Missed a bit.

---

I set my alarm for 7 o'clock, to have a lie-in and relax before the day started. At 7.05 Tamara Aleksandrovna woke me up for breakfast.

Still rubbing my eyes and not sure of where I was, I went into our kitchen, which is only just big enough for 2 people, with a table in the corner overlooking the rooftops. She had already put my pancakes with honey on the table, along with coffee made by heating milk in a saucepan. I struggled with my Russian, had a shower under yellow water and got ready to leave for a meeting at 10. Upon leaving the flat my landlady (who I had met precisely nine hours ago) noticed that I had some toothpaste on my lip, took out a handkerchief, licked it and rubbed it off. It felt uncomfortable, but gender roles are different here and grandmothers only let their grandsons - or students they have adopted - do things for themselves when they are much older. We went by tram and trolleybus to the language school - Yartek - where she gave me my own key and told me that my dinner would be on the table at 6, and I was not to be home any later.

Seeing the Yartek building in daylight for the first time it is a lot like the scene of a murder mystery drama, with a high ceiling and echoey stone staircase. There is a large wooden table in the centre of the main room, which the RLUS students sat around while Boris Aleksandrovich introduced himself, and told us what to expect from our time in Yaroslavl. He is a cheerful man and speaks enthusiastic English with a sense of humour. After an hour we went on a tour of town with Lena, who is 19, blonde, gorgeous and who studies English at the university. Our group spent the day walking, finding out where things were. Yaroslavl is unconventionally beautiful: every street you walk down is very wide, dusty and has a lot of holes. You have a concrete building either side of you with large advertisement boards on the ground floor. It feels like a large town, but it is colourful at the same time, with lots of shops.

I had to say goodbye to Lena at 5.30, which gave me half an hour to get home. Having made it back across town with Jamie and gone our separate ways two minutes from my building, I found the Tolbukhina block, but not the right door for my key to work in. I had to ask people on the street, and an old lady selling newspapers from a kiosk opposite the Universam supermarket, and half an hour and a hundred questions later I made my way in. Only to press the wrong button in the lift and shut myself in. Shouting "pomogitye!" at the top of my voice and not knowing if I would end up spending my second night in Russia trapped in a box was awful.

At 6.20, late for dinner, a grumbling lady from downstairs let me out and I rushed apologetically into my flat. She didn't seem too cross, and after dinner I finished unpacking my suitcase and had an early night.

---

Photos

Tolbukhina.
The block that I lived in. My room was on the sixth floor, almost in the middle. The 'Universam' supermarket is on the bottom floor.

Comments

[Lanky Yankee]

Hey, i've enjoyed reading this so far. Trapped in that elevator sounds really scary. In fact, lots of it sounds scary or at least intimidating. Will Tamara ever let you stay out after dark? I sent you a postcard... it was great fun copying out that address! B