Wow.. time has been flying by and now been 3 weeks since I arrived. So what have I been up too. Well the 10k never quite happened yesterday due to lack of training and well pure laziness but the intention was there and intentions are good! I'll still whip your ass Giles in the next one.. are you sure your stop watch was working properly the other day!?
I did however go swimming which was certainly an interesting experience as Hannah said it was an outdoor pool which sounded very exciting in the middle of Russia and an experience not to be missed.
So first we had to pay for a medical to check we were not lepers. This involved a doctor telling you to take off your shoes. She briefly glanced at the 'top' of our feet and told us to replace our shoes. Hannah translated that she was looking for verrucas?? This is when i started doubting this doctors ( again very old ) credentials! Then she wanted to know our height and weight although despite being in a doctors surgery she did not have any scales or tape measure.. , quick blood pressure and we were obviously prime candidates for the outdoor swimming experience. She charged us £10 for this thorough assessment! Then i had to spend £6 on a compulsory swimming hat. I wanted the bobbly pink one but Hannah brought me to my senses and I am now a proud owner of latex blue hat that makes me look like a smurf and pins the bottom of my ears to the top of my ears. It's a sexy look! Then we went to buy our ticket to swim for 1 hour.. A reasonable £11!! I imagined the pool must be some kind of state of the art olympic number after all this. But no, it kind of looked like it had not been renovated since the communist era. Russians take their pre-swim shower very seriously. It's not like in the UK where you just nip under the shower to make yourself look wet or just skip it altogether and just run into the pool before anyone can stop you ( or is that just me!!) All these naked ladies were lathering up left, right and centre but Hannah and I had forgotten any soap or shampoo and I'm pretty sure we were being judged on our lack of lathering!! Anyway the weather was 17 degrees and water was 27 which was really nice actually and swimming outside is lovely but at that price it will be not a regular thing. Although I def want to go when it is snowing outside!
Have sampled a bit more vodka just to check the quality is good week to week. Certainly as dangerous as ever!
Finally made it to Red Square and St Basil's which was breathtaking. Also went to a Russian market marvel at all the beautiful Russian dolls and Faberge eggs ( finally know what you were all banging on about!) Some wicked old,old antiques markets too which make the stuff in Portobello look like stuff from Argos last year!
Have got slightly addicted to Smetana the sour cream they put on everything over here. I put it on all my food at school and casually mentioned to 5 year old Natasha one lunch time that i had to be careful as if i ate too much i would get fat! Ten minutes later she saw me helping myself to another dollop and said in perfect English. ' Miss Rebecca you will be the fattest teacher in school.!' God I am a good teacher!!
However i may be saved from the smetana curse as a horrific incident with some dental floss yesterday meant a filling flew right out! So now it's soup and soft food on one side of my mouth! Mind you smetana is soft too dammit! Hoping tooth will last until Friday when i am back in London. Don't fancy a Russian dentist after my experiences with the doctors!
Hmm what else... oh I went out for a walk and explore on my own and did not get lost, attacked or stopped by the police which i thought was jolly good indeed!! I even successfully bought some milk!!
Right bedtime. Hugely excited about coming home now if only for a few days.... see you soon! x
I did however go swimming which was certainly an interesting experience as Hannah said it was an outdoor pool which sounded very exciting in the middle of Russia and an experience not to be missed.
So first we had to pay for a medical to check we were not lepers. This involved a doctor telling you to take off your shoes. She briefly glanced at the 'top' of our feet and told us to replace our shoes. Hannah translated that she was looking for verrucas?? This is when i started doubting this doctors ( again very old ) credentials! Then she wanted to know our height and weight although despite being in a doctors surgery she did not have any scales or tape measure.. , quick blood pressure and we were obviously prime candidates for the outdoor swimming experience. She charged us £10 for this thorough assessment! Then i had to spend £6 on a compulsory swimming hat. I wanted the bobbly pink one but Hannah brought me to my senses and I am now a proud owner of latex blue hat that makes me look like a smurf and pins the bottom of my ears to the top of my ears. It's a sexy look! Then we went to buy our ticket to swim for 1 hour.. A reasonable £11!! I imagined the pool must be some kind of state of the art olympic number after all this. But no, it kind of looked like it had not been renovated since the communist era. Russians take their pre-swim shower very seriously. It's not like in the UK where you just nip under the shower to make yourself look wet or just skip it altogether and just run into the pool before anyone can stop you ( or is that just me!!) All these naked ladies were lathering up left, right and centre but Hannah and I had forgotten any soap or shampoo and I'm pretty sure we were being judged on our lack of lathering!! Anyway the weather was 17 degrees and water was 27 which was really nice actually and swimming outside is lovely but at that price it will be not a regular thing. Although I def want to go when it is snowing outside!
Have sampled a bit more vodka just to check the quality is good week to week. Certainly as dangerous as ever!
Finally made it to Red Square and St Basil's which was breathtaking. Also went to a Russian market marvel at all the beautiful Russian dolls and Faberge eggs ( finally know what you were all banging on about!) Some wicked old,old antiques markets too which make the stuff in Portobello look like stuff from Argos last year!
Have got slightly addicted to Smetana the sour cream they put on everything over here. I put it on all my food at school and casually mentioned to 5 year old Natasha one lunch time that i had to be careful as if i ate too much i would get fat! Ten minutes later she saw me helping myself to another dollop and said in perfect English. ' Miss Rebecca you will be the fattest teacher in school.!' God I am a good teacher!!
However i may be saved from the smetana curse as a horrific incident with some dental floss yesterday meant a filling flew right out! So now it's soup and soft food on one side of my mouth! Mind you smetana is soft too dammit! Hoping tooth will last until Friday when i am back in London. Don't fancy a Russian dentist after my experiences with the doctors!
Hmm what else... oh I went out for a walk and explore on my own and did not get lost, attacked or stopped by the police which i thought was jolly good indeed!! I even successfully bought some milk!!
Right bedtime. Hugely excited about coming home now if only for a few days.... see you soon! x
just waiting for the photo in the bathing hat now...........
ReplyDeleteyou might have to pay for that image!!!
ReplyDeletecan you get me the pink one please
ReplyDelete