The Hike to Vvedenskaya Sloboda

There really isn't much to do at Innopolis. Like there is one grocery store and that's it. If you want to do something other than work out or hang out on campus you either have you make sure you are able to find a seat on the bus to Kazan, pay an outrageous amount for a taxi which may not even come, or find some other alternative like hiking through nature. On our way to Innopolis from the airport we drove over the Volga River and from the bridge you could see sands and people laying on the beach. Elmira decided at that moment that she wanted to go to the beach. Unfortunately, we didn't know how to get there. Then, Zach told us he knew a way to another beach, we convinced Elmira to go through nature, and then on our day off we headed down to the river.

Can you see the Volga River in the distance?

Within five minutes my feet were already covered in dirt from the pile we had to climb over to get to the grass. The grass we walked through was up to my waist and I was continually covered in burrs. We had to watch our for holes and dead animals. I even experienced krapiva, the Russian name for stinging nettle. I don't think we have nettles in Ohio, if we do then we care more about poison ivy. All Russians know krapiva. It's not as horrific as poison ivy but it definitely leaves your skin with a burning sensation that lasts about 15 minutes. Are you familiar with Indian Rug Burns? When you twists the skin on someones arm to make it burn? Surely you did it to someone as a child. Well, in Russia they don't call it Indian rug burns they call it krapiva.
Zach had walked the path before so he kept pointing out landmarks he remembered last year when him and a group of guys decided to walk to the river after a fire drill. We came upon a dried up stream that he said had water in it last year. This summer has been HOT! Both in Kazan and Ufa it's been in the upper 80s to 90s, and it'll rain once every 2 weeks. I'd rather take this heat over Cleveland's though because there is a lot less humidity. My hair and humidity don't get along.

After the river we continued walking and eventually made it to a path made by car wheels. The path led us to a little village where we saw some chickens and you could even see Innopolis in the distance. We weren't exactly sure where to go from there so Elmira stopped to ask a boy directions to the river. He told us where to go, so naturally we took the complete opposite direction because Zach didn't want to walk on the asphalt.

We eventually made it to the road and took the road the rest of the way. In case you plan on walking on the road in Russia (which I don't recommend) you need to walk on the side of the road as the oncoming traffic. It's Russian law, just so you know. We met a goat along the way and I took way too many pictures of it because it was so cute and friendly. We stopped in a little store where we got some ice cream to give us energy and cool us down. Right before we got to the beach we walked past a natural spring where you could fill up your water bottles for free. I wish I had taken pictures of the building because it was pretty neat. It reminded me of this spring my mom used to take us to to fill up jugs of water for our water cooler until chemicals were found in the water and the stopped people from doing that.

Does that island in the picture below look familiar? Yep, that is Sviyazhsk Isand. It's pretty cool that the island is so close. There is also a ship near the island digging up sand from the river and it sounds like something out of Jurassic Park. I would not have been surprised if I saw a Tyrannosaurus Rex break out of the ship. When we settled down Elmira lay out in the sun while Zach and I stayed in the shade to relax. Elmira didn't understand why we walked all that way to act like we wanted to go back but we said the adventure was the best part! I enjoyed watching all the children swimming and reading my book. I didn't want to go in the water though because it seemed kind of dangerous to me, but I spent a lot of time at Lake Erie and I don't think it can get much worse than that.

We wanted to hitch hike back since we were all tired and hangry but our attempts to do so were unsuccessful. Eventually a taxi driver drove past us and Elmira flagged him down. He was kind of a jerk overcharging us when we were actually doing him a favor, but Elmira talked him down 50 rubles. The ride was still overpriced but split three ways it was definitely worth it. There is a way to the river that is much easier, but I'm kind of glad we took the path less traveled because I haven't experienced much Russian nature since being here almost a year! Has there been a time where you took the path less traveled either physically or metaphorically? How was it?

A Day at Innopolis Boot Camp

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about Innopolis, but I didn't go into much detail about what I was doing there. Let me tell you, it was a lot. I worked at a bootcamp that prepared incoming students for the school year at Innopolis. Since Innopolis is built on the American university model many of the Russian students weren't prepared for how the university would function. Also, all classes are taught in English, so it was important that they practiced their English skills. I'm not really sure how the day functioned for the students but I know they were busy from 9-9. I'll just focus on what the bootcamp English teachers did.

Since I was still on Ufa time (2 hours ahead of Moscow time) I tried waking up around 7:00 am every day. I'm one of those people who feels really productive if I start my day early even though I like sleeping in until about 10. I'd go to breakfast around 8-8:15. Afterwards, I'd go to my dorm room and either hang out for a little bit or go right up to my classroom where I'd prepare what I needed for the day. We got our first groups from 11:50-1:20. We had an hour break for lunch and some of the English teachers would meet together for lunch in one of the university canteens. Then we got our second groups from 2:20-3:50. We would see the same two groups for one week then switch groups with our local Russian teachers for the second week. Twice a week the native teachers were required to teach a workshop which usually lasted from 4-5:30. Then the rest of the night was ours to hang out, go to the gym, or travel to Kazan.

The native teachers were told to focus on reading and speaking and the local teachers focused on listening and note-taking. Since Innopolis is an IT school we were supposed to focus on IT and technology. It was the first time I got to feel like a real teacher and I loved it. At my job in Ufa I only focus on speaking and it's so hard especially when you feel like a substitute. I finally got to put into practice what I learned back in Cincinnati. We did 4 corner debates, socratic seminars, jigsaw activities, presentations, and we even played Jeopardy the second week. Of course we did other things like learn how to annotate notes and summarize articles, but it was great being about to make lessons that scaffold off one another and feel like I had some real responsibility.

As I mentioned earlier twice a week the native teachers ran different workshops based on different themes. I didn't really know what to do, so I focused on American TV shows. I made a worksheet with previewing, viewing, and post-viewing questions. I had three shows prepared, but the discussions took more time than I thought so we really only focused on two shows. I chose The Office because I feel like it is a good example of American humor and because it isn't very popular in Russia. Russians love Friends, but I hate Friends, so I showed How I Met Your Mother because I love that show and I feel like it was a good alternative to Friends. Finally, I had an episode of The Simpson's entitle Simpson's Tide which I chose based solely on the fact that there is a scene where the United Nations realizes the Soviet Union never broke up. You can watch the clip here.

What are your favorite television shows?

The Kazan Universiade Mural

Do you ever feel like you know a place so well but then see it from a different viewpoint and you notice something you've never seen before? It happens to me all the time. Although I can't claim to know Kazan like the back of my hand, I thought I knew Bauman street pretty well considering that is where Anton and I spent most of our time. In the taxi, on the way to Innopolis, the taxi driver took us through downtown but on a street parallel to Bauman. I happened to look out the window at the exact time we passed this art and I vowed to come back to take pictures.

During the bootcamp we finished at 4 pm which meant we had enough time to go to Kazan after work. On my first attempt to come to the city I was too tired to stay. I literally took an hour bus ride to the city just to get back on the bus 20 minutes later. During that first trip I almost came to this art but happened to turn left instead of right completely missing it. It was on my second visit to the city that I found it again and was able to take pictures. 
I'm always interested how certain murals or street art came to be but usually there isn't any information about the artist. Fortunately, this mural had the website of the artist written right on the wall. It was painted by Daniel Fay an Uzbek who moved to Russia when he was 10 years old. It was painted for 2013 Summer Universiade which was held in Kazan. The Summer Universiade is an athletic competition between universities and is similar to the Olympic games. If you take a taxi from the airport you can see many of the buildings they constructed for the games.  What city has the best mural you've ever seen?

Traveling with Katy Walton to Bristol

Today, my friend, Katy will be telling to us about Bristol. Like Hannah and Nailya I met Katy through a Facebook blogging group. Also, like Hannah and Nailya, she is really awesome and probably one of the nicest people I've met via the internet. She blogs about faith and modest fashion at CounterCultural CounterCouture. I'm really excited to have her tell us about one of those lesser known areas of Britain. I think the street art alone makes me want to buy a ticket there now!
"I have a confession to make. This post is supposed to be about somewhere I travelled to on holiday. Well, Bristol is kind of one of my local cities. As in, it's under an hour away form my town by train. However, by British standards, an hour is ages away and, although I have loved what I have seen of Bristol in the past, I had never explored it as fully as I felt it deserved. So when my friend, Robbie, was doing a mass visit of his English friends (Robbie is from the Scottish Highlands, so it's a bit expensive to visit us all regularly), it seemed the perfect opportunity to explore one of my favourite cities a little bit more. Plus, I had promised Jasilyn a guest post at some point and really needed an opportunity to take some photos because no one like a blog post without photos.
First, I want to give you a little background on why I think Bristol is so cool, particularly if you're a blogger. Here, in Great Britain, blogging is really beginning to take off with small groups of bloggers springing up all over the place. Outside of London, Bristol is one of the biggest blogger communities, and this is in large part thanks to Sophie and Hayley. They have founded and run #BlogClub for a few years now, encouraging bloggers to meet in real life and learn from each other. Although I've only made two actual #BlogClubs, it has always been a real encouragement that there are places where bloggers are not strange and taking street style shoots is not weird. And really, that is the main reason why I seriously wanted to explore Bristol.
A trip to Bristol for me always includes the train and quite often the bus. As I don't drive, I have become quite the connoisseur of train stations, and Bristol Temple Meads is one of the best I have come across. I even used it as a style shoot location one early Saturday morning when I was traveling to Harrogate. As architecture goes, which I know nothing about, it's quite a stunning building with a lot of original features.
Once I was off the train and bus, my first stop before collecting the boys was Stokes Croft. I've gone through it on the bus dozens of times but never actually got off there. Considering that is where Banksy started and is Bristol's graffiti hub I had to remedy this. I was totally rewarded by some of the most amazing graffiti art I have ever seen, from the political to the absurd. I think my favourite was the giant but realistic blue tit I found down a back street.
All that snapping of graffiti had made me a little hungry, so I headed for the whole food cafe I had spotted before. The Wise Beans definitely had an indie, whole food, little bit hipster vibe but the food was delicious. I had a toasted hummus, tapenade and roast veg sandwich, made with door-wedge worthy slices of granary bread. The lemon verbena tea was great, though a little difficult to drink as the leaves were left loose in the mug. But with free wifi and comfy seats it was ideal for a quick rest before heading back to the station to collect Robbie and Tom.
Our next stop was Cabot Circus, Bristol's shopping centre. We also discovered it was home to a really cute jungle-themed mini golf course. Of course, we had to have a game which ended in a surprise win for Robbie. The course itself was great but pointed out how much I need to work on my mini golf game!
I had already decided that Robbie and Tom needed to take a walk down by the harbour. It's one of Bristol's key features and has been turned into a massive tourist hot spot on one side. We chose to wander along the other side, exploring some church ruins and catching up as we followed the river. Eventually, we ended up at the M-Shed, Bristol's free city museum. We didn't actually go in but instead just sat on the harbourside, chatting and enjoying each other's company. (I have been to M-Shed before and definitely recommend it.) It was nice to give my feet a rest even if dangling my feet over the harbourside did make me feel about 16 again. But hey, knocking 8 years off isn't always a bad thing.
We started to get a bit chilly, eventually, so Tom and I decided it was a good chance to introduce Robbie to Boston Tea Party. BTP started life in Bristol and has since spread across the West Country, becoming one of my favourite places for a variety of teas. We stopped off for smoothies, milkshakes, and a warm up before legging it across Bristol to say our farewells and jump on respective trains.
Fifty minutes later, probably filled by working on the blog and listening to podcasts, I was back home. I love visiting Bristol and this trip was the best one yet. Sharing a city with your friends and discovering new parts of it makes a standard trip into one filled with memories. Next time you're in the UK, I definitely recommend Bristol as a place to make those memories. If you love graffiti, even more so." Thank you for sharing, Katy. Don't forget to visit her blog, and if you want more you can visit her Instagram! You can read more from the Traveling With... series here. If you're interested in working with me and sharing about your hometown or a favorite place to travel send me a message here. I'd love to hear your ideas and see how we can work together.