Beginning at the beginning

So, having spent most of my life moving around I found myself coming to the end of 4 years of living in Oxford and decided it was time to move on. Don't get me wrong, various friends have been exasperated with me never staying still even during this time, at last count I've been to 15 different countries during the last 4 years, it's just not in my nature to stay in one place.

But I was tired of living in Britain, partly because of the dullness of it all, partly because I feel more at home when I can't understand anything that's being said around me, and partly just because I like making life difficult for myself.

I've been trying to learn Russian on and off since I was about 14. Being monoglot after having lived all over Europe was just getting too embarrassing but I never seemed to be able to make time to learn a language properly. Having given up German after high school, I decided that the only way I was ever going to learn was to just go to Russia, have hours and hours of classes every day, and live with a Russian family (remember I said I like to make things difficult for myself?)