Da, konechno, bez problem

This past wednesday I went meeting a girl for the Russian face-to-face.

The 'face-to-face' is a blackboard at the Language Centre where students pin a little card in which they write what language they can offer and what language they're looking for.

Of course I went looking for Russian speaking people, and found the add of this girl who was looking for German/English speakers.

I wrote to her, being completely honest, telling her I am no native speaker but I would have liked to meet her to practice some Russian which, in reality, sucks so bad.

We met last wednesday and we're planning to meet again next tuesday.
She's adorable. She's so young as well, being in her first undergrad year. She's from Chechny and I would have never thought Chechny people would have been so nice.
Yeah I know, there's no need to generalize and one size doesn't fit all, but still I was pleasantly surprised by her kindness. And patience.

As I said, unfortunately, my spoken Russian is pretty terrible, even though I love Russia and Russian with every cell of my body.
She helped me with the Russian time (weird people, the Russians. To say 2:10 they say '3:10', don't ask me why!) and then we went to a Seminar together.

We found out we have the same taste in music, which is absolutely amazing, as I don't really have many people to share my love for Indie Rock and Arctic Monkeys with. Too bad there's, apparently, no gig planned in Manchester for 2011.

Anyway, still speaking a bit of my passion for the Rassiskaja Fidirazia, I am also attending the Russian LEAP course at the University. LEAP stands for Language Enrichment Activities Program, and basically gives you the opportunity to follow a language course even though you don't have any free credits (meaning that, yes, of course you need to pay for it!).
I love the course and there are nice people in the class as well. Hopefully I'll end up being a little fluent in the end. Then, I'll be ready to move to Petersburg and marry a nice, vodka drinker, blonde, blue-eyed Russian guy :)

"Kalinka, kalinka, kalinka moya!
V sadu yagoda malinka, malinka moya!"

(Ivan Larionov)

His Majesty, the King

I haven't written lately. Oh well, I said I was going to keep it updated when I could.
Well, this past weekend has been kinda.. bad. Yeah, I got a cold, a fever and still have it. It sucks, I cough and sneeze all the time and I'm drinking two huge cups of veg stock to keep me warm.
My head is about to explode, too.

Ye!
Aside from this, I went to Chatsworth House in the Derbyshire this week-end. A great sunny day, great company and an even nicer place. I wouldn't have thought it was so nice indeed.

I have, apparently, completed my assignment for Literary Translation (Translation of a chapter of a book + commentary). But I haven't even started with the one that is due in 16 days. Oh yeah.

It just seems like there's not enough time. But I have to find time and use it. And find time to go to Yoga classes as well. Yes, I can do it.

Maybe.

"You're hot then you're cold, you're yes then you're no"

(Katy Perry)

Boy+Shower=Flood

I will now introduce you my housemates:

I live with 4 people, 2 girls and 2 boys. The girls' name are Teresa and Darina. The boys' name are Jan and Hao.

Teresa and Jan are polish, they've studied together in Warsaw and lived together already as well. They told the landlady they were cousins, in reality they're just best friends.
They told me they made up the 'cousins' story because they didn't want people to keep asking if they were 'together', and at first I was like 'and what's wrong with people asking you if you're together?', but then Jan told me he's gay, so yeah, I see the point.
They're doing my same MA, Translation and Interpreting.

Darina is from Estonia, first language being Russian. Lol. She's very nice though nobody, and when I say nobody, I mean nobody in the house can understand her when she speaks.
Alright, maybe now we're getting a little used to it, but it is very hard to keep up with her when she speaks. Maybe because she lived in Wigan for 10 years, we don't know. Weird accent anyway.
She studies Ceramics at Manchester Metropolitan (the other Uni here in Mancunialand).

Hao, as you can figure out from the name, is chinese. But he's been living in UK since he was 8 years old, so he's now a home student, he doesn't have any chinese accent whatsoever and any other word uses 'cheers' just like any british boy would do.
He's an undergrad doing PPE (Politics, Philosophy and Economics) !!!

I have to say I really enjoy my housemates. Above all the polish ones, we spend not all, but a quite lot time together in the kitchen/lounge, talking about our countries, our traditions, our food, boys, school etc.
Darina is always with her boyfriend, whose name I totally don't remember, but when they're together, aside from when they have to cook, they're always out or in her room.
As for Hao, we barely see him. He literally lives locked up in his room, he comes downstairs for food and that's pretty much it. But he causes us no troubles so we like him.

The only thing I must complain about is the fact that they're not very keen of cleaning. So, since we all moved here, I've been cleaning the kitchen and the bathroom any Sunday (and little cleaning every day). Teresa said she was going to put up a Cleaning Shift, but she hasn't done it yet, so I guess this weekend I'll clean again. Which I don't mind, really, but I'd just appreciate if sometime they would wipe off the sink, or the toilet or the bread crumbs from the table. You know, little things.
Plus, I have realized that when the boys in our house go take a shower, they'll end up causing a flood on the floor. Like, really, can't you just use the shower curtain properly? Oh well.

When I lived in the US I learned not to be picky anymore. You just get used to it.
The house is lovely anyway.


"There is a house built out of stone
Wooden floors, walls and window sills
Tables and chairs worn by all of the dust
This is a place where I don't feel alone
This is a place where i feel at home"
(Cinematic Orchestra, To Build a House)

Sorry, we cannot locate the address

So, apparently, I live nowhere.

I'll explain myself. My housemate Tereska and I, had problems receiveing our parcels from, specifically, Poland and Italy.
The boxes our moms sent with such love, full of emotional food, warm clothes and bla bla, both got stucked at the Manchester Piccadilly Depot.
We don't know why, and apparently neither the girl at the customer service I just talked to, but there is something wrong with our address here, in Laindon Rd.

Tereska called, complained and had her parcel delivered the next day. Mine is scheduled for tomorrow. We'll see if it'll really arrive, or not.

The 'funniest' parts of this story are: 1) my parents had to call the General Post Office in Rome to locate the parcel, (they didn't require the tracking kind so we thought we couldn't track it when, apparently, and thank God, we could) and the guy told them 'They probably couldn't locate the address because the zip code is uncorrect. There should be more numbers' - NO, moron, UK zip codes are like that, Letter-number-number (space) Number-letter-letter.
2) The girl at the customer service asked me for directions! Like, can't you use google maps?!

As I'm writing though, a doubt popped in my head, the girl didn't ask for the ref. number so I wonder if the parcel will really ever arrive.
But, as I'm still writing, I just got a letter in which they tell me (dated Sept. 29!) they're holding my parcel and if I want to, I can call to have it redelivered. Like, are you serious?!
Time is something the British need to work on. No joke.

ARGH! Next time I'll need something, I'll just wait to go home for Christmas.

Send him some love and light everytime you think of him and then drop it.

(Richard from Texas)

Bacio Perugina beats Hershey's Kiss

Hello everyone!

I just came home from a long, tiring day at Uni. I am a current PG (postgraduate) student at the University of Manchester, MA in Translation and Interpreting Studies.

I am focusing on Translation, free-choice modules being: Literary Translation, Commercial Translation, Translation for International Organizations, Scientific and Technological Translation (direction: English-Italian); core modules being: Research Methods and Translation&Interpreting Studies.

Today, my timetable was pretty full. 10-11 Literary Trans. 12-13 Commercial Trans. and 15-16.30 T&I Studies.

Joy! Joy! when I finally got back home.

I can't really complain today though, it was cold this morning it's true, but then the day just warmed up and in the end, having lunch outside getting blinded by the sun is something I have been missing.

Classes weren't that bad either. Just, we haven't started doing anything practical so far, so sometimes it gets a little bit boring. Oh well, when we'll have language specific tutorials I'm sure I'll recall these days with nostalgia. Lol.

"The sun rays in your eye, 
The love you’re giving that I have found; 
Like sun that shines though the sky, 
Each love must be worth and sound."

(P.S. Quinn)

When the Triumphant rain falls, we think of Rainbows

Dear All,

my name is Gabby (Gabriella). I have just joined this Blogger community under my AVT (AudioVisual Translation) lecturer's suggestion.

I have already kept blogs pretty much everywhere on the net, but I just moved to Manchester (Mancunialand), England, so I thought 'is there any better reason to start a new blog?'.

I will invite my Italian friends as well, so, sorry for you guys if I'll be writing in English only (or at least 98% of the times).

I'll try to keep this blog updated as much as I can, though I have a bad history on this. I start something and then, of course, I'll disappear. Be gone. Finished.

I start saying 'bye for now' as I have classes tomorrow, so I better go to bed.

I'll be back, soon.

xx