I'm learning the Accordion!!

Well, not yet, but from the sounds of it I will be soon! I just wanted the chance to use the title as my next blog post.

So let's have a recap of the events of the last few days, shall we?

You remember my lazy Saturday? Well, that evening ended in Akvile and Myriam's flat where a bunch of us watched the first part of a comedy film "Двенадцать столов" (12 chairs) and drank (not in a "Let's get smashed wooo!" kind of way, more just "We have vodka, why the hell not?" kind of way.) The story was about a dying old...woman, we think, who left her precious jewels inside the cushion of one of her 12 fancy chairs. A farce ensues involving her son-in-law, the conman he asks to help him find the chairs and the vicar who blessed her on her death bed to find these chairs and collect their fortunes! It's a fun film, but we're only about halfway through it because the first half lasted about 1 1/4 hours! We may be watching the rest tonight, nobody's really certain...

Anyway, plans were made that evening to go to Торжок (Tarzhok) the following day, and by golly we did! Setting off on a fairly grim Sunday morning from Tver' we travelled by Маршрутка (Marshrutka, kind of like a tiny bus) to the bus station where we got an Автобус (Avtobus, which was weirdly enough more like a coach...) to Торжок, and let me tell you, it was incredibly worth the 2 or so hours. I have pictures on my phone, but I don't have any means of getting them onto the computer! Whyyyyy?! So yeah, someday I'll be posting all the lovely pictures and mixing them into this post. In the meantime, just try to imagine them.

So the first thing we learned about Торжок, there's a hell of a lot of churches there. We visited at least 4, and I'm pretty sure there were more. The first church we visited was fairly large, ornately decorated and pleasant to look around for a little while. The second church (well, technically the third, the second church seemed to be inaccessible) was quite clearly Торжок's pride and joy: It was huge, blue, beautiful and more portraits of saints and other important religious figures than you could shake a crucifix at (though if you DID shake a crucifix at them I imagine you'd be forcefully asked to leave very swiftly). And yet, despite all that, it was not my favourite of the churches we saw that day, but that will come later.

We then visited the monastery, which was also brilliant. It was, as many monasteries are, very old and very tall. We talked for a little while with the very kind Russian woman sitting at the bottom (whom I had trouble understanding because she had false teeth which led to a multitude of those strange, somewhat gutteral "sch" noises as she spoke), gave her the admission money and headed to the top. The view was spectacular, and was only improved by the lovely weather we had that day, an enormous contrast to that of Tver'. After we'd had enough of being up really high, we went to the church located in the grounds of the monastery. As we went in, we were greeted by another set of Russian people, seemingly just random civilians themselves, with whom we chatted for a little while. The man was especially friendly, and was happy to have the chance to show off the English and German that he knew. He told us about yet ANOTHER church nearby, about which I'll go into detail later, and offered to show/tell us the way once we'd checked out THIS one.

So yeah, the monastery's church was also nice. Simpler than the rest, a lot fewer portraits and less gold, but it still felt holy, which is a good thing in a church. I didn't get any pictures of the churches, unfortunately, just because I was worried about offending somebody or doing something sacriligious and being exiled, which is a TOTALLY rational fear, by the way...Anyway, we left and met up with our good new Russian friend whose name we TOTALLY learned. I was a bit worried when he offered to drive us, especially since there wouldn't be space for us and we'd have to split up, but our group had common sense and I think it was a perfectly innocent invitation in the end anyway. One of the women with him also gave us a small stack of Christian newspapers which I think we all still have, so that should be good for some light(ish) revision!

But yes, the final church. My favourite church. The goddamn best church there...

Was incredibly unimpressive. It was, like, a really tall wooden shack with a few pictures in it, but...It was just beautiful in its simplicity. It wasn't overwhelming, it wasn't flashy, it was barely even decorated! But the tower was the most impressive of any of the churches we visited that day, and it just made me feel happy to be there! I believe other members of our party took pictures of the church, so I'll see if I can steal and repurpose them later on.

There was also a kitty outside which let us pet it, so that was pleasant.

After that the day slowly drew to a close, really. We tried to visit the Pushkin museum, but a rather gruff man in camouflage pants told us quite distinctly that they were closed, so I guess we'll just have to go back some other day! We took the train back home (which would have been half the price if I'd had my student card by then, but oh well, it was still only around 150 roubles (£3)) and...that's about it, really.

The following day (Monday) was partially eventful, partially not. Lectures happened as normal, but I got my Student Card! It's wonderful and weirdly official looking in comparison to the little plastic cards back at Manchester. However, I'm a bit worried about the paper inside tearing as life goes on...Oh well, I'm sure it'll be fine. Some of us also went to the library again in search of rumoured language lessons! There were details of a German group there, but sadly no Japanese...Not sure what's happening with the German group either, actually, I think there was meant to be something today, but I haven't heard anything about it...Other than that I don't think much happened. I found a Terry Pratchett book in Russian, but I didn't have any money on me at the time and I ran out of time to buy it today, so tomorrow it will be MINE! "Guards, Guards!" was the first Pratchett book I read, so it'll be extra meaningful to have it in Russian (though if someone sees "Thud!" in Russian, please let me know!)

As for today, as I said, we went back to the music school and we were actually allowed to see people this time! And our Russian didn't magically disappear into the ether! AND we signed something and talked to people who seemed to be willing to teach us, so I'd say a rather huge success! Elke and I have scheduled a first proper meeting/lesson for next Wednesday, so more news then! Apparently Elke misremembered her lecture schedule, so she won't be able to make regular meetings on Wednesdays, but that's alright because I think lessons are individual anyway, so I can keep the slot.

I think that's all the news that's fit to print...Upload...I dunno, so I'll leave it there, I suppose. So once again everybody, thank you for reading! Good night!

Joe