Russia Season 1. Episode 3

Dear All,

It has been a week of extremes which I think is very much Russia.

I am growing used to see the homeless people sleeping on the metro now. However, I still resist the common practise of moving as far away from them as possible. I just look at the poor souls lying there and I can't help but think about what they were like as children, what were their dreams and aspirations.

To see humanity at this level is really miserable.

On Thursday on my way home there was a man asleep on the seats opposite me who had some really terrible tumours on his face. Anyway the train was very packed except for the carriage that contained me and the sleeping tramp.

A young guy walked down the train from the packed area and began to kick the old man really hard in the leg. What could I do? I had to react to this injustice. I mean what would it have said about my character if I had just sat there and watched the old man take a kicking?

I just grabbed the young guys arm and he spun round to face me but he did stop and then he got off the train at the next stop. No-one else even showed the slightest response to what had happened and the old man had barely stirred during the assault.

So there was one extreme, the other occurred yesterday when I went to the most exclusive school in Moscow to give a demo lesson on behalf of the company.

The fees for this establishment are insane and the place is like a fortress.

These are the kids of the super, super rich.

I had a wonderful time there.

They gave me a delicious meal and all the staff were super friendly and the kids were wonderful. Polite and smart and it was such a treat to be teaching students that were interested in the topic and happy to interact in a learning environment.

The classroom had everything I could need and I realised that during the past two weeks I have been battling against the bad habits of all my students previous teachers, who had allowed some dreadful behaviour to take place.

I am inclined not to hold the kids responsible.

I am only just getting on top of some of the classes and it was interesting to me to observe on Thursday that one of my hardest classes at the beginning actually worked really hard for a whole lesson and not one of them got their mobile phones out to make a call mid class.

Believe me that is a massive advance!!

Anyway, the posh school really liked me and as of next week I am going to be teaching there two days a week. Part of my contract with them involves three delicious meals a day in the school's restaurant and they will send a driver to collect me.

This is the first time the school have had a native speaker and the parents are keen for their children to be able to use English when they are overseas.

I am excited. I think they have stables there as well!!

As my schedule is yet to be fixed and I still have to have some meetings about the direction my classes will take at this new school, I have been substituting a bit this week.

On Wednesday I cover 6 classes including 4 back to back kindergarten ones. I thought I was going to die. Plus they packed out the classes. I must have taught around 100 kids in an afternoon.

On extreme to another!

Last weekend I took a trip out to Gorky Park. This famous site has been recently bought by Roman Abramovich as a redesign project. I think there are tons of things going on there in the summer but as you can see from the pictures it was covered in snow when I went there.

My plan was to find out about the ice skating!

Due to the flooding and freezing of the ponds one whole section of the park has been opened up as a massive open air rink.

I am going to go back today and skate!!

It is also Maslenitsa which is the Russian version of Carnival.

In spite of the thick snow still on the ground this event supposedly marks the end of winter as well as being the last week before the strict Orthodox Lent begins.

Maslenitsa is an ancient slave event that dates back to pagan times and there are events all over the city this weekend, including in Gorky Park.

So I thought I would head there today, skate and have a look around.

Moscow is starting to get under my skin in a good way and as if to consolidate the all round good feeling I had a really moment on the way back from the supermarket last night.

Two teenagers passed me on the street singing the lyrics to 'Friday, I'm in Love', by The Cure.

Did they know it was Friday? Who knows but I took the ear worm home...