"In pursuit of the uneatable?"

"The English country gentleman galloping after a fox - the unspeakable in pursuit of the inedible."

Oscar Wilde

I saw something unexpected today. Perhaps "heard" or "experienced" would be more accurate, because I didn't see very much at all. I saw (heard/experienced) a fox hunt. I'm not going to be drawn into the fox-hunting debate, either on the pro or anti side. "Hunting with dogs" is still perfectly legal in Eire, and I'm aware that there is at least one local "hunt". I've also learned that I don't always understand everything that is happening in my locality. Instead, I'm going to report what I saw, and leave it at that.

My house is a little over a mile from the town. When the mood takes me, as it did today, I walk down to the town. It's a pleasant walk, and today all I planned to buy was a couple of cartons of milk (whole and semi-skimmed) and the papers. That hardly represents a serious load, especially carried in a rucksac.

For part of it's route, the road runs parallel to the River Allow. On the way down, I noticed some unusual things. Cars parked at the side of the road in places where there are not usually cars, and a couple of small groups of men, all looking observant and some talking on mobile phones. I wondered what was going on.

Further along, the river comes closer and there is a steep wooded bank between the river and the road, as it passes through a small wood. As I entered the wood, I became aware of sounds coming from the wood. The sounds were: dogs barking and yelping, men shouting and cracking sounds (which I think were trees being struck with sticks). I crossed the road to look down onto the river. In the distance I heard the sound of a "call" (I'm not sure what the correct name for a the bugle or trumpet they use is). As I looked down at the river bank I could see a couple of hounds running around and sniffing the ground. While I watched, a man climbed up a track leading from the river bank. He said that they were trying to prevent the fox (I assumed they were hunting a fox) from crossing the road.

I continued to the town, and completed my errand. I wasn't at all surprised that there was nothing for me to see on the way home. When I was nearly home, I saw a car driving towards me, so I stepped up onto the verge. To my surprise he pulled into a field entrance a little in front of me, got out of the car and started talking on his mobile phone.

As I reached him, he finished with the phone,

"Did you get your fox?" I asked.

"Oh, we won't be catching any of those fellows today" he replied with a grin.

In the distance, I could here the sound of the dogs barking.

All I saw throughout the whole episode were two dogs and some men. No fox, no horses, nothing else.

Reflections on Siberia

It’s now (25th October 2011) two weeks since I left Novosibirsk, and a week since I returned to Ireland. This seems an appropriate time to reflect on my trip and what I achieved.

Why did I go to Russia? I went with the objective of improving my Russian, and I have certainly achieved that. I wanted to experience living in a foreign country, and I have done that too. I wonder if I also had a desire to satisfy my “wander-lust”. If so, then the effect has been very temporary, because I’m considering another trip.

Why did I go to Siberia, and Novosibirsk in particular? Novosibirsk is the third largest city in the Russian Federation, and I had already visited Moscow and St Petersburg. It is the “capital” of a region which is larger than Europe. From a practical point of view, even after taking account of travelling expenses, studying in Novosibirsk was cheaper than Moscow or St Petersburg. Then of course there was the romance of visiting in Siberia! Novosibirsk is north of India on the map, mid-way between Moscow and Vladivostock (on the coast facing Japan). This is a long way from home, closer to China than Europe.

I need to emphasise that this was an “immersion course”. For four weeks I heard very little English. That was a strange experience in itself. A typical school day started with breakfast at 08:00. Breakfast could be all sorts of things: porridge (kasha), black bread and black tea were common, as was yoghurt, but on occasions I also had smoked eel and even spaghetti Bolognese! At many meals my landlady and I had fun trying to find words for the different things on the table. Sometimes we had guests for breakfast as well.

After breakfast I would walk to school. It was about a mile and a half. Travelling by metro was impractical, and although there were buses, trolleybuses and trams which went where I wanted to go, I enjoyed the walk. Once I had established my bearings I tried to vary my journey to and from the school and as a result saw a little more of the city.

The school is in rented rooms in a modern office block. Lessons started at 10:00. I usually arrived in time to make a cup of tea before we started. My lessons were always “one to one”. I had expected to be taught in a group, but got individual attention from one of three teachers. Each day would usually start with conversation about what I had done the day before. Then we would move on to new material, with reading, listening, and comprehension exercises. Understanding grammar is essential to learning Russian beyond a very basic level. For someone like me, who has never been taught formal grammar, this comes as something of a shock. One of the books I refer to is “English Grammar for Students of Russian”.

Lessons would finish at 1:00 pm and I would go and get lunch, usually with two of the other students. We usually dined in a local “Stolovaya” (dining room). The staff there got used to the strange foreigners who didn’t understand what things were called, and didn’t really know what went with what.

Most afternoons there was some kind of cultural excursion. This could be to a museum or an art gallery. Almost always the trip would involve a trip by public transport. That meant the adventure of dealing with Russian currency and buying tickets. By the end of my trip I was reasonably comfortable using all means of transport on my own, and even checking with strangers that I was about to get on the right bus. Most of the excursions were led by one of the teachers, but sometimes we were accompanied by a student from Novosibirsk University.

The school also allowed the students to use their facilities to complete homework and preparation for the following day.

One or two evenings each week, the school would put on a presentation and a film. The presentations were usually about some aspect of Russian life or culture. The films were selected for having simple plots and representing some aspect of Russian culture. At the school I saw: a comedy, an alcoholic redeemed, a Soviet noble worker, some beautiful animations and a modern fantasy about wishes coming true. At home, I saw: “2001, a space odyssey” (in English with Russian subtitles) and “Pirates of the Caribbean” (dubbed into Russian, with English subtitles).

After school, it was back home to finish any homework and preparation. My evening reward for completing my task was a bottle of beer bought from a local supermarket. My evening meal was usually at about 10:00 pm when after my landlady got in from work. Supper was even more varied than breakfast: boiled dumplings (“pelmyeni” or “vareniki”) and macaroni happened more than once, but there was lots of variety.

While I was in Siberia I visited a couple of churches. I stood at the back of one service, for a few minutes. Liturgical Russian is different from the everyday language, so I didn’t understand what was happening. There are no seats, the congregation stand, facing towards the front. The churches I was in were beautiful, in the Orthodox style. It seems that every surface is decorated, with icons and stylised pictures of saints looking down at the congregation.

Would I recommend going to Novosibirsk? The honest answer is: “it depends”. If you are learning Russian, then I recommend Novosibirsk. If you are going as a tourist, you may find that you run out of things to see quite quickly.

Novosibirsk, is a modern industrial city. Very few people speak or understand any English at all. Public transport is excellent, but you need to be prepared to walk, and sometimes the pavements are a bit uneven.

I have been told that in most Russian cities living space is in short supply. If you are living with a family, as I was, then you may find that you have been given someone’s bedroom.

I enjoyed my trip. There were times (especially when travelling) when I was confused, and even a little apprehensive. I am sure people found me strange, and a little odd. I have become used to being asked if I am German! I was shown great kindness, and made to feel welcome.

Teeth, a computer and an afternoon nap

(Monday 10th October 2011, written same day)

The day didn't start all that well. A crown came off one of my teeth. There was nothing to be done but go to the dentist. Fortunately the dentist "fitted me in" and the crown was soon reattached. She suggested that I consider having two crowns replaced by a bridge, to replace a missing tooth and give the two teeth affected more support. I'll think about that when I get back to Ireland.

After the dentist, I phoned Andy (who I'd met in the pub last night). The eMail on his computer had stopped talking to the server. He has two eMail accounts. One of these is Hotmail, which is I have always found a little awkard. I managed to re-establish contact by installing an update to something required for Hotmail and re-entering the credentials for the two accounts. Everything worked fine.

I wandered home to Ashford and went back to bed. The travel, the time difference and the lack of sleep are still taking their toll.

At 16:00 I was awakened by a phone call from Andy, to tell me that his eMail was no longer working. I gave him some suggestions, but I will have to go and look at that again. Something odd has happened there, because I do not think anything he says he has been doing should have made any difference to his email.

Spent a little time in the early evening reviewing what I had learned in Russia.

Church, Oyster, visiting, recovering

(Sunday 9th October 2011, written Monday 10th October)

Went to church this morning. The first hymn had the same number as my flight number into London the previous day. Coincidence can be strange.

After the service, I had lunch in a cafe in Feltham. Then I took the train to visit friends in Brentford. Something minor went wrong a the barrier at Feltham Station. Fortunately there were staff there. They checked my Oyster card and said that the machine had taken money from my card, but the barrier had not let me through. None of us understood what had happened, but it didn't matter because they let me through anyway.

It is nice to visit friends. I spent the afternoon in Brentford and then was given a lift back to Ashford.

In the evening I went to "The Shoes". Once again it was good to meet people who I hadn't seen for a while.

Head in Siberia, heart in Ireland, feet in London and suitcase in Moscow

(Saturday 8th October 2011, written Sunday 9th October)

Today started very early and finished very late. There was a bit of excitement in between, but "what does not kill me, makes me stronger". By the end of the day I had experienced, survived and recovered from two of the hazards of air transport:

• I nearly missed a connecting flight, and
• I lost my luggage for a while.

I got up pretty early, at 04:00 am in the morning. The taxi was due to collect me at 05:00. My Landlady saw me to the taxi and we said our goodbyes. I would be pleased to meet her again. I had the same taxi-driver that collected me from the airport at the beginning of my trip. That seemed appropriate, a sort-of "closing of the circle". I believe the school had arranged it like that. What was interesting to me was that this time I was able to engage in a simple conversation with him on the way to the airport. That was a satisfactory demonstration to me of the progress I had made.

The driver to took me to the airport and made sure that I was delivered to correct terminal. I hadn't noticed, but Novosibirsk Tolemechevo Airport has two terminals: an International Terminal and a Domestic Terminal. I was going to the Domestic Terminal because I was flying to Moscow.

Check-in went without incident. They accepted my case without comment and checked it through to London and issued me with boarding cards for both the flights: Novosibirsk to Moscow and Moscow to London. More of that later.

The flight to Moscow was pleasant and uneventful. A little while before we landed I noticed that we were going to be about half and hour later than was indicated on my ticket. That gave me a little concern, but there was nothing to be done about it.

Once we had landed, and been disembarked by bus, I set off to find the departure gate. That had to be a priority. The departure area of Domededovo was a throng of people. When I had found my way to the correct departure area, the lady checking the boarding cards, said "time!" and for a short while I was afraid that I was not going to be allowed to board. Instead I was directed through "Business Class" and processed in double-quick time. I made it onto the aircraft and was in my seat barely 10 minutes before departure time. That is really far to tight and I was sweating from running and worry. I barely had time to send texts to England and Ireland, saying that I had made the flight, before the doors closed and I switched off my phone.

I'm still not sure exactly what happened with the flight connection. The connection was as specified by the carrier, but to me seemed far too tight. I'm not sure if the inbound flight was delayed. Maybe I missed an announcement. I would gladly have spent a few hours in Moscow and bought a few souvenirs.

The flight to London was uneventful. I like Transaero's cabin service. I also like the 737-800 aircraft they are using on that route. I don't know if Boeing have changed the fuselage in some way, but the plane seemed much more spacious than the aircraft (also a 737) I had just got off. One slightly strange thing, is that all their aircraft seem to be registered in Ireland.

Once in London (on schedule at 11:30), I found that my bag not made the flight! Baggage handling for Transaero in London is managed by BMI. The BMI staff were helpful, and located my bag quickly. It was in Moscow. So were the bags of two fellows from Middlesborough and two Russian ladies. I was actually able to help the Russians and the desk staff communicate sufficiently well to get their bags located as well. I filled in a claim form and was told that they expected go get my bag from Moscow at 16:00, and that they would deliver it to me, but given a number to call if the bag had not been delivered by 19:00.

I caught the bus to Ashford and was at Dave's house, drinking tea at about 13:15, exactly the time I had estimated in one of my eMails to Dave.

By 19:00, my bag had still not arrived, and understandably I was getting a little twitchy. I phoned the number I had been given. Nobody answered. I tried a couple of times, and then gave up. Tomorrow would have to do. Dave said he needed to go out to get something from a shop. A few minutes later, there was a knocking at the door. I assumed that Dave had forgotten his keys. Wrong! It was a courier with my case! He had bumped into Dave in the street, and got directions for the difficult last few yards. A quick check and a signature later, and I had my bag back. It was a few hours late, but undamaged and I hadn't had to lug it home on the bus!

I stayed up watching the TV with Dave, and eventually went to bed at 22:00. Apart from naps on the planes, I had been on the go for 24 hours!

Numbers, Poetry, Hurling, Ice-Hockey and Rain (and Cucumbers)

(Wednesday 5th October 2011, written and posted same day)

I took a different route to work this morning. On the way I passed the "Academy of Water Transport", which is an impressive building and I assume has something to do with moving people and stuff around the inland waterways (after all, you can't get much further from the sea than Novosibirsk) and the offices of "Sibir Telecom" which have this interesting sculpture at the front. Notice the blue "phone box". It isn't a GPO original, but it is a close copy. Isn't it strange, how that design has acquired "icon" status.

A substantial bit of yesterdays homework was sorting "things" into groups and then writing the sentence "I have many ...things..." for each of the "Things". The sorting was fine, but the sentences are harder than you might think, because for technical reasons the form of the word "things" (which is in the "genitive case") changes. I did alright, but believe me, it isn't easy.

Another part of the homework from yesterday was to write a "Recipe for happyness". For a while this had me stumped, and then I decided that I know a "Recipe for Paradise", which for technical reasons fitted the bill. This "recipe" is a poem by someone called Omar Khayam (translated from Persian by Edward Fitzgerald in the 19th Century). Here's the poem:

A loaf of bread, a flask of wine,

A book of verse, and thou,

Beside me singing in the wilderness,

And wilderness is paradise (e)now.

To my amazement, I almost got away with it. "Beside me" got a bit mangled and "Wilderness is Paradise" needed adjusting, but I did pretty well (in the English, Fitzgerald tacks an extra "e", in front of "now", to adjust the rhythmn). And that led us on to a question and answer about poetry.

Another part of the lesson today was conversation. Diana (my teacher) asked me about what sports I was interested in. I said that I wasn't a "Sportsman" but that I watched some sport. I explained that Ireland has some special sports which are restricted to Ireland. Specifically "Hurling" and "Gaelic Football". For anyone who doesn't know, Hurling as a very fast field game played with sticks and a hard leather ball. To someone who doesn't know it (like me), it is a little like hockey, but only a very little! Then I have to explain to Diana what Hurling is like. I don't really understand Hurling, but we finish up with a Scotsman, explaining an Irish game, to a Russian, in Russian in Siberia! There was lots of arm-waving and a few diagrams (for the goal posts). I don't know if Diana is any the wiser.

After lunch, I set out on a expedition. I have been commissioned to buy a "Novosibirsk" Ice-Hockey jersey. Up until today, I had no luck but I finally succeeded. The expedition was to a part of town which I hadn't visited before. It took me a one trolley-bus ride and a bus ride to get there. The stadium was a little non-descript, but it is an indoor sport. There was a banner advertising "wrestling", but I'm not sure what sort of wrestling. It took me a little while to find the merchandise shop. It wasn't marked at all well. And then the negotiations started. There were two men in the shop. Both were helpful, but neither spoke any English. My Russian has improved, but this was entirely new territory, and I don't even know anything about ice-hockey (By the way, if a Russian refers to "Hockey", they mean Ice-Hockey). They didn't accept plastic, but they did direct me to a cash-machine. I wasn't that hopeful, because I haven't had very good luck with cash-machines, but I went and tried. We were in luck! I short while later, I left. Now the proud owner of a rather attractive Hockey Jersey (Front and Back). The journey home was a little bit of an adventure. I spotted a trolley-bus which said it was going to a suitable place. Then it took a turning I didn't expect! After frantic map-reading, I decided I was going in the right direction. A little later, the bus turned onto a road that I knew and eventually I got off very close to the school. I actually had an easier journey coming home, than I did on the way out.

Once I was back at the school, I got stuck into the homework. I hope I've understood it properly, and if I have, then I've done all I needed to.

At 5:30 today we had a presentation on the work of a film-maker called Alexander Petrov. He's an animator, and I'm afraid I hadn't heard of him before, even though he has won an Oscar. I don't even understand how he does what he does. The pictures are drawn somehow, but have a distinctive "grainy" appearance, like chalk, charcoal or pastels on a rough surface. We were told that it takes Petrova 2 years to make 20 minutes of film, so it's in the same area as "Wallace and Gromit". I will find out more about his work. The films we saw were:

• "The Cow"
• "Rusalka" (which doesn't translate, but I think is a bit like an mermaid in a river)
• "The Old Man and the Sea" (based on Ernest Hemmingway's story)
• "First Love"

I think the weather has finally turned. On the way home, it started to rain. It was only a few spots to begin with but then it started to rain pretty hard. A proper "April shower", except it is October. Even though it was raining a bit, I popped into a local shop to buy a bottle of beer. One has to have priorities. By the time I got out of the shop, it was raining a lot harder (by the way, the Russians use "verbs of motion" to describe weather). When I got to the courtyard of the group of blocks where I live, I was greeted by loads of red and white plastic tape. I hope it is there because someone is planning to re-tarmac the car-parking and access road, because if not, I've just crossed a crime-scene!

supper this evening was pork cutlet (minced, battered and fried), fried potatoes, and a fried egg, accompanied by cucumber. I wish you could experience how good the cucumbers and tomatoes are here. The cucumbers are short, 3 to 4 inches long. The kind that you might see as pickled gherkins in a chip shop. Only these are fresh. I can't get over how good they taste. My Landlady served them sliced thinly, lengthways. They're almost sweet, like melon! Either on their own, or with just a little salt, they are delicious.

The internet has stopped working (again), so I don't know when this will reach the internet. I have an exam on Friday (you didn't think I got off scot-free, did you?) and then I fly out of Novosibirsk a little after 07:00 local time on Saturday. That means there will be a taxi for me at 5:00 and I'm getting up at 04:00. Nice! Even if this gets posted, you may not hear too much more from me this trip.

Addendum 1: Try eating blini (pancakes) with melted butter. Zap the butter in the microwave.

Addendum 2: Just been taken on a trip to the shops at 22:45. It was a place called "Lenta". It's enormous - 35 checkout lanes, and open 24 hours. The stock is stored on racking above the shelves. Aldi/Lidl meets Wickes. Sells everything from car tyres to groceries.

Addendum 3: And a tour of Novosibirsk by night. This really is a 24 hour city, and not just for the clubbers.

Numbers, Art, Spoons and Trams

(Tuesday 4th October 2011 written and posted 5th October)

The lesson today was about numbers. Numbers of "things" in Russian present special problems for a foreigner. The form of the word "thing" depends on the details of the "thing" (masculine, feminine, neuter, animate, inanimate) and the number:

• One thing is "nominative"
• 2, 3 and 4 things are "genitive singular" (yes, I know that 2, 3 and 4 are plural), and
• 5 and more things are "genitive plural"
• And the game starts again at 21, 22-23-24, 25+, 31, etc!

If someone really understands it, contact me off-line, you may be able to earn yourself a drink!

Another exercise was a lady telling me her recipe for happiness: "A dollup of this, 5 tonnes of that, a smidgin of something else". You can probably see how it relates to the earlier stuff about plurals. Part of the homework is to produce my own recipe.

After lunch I went on a trip round the a Novosibirsk art gallery with a lady called Nastia. The association of the name in English is completely wrong. She's a 21 year old Literature student, who speaks better English than my Russian, but won't while she's with me! We went round the gallery, and I learned about her taste in art (she likes paintings of the sea, and so do I) and she learned that I used to work in a steelworks (because there were Soviet era engravings of coke-ovens and a blast furnace). I enjoyed the trip and I hope she did too. We spent over an hour and a half in the gallery and I haven't concentrated so hard for a long time.

Then it was back to school to do some of the homework. I did formal "numbers of this and that" exerises I had to do, but just couldn't get to grips with the "recipe for happines".

Fed up with the Recipe for happiness (which was making me unhappy), and armed with a flyer I found at the school, I set off to find a souvenir shop. A bus ride and a short walk later, I bought some carved wooden spoons with painted decoration. I think they are very pretty.

On the way home, I decided to go by a different route and take a trip on a tram. The trams in Novosibirsk are pretty old. You have to climb a long way up to get into them. This one took me pretty much the whole way home. I could get it (the other way round) to the school, but I think that would be a waste of effort. (Minibuses cost 35 r, Metro 15 r, buses and trolley-buses 14 r, and trams 13 roubles). If you want the real, post-soviet experience, travel by tram.

Dinner was pork cutlet, mashed potato, tomato and cucumber.

Boosa is 12. She's getting pretty old. I hope the "accident" was an isolated incident, otherwise her days are probably numbered.

I still couldn't think of a suitable "recipe, so I "played hookey", and watched "Pirates of the Carribean" (in Russian), and had a bottle of strong beer (that's what is says on the label, and it is 7%).

Not Teachers' Day

(Monday 3rd October 2011, written and posted 5th October)

It's amazing how quickly the memory fades. There is only one thing sticks in my mind. Maybe I will remember more and add more detail later.

I took my "Teachers' Day" card to school and was told that I was a little early, because some days are marked according to the old Julian calendar, rather than the modern Gregorian one! That's one more thing down to experience.

"Sarf of the River" and (Both) "End(s) of the Line"

(Sunday 2nd October 2011 written same day)

It turns out I slept through supper last night! Still, the rest must have done me good. Breakfast this morning was good. For "Porridge" substitute "Rice Pudding". It's still nourishing!

My landlady tells me that the weather we we're experiencing is unusual. She says I have been very lucky. She also assures me that the first snow will come before the end of October. With that warning ringing in my ears, once I'd done the homework, I decided to explore some new bits of the city.

First stop was supposed to be another look at the "Birch Bark Museum". Unfortunately it is closed on Sundays, so I'll try to fit that in another afternoon. I paused to take a picture of a building I found interesting. Then I walked to "Oktoberskya Metro Station". On the way I crossed a large arterial road. Metro stations are pretty well signposted with a large red "M", like the ones in Paris.

Catching the train was no problem. A metro ride costs 15 roubles (0.38 Euro) any distance. I had a couple of minutes problem with the ticket machine, but soon worked it out. The metro stations here aren't palatial like the ones in Moscow, but they are clean. If London Underground decoration favours glazed ceramic tiles, then Novosibirsk Metro decoration seems to favour marble and terrazzo.

I went to the southern end of the Lenin Line, which ends at Karl Marx square. The area south (east) of the River Ob is more industrial and considered a little rougher. Karl Marx Square looked OK to me, but I didn't venture into the industrial areas. The square itself has formal gardens

and an imposing statue of:

"Александр Иванович Покрышкин

Alexander Ivanovich Pokryshkin

Hero of the Soviet Union

Marshal Of the Airforce"

He's worth reading about.

From Karl Marx Square I took the Metro to the North end of the line at "Zaeltsovskaya".

Wandered home, buying some provisions (like beer!) along the way.
(Blog Post updated to include pictures directly, rather than as links. 17th November 2015)

Hanging around (cue "The Stranglers")

(Saturday 1st October 2011, written same day)

It has been a funny day so far. It's Saturday, so my landlady got up late. (Good for her). I'd already helped myself to watermelon and tea, but she asked me if I wanted breakfast. I said yes. Breakfast became:

• Watermelon and black tea
• Porridge,
• Smoked eels,
• Spaghetti bolognese (yes, you have just read that!) and
• Chocolate cake.

My landlady and her boyfriend invited me on trip to "The Forest" this afternoon/evening. Naturally, I said yes. I hope I understood correctly. I'm waiting for the trip to start now (17:30). I had planned to go on a walking tour of "Historic Novosibirsk" in the afternoon, but after a text from me, and a phonecall from the landlady, I hope that has been cancelled successfully.

After breakfast, I went into the city. I had a number of objectives and met with mixed success:

• Trip to the cash machine - Successful
• Trip to a sports shop. I want to buy someone a "Novosibirsk (ice) hockey jersey". - Unsuccessful. Conversation went ok (broken Russian meets broken English), but this particular shop only sells Nike gear. They understood what I wanted, but didn't know where I could buy one.
• Trip to shop to buy "Teachers' Day" cards - Success. They understood what I wanted, and pointed me to the display.
• Trip to another shop (more of a stall) to buy fridge magnets as presents - Success. How do you translate "Fridge Magnet"? I used Russian for "Fridge" plus the English "Magnet", plus some pointing. It worked anyway.

Pretty good score.

Regarding "Teachers' Day": The first Sunday in October (today) is "Teachers' Day" in Russia. This is a carry-over from the Soviet Union. Tomorrow the kids bring their teachers (the ones they like, anyway) cards and flowers. I've bought one of the cards. With a little help from Google I translated the verse. It could be described as "Gushing and syrupy". Typical greetings card!

While in the centre of the City, it was a little quieter than it is during the week, so I took some pictures:

• North up Krasny Prospect
• North-West along Station Highway (you can see "Novosibirsk Main" station, on the Trans-Siberian at the end)
• Here's a plaque commemorating the original tram-line in what is now Lenin Square.

I wandered home and settled down to the homework. This is a grammar test. I've struggled through a little over half of it. I've been using the books I have, and my notes and I still find it quite hard. It's all part of the learning experience.

At various times, the Landlady and her boyfriend, and her son have been in and out of the flat. It feels like something is going to happen, but nothing has actually happened yet.

Beautiful early evening here. I'm waiting for something to happen. I was offered a bowl of small, sweet, black, seedless grapes. I've eaten them, very nice. Meanwhile, a little later, I was eating a pear and the Alsation started looking at me and drooling. Hoping it was the pear she wanted, I gave her the core. Gone! Just like that. An Alsation that likes pear cores (and apples, come to think of it). Well I never!

Something happened about the trip. I guess plans change. I got on with my homework, which I found quite hard, and I've got most of it done.

Early to bed.

(Blog Post updated to include pictures directly, rather than as links. 17th November 2015)

Lost track of the days, and 2001...

(Friday 30th September 2011, written Saturday 1st October)

After the film on Thursday, I came home and fell asleep. I barely managed to complete the homework that I wanted to do for the next day.

At school, things are OK but I would have like to have memorised more of the "Perfective/Imperfective" pairs. I realised that I had lost track of the days. We were supposed to be going on a trip on the River Ob on Saturday. Unfortunately that has been cancelled, but I signed up for the substitute "Tour of Historic Novosibirsk".

In the evening to unwind, I borrowed a film from the Landlady's bookshelf. "2001: A Space Odyssey", with Russian subtitles. If ever there was a film which doesn't rely on dialogue, 2001 is certainly one. Released in 1968 I think. Actually I would have preferred it dubbed into Russian, with English subtitles. There was a surreal moment, near the beginning in the space station, when the American "investigator" meets a group of Russians, including one played by Leonard Rossiter. After the American leaves, Rossiter's character says a few words in Russian ("It's very difficult...", I think). I found that I understood the gist of what he said. I expect that Rossiter didn't understand himself, but just learned the few words from a coach.

After that, I settled down to sleep early, and slept like a log!

"Afonia", a Soviet slant on "Alfie"?

(Thursday 29th September 2011, written Saturday 1st October)

Work continues. It's relentless. I find it interesting. but it's hard to describe except there are lots of exercises. I certainly understand Russian a lot better than I did. I find written easier than spoken, but that isn't surprising.

In the evening I watched a film called "Afonia" (1975). It's about a plumber who is a bit of a rogue, but by the end of the film it looks like he might be settling down.

It was described to me as "an industrial drama". I would describe it as more light-hearted than drama. As I was watching it I thought that the leading man looked a little like Michael Caine, and that there might be some parallels with the plot of "Alfie" (1966).

It is definately nowhere near as hard hitting as "Alfie". I still am wondering if there is some connection. The name of the film, and the dates, make it possible that the producers of "Afonia" were trying to make an oblique reference to "Alfie".

Eggs - Soft, Letters - hand and soft, Memory challenges - hard

(Tuesday 28th September 2011, written same day)

Phew, that was a tough day. A good day, but a tough day. My head aches. It isn't over yet. Now that I've finished supper, I'm going to write up these notes as some light relief before settling down to learn some verbs (imperfective and perfective pairs).

The day started out well with a really nice breakfast. I don't know what this dish is called, but I liked it. I may try to produce something similar at home some time. Here is my attempt at describing it:

• Take some rounds of french bread,
• Remove some of the middle to leave a hole (but leave some of the bread as well),
• Fry the bread.
• When you're frying the second side, crack open small eggs (I think these were quails eggs) and drop one into each hole.
• When the the egg is just set, serve with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese on the top.

Delicious!

After breakfast, it was time for school. I thought I had the "wrong" teacher yesterday. It turns out the one I should have had, had a cold, like me. Only I think hers must have been worse than what I had. We continued where the previous teacher left off yesterday. The school manage hand-overs very well. Before the lesson proper, we had more of the conversation "what did you do at the weekend/yesterday evening?" I'm getting better. After that, we moved on to more of the "imperfective", "perfective" stuff. It interacts with past, present and future as well. You can't have "perfective" in the present, but surpringly, you can in the future. That means that it is easy to say:

• "I _finished_ reading 'War and Peace' yesterday.", or
• "I _will have finished_ reading 'War and Peace' tomorrow.", but saying:
• "I _have finished_ reading 'War and Peace' now." takes more words.

My homework challenge is to start learning loads of "imperfective-perfective" verb-pairs. That's what I'm starting shortly.

One bit of additional work I tried to give myself is a problem with pronounciation. There are two letter in the Russian alphabet (called respectively the "hard sign" and the "soft sign") which have no sound of their own, but with modify the sound of the letters around them. This is something I'm struggling to get right. It is hard for a non-native speaker to do, and hard for a native speaker to explain. The problem isn't really language, more "voice coaching". We'll see.

After lunch I did some homework exercises, and a little of the "learning". I also bought some souvenirs. Small icons. I think they're beautiful. I hope the intended recipients agree.

Then at 17:30 we had a presentation on the "Russian Character". Nothing really deep, but how not to offend people, or how not to be offended. All useful and interesting.

Then home. Supper was cooked by my Landlady's 17 year old son. It was good "Pelmeni", round ravioli stuffed with meat. Last night I had "Vereniki", pasty-shaped ravioli stuffed with potato and mushroom. Both are very good if you get the opportunity.

And so to verbs!

"Mamma's takin' us to the zoo tomorrow..." (today actually)

(Tuesday 27th September 2011, written same day)

Today's lesson was more of the "Imperfective", "Perfective" stuff. It's strange but I like it. My teacher told me that it is a feature peculiar to Slavic languages. She mentioned: Russian, Ukranian and Polish.

One of the exercises was reading a passage about a man who has a very boring routine and who watches James Bond films in the evening. I think my Russian is still halting and clumsy, but the teacher and I actually had a conversation about the films. There is something pleasantly strange about having a conversation with a Russian about James Bond movies! She says they are popular in Russia as well. She knows about Sean Connery and Roger Moore (and my mind went blank about the others).

I guess the fantasy of the films is one that lots of us enjoy. I managed to make her laugh twice. The first time by saying that "The girls want to meet Bond, and the boys want to be Bond" (which I happen to think is pretty true). The second time I made her laugh was by telling her that, in the books, James Bond isn't English! It's true. He has a Scottish father and a Swiss mother!

After lunch, we went on a trip to the zoo. My teacher came along with us. The journey there was by trolley-bus. Novosibirsk has a metro, trams, trolley-buses and various kinds of buses. The trolley-bus is a quick and effective way of getting around. The zoo itself was good. I'm not a great fan of zoos, but the animals in this one seemed to have sufficient space. Some of the cages were interesting geometric shapes.

One of the stranger things we saw was a stag who still had "velvet" on his antlers. There were rags of flesh and a little bit of blood. I'd never actually seen that before. My teacher was a little bit perturbed, but I was able to reassure her (in English) that this happened every year, and what was going on.

We also saw a red squirrel. I'm not sure if this is the same species we have in Britain. This one was a native to Siberia.

He was such an acrobat, and so quick that there was no possibility of me taking his picture.

Photos:

• Fountain at the entrance.
• Dinosaurs
• Eagle
• Aviary
• Liger explanation (in Russian!), Liger, more Liger
• Spotty Cat
• Polar Bear
• Dear Deer
• Black Wolf

(Blog Post updated to include pictures directly, rather than as links. 17th November 2015)

Now that's what I call secure!

(27th September 2011 - Not about any particular day)

The front door to our flat is impressive. Comparing notes (and keys) with the other students, the locks at least seem to be pretty typical. I don't know if Russians are particularly security conscious, or if there is a real, or perceived problem with burglary, but it seems most Russian flats have good locks on the front door.

You need three keys to enter my flat. To get into the building where I live you use a "button" key, which you touch to a socket on the intercom. I don't know how it works. I would be surprised it it was particularly secure, but it is only intended to protect the stairwell. This building front door looks like it was replaced fairly recently. There is an inner door which isn't locked. Once upon a time, I don't suppose the outer door was locked either.

The front door to my flat is pretty impressive. I think it would do justice to a small provincial bank! The door is made of steel and is fitted to a steel frame. I expect the frame is securely fastened to the building. The door opens outward and has hinge bolts. It is secured by a two stage lock. If you are "just popping out for a minute", then there is a night small key. Even this has more positions than the equivalent English lock. If you are really going out, then you use the larger key which operates a number of bolts, integral to the door, on the lock side (I think I counted 5) and the top. You then lock the lock with the small key! Hmm. I think that is secure. I believe some flats have an inner door whose purpose is to keep any draughts out. The space between the two doors is used for shoes and coats.

While we're in the hallway, the internet here has not been completely reliable. I'm not sure if this is the cause, but there is a junction box on the landing which has loads of wires hanging out of it. My untrained eye can identify; coaxial, "cat something-or-another twisted pair" and flat speaker cable, all associated with the same box. In this case I really do "know nothing". I'm leaving well alone!

(Blog Post updated to include pictures directly, rather than as links. 17th November 2015)

Washing, Cleaning, Brushing, Peeling

(Monday 26th September 2011 written same day)

I don't know when this is going to reach the blog. The internet at home isn't working at present. I've tried restarting the router, and I don't want to mess with anything more than that. The network diagnostics show that the router says it is connected to the internet, but every website I try to connect to times out. I will probably copy the text files of the blog entries onto a flashdrive and load them at the school. Pictures will have to wait.

Today started with mist. I wore an anorak for the walk to school. It was just a little chilly. I didn't think to look at what any of the buildings said the temperature was. I still feel a little groggy with the cold. The leaves are falling from the trees and everywhere you can see people sweeping them up and stuffing them into sacks and other containers.

The work at school today started with conversation. A review of what I did at the weekend. Unfortunately, the "cold" meant that wasn't as much as I had wanted, but there were still some things to talk about, like going to the shop and buying food. Apparently my choice of provisions counts as "healthy". I think there was rather too much dairy, but I think that just shows differences in attitude in different countries. I definitely think the Russian diet contains less meat than I am used to, and that is probably a good thing.

After the conversation, we moved on to the homework. My insight with the "cases" was pretty much correct. I am beginning to understand how to use the crib-sheet I've been given to work out what ending to use when a noun should be in a particular case. I'm making lots of mistakes but I've moved beyond randomly changing the ending of the word and hoping it is appropriate.

The new work today is more about variations on a theme of cleaning. I suppose when teaching a language it is easiest to have themes for different sections, and there are probably deeper objectives to choosing particular words which are not obvious to me, but sometimes it seems like the text-book authors have an obsession with something, in this case - cleaning. Today I had verbs for "washing" (the laundry), "washing" (vegetables, or the car) and finally "cleaning" (with a brush). This last one includes the sense of cleaning your shoes (with a brush), cleaning your teeth (also with a brush) but also (to my mind strangely), peeling or removing the skin from fruit or vegetables. Seems odd, but there you go.

More homework to do, most of which I did in the afternoon.

I had thought about taking a weekend trip to Tomsk. I think I've abandoned that idea. I like the idea of Tomsk, but the trip involves 3+ hours on a bus each way, it requires a night in a hotel and it will take up the whole weekend. It also works out a little expensive. I think I would rather save the money and save the effort. On the plus side, the school have suggested a trip on the river on Saturday. That is a nice alternative. If the weather is reasonable (and the forecast says it should be), then that will be something to look forward to.

I've tried running some diagnostics on the internet connection. Just tried "ping". As I thought, I've got a good connection to the router, but the router isn't talking to the internet, even though it says that is is. It seems highly unlikely that all the sites I've tried are equally broken.

It's 21:00 and my landlady has just arrived with the shopping. Goodness me she has a long day. And this is after the (looked like it was unplanned) trip to Tomsk which took up all of the weekend.

It's after 23:00 and supper was excellent! Sasiski (Frankfurter sausages) with rice, and sour cream and tovorak and the inevetable black tea plus... I've just drunk something and I'm not at all sure what it was. My landlady said it will be good for my cough. It consisted of milk which had been boiled with nuts in it. The "nuts" are about the size and shape of maize kernels but dark red-brown. I looked at the pot were it was prepared, and there's a cedar pine cone as well. The whole concoction tasted a little bitter. I'm feeling sleepy, but the internet's back, so I'm going to do the posting and then go to sleep.

Feeling Better, Cold Nose - Warm heart

(Sunday 25th September 2011, written same day)

I woke up at about 07:30 feeling much better. Not perfect, but much better. Shortly afterwards, I found that Boosa (the dog) knows how to open the door to my room. Sniff, sniff. Face being licked by dog. "Good morning Boosa!" The dog then left and a little while later, my landlady's son closed my door. I think the dog wanted to "be taken for a walk". We all went back to bed. By the time I got up an hour and a bit later, the son had gone out.

I made myself breakfast from the remains of supper. Then I settled down to working through the homework. After I had completed most of it, I went out for a walk and had lunch. This time I tried a burger place called "Carl's" I'm going to check whether it is Russian or from somewhere else. I messed up my order, and got an extra portion of fries. These are the things you have to expect.

On my return, I got on with the rest of the homework, a fairly large piece of translation. I managed ok, but it takes me ages as my vocabulary needs to be bigger.

Once I had finished with this I started looking at a "graded reader" I have borrowed from the school. Once again, it's a pretty substantial translation job.

My landlady's son came back and asked me if I wanted him to make supper. Naturally I said yes. It turned out to be very good: pelmyeni (sort-of ravioli stuffed with potato and mushroom). While he was preparing the meal I had a look at my notes. I think I may have developed a slightly clearer understanding of how to use one of the aids I've been given. I'm not going to bother with it now, but I'm going to look at something again tomorrow. If I'm right, one of the "rules" (to do with the "Accusative case") may have become a bit clearer.

I would like to find a way of remembering stuff more easilly ("pomnooyou"), but until that happens there is no alternative to repetition, and making up little rhymes and strange associations. I'm trying all sorts of tricks, but still struggling with recall. It it was easy everyone would be doing it!

Time to settle down for the evening.

Interra, "Cold" in Siberia and a little shopping

(Saturday 24th September 2011, written 25th September)

I woke up this morning, not with a hang-over, but knowing that I had a cold. I've suspected this for about a day, but it has caught up with me. I had planned to do a bit more exploring today, but I didn't feel much like it. I took some asprin, had a bit of a lie in and then went out for lunch.

I had a look at some of the Interra displays. It looked interesting, but my heart wasn't in it. I came home and went to bed. I dozed for most of the afternoon.

I woke up feeling much better and decided to go to a local supermarket and buy "the makings" of supper and breakfast. It all went to plan. I had one unsettling moment when I wondered if they had sold out of bread, but then I found what I was look for. Supper was cream cheese (Tovarok), black bread and tinned spratts with black tea, followed by one bottle of beer. It may sound a bit strange, but it's very similar to what I've been served for supper once while I've been here, and I've already been served spratts for breakfast. After all, sardines on toast used to be a popular "tea" dish.

I didn't do any homework. My head isn't in the right state for that. It feels kind of muzzy.

Off to bed early.

Half-way point. Testing times and a departure

(Friday 23rd September 2011 written Sunday 25th September)

The homework last night was in two parts. I struggled with it a bit. I'm still trying to understand the "cases" situation. I feel I'm making progress but there is so much to remember. So often the thing I want to remember seems to be "just out of touch". It's frustrating but I suppose the answer is to keep on trying. Things do stick, and then there is one less thing to struggle with, so I can give more attention to something else.

Then I had a test. It was a comprehension piece about a Russian celebrity. Naturally I hadn't heard of her and the only bits which I remember now are that she is a singer and she has red hair. I don't know how well I did yet. I found it a struggle, but I think it was intended to be a challenge.

There have been three students at the school: Charles, a French skiing instructor who lives in Switzerland, Jardina, a Spanish IT manager from Barcelona, and me. Today was Jardina's last day. She leaves for Spain at 07:00 tomorrow and has an early taxi booked. The school gave use a small "tea" (buns and biscuits and tea). The school awarded Jardina with her certificate, giving the level she has achieved. Actually, they gave her two certificates, one in English and one in Russian. I'm pleased about that. I don't expect to achieve the same level as Jardina (she has been doing this for years), but it would be good to have some semi-official recognition of accomplishment. I keep on thinking of the Scarecrow and his diploma from "The Wizard of Oz".

After the tea, and sending a few eMails, Charles, Jardina and I went to the pub. The one we chose was "St Patrick's Corner". It's an Irish pub. Novosibirsk has several. It's quite a reasonable place (but it is not on a corner!). It's strange how close you can feel to people after only two weeks. The three of us have really only shared lunches and trips, but we feel we have shared the experience of being here in Novosibirsk. I hope Jardina had a good trip home.

One very funny thing happened. For the past two weeks, naturally, one of the topics of conversation between the three of us had been "language". The other two had asked me about the Irish Language. I had confessed to knowing very little and said that it was quite different to English and that they would probably find the spelling a challenge. I did say that one of the things I had been warned about was the labels on toilet doors: in Irish M (for "Mna" means Lady) and F (for "Fir" means Man). I didn't think about it any more. During the evening, Charles went to the toilet and said with a laugh that he had remembered what I had said and gone through the right door! The toilets in "St Patrick's Corner" are labeled in Irish! Russian toilets are usually labeled M for "Man" and a different cyrillic character for "Woman". You can probably see where this is leading. We wondered how the Russians would cope with this. The answer is, it confused them. It would probably confuse most English speakers as well. During the evening, we (the three of us, two men and a woman) encountered a number of confused Russians: men exiting from the Ladies', and a Woman coming into the Men's. So, the international pictorial lavatory signs do serve a useful purpose.

When I got home, I met my landlady, who announced that she had to make an unexpected business trip to Tomsk, and that she was leaving NOW! That was alright. I know now that I coped!

Have you finished reading?

(Thursday 22nd September 2011, written same day)

There are no pictures today, and I'm afraid the weather feels like it is changing.

To my surprise, I did pretty well with yesterday's homework. I was all about the differences between "Seeing, Watching, Hearing and Listening", with a bit of the present and the past thrown in. It's reasonably reassuring. I'm making progress. I can ready stuff (from the text book) reasonably well now. I still feel awkward when speaking and naturally listening can be a bit of a challenge. If it's a recording, often I can work things out after a couple of hearings, but of course the real world doesn't work like that.

Today's lessons were a review of what happens to a word when it is the "object" of the sentence. The rules are complicated: it all depends on whether it is singular or plural, masculine, feminine or neuter and whether it is animate or inanimate. Some really strange things happen, not the least of which is that a corpse is animate! How I hate grammar! Then I listened to a recording of some drippy teenage go on about her crush on a rock-star. At least, thank goodness, the rock-star and the band are fictitious. At least, I hope they are.

Then came something, which although awkward, does make a kind of sense. If said "I read 'War and Peace' last night", could you be sure what I meant? If I said "I stopped reading 'War and Peace' last night", would you know if I had finished the book? Russian has a simple way round this ambiguity. The language technicians call it "Perfective" and "Imperfective". It's a pain, but useful.

After lunch I did some of did some of my homework, and then it was off to "The museum of the USSR". This was housed in what would have been a shared flat. It was very interesting and for me emphasised how things have changed. I bought my first souvenirs. Anybody want a fridge magnet of Lenin? I resisted the temptation to buy Stalin!

After that it was back to the school to watch a Soviet comedy titled "The diamond arm". It was about diamond smugglers, and actually really funny. I can smell dinner cooking, then I have to finish my homework.

Since writing this, I've learned that at the time the film was produced (in Soviet times), it was actually legal for Russians to import diamonds and gold INTO Russia (though I doubt they would have had the money). This adds a further layer of irony to the film.

Have you finished reading?

(Thursday 22nd September 2011, written same day)

There are no pictures today, and I'm afraid the weather feels like it is changing.

For some reason, I found Monday depressing. Things have been improving since then. To my surprise, I did pretty well with yesterday's homework. I was all about the differences between "Seeing, Watching, Hearing and Listening", with a bit of the present and the past thrown in. It's reasonably reassuring. I'm making progress.

I can read stuff (from the text book) reasonably well now. I still feel awkward when speaking and naturally listening can be a bit of a challenge. If it's a recording, often I can work things out after a couple of hearings, but of course the real world doesn't work like that.

Today's lessons were a review of what happens to a word when it is the "object" of the sentence. The rules are complicated: it all depends on whether it is singular or plural, masculine, feminine or neuter and whether it is animate or inanimate. Some really strange things happen, not the least of which is that a corpse is animate! How I hate grammar! Then I listened to a recording of some drippy teenage go on about her crush on a rock-star. At least, thank goodness, the rock-star and the band are fictitious. At least, I hope they are.

Then came something, which although awkward, does make a kind of sense. If said "I read 'War and Peace' last night", could you be sure what I meant? If I said "I stopped reading 'War and Peace' last night", would you know if I had finished? Russian has a simple way round this ambiguity. The language technicians call it "Perfective" and "Imperfective". It's a pain, but useful.

After lunch I did some of did some of my homework, and then it was off to "The museum of the USSR". This was housed in what would have been a shared flat. It was very interesting and for me emphasised how things have changed. I bought my first souvenirs. Anybody want a fridge magnet of Lenin? I resisted the temptation to buy Stalin!

After that it was back to the school to watch a Soviet comedy titled "The diamond arm". It was about diamond smugglers, and actually really funny. My understanding was helped by it having English subtitles!

I can smell dinner cooking, then I have to finish my homework.

Museums and Pride

(Monday 19th September 2011, written same night)

Something I forgot. On the way to school today, I paused to read the sign a the entrance to a small museum. The was a mongolian looking man outside who invited me inside. I apologised and said that I was on my way to school and that I didn't have time but that I would come back.

On the way home I saw him again. On the spur of the moment I greeted him and asked if the museum was still open. He said it was, I asked how much and he said it was free. I went inside and was glad that I did. It is a small place. Probably a municipal museum, or a citizens club with some funding. It covers the history of the "Central Rayon" (The "Central" Borough of Novosibirsk). There are only three exhibition rooms. There seem to be three staff; the gentleman, a lady and someone I didn't really see in an office. The lady was very helpful. She gave me a tour and explained the exhibits. There were:

• "Heroes of the Soviet Union" who came from the area
• History during the Second World War (Great Patriotic War). Novosibirsk was not the front, but was used for treating casualties. Children from Leningrad were evacuated there.
• Soldiers who had served in Afganistan (recent conflict)
• A WW2 fighter pilot who had shot down 100+ planes
• Artefacts from peoples homes

All sorts of stuff from before the Revolution, up to much more recent. It was all about people. The curators were obviously genuinely proud of it (and were entitled to be). The took the time to explain it to a foreigner. I did't understand everthing, but I understood some. I signed the visitors book. I'm going to take my colleagues along (I did, today 21st Sept).

Almost next door, I popped into what I suppose could be described as an antique shop. Enormous range of prices. Interesting. I'm going back.

Akademgorodok "Academy Town"

(Tuesday 20th September 2011, written up 21st September 2011)

Today was more irregular verbs. I struggle with learning all the words but it's necessary. While it is quite possible to communicate quite effectively speaking, or writing a limited vocabulary, it is absolutely necessary to be able to "receive" words without constantly going to the dictionary. It makes life hard, but there you are.

Today's exercises are around the words for "To see", "To pay", "To ask" (beg or beseech) and "To clean" (or peel, as in peel fruit). The homework exercise is around some strange character who seems to be in love with potatoes! Also, apparently, the Russian Army have potato peeling competitions!

I'm trying not to be a tourist (I have so much homework that can't afford the time), but it was such a beautiful day that I decided to join an excursion to "Akademgorodok". The weather was sunny and the indicators on the buildings said it was 24 deg C.

"Akademgorok" means "Academy Town". I want to say "City of Scientists", but that isn't quite right. It used to be a "closed" town which meant that most Russians weren't allowed to go there, and you had no chance as a foreigner. It is a few kilometers from Novosibirsk, and we travelled there as passengers on one of the many little buses. These are a cross between a bus and a taxi. Although they are badged "Gaz" (a Russian manufacturer), they are obviously Ford Transits (or perhaps derived from) and seat 15 passengers. They run a fixed route but have no timetable. The driver waits at the terminal stop until the bus is full, or he decides to go. They operate with a fixed fair (35 Rub = 0.88 Eur). They will drop you along the route. They definately have stops to pick up passengers. The road to Akademgorodok is a busy 6 lane dual carriageway (think motorway, but with very variable surface, and side roads). On the way our driver was stopped by the police and fined for "exuberant driving" (my words). None of the other passengers seemed the least concerned. Just one more experience.

The transit van taxi/buses are interesting. I said that there is a flat fare. That isn’t surprising, what is surprising is how it is collected. The fare is 35 rubles. All the passengers get on and take their seats and the van sets off (maybe that should be “takes off”). The passengers collect the money themselves, and pass it up to the passenger who is sitting with his/her back next to the bulkhead, who then passes it through to the driver (who is probably using a mobile phone). If you don’t have the right money, you trade with your neighbours to get the change you need. If that doesn’t work, the driver exchanges money for change until it is all sorted. The whole operation takes place in motion! Can you imagine that working in London? Or for that matter anywhere in Britain? I don’t want to think what would happen if you tried to take a ride without paying. I suppose it might work if you were a charity-case, but not otherwise.

Akademgorodok is essentially a University campus in the woods. Once you are inside the town the roads are fairly quiet. The main road in was pretty peaceful. If you look at a map, you can see that it is not a huge place. It's quite easy to walk round.

A man called "Lavrentev" is given the credit for founding the town.

The buildings are not particularly interesting architecturally. There is a "Hydrodynamic Institute" (anyone from Feltham remember the "Ship Tank"?), one of the main meeting buildings and library is known as "The house of scientists" and accommodation is provided in blocks of flats of various designs (nothing over 5 storeys tall). The streets have flower beds, and there are paths through the forest.

You can see it was autumn. The leaves on the trees are starting to turn. Akademgorodok must be a very pleasant place to live and work. I have been told it is popular, providing of course that you can find work there.

While we were there there was a market going on.They were selling all sorts of things. Cut flowers, potted plants, mushrooms and berries collected from the forest, fruit, clothes (felt boots, socks, jumpers), arty stuff, and loads of honey!

On the way home I stopped off near Lenin Square, and took a picture of this Compass monument in Novosibirsk. The heraldic animals are from the coat of arms of the city. There is one at each point of the compass. Around the base are the names of cities in Siberia. The message is "Novosibirsk is the centre of Siberia".

When I got home, I couldn't resist taking a picture of the entrance hall of my flats. It's not the most welcoming place, but it is clean. This is it on a sunny day. You can't see it, but the "nose" on some of the stair treads is worn down to the reinforcing bars.

Old Ladies help me cross the road, and a magic carpet ride

(Monday 19th September 2011, written up same day)

Well that turned out to be more exciting than I expected. No pictures I'm afraid. There was nothing very visual anyway.

It's Monday, so it's back to work, not that I ever really stopped. Lessons started with me being asked about what I did at the weekend? In my case that meant: the walking tour of Novosibirsk on Saturday morning/afternoon, the trip to the Opera in the evening, Sunday morning trip to view the River Ob and afternoon trip to see Dali. I'd expected this to happen, so I'd prepared notes. I'm glad I did, but I was subjected to a gentle interrogation, which was directed not at finding out what I did (I'm sure the teachers don't care that much), but at how I could express what I did. The questioning soon guided be into uncharted territory, but I managed. By-the-way, there is a theatre in Novosibirsk called "Clockwork Orange", after the Book/Film by Anthony Burgess!

After "What did you do at the weekend" seesion, we moved onto my translation of the text "Granny's Birthday". This required my to summarise the decendants on Granny's family tree. This was followed by my answers to simple questions with yes/no answers, and then questions which required longer answers. This was all about developing my understanding of the "genitive case". Another way of putting this is "X is the _son of_ Y", "Q is the _wife of_ R" etc. We identified the imperfections in my understanding and moved on.

Then some exercises about negatives, "not having". This led to a tragic story of a begger who has lost everything. My homework (apart from doing the translation) is to provide an (imaginary) explanation as to how he lost everything. I did the homework at school, and that is a very good thing.

One of the things which worries me a little in Novosibirsk is that they drive on the right. I'm worried that my reflexes will take me the wrong way. As a result I tend to follow Russians and stay "down stream of them" when crossing the road. Hence I sometimes shadow old ladies. They help me cross the road!

I left school at a little after 17:00. When I got home, there was nobody in. I went out and bought a bottle of mineral water and a bottle of beer (purely to practice my Russian in a shop, you understand). When I returned home, I put them both in the fridge and settled down to do some drills involving "Not having" in Present, Past and Future tenses. I also tucked into some watermelon I'd been told to eat.

When my landlady came in, she asked me if I wanted to go shopping? I said yes. After all, it sounded interesting. It was interesting alright! I thought she meant groceries. I was wrong! The first surprise was when I was asked to get into the landlady's boss's car, which already contained her sons. Next stop, the place where she is living while her flat is repaired. We off-load the sons. Next _IKEA_ where she has ordered a carpet for something at one son's school. My job is to help with the carpet. We have dinner in the IKEA restaurant, then it's off to the school, where two young fellows are waiting in the dark to take the carpet inside. I get to see a lot of Novosibirsk by night.

Eventful and better than my language drills!

And so to bed.

Sun, Bridges and Dali

Bridges, Sun and Dali

(Sunday 18th September 2011 written on same day)

Today was officially a day off. I walked south to Rechnoi Vakhsa (River Station). It was a beautiful day again. I didn't see anything to indicate the temperature, but I'm sure it was over 20 deg C. The River Ob is very wide. It is spanned by a road bridge, a metro bridge and a railway bridge. There is a park and amusement park along the river bank and I spent some of the time trying to read the various signs. Sometimes I succeeded, sometimes I didn't.

The city art museum is a very short distance away. In the afternoon I went to went to an exhibition of Salvador Dali lithographs. I like Dali pictures, but they don't make any more sense to me with Russian captions!

On the way home from the exhibition I noticed a travel agent listing places the could fly you to from Novosibirsk. Here's the list in English: Egypt, Tunisia, Greece, Spain, Italy, Goa, China, Cyprus, Indonesia, Thailand, Turkey, Cuba. Russians like the sun too!

When I'd returned from Dali, I finished off the homework exercises. First, questions on a short story (eg "Whose wife is a good cook?", "Who are Natasha and Julias parents?", "Who studies physics at university?". Then I have to compose a number of sentences about my own family. Not very exciting, but I can see that it serves a useful purpose.