Vladimir and Suzdal - skazal chto?

Looking out over Vladimir

This past weekend we went on a trip to two towns a few hours outside of Moscow, Vladimir and Suzdal.  It was a ton of fun, and it was really cool seeing other parts of Russia that aren't so industrialized and built up.  It was amazing seeing buildings and paintings from as early as the 12th century; I don't think I've seen very many things that old before.  One of the buildings we saw actually contains the oldest secular standing wall IN THE WORLD.

oldest secular wall in the world

My favorite parts of the trip were: a) a pottery place we visited in Suzdal; and 2) the museum of wooden architecture in Suzdal.  I actually really enjoyed making pottery, and although I was awful at it, I would love to do it more and maybe make it in to a hobby.  I think Rhodes has a ceramics class, so maybe I'll look into that for senior year...

Church of the Transfiguration, a wooden church from the 18th cent.

pottery making

Also, on the trip I came up with translations of a few English phrases that are commonly used in my vocabulary, yet I did not know: 

- милый (meelih) : cute

- как (kak) : like

- сказал что? (skazal chto?) : say what? (courtesy of Matt)

- все это хорошо в окрестности! (vse eta horashow v akpectnactiy!) : it's all good in the neighborhood!

I promise I'm doing math here also! Lots of math! Classes are going well so far, but not much is new with that...except for when the algebraic number theory said we were going on a "trip back to high school" and then proceeded to comment on fields with only one maximum ideal...which I did not know until last semester. Math is certainly taught differently (read: better) here.

Well, that's it for now! Today is Defenders of the Fatherland Day, aka Men's Day, so we're gonna go see what kind of trouble we can get ourselves in. Also, I think we may try cross-country skiing this weekend, so I'll keep everyone posted on that!