Blogs from Yaroslavl, Centre, Russia, Europe - page 7

I went out with Katya last night after our rehearsal at the school. I turned up at her courtyard soaking wet, having slipped on some ice on the step outside and fallen head-first into a pile of snow! We took the tram to the cinema but the next film wasn't until midnight, so we stayed in the bar for an hour. Katya examined our tram ticket to see if it would bring us luck; if the first two numbers add up to more than the last two then it is a good sign. And, lo and behold, this evening they did. The Rodina cinema is attractive, with comfy sofas and photographs of Hollywood stars on the walls. My search for an aptly named cocktail was successful this time; A Big Ben is an acquired taste - ... read more

Zero degrees on my way to school. It's still raining, but today it's almost horizontal and a type of grey mist. The walk was the coldest I've felt since I've been here, the wind really hurt my hands. I took my clothes to the factory before classes; I could have stayed there all day in my rickety plastic chair, watching the century-old washing machines, and almost century-old babushka who work there, spin my socks round in the warm room that smells of soap-suds! Viktor needs a tooth operation so he only came in to give us some work, then left us to go to the doctor's. Reading about domestic violence wasn't much fun, but we cuddled up on the sofa for a change instead of sitting round the table. By then the snow-mush was falling harder ... read more

Another lazy morning and afternoon. Tamara Aleksandrovna fed me the rest of the bread rolls for lunch and helped me with my Moscow street map. If things go to plan I'll be staying on prospekt Kotlova in the south-west. The metro station I need to find is Nagornaya, which once I've arrived at Komsomolskaya from Yaroslavl Glavnyi - about 5 hours - is only four stops clockwise on the orange line to Dobryninskaya, then four more south on the grey line. It's confusing just to look at it. Tamara Aleksandrovna has bought Lithuanian cheese in the supermarket downstairs, which she hoped I would like more than the Russian. It still tastes of plastic but is much better, so if I can find some Estonian ham and Latvian pickle I can make myself that sandwich. I spent ... read more

It's a bit warmer than yesterday; the ulitsa Svobody thermometer said 4 degrees this morning. I left the flat in my grey woolly hat. As Tamara Aleksandrovna was letting me out of the door she adjusted the peak from over my right eye so that it was in the centre. Has she never seen MTV? In Viktor's class we took the roles of psychologists, to discuss the problems in the marriages of two fictional couples. I wanted to talk as much as possible but some of my ideas were hard to explain even in English. With Lena we finished cases and moved on to 'aspect' - the difference between "I was writing a letter" and "I wrote a letter". Like all the students I'm feeling run down after eight weeks of classes and play rehearsals every ... read more

Only 2 degrees on my walk to school, according to the clock/thermometer next to the circus. I'm not letting myself think too much about the weather just yet, I know there's much colder to come! Today everyone seems to be wearing a hat for the first time and there are rumours that it will snow on friday. I am in a working mood, and I'm determined to take a step forward with my grammar. At the moment I sidestep the case-endings I don't know and re-phrase sentences another way, but I won't be able to master the language as a whole unless the small parts are in place. Lena's classes are good for this; learning things by repetition makes things a lot clearer. Olga taught us in the afternoon: 2) Not going home, in fact, seemed ... read more