http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , Russia , Centre , Yaroslavl en-us Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:07:13 BST Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:07:13 BST The play started at 7 so everyone met at the school at 5 to get ready. My costume was Jamie's grey trousers a white dress shirt and matching bowtie a bottle green butler's jacket and the valenki. My twenty minutes in makeup involved a man squeezing an entire tube of hair gel over my head combing my hair into an 19th century centre parting and sticking some of my fringe to my forehead with glu http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-200382.html I know the stories are not in line but it takes me awhile to get the pictures downloaded to my computer then uploaded on here but since I had the day off due to Women's Day I thought I would get my blog updated and back in order. It was a nice day off and Gaukhar and I had a good day shopping and then I came home made peanut brittle played volleyball and now updating the blog.They now call m http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-135472.html Hello EveryoneI have spent two weeks enjoying Russian hospitality. We have travelled 1450 km. of rivers and canals through four bodies of water and 19 locks. At one point we were at the 62nd parallel. That night when it got dark enough to turn on lights it started getting light again. Many of us had trouble sleeping.Although the Russians tend to be stoney faced most of the timethey come http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-66441.html We put our watches back rather than forward last night so when the woman called our room at 11.30 and told us to leave at once we still thought it was half past 9. We struggled to pack our things and each have a shower in time but somehow we managed. Claire and Orphais had already left to explore Moscow for a day so there was just myself Tamzin and Liisa left. Chris W picked up where he left off http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-49120.html Yartek is a thirty minute walk from Yaroslavl Glavnyi station it took us almost exactly fourteen hours to get from my new school to my old one. While we walked I showed Liisa Claire Tamzin and Orphais the places that mean something to me the poliklinika where I took my shirt off for the three women to examine me when I was ill the Tolbukhina block of flats where I used to live the Shinnik f http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-49118.html When I arrived in Moscow it was 5 in the morning. I had an awful headache throughout the night in the cramped hot room and was desperate to clean my teeth have a shower and a glass of water. But first I had to make my way back to Yaroslavl.I found my route on the metro from Kurskaya to Komsomolskaya and then found Yaroslavskii train station. Having asked ten miserable ladies in various kiosks for http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-34841.html A last morning of being shouted at by Marina Ivanovna. My suitcase wasn't in the hall by 9 o'clock. I was going to bring it out of my room when I left at 9.15 the van wasn't coming to collect it until 3 so it made no difference but it didn't stop her treating me like a mischief as usual. I dragged my suitcase through the snow on my own instead so that I didn't have to go back twice. It was minu http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-32380.html Minus 5 this today but I thought it felt like minus 8 which is why Chiara beat me in the guessing game again It snowed a lot overnight and it is kneedeep where noone has walked.We chatted about our plans for next week in Lena's class then did some grammar after the break. I hasn't sunk in yet that at midday tomorrow I won't be a Yartek student any more I feel as if I have been studying her http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-32224.html Minus 5 this morning so Chiara is one game ahead with only three days to play.Our last topic with Viktor was the environment and ecology. We read an article and answered some questions about Chernobyl. During the lesson Chris J came in to tell Viktor that he would not be in his class later. He was mugged and beaten up last night by a group of six youths who stole his phone 2000 roubles and lef http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-32068.html The unthinkable happened this morning I woke up feeling awake and ready for the day The last week's temperature game started with a draw. Minus 3 this morning but it felt considerably colder. We had our last classes with Yulia in the morning. We continued reading part of a novel by Tolstoi about vampires translating it paragraph by paragraph then discussed what had happened at the end of a page http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-31911.html For once a peaceful morning. I went back to bed after breakfast to sleep off a lot of mashed potato and small sausages and got up at 1.Prospekt Lenina seems to be the most festive part of town. New Year is the big celebration and Russian Christmas is not until the 7th January so there are lights above most buildings that say 2006. There was new snow this morning so the square looks wintery. Th http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-31764.html Friday night's concert was certainly entertaining. It took place in a small room in Yaroslavl's 'House of Friendship' also on ulitsa Nekrasova. The televised part was four of the girls from Oxford singing and dancing to the traditional song Kalinka then a New Year's greeting in five languages Uju in Ibo Alessandra in Spanish Anna in Italian and Lois in French. The English part was given to http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-31760.html Another Marina Ivanovna tantrum this morning. My almost breaking the taps means turning them off so that no water drips out. She is too weak to turn them back on. If she tells me I have broken it and makes me give her 1000 roubles she will find a replacement for 500. Even more insulting is her insistence on speaking in English even though she doesn't know how. If she calls me awful or terrib http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-31545.html Minus eight outside this morning. I win for the week againViktor's conversation lessons were uncomfortable. The topic was terrorism but it was awkward listening to and reading so much Russian ignorance. In Russia people see only extremes black or white good or bad rich or poor ours or theirs right or wrong and to quote the booklet the civilised world and the Muslim world. It has made us http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-31540.html I received a totally unnecessary threat this morning from Marina Ivanovna that if I break the tap in the bathroom I will pay for a new one. I don't appreciate being shouted at hypothetically. She warned me in such poor English that I only just made sense of what she said. To make a point I repeated petulantly I don't understand until she had to speak in Russian to me.As usual things became much http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-31419.html Minus 1 this morning. Another surprise and Chiara guessed closest so our weekly game is 11 so far. Because of the overnight thaw the streets are covered in 'slush' again which is awkward to walk through. Viktor taught us about sects. A million people belong to religious cults in Russia including three people that he knows. My concensus was that it is a way for con men to trick money out of vul http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-31168.html The thermometer read minus 15 this morning which took Chiara and I by surprise. There was no wind so it didn't feel any more uncomfortable than usual. Lessons were neither good nor bad. Mondays don't require a lot of brain work so I was in a daydream for most of it. Maybe I am sleepy all the time because after taking my overcoat off to go inside I am still wearing four thermal layers in a warm cl http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-31162.html As impossible as it seemed I wasn't tired when we left Yartek so I went for a walk with Chiara. We walked in the snow alongside the river Kotorosl near where we live. It was minus 14 at midnight the Kotorosl had frozen over so we even walked on it as far into the middle as we dared. There was more than a foot of snow on top of the ice so we couldn't tell we were walking across a river it felt http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-30739.html For some reason the bang on my bedroom door came an hour and a half earlier today. I did everything as usual but went back to bed at 8. It was still dark outside and I was tired after last night.I woke up at 11.20 and hurried two hours late to Yartek forgetting to put on my woolly hat. As I walked past the thermometer on ulitsa Svobody it read minus 11 and the wind in my face made it feel even c http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-30639.html I have had enough of Marina Ivanovna. Like Tamara Aleksandrovna before her she has no idea how to talk to me and because I am not Russian I am entitled to less respect. The way she has constructed my mornings makes me feel very uncomfortable.My routine isTrams start rumbling at 6 in the morning so I wake up with a headache. I have to get out of bed at 8.20 when the loud banging on my door starts http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-30535.html I correctly guessed minus 7 today. It is so cold that my face turns purple from the minute I step outside and my hands sting painfully if I don't keep them in my pockets.My day at the language school was tiring. Lena taught us in the morning we have finished our workbook so we moved on to grammar excercises from another one. Her classes have been a huge help to my Russian by topping up the basic http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-30534.html I had a bad night's sleep. The noisy clattering of the trams woke me up at 6 this morning as usual by which time my throat was hurting from the cold weather. A breakfast of greasy vegetables and a sausage didn't help but I had an excuse for not eating it.The temperature is minus 7 and I took a 20 lead in our game. When it gets to minus 10 I'll put another pair of trousers on underneath my jeans http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-30257.html Neither myself nor Chiara imagined that it could be minus 8 this morning but my guess of minus 5 was closest. It was a very cold walk to schoolYulia's class was good. We finished the story about the plumber his two house calls are to a lonely old man and a young boy with no parents so he arranges for them to live together and talked a bit about it. I slept well last night so I felt awake an http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-30127.html There wasn't much to do today.I was in my scarf and overcoat ready to go out at 7 fighting with another useless flimsy Russian key and chasing escaping cats down flights of stairs. They seem as desperate to break out of the flat as I do. At 7.02 I got a message from Katya to say she couldn't come bowling so I also had to send charmingly grumpy texts at the same time. It wasn't how I'd planned my http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-30121.html I slept in until 10 then woke up for a breakfast of cold tea warm brocolli and a greasy cutlet. The plan for the daytime was to relax. Katya invited me to dinner with her parents in the evening and I was understandably stressed about it... And so 5 o'clock arrived. I always yawn when I'm nervous so by quarter to I was almost asleep I managed to transport a bottle of wine from ulitsa Bolshaya Ok http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-29767.html I woke up early to see my friends off at Yartek. I didn't have time for a shower and Marina Ivanovna said that I was not allowed to have one when I got back. I may not wash when she is not in the flat. And I must shave today.Another tie in the temperature game we guessed a degree either side of minus 2. The week finished 21 to me hopefully we will be guessing real winter numbers on mondayI sai http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-29703.html The official first day of winter and the last day in Yaroslavl for the 13 week students. Fittingly we woke up to an inch of snow which always makes the town even more attractive. Today's temperature game was a tie. I guessed minus 3 and Chiara minus 1. It was a bit of a mumbled conversation on the way to the language school we had only slept for four hours eachToday's topic in Viktor's class w http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-29690.html Minus 3 this morning.My guess of minus 2 was closer than Chiara's so I'm 21 up with two games to play. Moving neighbourhoods hasn't done me many favours but it's good to have someone to walk to Yartek with. Now I'm almost awake by the time we get to schoolSchool was uneventful. Lena taught us grammar in the morning which is getting harder every lesson then we talked about cats with Olga. The http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-29585.html Chiara squared the series this morning by guessing closest to plus 6 degrees. It seems that the real Russian winter won't come until after Christmas which is a shame because I would rather walk through snow on the main streets than slippery mud. Viktor's class was 'only ok'. I read three texts last night preparing for a discussion on one of them well it is a conversation class but for two hour http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-29218.html I have a new game with Chiara. We meet at 9.35 every morning outside her hozyaika's flat on ulitsa Pobedy to walk to Yartek together and we each guess the temperature before we get to the thermometer. Closest number wins of course best of five until friday. I won the inaugural match guessing zero and being just a degree too high. Then we went to the MTS office before classes to unblock my phone http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Yaroslavl/blog-29074.html