Blogs from Yaroslavl, Centre, Russia, Europe - page 9

Yartek was good today. With Yulia we continued translating a short story that I'm really enjoying, and the way we learn vocab at the beginning of each class is simple but useful. Russian literature doesn't seem too inaccessible as we are studying simple, modern prose. Larissa's lessons in the afternoon were harder, not because of the language but because my knowledge of politics isn't as good as it could be. At 2.30 we had a fire safety talk, given in true Russian style: "When there's 9 feet of snow outside it's safe to jump out of the window." Then Anya came for another lesson. I want her to learn not just about English but about Britain, so she read a passage from her textbook and I corrected her pronunciation. It isn't surprising she can't say 'the', ... read more

We went out for a Georgian meal tonight. The restaurant is called Dukhan and is a big underground room with stone walls. I decided I needed a haircut this morning, but I don't trust Russian barbers (judging by Russian hairstyles!) and Matthew from my course offered to do it for me. It seemed the lesser of two evils, so I bought some clippers and scissors from the market and went to his hozyaika's flat. I sat in the kitchen and very carefully told him what I wanted. There was no mirror, so half way through I asked him how it looked compared to the other haircuts he had done: "I don't know really, this is the first haircut where I've used scissors". I spent the rest of the time biting my nails, but at the end ... read more

There was a little bit of smetana left after Tamara Aleksandrovna had put some over my blini this morning. She said "open wide" and spoon fed it to me! Yartek was as normal. Viktor for conversation and Lena for grammar. I'm about to finish my first month of classes. I'm starting to feel at home, Yaroslavl doesn't seem so big any more and I'm used to the living arrangement. I walked home via the football stadium, and bought my ticket for saturday's game against Torpedo Moskva. I'll have to sit on my own for the first half because Chris J will be at a folk music concert until 4.30, but I still want to go. It would be great for the small town team to beat one of the Moscow clubs. I fell asleep as soon ... read more

I still have a cough, but my sore head is a lot better. As I was eating my kasha this morning I noticed an insect bite on my wrist. Tamara Aleksandrovna saw me scratching, and decided that the best thing for a wound like that was to rub salt into it. It's hard to get mad at her when she interferes, because she always means well. I was a bit more awake in class, and tried to speak as much as I can to make up for yesterday. Viktor taught us about the Russian education system in the first hour, then we taught him about British schools for the second. Olga cancelled her lessons this afternoon as President Vladimir Putin was appearing on television for an interview. People in towns all over Russia asked him questions ... read more

I went to sleep last night dreading having caught some nasty Russian 'flu, so I was relieved to have woken up with just a headache and a runny nose. I got up late for a Russian fry-up - thankfully I can't taste anything - then Tamara Aleksandrovna insisted I went back to bed until half past one. I watched Goodbye Lenin on my laptop, sent some Russian texts and re-read my vocab book. When she allowed me to get up again I had to wear my woolly hat around the flat. Even though my cold isn't serious I still miss the creature comforts you can have when you're ill in England - even getting some water to drink meant walking to the supermarket to buy some - and when you're not thinking clearly even the smallest ... read more