Three weeks in.

So, after a couple of days of having a very dubious internet connection, I'm hoping that this is going to be an appropriate moment to let people catch up on what has been happening for the past couple of days, although I'll only mention some of the more important changes, as otherwise that would mean making a long blog entry for a change. One of the most important things which has occurred has been the problem of getting hold of some new bedding. We were informed at the start that if we wanted to change out bedding we had to go downstairs and give it to the babushka and she would give us some new bedding. Sadly, they forgot to take into account the minimal amount of Russian which I speak - therefore when I went down to ask them to change my linen, I failed to notice that instead of asking them to give me new linen, I actually told them that I had no further need of my linen and that they could take it away. This obviously caused some confusion, and I spent most of the day wondering why I had no new bedding. Eventually, though, we figured it out, and having set a precedent, everyone now knows how to go and sort out all of the linen-related issues!

Part of my 'dogovor' - proof I've paid for residence!

At university, I've also managed to sort out my 'dogovor' - the receipt for the dormitory, although it took a lot of confused meetings with people who had no idea of what I wanted! However, I now have a paper which proves that I have paid. In order that nobody steals it and puts it away in some cabinet somewhere, I have also take photos of all of the pages as a kind of back-up copy, which would hopefully work. However, I need to take some papers to the foreign department of the university, and I appear to have misplaced my HIV test, which could be an issue... I don't particularly want to take another test, especially not here in Russia, as I took this test with enough time so that it would be valid still in order to change my visa to a multi-entry visa.

Luís and old Russian telephone on our walk back

Car crash we saw on our walk back
from University

Today has probably been the most eventful day all week, as its the first day that Jakob and I have had our French lessons, and I must say that it has been a great decision. We've been placed in one of the top classes (as far as I'm aware - I'm not positive on how the system works here, maybe material for investigation), and we have two lessons a week, one of which is a spoken, conversation class, and one which is a literature class, both of which are really interesting and good! The first class we had (09:40) was the French speaking class, which, is comprised of 7 students (Marina, Olessya, Irina, Katya, Julie, Nathalie, Anne) and the two of us. Its a welcome surprise to find that my level of French has not dropped as much as I had expected, indeed I think I did passably well in the class. We did get a load of homework though, including Russian - French translation (the teacher said we needn't do that - pointless, seeing as we know very little Russian and our level of French is fairly acceptable!). The second lesson was the literature one, and although the teacher was noticeably not French (the first one could have passed as being French), it was very good indeed, and it was thoroughly enjoyable to read some more of Guy de Maupassant there were only five others in this class (Evgeny, Tatiana, Natalia, Natasha and Leva? - I've forgotten the last girls' name). Also all quite welcoming, the text we looked at and analysed to some extent was 'Une Vie' - we also got homework, but the teacher fortunately explained in both French and Russian. Jakob and I are clearly the most keen people in the class, as everyone else is there out of some sort of obligation whereas we're just turning up for the fun of it.

Today also got a lovely meal cooked by Cristine for myself, Maria, french Lara and JungHeum - obviously will need to do the same in exchange at some point - from what I've heard there is also going to be a party of some sort in the kitchen upstairs - two Russian girls studying spanish (Nika and Nacha) have come round and decided that it is now party time. People also seem pretty keen to be going out to a Russian club, however, this is, as far as I'm concerned, a terrible idea (not least because I'm hardly a fan of the disco at the best of times)...

The washing I've been doing for the past
few days... The novelty of washing by
hand has rapidly worn off...

Also, sad news is that the expected trip to Ulan Ude this weekend has had to be cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances, although Jakob, Juan and Luís are going to go regardless. However the rest of us on my corridor will be going the following weekend with Vika, who will give us a bit of a guided tour hopefully, and with whoever else may be keen to come along then!

On a tangent, on our walk back from university today, I experienced haggling (at Luís's insistence), as Jakob decided to haggle over the price of a 5.000,000... dinar. He managed to knock the price down by 25%, which I guess was OK! The same man was also selling old czarist coins, but whether these were real or counterfeit is debatable... We also went to the chinese market to look at shapkas and so we may be buying some there at some point - far cheaper than in the supermarket (starting price 3.500 roubles as opposed to a fixed price of 4.700 or 9.400 roubles) - we also indulged in some rather odd kebabs - I was tame and had a chicken kebab, but Luís bought a fri-kebab, which contained chips instead of any real meat...