Making plans.

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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 2-0 lead in our game. When it gets to minus 10 I'll put another pair of trousers on underneath my jeans. The air hurts my face and hands. It was snowing to make up for the cold, but only slightly.

Viktor still doesn't know the difference between feminism and gender roles, but at least we could have a conversation. I sometimes speak better Russian when I'm feeling sleepy; I can audibly mumble my sentences instead of trying too hard with my accent. It was good to have a "do you agree with this statement?" excercise that was chauvinistic enough to make us all contradict it.

I felt better by the afternoon, but the more I try to seem intelligent in Olga's classes the more nonsense I talk. Having said that I translated my sentences better than usual. It always seems I am given the hardest phrases to make sense of but it is all useful practice.

My student Anya came at 3 for her first lesson in a long time. Her English has improved and she's more confident, so for the first time ever we had a proper conversation. It's ironic that - although I try really hard to have an authentic Russian accent - I am even more conscious of how my voice sounds when I am speaking to her, as I am the only English voice she can learn from. Every time I hear myself dropping the 't' from the end of a word I have to correct myself. We talked about Russia, rivers, education and students finding jobs in Europe and pickpockets.

What I want for Christmas is: four days in Moscow with Chris W, Chris J, Clare and Chiara at Hotel Rossiya on Red Square, then an overnight train to Kiev on Boxing Day and some time to relax in Ukraine until the 4th January, then come back for two days (either in Yaroslavl or Moscow) before my flight home.

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