So I've been here just over a week! My regular timetable should start on Monday - I have found out that I will be teaching at Skhodninskaya, which is one metro station down the line from where I am living. It's so close as to be walkable. That's great news, as Language Link did consider posting me to VDNKh, which is about 15 stops away on a different metro line.

It's still pretty mild here. There are puddles everywhere so I guess it is a little above freezing, at least in the day. Everything is dripping and slushy. It's not too pleasant! Of course, when it gets cold again everything will freeze over and the city will be like a skating rink.

On Thursday and Friday last week I was covering for an ill/absent teacher in a town called Korolev, which is about 40 minutes' train ride north of Moscow - on the train line to Yarsolavl. So that was quite a hike, but one of the regular teachers at that school, a bloke called Nick, was from Reading - and had been teaching there for five years. So he had a lot of stories to tell.