24th December: There’s No Place Like Home

I made it: I'm back in England! Of course there are things I'll miss about Russia – the people, mainly – but I cannot even begin to describe how good it feels to be back.

Walking through the Arrivals gate at Heathrow was even better than the Love Actually moment I'd imagined. Seeing my mum there waving at me through the crowd made me happier than I'd been for months. We couldn't get to each other fast enough, and when we did we both broke down. It wasn't until a good few minutes later that I even spotted my cousin Danny standing patiently, if somewhat bemused, in the background.

It had been a long journey but a surprisingly smooth one considering all the scare-mongering that had gone on. My taxi arrived early, getting me to the train station at just gone 7:20, in plenty of time for my 7:48 train. Everyone was together in one wagon, and when we got off at the other end Alexei carried my small case so I had one less to worry about. Even so, getting up and down all the steps on the metro was a challenge, and I was just lucky that Ed's Russian friend had come to meet us and helped me carry my suitcase on every single flight of stairs. We then had to wait an hour for the Aeroexpress, which took us directly to the airport. After that, it was time to wait in several endless queues for various bureaucratic reasons, until finally we were through to departures.

Coming back home has made me realise how lucky I really am. I can now confidently affirm that you really don’t appreciate what you have until it’s gone. I am so glad I’ve had the chance to have such an amazing experience living in Russia for four months, but I can now say with certainty that I never, ever, want to live there. There’s no denying that there are positives about living in Russia – cheap, efficient public transport; a strong sense of loyalty to family and friends; a strong sense of tradition – but there’s also no denying that life out there is tough. I would even go as far as to say that what people have out there is not a life; it’s an existence. The freezing temperatures, the minimal wages, the necessity to work hard and for long hours – even the absence of Christmas! A lot of people criticise the relentless takeover of capitalism in Britain, but it’s only when you’re stripped of all your capitalist comforts that you realise how much you take them for granted. Things that we regard as the norm – having a proper bed and not a sofa, and in your own bedroom; living in a house and not in a tiny flat; being able to control your own central heating; not only having a washing machine but also a tumble dryer, and not in the corner of the bathroom; having a garden; going on holidays abroad – are almost unimaginable luxuries in Russia. Now I’m getting used to having all these things again, I feel almost spoilt. But most of all, I’m happy to be back amongst my family and friends, who have welcomed me back as though no time’s passed at all. It’s true what they say: there really is no place like home.