Unsurprisingly, my final week in Russia was a week of lasts. The last Тесто Место Monday (in which we were deprived of our usual sugar-eating contests by the lack of fruit tea), the last few lessons, the last shopping spree in Gostiny Dvor, the last meal in Cafe Zoom (predictably delicious!) and the last meal with Vera (predictably not!). But there were also a few firsts:
The first time that a teacher other than Natasha gave us presents.
Natasha also gave us presents of course, homemade cabbage pies which we were urged to eat there and then (maybe she knew that we wouldn't eat them otherwise!) but Irina and Roman went all out, throwing us a tea party on our last day of lessons. It was not quite an old-fashioned English tea party, consisting of little more than tea (in plastic cups), a box of cream cakes, and presents, but we also got to talk to Irina and Roman properly for the first time, which was really interesting. They told us that it's very difficult for young people like them to leave Russia, even for a year as a guest teacher in Durham, as the British authorities won't grant them a visa until they can prove that they've got something to come back for (i.e. a husband/wife and kids) - and I thought that getting my visa was hard! They also told us (and this is something I've been hearing a lot recently) that they don't feel that Russia can be a proper democracy, at least not in the foreseeable future. Naturally, Tom and Alex turned this into a joke, as a reference to Georgia sacking their police force prompted a remark that Alan Sugar would surely be up to the job if Russia decided to do the same...
The first time that I saw Rasputin's penis.
And no, I'm not joking. Although the actual provenance of the penis is uncertain (the display claims that it came back to Russia via a complicated route involving several European countries) the Museum of Erotica claims that its main exhibit really did once belong to Rasputin. And well they might, no-one would visit their museum if all they advertised was 'A Large Hairy Penis'. Other than the obvious 'attraction', the museum, housed in a venereal disease clinic, featured a range of sex-related exhibits. Perhaps not the first museum I'd recommend to a visitor to St. Petersburg, but it was certainly a talking point!
The first time that the Пик Centre was closed.
This last first was rather annoying, especially as we'd already purchased tickets to 'Voyage of the Dawn Treader' at the cinema there. But, if we were going to waste 300 roubles, at least it was for an interesting reason. As we stood by the doors to the centre, trying to work out why no-one was being allowed in (and giggling at the Russians who insisted on pushing past the large crowd who had been refused entry to the centre...to be refused entry to the centre!) there was a commotion behind us and we saw a large crowd running away from the metro station. That was when we noticed the riot police. And the journalists. And the television cameras. After we had spent a good half hour hanging around trying to get on the Russian news (and trying not to speak English too conspicuously in front of the police) we went home to see what all the fuss was about. As it turned out, we'd got caught up in the St. Petersburg version of the Moscow race riots (for more information see http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/1-000-detained-in-Russia-to-prevent-ethnic-clashes-900342.php ) and the police had had to commandeer what looked like a normal bus to hold the 60 prisoners taken. Most of them weren't even rioting, it seemed that they were just arresting everyone of non-Russian origin who got off the metro. So, an interesting last first for my time in Russia!
The first time that a teacher other than Natasha gave us presents.
Natasha also gave us presents of course, homemade cabbage pies which we were urged to eat there and then (maybe she knew that we wouldn't eat them otherwise!) but Irina and Roman went all out, throwing us a tea party on our last day of lessons. It was not quite an old-fashioned English tea party, consisting of little more than tea (in plastic cups), a box of cream cakes, and presents, but we also got to talk to Irina and Roman properly for the first time, which was really interesting. They told us that it's very difficult for young people like them to leave Russia, even for a year as a guest teacher in Durham, as the British authorities won't grant them a visa until they can prove that they've got something to come back for (i.e. a husband/wife and kids) - and I thought that getting my visa was hard! They also told us (and this is something I've been hearing a lot recently) that they don't feel that Russia can be a proper democracy, at least not in the foreseeable future. Naturally, Tom and Alex turned this into a joke, as a reference to Georgia sacking their police force prompted a remark that Alan Sugar would surely be up to the job if Russia decided to do the same...
The first time that I saw Rasputin's penis.
And no, I'm not joking. Although the actual provenance of the penis is uncertain (the display claims that it came back to Russia via a complicated route involving several European countries) the Museum of Erotica claims that its main exhibit really did once belong to Rasputin. And well they might, no-one would visit their museum if all they advertised was 'A Large Hairy Penis'. Other than the obvious 'attraction', the museum, housed in a venereal disease clinic, featured a range of sex-related exhibits. Perhaps not the first museum I'd recommend to a visitor to St. Petersburg, but it was certainly a talking point!
The first time that the Пик Centre was closed.
This last first was rather annoying, especially as we'd already purchased tickets to 'Voyage of the Dawn Treader' at the cinema there. But, if we were going to waste 300 roubles, at least it was for an interesting reason. As we stood by the doors to the centre, trying to work out why no-one was being allowed in (and giggling at the Russians who insisted on pushing past the large crowd who had been refused entry to the centre...to be refused entry to the centre!) there was a commotion behind us and we saw a large crowd running away from the metro station. That was when we noticed the riot police. And the journalists. And the television cameras. After we had spent a good half hour hanging around trying to get on the Russian news (and trying not to speak English too conspicuously in front of the police) we went home to see what all the fuss was about. As it turned out, we'd got caught up in the St. Petersburg version of the Moscow race riots (for more information see http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/1-000-detained-in-Russia-to-prevent-ethnic-clashes-900342.php ) and the police had had to commandeer what looked like a normal bus to hold the 60 prisoners taken. Most of them weren't even rioting, it seemed that they were just arresting everyone of non-Russian origin who got off the metro. So, an interesting last first for my time in Russia!
No comments:
Post a Comment