Blogs from Tver, Centre, Russia, Europe - page 4

Today was my first day back in lessons, after staying away from them for a little more time than I was allowed. In Lyudmila Giorgevna's class we watched the news, with reports from both Finland and England, then we talked about the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 as wednesday will be the 20th anniversary. In the afternoon I walked around Tver for three hours looking for a barbers shop. I went to every street that I know at least once, and found only a beauty salon for women and a sign saying 'parikmakherskaya', pointing to a basement which was almost pitch dark and where the dirty brick staircase was falling apart. When I got back to obshezhitie Kolya told me there was a good one one on the way from university to the post office, so I ... read more

I let my lethargy catch up with me today and stayed in the flat for most of the morning and afternoon, not doing much apart from giving my essay some more thought. When I went to the supermarket at lunchtime to buy a pizza I had just 90 kopecks too little money - even after hurriedly fumbling in the pockets of my jeans for a minute and pulling out four one rouble coins - so I had to hold everyone up and scamper to the cash machine. In the late afternoon the sky turned dark purple and there was a loud thunderstorn directly over the obshezhitie, which cannoned rain and even hail onto the windows and flooded the courtyard in minutes. When the strom cleared the evening was clear and bright. There was a leaving gathering ... read more

Another quiet day, the last of a low couple of weeks. Some photos instead, to draw a line between what has happened and what is to come. Pictures of people were taken by Nicolas (Kolya), and I have put the latest set of photos up by making a CD on his computer. Click on them to enlarge, as always.... read more

I went to the market this morning. I looked for some fresh bread and ham, but couldn't even find the food hall building without Yulia to guide me! Instead I walked through one of the clothes markets, and decided to buy a jumper to take to Kazan with me. My voice gave me away as not Russian after three sentences talking to the seller, and we talked about England and Tv.G.U while I haggled him down from 650 roubles to 550. The afternoon and evening were very quiet, occupied with the everyday parts of Tver life. Strolling around the almost empty aisles of Olimp supermarket choosing lasagne, 'Volga' beer and Z.A.O hleb biscuits for example. Myself, Tamzin and Michael sat in our kitchen until very late, talking about evolution and our translations. It may not have ... read more

As I woke up this morning I was thinking about what happened yesterday within five seconds. I missed the excursion with my group, and instead spent 4700 roubles on a new mobile phone before sitting in the internet room all afternoon emailing people at RLUS to ask about insurance. I called in at Dimitrii Andreevich's office on the way back, to see if he had heard any news from the militsiya about my laptop. He was surprised, even raised his voice, at my question. As far as the international office (Tv.G.U's representatives for foreign students) is concerned the blame is with me so it is not their problem any more. I had the sick feeling all afternoon, that everything my brain could find to think about was negative. Michael locked the door of the flat on ... read more