The real thing.

Tamara Aleksandrovna's thermometer on the kitchen window sill said minus 2 degrees this morning. After being so cold yesterday I put my gloves and hat on, and swapped my suede shoes for fur-lined horse riding boots.

I got to school half an hour early to do some homework, but Valentina Ivanovna our secretary stopped me in the hall to ask a question about my landlady. When she starts talking she's hard to stop; I only made my way into the classroom 25 minutes later! She did say I looked beautiful in my new jumper though.

I had a grammar lesson with Lena first. We worked on our own rather than going through exercises together, and when we checked them I got most of them right. It shows I'm improving but there's still a long way to go. Olga was in a good mood as usual. We read a short story about space, which didn't make much sense. I'm sure she chooses her texts to confuse us when we translate them!

For once I walked straight back to Tolbukhina after classes. The ulitsa Svobody thermometer said minus 3 which made the shops seem a long way away. A bowl of borsch was waiting for me when I got in, a cup of coffee and two pieces of black bread. I only had an hour to get ready before going to the rehearsal on ulitsa Schedrina. While I was in the bath it started to snow outside. I watched it fall from my bedroom window for a while - hardly believing my eyes- and when I left the flat ten minutes later it had settled. Dusk had fallen by six o'clock and everywhere is half an inch deep in pure white snow.

Yaroslavl looks completely different; it was like walking out of a colour photo and, the length of a bath later, into a black and white one. It's still falling quite hard, but the only ones that seem to be excited are the infant school children and myself!

We will know tomorrow if it will pass, or if the snow is here to stay.

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