World Cup finals

It was a weekend of farewells.Pepe & Rohit were going back home to Italy and India.And my dear Natasha was going back to Ukraine a day after them. The night before Natasha left, we threw a party at our place and it coincided nicely with the World Cup Finals.

Our host Sergie was invited.and his eyes widened...."You are inviting me to a party....in...My apartment ?"

Spanish Supporters

Farewell for Natasha

Sitting in Front of the tele

Plov :)

Our uzbek buddy , Mohammedayub suggested making uzbek plov for dinner!The master chef taught me how real plov was made.And after I saw the whole process.....I swore to myself not to eat too much.While rice in Singapore is normally cooked with water , plov was cooked in oil.

After the match ended,a group of us restless with the summer heat , went for a walk to Lenta.The metro had closed before the match ended and most of the interns decided to stayover and hang out.A cool 30minutes away,we were sitting at the playground ,sharing a tub of ice cream and playing a country/city/capital naming game in russian.It was tough for a newbie to stay in the game for long as  many countries/cities/capitals are pronounced differently in russian and english.

As we walked back to the apartment to watch Natasha pack for the trip home , i thought to myself....
LIFE....is great :)

The Picasso Collection at the Hermitage with the Buddy

I met up with my buddy.Sasha 5 weeks after our first meeting when i arrived in June.
With the Indonesian girls , we headed to the Hermitage to check out the Picasso collection.

The Picasso collection will be in the Hermitage as a temporary exhibition, and that was the only thing in the Hermitage that i actually enjoyed.Eccentric art.This was my 2nd trip to the Hermitage to see the Picasso collection.The first trip with Andrie had been pretty enlightening as he was a fan of Picasso and knew some facts about Picasso's life.Only 1% of the Hermitage is properly air conditioned.I can't imagine how all the art pieces are surviving the summer heat, but they are.

Walking around the museum,i was more preoccupied talking to Sasha than noticing anything around me.I found out that Sasha loves acting .It was amazing to see how his eyes shone when he talked about his school plays and his dreams and aspirations.

Although he works from day to night at a restaurant through his summer vacations to earn money to pay for his university fees and yet he never once complained about it.Despite the early mornings and tiring long days , he told me that he enjoyed his job.

He may just be a 19 year old boy , but there is alot that people can learn from a guy like him.

Picnics in Saint Petersburg

One of the nice things to do during summer in Saint Petersburg is just chilling at the park having a picnic.

Bring a mat , some sports equipment and find a spot at Pavlovsk.Nothing beats lying on a mat surrounded by overgrown grass and staring at the sky and talking about.....life :)

Or you can find a spot in one of the many parks near a metro station out of the center of Saint Petersburg and have a barbeque party!Buy your own DIY barbeque pit from Carousel - supermarket for 200Rub! (10sgd) ....who knows...if you find a nice green spot of grass in front of your apartment , you might even find people barbequing there!

Clubbing in Saint Petersburg

Clubbing was quite disappointing in Saint Petersburg after experiencing the Moscow Night Life.

THE BEST
Central Station
This is a gay club and the best club I went to in Saint Petersburg.Men get in for free and for women...we have to pay.
Maria , a Latvian girl  and I negotiated like hell with the bouncer and managed to get in for 400 roubles.Ben ,our charming british intern got in for free.We spotted him at the "Men only" lounge drinking free champagne later on.It was really an eye opening experience in there.The transvestite host was offering 1000 roubles to each of the 10 people who were willing to come on stage , strip naked and dance for a minute.And people were scrambling up to do that.
No, I couldn't watch the whole show. After drinking a tad too much alcohol too fast before coming the Central Station , I was leaning against the wall trying to shake myself sober.

http://www.centralstation.ru/

Gay Bar ( I forgot the name )
No surprise here.The next best was a gay bar.( we ended up there by mistake , thinking that it was central station ) It was down the street from Central Station near Metro Gostivy Dvor.The bouncers refused to let me because I am female.But Ben worked his charms and got me in.The bar played the best music and was ...........empty.There is the signature rainbow flag hanging outside though.

MOD  Rooftop Bar

 On my last night in Saint Petersburg,I wanted to check out a lesbian club Tri - El.It looked so boring that we left and walked to the city center on foot.Took us a good 2 hours or so.While the girls were exhausted from the walk and wanted to just chill in front of the Hermitage , Ben brought me to this cool rooftop bar that his Russian friends brought him to previously.My last night in Saint Petersburg wasn't that disastrous after all.

We met 2 American students there.Both were in Saint Petersburg for a summer study program and spent most of their nights at clubs and bars drinking their money away and spending it on Russian girls who came to chat them up.As the 4 of us left the bar at 6am , ....( yes...the bars are still open at 6am).1 of them literally had his money flying away from him.Blown straight from his hand and almost into the canal by the wind.And that happened after he gave more money to a Russian girl who wanted money from him to take a cab home.Poor guy.


THE MUST TRY
After my stay in Saint Petersburg , a Russian living in Singapore told me about 2 super cool clubs in her home city. ( I hate myself for not asking her earlier! )
Purga
Apparently they celebrate New Years Day and weddings every night here.Sounds bizarre and so Russian!
http://purga-club.ru/main.phtml

XXXX
My friends and I had contemplated going to one of the XXXX clubs in Primorskaya but didn't make it there in the end.The bouncers told us that they will let us in for free...if we removed our underwear.

http://www.xxxxbar.ru/

THE DISAPPOINTING

Club Revolution
A club for kids.Free admission for students.Music was ......hip hoppish and the crowd was mainly teenagers.Would have been boring if not for my amazing friends!

Rossi Club
The music was ok.But the crowd was old and lecherous looking!Avoid!
http://www.rossis.ru/index2.php

The fun part of the night was hanging out with friends in the nearby park drinking champagne,shivering and chilling out.And that is me being stupid at 4am in the morning.It was White Nights.So the sky was bright at 4am!

Fidel
Many people rave about this bar.Only for fans who love listening to english songs.And when i say english , i mean...Y-M-C-A...expect that kinda music.Bad....There alot of clubs and bar along that stretch .So if you get bored at one , you can hop over to another.The good gay bar and club is just around the corner


Tri -El
A lesbian club that was empty on a Thursday night.Located in a factory and not near to the city center.Lesbian or not , just don't bother coming here.It's boring and empty.We took a peek in and left.

THE EARLY MORNING
The nice thing is that people here know their limits and don't go around puking all over the streets after a night out.
While waiting for the Metro to open at 6am , you can take a walk along the main street towards the river where the bridges are to watch them close at 4am.During summer , the bridges open at 1am and close at 4am to let ships pass through.Cars are not able to use the bridges during that period of time.

Or you can just lie down in front of the Hermitage Museum and chill.

Or take photos with no tourists in the background

Buddhist Temple

Few people know that Buddhist datsans ( temples ) exist in Russia.Fewer people will know that there is one is Saint Petersburg. Located a 5 minute walk away from Metro station Staraya Derevnya , the datsan sits right next to the canal.


I went with Stacy , an American intern from Aiesec to check out the zen scene one afternoon.This temple is similar to the ones from the Buryatia Republic in Siberia.And it is no surprise that it is.There is a decent population of people from Ulan Ude living in Saint Petersburg and I was told that many of them live around the Primorskaya area.

During certain times of the day , the Buddhist monks will gather in the center of the hall and start chanting.Take a look around the hall and most of the people there are Asian looking Russians.Sneak a peak around you and you will notice them staring at you, the strange foreigners, from the corner of their eyes.They have a decent Buryatia cafe at the basement as well.

 I feel at ease at temples regardless of where it is located in the world.Perhaps it is a sense of familiarity or an ability to connect with the surroundings since it has been a family tradition to go to temples to pay my respects to ancestors and beyond.For Stacy , it was her first time in a temple and witnessing the service.The first step towards a better understanding towards different religions is always a good thing for everybody.


Check out the datsan's website
http://dazan.spb.ru/


Peace to all.

Zenit Football Match

The girls and I decided that we will not leave Saint Petersburg without watching a Zenit football Match.
The Saint Petersburg home team has been performing really well recently thanks to the tremendous funding from their sponsor, Gazprom.


Acha and Shakina each bought a jersey each as gifts for their brother/boyfriend etc back home.Seeing the two of them twirl around in their Zenit Jerseys, I succumbed to peer pressure and bought myself one too.

One entire section of fans in the stadium were from the official Zenit fan club and they cheered in sync.Apparently, those in the fan club get the entry tickets for free.But there is a catch.they have to practise to make sure that they cheer in sync and they are the last to leave the stadium.

The highlight of the match wasn't the footballers or the match but actually the fans.As they screamed , cursed and do anything to entertain themselves.

An evening of entertainment , it definitely was!

The Team's website
http://www.fc-zenit.ru/

Couchsurfers

I met some couchsurfers in Saint Petersburg who made life quite interesting for me.
Margo , a russian girl who moved to SPB from Yeketerinburg organized an outing to Pushkin.There were initially 7 of us.But somehow , everyone met friends and other couchsurfers coincidentally at the park and our numbers snowballed to 12 people!

Margo later came over to my place to help me with learning Russian!She's a strict vegan and does not even eat сметана( sour cream ) anymore the comfort food for all russians and hers when she was younger!

Another couchsurfer was Sasha!
On my first week in SPB ,through CS , i met a researcher and curator of the Tibetian Collection at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts.Sasha .
He is a russian who specializes in Tibetian buddhism and enlightened me about buddhism in Russia ,the travel opportunities that his specialization has given him and his hitchhiking experiences around Europe.As we debated and discussed over tea and cakes , i made it a point to myself to read up a little more on this field for I have already been to the 2 republics in Russia where buddhism is the main religion.Buryatia and Kalmykia.And although ,I have absolutely no inclination to travel via hitchhiking , i am always keen to hear about their crazy adventures

Sasha called me a few weeks later to check on how I was doing in SPB!And I invited him over for a dinner at my place with Shakina and Xusu.Acha had to get her thesis done and was unable to join us.

We discussed about practiceses of different types of buddhism and corruption in different countries over chicken rice and wine :)

For those curious , here is the link to his website.

http://www.sashastr.narod.ru/

On Russian TV

I had a really exciting opportunity to appear on Russian news on the 4th of July !
There was a message sent to me on the Couchsurfing website about an opportunity to be on Russian TV .They will interview me about my experience in couchsurfing in Russia and other countries.

Russia is the country where I couchsurfed the most and I was more than happy to talk about it.I had some really fantastic times staying with locals and learning so much from them about local life.Not only that , i made some good friends through the website too!

During the filming experience , I learnt how to make blinies ,shared with them a pack of spicy tapioca chips that i brought along from Singapore and showed them a book on Singapore Heritage food.

They found my story very fascinating.
A girl from Singapore ( far far away ..tiny island/country/city )who studied in Moscow and Petrozavodsk and now is doing volunteer work ,teaching english to orphans in Saint Petersburg.

Unfortunately , the TV producers chose to show snippets of me looking quite frantic and exaggerated when i was talking.NOT COOL.( Do i look like this all the time? )

http://www.rtr.spb.ru/vesti/vesti_2010/news_detail_v.asp?id=4007

Cringe to the max.But hey , i was still on Russian news!

Flea Market

Stacy, the American volunteer for the HIV project with AIESEC told us about a really HUGE flea market near station Уделная selling all sorts of 2nd hand stuff and junk.

I never thought that a flea market of such a huge scale will exist in a big city like Saint Petersburg!If you like old books , old spectacles, shoes any kind of scrap and junk , COME HERE.

One spunky seller  gave a retro Scrunchie to Acha as a present even when she insisted on paying.She just wanted to give away all her things because if she doesn't she has to bring them back home.

English lesson 3

On the last session with the kids , I wanted to make the lesson fun for all of us
We will revise colours with them using a game and they will learn names of fruits,days of the week ,numbers and months and the phrase "I want .."

It was alot of work writing out the materials and the phonetic translations!

Us hanging out at the beach before lessons at 4pm.

The final lesson
We divided the kids into two teams and got them to stand in 2 lines.There was a pile of markers of various colours at the end of the room.One kid from each team will run to the pile and grab the marker of the right colour after I scream the name of a colour in English.

The boys were extremely distracted this time round and couldn't keep still.It was only until we played the fruit game when they calmed down .
Each kid will be blindfolded with kitchen paper.We will put a slice of fruit into their mouth and they have to tell us the name of the fruit in english.They really enjoyed the game.This was also the first time we were giving out sweets .These were fruit candies and the kids will only receive it if they can name the colour of the fruit and the name of the fruit on the fruit candy that they wanted

I had a soft spot for 2 boys , whom i saw as the most promising of the 10.Vitalik and Yegor.And for the enthusiasm they showed in learning , i decided to reward them .

When I was a child , my mom will reward me if i did well for my examinations or tests.I would get these star stickers ,accumulate them and oncei get more than a certain number , my mom will buy me a present!Although kids brought up in this generation are different from the kids brought up in my generation, I am still pretty sure that they will be happy being rewarded for something.

Knowing that Vitalik loves reading , and got excited when he thought i had an english book in my bag, i bought him a book of english stories with russian translation .The book came with an audio cd where he can listen to the narrations in both english and russian.It was 200roubles(10sgd) from the bookstore but if 200roubles can inspire an orphan to study hard , win a scholarship and pursue higher education in university , then my 200roubles is totally worth it.At the front of the book , i wrote him a letter in both english and russian ,hoping to inspire him to continue learning.Marina, a good friend of mine from Moscow had helped to correct my grammatical mistakes the night before.

Yegor on the other hand is a fan of soccer and is not interested in books.I went down to the Zenit football store ( his favourite football team ) and bought him a bar of Zenit chocolate and a pen.If he doesn't read , at least , he can have fun writing with a cool pen.the best part , it came with a Zenit plastic bag.His presents are going to make most of the boys in the orphanage very jealous.But he deserved to receive it anyway.

The letter that i wrote for Yegor

Дорогой Егор,
Я знаю ,что теье нварвится футбол и поэтому я дарю теье эту зенитовскую ручку.Пусть этот подарок будет побуждать тебя заниматся хорошо в школе.Когда жизнь трудная,борись упорно и преодолеешь затруднения и проблемы.Ты большой малчик и у тебя большие мечты.Будь приежным мужчиной и достигнешь свою мечту.
Ты можешь это сделать!
:)

Kyril after requesting to receive my umbrella as a gift , went bouncing around happy.

It took so little to make them happy and that was what made teaching orphans so satisfying.To know that what you teach them actually makes a difference.It may be just a few english words , laughter and company but that was what made the 7 weeks in Saint Petersburg totally worthwhile.Not only that , Yegor and Vitalik were constantly correcting my russian pronunciation and repeating it many times with me so that i got it right.I was their english language teacher and they were my russian language teachers.

As the boys bidded us farewell, i wished that i had the money and time to come back to guide the interested few on english language through the school term.Perhaps in the future , I will come back again but it will be for the longer term :)

English lesson 2

For our 2nd trip there , Masha from Serbia and Maria from Latvia joined us.They were from the other projects but decided to join us because they....like many international volunteers had no work and the young project organizers were not doing much about it either.

Some activities we planned for the autistic children

We tried playing TAG with them , but they were so distracted that they ran around hitting everyone and climbing up the wooden slide.

Put your right hand in, put your right hand out ,put your right hand in ,and shake it all about!

Our Break at the Beach

There was a 2 hour break before our english lesson with the 10 boys.And there is a beach near the sanatorium where the kids were staying.

This naked baby kept crawling back to Shakina even after his parents carried him to another spot!

Us lazing at the beach

English Lesson
For the 2nd lesson , I had an idea to buy notebooks for all 10 of the children.

One of the project's objective was to share with students about my country and culture and I thought the best way that the kids will know the existance of a tiny country like Singapore is when they receive something that will constantly remind them about it.

On the first page of each notebook, i pasted a playing card with a photo of a tourist attraction in Singapore.The words Singapore and Сингапур were also writen on the page. I also got the Indonesian girls to help paste White Dove logos on the book .10 notebooks costed 20roubles (1SGD) in total .A useful and cheap present!The kids can write english words on these notebooks as well.

The kids were indeed really happy to receive the present and kept saying "O....Singapore!!!Singapore!!!"
That alone made my day!10 more children in Russia now know the existance of Singapore :)

THe notebooks!

During the previous lesson , the volunteers noticed one very restless boy.Vitalik.He had the best command in English and was unwilling to hang out and speak with the other kids.Before I left the last lesson, I spoke to him for a while about the various drawings on the wall left by the Australian volunteers who came last december and realized that he was actually the most promising kid out of the 10.He actually loves to learn and read [ That's the benefits of knowing a bit of Russian.]

So during this lesson , i made sure that he was in my group ,so that i can speed up his learning progress.
We taught the different colours and the phrase "I love you "

Ben and Kola

Me testing each kid on the colours

My star pupils Vitalik and Yegor

This time , Vitalik got alot of attention from me , as I taught him more vocabulary.

After the lesson ended , while the kids ran off the play soccer or laze in the shade , Vitalik had the privilege of having 3 other volunteers  teach him english phrases.

Yegor , grew quite attached to me and followed me , brushing the logs before i sat down , even giving me a chair so that i won't sit on the floor during the lessons.He won my trust over and I allowed him to play with my ipod and bob along to the tunes of his favourite russian and international songs.

Kyril entertaining Maria from Latvia

While talking to the other volunteers , they were surprised that despite majoring in accountancy in my university , I appeared to have alot of experience teaching and educating children.

I have never given tuition to any students in my life.But had paid alot of money to receive ALOT of tuition when i was younger.But 3 months working as a counselor in a summer camp in Ohio , 6 months learning the  Russian language and a huge passion for the cause did make a huge difference .It got me thinking about doing volunteer work during my annual leave from work and after retirement in the future.

Yes.Yet another satisfying day!

English lesson 1

The next 3 trips to the orphanage to teach english was made by Ben , Shakina , Acha and I.
4 international volunteers and 2 russian translators.The hard work eventually paid off and we 4 volunteers had a great time with the kids.

We gathered a group of girls from the orphanage and the Indonesian girls taught them Balinese Dance

The headmistress selected some children to learn english as well.

And this is apparently what she screamed to the children ,
"Where are the 10 most intelligent and normal boys.They will learn english at 2pm"

What a way.,...to select...

For the first lesson, we taught them simple phrases
hello
how are you?
I am good.

What is your name ?

My name is....

Preparing materials for class

Ben teaching Kola .1 on 1

carrying out conversations

One of my favourite pupils , Yegor!

I was teaching 2 kids , Yegor and Kyril.Their enthusiasm for learning was extremely encouraging!

 It was then we realized that these kids learn really fast!Some of them had learnt some english words in school or from previous volunteers.

We showed them 3 different cartoon movies on our laptops to entertain the kids.The purpose was to let them listen to English audio and read the russian subtitles , but eventually , the kids chose the russian audio instead.

Guess what?
We didn't bribe them with any sweets and they didn't ask for any.They were very well behaved children who exceed my expectations.

Before we left , we went to say goodbye to the rest of the kids in the orphanage.They came running to us , hugging us ,touching us and asking when we were coming back.It feels really nice that they appreciate our company ,attention and the things that we teach them.

On the very sad side , our russian translators who are the organizers of the project were not very fond of children and was rather unwilling to join us and say goodbye.Interacting with the orphans was something new to them.