Laura-Rose Saunders

Family Guy in Russia

2009-12-14T20:06:00.002Z

While on a break from essay research last night I stumbled across new episodes of Family Guy and found out that in one of them Stewie and Brian go to Russia attempting to stop Mayor West for is a recently activated Soviet spy. In this episode they meet Putin and get this cut away cartoon;

The hedgehog says something along the lines of 'what fool invented sandwiches?! (indestinguishable Russian words) They are hooligans! They are penniless! hahahahaha!'
It's always good know that even taking break from work can count as revision and educational as long as there is a Russian hedgehog in it complaining about sandwiches :P

Zamiatin Specialists needed!

2009-12-12T19:17:00.003Z

Once again it's the end of term and once again that means 'End of Term Essays'. Now I have no problem with writing end of term essays, especially this year as the deadline is next term rather than Friday, we get told about them from the first day of term and it's a way that we can prove that we have actually been working all term etc.
So once again I basically move into the SSEES library and the Senate House library to read, watch films and generally research my essays however this year the most annoying thing is thatone of the authors I want to write about only has about 10 books of critical literature on him and most of those are for a text I am NOT writing on.
This is a plea if anyone is a Zamiatin specialist please write more secondary texts on him and his work, because then it would make my essay so much easier to write!

Stabbing on Tottenham Court Road

2009-12-08T23:24:00.002Z

Earlier today some very strange events occurred and I didn't find out exactly what happened until I went to the pub. I left Uni to go home to find that Grafton Way was police taped off and saw someone being wheeled away. Not thinking anything of it as the Police tape off areas of London all the time and Grafton way has UCH on it so seeing someone being wheeled is also not strange.
However upon leaving home later that evening I saw that not only was Grafton Way still taped off but now the whole of Tottenham Court Road was filled with empty buses that were parked in the way. I thought it was a bus strike and was the bus drivers way of protesting. But as I walked further down Tottenham Court Road I saw that other bits of the road were cornered off and that the Police were not doing anything to move the buses blocking the road. So I called Simon and asked him to check on the internet to see what had happened as by now I was slightly worried that we had had another Litvenyeko incident as I saw men in white suits walking around.
When I met up with my friends it turned out that someone had been stabbed in that area, aledgedly outside of the MacDonald's on Warren Street, or at the very least in the vecinity. Upon returning home and recrossing Tottenham Court Road everything had been cleared up and it was back to normal.
This goes to show that once again my life is not as boring as I thought it was and that clearly knife crime is clearly a problem still in London and not just in South London! I will not know the details until it is reported in the News as I am a student and not a journalist, but I just hope that the person stabbed is alright and that the police catch the person that did this.

Russian Cop talks about Corruption

2009-11-18T14:30:00.003Z

In this video a Russian Police officer talks about Corruption in Russia and his views on the Police in Russia. While on my Year Abroad I had dealings with the Police but I never met an officer like him! No one is quite sure what has happened to him after this video as people, usually journalists, who speak out about flaws in Russia tend not to have nice thinks happen to them. Bearing this in mind this fellow is either very brave or very stupid. The video does has English subtitles.

Cannibals arrested in Russia

2009-11-18T14:14:00.002Z

One of my friends just attracted my attention to this while I was surfing the intermerweb and is making me slightly glad that first I didn't eat Street Kebabs in Russia and two that I didn't go to Perm while travelling. This story is taken from The Telegraph:

'Russian police arrest cannibals who sold corpse as kebabs

Russian police have arrested three homeless people suspected of eating a 25-year-old man they had butchered and selling other bits of the corpse to a local kebab house.

Published: 3:06PM GMT 14 Nov 2009

Suspicions were raised when dismembered parts of a human body were found near a bus stop in the outskirts of the Russian city of Perm, 1,150 km (720 miles) east of Moscow.

Three homeless men with previous criminal records have been arrested on suspicion of setting upon a foe with knives and a hammer before chopping up his corpse to eat, local investigators said in a statement on their www.susk.perm.ru Web site.

"After carrying out the crime, the corpse was divided up: part was eaten and part was also sold to a kiosk selling kebabs and pies," the Prosecutor-General's main investigative unit for the Perm region said in a statement issued on Friday.

It was not immediately clear from the statement if any of the corpse had been sold to customers.'

So top tip if you ever travel to Russia may be don't eat food being sold on the street. You never know what or who it might be.

Rememberance

2009-11-04T12:00:00.002Z

This time of year there are lots of things to remember but the most important is on November 11th. The day that World War 1 ended and which is the day that we remember those who gave their lives defending out country whether they chose to sign up or were conscripted.
Below is a very famous Russian poem that kept a lot of Soldiers going, it's called 'Wait for me' (Жди меня) By Konstantin Simonov:

Russian version:

Жди меня, и я вернусь.
Только очень жди,
Жди, когда наводят грусть
Желтые дожди,
Жди, когда снега метут,
Жди, когда жара,
Жди, когда других не ждут,
Позабыв вчера.
Жди, когда из дальних мест
Писем не придет,
Жди, когда уж надоест
Всем, кто вместе ждет.

Жди меня, и я вернусь,
Не желай добра
Всем, кто знает наизусть,
Что забыть пора.
Пусть поверят сын и мать
В то, что нет меня,
Пусть друзья устанут ждать,
Сядут у огня,
Выпьют горькое вино
На помин души...
Жди. И с ними заодно
Выпить не спеши.

Жди меня, и я вернусь,
Всем смертям назло.
Кто не ждал меня, тот пусть
Скажет: - Повезло.
Не понять, не ждавшим им,
Как среди огня
Ожиданием своим
Ты спасла меня.
Как я выжил, будем знать
Только мы с тобой,-
Просто ты умела ждать,
Как никто другой.

English translation:

Wait for me, and I'll come back!
Wait with all you've got!
Wait, when dreary yellow rains
Tell you, you should not.
Wait when snow is falling fast,
Wait when summer's hot,
Wait when yesterdays are past,
Others are forgot.
Wait, when from that far-off place,
Letters don't arrive.
Wait, when those with whom you wait
Doubt if I'm alive.

Wait for me, and I'll come back!
Wait in patience yet
When they tell you off by heart
That you should forget.
Even when my dearest ones
Say that I am lost,
Even when my friends give up,
Sit and count the cost,
Drink a glass of bitter wine
To the fallen friend -
Wait! And do not drink with them!
Wait until the end!

Wait for me and I'll come back,
Dodging every fate!
"What a bit of luck!" they'll say,
Those that would not wait.
They will never understand
How amidst the strife,
By your waiting for me, dear,
You had saved my life.
Only you and I will know
How you got me through.
Simply - you knew how to wait -
No one else but you.

1941

So buy a poppy and wear it with pride!

Postal strike

2009-11-02T14:36:00.002Z

It seems that almost every month a different group of people feel the need to go on strike until their demands are met, the one that usually affectings me as a Londoner are when the Tube drivers go on strike usually demanding higher pay (you get like £40,000 a year get over it some of us students get only £6,000 to live off and survive, seriously grow up and get back to work) but at the minute the posties have gone on strike.
While I was on facebook I came across this little gem that somes up how a lots of people are probably feeling:

'Postman Pat, Postman Pat, Postman Pat and his unionised cat.... Early in the morning,They're still in bed a-snoring, And I'm wondering where's my post you f***ing twat.'

I often wonder what would happen if everyone went on strike at the same time and how long it would take before chaos and mass riots broke out. Given the current climate probably about 2 days.
Strikes may have worked in the past but now all they seem to do is annoy people, and annoyed people are not people who are going to want to give you what you want. Instead may be try having a civil conversation and trying to work it out that way rather than throwing toys out of the pram and stopping me from getting my post through.

A blast from the past

2009-10-16T13:34:00.002+01:00

As you may have gathered from the lack of blogging fourth year involves A LOT of work basically every night. However it has been proved that a person learns in 45 minute cycles and that after 45 minutes you should take a break for about 15 minutes then start again. While on one of these 15 minute breaks I stumbled across this on youtube. It amused me when I was little and is as funny still today proving that cartoons like Bugs Bunny really do stand the test of time.

Music

2009-10-14T23:10:00.001+01:00

While I am tied up with Uni work here is something to keep you entertained. It's an oldie but a goodie :)

Oh that's interesting!

2009-10-08T10:34:00.002+01:00

Two bits of interesting news that I found out today/yesterday that have improved my mood since being woke at 7:30am this morning by a stupid fire drill. I know that these save lives etc but did they have to do it on the one day that I don't have to be at class until 1pm?
Anyway the first bit of good news is that there is only 4 days until Spooks series 7 is available for sale on Amazon priced at around £25. As a huge fan who has all the box sets this is awesome I don't have a TV so watch DVDs instead. In short 4 days until we can find out what the Russians did with Harry and Richard Armitage will once again grace my laptop screen. :)
The second is that according to the Times Newspaper UCL is the 4th best University in the World and Second best in the country beating Oxford and Imperial College London :D. It seems that each year that I am here that UCL moves higher up the league tables. Who knows maybe next year we could be better than Cambridge Uni!

Sources:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spooks-7-DVD-Richard-Armitage/dp/B001HN6PPI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1254956359&sr=8-1
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/Rankings2009-Top200.html

Music

2009-09-25T22:29:00.001+01:00

Something to enjoy over the weekend, it even has lyrics for you to sing along to;

Spare a thought for this poor woman

2009-09-25T15:31:00.003+01:00

A woman in Indonesia has given birth to a 19.2 pound baby. Early reports say that it is the heaviest new born ever born. Child birth is not one of those things that most women look forward too but it must have been so much worse trying to push this not so little baby out. Pictured below is the baby and a standard size newborn.

I wish the new mum and baby all the best and a huge congratulations.

TUC bans heels

2009-09-25T15:11:00.004+01:00

I couldn't quite believe this one when I read it but the TUC has banned its workers from wearing high heels. I can understand that they are impractical in some areas of work like building sites for example but sure it should be up to the wearer whether or not they want to wear them. Seems like another choice that has been taken away from the public.
Fair enough that they do cause foot problems if woren all the time and that Two million working days are lost every year through lower limb and foot-related problems. Two million working days equates to a £300 million contribution to the economy, which is a seriously problem. Further I can see the point that some areas of work require women to wear them as part of the dress code but is this really such a big issue that it has required this much debate. If I want to wear heels and damage my feet then surely that's my choice.
Personally I love shoes, especially high heels (ask anyone I have ever been shopping with) and I don't like the idea that I could be banned from wearing them at work. I would like to have the choice as to whether I wear this:

or this:to work. Which would you rather been seen in? I know which one I'd pick.

How they made my laptop

2009-09-12T17:10:00.002+01:00

Upon returning from Russia I started to notice that my laptop had not enjoyed the trip as much as I had and was starting to misbehave doing things like freezing or turning itself off without warning me, being as I had a HUGE project to write and did not one to lose any data or worse still the whole essay I felt that a replacement was needed. So I bought a lovely new pink Dell mini nice and light so it can come with me where ever I go and not cripple me like my old laptop. Last night while having a surf on Youtube I discovered how exactly my laptop was made. Watch below.

If only all factories were like this one.

A year ago today...

2009-09-03T18:03:00.004+01:00

Hard as it is for me to believe but only a year ago today I left for my year abroad in Moscow. By this time (Moscow time) I would have been being collected from Domodedovo Airport by the RLUS Reps and being driven to my home stay with my bab in Sokol.
It felt so strange to know that at this point a year ago I was so scared about going to Russia and staying there for a whole year. Partly because I am not a huge fan of flying so the prospect of being on a plane for 4 hours did some seem fun, I was heading to a country that I had never been to that and I didn't really know any of the other people attending my course. Scary stuff. But as I had already paid for the flights, gone to the trouble of getting a visa, had all the various injections and well pretty much told everyone that I knew that I was going to Russia for a year there wasn't really anyway of getting out of it.
However despite being scared at the beginning the year in Moscow was without a doubt one of the best things I have ever done, it's amazing what you can actually do and what you learn once you leave your comfort zone. It is hard to convey the feeling you have on your first night; a mix of excitement, total fear and confusion, as I had no idea exact where I was located in Moscow, how to get to the nearest metro station, what ticket I needed to buy, how much it would cost, was I being ripped off etc. That and I knew that everything had to be done in Russian.
While starting off was a hugely scary experience it was fun, once you have sorted out the basics eg buying new mobile phone and sim card, working out how to get to school and to home, where the nearest pub is etc it's actually quite fun. It is also a fresh start and means that you can try new experiences and make friends with people who you might not have ever spoken to had you not all been stuck in the same place. It also give you the chance to explore a totally new country and have amazing stories to tell your children and grandchildren.
To anyone reading this who is about to go on their year abroad or has just arrived to start off with it's terrifying, there is no point in lying it is, but once you are settled and got everything sorted it is the best experience you could have. The most important thing to do is just talk to everyone and remember to laugh when it all goes wrong! In fact a part of me is wishing that it was a year ago today so that I could experience my year abroad all over again.

С днем рождения "Спокойной ночи, малыши"

2009-09-01T21:37:00.004+01:00

On this day 45 years ago the Russian TV program "Спокойной ночи, малыши" was first aired making it the oldest children's television show in the world. :) The show is shown on Russian tv channel 'Rossia' week nights at 8:45 pm and is basically a simple story with a moral like 'it's better to share' or 'it's easier to be nice than nasty' followed by a cartoon. I really enjoyed watching this show when I was in Russia. I found the language fairly easily to comprehend as it was meant for children so everything was simple. I also found it interesting to watch old Soviet cartoon liks Vinnie Pukh or Cheburashka and modern cartoons like Luntik.
So today I would like to say 'С днем рождения' to "Спокойной ночи, малыши" to anyone reading this who is about to go to Russia I would highly recomend it :) Below is an example of an episode featuring Hrusha and Stepashka. Enjoy

You've got to love the French

2009-09-01T20:16:00.003+01:00

I have just seen this story on the BBC website, while on a break from writing my Year Abroad Project, which has amused me no end.

'Paris mayoral feud blocks street

There has been traffic chaos in two Paris suburbs after their feuding mayors declared the same busy road one-way, but in opposite directions.

Patrick Balkany, the conservative mayor of Levallois-Perret, initially made the D909 one-way to reduce the amount of commuter traffic through his district.

But Gilles Catoire, the Socialist mayor of neighbouring Clichy-la-Garenne, said this increased congestion in his area.

He made his section of the road one-way in the opposite direction.

With the contradictory road-signs in place, the unsurprising result was gridlock, prompting the deployment of municipal and national police to direct traffic away from the area.

"What Clichy has done is not a long-term solution, but it is a response to a unilateral decision by the town of Levallois," Clichy's deputy mayor, Alain Fournier, was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.

But Mr Balkany insisted: "The mayor of Clichy has taken a position that is unreasonable and is hurting his own constituents."

Thousands of motorists pass between the two suburbs each day on their way into and out of the French capital.'

You couldn't imagine that sort of thing would have happened during the Boris vs Ken mayoral race could you?

Blogging temporarily suspended

2009-08-06T21:36:00.002+01:00

Blogging will be light to non-existent while I am writing my Year Abroad project. In the meantime here's an amusing cat video.

Who you gonna call.....? Sotrudnik!

2009-08-01T20:24:00.002+01:00

This little gem is one that got sent my way that I thought was too good to keep to myself. YouTube is pretty much a constant source of entertainment for me whether I am watching Spooks on it or random videos of baby pandas sneezing or angry German kids smashing up their keyboards but this one is the best I have found so far. A group of Russian road police have created there own version of events to fit the Ghost busters theme. The lyrics to this one are in Russian and you kinda need to speak Russian to get the jokes but for those of you who don't the lyrics match the events. Sadly as with most things you find on the Internet these events do not happen in real life, in all my time in Russia I never saw the road police doing anything like this. The most exciting encounter I had with them was when they checked the documents of my friend while he was driving us to the Europe-Asia border. This would have been much more interesting:

And remember 'The rules of the road are the rules of life' (see the ending shot)

Laura needs you!

2009-07-26T18:28:00.003+01:00

That's right it's that time of the year again when Total Politics is compiling their list of the top political blogs, while for most of the year I have blogged about my experiences in Russia I do also blog about politics, so please vote for me!

'It's that time of year again, when Total Politics asks you to vote for your Top 10 favourite blogs. The votes will be compiled and included in the forthcoming book, the Total Politics Guide to Blogging 2009-10, which will be published in September. This year the poll is being promoted/sponsored by LabourList and LibDemVoice as well as our publisher Iain Dale's blog.

The rules are simple.

1. You must vote for your ten favourite blogs and ranks them from 1 (your favourite) to 10 (your tenth favourite).
2. Your votes must be ranked from 1 to 10. Any votes which do not have rankings will not be counted.
3. You MUST include ten blogs. If you include fewer than ten your vote will not count.
2. Email your vote to toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com
3. Only vote once.
4. Only blogs based in the UK, run by UK residents are eligible or based on UK politics are eligible.
5. Anonymous votes left in the comments will not count. You must give a name
6. All votes must be received by midnight on 31 July 2009. Any votes received after that date will not count.

If you have your own blog, please do encourage your readers to take part. Last year, more than 80 blogs did so. We hope this year it will be far more than that. BUT, DO NOT list ten blogs you think your readers should vote for. Any duplicate voting of this nature will be disallowed. If you do not wish for your blog to be voted for please email katy.scholes@totalpolitics.com. You will see a list of the blogs who have chosen not to be included in the comments shortly.

There are many ways of measuring a blog's popularity. Wikio and Technorati have complicated logarithms which measure the importance of incoming links and traffic. Google Analytics does it by measuring how many people visit. But our poll gives blog readers the opportunity to vote for the ones they like and visit most often. It's not scientific. It's impossible to achieve 100% balance and we don't pretend it's perfect.

The results of the poll will be published in the forthcoming book the TOTAL POLITICS GUIDE TO POLITICAL BLOGGING IN THE UK which will be published in mid September in association with APCO Worldwide.

So, go to it. Email us your Top Ten Favourite Blogs'

Music Night

2009-07-24T21:13:00.002+01:00

To fill a post I have decided that tonight is music night. The song I have chosen reminds me of being on holiday in Sochi, Russia back in March as while I was walking through a garden and sort fair ground they were playing this song on loop.
The song is Alisha Dixon- Breathe Slow, I love it, Enjoy!

Moscow- a year's summary

2009-07-21T20:06:00.004+01:00

It has been about a month since I left Russia and returned to the UK and in that month apart from working I have used the time to compile a list of the top 5 best, worst and amusing moments and the top 5 best events that occurred on my year abroad. Some of these I have blogged about in detail other of these I have not, each one will get it's position in the list and a short summary of the event. For anyone who wants to hear the event in full, because they either missed out on it or is too lazy to scroll through all my posts to find, can either track me down and hear it in person, complete with different voices, or ask me and I shall email it to you. Let the count down begin!

Events:
1. Celebrating New Year's Eve in Red Square with Carole and Becky surrounded by literally a thousand police officers and drunk Russians setting off fireworks.
2. Victory Day- military parades, fireworks, tanks, soldiers, communist songs and ribbons, what more could you want? :P
3. Women's day and Men's day- Men's day also know as Army day is celebrated on my birthday so we got the day off and women's day is the day when all men give presents, usually flowers, to all the women they know.
4. Eurovision- getting to sit in a pub watching Eurovision with my friends knowing the event was just down the road. Tickets for the event sold out ages before the event and meant that they only tickets my friends could buy were for the semi finals. It also meant that we got to see Dima Bilan performing and slightly messing up his performance.
5. Various day of the towns- in Petersburg I saw a rock concert at 9 am and a stray dog who could jump 6 feet in the air with no run up. In Moscow there was more open air concerts, parades and fireworks.

Amusing:
1. Dressing up as a Bab with Becky and doing a cooking show with Martin as the host of the show and having a cook off while impersonating Russian Babs and nearly poisoning two of my friends and a Russian kid who ate the salad that Becky and I 'cooked'.
2. My first experience in the lift in my building- in short I wanted to use the stairs rather than step into the smelly, old, scary looking lift but got shoved into by my Khozaika while she giving me a kiss on the cheek and saying goodbye to me.
3. Nearly getting shot while visiting Lenin in his tomb because Sophie and I were smiling and generally not taking the whole situation seriously. Admittedly I made it sound more dramatic than it was we really did get yelled and had the weapon pointed at us but it was still scary.
4. Almost getting our visas cancelled and getting deported from Russia- I didn't do anything naughty or dramatic but because 5 people didn't register properly Language Link threatened to cancel all our visas and send us home. Luckily Natasha our rep sorted the whole mess out but nearly getting deported came at the point when most of us had been in Russia for 7 months and really did just want to go home just not being escorted by Storm Troopers.
5. All the various conversations with Babs about tea, their cats, food, Putin and I wasn't married off with kids. Babs drove me nuts but they also gave me so much amusement.

Best:
1. All the travelling around Russia- St. Petersburg, Vladimir, Suzdal, Ekaterinburg, Sochi, Volgograd, Alexandrov, Klin and Sergyev Posad. It was an amazing chance to see so much of this vast country from mountains, to seas, to the steppe to the forests. In short Russia is an amazingly beautiful country.
2. Some of the food and drink- Vodka, Russian Champagne, caviar, blini, cheap sushi- yum yum! It also meant that parties were a lot cheaper to organise and also meant that I got to have champagne on my birthday. ^_^
3. Ice skating in Gorky park over the Christmas holidays- not particularly good at it but was fun to try even though I was shown up by 4 year old Russian kids.
4. The various train journeys most of them spent in platskarta with eccentric old women who talked about tea all the time. It also meant that I got to see the Russian countryside and lots of different towns.
5. Various visits to my Russian friends' houses and various different events with them including getting my debit card stuck in a wall, visit to the Europe-Asia border and conversations while at dinner with Boris and Valentina.

Worst:
1. Without a doubt the first night- picked up at the airport then after being driven around Moscow for hours then getting dropped off at a random flat in Moscow at 11pm after being awake since 4am on a plane with severe turbulence and literally having no idea where I was, where the metro was only knowing that I had 9 months left in this country and that I had to be at school by 10 to register my passport or else there would be BIG trouble. Also not having a Russian number so could not contact home and not knowing anyone on my course. In short being alone in a foreign country not knowing where anything was located and knowing very little about the culture.
2. The kasha- having it for breakfast in the morning every morning. I have still not recovered from it. Yuk!
3. Nearly getting arrested at a house party, having Simon's passport stolen and only realising this once the scary, burly Russian police were asking for our passports and documents and trying to get us to go down to their station. Luckily the British Embassy came through for us.
4. Having my credit cards rejected at the hotel in Vladimir then being accused by an angry Russian mad of trying to stay in the hotel for free then do a runner. Never a fun situation except it was 11 o'clock at night and we were 4 hours bus from any type of civilisation.
5. Getting badly bitten and sun burn in Petersburg then having an allergic reaction to the bits and having to go to a Russian pharmacy and trying to explain what I needed. Not fun

One that Russia has taught me during this very eventful year, apart from Russian, is that no matter what is happening try to look for the funny side of things and then laugh at it later because when it's -20 and the snow won't stop falling and your friends and family are in another country it may be all you have to keep you going and stop you from giving up.

Little Old Ladies

2009-07-06T23:22:00.002+01:00

It has now been about three weeks since I left Russia and returned to the UK and there have been many things that I have now started to notice that I missed or now appreciate having returned. The obvious ones being that fact I now have a working shower, shower curtain, tasty English food, Gin, roast dinners, chip shops, actual clothes shops rather than dodgy markets, gin, my cats, may family, the Internet at home, the fact that people smile, people say please and thank you, people understand me, it's not snowing, gin, my pink phone, pound coins, my teddy bears, I can drive again, I don't have to use taxis/mashrutkas/trams/buses/trolleybuses with no seat belts driven by mad Russian, gin and lastly NICE Little Old Ladies.
This past week I started my new job and each day I get a lunch break where I can wander off into Cheltenham in search of food and then eat said food where ever I so choose. Last week as it was sunny I felt that grabbing a sandwich and eating outside in the sun was the best option as after all we are in the UK so who knows when we will see the sun. Anyway while I was eating I was joined by a lovely little old lady who decided to sit down next to me and just start talking to me. Initially it was about the buskers that she seemed to like but I in fact hated and was mentally thinking of ways to ban them if I ever began supreme world over lord. The conversation then moved on to things like wasn't the weather lovely, wasn't my dress pretty, was I a student etc I then told her a few stories about my year in Russia and travelling in general.
Now I have no clue who this lady was, she may have been mad, lonely or, as I choose to believe, friendly and just decided to chat to the girl sat next to her. It was however something that I had missed- just having people have a chat to you while are both on a train, a plane or having lunch. In Russia it was usually mad old Babs asking me stupid questions about why I wasn't married and if I wanted to marry their son and other such ridiculous topics. After nearly a year of this I forgot that their English versions are more likely to offer you a cup of tea and a Kitkat than yell at you.
Of all the things listed above it is one of the things that I missed most- people being friendly, well that and gin. For me the world would be a nicer place if everyone just had a chat or said hello to each other without it being thought of as weird or being done for some hidden agenda.

Owned!

2009-06-28T18:17:00.003+01:00

While doing a bit of general surfing on Youtube I came across a couple of videos of chavs doing silly things and have decided to share them with you. This post is for anyone who believes there is no justice in the world, hopefully this will change your mind ;)

A weekend in Petersburg

2009-06-17T17:10:00.005+01:00

The great Russian poet Alexander Sergeievitch Pushkin once wrote 'Люблю тебя, Петра творенье,' (I love you creation of Peter) in his poem the Bronze Horseman and after my weekend there I have firmly joined the throngs of people who are bewitched by this city.

My original plan for my Year in Russia was to study in Moscow for a term then move to Petersburg for term two where I would continue to learn Russian and also gain a qualification in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. Sadly due to lack of interest RLUS cancelled my course in Petersburg so I decided to remain in Moscow with the friends I had already made but resolved that I would simply go away there for a holiday or at least a weekend. As it came to pass I was not in Russia for the second of my two reading weeks so decided instead simply to go for a weekend.
As per usual I naively thought that we would simply be able to walk into the station buy tickets, then book a hotel or hostel then simply pack and see how the weekend would pan out. Sadly it took about 4 attempts to buy tickets from rude mean old babs who simply told us that all the platskarta tickets for every weekend in May were booked and that we would have to buy second class. Eventually after changing the dates and trying every possible option to get a cheap train we gave up and just paid for the second class tickets. Which definitely were worth it as the train turned out to be a luxury train where the guards wore white gloves and were actually polite and called me 'Madam' rather than 'devushka'.
Being as Petersburg is located 8 hours further north of Moscow the most popular option is to get an overnight train and arrive in either city in the morning. While this was a very good idea and saved money on a hostel etc it did mean that when we arrived in Petersburg at 8am we did feel and look like we had just spent the whole night on a train without breakfast. A quick trip to MacDonald's rectified one of those problems then it was simply a matter of waiting until midday when we could check in to the hostel, which turned out to be situated right next to an English pub with a huge red telephone box outside. For a moment I almost thought I was in England until a Bab knocked into me and then I remembered that I was still in Russia.
Unlike Moscow Petersburg is a very European looking city and the whole time I was there it felt like I was in Vienna or at a push Florence. Also unlike Moscow Petersburg was built on a grid system so it is a lot easier to navigate around. One thing we had not banked on was the fact that while we were there it was The Day of Peter which meant that literally the whole city were in the centre watching parades and concerts which made it a little tricky to get to some of the tourist sites but there we go it meant we got to see more more Petersburg.
Although only being there for two days we managed to see Senate Square, The Bronze Horseman statue of Peter the Great, St. Isaac's Cathedral where we climbed to the top to see the view, The Kazan Church, The Church of the Spilled Blood, which is a copy of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, the Peter and Paul Fortress, most of the canals and the Neva by going on a boat trip and most importantly of all the Winter Palace and the Hermitage Museum.
For any Russian cinema buffs out there you will know that this was the setting for Alexander Sokurov's ground breaking film 'Russian Ark'- ground breaking as the whole film was shot in only one take and tells 300 years of Russian history. What is most amazing is that this film takes place in many different rooms of the Hermitage Museum and the cameramen had to wear specially adapted cameras to allow them to walk and film.
The museum and palace were even more beautiful than in the film, gold shining everywhere, beautiful furniture in every room and European paintings hung throughout. The only problem was that because the place was so big it meant that we got lost several times and ended up leaving about 30 minutes later than we wanted. The only problem was that while we were there it seemed that the entirety of the middle/old age population of the UK had decided to buy a Thomas Cook package holiday and were in fact touring the museum at that point.
After surviving this one of our friends showed us a local pub where they brewed their own beer in the pub and you could watch it happening. That rectified the situation and because of the White Nights it meant that when we left the pub at 1am it was as light as if it was 8pm. However this did make sleeping a little tricky as the sun never actually set thus throwing my body clock and making me want to get up at 6am- something I NEVER do unless I am going to catch a plane.
After surviving the crowds, the tourists and annoyingly enough the mosquitoes who took a liking to me Simon and I ended back on the overnight train to Moscow.
Peterburg is a great place to visit and I would highly recommend it as it has everything- history, culture, a pretty yet slightly dirty river, the sun and even a nice greasy burger place. It is also a good place for a first time tourist to Russia as you can be in Russia but not feel like you're in Russia. I would just beg you not to go there via a Thomas Cook tour be a bit inventive book it and organise it yourself. Trust me you do not need to walk around in a group with a bored looking tour guide to see this city. Even just walking the streets while lost is fun and allows you to see just how beautiful the place is.