Learning Russian and learning stuff ABOUT Russia

[Elisabeth]

aww...no.....Anna, what have you done!!!!Really, you shouldn't do that!!
Now, I'm very very confused
I can't accept...you are too kind

[Annie]

elisabeth said:

aww...no.....Anna, what have you done!!!!Really, you shouldn't do that!!
Now, I'm very very confused
I can't accept...you are too kind

OK, if you can't accept then just send it back to me when it arrives to you ROTFL

Stop it Liz, it really is nothing. I just think we have better books here than you do on Moscow, so I got you one. It's no big deal...consider it an early Christmas Present LMAO ;D

[Annie]

lena said:

thanks for your offer Annie, maybe I will use this very soon ;D.

I like moscva. You feel the power of mother russia in the city. And the metro is a really pice of art and engineering. A must seen. But like yourself, St.Petersburg is my also my favorite .

Yup lena...all you said is very true. Hope you make it up here one day ;D

[Elisabeth]

admin said:

elisabeth said:

aww...no.....Anna, what have you done!!!!Really, you shouldn't do that!!
Now, I'm very very confused
I can't accept...you are too kind

OK, if you can't accept then just send it back to me when it arrives to you ROTFL

Stop it Liz, it really is nothing. I just think we have better books here than you do on Moscow, so I got you one. It's no big deal...consider it an early Christmas Present LMAO ;D

Aww....Ok.... ...Hm...don't know what to say...Thank you very very very much!
I'll send you something....and you won't refuse my gesture!

[lena]

Annie: ( and for all who are also interested ) Wladimir Kaminer has published his new book "Karaoke" in Berlin. As a special gift for fans they hade made some ringtones for mobile phones .
Kaminer sing Bee Maja and four other samples. hear itself ;D

go to www.russentext.de/literatur/djroman.shtml and scroll down. It's at the end of the site.

[alsl]

can someone explain the whole mysterious russian princess story to me....the one called anastasia,isit a true story?

[agnes]

Hmm,I only watched the Disney version of the "russian princess story" But as far as I know it`s true.I saw a documentary about it(long time ago). Wasn`t this the thing with the evil magician ( Rasputin ?) who wanted to kill the tsar and the whole Romanov-Family and they had to flee.Yep,I think so.

[agnes]

well, the evil magician...that was only in the movie i guess...
But it`s true that during the russian revolution the Romanovs had to flee and still still today there are rumors if little anastasia had survived or not.

[agnes]

Another thing: A friend of mine and I had decided to thank our Russian teacher for the last two years by making him these russian pancakes called blin ( sorry, don`t know how to write it with latin letters).
I was looking for a prescription cause I don`t know exactly how to do it but I wasn`t succesful :/
Can someone please help me,please. It`s a serious problem, otherwise he will have to eat muffins...

[Karen]

Speaking of food.....Annie what do Russian's love to eat ? Types of restaurants, etc.

And Annie pm your address want to send you some CD's.

[Annie]

awwwwwww Karen, you're so sweet ..will do

As for food.

Yes, Russian pancakes are a very typical food here, we eat them with sour cream and caviar as well as with anything you like (Oh God, I am hungry now LOL) This is the recepie for making them...very easy

1 glass of milk
1 glass of flower
half a glass of sugar
2 eggs
pinch of salt

that's it. You stir all this really well till it becomes a sort of very thick liquid. Watch out that you don't have any plumpy bits inside..stir well...you can use a blender or something.

Then you get a frying pan, heat it up, put very little oil, get a ladle and pour the mixture into the pan making a round pancake. Bake it for a min on one side, turn it and then fry for another half an min. A ready pancake is put into a pot or a plate and you chuck a tiny piece of butter on it and cover your pancakes so that they don't get cold while you're making the rest. So once you do one, put oil into the pan and repeat the whole process till you fry them all. The trick is not to put too much mixture so that your pancakes come thin. The thinner the better ;D Good luck!!!!!!!!

Sooooooooo..typical good, ey?

Typically Russian cousine is very heavy and that is explanable. We live in a very cold country and have to keep ourselves warm, especially in winter LOL. This is how we usually eat during the day.

1. Breakfast. Well..this is the same as anywhere else. Cyreal, porridge, eggs, etc.
2. Lunch: salad, soup, main course
3. salad and main course and sweets maybe or fruit

Obviously it varies depending on the family but generally it is like above. We eat a lot of meat and poultry, much more than we eat vegetables and fruit but that mostly concerns winter time. We like to eat in more than we go out to restaurants however this tendency is starting to change.

There are HUNDREDS in wonderful restaurants in Moscow. You can eat almost anything here nowadays. French cousine, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Georgian, Ukranian....anything really. Some of them are absolutely wonderful. Obviously good restaurants are expensive. To go have a good dinner in the centre of Moscow with wine will cost you about 50USD per person, so it's not cheap. There are however what we call "democratic" restaurants, where it is much cheaper and the food is no worse than in good popular places, just it won't be so fancy, you know.

The most famous Russian dishes:

1. Blini (blin for a singular) - pancakes. Usually served with a mixture of caviar and sour cream

2. Pelmeni - large tortellini LOL hand-made with minced mixed meat and herbs. You make them, freeze them and then boil them from frozen and serve with herbs and sour cream. They are to die for!!!!

3. Russian Salad....LOL This is hilarious. The whole world calls it a Russian Salad but the author of the recepie is a French guy Olivie. So in Russia this salad is called Olivie Salad ;D

4. All types of soups. Our soups are very particular, they're not like anywhere else...puree or minestrone...they are thick and have tons of stuff in them, so they look like they're a soup and main course in one ROTFL

Phew..that's all I can think of for now..there are many more of course.

And I guess I don't have to tell you that we drink vodka LOL....neat...down it in shot glasses and vodka is kept in the freezer before you drink it ;D

If you remember anything else, just ask LOL

[agnes]

Thank you so much Annie!!!
I`ll try it as soon as possible ( tell you later how it tasted...
Thx again!!

[Mariana]

Can I make a question too?
I really want to know what are the most popular sports in Russia...
I love your figure skaters like Evgeni Plushenko Is figure skating a popular sport in Russia?

[Annie]

agnes said:

Thank you so much Annie!!!
I`ll try it as soon as possible ( tell you later how it tasted...
Thx again!!

anytime agnes....first couple of pancakes might come messy but then you get a hold of it and it gets really easy ;D good luck

Mariana, yeah figure skating is very popular in Russia. In fact, practically all winter sports are. Pluschenko is a real darling and sooooo talented....the whole country worships him

Hockey is popular, sinchronised swimming, football, cross country skiing, athletics and nowadays tennis of course. Especially ladies...the amount of players we have now is like Loads of young girls like Maria Kirilenko, Anna Chakvetadze, etc. and of course Myskina, Dementieva, Sharapova.....very popular.

[Annie]

Found a really great website for those who want to check out some very nice photos of Moscow and St. Petersburg ;D

www.triquadrata.ru/moscow/

The link takes you to Moscow. To see St. Petersburg photos go here

www.mosphoto.ru/piter-smol/index1.htm

Hope you like them. The watermark is absolutely annoying but there are some truly gorgeous ones