1st week

Hi...

So I arrived safely here in Moscow! Eva (the girl from SSEES who I am sharing the appartment with) and I managed to bargain with a taxi driver to bring us to the appartment block. The only problem was that we didn't have our host's number, so we couldn't get into the building at first. But we managed in the end. She is a nice lady, not the typical Russian babushka though. She has perfectly manicured toenails and swans about in bejeweled flip-flops. She also goes to bed in the early hours and doesnt get up until around 12.00! She is a bit crazy as well. We attempted to go to an internet cafe, though 10 mins later she realised she had left a pan of oil heating on the hob! Oh dear, lots of mess, the pan had to be thrown away... she blamed us! She is also very fussy about turning of lights and tidyness. Though its her house I suppose, I would be fussy too!

On the second day we were here, we had to do an aptitude test, which was pretty terrible as I havn't really thought about russian for the past 3 months. But i'm not in the lowest class, so thats something to be glad about! We are doing an intensive course at the moment for the next week. So, a lot of going over things and getting back into the swing of things. We have two classes a day, they are an hour and a half at a time and we have only a 5 minute break. I find myself drifting off at times as it is quite hard to pay full attention for that long at a time! Im finding it all a bit stressfull at the moment and am really tired at the end of the day. But it will get a lot easier.

At the weekend we had a chance to relax, which was definately needed. Eva and I walked along the river to the Kremlin, though it was all closed of as it was 'city day'. There were lots of performances in the evening, though tickets to get in were very expencive. We had a look at St. Basils, saw GUM and then walked about for a bit. In the evening we met up with a Russian guy called Dima. He is a friend of a friend of Eva. He was very sweet and came to meet us at our metro station with a bunch of flowers for us both. We spoke mainly in Russian, though also a bit in french. He is from Kazakstan, and only moved to Moscow a year ago. We went to an area called Арбат (Arbat) which is famous for its street performers. The streets were teeming with musicians of all kinds, students from the conservatoir, folk musicians, children playing instruments and I even saw a couple with a hand held karaoke machine! Dima is a an actor and acts in lots of the theatres around Moscow, so he will be a good cultural friend! He and I also had a converstaion about Russian film , which he seems really passionae about and he said he would lend me some good modern russian films.

What else... Moscow is huge, I think it will take a while to get my bearings! Sadly, Eva and I live really far from the centre and from Uni. It takes about an hour to get there every morning. The only way for us to get around is by metro and the last one is around midnight, which is a bit rubbish if we want to go out in the evening, but we will manage! (maybe stay out until they start again in the morning!! Apparently the first one is around 5!)

Keep watching out for more blogs, though I will have to use internet cafe's, as we are too far from the centre to use wifi.

Lots of love to you all. Miss you already.
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