A sturdy 42 degrees 27.10.13

The latter half of this week saw the Winter Olympic flame come to the ole might capital of Karelia. Needless to say we had anticipated this great event on our FB page weeks ago and had our plan all lined up. It was hitting the square in front of the theatre at 6pm. Needless to say, we got there early and eager. Needless to say, it arrived in a flash of light at 7:50. It was minus 3.2 degrees so we were all standing still almost crying, but not quite. Why? Because any tears would have frozen is why? Toes were getting frostbite all around and the question of why we didn’t have more clothes considering it’d been snowing the day before was pondered and cryed over. A futile exercise of course.

Sochi car I need in my life

Coca Cola were there as usual, providing the usual in-your-face advertising. I actually mean in-your-face unfortunately. I ventured up in a very curteous and tentative manner to the van to grab a couple of the souvenirial flags and cans they were handing out. I found myself pressed against the van with no way to get out, arm in the air to grab a flag that wasn’t coming my way. The lady in my section decided to give out cans so I grabbed them and dropped them onto the heads of the kids standing next to me in the hope that she’d get the hint and start with the flags again. It was a solid 4-6 minutes until Amy managed to drag me out. I was impressed by her level of agression. Although, she is taller than me. I’ll put down her ability to not get squashed against a coca-cola van down to height. The guy on stage wouldn’t go 15 minutes without mentioning them, but on the plus side they had these cool plastic light-up bottles that change shades of red. The queue was about 200m long, but me and Emma just sneaked into the front claiming our need for красивый кока кола свет. Unfortunately the security guard spoke English so I said we were French and thankfully he walked away before we had to deal with that issue. Turns out there’s not much of a mob mentality here. Back home if you try and skip a queue people spit in your face en masse.

This is where I was squashed against unable to get a free flag

Me, Emma and our freebies; mocking the queue behind us wanting cool glowy bottles

A few of us had gone home, sick of waiting. But for those that perservered there was a massive flash of light as someone legged it down the designated area with the flame and onto the stage and then a herd of Russians chasing them to the stage. We legged it in the opposite direction after the necessary photos had been taken. I didn’t fancy being squashed by ravaging Russians any more. It was quite a traumatic evening for that. We were guided to the exit by female policemen in heels. Even though there were still remnents of snow, they were in heels. Definitely need to commit some crimes when the women polie force are around, there’s no way they could chase me in those. #crime #sillyRussia

Russki policcemen protecting the van of merch

That orange thing is the actual flame shooting by

We went to the theatre tonight to see the Russki Nutcracker. I’m not much of a ballety person so I hadn’t seen it before and had no idea what to expect. The theatre is pretty small inside so you get a great view no matter where you are. A very sweaty view as they kept it at about 42 degrees inside. We were on the 2^nd tier, front row and it was just oh so joyous. Basically Christmas fever was all around with cute children who had either the same really bad haircut, or the same really badly cut wig and girls flundering about in colourful tutus. There was one scene were 6 people dressed as rats came and attacked some poor girl until she died. The price (in very tight white lycra) woke here again and managed to fend off the 6 rats until the king rat, dressed in red velvelt, came and started on the prince. Mare. What's not a mare is how cultured I feel right now.

I made a conscious decision to thieve 21.10.13

This weekend has been full of fun. Friday night we ventured, yet again, to Sigmund and Freud. It’s actually just Sigmund Freud but I still maintain the “and” is necessary and forever will #h8rsgonh8. That being said, Maddy is definitely a h8r. The looks of dismay/disbelief when I say SandF.

Moving on, I accidentally managed to steal one of the A pages from the karaoke book. Therefore I now permanently have sole monopoly over Abba and ACDC. Life is so much easier when you don’t have choices. I also accidentally left out the inverted commas around my previous use of the word acciddentally, because it wasn’t an accident. I completely meant to steal the page. It had been left on the table and I made a conscious decision. A brilliant conscious decision if I do say so myself. I now have stuck on my wardrobe the best (beer and vodka-stained) souvenir anyone could want from good ole Petrozavodsk. And I’m not even kidding; basically everyone liked my post in our Petro faceyb group about it Not only do I now feel ten-fold more popular, but my wardrobe door smells of SF. Oh happy days.

Talking of happy days, it snowed once on Friday and then again on Saturday twice. It started just as we entered the building on Friday morning and that was the next hour and a half of concentration lost. Unfortunately by the time we were taken on our excursion to the museum for the 2^nd lesson it had stopped and turned to lethal ice. Snow turnover is both rapid and brutal here. I missed all of the museum trip, except for the boring talk at the start that I zoned out of, because I had another presentation at the cadets school. This time the kids were older and their questions more inquisitive than the riveting “do you like chicken” from the 11 year olds. Olga let me recycle my presentation and made them translate some of the things I was saying. I really have to apologise to every single one of my teachers from school at this point. There’s nothing worse than speaking and no-one paying attention. At some points she’d asked what I’d JUST said. I’d JUST said it. As in ONE SECOND ago. They were incapable of regurgitation. I’d JUST said it though. Literally ONE SECOND AGO. I can’t emphasise this enough. However I’m willing to accept that perhaps they’re just stupid. In fact I’d actively recommend this as being the explanation. Also why did I ever fancy 15 year old boys when I was 15. They’re so ugly and annoying and rude and DON’T LISTEN to their elders. What are this? No worries though; I’ve already scolded 15 year old Nadia for this.

Why do they not lesson when I speak about GDP per capita?

This lot were a bit rowdy for my liking. Brats.

We went to the Mexican restaurant, Sanchez, on Prospect Lenina before SF. Me and Sophia had some cocktails seeing as we’d already had dinner but then I went all the craaay and ordered some casaideas. It’s probably the most expensive place to eat around here. Meals are like £8; however the portions are ridiculous so you are definitely getting more than you would in the UK for the price. However the question remains on whether that many tortillas is good for anyone. The answer is no. No it’s not. SF was pretty empty this week. We managed to get the very front table and I sang Don’t Speak with Robin’s host’s daughter, Lea. Such a babe and she said I have a lovely singing voice and some other nice things I don’t wish to repeat. What a babe how much she appreciates me. Every week I get a comment on my ensemble AND hair. Seriously, who is so nice?!?!?!?! Love this girl!

Pretty Sophia et moi

When I finally ventured out of bed after a late night of Gwen Stefani and theft, me, Sophia, Olivia and Eva met Masha and Jena at Maksi for some cheeky shopping and pizza. Except I abstained from the pizza. Got involved in the shopping though. It does seem to be the main centre to easily access most types of shop here. There are some places which are clearly Petrozavodsk’s version to H&M, but not as enjoyable. An excess amount of clothes and accessories are embelished with foxes. Why are this, I do not know?

Leather jacket shopping. Just the weather for it..... Oh wait....

Sunday was English Day at Timeshop. That’s the place where you get unlimited soft and hot drinks and ice-cream (if they have) and pay for the time you spend there. Luckily us Brits dominated the place and got to stay for free because of our nationality. Not even soz. We represented. We had ice-cream. We let people speak English to us. This deserves free time. It was actually so much fun; we organised a game of Mafia (or some people called it Werewolf). A fun game, except everyone kept killing me really early on so I didn’t really get a proper play. This made me sad. But then we got to go outside back into the snow and all was well again. Unfortunately it keeps turning to ice, but this is prompting new vocab in class such as to melt – растаять.

Had my usual lesson with Anna today. I checked most of her homework and did the rest for her. Wish I’d thought to pay someone to do my homework for my when I was at school. The extremely soft cat, Elvis, was also there. My taunting is perhaps getting a bit out of hand. But I always add on 5 minutes to the end of the lesson for how much time I waste petting it. And meowing at it. For those who’ve heard my meow, it’s horrific. I should probably apologise to Anna at some point. She left the room for a bit to deal with her and her husband buying a new flat on the phone. Appaz some 15 year old owns it so there’s lots of paperwork, legalities and beaurocracy. I didn’t even ask how a 15 year old can take out a mortgage. It provokes more questions that answers. Whilst she was gone I played peek-a-boo with the cat and shook my paper at it to try and get it to come over. I think my taunting went a bit far because it ran behind the couch and kept jumping up at me. Probably as revenge. I do have pity though; Anna said it’s never been in the snow, but yet didn’t trust me to take it right there and then. It hadn’t actually been outside much at all, the poor kitty. Obviously most people live in flats here so it wouldn’t be able to get back into the building unless you perhaps attached a key to its neck. Slightly unpractical. Unless you added some mini-cat stairs to the main entrance for it. Or a cat flap. But then there’s the rabid dogs roaming the streets. Yes, this is a bad idea. But only because of the rabid dogs.

We had Roy Bivon from RLUS and some lady from Manchester Uni visit us today to talk about all aspects of the course for 2 hours in great depth. It was much better than normal feedback sessions tend to go, and what I expected. All-in-all, life is good here except RLUS’s website is useless because it doesn’t provide people with any form of costs except for accomodation. Roy downright refuses to put any prices on because it changes year to year. I think for the money we pay him, he needs to gosh-darn update his website once a year. I personally have sent him the price-list of how much everything costs here and he won’t put it up, even with a disclaimer saying that it might be inaccurate. Also I definitely can’t change from the “crippingly expensive” St.Pete’s to Volgograd next year. Basically he ceebs doing any work is all I understood from what he said. (The cripplingly expensive thing was also a direct quote – Student Finance suck for not giving us enough money also). Might have to set up a competing Russia YA website myself, just to make this Bivon lad, mad.

What are this snow in October?

Received an e-mail from my Management personal tutor today saying that we should have a meeting to discuss whatever. I sent back some sassy e-mail (I’m a big fan of these nowadays) saying that I find it amusing that in my 3^rd year (when I’m abroad) I get a mgt. tutor, because I always only had a Russian one previously. What a lad, I got a sassy e-mail right back saying he’d e-mailed me last year and I should check with SSID that my e-mail address works properly and recommending a ballet to see in St.Pete’s next semester. What a lad. So much sass I did a finger snap on his behalf. I actually do dispute that he e-mailed me last year because I do honestly read all my e-mails, but I’ll let it pass for his cheeky attitude. 

The day I met 2 ostriches 13.10.13

So today was potentially the best day that words can describe. It started off with me being in a rage with Robin. We’d meant to meet at 11, but he had some “meeting” so we had to change it to a 10am start at the university, leaving me in a crabby mood from lack of sleep.

I’m mostly kidding because I am normally pretty chirpy but it was fun to give Robin all the grief I could muster. We were going to take the bus a little way around the lake and then go for a walk. The weather was pretty gloomy and we did get a little rain, but at least it wasn’t too chilly. By the time we waited for people who weren’t aware of the late time change it was about 10:40 by the time we hopped on the number 4. We got off at a beachy bit and started our walk. My shoes are now full of sand.

Unfortunately these beaches get little to no use

We saw many an amusing sight, from a grim looking circle of tyres to wittled down slabs of wood, until we arrived to the OSTRICH FARM. That’s right, a farm of ostriches. Remember when Sasha promised us that our excursion would stop off here and it turned out he was a big fat liar?!?!?! Well we finally made it. I’m not sure anything could ever compete with my happiness at seeing a real live ostrich. Legitimately the best thing to happen to any human being.

The ostrich gingerly peeks out whilst I make noises of enticement

This is now my desktop background

Maybe I should clarify that by “farm,” they really mean 2 ostriches who have a hut and an enclosed small piece of land on which to roam. Either way it was joyous. You have to pay to get in if you enter from the road, but if you go from the beach you can just walk up to the enclosion and play with the ostriches.

And by play I definitely mean that you can take photos from a distance because they sure like to peck at everything; from their food to the fence itself. And no amount of telling them not to in English and also in Russian (just in case) will stop them biting this metal. They may have gotten a little riled up by my taunting but Connel (not so elusive anymore) pushed me back when I got a bit too exciteable. (Which was for most of it). It was amazing. They came out after I made strange noises at them and started eating their food. And Oh My are they tall and gangly. Their necks are so long. Their eyes are so beedy. They prance around all graceful and ostrichy. I’ve never been so happy at watching anything in my life. The only thing that could have topped it would’ve been a bear sighting. Although I don’t think I should be around because I do like to taunt and I feel that the ostriches took it better than any bear would. These ostriches also had a really nice wooden hut. It looked IKEA-flat-pack-style so hopefully it’s really nice for them inside and they have heating for when the weather gets cold. If not I may ride away on one into the wilderness and live an ostrich-life. I’M SO HAPPY I can’t cope.

The only way I was leaving was when everyone else walked away so when they eventually moved on we carried on our journey down the beach. We made it to some forested area where we came across a babushka climbing out of some foliage who pointed us in a good direction. She must’ve been picking some mushrooms or berries. Either that or having a fumble with a dedushka. Either way she looked nice and jolly. This pushed us in the direction of an open piece of land in the wood with a tree-swing. Of course I had to have a go; unfortunately you cannot always trust the boisterous people you’re with and some violent pushing occured which ended up with a very dizzy Nadia.

Travelling at warp speeds leads to a very blurry photo

We eventually made it to the other side of the lake and popped into the local church which were having some mass baptism. It involved water being thrown in people’s face, then them wiping mascara off their faces and then a nice circle dance with chanting. So cheeky.

Circle dancing

All places of prayer have gift shops here

Snack table for after prayers

Let's mock those that want to pray with electricity

When we reached the more residential areas we were greeting by a thousand different types of houses accompanied by a soundtrack of barking (potentially rabid) dogs. Each house seemed to have one kept behind their own version of a fence. Basically a few slaps of cheap-looking, rotten wood that these rabid beasts could escape from if they found the look of us English lot tasty. Luckily it didn’t seem that we look that tasty. I’m almost a little disappointed. It’d be nice to be appreciated by a crazy wolf-dog once in a while. Just to be courteous more than anything.

Dodgy bridge crossing

Back to the houses, some were little hut type things made of wood. The biggest fire hazard I ever did see. Some were ikea-type flat pack houses and we saw a few that looked like they wouldn’t look out of place on Simon Cowell’s estate.

On a side note, Connel also ate a berry he found in a bush on the side of the road. To put this into context, the Russians love to pick things. From mushrooms to berries to dill. They buy dachas outside of the city which they can’t afford due to their less-than-blossoming economy simply to go there and pick things in the forest when the mood strikes them. This bush was full of berries. If they were even slighty edible they would’ve been picked by now. There may be an exciting trip to the hospital available to us soon.

To conclude, the best day ever. I got to live out my secret childhood dream of meeting an ostrich and not be chased by it in the process and ride a rope swing attached to a tree. Met a secret babushka doing dodgy things in the forest and didn’t get attacked by a dog. I know also have a choice of about 50 photos of ostriches for my desktop background. How much better does life get?

The panoramic setting isn't there for no reason

Любовь из Петрозаводска

Me, Olivia, Maddy and Robin with some Russian teens overly excited to see us

Army Children 12.10.13

Yesterday we received the pleasure of our ever-allusive classmate Connel’s company to Blues Cafe for a cheeky prinks (£1.20 pints) and then off to the standard Friday night entertainment Sigmund-Freud. Maddy had bought along her tandem partner, I of course had Masha come from the Masters English class we help with, and Sophia bought along 2 girls we met a few weeks ago at SF. Until the boys came we were outnumbered Russkis to English, not happened yet. Quite a few of the others have been gracing St.Petes with their presence this weekend. If not we may have taken up the whole place.

SF provided the usual karaoke entertainment. We’re part of the regulars crowd now so a cheeky word and smile at the bouncer and I had us at a front table with him throwing out chair after chair from his secret chair rooms. Legit there’s at least 3 of these secret furniture storage facilities there. Cute night of singing and merry-making,

This morning I had a presentation to do at this Cadets School. My new pupil, Olga, is a teacher there and thought it would be a nice idea that I speak to her 10-11 year old first years about England. Plus she paid me for it with chocolate and actual money!! Also a 20 ruble Belarussian note. Hopefully that’s just for souvenirial purposes because you can get into big trouble for using non-legal tender as payment. I know these things; I used to work in retail. I dragged Sophia along with me to use as a human shield against any dogs we should find wandering the streets in their rabid manner on the way. Turned out to not be too far and we didn’t get too lost.

It was basically an all-boys actual cadet school. As in they’re 11-18 and their school uniform is complete camouflage. My cadet camps this summer got me used to seeing little kids all tactical looking for war, but it was quite a sight. This class were pretty rowdy as expected from 11 year old boys and while me and Sophia sat at the back waiting to start we could hear them repeatedly saying random words in English in a bid to get our attention. It was cute, but boys that age are weird. At the end of the presentation which I gave in English and Russian, (I’ve never been so stressed in my life), she got the kids to ask me questions. It had been their homework so they each had a list of qs such as: “what’s your name, how old are you, what’s your favourite season, do you like chicken?” The last one caused many sniggers so I presume it was some private joke against the British and our chicken.

The children wear camo, like what?

When the picture of a full English came up they erupted. Erupted I say. As in actually leapt out of their seats. I was sure one in the 2^nd row was so close to coming up to lick the projector. They did pretty well at guessing the famous face game we had going on. Except when they thought Margaret Thatcher was the queen’s mum.

The boy who hadn’t done his homework and therefore had no mundane question to ask me that he didn’t even want the answer to, was chosen as the one to present me the chocolate and me and Sophia our 20 ruble Belarussian currency which I will treasure until the end of days. They actually had quite an unhealthy obsession with Belarus; Minsk in particular. It definitely came up more often than necessary considering I never mentioned it.

Payment by chocolate. What? I can't buy a house with chocolate.

Then the children left, no doubt to a weapons handling lesson or something like that. Training them to become the next Putin no doubt.

Illegal tender

Olga asked me to come back on Wednesday to do the same presentation but only in English for her 16 year olds. But it kinda sounds more like a set-up because if there’s one boy who’s sick, then I have to come the following week. Basically she seemed desperate for me to meet him. Sounds a bit dodge considering he’s a minor. But I’m rolling and rolling.

Fear of People Trafficking 9.10.11

Finally got a message back from my cute little beginner, Katya. She was meant to be in Helsinki and wanted lessons via Skype. However she ended up staying in Petrozavodsk due to her “important business.” I think she whimsically decides her plans on a day to day basis and had decided late last night that today was English day. Of course she hadnt’ done any of the work I set as homework but no matter because as long as I write enough stuff in her book for her she’ll feel like she’s getting value for money (I hope). Quality, not quantity in this case I’m afraid.

She called me just before we were meant to meet and I panicked as I tend to when I’m called on the phone and expected to speak Russian. They speak so fast and pretend not to understand you if you get the stress of a word wrong. Fricking annoying and makes phone conversations near-impossible. All I understood from what she said was “5” so I took a seat on a damp bench and decided I would wait for either 5 minutes or until 5 o’clock. It was 13:40 at this point. Luckily it was the 1^st option and she popped along in her sassy light blue car and I got in.

This time she drove us in a different direction to the friend’s flat she’d been staying in the first time I taught her. Although it may have been the same direction. Darn those similar looking communist buildings. We got out the car and for a moment I thought it was the same place. But it wasn’t. They just all looking the freaking same and it’s sooo stooopid. You would never be able to find your flat if you bought a new one and didn’t look closely enough.

We entered a new flat, this time pretty much completely unfurnished and my fear of people-trafficking kicked in once again as I held on to my keys, ready to strike should this little blonde start anything. The first lesson could merely have been a ruse, a ruse to traffic me in a very inhumane way. Luckily she didn’t strike and we got onto a lesson of English as normal. It’s still really sweet listening to all her cute little mistakes and just missing out really vital parts of a sentence. E.g. the looking in I am looking out the window.

Just before she drove me back I asked if it was her flat this time and she said no. That was that. In the car she asked if I minded her smoking out the window. I said no, because you know, social acceptance and such. But I did start to wonder what she may have been smoking because she would just completely slow down to a stop in the middle of the road and then speed up again, just to slow down again. I soon realised she was avoiding the many potholes and puddles as it’s been a rainy day today. I really think the money I earn from this should go to buying some drains for the city of Petrozavodsk because I would happily say there are zero. Some puddles you look at and think I definitely could just fall in and never find my way out again.

Tonight is Latino-ish night at Art Cafe. I’m holding out for drunk Russians in sombreros! Don't disappoint me Art Cafe, which co-incidentally turns into a raging nightclub come 1am. 

40 minutes late, still appreciated 8.10.13

This afternoon was the long awaited presentation for this English class who were “so excited to see us” and “couldn’t await our arrival.” Whilst I don’t believe any child is excited to have a power point presentation read to them, let alone 4, I emraced the enthusiasm of the teacher I was speaking with on в контакте.

To start off with, we had a major mare getting to the school. I didn’t actually know the name of it, but had just seen it on the map she sent me and I’d passed a musical school on the bus so just assumed that was it. However when we entered that school with all the swagger we could muster (because I was so sure it was the right one), we were greeted by 2 cleaners having a bit of a natter by the cloackroom. They had never heard of the lady I was looking for and sent us to the next school along with directions to the other 4 specialist-music schools within a mile radius.

We had rather more luck there, but only in the sense that I’m sure I could have secured myself a full-time job if we’d stayed a little longer. I said the name of the lady to the guy at the front and he gave me a knowing look and led us to a little room where we sat whilst a lady talked on the phone to someone about “the foreigners.” Eventually a cute little old lady came in and started speaking English. She thought we wanted to “do some lessons with the children.” Which we did. Just not these children. And not for you. And so after profusely apologising we moved on to a further 2 schools where we had the same amount of luck.

Despondently we headed back, wanting to try our luck at one art school right next to the 1^st school we’d tried. We slowly entered the premises seeing people exiting the building and wondering if they looked disappointed by having some students from the UK not turn up to speak to them. They didn’t. I turned my attention to searching for a lady frantic for some English kids 40 minutes late. Then the idea popped up that we try and look as frazzled as possible so that if this was the right school we’d get some pitty at least. I was first into the building, closely followed by Robin, Maddie and then Olivia. Some little blonde girl in a white shirt and waistcoat looking preppy as anything was standing a meter from the entrance. She took one look, and she knew. She said “hello” in her cute little Russki accent and started walking up the stairs. Taking this as our cue to follow, we did indeed follow her. Potentially a bad idea seeing as the last time we followed someone unknowingly we’d almost been given jobs we didn’t want.

She walked into a hall and disappeared. Whilst I looked around for the teacher I’d been speaking with the room burst into applause. Of course that meant I had to do a little strut down the catwalk, I mean middle of the chairs, waving as I went, greeted with a hug by Alexandra. She didn’t even mind that we were late and directed us to what looked like judges chairs. Very X-Factor-esque. Present were 4 bottles of water, some paper and some pens.

Managed to avoid disaster when I realised it was fizzy by not opening it fully

We were treated to a mini concert of Let It Be and Hallelujah and then it was time for us to perform and then have a quick Q&A. Some of them were really well prepared for us. One girl had a speech about Valentines Day and the history of it and some questions to us about the traditions so I did a cheeky roses are red poem. Like getting blood from a stone trying to get them to smile when they clearly had no idea what we were saying some of the time. Olivia did her presentation on food and showed them a traditional English breakfast, as in complete fry-up. Horror doesn't begin to describe their faces when they realise we don't eat porridge every day. Although to be fair we don't really eat fry-ups every day, but they're definitely gonna think we have an obesity problem after that. They were guessing what the food was by the picture, before the words came up and Alexandra guessed bangers and mash to be beans............ Nuf said.

However at the end they flocked round us asking us to write our names for them to add us on в контакте and Facebook. It was like signing autographs when you’re a pop-star, except for we were writing our names really neatly so they were legible. Then we were ushered outside by a group of giggling 15 years olds asking me why I enjoy horror films to take photos and given a thank you present of a calendar.

Cute day, cute kids and it’s a great confidence boost how much they appreciate your English speaking skills. Swear I never get that at home.

Maddy talking about music.

Sorry did you test for or inject me with that HIV? 5.10.13

This Thursday was HIV testing day. Apparently, and I say apparently because our friends in St. Petersburg didn’t need another one, you need this to be able to extend your student visa. It only lasts for 90 days so we have to get it made longer and you have to not have HIV to do this. Some of us were excited at the prospect of missing a little bit of class, and some of us terrified at the thought of blood being withdrawn from our arms. I was a mixture of both, not pleased that Sasha was going to make us return for the rest of the lesson after such an ordeal. We all boarded a bus and made our way to some dodgy part of town, chocolate being handed out for morale.

This is the place we were taken to, not a valid medical institution on any level but apparently we still have to let someone put a needle in our arm here and pay them for the pleasure. A nice little £19. Not too excessive but then it’s another £20 to extend the visa and then £6 to buy Russian insurance that we apparently have to have. I’m not entirely sure this is true so I didn’t pay but they forced a certificate on me anyways.  This place also had me questionning whether we were being tested for HIV or injected with it. Inside it was perhaps a little more hygenic, but I guess I’ll find out soon enough.

Medical Centre?? Brothel??

The weather’s been funny this week. It’s either really really cold or pretty pleasant, like it can’t make up it’s mind whether it wants to snow or give us tans. There was the most delicate sprinkling of snow on Thursday night. Just a light dusting and it didn’t settle and you couldn’t really see it unless you were outside, but it was there and it was a nice reminder of the sub-zero degree time we have ahead of us.

Me and Olivia popped into the Sportsmaster in the shopping centre, Maksi, and discovered that children’s shoes go up to a size 38 which is a UK 5. This was a nice surprise as the boots come in an array of bright colours and are half the price of adults’ shoes. Definitely excited to make a nice purchase of those when the time comes and the snow cascades.

We’re in the process of booking for our reading week which is on November 1^st. We’re heading to St.Petersburg and Moscow on a series of overnight trains which is actually cheaper than spending the night in a hostel. Half the time in each place and it’s all very exciting! We should get to see all our friends from Sheffield as we all converge on the 2 main cities for exciting times full of culture and tacky souvenirs. I’ve already bought a jigsaw magnet of the 1000 ruble note to take home with me. I’ve actually bought 5 and I’ll dole them out the next time we see the family.

On Tuesday me, Maddy, Olivia and Robin have this presentation to do for this English class of 14-15 year olds. I’ve chosen to do about Will & Kate because honestly, who doesn’t have an unhealthy obsession with them? Apparently they’ve also planned a concert for us filled with English songs. I’m pretty darn excited to see this. Plus their teacher’s been telling me how excited they are to see us. I feel like this may not be true, it’s just an excuse to get out of class for a while isn’t it. So we have to be all excited and speak English that they won’t understand and don’t care about for free? Remind me why I said yes again.....

I may potentially also have a new tutoring client. Some lady is a teacher herself but wants some speaking practice. She didn't sound too sure on whether or not she actually wanted me so I have my trial with her on Monday. I was like trial???? You know what lady, you're on trial. If you're not a good student I'll dump you. Works both ways, K? But once again, she is paying me so I'll keep the sass down to a minimum.