On Sunday my host dad dropped me off at the flat of Tanya. It was already past midnight so I went straight to bed. The next morning we discussed everything. She gave me key to her flat. We went together to the city centre on metro, where we met her daughter Dasa. I’ve already met her twice, so she wasn’t a complete stranger.

We discovered the city together without her mum. Where would 2 young girls first in a city? That’s right, we headed to the cinema. We watched 2 Guns starring Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington. It was pretty good. i noticed that I understand American movies and series quite well. I can improve a lot from them.

Then we went and did some sightseeing. Dasa took at least a million pictures of me. 😀

As we walked we talked about ballet. It’s very widespread in Russia and I’ve never seen one in my life. So we had this idea to buy tickets for a play. We went to the ticket office, but they haven’t opened yet. It was still early in the summer. So we tried another theater. We managed to buy tickets for a show, but it wasn’t a ballet. I didn’t mind it. I like going to theater and I was glad I got the chance to go in Russia. They ticket cost 500 rubel. We didn’t have time for me to go home and get dressed – not like I packed anything elegant for these few days…- so I went to the theater in boots, jeans and a T-shirt with Mickey mouse on it. Yeah… I felt really uncomfortable. It wasn’t a fancy theater, but still… The musical was really good. I didn’t understand most of it, but I liked the songs and dance. 😀

After the play we went to Dasa’s flat. I met her 2 year old daughter. She’s really cute. Also I really liked her flat. It’s in the city centre and it’s really modern.

The next day I went to Dasa’s flat alone. I remembered the way. Ok… so I might have got lost at some point, but nothing a nice Russian lady couldn’t have solved for me… 😀
The weather wasn’t very nice, so we mainly just sat in the flat, because Dasa didn’t want to go out. I ate some borsch soup. It’s my new favorite meal. Then I managed to convince her to get out of the room. We walked on the river side.

After our short walk I went home. I checked my e-mail and I got really excited because an American family contacted me. It was the first family after 3 months in the programme. I checked their profile. They were from CA, where I wanted to go so bad. I’ll write more about them in another post. 😛

I wanted to clear my head, so I went walking in the area. It was really refreshing. I couldn’t have been more happier.

The next day I discussed Dasa to go over her place. I felt quite awkward there. It seemed like they don’t want me there. They didn’t take me out anywhere, they just sat on the couch and cooked in the kitchen.To be honest I would have preferred to go out alone. I like being and discovering alone. I really don’t need a babysitter. On the other hand it would have been weird to just bail. A bit later a friends came over, who completely ignored me. We ate lunch, but no one said a word to me. I mean my Russian is not that good, I know, but I’m capable of communicating if someone makes an effort.

Anyway later I went with Dasa. She showed me a park and a church. Then she though for long what to de with me. At this point I told her I can do something alone too, I don’t mind. In the end we decided to visit one of her friends who has a 2 year old daughter. We spent there about an hour. We drunk tea. Again I was not included in the conversation.

Then we left and Dasa dropped me off at the metro station. At home Tanya told me that my host dad will come for me today. I was really surprised, because I didn’t know anything about it. I was quite mad, because of this change. I discussed with the American family to skype with them, so know I had to cancel, as I don’t have Internet in Barnaul and wasn’t sure about my host parents’s plan.

Anyway they arrived at 3 AM. Tanya woke me up.

In summery: I’m not saying I regretted coming to Novosibirsk. I experienced a lot and met new people, which is a good thing. On the other hand I didn’t really bond with anyone. I felt uncomfortable most of the time. It was probably also my fault, but sometimes people just don’t have that much in common. Dasa is really rich. There are nice rich people, but in many cases I though like they were snobs. Dasa’s husband is a poker player, that’s how they make money. It’s interesting that you can earn so much with that. Anyway I prefer simpler people, who doesn’t mind walking in the city even if the weather was bad.