New Haven taste of China

           When my friend said me that there is a good Chinese restaurant in New Haven, I was a little bit shocked. You can not find some necessary things in this town, but you can eat delicious Chinese food! Impossible!  

A few days after this conversation Monica, 2 of her friends, 2 of my friends and I went to the "New Haven Taste of China". I have never tried real Chinese food, except Peking duck. I was so excited!  

When we came there, Monica and her friends asked for a Chinese waiter and started talking with him in Chinese. When a waiter told them some names of dishes, we saw their enthusiastic faces. «Oooooh!» - they made that exultant sound all the time. We were slightly disappointed, but we understood that it would be a great dinner. 

After 5 minutes the show started. Waiters brought a lot of dishes one by one really fast. I did not know what was on the plates, but I felt a delicious smell. «Noodles with meat, rice, chicken with nuts, pork with oranges, tofu...» - our Chinese friends started to explain to us all the food on the table. I did not know where to look, what to try first. And then we all started eating. «Delicious, great, tasty, I've never tried this before!» - only these words we could say before all food was eaten. It was fantastic! At the end of the dinner the belt on my waist became too small for me :)  

It was an incredible experience. I would like to go to this restaurant one more time, but only one day left.. I will try to find such delicious Chinese food in Moscow. And even better will go to China one day! :)

Last impression

Last days in America. On the one hand I really miss my home, my family and friends. But on the other hand I would like to stay in the United States for more time. I have started to think about studying in the US for a master's degree. I like people here and their lifestyle. They don't care about anybody's opinion, they can go outside of their house in an old pants and they feel great. I can not imagine such a situation in Moscow, unless you are in the countryside house.  

Yale. A few months ago I could not imagine that I would be here, but now I have spent almost 6 weeks in this amazing place. Living life in a castle, studying in  one of the best universities in the world. It is a great opportunity. I have met a lot of interesting people from all over the world. I have visited a great deal of incredible places. I fell in love with the city that I wanted to visit from my childhood, it is New York. And, of course, I was learning English here, spending a lot of nights with books or walking through all New Haven, trying to find somebody, who will participate in my survey.. and many other things. It was hard, sometimes I wanted to give up, but I collected my thoughts and did all the things that I had to do. Teachers here are great, really different from my country. We don't have so many discussions and so much freedom in our work. I want to express my gratitude for the all teachers of ELI, you gave us an awesome opportunity!

My lovely nephew

When I saw him for the very first time, he was only 5 days old, so small and weird. I was scared of him. I had not taken him into my hands until he was 3 or 4 months old, because he was tiny and I thought that I could break his bones. First step, first word. I was unaccustomed how little living organism become a person with thoughts and individual traits.  

Now he became a person, my lovely boy Vladimir. He has a charming character, sometimes he looks at you with his big blue eyes with indescribably long lashes, and you can not refuse his wishes.  

Every day he goes to the kindergarten, where he is studying both Russian and English languages. He started counting from 1 to 10 for the first time in English! He has a lot of friends there. Now he is spending his summer with his grandparents, who is my mom and dad, in the countryside house. He likes riding bicycles and motorcycles. He helps my mother with her small garden. His best help is collecting of strawberries :) 

I have not seen him for 2 months and very miss him.  

Today, 4th of August, is his 5th birthday. It is such a pity that I can not be with him today and can not give him my present. 

             Jumping in the cold swimming pool after an exhausting hot day. Your tiredness lies heavily on your shoulders. Exhausted by a routine crazy workday, you can only imagine how unbelievably great will be in the cold water. By this time every step is harder and harder for you. A long way to your house, traffic jams in Los Angeles are really hard. After an hour you finally come home, where your wife is waiting for you, all dishes are on the table. You are kissing Kate and walking to the yard. You are unfastening a button on your jacket, that you hate, because you have to wear it every day on your work. You are working in the department of 'white collars', all day sitting in the office. And now you are getting free from your burden. Step by step you are getting closer to your oasis. And, finally, you are jumping. Cold water is covering all your body. Your breathing becoming heavy and irregular. First moments you can not move. And then you are feeling gracefulness, suddenly all your thoughts and problems are leaving your head. Nothing is worrying you. You are dissolving in the water. Everything will wait: wife, business, life, world. Now it is only you and the unbearable lightness of being. 

New York, the city that never sleeps. I am so impressed by this city and decided to go in NY one more time. As usual, early in the morning on Saturday my friends and I took a train to the Grand Central Station.  

We came to Central Park to look at the biggest lake there. The park is incredibly big, you should observe it for a week to see all places. We walked for 1 hour, but we found only a few small lakes, but they were extremely beautiful. One of them was near the big mediaeval castle. From the castle's terrace you can see excellent view down the park. Near another lake you can rent a small rowing boat. There was a line to rent a boat, everyone wanted to be closer to water on a hot day.  

Then we went to the Central Park Zoo. I saw this zoo in the Madagascar cartoon, so I was expected to see Marty the zebra, Alex the lion, Melman the giraffe and Gloria the hippopotamus. But unfortunately none of them were there. We saw beautiful parrots, ducks, lemurs, fur seals and many others.  

After that we came to Brooklyn by subway to find some places with great views. And we found a few! 

On the way back to Manhattan we took a ship. It was sunset, we took a lot of beautiful pictures. But we needed to hurry up, because we had at least two places to visit. We went to the Rockefeller Building to see my lovely city from the roof top. I blew the breath of delight. A lot of skyscrapers, Empire State building, Chrysler building and all city were plainly visible. Everything was shining, dozens of cars rushed along the streets. We were not allowed to stay there more than 15 minutes. We took some photos and went back to the street. 

We directed our steps to Times Square. A lot of lights, commercials and, of course, people were there. Everybody wanted to take a photo with Spiderman or Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story. There were so overcrowded and loud. Anyway, I liked it! 

Next day we went to the Roosevelt Island Tramway, we took round trip just to see great views. We saw lots of flats with river view from the huge windows, it is the flat of my dream!

  

Then we came to the High Line Park. It is the linear park built on a section of the elevated former New York Central Railroad spur called the West Side Line, which runs along the lower west side of Manhattan; it has been redesigned and planted as an aerial greenway. It is so great to walk through the green park, but see the rail road on the ground.  

After the long walk we went to the famous American restaurant Katz's Delicatessen, that was open in 1888. We tried the classic Pastrami sandwiches. That was so delicious! 

Unfortunately, our weekend ended, and we took a train back to New Haven.

Go, yankees, go to the victories!

On the 4th weekend my friends and I went to (the)New York city. We had already bought tickets to the Yankee vs Reds game. So we directed our steps toward Yankee Stadium, that is located in the Bronx. The subway was overcrowded by fans in blue T-shirts and baseball caps with logos of Yankees. At the final station we were carried away from the train by a flow of people. And suddenly we saw the Stadium. It is a big gorgeous building with flags on the top. Rays of the sun were reflected by dozens of windows.  

Yankee Stadium

We hurried up to buy some food and find our seats. When we took the first step into the stadium, we heard the roar of thousands of fans. All of them screamed chants and gesticulated sharply. Almost all people there ate snacks and drank beer, it was very unexpected, because normally in Russia it is illegal to drink alcohol in such places.

We bought standard baseball food: hot dogs and French fries with hot cheese sauce. It was so American style, very tasty! 

I did not know the rules of baseball games. So throughout the game I tried to understand, why sometimes all of the players are starting to run and sometimes just staying on their positions. Nevertheless I was happy as a child, when I saw that the Yankees scored one more point. The game was really long, it lasted for 3 hours. Finally, the Yankees won!

2d weekend

Pasta in Little Italy of New Haven

My second weekend in United States I spent in New Haven. On Friday my friends and I went to the cinema; we saw a comedy. It was funny, but a little bit confusing, because not all vocabulary was clear, but we enjoyed our time there. Then we decided not to have our dinner in dining hall and we went to Italian part of New Haven to eat pizza and pasta. It was incredibly delicious, the meals were very big, so at the end of the evening we felt our bodies like balls.

On Saturday we went to New London to the Sail Festival. We took a train and reached our final goal in an hour. I expected to see big pictorial meadow near the sea, where we could lie on the grass and observe big and gorgeous yachts. But in reality we saw only a narrow, dirty and overcrowded wharf with no grass and beautiful views. We were totally shocked. We found some food and decided not to wait for the fireworks, but to go back to New Haven. A warm bed waited for me in my room, I sank into nerveless rest till Sunday's afternoon.  

Train to New London

The last day of the weekend I spent with my lovely book 'Pride and Prejudice' by Jane Austen and homework, trying to prepare for the upcoming school week. 

Preparing for classes

Kitchen

I have been living in my flat for only 1 year, but I have one place that I love. From the first moment I saw it, I knew that I want to spend a lot of time in this place. It is the kitchen. 

Kitchen

When you see it for the first time, you will see just a usual small kitchen. With white walls and grey wooden kitchen cabinet with granite table top. There is a white wooden dinner table and two chairs. But for me, this is the place with special atmosphere and memories. It is indescribable when sunlight shines through the fancy white and green curtains and falls on the gauzy chairs. You can see a lot of various colors on them in the morning. 

Kitchen

The most lovely thing in my kitchen is a smell. It is combination of different spices, pastries and fresh herbs, that are growing up on the window-sill. 

Baby basil

I have spent a lot of time there, because I like to cook lots of different meals, but sometimes I like to just sit on a chair, drink tea and look out the window or watch a movie. Even at night, when I can not fall asleep, I can come here and start to bake cupcakes or cookies to relax.

Living room

Silhouette of my cat in the bedroom