I intended to write a post this past Sunday or Monday July 5th or 6th, but life got in the way. So now here I am, on Friday evening weeks later, finally crossing it off my to-do list. Minor aside: I always love weekends because they allow me to catch up/get ahead on my work. Does that make me weird?
Every day has been busy. On weekdays we have a 2-hour language lesson before lunch and another one after lunch, but the topics and instructors cycle. Our topics are grammar, speech practice, phonetics, history, and (fiction) literature. For the speech practice class everyone must prepare a short topic for discussion. For grammar, we take turns preparing more substantial presentations; each week it's the turn of someone new.
After language lessons conclude at 2:30pm, we have either folklore lessons (traditional music, dancing, and games) or cuisine lessons. However, this week we also had to make up for two excursions that had been postponed for various reasons. So every day this week went late! It's been a long week.
Commencing recap:
Last weekend I went to Moscow
Next post will be about St. Petersburg, my favorite city in the whole wide world (so far)!
Every day has been busy. On weekdays we have a 2-hour language lesson before lunch and another one after lunch, but the topics and instructors cycle. Our topics are grammar, speech practice, phonetics, history, and (fiction) literature. For the speech practice class everyone must prepare a short topic for discussion. For grammar, we take turns preparing more substantial presentations; each week it's the turn of someone new.
After language lessons conclude at 2:30pm, we have either folklore lessons (traditional music, dancing, and games) or cuisine lessons. However, this week we also had to make up for two excursions that had been postponed for various reasons. So every day this week went late! It's been a long week.
Commencing recap:
Last weekend I went to Moscow
Week before last (week of July 6), our first excursion was to Bogolyubovo, where there are some fantastic churches.
Our second excursion of the week was to the Golden Gates of Vladimir. There's a museum inside, but there weren't many good photo ops. Here's a photo of the Golden Gates at night that I took well after our excursion.
At the end of the week we went to Suzdal. It is another historic city with really old churches and a historically accurate settlement. There happened to be a medieval festival happening while we were there.
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| The shirt with Putin in sunglasses says "The very nicest person" |
Last week (week of July 13) I came down with a stomach bug and missed two and a half days of classes. I only took my temperature three times, so I don't know exactly how high my fever got, but one of the times I measured it, it was 38.8C. I felt pretty awful, but recovered by Saturday morning (July 18) when we had a master class on miniature lacquer paintings. I forgot to take a photo of mine, but we'll get them back soon and I'll try to remember to come back and add a photo.
This week has been a short one because our excursion to St. Petersburg begins tonight (in an hour, hence my rushed writing). Earlier today we had an excursion to the Vladimir historical museum. Here are some pictures, as well as a photo of my delicious breakfast (blini with homemade jam and not-homemade cream cheese)!
And here's a bonus picture of Vladimir's own Uspenskyy Cathedral with a rainbow behind it.
