The real work begins...

Hopefully my last day of playing catch-up, I should be back to writing in real time by this afternoon...

It was an early start to proceedings yesterday. With a full house (6 in total) in the apartment and two bathrooms between us, things ran surprisingly smoothly in the run up to lessons starting at 9am (This will alternate each day between morning and afternoon starts). I'm taking the group course, with four other students, a nice size to ensure things move at a good pace with no one left behind.

At this point I should probably admit to having made my first efforts to learn the language back in England. Thats not to say I'm in anyway able to communicate effectively. I just have a basic understanding of some of the grammar and a small vocabulary. Without the opportunity to speak and hear Russian regularly that aspect of my understanding is still practically none existant, hence my choice to start from 'zero'.

Nevertheless, having a fellow student within the class with some prelimary understanding has meant our teacher - Екатерина, Катя or any of the other 25 derivitives of her name that formed part of our first introduction to Russian language and culture - is already willing to push us along at a slighter quicker pace and ensure we remain challenged within the group. At this early stage I hope she doesn't over-estimate my level of understanding, though it is reassuring to know that even with the stratification among our group, all of us should get the maximum possible from the next two weeks.

With the mysteries of the Cyrillic alphabet now decifered by everyone in the group - offering ample opportunity for my Dutch colleagues to demonstrate their linguistic prowess in transcribing phonetically, a humbling grasp of English humour, into Russian - the complexities of grammar await us this afternoon...