I have been offline for the past month and spent much time with my son Alex, catching up with friends in London and also some hiking in Catalonia around Tom & Marta’s excellent wedding. Sadly, all my camera gear got stolen out of my car in London. So iphone pictures for now.
For the next five weeks St Petersburg shall be my new home. Just moved into my room on Griboyedova canal. Large room in a proper old fashioned house along one of the three canal’s. The host lady Maria seems nice and doesn’t speak much english (helpful for my language efforts). There is also a black cat sharing the appartment.
The travel to Russia was uncomplicated this time round. Yura picked me up from the airport after a sleepy flight owing to the short night after the killers concert in London hyde park yesterday. We spent a nice afternoon in the center enjoying good food at the ‘clean plates society’ and walked a fair bit catching up on events since we met for NYE. For dinner he invited me over to his place and prepared some tasty steaks. Great to see Nika & Max again.
Now its time to get some rest and get ready for my first day back at school (and the oral placement test). Lets see how much I can improve my Russian before heading to the village of Issad in late August to commence my farm job. The last time I studied the language is now many years ago though some vocab remains.
Loving it and really looking forward to some fun time in this great city that holds so many memories for me. A visit to Nika’s dacha and the first home game of Zenit (the local football team) are already scheduled. And soon Alex will arrive for his 3w with the grandparents.
