Zero degrees on my way to school. It's still raining, but today it's almost horizontal and a type of grey mist. The walk was the coldest I've felt since I've been here, the wind really hurt my hands. I took my clothes to the factory before classes; I could have stayed there all day in my rickety plastic chair, watching the century-old washing machines, and almost century-old babushka who work there, spin my socks round in the warm room that smells of soap-suds! Viktor needs a tooth operation so he only came in to give us some work, then left us [View Full Entry]

---

---

It hasn't stopped raining today. Because the roads are so bumpy there are puddles everywhere, so in the absence of a pavement next to the circus I went on tip-toes on the kerb, which is only a foot wide. Now I know why so many of the world's best gymnasts are Russian! There was almost a storm outside during Yulia's class. We finished the text about pancakes, then moved on to a Chekhov short story. Larissa taught us in the afternoon. In the first session Chris U started to feel chest pains, so (after much protesting) she sent him home. When [View Full Entry]

---

---

Another lazy morning and afternoon. Tamara Aleksandrovna fed me the rest of the bread rolls for lunch and helped me with my Moscow street map. If things go to plan I'll be staying on prospekt Kotlova in the south-west. The metro station I need to find is Nagornaya, which once I've arrived at Komsomolskaya from Yaroslavl Glavnyi - about 5 hours - is only four stops clockwise on the orange line to Dobryninskaya, then four more south on the grey line. It's confusing just to look at it. Tamara Aleksandrovna has bought Lithuanian cheese in the supermarket downstairs, which she hoped [View Full Entry]

---

---

The knock on my door came at 8.30 this morning. Breakfast was one of Tamara Aleksandrovna's specialities - ground coffee with hot water poured over it, a big bowl of kasha, five freshly baked mini bread rolls and a pot of yoghurt - so she let me go back to bed for four hours to sleep it off. It's four degrees, grey and raining. I spent some of the afternoon working on my lines. I know them all now so I can spend this week experimenting with how to say them. How did 19th century Russian butlers with designs to be [View Full Entry]

---

---

It's a bit warmer than yesterday; the ulitsa Svobody thermometer said 4 degrees this morning. I left the flat in my grey woolly hat. As Tamara Aleksandrovna was letting me out of the door she adjusted the peak from over my right eye so that it was in the centre. Has she never seen MTV? In Viktor's class we took the roles of psychologists, to discuss the problems in the marriages of two fictional couples. I wanted to talk as much as possible but some of my ideas were hard to explain even in English. With Lena we finished cases and [View Full Entry]

---

---

Coffee and freshly baked hot Russian bread for breakfast this morning. Perfect. It was 2 degrees again on ulitsa Svobody. It's cold but it doesn't feel so bad where there is no dampness in the air; I am a thousand kilometres from the sea. Our first lesson was Viktor for conversation. Talking with him is good; he is very softly spoken and friendly. His English isn't fluent so he sometimes makes mistakes, and they are always funny. This morning he asked us if many British men "would rather have sexes at work than start a family". He brought in yesterday's newspaper [View Full Entry]

---

---

Only 2 degrees on my walk to school, according to the clock/thermometer next to the circus. I'm not letting myself think too much about the weather just yet, I know there's much colder to come! Today everyone seems to be wearing a hat for the first time and there are rumours that it will snow on friday. I am in a working mood, and I'm determined to take a step forward with my grammar. At the moment I sidestep the case-endings I don't know and re-phrase sentences another way, but I won't be able to master the language as a whole [View Full Entry]

---

---

No lessons this morning. The RLUS course organiser, Dr. Roy Bivon, had come to Yartek as part of a tour of all the Russian centres where British students are studying. Today was our turn for a meeting to discuss what we thought of our classes, teachers and landladies. I was expecting not to like him. It's felt like such a 'free' experience that I didn't want to think about someone in England organising it for me, but he seems to be ok. He is much more jolly than I thought he would be, and he took the students' point of view [View Full Entry]

---

---

It's surprising the things I have been taking for granted. The circus is performing on ulitsa Svobody. It's a circular cream building with a large banner that says 'Ekzotika i Fantastika'. A loudspeaker outside tells people on the street which acts there are, between circus songs and pop music. Because it's on my way to and from school the announcement is part of my daily routine. I know the words by heart, so when they changed the message this morning I almost didn't know where I was! Larissa gave us an article about Islam this afternoon and we had a discussion [View Full Entry]

---

---

Another sunday, another minibus journey. But this one was much more comfortable and only took us 80 kilometres, to Rostov. Half of our group went for a day trip and Katya came with me. Rostov is a very old town with wide streets, dozens of churches with bold grey domes and shop signs in an archaic cyrillic script. We almost had the place to ourselves because weekends are so quiet. There was a lot more space than in Yaroslavl and no large buildings; it really felt like being in the provinces, with a strong cold wind to remind us that winter [View Full Entry]

---

---