This weekend was the celebration of the town's 420th Birthday. I attended a firework display on Friday night to contribute to the celebrations, however, nobody had told me that to reap the reward of seeing the superb fireworks I would have to endure a exhibition of children doing keep fit-style dancing to tunes such as 'It's a Sin' and 'Born in the USA'. It was delightful really it was.

Other than that I didn't see any other celebrations, possible due to the rain, which yesterday evening reached torrential heights. I went instead to a Dacha, having been invited there by my student, ate barbecued meat and drank beer and managed to escape having a banya. I tried to explain that it's not the done thing for British people to remove their clothes on a first meeting, I know I'm in Russia and 'when in ...' etc, but I've had enough of doing the Russian thing. So instead they interrogated me with, what in normal circumstances I would consider, freakish interest, but of course these aren't normal circumstances and I am now used to people being interested in little old me just because I'm from a far off country. I began to get afraid when they asked 'is there any record of your being here in Russia' – I don't know, maybe it's the being taken 40 minutes drive from the city to a wooden house and the isolation, but the paranoia button in my brain started to flash, that's when I insisted that we not have a banya in which I would be trapped in a small room in plus 100 conditions with Russians who I hardly know, with not even clothes to protect me. Of course, I was as usual letting my imagination get carried away and I quickly resolved the situation by telling them that yes I do have a contract and if I went missing suddenly someone would miss me.... wouldn't they? It was very pleasant and the Russians again have shone with hospitality and interest making me feel unworthy of such attention and esteem. You can't fault the Russians for their hospitable nature and their effort.