1 week down...

So my first week here has been pretty darn busy: it's really hard to think that this time last week I was stumbling down to a hostel with my life packed into a suitcase and a 10 kilo piece of hand luggage. Since then I have moved into a flat, broke a blind, embarrased myself in a French class and learned how to make a tortilla (amongst other things which I shall explain later!)

Anyway, here is the room which I shall reside in for the next few months:

The only thing that's missing is the desk and a rather fetching big bright green pillow I bought today. I found my flat about 2 days after getting here which was quite good seeing as the hostel was already starting to annoy me - sleeping in the same room as 19 other people definitely gives you an incentive to find somwhere fast, especially when the person above you snores!
The flat's a bit out of town, which means a little bit of a walk to get into Uni everyday but it's only about the same as living in Sheffield and quite a bit cheaper so I don't mind! The flat itself is lovely too, it has internet, a dishwasher and a Wii which I definitely wasn't expecting!

Moving onto something very exciting: I started training with the rugby team here on Tuesday which was AMAZING! It's obviously not like playing with the girls at home but it's so great to be able to play rugby while I'm here, even if I can't really understand much of what they're saying to me! I'm sure I'll learn eventually! The coach again isn't quite John Dudley, but he's a rather nice Argentinian man so I'm definitely not complaining :)


As far as classes are concerned I pretty much know what I'm doing, providing some clashes get ironed out (fingers crossed!) As I mentioned before I'm DEFINITELY not taking the French module as the class was far too advanced for my meagre knowledge of the language, so instead I am taking a module on 'Localisation' which is from what I can gather, about translating websites. It also transpired that it involved actually creating them as well, which was a bit tricky as I'd never touched html in my life, let alone in Spanish! Still, at least I was able to sit at the back and look confused rather than squirming at the thought of being asked for yet another conjugation that I didn't know by a scary French lady... I've had a bit more luck with the Italian module I'm taking, even though I seemed to find myself trying to think in 3 languages simultaneuously - thinking solely in Spanish/Italian is hard enough without that bloody lengua materna getting in the way! I can only describe it as like planking with your brain, but I guess that will get better with time (as does planking, so I'm told...) Russian I don't know about yet as I spent the hour that I was meant to be in the class looking for the room, but I'm pretty sure that no class can be as intimidating as one with Liudmila, or any of the teachers I will encounter in Volgograd, but who knows?

Before I finish this post I shall leave you with some pictures of the feast me and my housemates cooked last night which comprised of a tortilla with chorizo, a big pot of spaghetti and an Oreo tart. I definitely needed a lie down afterwards!