Maslenitsa and Ms Woolf

Well, today is Monday, and it was the big festival in Red Square yesterday. However, it was a bit of a let down due to the amount of people there. It would’ve been great with fewer people – much fewer people. The festival was behind St Basil’s and there was security to get into the ‘festival ground’. There was a mass of people just pushing forward to get through this, and we were standing there for about 20 minutes. The photo below is of the back of St Basil’s and the ‘effigy’ of Maslenitsa, which is going to be burned later. I really couldn’t stay for very long because of the amount of people, so I went with some friends to a cafe and had some beer and blini – delicious!

Since I came to Russia, I think I’m getting back into the swing of looking at old things – for example, Virginia Woolf. I read two of her books, To the Lighthouse and Mrs Dalloway at university and loved them, but hadn’t read any since. I decided to rectify this a few weeks ago when I was in the English section of a bog book store, and bought The Waves. Now this book was truly amazing – very experimental, in the form of individual narratives from 6 characters who are friends and intertwined with each other. Fascinating. If anyone else has read it, I really connected with the ‘Rhoda’ character. Therefore, today, I wanted to go out and I went to the bookshop. I found the English section again, and I bought two more Woolf books; Jacob’s Room and Orlando. I shall let you know how I get on – I’m giving up on the Russian literature at the moment, although I will get back to it.

I know I’m getting more comfortable here because I’ve just managed to top up my phone with credit in the phone shop for the second time *grin*