"Det här är vad man ser när man tittar ut över mitt kvarter"

Some of you might wonder where on earth I lay my head at night - and that is a really good question. Like for many international students I've been offered accommodation with a Russian babushka (=grandma/old lady). My babushka is 75 years of age and has been hosting international students for ten years or so. She lives in a four room flat on the 7th floor in a big block of flats, and is kindly letting me one of those four rooms.

 

When you're renting from a babushka there's always an option to pay a bit more and get meals included (babushkas are renouned for feeding people large amounts of food). I, however, was too cheap for that - believe it or not. It's been pointed out to me that if you want dinner included you're quite restricted in that you have to be home a certain time, and I figured that my usual breakfast - coffee and a piece of bread - is not going to cost me anywhere near 100 euros a month, which the included breakfast would have cost me. I do slightly envy those who get great Russian food provided tho...

 

I'm really pleased with my accommodation this far. The room is a good size and the flat is really spacious! The neighbourhood is.. I don't know quite how to describe it! It's lively in that there's lots of people about - kids playing, people walking to/from the shops etc. It's not too far from town and uni, only 10-15 mins on the bus. It seems quite calm from what I've noticed these first two weeks.

 

Fun fact about my neighbourhood: There are supermarkets e-ve-ry-where. At the bottom of my house there's a supermarket and a meat shop (?), across the road there's a supermarked. Across the other road there's a small shopping center and a market. It's almost as if there's a supermarket every 100 meters.

 

I'm going on an excursion this Sunday, so hopefully I can provide you with some nice pix from that after the weekend!

 

До встречи!