The set-up.

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Today I took to staring out of the window in lessons to pass the time. It is snowing again. First it started to fall very lightly, and the strong wind blew some of the snow from every roof up into the air. At 11.30 it got heavier, big flakes that settled on the fir trees on ulitsa Zhelyabova and at 1 it became lighter again, almost drizzle. After classes there was a blizzard outside. A blanket of snow a foot deep has covered the streets again. It's officially the second day of spring but the town still looks wintery.

Anya called in the afternoon to invite me to Belaya Chashka, the Tv.G.U canteen. It's on the ground floor of the main building, where the Russian students have their lectures. The bar is almost a Russian take on a Parisian coffee house but the tables and chairs look as if they have been taken from a kindergarten. There is a small bookshop in one corner, with paperpacks of Pushkin and some history books on Tverskaya region.

I sat down between Claire and Anya but wasn't introduced to the man sat opposite me. He was about 30 with glasses and a goatee beard. I soon realised that he was recording an interview with Claire, with a notepad in hand and a dictophone on the table. They were talking about Tver and the possibilities for young people. It was impossible to refuse when he asked for my opinions, but even though my Russian stood up to the test I haven't been here for long enough to tell him anything useful for his magazine. Truth be told, I just rambled about Kazan. It isn't every day you get to talk to a Petersburg journalist so I'm glad I had something to say. I have certainly never spoken so fast.

We went for a walk afterwards. It is painfully cold on the street and falling over still hurts an awful lot.

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Photos

Anya.
A good friend.

My Tv.G.U student card.
I like to pretend it is part of my undercover secret service work. It isn't, but it will let me buy a train ticket to Moscow for half-price.