Never a penalty.

We went out for a Georgian meal tonight. The restaurant is called Dukhan and is a big underground room with stone walls.

I decided I needed a haircut this morning, but I don't trust Russian barbers (judging by Russian hairstyles!) and Matthew from my course offered to do it for me. It seemed the lesser of two evils, so I bought some clippers and scissors from the market and went to his hozyaika's flat. I sat in the kitchen and very carefully told him what I wanted. There was no mirror, so half way through I asked him how it looked compared to the other haircuts he had done: "I don't know really, this is the first haircut where I've used scissors". I spent the rest of the time biting my nails, but at the end I thought it looked ok.

Cloudless blue skies and 24 degree temperatures isn't quite how I'd imagined a Russian October, but it was perfect weather for football. At half time Shinnik were drawing 1-1 with Torpedo, but a mixture of bad luck and even worse refereeing meant we lost 3-1. The atmosphere at the stadium is really good - and it feels good to be part of something the town is proud of.

Emma had her birthday party in the evening. Everyone dressed 'in Russian', and when we found that all the bars were either closed or boring we even celebrated in Russian, which is buying dozens of bottles of Yarpivo from a kiosk and drinking in the street. Or sitting on a big drainage pipe to be precise. Imagine what Larissa our media teacher thought when she walked past with a friend.

After that we had our first night in 'Joy Party'. It's the club that everyone I know who has been to Yaroslavl had told me about, so it felt like a pilgrimage finally being able to see it for myself! Everyone had a good time. The place is hard to describe - it plays loud eastern european dance music. We all had a lot to drink, so it was a great opportunity to get in some shameless dancing practice before play rehearsals start!

I didn't get back to Tolbukhina until 4. It was another 'crazy crazy Yaroslavl' night and I'm sure Emma had a good time.

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