Second Time’s A Charm: Дима Билан Wins Eurovision! Posted by josefina on May 25, 2008
Today the famous Nokia-beeping of an sms woke me up in the middle of the night with the following words from my mother in Sweden: “Congratulations Russia won! How does it feel? Hugs, mom”. Relieved as I am from owning a TV, it was only on an intuitive level that I understood that I…
Phraseology In The News: Колено [The Knee] Posted by josefina on May 23, 2008
«Им мир по колено – выросло первое поколение стабильности» [They couldn’t care less (about the world) – the first generation of stability has grown up]. One of the first things I noticed when I arrived in Russia back in 2004 was how much the young teenage generation differed from their parents and even from…
Forward To The Past Posted by josefina on May 20, 2008
Walking through my Russian hometown of the moment, I came across this ‘graffiti’ on a truck. Yeah, it’s kind of funny and that’s the reason why I decided to take a picture of it. It reminded me of those Soviet propaganda posters from WWII with the happy soldier tying his boots with the words…
In The News: Medvedev Tries To Solve A Russian Enigma Posted by josefina on May 17, 2008
I suppose everyone already knows which country is the biggest in the world – Россия. But that’s the kind of second-hand knowledge one acquires from studying a map of the world. If you’re actually in Russia, and not on a train or on a plane traveling through it, but walking around in a big Russian…
Падежи: everything you ever wanted to know about Russian cases! Posted by josefina on May 14, 2008
Today I woke up to find hundreds of posters taped up on the walls inside of the dormitory building where I live. Though the service adverticed by Tomas Life Coaching is clearly not directed at me (it is actually rather unclear as to whom it is directed, but I guess we shouldn’t get further…
(Only True) Legends & Myths About Putin Posted by josefina on May 11, 2008
The day after Victory Day I went to a local grocery store in my neighborhood where I saw this magazine with a cover picture from which I could simply not tear my eyes. It must have been the combination of buff arms with a hat on a gorgeous horse and that carefree facial expression…
Another Part of Tomsk: the NKVD museum Posted by josefina on May 5, 2008
Томск [Tomsk] has a population of half a million and is located in Siberia, but since Siberia is a big place one is quite in the right to ask – where exactly? North-east of Novosibirsk by five hours by commute train, to be precise, the city is seated two hours north of the Trans-Siberian railroad…