Conclusions.

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The unthinkable happened this morning; I woke up feeling awake and ready for the day! The last week's temperature game started with a draw. Minus 3 this morning but it felt considerably colder.

We had our last classes with Yulia in the morning. We continued reading part of a novel by Tolstoi about vampires, translating it paragraph by paragraph then discussed what had happened at the end of a page.

In the break I went to speak to Valentina Ivanovna to ask her if I could sleep on the sofa in one of the rooms on the night of the 6th, before our journey to the airport. She agreed without too much complaining. I don't want to pay for a hotel, and I would have stayed with Michael for a night but Natasha will have guests. My level of speaking has improved lately; I often spend a fortnight feeling that I haven't taken anything in and then notice the progress in a certain conversation.

Larissa's media class in the afternoon was also our last. In the first half we talked about Iraq, again, then in the second we looked at two articles. Our first article was about Moscow Sheremetevo airport. We started to talk about the shabby Russian attitude towards foreigners, which has become a popular conversation for all of us.

The second article lead on from the first. It was an interview on modern Russian society answered by people who specialise in current affairs. Sociologist Aleksei Verelovich described how Russians have always valued their family, colleagues and friends. I can see it in the street: old ladies walking to the shops arm in arm with their friends, and children in sleighs being pulled along by their parents, and the warmth that I have been greeted with whenever I have been to someone's flat.

"And (then) there are people 'of the outside world'. On the metro, in a shop, at the station. They knock your leg and don't apologise: you simply don't exist to them. In queues you can stand in front of a cashier for a long time before they notice you. It is one of my most difficult impressions from Russia."

(It is the feeling that I've been struggling with since I have been here, and am still not used to it. I see it every day wherever I walk but haven't found a way to describe it for this diary. It explains why the boy using the computer next to me is playing very loud music through headphones and doesn't care who else hears - and why throughout friday's concert mobile phones were left to ring. In general Russian men mind less that British men what strangers think of them. On the other hand I think women mind more. It is not 'worse' than how people act in Europe - it is the way that everyone gets along in this society.)

I need to finish my essay tonight. I will concentrate on my good impressions - the teaching at Yartek, the beauty of the architecture and the superb theatre amongst other experiences. If I have time I will finish packing too. Everyone is thinking about going home, which of course creates mixed emotions for us.

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