Five yeres in Novgorod
Posted by Massimo on July 4, 2009
Tooday iz dhe Amerrican Independence Day – and five yeres since I came too Novgorod too apply for studdies in Novgorod State University.
I can remember dhat day – the fórth of July, 2004 (tóo thousand fór) – quite clerely. On 10:15 p.m. my muddher and I got off dhe train from Pskov at dhe Central Railway Station in Novgorod. We caut a taxi and went too dhe landlady ov our first rented flat in Novgorod.
Dhat day seems too hav been dhe Day of dhe Yooth; at leest, I remember dhat sumthing woz cellebrated in Novgorod dhat day and certainly it woz not dhe Amerrican Independence Day – fortunately we doan’t cellebrate it yet. Allso, on dhat day there woz dhe final match of the Football European Championship 2004 in Portugal, where, as I lerned late at nite, Greece beet Portugal 2:0 (tóo-nil) and became dhe Champion ov Europe.
Much wauter has flown under dhe bridge since dhen. I became a student ov Novgorod State University, and nou I am a gradduate and even a poastgradduate. So it goes, as Kurt Vonnegut wood say. Nou I like this citty verry much, even dho Novgorod is not widhout trubbles (primarily munny trubbles), but still I wood like too stay here raadher dhan moove too Moscow or St Petersburg. Az dhe Russian singer Trofim sings:
Пусть Нью-Йорк и Париж
Дарят блеск и престиж -
Мне милей суеты разукрашенной
На реке на Оке,
От столиц вдалеке,
Городок под названьем Навашино.
(Let Nu York and Paris
Giv glammor and prestige,
But wot’s better for me dhan dhe embellished vannity iz
A small toun named Navashino
On dhe rivver Oka,
Far away from dhe cappitals. )
