Friday 31 October 2014

FOOOOOD!

Warning: don't read this journal if you're hungry.

I'm the kind of person who hates cooking but loves eating. If you love cooking and have trouble eating everything by yourself... just call me.
In Finland I rarely go to restaurants because Finnish restaurants are way too expensive for my budget. So whenever I get a chance to go to a nice place to eat, I always take pictures! But what happened to me in Tver is that I have tens of pictures of delicous foods I've eaten because I go to a restaurant 1-3 times a week. Why do I eat out so often? Because I'm a horrible cook and they don't have the quick and easy convenience foods in Russia. I don't mind though, because in Russia a delicious dish at a restaurant costs as much as a hamburger meal in Finland.

I have two favourite restaurants here: Niyama and Yakitoriya. These are Japanese restaurants and I'm so happy about them! In Finland we don't really have Japanese restaurants (mostly Chinese) and the ones we have offer pretty much just sushi and some soups. But here? They have everything from Kobe beef to eel topped rice! It's food heaven~! <3 ;w;

They have decorated the restaurant in Japanese style, but there are a few things off. The Japanese signs might be upside down and they have pictures of Yakuza tattoos on the walls... And also this lamp? 豸死? It means insect and death... I always refuse to sit at this table. :D
Russians have weird image of sushi because they always fill them with cheese...
Some sort of dish with liver (maybe, I'm not too sure what I ordered).
Kobe beef! ...why do they put dill in every food in Russia?!? (I don't like it.)
Speaking of Japanese cuisine... I found Japanese Asahi beer and plum wine in the supermarket! I'm so happy! I don't usually like alcoholic drinks, but these two are my weakness... And of course the super spicy Korean instant noodles.
My new weakness is special coffee. Mocca <3
Orange fresh and chocolate coffee with curd pies. :3
Delicious tea made of common sea-buckthorn. In Russia it's very common to order a pot of tea to the table and drink it together with your friends.

We decided to organize a "Russian dinner" with our study group. Everyone prepared / brought some food. Everything was delicious! What a great way to spend a Friday night... :) I stole some of the pictures from Sonja's blog because mine were so bad.

I wasn't too sure I'm going to like the borsh soup when I saw how it's prepared..
But the result was DELICIOUS! Thanks Olesya! ;)
A rare sight.. me cooking! (yeah, for me slicing apples is cooking)
We made apple pie. ^_^

Did I mention that I love sweets? I can never say no to dessert!

Green tea tiramisu~
Chocolate rolls
Me and the girls just wanted cake.. So we went to the store and bought a triple chocolate cake. Yum <3
The smile on my face tells everything... (that's really delicious ice cream!)
I (accidentally) ate it all at once while watching Disney's The Fox and the Hound in Russian.


What I usually eat here is something... not so fancy. Belmenis, instant food, frozen blinis and chicken. Basically anything that doesn't require cooking. ..and I still ruin it.

The great instant foods in Russia. Pour in water and you get mashed potatoes.
Belmenis! I eat so much smetana here... What will I have with my meals after I go back to Finland?
..it's supposed to be Cordon Bleu. My only task was to heat it up, but I burned it in less than 5 minutes. Go me! So yeah, now you know why I rather go to restaurants. :'D
Now it's time for holiday! Already half of our exchange has passed, I can't believe how fast the time flies... But it's not time to sulk over that, it's time for our trip! Me, Paula and Anya are leaving for Kazan today at 11pm! Do svidaniya!

Tatarstan, here I come!!

Wednesday 29 October 2014

Все будет хорошо

Today's song: Митя Фомин - Все будет хорошо (Ла-ла-ла)

I've been so busy that I've completely forgotten to update my blog.. I have to write essay after essay, and I'd still like to have some fun with friends and continue my hobbies. Ugh! So much has been going on that I can't even remember in which order all the things happened, but enjoy the pictures! :D


Philharmony of Tver started it's "musical autumn in Tver" on 1st of October and we went to listen to the opening concert. To be honest I used to hate classical music, but ever since I started to play classical guitar (almost 2 years ago) I strangely started to like classical music... This was my first classical concert and I have to say I loved it.. I pretty much sat there with my eyes closed and just.. listened. It was beautiful and I couldn't help smiling after the concert. <3


On 3rd of August we had excursion day at school and our teacher rented a small bus for us. We speeded (we were actually scared!) to the home museum of Russian poet Spiridon Drozhzhin. It was really nice and cozy little museum and we got free tea and snacks! :D



On 16th of October I got to talk about something very dear to me - Japan! We prepared a presentation and workshop with Japanese people living in Tver and my friend Anya. Anya lent me her yukata, I was sooo happy! I told our audience about stereotypes that are not true. After the presentations people could get their names written in Japanese, fold origamis and make cherry blossom artwork. :)


The warm weather in Tver quickly changed to autumn, and we got our first snow on 16th of October. I was very excited about it because I love winter and I was tired of dodging the big puddles of water on my way to school. The snow lasted for couple of weeks, but now it has melted and we're back to 10 degrees above celsius.

Autumn by Volga.

Every weekend in Tver they have a big market! We went there with Olesya, and already on our way there a woman offered us kittens from her bag (poor kittens.. ;__;). However we were bit too late since all of them were closing already.. But we got to see some nice stalls inside the market hall.


I also attended my first conference in Russian language (III международная конференция «Взаимодействие языков и культур при изучении русского языка как иностранного и других иностранных языков»)! It was painful three hours of not understanding what's going on, and evening wasn't any easier for me. I have some great and super patient Russian friends who keep talking to me in Russian even though I can't understand. I'm really happy to have such friends, but I always feel really tired afterwards because my brain has to process so much. ;__;


The photographer was definitely waiting for the right moment to get this super smart-looking picture of me. (I bet I was trying to decide what to draw next on my sketchbook...)
The truth about me when I talk with my Russian friends in Russian...
Despite the difficulties with language I think I'm slowly starting to adapt to my new environment. I've started to look so much Russian that people constantly mistake me for a Russian, ask me for directions and get surprised when I actually can't understand their questions. "You have the Russian face, I thought you would understand!" is a sentence I heard only couple of weeks ago. Well, I already wrap a Russian scarf around my head when it gets cold, hug bears on the street and play the balalaika... :D

My new love! <3 One private lesson costs 207 rubles and is 1-2 hours long.