There's a right way and a wrong way...

...and I seem to keep choosing the wrong way!

This is my fifth time in Russia, you'd think I'd have noticed before now but I can't seem to stop myself from getting in people's way. It should be such a simple change to make but after 24 years of apparently walking on the left hand side of the pavement, I can't learn to walk on the right.

I guess we - the Russians and English - operate on the same principle as our roads. However, based on my experiences of Russian driving you'd think they'd follow the 'rules' just a loosely as pedestrians. A minor issue maybe, but if I'm ever going to stop looking like a tourist I better get in the right lane and start going with the flow!

The grass is actually greener...

My first impressions (fourth impressions?) of this city yesterday were taken by the obvious amount of development work that has been going on in my absence. The area I'm based at the school has definitely enjoyed a little TLC in recent months. Its noticeable, perhaps because of how rough and ready some of the surrounding area is, but its clear there's some money coming into the place and some of its old Soviet debris is being cleared away.

Obviously it helps being here while the grass is still green and the leaves remain on the trees, but beyond that you notice the freshly dug flower begs around apartment entrances. A few more are scattered in pots and planters around the roads with their freshly painted white lines and newly laid paving. Two new children's areas have sprung up where before it was the sorry, rusted skeleton of Soviet era apparatus. Even car parking, with perimeter fencing, marked out spaces and an organised line of autos has found its place among the plethora of machines still swamping every available kerb and corner.

I don't know what I'll find when I make it into the centre but its just nice to see such a marked change. The buildings are still their tired old selves for the most part and I don't want to give the impression its a paradise on earth, but at least its moving in the right direction. Hell, there even seems to be a greater proportion of pretty girls walking around...

Back in the USSR...

I'm back! And this time I mean business. Literally. Well sort of. It says as much on my [3 month!!!] visa and if anyone asks I'm here for various seminars and other commercially minded reasons...

The real reason for my trip, besides the obligatory Russian lessons - still very much needed despite steady progress over the summer months while I had a willing Russian speaking Pole to practice on in Oxford - is that I'll be travelling down to Moscow for a couple of months in the archives. Yes! Those archives!

Allow me to bring you all(?...hello mum x) up to speed...

Managed to get involved in a week long workshop in Moscow in Easter aimed at introducing DPhil students to working and researching in them. Largely a chance to have someone experienced there to help navigate us through the endless form filling and beaurocracy. Now a proud owner of two Russian library cards - one for the old state 'Lenin Library' and the other for the state history library - and the necessary paperwork for entry into the former Party archives in RGASPI and (hopefully) the more general holdings of GARF.

Besides access to real, dusty, history in your hands, butterflies in your belly (just me still?) documents, most of the above still boast their old Soviet era kitchens that continue to provide a decent meal for a student friendly price. Hopefully won't starve at least while I'm there.

After that it was the obligatory revision / exam run that Oxford loves to make us all suffer. The fear wasn't there after getting through finals in my undergrad days and I was pleasantly surprised by the overall performance. Aced the history paper - which I really should be doing if I'm at all serious about playing this game long term - and comfortable passes in the other two.

That left me with a summer ahead to work every hour available to earn the money to come here and stay here for any decent amount of time..."I don't know how lucky [I] are!"

P.S - The photo is from that earlier Moscow trip. Currently sat tapping away in St Petersburg so will start updating properly as of tomorrow.