winterclothes for free

Did I tell you about my friends from the Market?
In beginnings of September I bought my coat in one of the small shops at the market in the center of the town. I often walked through this market when I had to go to the second building of my university for history lessons. It was amazing, the women working on this market soon recognized me and so started to invit me to drinkt tea with them every time I walked trough the market. Once the even gave me a sweater from free. But the best thing was surely, that they knitted socks for me, so that I shouldn't get to cold feets. :-)
Yes, it was really nice to have come friends on the marketsquares...

Gruss vom Zürichsee

:-) nett, dachte ich mir, da hat mir doch mitten im kalten russischen Januar jemand einen kleinen Gruss aus der Schweiz gesandt. "Ihr Kleinbus vom Zürichsee" in Nischni Novgorod...Jetzt fährt er regelmässig von Nischni Novgorod nach Arsamas und zurück :-)

Russian X-mas

Drinking tea from the samowar (typical russian teapot) and eating tasty cakes on my russian lessons the 24th of December. Together wich my teacher Anastasia Vasilevna we celebrated european christmas in that way, reading an old russian christmas story with it. Oh, and I got a very nice christmas gift from her, earrings!!! :-)


Russian christmas, on the 7th of january I spent again with Mila in the village of her grandpas. This were the coldest days I lived in Russia, about -28 C. But still it was just wonderful, this snow covered landscapes like in a fairy tale and later, we went to the small wooden saunahouse in the courtyard of her grandparents house, where soon we were sweating and it was a real experience to jump nacked in the snow afterwards.
That's incredible how tired you get in the sauna, so you can see me taking a rest in the bed of Milas grandma after the sauna...I needed to get some strenghs to enjoy the huge supper the grandma had prepared. It was so nice how this family let me take part of her life. I think this weekends in the village were some of my best experiences in Russia.