Russian tea haul

It's hard to stick to the no-new-teas rule. Really hard.

I broke it.

I've gone all out and have a collection.

The tea situation as a temporary student is not great. That sounds absurd- it's Russia, after all!- but it's just not happening. It's like a game in which constant upgrades are required.

Soviet mural tour

Someday, almost everything connected with the Soviet Union will vanish. Everyone who lived in the USSR will be dead. The murals will have crumbled off the sides of apartment buildings. Old rubles will be rare collectibles. This is what interests me so much- not the Soviet Union itself, but what's still around, hanging on. We took tons of photos of old Soviet stuff in Ukraine, and now it's all gone.

With this in mind, I wanted to see what was left here in Nizhny Novgorod. My friend Allison and I made arrangements with Katya (tour guide) and Alexei (driver) to travel around the city and photograph residential neighborhoods.

On the train to...

The weekend trips were a major selling point for this language program. We'll travel here by bus, and there by train, and you'll see the country! Every weekend, though, something came up. The first weekend, a trip was planned and then canceled, being deemed too last minute. The next weekend, a massively-popular cucumber festival in Suzdal meant all the train tickets were sold out. (Bummer!!) This left one final chance to make a trip happen before the course ended....

Nizhny Novgorod train station.

... and this time, everything lined up!

Here are five clues for you- can you figure out where we traveled?

Sleeping district

Have you ever fallen in love with a place before you'd been there? That's how I felt about Nizhny Novgorod- I loved the city for years, just from the sound of its name. (All those consonants!) I would read on the internet about how the Oka river divides the city into two parts, how a Kremlin of red bricks is perched on a hill above the Oka, and just how awesome the place was in general.

The day of blah

This was probably the best part of today- the sunset. It was one of those days when everything is off. For example, it's been really difficult to work while here, and this morning just as I was sitting down to catch up and record this week's audio lessons... cue a loud thunderstorm. For six hours.

Switzerland Park

Sveta is totally in her element as a tour guide.

We've been to a concert. To a movie. To a cafe. To the main pedestrian street. To tea in the dorms. Last Saturday she even took me to парк «швейцария», Switzerland Park, a big park that's a quick bus ride from the university. When I heard "park", I was thinking something grandiose along the lines of Kharkiv's Gorky Park.

Uh, nope.

DITL: Russian Summer School

 A Day in the Life: Russian Summer School

6:30 AM: Wake up and make the bed.

7:30 AM: If not feeling too lazy, join a few other students for a run at the local track.