Room at the Inn.

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Friday night's concert was certainly entertaining. It took place in a small room in Yaroslavl's 'House of Friendship', also on ulitsa Nekrasova. The televised part was four of the girls from Oxford singing and dancing to the traditional song "Kalinka", then a New Year's greeting in five languages: Uju in Ibo, Alessandra in Spanish, Anna in Italian and Lois in French. The English part was given to Chris J - who also speaks Czech, Russian, French, Slovak and some Italian!

Chris sang a poem by Pushkin, then he joined a man called Dima to sing a duet. He had a good voice but over-acted dreadfully even when the camera wasn't rolling, which de-valued all the hard work that Chris had put in. It was supposed to be Dima's evening but the students that performed around him gained a lot more respect from the audience. Chris sang again and played a very good piece on the piano to finish, then most of us went to Yartek for a small party. Ellie Chiara and Clare's friends from St. Petersburg, Janek and Bikram, joined us and we had a picnic on the table in the main room. I decided not to go out afterwards because I was so tired.


In the morning - as predicted - I lost my temper with Marina Ivanovna. Her first words to me in that awful accent were: "You can not shave today. I have no time. Have a shower. Why did you not tell me yesterday that you wanted to bath this morning?

I won't admit what I said to her - suffice to say I left the bathroom clean shaven.

I left the flat as soon as possible and walked to the internet room. I walked the long way to look at Yaroslavl on a saturday morning. Everyone seemed to be more relaxed than usual. Parents were strolling around town, the fathers pulling small sleighs with their rosy-cheeked toddlers inside, wrapped up in brightly coloured snow suits.

I met Katya in the evening but because it is the festive season all the restaurants and bars were full. We walked around trying to find somewhere until Chris called to invite us to the Irish bar underneath the hotel, where our friends had decided to see the group that I had told them about. The music was even better than last time; every song in a two hour set was fantastic. Janek and Bikram came for a while before their overnight train back to Petersburg. Katya and I stayed later and talked about Moscow, the names of fingers and female cosmonauts. We walked home at midnight.

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Photos

London crew.
Ellie - then Bikram and Janek from St. Petersburg - then Chiara and Clare.