Blogs from Centre, Russia, Europe - page 32

Another sunday, another minibus journey. But this one was much more comfortable and only took us 80 kilometres, to Rostov. Half of our group went for a day trip and Katya came with me. Rostov is a very old town with wide streets, dozens of churches with bold grey domes and shop signs in an archaic cyrillic script. We almost had the place to ourselves because weekends are so quiet. There was a lot more space than in Yaroslavl and no large buildings; it really felt like being in the provinces, with a strong cold wind to remind us that winter is approaching. Inside the kremlin (fortress) there were three museums: the first for ceramic ornaments, the second for miniature bells and the third dedicated to ancient Rostov. They were quite dull but the last one ... read more

No snow this morning as promised, it has just become colder and started to rain. I will need to buy some gloves soon. At school we had media, conversation, grammar and translation; all the teachers seemed to be in a good mood. It's Chris W's birthday, so we bought two cakes and had a gathering in one of the classrooms at lunchtime. We saved the real celebration for the evening. A table for seventeen at the Georgian restaurant (twelve students from Yartek, Louise and Laura who are doing the spektakl with us, and three classmates of Bhav's in Sheffield who came up from Moscow for the weekend.) It was a 'Rubik cube' party, where everyone had to come wearing something of each colour. The idea is to swap clothes as the night goes on, until you're ... read more

I mentioned Katya to Tamara Aleksandrovna at the breakfast table. Apparently next time I see her I'm to take an orange with me, so she can look at it when she gets home to remind her of me. I think she would prefer some English music so I might be slightly more modern and copy some of my CDs for her! Tamara Aleksandrovna also said that in two days' time the first snow will come, but it's been so mild lately I don't think it's likely. It's very cold every morning but by mid-day it's normally about 12 degrees, and the heating has come on in the buildings so it's almost too warm. Classes were ok. We started a new topic in 'conversation' - I'd much rather talk about family than the army. Sometimes the words ... read more

Another play rehearsal last night. If Jamie and Chris "s volosami" are such show-offs now what will they be like in costumes and in front of an audience? They went to a pool hall near Kirova afterwards with Bhavina and Emma, and I joined them later with Katya. The boys lost 2-1 to the girls: I think we underestimated Bhav's skills! All the Yartek students spoke Russian so that Katya could understand, and she taught us the words for 'stripes', 'cushion' and 'break'. We got 'shushed' by the manager, another grumpy Russian. Classes started half an hour late this morning. The rooms were still locked and the lady with the keys, Valentina Ivanovna, got stuck on the tram. She is our very small and extremely chatty secretary, who works by the desk on our floor of ... read more

We had our first 'repetitsiya' of the play today, which meant that I was at Yartek from 9.45 in the morning until 9.45 at night. Natasha Safronova gave us our roles and scripts, and explained to us a bit about our characters. The play is called "Daughter's Lesson" and my character is Sidorka, a servant to a wealthy man Vel'karya (Chris J) and his two daughters Lukerya and Fekla (Sarah and Louise). I aspire to become more like an English gentleman - and all the ladies are very fond of me. The two main parts are a couple, Semyon (Jamie) and Dasha (Laura). I'm only a medium-sized role, but I'm happy to say a few lines and watch Jamie and Chris show off! Chris puts on a deep voice to play the strict father but talks ... read more