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Hello!
So, I thought I was going to have nothing to write for this week, but I have just made a list and I actually have done quite a lot! One flew over the cuckoo's nest turned out to be a bit of a disaster. The director had made it into a comedy/musical. So it was very odd indeed, but we had to be very polite about it becasue the girl who took us had seen it 8 times!

The next day, Eva and I decided to go out of town to this massive tourist market where they sell all the usual touristy stuff such as fur hats, matrioshka dolls, icons... We had a really great day though and had a nice time chatting away with all the market sellers too. It was an absolutely freezing day and we ended up having to buy some gloves!

On Tuesday, pretty much the whole group of us English students went to watch an ice hockey match. It was absolutely brilliant! We didn’t get off to a great start because we ended up at an empty stadium where there was no one else to be seen! Luckily though, two men were rushing past and when we asked them if they knew where the stadium was they told us they were going too! So we followed them and weren’t actually too late. Apparently we missed the national anthem though! The match was really exciting though! I don’t usually like watching sport, but I got really into it and even surprised myself when I jumped up after ‘our team’ had scored! In my opinion, there could have been a few more fights; I wanted to see blood on the ice! By the end of the game, we were drawing 3 all, so it went into extra time, but even after this no one had scored. So it then went to penalties and then even after the 3 chosen men had gone, we were still drawing. So it then went into sudden death! It was brilliant, very exciting!
On Thursday, I went for a very civilised one drink and then decided to take some photos around the area I live in. We have been told that there is a photo competition at school and we all have to bring in a selection of our favourite photos. The theme of course is ‘your impressions of Moscow’. So I thought I would try and capture Russian life at its grimiest! Snapping away at a market stall, a man noticed that my flash went off and proceeded to give me a very nasty look. Needless to say, I quickly moved on and went to ask a lady selling magazines if I could take her photo. The man who had seen my before came storming up to me and saying that I couldn’t just take pictures of who I wanted and what was I taking pictures for anyway. I explained that they were for a competition at school and that I was very sorry for getting him in the background! He was very grumpy indeed and just kept saying, yeah sure you’re sorry, you’re sorry! The magazine lady thought it was all very amusing and told him not to be so paranoid! Anyway, so I am a bit more careful now and make sure I always ask! After that little episode, I went to go and meet my friend Katherine, who lives nearby and we went for a walk and found this very spectacular little church, gold and icons galore!
On Friday, I decided to actually use my day off and did some revision of vocab. I also decided to go for a run! Very out of character I know! Turns out though, there is nowhere to run near where we live and also I really don’t enjoy running. So maybe first and last run for me! I came back and did some sit ups, I’m still aching a bit! Health kick, done.
On Saturday, two girls from school, Eva and I went to do some volunteer work. One of the girls from school found out about a charity called Maria’s children which is involved with many orphanages around Moscow. They have a few centres where they invite the children to come and hang out every week. So we went and were there for a few hours just painting, drawing and teaching them a bit of English. It was really fun actually, they were really great kids aged from about 6-12. They were really happy and excited to see us, but I think it is important for them to have some kind of continuity and routine, so I think I will go again next Saturday.
On Sunday, after a very late start I decided to treat myself and spend my birthday money! So you will all be pleased to know that I bought a lovely grey woollen dress!
Anyway, that is all for now.
Big love x x

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Hi there,
Not much to tell this week. I have had a culturally rich week though! On Wednesday I went to the Bolshoi Theatre with three other boys from my class. It was really great, we got really dressed up and went to see Macbeth. It was an Italian opera with Russian subtitles, so it was quite hard to understand, but I knew the story anyway so it was fine. The Bolshoi is amazing though and we went for 20 roubles (fifty roubles is £1, so about 20p) because students can go an hour before and get amazingly cheap tickets! Our view was fantastic as well, I could see everything. The Opera itself was fantastic, the set was absolutely fantastic and there were loads of extras. Instead of having three witches, there were about 20. They were my favourite, dressed all in black and all young slim beautiful women with really long hair which they kept swishing about. All the costumes were mainly dark, but then one of the extras would have a pair of scarlet gloves or a red flower which was really effective. It was really good and an amazing experience just to be at the Bolshoi, I couldn’t stop smiling for the first 10 minutes!
I went for a drink with my friend Maja and she brought along Kostya, a Russian friend. I introduced myself and he then asked me if I was Russian. I said no but asked him why he thought I was and he said that my pronunciation was perfect! Woo hoo! I’m getting somewhere! Anyway we had a couple of drinks with him, but after that I was absolutely exhausted because he likes to talk a lot and he talks very fast. But he was telling us about his views on gay people, it was really interesting and also really frustrating as well. He is a really nice guy, but then he was saying that if he found out that one of his friends was gay then he would break of all ties with him and most probably beat him up! I couldn’t believe it! This is why I think Russians are so odd; they have just have such strange views on some things and will never even consider changing these views because they are so ingrained into society. A lot of Russians once you get to know them are lovely and really willing to open up and offer you everything, but if you don’t know them then they will tread all over you to get what they want. It’s just crazy!
Thursday has been re-named ‘Imperial Thursday’ because we finish lessons on a Thursday and then what usually happens is that a group of people spend the afternoon in the pub occasionally drinking vodka (hence imperial lavish behaviour!). Anyway, I decided I didn’t want to do that this week, so I went to a place called Vorobyovy Gory which has a nature reserve of the same name. Anyway, I decided I just wanted to go and take some photos as it was a nice day at the time. It was so beautiful and autumnal with lots of yellow, burnt orange and red leaves. I was with Eva, so we had a little photo shoot so she could show her family and friends her black hair! So after taking lots of photos I set off in search of the nearest metro station, which turned out to be about 40 mins walk away by which time it had started raining! But still in good spirits I rang they boys to see where they were. Unsurprisingly they were in a bar about 5 mins away from school. So I went to see them, which was a bad idea, they were already on bottle number two of vodka and all a bit worse for wear. After about 30 mins, they started dropping like flies and had to go and be sick. So to cut a long story short, I had to pay their obscenely large bill and even take one of them home before going home myself! No good comes of imperial Thursday!
Tonight I am going to watch ‘One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ at the theatre with some Russian and English friends. So, not quite sure what it is going to be like, but I know the story so should be good.
Anyway, lots of love
X x x x x x

New pad!

So, very exciting news... Eva and I have moved into our new flat! Well, in fact we had very little choice in the matter. Our babushka pretty much kicked us out with an evening’s notice! Eva and I got home from a friend’s house where he hosts a film club and suddenly the babushka asked us when we were moving out. We told her that we planned to go at the end of the month, which would have been Friday. This was apparently unacceptable! She told us that we had to move out the next evening (which was Monday!) and that after that it was over! I have to live my life too and if you two are leaving then I want you out tomorrow! I was just in shock, so it was all very funny at the time! So, on Monday, Eva and I trekked back for the last time to her house, made ourselves a nice cup of tea and sat patiently waiting for our taxi! Our new house is lovely and we are so much happier here! No nagging babushka, internet and a really nice flatmate!
On Tuesday night, we explored our surroundings a bit and found this gigantic supermarket which is spread over two floors of a shopping centre and has everything that you could ever desire from pickled anything to mobile phones and from ice-skates to power tools. Also something that I got really excited about was that they have dispensers where you can weigh out your own tea, coffee, cereal, rice, sweets... I enjoyed it!
On Saturday, a small group of us had agreed to meet our literature teacher to go to one of the Pushkin museums. She had organised for us to have a tour of the museum which was really great and it was really interesting... they even had a posthumous mask that was made and lock of his hair. Bit creepy! After the museum, we walked to a little Georgian restaurant and had lunch together. It was really delicious food: a salad followed by a broth with rice and then meatballs with boiled potatoes. Yummy! We then walked to where Pushkin used to live and then all had a drink together in a lovely little French cafe! In the evening two friends and I went to go and see The Queen of Spades. It is a short story written by Pushkin about a man who never gambles though is fascinated with card games. One day he finds out that an old crazy woman knows of three cards which are always guaranteed to win. He is driven mad by this and eventually kills the old woman. Anyway, I thought it was very good. The set was brilliant, very detailed and the costumes were fantastic!
So today is Sunday... never really an interesting day! Done lots of homework. I also gave Eva a restyle: cut her hair and dyed it very dark brown almost black. It looks really nice and suits her dark colouring well! Now that people know that I cut hair everyone wants to book in an appointment! I should start charging a pint a haircut!
Anyway... I’m off to buy myself a coat tomorrow as it is already bloody cold here! Apparently it is uncharacteristically cold for October, so that doesn’t really bode well for the coming winter then. Oh dear, I’m starting to get very worried! I bought a coat last week and then after one wear on Saturday realised that it was no way near enough! So, that is being returned and I am hoping to buy something warm and nice. This may well be a problem as the big thing here is shiny black duffle coats with an elasticted waist. Not exactly my style!
Lots of love to you all
X x x x x