Опоздание, а быстро

Last night I went out for a few drinks at Dickens' Pub with a few expats from the forums at redtape.ru. The pub itself was well-appointed on the inside, looking for all the world what I would expect an English pub to look like. They had a nice selection of ales, ciders, and such on tap, including my favorite, Old Speckled Hen. The food, though I didn't have any, looked and smelled delicious--when I need a moderately extravagant meal, I think I might pay them a second visit. (And maybe I'll take pictures then. I tend to be a bit shy of taking pictures of people, even when I know I should.)

The folks were as pleasant as the fare. An accountant and a lawyer, from one of the large accounting firms and formerly from one of the large law firms respectively. They shared a passion for football (the European kind) and were full of stories about Russian bureaucracy, negative inverse customer service, and the other joys of life here in Russia. For me, it was good just to sit down and have what amounted to a normal night out--to relax and talk about this somewhat crazy place I have thrown myself into.

Woke this morning to more snow. Falling more than accumulating--but I took no chances and wore my boots to class.

Class brought with it a new (to me) teacher, Elena. This was my third day in my new group (still all Chinese) and my first with Elena. Elena's favorite word, and her entire style, is быстро. The word means "quickly." Elena speaks extremely fast, and has little mercy for the poor students who don't understand a word she says. The lesson was the future tense--or at least the future imperfective, as near as I can tell. She rattled off three ways to form it, including one that uses the instrumental case--which, so far as I know, no one in class other than me knows about. The entire class seemed to consist of straining to figure out what in the world she was saying--even if she'd been going slower, I don't know that I know many of the words she was using. During the break, I could've been in China--it was all Chinese around me. Classes like this make me despair of ever learning this language.

(NB: Another word for Elena would be опоздание. She was twenty minutes late starting class, and dragged the allegedly ten minute break out to at least twenty. This irritates me to no end. I'm paying a fair amount for this; I want every minute that I've paid for.)

The flip side of this is that, on the way home, I'm walking along figuring out things that I can say in my head and feeling halfway confident about it. I just need to find some way, somewhere to practice. I dunno what it'll be--I may just start annoying people on the street, or in bars, or in Gostiny Dvor. But I feel like if I could just talk more, I'd do better--that I'd probably do as much to teach myself the language as anything that's going on in class, which is always a bit awkward with the rough Chinese accents and all.

Just had dinner--sliced up hot dogs with bow tie pasta and some ketchup. Not quite as tasty as the kasha or schi from last week. The food is one of the things that varies wildly in quality here: from blini or that tasty sugared toast in the morning to cheese on bread. (This morning the bread was toasted and the cheese was melted, at least.) The trouble is that, as near as I can tell, I'd be paying as much or more for a flat if I did it on my own, and I don't have high hopes for getting a roommate figured out considering that the pool is entirely Chinese with limited English skills. Living in the dorms is out of the question, I think--while this may not be perfect, at least I can close the door and have a little privacy.

I guess there may just be lots of cheese on bread and hot dogs in my future...