided to check my university e-mail and found a pleasant surprise: CEES honours guide for 2012-2013!

I love CEES. I could be happy to attend all the lectures they're running next year. But fuck it unfortunately I need to choose between interesting and extremely interesting. In addition, if I will be in Poland during Semester 2, I will in fact miss all the courses focusing on the transition period. So many courses, so little time...

Meanwhile: getting ready for Lake Baikal and haf-a-Trans-Siberian

I indirectly turned down the job offer for the Nordic Ministry Council in Petrozavodsk. Haven' heard back from CIMO, I'm afraid that might have been the first and the last offer I got from them. But I'm not as bothered as I could be - aftet all, всё будет хорошо and I have firmly decided to выбирать свою судьбу and not settle for anything less that St.Petersburg. There is судьба and there is free will