Davai Poznakomimsa!: We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo....(29th Sept-3rd Oct)

On the 29^th and 30^th September, we had to give presentations for an optional lecture , during what may be a lunch break, for Russian students. It is described as a chance to meet new English people – to us, we are expecting three people, if that, and our teachers. Of the six of us, two of us are given the chance to talk about our families, two about our homes, two about our night life, speaking in native English, to the Russian. It's bang in the middle of what would otherwise be a free day, so to most British students, it would seem inconvenient – however, it's not like it's a chore, and after all, if these students are choosing to listen to us in their own free time, then yeah sure. In the meantime - maybe meet some Russians? Yes I think so.

So, I ended up with family, which is best for me due to the fact that my town is not something I would not have enough material for two minutes' speech - something I had realised after a lesson where I described my town

"My town is called Abergavenny. It's a small welsh town where 15 thousand people live"

"Are you sure you don't mean fifty thousand?"

"No, I mean fifteen"

So with a town life that is not interesting, and a nightlife that is the complete opposite, family was the best, perhaps.

Sveta and Me

Anyway. So the presentation went done alright. We met with girls after each presentation - on the first day, Katya, Masha and Kate; the second, Sveta, Anya and Nastya, who have consequently taken us around St Petersburg. The great thing I had found about this, is that while in my own uni, people would probably not go out of the way to listen to year abroad students talk about their lives (particularly about a family, who they might never meet), the girls were so really interested in improving their english and excited about getting to know us. They're a little younger than us, as university in Russia starts around 17/18 years - I teach second year students at the university who are 17 - but we get on, and although some of them have been forced to learn English (e.g. I teach engineers, who have to study English as part of their degree - if I had been forced to study a foreign language in university that I PAID for, I would be raging.), these girls are interested in English, the way that we are interested in Russian. It doesn't sound unbelievable, I realise - but imagine knowing, at the age of seventeen, that you wanted to be an engineer. And alongside the degree, you have to learn a foreign language, whether you want to or not, whether you have the skills or not? Even if you don't plan to leave the country? For this reason, if my students want to talk in class, they can. Their future is mainly up to them anyway. (you could argue this to the teeth. Anyway.)

So, the first group of girls - Masha, Katya and Kate (also Katya) met us after the lesson, took us up to Nevsky Prospekt to take us to the Church on Spilled Blood, then for blini in the fast food restaurant - although they have McDonalds here, you can eat blini (pancakes) or kasha (oaty rice dish) in two seconds and keep on walking (Russia, in general, is much healthier - smaller portions, and so much option of the 5, perhaps, 10-a-day - which is IDEAL.

So we have a natter, code-switching between Russian and English, loaded with a small dictionary for weird words, and agree to meet again - this was gooood :)

The next day, we meet girls who are slightly younger and far more BOUNCY and excited about meeting British people ('british' is something I have learnt to stress, as I keep being asked about 'life in England', as if Wales is just another country in England - uh, I think not. Ya iz oowelsa!) and although we don't have time to go anywhere that day (I am shattered, it is late in the day and we need to get back)

So let's start October with a bang and we head off towards the Peter and Paul fortress, where we see a much cheaper and not as good a version of Madame Tussauds - but enjoyable. And hell, I've not been to Madame Tussauds since I was probably about four foot, I will happily get excited about having my picture taken with a blatantly fake Pope John Paul! A few hundred roubles and hereeeee's Johnny!

Nearby, just a little walk away, we are taken to a Zoo (the zoopark) where I am thinking - I've not been in a zoo since I was about 10ish...be cool, be cool...OMG A CAMEL! POLAR BEARS! GOATS! Goats...? GOATS!

First thing that we see are the polar bears. Just as you get in through the gates, it's the first thing you see. I've never seen any arctic creatures before, and I am amazed by how big and bulky they are, and the remarkable way that, when they get playful, they are very much like little puppies. I have always been very fond of bears, but this is the ultimate cutest.

Next that is pinpointed is the your stereotypical massive Aslan Mufasa, literally just striding up and down his cage (albeit a very small cage, the poor thing - the standards in this zoo, like many, are dreadful. This particular part of the zoo has meerkats, big cats and mice. The meerkats' cages are as big as the big cats'. You can't get the idea of scale, I guess, but you can understand how unfair it is on the poor cats.

We then watch a lynx breaking a poor rabbits legs, while eating it, which makes Tom squirm like a little girl (which is rather amusing, I have to say)

The most unexpectedly beautiful creatures there had to be the wolves and the foxes. They are actually rather dainty. The snowy wolves there walk like dainty dogs, and the foxes have much smaller features than I thought - then again, people make foxes out to be such villians that I must have just been convinced they were bigger than they actually were...anyway, I digress...

Another very beautiful type of animal - the reindeer. I think this is just because of the obsession and general excitement associated with Christmas - these were gorgeous. Like horses, another creature that I find absolutely beautiful, they have big wide eyes and a playful nature - luscious eyelashes, and they attack each other with their antlers, getting tangled up in one another, which is quite cute to watch, though you worry that they might lash out, major, but it's still sweet - it's playful fighting

There are many big cats around - jaguars, leopards, tigers, lynxes, jackals (I think the two latter fall into that category, though, I forget...) The jaguars and leopards lay lazily, and were not moving - fair enough, given the small cages to live in and the shelves they have to lie on - I wouldn't move for other people's pleasure in that case either. I am not against the idea of zoos, even though animals can be kept in enclosures all their lives (despite the fact that zoos can help save endangered species and if the animals can live longer when in captivity, then I'm all for the idea. As long as it's viewing pleasure and not harming the animals, I am not AS against it, I would not actively act upon it. However, some of the animals in there were racing from side to side and forward and back again, trying to find a loop in the cage, a chink in which they could escape, but to no avail, repeatedly. What would be a living space to a lion would be half the amount that a bunch of monkeys would have. The standards shocked me completely. Then again, the fact that they cannot be protected in a familiar environment, rather than being locked up for public consumption seems weird all by itself, even when you take out the conditions.