I got up late. I didn't feel hungover after last night, just exhausted. A fry-up awaited me in the kitchen, which when served in the middle of Russian quantities of grease isn't as pleasant as it sounds. I watched the world go by on my balcony (skoda-merc-skoda-merc-army truck-skoda) for an hour, then decided to go to the shops. As I was half way down the stairs I realised I'd forgotten my shoes and was still in my slippers! Still being unable to open the door of my flat I had to wait for my landlady to get back. Half an hour [View Full Entry]

---

---

'Myusli' for breakfast. As I left the flat Tamara Aleksandrovna called me back to inspect my hair, then grabbed a towel from the bathroom and wrapped it around my head before rubbing it dry for me. She told me off for not taking my coat and put it on me, even though it's 15 degrees outside. What will she be like when winter comes? Four hours of classes earlier, I'm so tired I've already almost forgotten what they were about. Each student had to describe me ("...stocky, healthy, needs a haircut...") then we learned about gerunds and participles and predicates. There [View Full Entry]

---

---

I haven't been in Russia long enough to make any conclusions about the people, but after two weeks I have realised a few things. They have two 'personas', a public one and a private one. People on the street look miserable, teachers and landladies always seem cheerful. When someone chooses to talk to you they are friendly and interested in where you're from, and what you're doing in Russia. When you need help from someone in a shop they are farcically rude. I'm sure women in shops go home and are lovely to their family but they certainly have no time [View Full Entry]

---

---

What is it about Russia that makes me more tired when I get up than when I went to bed? At school there were two hours of Viktor in the morning, and then two hours with giggly Olga in the afternoon. Her grammar classes give me headaches, but the hard work is worth it because people respect you more when you speak properly. I went to the mobile phone shop on ulitsa Nekrasova to buy a new 'mobilnik' after lessons. Twelve days ago I got nervous buying a bottle of water, but after an hour of questions and filling out forms [View Full Entry]

---

---

Success at breakfast when I managed to persuade Tamara Aleksandrovna to put honey in my porridge instead of sour cream. Russians are very proud of their smetana, and the look I receive when I say I'm not too keen on it says "You really can't be Russian if you don't like our sour cream". If I can have milk in my Nescafé instead of half a lemon the first ten minutes of every day will be alright. At the moment I find it very difficult to speak Russian straight away, as at university I am only in a Russian environment for [View Full Entry]

---

---

Blinchiki for breakfast. Two hours of text analysis with Yulia this morning. She hadn't taught us before but she seems nice. I copied a Russian CD yesterday (Zemfira, a pop-rock singer who a friend from Exeter told me about) and gave copies to everyone. Her songs Beskonechnost' and Webgirl are the soundtrack of my trip so far; attractive but melancholy. Then Larissa - with the blue hair - in the afternoon for a media lesson. Sitting in the ulitsa Tolbukhina post office internet room, I was about to write "just a normal afternoon". As I was typing, a woman walked into [View Full Entry]

---

---

I was allowed a lie-in today, and after my kasha I went back to my room to download yesterday's pictures onto my laptop. I've turned a photo of my first Russian beer into my screen-saver. Tamara Aleksandrovna gave me a shopping list, and told me to go to the Universam supermarket downstairs to buy some fizzy drinks for dinner. The supermarket is part of a chain, and therefore feels surprisingly western, the only differences being that vodka has its' own aisle, and they play pop music. I found bottles of Dyushes, Baikal and Tarkhun, bought them from the checkout without too [View Full Entry]

---

---

I went for a walk around Yaroslavl in the morning with Chris J, to take some photos. I don't like feeling like a tourist, in fact I hate it, but after working so hard last week we felt we'd earned a break. I met Emma, Bhavina, Precious and Sarah on ulitsa Kirova for lunch. We went to the Scottish café expecting to feel a bit more at home, but apart from tartan table cloths and some stag horns on the wall it wasn't much different to anywhere else. We had a look round the shops for a couple of hours afterwards [View Full Entry]

---

---

The end of my first week in Russia. It's been a good experience; I expected to feel a lot more anxious, but it's only yesterday and today that the culture shock and the feeling of being 4000 kilometres from home has caught up with me. I haven't made any Russian friends yet - I didn't want to introduce myself by stuttering and making mistakes as I tend to at the moment - but I am going for a walk with Chris J tomorrow to take some photos, and hopefully we will meet some people then. And then a celebration. It won't [View Full Entry]

---

---

My breakfast was kasha with smetana, porridge with sour cream mixed in, a cup of nescafé and - honestly - a cheese flavour choc-ice. There were four hours of conversation and grammar classes, then I went to a kiosk to buy a loaf of baked sugar bread and a big bottle of apricot juice for lunch. I had my first balalaika lesson at 4 but I think it will also be my last. I don't like the man who teaches it and I will not be able to play well in just eighteen weeks. Chris J has taken to it though, [View Full Entry]

---

---