Back to normal.

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Minus 1 degree on the way to Yartek.

I wanted to get back into my routine today. In Yulia's class we read a short story about a lie of some sort, involving a skating rink and a famous playwright. It felt good to speak because I had something to say again and not because someone was pressuring me for an answer.

There are only two more weeks of lessons before some of the group finish their course and go back to England. Bhav is the only one leaving from my teaching group, but fifteen will soon become eight. Everyone is my friend but it will not be the same atmosphere without Bhav, Sarah and Jamie. On the positive side I still have six more weeks of Clare's 'not understanding Russia' tantrums, Chris J's impromptu musical numbers and Chiara not knowing how to put on her silly hat when she's drunk.

I walked to the supermarket on ulitsa Sverdlova with Emma and Sara at lunchtime. Conversations used to be about how entertaining out landladies were; now they seem to be about how much they are getting in our way. We discussed the crisis in France in Larissa's lesson, which was hard because none of us had really learned what is happening. All the same I contributed as much as I could.

Today's afternoon chore was to get myself Russian health insurance. It turns out I'm not entitled to it, but the test on wednesday is a lot cheaper than I was made to believe so it isn't important. Chris J came with me in case I didn't understand what the man was saying, then we found somewhere to have dinner.

Unfortunately my choice of café wasn't as good as usual. The place was awful: an echoey hall that was more like a wedding reception, cheap disco lighting, depressing music, waitresses who were rude and bad food after an hour's wait. We couldn't imagine anywhere worse. My 'cafe glace' was less than half a cup of tepid water poured on a lot of ground coffee, with a small lump of ice cream floating in it. The paradox is that Russians are such warm hosts to guests in their homes, but they have so little pride in their service in restaurants.

The plan for this evening is to watch some TV and read the two magazines that I haven't got round to starting yet.

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Photos

The girls on the 13 week course.
From Ekaterinburg.