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Solfrid Cristin TAC 2012 Team Sputnik | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5146 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 233 of 270 16 October 2012 at 11:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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@mrwarper : If you had seen the bowl of salt you would not have asked, it was grimy. And I knew I had just
washed my hands and used disinfectant, but for all he knew, I might not have washed my hands for a week. @Iversen: even a Norwegian's blood freezes when you have to pay 10 dollars for a bottle of water which contains 2 dl. A prize per liter of 50 dollars definitely gets our attention. We bought 4 bottles, and when the horrified guide heard, she showed us where the closest super market was, where we bought half the super market for the same prize. TRÁNS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY Day 3 More than anything I realise how relative time is. The train follows Moscow time all through the time zones, and we have our meals according to Moscow time. The local time changes constantly however. This means that tomorrow, when we as usual have breakfast at 8.30, we are in actual fact having breakfast at 12.30 according to local time. That is of course no problem until we reach the Mongolian border, when we suddenly will have to get up 5 hours earlier than we are used to. We stopped at Omsk and Novosibirsk today. The wife of one of my colleagues comes from Omsk, and it was a beautiful station, and lovely warm weather (20 degrees) so although we are now in Siberia and Asia, it felt cosy and welcoming. Novosibirsk was a bit more chilly, with 10 degrees, as it was night by the time we got there, so one of my fellow travellers insisted on taking my picture pretending that I was freezing. As if a Norwegian is even remotely close to cold in 10 degrees! A lot of the stations are green or turquoise which strike us as an odd colour, but we see that people really do like strong colours on houses, so presumably it seems perfectly normal to them. At Omsk I also managed to smile myself into a picture with our conductor. He is a very stern man, and had refused earlier when one of the others from the group had asked, but I guess the warm weather made him more positive towards the world in general. Later I gave him and his colleagues a box of Norwegian chocolate which was very well received. I did not get an actual "thank you" since his entire English vocabulary consists of " good morning" and "hello" , but he came the closest to smiling I have seen yet. It is by the way flatter here than I have ever seen. One of the guys in the group said that he would not mind living here, but he would miss down hill skiing. Even Denmark looks positively mountainous compared to this. There are lots of woods, but in some places the trees have lost all leaves and branches, and are left with the white stems only. We have not figured out whether this is due to some sort of disease or the local climate. We are supposed to start on the taiga now, with forests all the way from here to the Pacific Ocean, but it is too dark to see anything. Tomorrow will tell! Day 4 Remember I talked about the relativity of time? Well this morning at 3.30 when I woke up, I took a little stroll down the corridor, and noted that the conductors were up and talking cheerfully among themselves. Since it is 7,30 local time, that should not surprise me, but since we are following Moscow time it felt weird. Incidentally the big clocks at the station, and all arrival and departure times all follow Moscow time regardless of local time. Can you imagine boarding a train at 12.30, while your ticket and the station clock say that you board at 8.30? I have had my 4th consecutive night with less than 3 hours of sleep, and I notice that I am getting a tad cranky from it. Fortunately I get a little nap here and there during the day. I am a little sad that we make so short stops. It would have been nice to walk around a bit in each of the cities where we stopped and take some pictures, but we rarely have more than 15 minutes. I have tried to take pictures from the train whenever I see something nice, but the windows are so dirty, that it is next to impossible to get a decent shot of anything. I saw one of my fellow passengers vigorously clean his window on the outside yesterday, when the train stopped at a platform at that side, I should perhaps do the same. I just had a new cultural experience, buying food from the babushkas at one of the stations. They had lots of things, included beverages, cigarettes, magazines and a vast array of home made food. We tried some pancakes with cheese, some sort of börek and some sweet cheesy thing and have yet not mustered the courage to try the caramel filled roll. This morning we had a more interesting landscape, mountains, hills and small rivers and lakes. Right now we seem to have arrived at the taiga, and are passing billions of birches and pines. The forest is less dense than what I am used to from Norway, which is actually quite nice. The weather is nice and warm 15-18 degrees, and I would not mind spending some more time here. I exchanged a few words with the lady at the dining car who insisted that my Russian was excellent. I so wish it were true! Much of the time here passes by eating, sleeping and talking to the other members of the group. Like I mentioned they are all experienced travellers, and it is fantastic to meet so many interesting people who have been everywhere, and have all sorts of experiences that can come in handy. Two of the guys we talked a lot with today are the ones we share bathroom with. They are not squeamish about mixing the sexes here, and some of the people of the group have to share a room with people of the opposite sex. We are lucky in that we only have to share bathroom, and we can lock it on either side. Anyway, they had been all over, and travelled for a month in Ukraine, Russia, Bielorussia and Estonia last year. I am literally green with envy. We are approaching Irkutsk which we unfortunately will not see, since we are there at 3.30 in the morning. Of course, if I am doing a fourth consecutive "sleepless in Seattle" I may get to see it anyway... 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 4868 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 234 of 270 17 October 2012 at 1:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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maybe trees are burnt by the terrible fires which took place this summer in Siberia?
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| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5146 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 235 of 270 17 October 2012 at 3:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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@Mark: Yes, that is very possible.
On my way to Warsaw on a business trip - next update will have to wait a few days :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5038 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 236 of 270 18 October 2012 at 6:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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Ah, the eternal elusiveness of words... the way you said it first, I was led to believe that it was Over-the-rainbow Health Authorities who were sometimes too fussy (which wouldn't generally surprise me either). Well, remember that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger and if that's not enough, think that food usually goes trough a purifying fire before reaching you ;)
OK, less fun to read this time (it's all in the bumps, I told you) but interesting nonetheless. However I'm a bit confused about the time line. Did you head to Warsaw right after getting off the OE (AFAIR Warsaw etc. are west of Russia and you were travelling to the East), or...? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6409 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 237 of 270 18 October 2012 at 7:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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I thought Cristina was already back from the trip and posting her notes bit by bit. And now she went to Warsaw and she'll soon come back with a desire to study Polish :D
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| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5146 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 238 of 270 18 October 2012 at 8:14pm | IP Logged | ||
You got it :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5146 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 239 of 270 17 November 2012 at 4:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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Next "chapter" from my Trans-Siberian trip:
TRANS SIBERIAN EXPRESS BORDER CROSSING FROM RUSSIA AND THE STAY IN MONGOLIA DAY 5 TO 9 I did not get to see Irkutsk, but I saw the lake Baykal. I only saw the very last of the sunrise, because that happened just 3 hours after Irkutsk, but I saw the lake in all its glory in early morning. The lake is the greatest fresh water reservoir in the world, and the world's deepest lake, and apparently it is so clear that you can see down to 40 metres depth. Provided you are up to taking a swim in 15 degrees Celsius water, that is... Smoking on trains is something I have not seen in a while. On this train, people smoke in the little hall between the wagons. I would have complained to the conductors, but not only do they speak only Mandarin, they also smoke themselves. Right in the middle of the wagon... In the afternoon we had the boarder crossing, which is an ordeal in itself. We were in the dining car when they came to ask for our passports, and when I tried to give it to them, they told us to go to our compartment. When we got there they had already been to fetch our passports, so we were left hanging for half an hour until our Chinese conductor made a sign to us that we had to go to the police building ourselves. They got all upset when we came with our passports in hand, and we were sent back and forth, and were ordered out to the train again to show them the carriage we came from before they would take our passports. After an hour, I decided to go and post my last postcards, and since the platform was full of people, I was not particularly worried to leave the station, since the post office was just 100 metres away. When I came back 2 minutes later a woman was locking the big iron gate which lead to the station, so I just screamed NJET, NJET!! and run towards the gate, so she let me in. They had several dogs go through the train, and three different people went through the wagon. They must have thought we looked inoffensive, because they did not look at our things, and they were in our compartment less than 30 seconds. Loads of goods were left at the station, and a Chinese woman apparently got arrested for smuggling. It all took close to 4 hours. On the Mongolian side everything went smoothly. The customs people were very friendly, and very good at speaking English, and when everyone was gone, we all sighed a sigh of relief, and opened a bottle of Russian sweet champagne. We laughed and sang, and probably irritated the pants of all the other passengers in the wagon. We went to bed around midnight, and after what felt like a few minutes of sleep, I was woken up by my sister, who yelled at me that I must hurry, that we could be in Ulan Bataar any moment. I asked her if the conductor had woken her up like he was supposed to, and if our alarm clock had rung because I had heard neither, but she screamed that both had failed, and that I must hurry! I got dressed in a hurry, and then I looked at my watch and said, "but it s just one o'clock!" "Your clock must be wrong", she yelled. "I heard our neighbours in the bathroom, and people in the hall". So I get out in the hall, and thought "Hang on, the light is wrong, it can't be early morning". I run into one of our neighbours and asked him, and quite right. It was one o'clock in the morning, and what my sister had heard, was them coming back from the bar... We managed to go to sleep, and little over 4 hours later, the clock rang, the conductor woke us up, and the train slowly glided into Ulan Bataar. I had hoped for a sunset, but there was a drizzle of rain, so no such luck. On our way inn we saw a few traditional Mongolian gers, all mixed in between more conventional buildings of wood or bricks. Once in Ulan Bataar we saw a city where no city developer had ever had a hand, with magnificent buildings mixed in with ugly or decayed ones, and where the street pavement were the worst I have seen ever in any city. But we also met a people who are kind and gentle, and who still, for a large part live as nomads. I fear that the nomad culture will disappear quickly though. People move into the big city (half of the Mongolian people live in the capital). Two words must be absent from the Mongolian language: Safety, and environmental considerations. The bus has three layers of curtains (!) in various colours and flowery patterns, as well as fake flowers, but no safety belts, and almost everything in the bus is broken. Garbage is left everywhere, I do not think there is any renovation system at all. We also visited a Buddhist temple, which was magnificent, and the residence of the last Mongolian king. If ever I decide to take up a new religion, it will so be Buddhism. I like the colours, the images and their beliefs. An altogether more humane religion. Day 6 Early in the morning we were off into the countryside to a national park where we were going to sleep in a traditional Mongolian ger - a sort of sophisticated woollen tent with stove and comfortable beds. After having settled in, we were then taken into the countryside where we got to take pictures of cranes? ( a local bird) and wild mustangs. And the ride to get there - even the atheists among us started to pray. Some were actually seasick after the ride. I thought the Norwegian roads were the worst in the world, but they are fantastic compared to the Mongolian ones. Driving off road, with an old broken down small bus, is not for the faint of heart. We were taken to a nomad home, and were served fermented mare's milk, something which looked and tasted like a rock, but which was a sort of cheese, and " vodka" which was also a bi product of fermented mare's milk. An acquired taste. All of them. Seeing how few things they had, and how much they could do without was sobering, though, and the natural dignity of the whole family was impressive. I felt almost ashamed with my 10 000 things which I feel I cannot do without. And then the night came, and all the problems started... We were told that they could light the fire in the oven for us, and if we wanted to they could build one which would last all night, and they could come and relight it at 7 in the morning. Great we though, we will be nice and warm. Boy were we wrong. We came to our ger at 11 in the night, believing it would be warm and nice, and found a ger which was ice cold, and an oven full of wet fire wood where the fire had gone out. A staff member came to help, and succeeded only in filling the tent with smoke, but after a while with lots of work and some help from one of the guys in the group, we got the smoke out, and by drying the wood on the top of the stove first, it was actually possible to get some heating. We could not get to sleep until 4 in the morning, so I was pretty dead the next day. Fortunately we had a calm day, with a stroll around the area and a film about Julia Roberts in Mongolia as the main elements. She had also spent some time living in a ger. A real nomad ger. Among the nomads. With no bathroom or toilet... And no one to light the fire for her. Boy, she gained my respect right there. Having eaten and drunk the food she got, felt the cold which she described as "right-through-your-bones-never-to -be -warm -again-cold," I knew where she was coming from. But we at least had a toilet, and there were showers there, though I did not use them, I was just too cold. In fact it is the first time that I have worn the same clothes for 4 days and nights strait. The only thing I changed was underwear, and that was as quickly as I could because of the cold. The next night we were on again with the fire, so I guess I had a couple of hours of sleep. The good thing is I got to see the place at dawn, and the moon right before dawn, which were both beautiful. In the morning I had my head almost inside the stove when a glow was projected right into my right eye. GOD did that hurt. I screamed and run out of the hut and almost into one of the other guys of the group who managed to get it out of my eye. We had no doctor or anything with us, but a nurse looked at it, and said I should keep it moist. By a lucky coincidence I happened to have eye medicine with me, so it was all right, but it hurt for a couple of days. Then we went back to Ulan Bataar, where we almost prayed in front of the bed at the delight of not having to stay up to keep the fire alive, and in the evening we went to a fabulous Mongolian folklore show. The music was different from anything else I have ever heard, but very interesting. And the contortionist was out of this world. I did not know you could do so much with a human body. Next day we were up before dawn to take the Trans-Siberian again. This time we were lucky enough to get a Mongolian train, with Mongolian staff. The difference from the Chinese wagon could not have been larger. There were two ladies who kept the wagon so clean, you could have eaten off the toilet lid, it actually smelled fresh in there, and every time I saw them they were cleaning something. They were also very friendly, and the biggest bonus of all: they spoke Russian. Finally I was able to practise a little Russian! The toilets were closed before and after every station, and at one point there was a long queue in front of the one in our wagon, so a desperate little lady in her 60ies begged me for help to be allowed into the one in the next wagon, which had already been closed. I asked politely, the wagon attendant said no. I explained it was an emergency. She said no. I begged her, she said no. The little lady was almost crying, and at this point I got mad. I figured that after having been under communist rule, there was one last resort, so I looked her right into her eyes, straightened my shoulders, and said: " What is your name". The reaction was immediate, and stronger than expected. She started hurling abuse at me, ran into the next wagon and yelled at the two wagon attendants in our wagon, but finally, she opened the door and let the little old lady, who by now was sobbing, into the toilet. When 20 minutes later a large group of men in uniform entered our wagon I though "Oh my God, the will fire the wagon attendants in my wagon, and throw me off the train" but fortunately they just passed us with stern faces and continued. The one thing that worried me was that we had to share a compartment with two guys. They were nice and all, but they were still two guys, and I was worried that I would not be able to sleep because of snoring. I had no reason to worry though. They did not make a sound, and between the good bed in this train, and the exhaustion from more than a week of very short nights in a row I slept like a baby. Crossing the border to China was another nightmare. Between having to change the boogies and all the border red tape it took almost 6 hours. And you guessed right: Without access to toilets. I swear that the next time I'll take the Trans-Siberian it will be on Russian soil only, just to get away from the border crossings. When we finally got to a Chinese station (still no open toilets on the train) we just flooded into the public toilet, which too our joy (!) was the standing variant, and with only half walls in between, so you could enjoy the conversation and half view of the persons on each side. I am so happy I got to see Mongolia, though. I had dreamed about it for 11 years, and it was great to finally get there. The living conditions were very different to what I am used too, but I loved the people, who I found to be generous and sweet, and unassuming. I would not mind going back there either. --------- As for my language studies I am not doing too badly at the moment. I am in the 6wc and have started going to Russian class again, so things are moving along. Yesterday evening I sat through 6 episodes oh Hawaii 5- 0, this time in French, so I'll even have something to report in the Advanced Super Challenge which has been sorely neglected lately. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5146 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 240 of 270 22 November 2012 at 11:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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Can someone please stop the high speed train ride posing as my life and make it slow down a tad? I have not even updated my Super challenge items for ages.
I am off to Prague in a few hours - bringing my Russian book (the one of the two my Russian teacher did not accidentally pinch in class today) which means I have got the text and the grammar explanations, but no glossary or exercises. Not ideal... I am also bringing my Slovak course and have even managed to put the audio on my iPod - which is a big deal for a technological analphabet like myself! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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