The Rigorous Swan

It's an interesting name I know.  I've been reluctant to sitting down and writing a blog.  I've got one that I used for a class assignment, and I liked it.  I just didn't like the fact that I needed to take time to sit down and write out my opinion about stuff on a routine basis.  However, in my travels, there's plenty to write home about.

The name...  Well the students that are participating in this program have all gone through some sort of Russian language training.  Even if it was very little before they came, they're enrolled in Russian language classes here and now.  The Russian students speak very good English and I've been playing that game of "How do you say this?" my entire time I've been here, only to forget the word 10 minutes later because I've tried to say a couple of other things along the way.  However, there was a phrase that didn't escape me.  Groznee leibet.  I have no idea if that's the correct way to translate it in English, but that's how I pronounce it and that's been acceptable thus far.  We went to the Tretyakov Art Gallery that's famous for housing all of the famous Russian paintings.  It was an experience.  I'm not one for portraits of royalty, which there was a lot of that, but I do like paintings that capture a scene or moment.  I wouldn't call myself an admirer of historical art, but I felt that while in Russia, experience Russia.  I wasn't familiar with any of the paintings by name but occasionally I would encounter one that was familiar as if I had seen it in a book sometime.  There were several that weren't familiar that I really liked though.  Luckily a lot of the paintings had descriptions in both Russian and English writing.  I found one of a Swan and played the "How do you say that in Russian" game.  The swan is "Leibet".  Then I later came across a statue of Ivan the Terrible but it called him "Rigorous" on the description.  Seeing that this was different than Terrible, I asked how to say rigorous and it's "Groznee".  And for the rest of the night I went around saying Groznee Leibet.  I think it's a decent name for the blog, or a restaurant.  Probably not a farm though.