A Russian Abroad: March 2017

I honestly cannot not recall how this came up in conversation, however, I very recently learnt that while Russians use the same word for foot and leg - нога (na-ga) - and for hand and arm - рука (roo-ka), they do however have words to distinguish different types of bogies. Hard - козявки (kaz-yav-kee) and soft - сопли (sop-lee). I have always said that a language reflects the people and their culture.

My experience tells me that this country's relationship with social media is still in its honeymoon period, as opposed to the UK where many people are looking to cut back the amount of time they are on social media and are generally quite private about what they share. Here, there is a trend for posting almost entire blogs posts as captions on Instagram, sharing extensive and private thoughts, asking questions for debates, using Facebook and VK (the Russian equivalent of Facebook) to complain about different organisational systems in Russia and, of course, CONSTANT selfies and taking photos in front of signs and buildings (although people seem to prefer having pictures taken on their own and no smiling of course). In light of International Women's Day, which here is a bank holiday, my attention was brought to businesses offering big bouquets of roses for rent. Why? So you can photograph yourself with the bouquet and post it on social media to "create jealousy in your ex-partners or interest in potential partners". For the equivalent of £11, you have up to 10 minutes to take the 'perfect photo' and for an extra fee you can have a car and a driver in a suit included (although not showing his face) and even a Tiffany or Gucci gift bag. I would prefer Chanel myself.

Into the second semester and a couple new subjects have been added to our timetable. Namely, 'Theory and Practice of Present-day Education' (Теория и пратика современного образования) and 'Living Safely' (Безопасность жизнедеятельности). Initially confused on seeing these subjects in my timetable, I later found out they were obligatory for all 1st years (including second-time 1st years like myself) and decided to try and keep an open mind.... 'Theory and Practice of Present-day Education' opened with asking any problems we had noticed with the educational system in Russia - I decided to keep quiet, fascinated instead by the 20-minute outpour from a fellow classmate, who manages to turn up to around half of the lessons and has probably said about three words during class time since the start of the year. The lesson ended just as amusingly with the teacher spending 5 minutes trying to pronounce 'Oakham School'. As of yet, I am still not quite sure as to what we are supposed to be learning in this module.

'Living Safely' was quite the shock to say the least. With a teacher who treats us like 12-year-olds just learning to write and a 'point' system for passing the module - gold stars and bonus points awarded for participation in class and not looking at your notes when answering a question, we spent the first lesson listing the different types of 'extraordinary' events that can happen and which can cause danger to human life. For homework we were asked to find the definitions of 'danger', 'catastrophe', 'accident', fire and 'explosion' as well as watch of video of Hiroshima so we know what to expect. This module should have been called "Expecting the Worst" or "The numerous ways a human can unexpectedly find themselves in a dangerous situation and how to define and classify them"...! To quote Mr. Positive himself, "...you need to know the main things that can cause danger to you in everyday life, those which are specific to the region of Moscow...there are around 30 different types to be aware of." Among other things, we will also be learning to put on gas masks and recite the different wind speeds of a tornado or a hurricane - What are we being prepared for? Having these lessons from a young age at school through to university, no wonder Russians are so cheerful! [For mental balance, I would suggest also having lessons called "How to live a pleasant and enjoyable life."]

In other news, for quite a while now I have been confused about people walking around with straws sticking out through the lid of their takeaway coffee cups. On treating myself to a coffee after yoga, I realised that lattes are served with straws! Plastic straws to drink coffee?! Now if that's not a situation that can cause danger to a human being that you experience in everyday life then I don't know what is.

Mid-March and we haven't had snow since February and I'm down to only one pair of tights under my jeans...things are looking good!

Bye for now,

A xx