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| Rebecca Leach |
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You would not expect to be able to buy melons
on the streets of St Petersburg. Big green cages full of them –
in all varieties. They take you by surprise as you pass them on
the street. A site you might expect to see in the Mediterranean
or anywhere near the equator, but not in a city at the latitude
of Orkney and in a country known for its bitter cold. But that is
the thing about St Petersburg – it is nothing like you might
expect – but then I knew little of the city or of Russia before
I went. I have been left with great impressions of both.
I was relieved to get off the plane at St Petersburg airport. I
was expecting to have to wait for hours in the airport while having
all my documents checked but I was happily surprised to find that
I was soon out into the open air of the car park, but have no doubt,
the passport control is scary. You have to remind yourself not to
smile or say think you when the woman (all the aiport security people
were women) gave me my passport back. The whole situation was completely
contradicted, however, when I got to the baggage check. The lady
here was very friendly and warm and – horror of all horrors
– even smiled. She was very much like most of the people I
met in St Petersburg; warm, friendly and very hospitable.
During the week I did many interesting and fun things. We visited
three schools, which were the schools of the Russian prize-winners.
The quality of the education astounded me. The pupils all spoke
very good English. You could have amazingly fluent conversations
in English with them and you sometimes forgot it was not their first
language. The pupils actually wanted to learn and to take in knowledge.
They even knew more about the history and culture of Britain than
many British people. They could recite Burns and Kipling and we
even saw a scene from Romeo and Juliette done in English. How many
British children would be able to perform a play in another language?
Our attitude towards languages is selfish and ignorant, just because
English is spoken in so many countries it does not mean that we
should not learn other languages.
The food that Katie, Naomi and I ate was really yummy! That’s
the best word for it. There was a lot of soup – especially
borsch, a kind of beetroot soup – pancakes, sour cream and
tea. Despite what I was told, it was not difficult to find vegetarian
food. Out host, Natalya, made the most delicious desserts including
cooked apple and lovely biscuits.
I really enjoyed my visit to St Petersburg, the culture is breathtaking
and I fell in love with it. It was not in any way Siberia, as most
people commented to me before I came – people who had never
been. It puts some parts of the British culture to shame, though
there are some things in Britain better than in Russia. For instance,
the loos and the water that comes out of the taps, this was sometimes
dirty and sometimes even hot water was non-existent. However, the
postives cancel out the negatives and you cannot put a country down
because of its sanitation and it was never a real problem and I
did not mind washing my hair in the sink. My only regret was that
I did not get the chance to learn Russian before I went and that
it will be quite hard to learn now that I’m back home.
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