Table-Tennis and lots more snow!

The past few days have the seen the snow in Irkutsk come to a very final stop indeed, much to everyone's satisfaction, as the small pile of snow sitting behind the residence (as far as I was aware, the last remaining patch of snow in Irkutsk) was getting smaller and smaller by the day, which, considering that this is right in the shade, was a pretty good effort for April! However, all this good news came with a twist - just yesterday it started snowing again - lightly at first, but overnight becoming heavier and causing a snowstorm through most of today, which has again made all the streets white and carpeted the whole of Irkutsk in an inch of snow, which will likely last for quite a while - this does mean, however that when my parents come in May they'll almost certainly get a taste of proper Siberian snow!

Suvda, Antonetta, Dries and Lara (the paleness is a result of the
horrible new light in our kitchen!)

Not much news to cover for the past week - on Thursday I went to the Chinese consulate to ask about whether or not my documents would be sufficient to collect a Visa from the embassy to avoid any problems, but it turned out that they open only three days a week for three hours in the morning, which was quite unfortunate, as I went on a Thursday, not one of the days which they were open in any case (Monday, Wednesday and Friday 9:00 -12:00). Either way, I've not returned there, I think the documents should be sufficient, and otherwise... well, lets hope it doesn't come to that! The following evening, after lessons we had a little 'Belgian evening' - which, after a dinner cooked for us by Dries, was then followed by a lot of Belgian beer which Dries's family had brought over with them for him. This meant that most of the Caucasians in the residence (also Chen Chen, JungHeum and Suvda), and Guillaume and Ingrid, were united under one roof to celebrate Belgianness... Guillaume also managed to convince the lady to let him stay the night again, so he managed to stay over here past 23:00 again.

Marina and self

The next day, Danya, Dries, Emily, Lara and Maria went off to Angarsk in the morning to see, in particular, the clock museum there. Guillaume stayed for a while longer and helped me clean up the kitchen, then, he, JungHeum and I went over to his place to eat and then to go and play ping-pong with Guillaume and Marina on the other side of the river. The place we went to was huge and full of pong-pong tables which were free for everyone to use, so we took one and played there for a few hours, after which I was completely tired-out, the result having played for about two years! This pain has endured, and on waking up this morning I felt more akin to the first day I went climbing than as if I had just spent a few hours hitting a ball in a sports hall!

The Raven

Today, being Vika's birthday, I hurried out to find her a present, eventually deciding to give her a present of my two favourite British books in Russian, which I found in a small bookstore just round the corner (JungHeum pointed me in that direction, which was useful as I didn't spend half an hour getting into town and back!). I opened one of the books and started reading it, and almost felt loathe to part with it to her. However, I may buy another one, I know it well enough I wont need to see it translated! After this, I met up with Danya, Emily and JungHeum, and at 13:00 we headed into town and got into the cinema just in time to catch the beginning of the film which Vika had invited us to see, 'The Raven', which turned out to be an interesting kind of movie, although rather predictable and yet not going anywhere at the same time. Other than us, though, there were only three other people in the cinema, so that was quite pleasant.

Guillaume, Danya, Vika, Emily, Ingrid and Dries

After the cinema, we went across the road to a little café, where we gave Vika her presents, and then, when the only other customers in the café realised that we were foreigners, they told us that it was they had been in this very same café 50 years ago and were maintaining that tradition (it was a group of five babushkas). It is my firm opinion that they had had a bit too much of the wine which I noticed on their table, as they then grabbed most of the others by the hand and started dancing around and singing, wll of which was deeply amusing! Following on after the café, we braved the snowstorm, and, whereas most of the others went home, Danya, Emily, JungHeum, Lara and I went to the sports centre and after asking around a bit, managed to find another table-tennis centre, where we once more went in to play, although Emily and Lara were on separate occasions, paired up with a Russian who had no partner there.