Is there a doctor in the house?

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It was about time I got out of the house and saw some of Ukraine. In the afternoon Ana and I took a taxi to Popasnaya, which is ten minutes away from ulitsa Stepnaya. We are so far from anywhere, I don't know how I managed to send a parcel here from England in the summer.

We stopped for Ana's mum to give me a guided tour of the library where she works. It was like a school, with each classroom filled with books and a main hall with tables where people can read. After that we walked around town and Mrs. Kovalchuk went to order my ticket back to Yaroslavl - she has found a shortcut that will only take 30 hours.

It was very cold, and I agreed with her concensus that there is nothing to do here, so we found a restaurant and stopped for an ice cream. We were the only ones there and Ana asked the waitress to turn the loud music down, only to find out that it was a live singer, who must have been singing to herself before we arrived! I had a really unhappy moment that I tried to hide from her, just like so many of them that I had with her in Moscow. She is great to spend time with and already a lot like a sister, so I tried to think up a way to see her before she goes to America. If it means missing some classes in Tver after the 13 week mark and running away to Kiev for a week then so be it. It's a shame she is so reluctant to talk in English because it is better than my Russian; she is doing a project that I am helping her with.

In the evening my heart hurt a lot for ten minutes, so much so that I almost couldn't breathe and had to lie down. It could be the result of not being outside enough - it certainly hasn't been brought on my stress like last time. Mr. Kovalchuk had just got home from being on call and gave me a shot of clear medicine from his bag - having assured me that it wasn't vodka, which this morning he proclaimed to be the answer to all ailments!

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