I'm here in Russia!

Don't ever fly British Airways, they're useless. Took an hour and a half to check in (at a desk that was checking in for any BA flight), so the vouchers we were given to get food with (because the caterers are on strike) were useless as we had to go straight to the gate for boarding... by the time we got to Moscow we were starving! And then they lost Ben's bag, which still hasn't turned up, so the poor lad is in the same clothes he's been wearing since Sunday...

Need to find a better way of accessing the internet. This place is in a courtyard through a scary alley and I'm not a fan.

Russia itself is odd. The buildings are all exactly like you see on teh news (usually where there's a war going on) - all 60s Soviet buildings that look a little the worse for wear. Getting around is really easy though, buses go everywhere and cost a grand total of 7 roubles per journey. Considering there's 52 roubles to the pound, I think that's pretty bargainous!

The family is nice, although I have great difficulty in communicating... I'm getting about 1 word in every 4 or 5, which is just about enough to get by as long as I don't mind teh looks of patient waiting that cross their faces.

And today we were taught by... Gulya! Yes, the miniature Russian of the first year has... well, not returned axactly, but reappeared in our lives. And I understand her a lot more now than I did then, so that's got to be a good sign.

What else? It's been a crazy few days. Oooh we got our timetables, yay for 2 lessons a day (even if they are an hour and a half each) and Fridays off! And the head of the International dept said that if we want to go travelling, we just have to let her know how many lessons we're going to miss... hehehe. Although Gulya has decided to give us a lot of reading to do, so now I'm regretting not bringing my big fat Russian dictionary (even though I couldn't have carried it)... ah well, time to brave the Russian bookshop!

More when I find out how to get to the internet more often.

Sara xx