Spring has finally sprung here, birds are chirping, grass is growing and, despite our Russian teacher's prophesies that there will be snow soon, it looks like summer's on its way. With it comes the end of term and a 3000 word essay in Russian that is the biggest thing we have had to do all year and is just hanging over our heads. At the moment I am firmly in denial (not just a river in Egypt!) and plan on staying here, the food is good!

I've just signed a contract with Ernst and Young for the summer, as of the 19th of June I will be an intern in their tax department, human capital section. It kind of sounds like slave trading but I don't think it is. In my contract it specifies that business trips are an integral part of my job, I hope they send me to Siberia!

I'm going to be inheriting a goldfish soon from my friend Alesia who is abandoning me and going back to New York. She never actually named the poor thing so I have to christen it soon. Suggestions for names are welcome, leave them as a comment. I'll have a pic of him soon, he wasn't in a posing mood the other day, he was having a fat day.

We just found out that the multi-entry visas that we were given before christmas that were supposed to last until June entailing lots of international travel this term expired in February. Great. Really happy that I wasn't at a border crossing to Kiev in the middle of the night when I found that out!

It's still raining...boo.

Rory and Ramona have just been whisked off to the airport, in an actual taxi, quelle decadence! Had a great time with them when they were here, they brought me trashy magazines, easter chocolates, rashers and sausages and books on Russian history and for all of that I will be eternally grateful!

Another great example of Russian efficiency; a bureau de change has just opened in one of the many 24 hour flower shops on our road. It has a big sign outside it saying that it's open round-the-clock, we went in there the other night and it was closed. The next day we went in to change our hard-earned euro and they had no rubles to give us, clearly that was our fault. Third time was a charm though, went in last night and caught them at a rare time when they were both open AND had local currency to exchange. (They have very good rates, that's why we keep going back....fools!)

Happy Easter, it feels weird here because Orthodox Easter isn't for another few weeks. I have just beheaded my chocolate Easter bunny, he is not long for this world.

Petersburg in 14 hours (It only took 16 hours of travel!)

Myself, Rory and Ramona made a snap decision to go to Petersburg for the day on Wednesday evening, arriving back in Moscow on Friday morning, leaving us 14 hours in Petersburg and 16 hours on the train. Good idea?

We decided to go second class there, because the beds are more comfortable and we thought we would get a better sleep. The snory man in the top bunk had other ideas, if I knew him I would have thrown everything that wasn't nailed down at him.



THE SNORING MAN!!!! He even managed to snore when he was sleeping on his side, I think he was in training for the snoring olympics. He slept very well on wednesday night, we didn't


Rory wanted to show the world how much he was enjoying his blini with ham and cheese. The world really didn't need to know.


We saw the army and navy band rehearsing for hours in palace square for some holiday celebrations, there were some quite impressive choreographical moves. We were pretty safe in the knowledge that they weren't going to ask us for our passports, they were too busy with their step...pivot...pivot...step... step. I liked the dude standing on the little platform, it was carpeted and everything!


Sean (our man in Petersburg) ordered a cup of green tea, which turned out to be a never-ending pot of green tea. It had quite comical consequences, he was buzzing for the next three hours or so and kept having to make toilet stops. Quote of the day 'tea is not supposed to make you feel like this!' He was last seen wandering off with a purposeful look on his face muttering something like 'just one more cup.....'


Answers on a postcard please to explain why a garden needs to 'dry.'

These dogs really really liked each other, I was quite jealous of their new spring coats.


Rory got dog poo on his shoes, he was disgusted, wouldn't let me take a picture so I had to take a covert snap. We blame the dogs in the natty coats.


Ramona ended up buying a load of pictures from this man, who was like forty coats on speed, if you don't know who forty coats is then disregard the last remark.


Rory is trying manfully to keep his eyes open on the train home.

Look how chirpy they were before we headed off!

My boots that have served me well for the past 7 months decided to not be waterproof anymore yesterday....and it has started raining. Lots. For the first time in about seven months.

I was running late to meet friends last night and decided to splash out the hundred rubles (about 3 euro) that I had just found in my pocket on a taxi into town so I would get there faster. Just before we got into the centre we hit a traffic jam, not unusual at any time in Moscow. What was unusual was the fact that ten minutes later we hadn't moved an inch. I was sitting in the back of the car knowing that as soon as I got out of the car the traffic would start moving but I was so late to meet my friends that I eventually had to hop out and walk. As I came to Pushkin Square, the intersection of six of the busiest roads in Moscow I saw that traffic police had stopped all the traffic from all directions and were even keeping pedestrians from crossing the road. At this stage I had resigned myself to being very late, the temptation to run whooping across the deserted square was huge but the police shoot to kill here so I refrained and waited to see what all the fuss was about. A few minutes later about 15 blacked out mercs, hummers and police cars all with sirens going came speeding up one road, made an illegal u-turn and sped away. This was followed by another cavalcade of expensive german-made cars, one of which had a russian flag on its bumper and the roads were quiet again, apart from the honking of the irate drivers who had been at a standstill for more than 15 minutes. It was Mr Putin, heading home after a long day of limiting free speech and selling oil. It's quite the phenomenal party trick 'hey look guys, I can stop traffic!' It would almost make me want to run for office and just spend the day driving around disrupting traffic...