I'm awake, honest.

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Minus 5 this morning, so Chiara is one game ahead with only three days to play.

Our last topic with Viktor was the environment and ecology. We read an article and answered some questions about Chernobyl. During the lesson Chris J came in, to tell Viktor that he would not be in his class later. He was mugged and beaten up last night by a group of six youths, who stole his phone, 2000 roubles and left him with a cut mouth and very sore legs.

It is not the first time a British student has been injured. Every girl has been harrassed by a group of men at least once. Laura had 1000 pounds stolen from her bank account, and the first family that Anna lived with took the same amount from her suitcase. Emma from Oxford has been attacked. It is one of the Russian attitudes to europeans: we live better than them so they target us. I felt sick for the rest of the lesson. No-one has worked as hard to live among Russian people as Chris.

I do not want to speak so negatively of this country that I live in, for the sake of my Russian friends reading this diary and for the kind people that I have met since I have been here. But I am writing to share my impressions of Russia. The proportion of good and bad things each day is a fair reflection.

Olga's lessons on the other hand are always positive to talk about. We finished translating the last story from our booklet, about a hypochondriac's visit to the doctor, then read through "The Day Before Christmas" by Nikolai Gogol. Now that I am the only boy in the class Olga teases me, but always in a charming way! I wish that her lessons could have been in the morning, so I wouldn't have read her texts through drooping eyelids. She thinks I am always bored.

After classes I introduced Anya to Michael, who will teach her from now on. Viktor says that she likes my lessons, but Michael knows English grammar far better than I do.

It is Louise and Laura's last day today. This evening we are going to a restaurant with a nautical theme, Pod Parusami - which means 'under the sails' - because Louise loves boats and wore a ship on her head in the spektakl. For Natasha Safronova's spring play she will wear a wig made of bagels and swig from a bottle of whisky - certainly worth coming back from Tver to see!

Only Chris could go through something so ugly as he did last night and come out with a funny story. The lady in the police station asked him to describe the people that beat him up. He said that one of them was smoking and had a bottle of beer in his hand. Her next question was: "Can you remember what type of beer?"

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Photos

Ulitsa Pobedy.
Scene of my best temperature battles with Chiara.