After the last update (way back in July 2021?!), I finished a few more Russian-y books in the final half of the year… I read Jeremy Bishop’s Torment, a quasi-religious zombie book with (surprise) a ridiculously stereotyped Russia. To kick … Read More
This smiling bird is famous all over Russia. That’s right: a dodo! 😀 He’s the mascot of a very successful pizza franchise called Додо Пицца. The company started back in 2011 and is now all over the world. As of … Read More
Here’s a quick little Russian playlist for a cold night (but I can’t promise you festive lyrics) and some photos from this month to set the tone… Мельница — Дорога сна I’ve shared this beautiful song in a previous post … Read More
Ready-to-eat meals are gaining popularity in Russia. I haven’t yet seen meal kits like Blue Apron and HelloFresh, but there are plenty of services that will drop off a few days’ worth of food. On the recommendation of a friend, … Read More
These amazing mosaics were the first street art we tracked down after moving to Kazan. I saw them on the Instagram account of a friend’s friend. When I asked her where the mosaics were, she kindly offered to take us … Read More
Every time I vow to stop paying attention to borrowed words, I see something like this: And then I start collecting words all over again.😆 So here you go, the 2021 update of loan words in Russian. Енджой! A Russian … Read More
We discovered another fairy tale park. Or maybe it’s a Soviet cartoon park? This place is hidden away in a larger park in the city’s metallurgical district. Let’s see who lives here… Ну, погоди! Meet Волк and Заяц, stars of … Read More
Here’s a look at what I have been reading lately… Picnic at The Iron Curtain: A Memoir 1986. A Canadian woman, studying for her M.A. in London, is hit by a truck and confined to a hospital bed. Her convalescence … Read More
Last January I made these reading lists: 2020 e-books about Russia and Russian and Russian books currently on my bookshelf. In total, I finished nine of those books (well, one was a grammar textbook). The most disappointing read was probably … Read More
Shapka, Babushka, Kefir. Ah, this book. I’ve wanted to read it since 2017. Back then, my Russian wasn’t good enough to get through it and I didn’t know it was also published in English. Now here we are, years later, … Read More