"And that's probably all".

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This lesson this morning was 'Russia Today'. I don't know the name of the teacher yet, a thin lady in her fifties with greying blonde hair. We watched the morning news - with reports about Iran, bird 'flu and another Russian figure skating medal at the winter olympics - then read through some articles. Lessons are far more formal here in comparison with Yartek.

The teachers had organised a 'meet and greet' afternoon for the international students - the idea was that we should be introduced to a few of the students from the university. It took place in a large hall across the courtyard. I was told to sit at one of the six tables, with Henrietta from Germany and four girls from Tver.

The event was ghastly. The speech that the thin lady gave at the start could not have distanced the 'innostrantsy' more from the students. It became two hours of clumsiness and tactlessness and by the end I was thoroughly fed up. We were even divided by nationality, and made to go to the front of the hall in turns to tell 80 or so strangers about ourselves. When all eyes turned to me two or three sentences spluttered out of my mouth before I bailed out; I felt more like an exhibit than a guest.

I felt fine talking to the girls at my table, and they invited some of us to a café for the evening. We were like cousins at a family gathering, escaping from the parents' boring conversation to go and play upstairs! I walked with Karin and sat with Yenu, Christa and Yulia from Finland. We talked for hours over lattés and hot chocolates and got to know each other better.

When we got back to the obschezhitie we stayed up until 2 in our lounge, watching ice hockey and eating the chocolate-filled blini that Yulia made for us.

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Photos

Ploschad Lenina.
The statue of Vladimir Ilych Lenin. The flowers to his left have been laid on a plaque, commemorating the citizens of Tver who died during the civil war. On top of the buildings are the flags of Russia and the Tverskaya region.

Tverskoi Prospekt.
The busiest and noisiest part of the town.