I woke up at mid-day. After last night's Moldovan red wine, Armenian beer, Russian vodka and German lager my head felt like an international summit, where talks weren't going very well. I felt tired so I stayed in the flat all day. Over lunch Tamara Aleksandrovna asked me what she could do to make my meals better, which was a difficult question to answer. All the things that I enjoy at home - milk, sandwiches, chicken for example - are horrible in Russia, especially milk, and there isn't a culture of foreign food so I'm quite limited. If we really are [View Full Entry]

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No snow this morning as promised, it has just become colder and started to rain. I will need to buy some gloves soon. At school we had media, conversation, grammar and translation; all the teachers seemed to be in a good mood. It's Chris W's birthday, so we bought two cakes and had a gathering in one of the classrooms at lunchtime. We saved the real celebration for the evening. A table for seventeen at the Georgian restaurant (twelve students from Yartek, Louise and Laura who are doing the spektakl with us, and three classmates of Bhav's in Sheffield who came [View Full Entry]

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My day started at 2 this morning, as Tamara Aleksandrovna charged into my room to call the militsiya as there were men on the roof above the supermarket. After scaring the life out of me and making me 'play dead' for ten minutes I thought she might creep out quietly and close the door. Which she did - after taking my jacket from the back of my chair and putting it in my cupboard. Matthew brought in Yaroslavl's weekly newspaper today and showed us the front page. It reads "Grandson of a witch-doctor, Yaroslavl resident Kallimullah Kairulin: I know exactly where [View Full Entry]

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I mentioned Katya to Tamara Aleksandrovna at the breakfast table. Apparently next time I see her I'm to take an orange with me, so she can look at it when she gets home to remind her of me. I think she would prefer some English music so I might be slightly more modern and copy some of my CDs for her! Tamara Aleksandrovna also said that in two days' time the first snow will come, but it's been so mild lately I don't think it's likely. It's very cold every morning but by mid-day it's normally about 12 degrees, and the [View Full Entry]

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Back to normal today. I played my daily game of 'where has Tamara Aleksandrovna hidden my razor?' then ate most of my kasha before going to school. For most of Viktor's class we spoke about our impressions of Kazan. I compared notes with Ellie, Chiara, Clare and 'old' Chris, who studied there for a month last summer. When all is said and done it is an attractive place, clean and culturally diverse. It's a shame that it was so poorly organised and we only had two days in which to see it. Olga's class was good. She is helping us learn [View Full Entry]

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Myself and Emma used each other's head as a pillow, and we put our legs over Chris J's body as he was lying down opposite us, with his head in the corner on Sarah's feet. We didn't sleep that much but we had a lot to talk about, so it didn't bother anyone too much. We played another game of twenty questions - Precious guessed my 'Olga's pet terrapin' in just four! We stopped in the wilderness at about 2 for a 'wee break'. When we were all back from the forest Chris took his guitar out and played 'Angels' by [View Full Entry]

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We had breakfast at a diner on ulitsa Karl Marx, then went on a tour of the town. All of us had had enough of not being taken seriously, so we spoke Russian with each other and let the imam know we were annoyed. Kazan is bigger than Yaroslavl, but it has many gardens and parks so it feels like there is more space. The buildings are newer and better looking - houses are built in white brick in different designs, as opposed to Yaroslavl's uniform grey blocks. Also the people are more diverse; Kazan is half Muslim and half Russian [View Full Entry]

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We squeezed into the minibus at 7 this evening, and set off for Kazan. The 850 kilometres of road was all bumpy and uncomfortable, and twelve seats for ten people didn't leave much room to sleep in. There were pot-holes everywhere that threw us around, and we even drove through two fields near Ivanovo when the driver got lost. Ivanovo in the dark was a frightening place, the fog and eerily silent wide streets making it feel hostile. We arrived in Tatarstan fifteen hours later, feeling very tired and sore. We got to Hotel Fatima at 10 in the morning, unpacked [View Full Entry]

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Another play rehearsal last night. If Jamie and Chris "s volosami" are such show-offs now what will they be like in costumes and in front of an audience? They went to a pool hall near Kirova afterwards with Bhavina and Emma, and I joined them later with Katya. The boys lost 2-1 to the girls: I think we underestimated Bhav's skills! All the Yartek students spoke Russian so that Katya could understand, and she taught us the words for 'stripes', 'cushion' and 'break'. We got 'shushed' by the manager, another grumpy Russian. Classes started half an hour late this morning. The [View Full Entry]

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Tamara Aleksandrovna made my kasha a different way this morning. She spent ten minutes explaining to me what she had done, and when I didn't understand she reached for the coffee grinder and motioned putting coffee into it. I also had mini hot pieces of bread that she made herself. My Russian was still in bed, but I'm learning that "da", "ya ne znayu" and "yasno" are perfect answers to most questions, of which there are many. No lessons at the language school today, as Viktor had arranged for us to spend a morning in school 49 on ulitsa Svobody. It [View Full Entry]

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