Eleven new Finnish students arrived at the obshezhitie today. I've been saying quick privets and scampering away from them, not wanting to introduce myself while looking and sounding as under the weather as I do. I went to a café with Anya in the evening - partly because I had eaten nothing in three days and had an omelette craving, partly so that my diary wouldn't continue to be just a list of symptoms. Something always seems to be troubling her. Like a lot of young Russians Anya is bored in her home town and can't wait to find a job [View Full Entry]

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I felt slightly better today but still couldn't leave the flat. All that was left of the sickness was the soreness in my body, but the headache had got worse and I couldn't stop coughing. The most depressing part of being sick in Russia is having nothing around you to make you more comfortable. My mattress is rock hard and lies on top of a wooden board, my duvet doesn't cover the entire bed. When I wanted a hot bath and a shave to freshen up this afternoon all that came out of the tap was tepid, murky water. A cup [View Full Entry]

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I felt worse when I woke up. It was painfully similar to my illness in Yaroslavl. My whole body ached, especially my back and kidneys. There was a pain behind my eyes. I was too weak to get out of bed but could never manage to sleep for long. Every time I moved there was a gurgling in my chest that would become heartburn, and my nose was too blocked to breathe properly. [View Full Entry]

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The lecture this morning that I had cut short my trip to Moscow for was cancelled, to be replaced by an exursion to a kettle museum. To make things worse I woke up with a headache and a fever, feeling just as I had when I was ill in Yaroslavl in the autumn. I forgot to put my hat on for part of yesterday morning, and because I wasn't wearing a belt the freezing air reached my back too - Russian weather only needs to catch you out for an hour to make you pay for it. With a sore head [View Full Entry]

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We got up at 8.30 and watched some Moscow breakfast television. My shower was a real treat; I hadn't touched warm, clean water for three weeks. On her way to work Helen left me at Mayakovskaya metro station, which is half way down ulitsa Tverskaya. I strolled down the same street for three hours, trying to get a feel for the place. Being 'downtown' it is incredibly loud; a permanent traffic jam with pavements packed with people. Red Square is half an hour's walk from Tsvetnoi Bulvar, so I walked as far as the Kremlin and back. Looking in some of [View Full Entry]

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I set off for Moscow at 3.30 in the afternoon. The single ticket cost 68 roubles, about the price of a cup of coffee. My accent was terrible as I first asked directions to the station then spoke to the woman at the 'kassa', but they took pity on me and didn't scowl too much. The 'elektrichka' train wasn't the most comfortable. I imagine it's an elongated prison van; it has a wide corridor, rows of hard metal benches and windows so grubby that it was almost impossible to see the beautiful countryside out of. Coming up from the muddy floor [View Full Entry]

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A definition of Russian logic? The placement test that we weren't given at the beginning of the course finally happened this afternoon. The catch? No-one will change groups afterwards. It was done just because we said we would have like to have taken one three weeks ago. There were 170 grammar questions to answer in an hour - but not one about horses and bolts and stable doors. My head started to really hurt after question 100 but I felt that I answered the questions ok. There was an individual oral exam with Zhanna once we had finished, ten demeaning role-plays [View Full Entry]

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Spring will soon be here; the weather is getting closer to zero after four months below freezing. The sky is now usually cold blue rather than cold grey. Icicles are begining to melt, which means they are falling from the tops of buildings and crashing to the ground. Most places underneath rafters are taped off, but the post office isn't. A piece of ice the size of a chandelier fell only two yards in front of me, making a sound like crashing glass. I walked away feeling startled: if it had landed on my head I'm sure it would have done [View Full Entry]

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The people I live with in the obshezhitie... [View Full Entry]

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There was only one thing I wanted to do today. I was a boy who loves pancakes, in a country that loves pancakes, on pancake day. Today is the end of a very big Russian celebration. From Sarah Brown's email to me from Petersburg: "There's a festival this week called 'Maslenitsa', which is the Russian 'Pancake Week'. It started on monday and goes right through to sunday, which is the start of the fast before Easter. Traditionally something different happens each day. On monday a straw scarecrow is made, dressed in women's clothing, and carried around the neighbourhood by singing people. [View Full Entry]

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