Zenit

Sorry for the recent lack of posts. Unfortunately I have been without electricity for the last two weeks which was made life all the more fun and 'unique' here is St P.

Anyway recently I decided to watch a game of football which involved the club Zenit playing against Yamka at their home stadium.

I thought the occasion was going to be a jolly affair much like my fond memories of visiting St Mary's Stadium in my younger years. This however was not the case.

We had arranged to decided to meet up with some Russian friends before the game and to our surprise they were drinking vodka (2 bottles between 5) at 2pm. They were your typical Russian men in the fact that they were nice guys though you definitely didn't want to get on the wrong side of them. An example of this is when i asked why one of them was wearing a Liverpool man bag (its not considered gay/strange here, actually quite the opposite), he proudly said that he had stolen it from someone in Moscow. Thankfully I am not new to Russian culture and replied as calmly as i could 'Cool man' or 'клево' in russian.

While going to the stadium itself I was genuinely shocked about the amount of riot police they had patrolling the streets, genuinely around 300 of them in full riot gear just waiting for an excuse to beat the living daylight out of someone. It reminded me of the riot videos from the 80s and judging by their shaved heads and tracksuits I was pretty much in this era. The stadium itself was completely outdoor with no shelter for the fans (surely due to its warm Mediterranean climate right?) and not an experience I would like to take a young child to. During the match people were lighting up flares and believe it or not genuine organised mosh pits were taking place in the stands.

That being said the atmosphere was fantastic and every minute of the game we were standing up and we quickly learnt the chants which were surprisingly catchy. I was even lucky enough to witness a 20 man punch up after the game. 

No wonder all Russians have seen the film Green street and is often quoted as one of their favourite foreign films.

Russian TV

Sorry for a lack of posts recently, there has been a lack of internet availability and even electricity.

Watching TV is one of the best ways to learn a language as you are able to listen to native speakers talk in their own environment. Therefore I am trying to watch at least an hour of TV everyday. This however is not a relaxing thing and is probably the worst part of my day - its basically an hour long listening exam! However to make my time a bit easier I have found some well known American shows which has been Russified (ie made to look like if was filmed in the 80s/ridiculously good looking girls/a severe lack of capitalism).

I thought i would give you some shows and see if you can guess them:

If you didn't get that one you are really going to struggle (it was Prison Break). The next:

Slightly harder, though if you watch the show you should definitely recognise the bar (How I Met Your Mother).

And a super hard one:

Everybody loves Raymond