Ticket to ride.

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Minus 1 this morning. Another surprise, and Chiara guessed closest so our weekly game is 1-1 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 vulnerable people, others said that it was the only thing to do in Russian small towns. I didn't talk as much as usual, I didn't have much of an opinion on the topic.

Olga brought in the video of Ilf and Petrov's "Twelve Chairs" for us to watch in the afternoon. The sense of humour is both slapstick and intelligent; two men, a charming swindler and an elderly gentleman who has just returned from Paris, try to track down each one of a collection of twelve chairs as there are diamonds hidden inside the seat of one of them. They have to find a way to distract each owner while the other one steals the chair.

Anya arrived for a lesson afterwards. To be honest I hoped she had forgotten, she is a nice girl but with no guidance from real teachers and working from such a poor textbook I can't be of much use to her. She didn't have her book today so we both squirmed trying to find things to talk about, and as a result I ended the class half an hour early.

I walked to the travel agency on ulitsa Svobody at 4 to buy my tickets to Ukraine. A journey between Yaroslavl and Kiev - roughly 15 hours each way by train - costs 1562 roubles. The lady at the desk was very friendly and sorted out everything that I wanted. I decided to travel in the lowest class as I am the only one of our group not to have had a 'platskart' adventure so far. I am hoping Ana will sort out how to get to her town, Lugansk, and a good place to relax before celebrating New Year.

No plans for tonight.

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