Novgorod the Great, Freezing, and Sick-Making

Our second trip to Novgorod was somewhat different than our first. We took a nice double decker bus since we all fit easily – there were 20 more students last semester so we took two buses most places, keeping the language and area studies programs totally separate. The year-long students claimed the bottom of the bus for the most part, we wanted the tables so we could play cards and watch movies on peoples laptops, and it was a pretty typical drive. Brent and I tried to teach Jeremy and Jay how to play Euchre…they almost got it. Lunch at the hotel was alright, at least the fish was fresh and the soup was hot. I roomed with Irina, she was actually born in Russia and moved to the US when she was maybe 8, so she speaks Russian almost fluently and she's in almost all of my classes. We get along really well and she's really fun, we did the scavenger hunt together too and had an absolute blast. After lunch she headed out with the group for the excursion while most of us year-longers relaxed and napped rather than spend three hours in the cold hearing things we had already heard. If I hadn't lost my camera I probably would have gone to take pictures of the gorgeous little town all covered in snow, but as it was I was exhausted from getting up so early and feeling a serious cold coming on so it made more sense to sleep. The group came back about an hour early anyway, everyone was frozen so they decided to cut it a little short and give them the time to warm up before dinner. I ate with Megan and a bunch of different new students, it was fun to have casual conversation and get to know everyone a little better still. After dinner we walked over to the banya – where I had my first banya experience the semester before – but it was very very crowded so only a few people could go in. Since I had already been I helped the girls set up and translated while the little babyshka explained things to some of the area studies students, and then I walked back to the hotel. We watched some of the Olympics and hung out, glad to have a night to relax and be on our own.

The next morning we headed out to one of the oldest monestaries in the area, which was absolutely covered in snow and ice and incredibly picturesque until you slipped and fell because you could no longer feel your feet. It was colder inside the main church than outside, and the guides explained that they only held services there starting in May. The path which was lined in beautiful late-blooming rose bushes last semester was this time almost a tunnel through the high snow, and the lake that had been framed with the changing colors of the leaves this time seemed to strech into frozen nothingness. It adds great perspective to see things such as these under different circumstances, and as we headed to the 'open-air museum' I remembered my chat with the German tourists last semester with a smile. This time I found my way to the exhibition halls, partly for the heat and partly because I hadn't realized they existed last semester, and was happy to find a substantial collection of artifacts uncovered from the original village site. The wood carving work is truly incredible, tiny detailed patterns of flours and other designs repeated over and over again, alongside gorgeous beaded costumes that sometimes reminded me of Guatie and other times looked like nothing I had ever seen. Lunch was in the restaurant just across the way, the blini were good but the borsch tasted funny. Behind the restaurant there was a cross country ski race going on, dad you could have done great ☺ Wish I could have video taped some of it for you! The school aged kids were the best, on straight-line rather than skate skiis and trying not to trip all over themselves getting to the starting line. From lunch we headed back into town to watch the 'maslanitsa' festivities. Maslanitsa is the week before the Russian Orthodox version of Lent, like a week-long carnival. There are all kinds of traditions, including eating lots of blini, burning large scarecrows, and watching groups of naked men fight each other, plus lots of food, games, and dancing. Novgorod put on quite the carnival, and we walked around laughing at the slightly drunk babyshki and little kids with balloons tied to their hats. Then it was time to get back on the bus and head home, after getting the feeling back in our feet and arranging ourselves as comfortably as possible to try and sleep. Didn't work all that well, but we made good time back to the city and went home to crash (and do all the homework we had neglected all weekend).

Today began another week, and unfortunately the cold I've felt coming on hit full force this morning. I made it through my language classes but came home and medicated after that, took a nice long nap, and am now headed back to bed after skyping with my dad and Grandpa Doc from Antigua. Chatted with mom last night too, got to see the gorgeous newly-painted bedroom and incredibly bummed I'm not there to go shopping for all the fun things to finish up the bedroom. Got some sad news today as well, dearest neighbor dog in the world has passed away, I miss Libby already and can't believe I won't see her lounging on our deck like its her own or bounding through the snow to come say hello. All my love to the Kilbanes, she was such a blessing. My love to all of you as well, thanks for being interested in my little piece of the universe, more to come soon. Now its time for one more visit with my friends sudafed and guanifanysin! Good night!