Some observations and highlights for you all from the evening:

Almost everone who lives here looks incredibly serious. I can honestly say that I have seen only one Russian smile so far, outside of the service industry. And even then...read on.

The traffic is...vast. There seem to be many lanes because of the wide roads, plus the trams, but there are no roas markings whatsoever. If the traffic light turns red, they all stop but you obviously have to live here to know where exactly. It isn't chaotic as such, just the opposite considering. Crossing the road is something of an artform.

We went looking for somewhere to eat earlier, having been told that we just had to turn left at the end of the road and lots of restaurants would be apparent, and I'm sure that if any one of us could read the Cyrillic script they would be. I went in the end for anywhere that had a coke or pepsi sign in the window. The first one we tried turned out to be a posh Japanese place. They pretty much told us to go away. They said they couldn't cope with a table for 8 and pointed down the road. There were no place down the road. So we went to the place that had been recommended by Elana the tour guide because they served traditional pies. We discovered that they had no pies. But the food we did get was fine and everyone was happy, I think, because we had at least tried something that wasn't the hotel. For me the best thing about the place was that the waitresses were unashamedly aggravated by our presence. There was a wonderful honesty about the rude way they talked about us to each other, palming us off on a (really very nice) girl who could speak a little English. I tipped her well. If only beacuse it helped me realise that our trip had begun in earnest.

The hotel is teaming with students eager to mingle. A certain male member of our party is getting very excited by the number of pretty girls, while at the same time being amazed by their studiousness! Tomorrow brings a trip to the Hermitage museum and a folklore performance. I (or they I hope) will write more then.

By the way, in case anyone is worried, all the students are happy and safe, I will treat all of them as though they are my own (well most of them anyway!!)

Mr W