- Russian literature - where do I start? Dr. Zhivago, of course!! I actually bought this in Russian and it is still one of my (very long-term) goals in life to read it. Then there's Dostoyevski - I especially love Crime and Punishment. I also enjoyed reading Solzhenitsyn's "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich".
- Russian music, such as 19th century nationalism (which helped me get a "B" for my music A-level,) and 20th century. Favourites include Mussorgsky (Pictures at an Exhibition and Night on the Bare Mountain), Tchaikovsky (of course!), Prokofiev and Stravinsky.
- Russian history, both tsarist and communist. (I guess I should be careful what I say here!)
- Architecture, especially the churches.
- The language - though it's a challenge to try to think like a Russian. (That said, I'm sure it's easier than Japanese!)
Thursday 19 April 2007
Hacemos memoria
No - wrong language! Let me try to think back to what I used to love about Russia and things Russian. Please excuse the spelling - it's hard to transliterate (which is a great excuse!)
winter_icecream
In a time when it was still hard to buy basic food products, unless you had hard currency (we didn't like to use it!) the best food we could find was the icecream that was sold in Riga's main station. The bad news was there was only one flavour - vanilla with a slight taste of bubble gum. The great news was it tasted amazing and we had to go past the station to get from where we were staying to anywhere we wanted to go!
I wonder how much icecream we ate that winter?
(We were in Riga from September to December 1990.)
I wonder how much icecream we ate that winter?
(We were in Riga from September to December 1990.)
riga_cafe
This is the perfect example of spending the afternoon in a cafe eating icecream (and balsams.)
More icecream to follow.
More icecream to follow.
Russian soup - the recipe
I thought that I should include the recipe, just in case someone other than me is reading this blog. (Thank you - but don't you have anything better to do?)
Ingredients: potatoes, cabbage, carrots, onions, tomatoes, garlic, butter, salt and pepper, water
1. Wash and chop all the vegetables.
2. Melt butter in a large saucepan.
3. Add vegetables and small amount of water with salt.
4. Boil gently (covered.)
5. When almost cooked add pepper and hot water, gently simmer to finish off.
6. Add more salt and pepper to taste as necessary.
Enjoy!
I feel a little like Tita in "Como Agua Para Chocolate", telling the story alongside the recipes for the year. I think Laura Esquivel's wonderful novel is called "Like Water For Chocolate" in English and is well worth a read. It's one of my favourite books. The film's pretty good too, amazingly. (Films of novels are so often poor imitations but this one isn't.) Can't remember if it's in English or Spanish. Sorry.
16th August 2004
Ingredients: potatoes, cabbage, carrots, onions, tomatoes, garlic, butter, salt and pepper, water
1. Wash and chop all the vegetables.
2. Melt butter in a large saucepan.
3. Add vegetables and small amount of water with salt.
4. Boil gently (covered.)
5. When almost cooked add pepper and hot water, gently simmer to finish off.
6. Add more salt and pepper to taste as necessary.
Enjoy!
I feel a little like Tita in "Como Agua Para Chocolate", telling the story alongside the recipes for the year. I think Laura Esquivel's wonderful novel is called "Like Water For Chocolate" in English and is well worth a read. It's one of my favourite books. The film's pretty good too, amazingly. (Films of novels are so often poor imitations but this one isn't.) Can't remember if it's in English or Spanish. Sorry.
16th August 2004
I'm cooking Russian soup - "shi"
First posted elsewhere on 16th August 2004.
I'm cooking Russian soup - "shi"
Or maybe it's Latvian soup as that's where I learnt how to cook it. But the old lady who taught me was Russian, so I guess it's Russian soup. Taisia was her name - a wonderful old Russian lady who let Renée and I live in her house while we were studying Russian in Latvia, in Riga, in 1990. Seems such a long time ago now, and I guess it was.
I didn't learn too much on my Latvian placement. I mean, we were supposed to be learning Russian but were in Latvia, just as the Soviet Union was breaking up. And the person I ended up spending most of my time with was Latvian and learning English so I spoke more English than Russian! It was a very interesting time, in fact, but not the best environment for learning Russian. Looking back on it, I think it was a wonderful experience, just not for learning Russian. If I had really wanted to learn Russian then I think I shouldn't have been so stubborn and should have done what I had been offered and gone somewhere else. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The year abroad for my language degree was to be taken in two parts - one placement in Mexico to study Spanish and one in the Soviet Union to study Russian. Makes sense as I was studying Spanish and Russian. The only thing that had to be sorted out was which country to go to first and which centre to study at. Easy - or at least it looked that way to begin with. I wanted to go to the USSR first and then on to Mexico as friends of mine were planning to go to San Francisco on holiday either over Christmas 1990 or sometime during 1991. The theory was that if I was in Mexico I could join them. Logical. And I really wanted to. I had spent the summer of 89 in San Francisco and really loved it and way dying to go back to see the friends I'd made and relive the wonderful experiences, but that would have to be in another blog entry some time. So, when I was planning my year abroad, in the summer term of 1990 it all made sense: USSR, then Mexico.
Everything seemed to be going to plan to begin with. I had 3 or 4 placement choices for Mexico starting in January 91 so that was good. For the Soviet Union, for the last couple of years there had been an intensive Russian language course for foreign students in the Ukraine, in the city of Dnepropetrovsk. (I think that's how you spell it!) This course ran from September to December - so that was fine too. So far so good. Then the Russian course was cancelled. No course available on September. Oh dear. But I really wanted to go in September because of my US plans so I kept pestering Pierre, the head of Russian, to sort something out for September and, in the end, the Riga placement came up. I was very happy that I could finally do what I wanted to - Riga from September to December, and then Mexico from January to June - and also fit in my holiday in the US, whenever my friends decided to go. But, guess what? Plans change and my friends ended up going to San Francisco in SEPTEMBER! so I couldn't go with them anyway! I was so annoyed, but they'd got the chance to stay with one of their friends so that was that.
And this is how Ren and I ended up in Riga, Latvia, trying to learn Russian. We were in a Russian-speaking household with Taisia and did have Russian lessons at the university, though they were often even too easy or too hard, never really at the right level. On top of that, it was just the two of us so we didn't interact that much in Russian. We were able to use Russian when we were out and about, which was good and we did have a few Russian speaking friends, but I really don't think I made enough effort while I was there. Of course, I met Aris and so spent most of my time with him, chatting in English and eating ice-cream with Balsams - a Latvian spirit which is added to vanilla ice cream, chocolate chips and honey to make the most wonderful desert, but anyway.
So I spent my time with him. That's another major factor in the story really and probably deserves a second part of the blog later on, as the soup is ready to eat now.
I'm cooking Russian soup - "shi"
Or maybe it's Latvian soup as that's where I learnt how to cook it. But the old lady who taught me was Russian, so I guess it's Russian soup. Taisia was her name - a wonderful old Russian lady who let Renée and I live in her house while we were studying Russian in Latvia, in Riga, in 1990. Seems such a long time ago now, and I guess it was.
I didn't learn too much on my Latvian placement. I mean, we were supposed to be learning Russian but were in Latvia, just as the Soviet Union was breaking up. And the person I ended up spending most of my time with was Latvian and learning English so I spoke more English than Russian! It was a very interesting time, in fact, but not the best environment for learning Russian. Looking back on it, I think it was a wonderful experience, just not for learning Russian. If I had really wanted to learn Russian then I think I shouldn't have been so stubborn and should have done what I had been offered and gone somewhere else. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The year abroad for my language degree was to be taken in two parts - one placement in Mexico to study Spanish and one in the Soviet Union to study Russian. Makes sense as I was studying Spanish and Russian. The only thing that had to be sorted out was which country to go to first and which centre to study at. Easy - or at least it looked that way to begin with. I wanted to go to the USSR first and then on to Mexico as friends of mine were planning to go to San Francisco on holiday either over Christmas 1990 or sometime during 1991. The theory was that if I was in Mexico I could join them. Logical. And I really wanted to. I had spent the summer of 89 in San Francisco and really loved it and way dying to go back to see the friends I'd made and relive the wonderful experiences, but that would have to be in another blog entry some time. So, when I was planning my year abroad, in the summer term of 1990 it all made sense: USSR, then Mexico.
Everything seemed to be going to plan to begin with. I had 3 or 4 placement choices for Mexico starting in January 91 so that was good. For the Soviet Union, for the last couple of years there had been an intensive Russian language course for foreign students in the Ukraine, in the city of Dnepropetrovsk. (I think that's how you spell it!) This course ran from September to December - so that was fine too. So far so good. Then the Russian course was cancelled. No course available on September. Oh dear. But I really wanted to go in September because of my US plans so I kept pestering Pierre, the head of Russian, to sort something out for September and, in the end, the Riga placement came up. I was very happy that I could finally do what I wanted to - Riga from September to December, and then Mexico from January to June - and also fit in my holiday in the US, whenever my friends decided to go. But, guess what? Plans change and my friends ended up going to San Francisco in SEPTEMBER! so I couldn't go with them anyway! I was so annoyed, but they'd got the chance to stay with one of their friends so that was that.
And this is how Ren and I ended up in Riga, Latvia, trying to learn Russian. We were in a Russian-speaking household with Taisia and did have Russian lessons at the university, though they were often even too easy or too hard, never really at the right level. On top of that, it was just the two of us so we didn't interact that much in Russian. We were able to use Russian when we were out and about, which was good and we did have a few Russian speaking friends, but I really don't think I made enough effort while I was there. Of course, I met Aris and so spent most of my time with him, chatting in English and eating ice-cream with Balsams - a Latvian spirit which is added to vanilla ice cream, chocolate chips and honey to make the most wonderful desert, but anyway.
So I spent my time with him. That's another major factor in the story really and probably deserves a second part of the blog later on, as the soup is ready to eat now.
Why Russia?
Well, once upon a time I was in love with all things Russian, wasn't I? It's been a while but that love has never really died - it's just been dormant while I've explored other things. But now I'm going back and this time it's really to real Russia (rather than what used to be the USSR.) So, in preparation for our time in Russia, I'm starting this blog. First with a couple of old blogs and photos and then with new ideas as I remember what I loved and what I want to find out about.
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