Memories of Russia

Рыженкова Алина - Aleena. This isn’t the Aleena I was friends with in Tynda, it was another one. She had raven hair and thin eyes. She is holding a teddy bear in the first photo. We were sort of friends. Our Mum were also friends. In first grade we played a game where we were blindfolded, and we had to try and guess who our mum was based of the feel of their hand. I accidentally picked Aleena’s mum. Her mum’s hand was also warm, soft, large. Just a bit too big. It’s amazing how much frustration helps you remember stuff. I also remember that Aleena and her Mum picked me up from Katya Kapsova’s ( Капцова ) birthday party. We sat in the car together and chatted. Then we watched this Russian cartoon called смешарики – they were sphere-shaped animals, and the main character is a blue rabbit. Садовская Влада – Vlada, I started making friends with her later than others. She was smiley. She has dirty blonde hair and if holding her skirt in her hands in the third photo. In a sense she...

Колесникова Катя - was the first person I tried to make friends with in Krasnoyarsk. She was the shortest person in my class, and has dark blonde hair. We were sort of friends. When we were walking in our line at the orientation on the 1 st of September, we were in a pair and I asked her what her name was, and told her mine. I met her before I met Nastya. She seems to be the only girl in a blouse and skirt in the photos. She is in the third photo on the right of the boy holding the giant eraser. Командина Настя – Nastya. There were actually two Nastya in my class. I wasn’t friends with this one. She is the girl sitting on he ledge next to the calculator in the third photo. She was a very bold person, not at all quiet, but not me. Just confident. Pretty serious as well, if I remember correctly. Леонова Алиса –   Aleessa- which means Alice- actually moved later on, I think at the end of year two. We were actually friends, but it was one of those ...

Алексей – Aleksey- which is Alex, is the boy the third from the left in the back row. He was quite tall. (Obviously, they put him in the back row). I don’t know much about him but that I tended to stay away from him because he used to pick his nose. Which isn’t very fair on him because there must be much more to him than just that. I think he would hang out with Max and play video games. Occasionally I would sit with those boys. We were all kind of friends. But it gets pretty boring when people just play video games. So, I wouldn’t stay as much. The breaks in Russian schools are much smaller, but there were ore of them. This way they could feed everyone in the cafeteria, and we had a break between each lesson. We were all sort of friends, but still not as much as I’d like now. Саша – Sasha- was quite cheeky actually. He isn’t in this photo. He wasn’t there that day. He is in the other ones. He is in the second photo. In the navy-blue jumper, crouching and with a huge grin o...

You might have noticed that there are far more girls in my class than boys. I’m not sure why. It just happened that way. I quite liked it. I remember showing my classmates in Tynda a school folder of my class in Krasnoyarsk, and they said the boys over there were handsome, and that the ones they had were jerks. That is Krasnoyarsk we were lucky. I wanted to disagree, but I think they have a point.  I don’t remember enough to tell you a whole story about each person in my class. I mean, if I racked my brain and gave you all the stuff you would ever need to know, then maybe. I have put off writing this, but it’s time now. Just now the memories are less vivid than they used to be.  There is Влад - Vlad over on the very left. He is the boy who has thrown a jacket over his shoulder, in the first photo. He was a tough boy, strong, serious. The man. I don’t remember much about him. But that is the impression I have. I hope it’s accurate. Максим - Maksim...

In Russia popularity worked differently. Or maybe it just works differently as a child. Either way, when I was a little kid in a Russian school, grades actually contributed to how popular you were. Maybe even when you were a teenager.  One time when I was eleven and we were moving, some other girls told me not to hang out with this group of boys, because they got bad grades in school and swore. I told Dad this and he seemed to think it was pretty funny, but I understood these girls’ perspective- and had similar approach. It is quite the opposite from being a popular Australian teenager. Swearing and getting bad grades might actually help you be popular. Which was annoying because I worked so hard trying to be popular- maybe too hard in hindsight- only to become a nerd in Australia. Not that I mind being a nerd. Its great. Besides, who decides who is popular? The popular people. Why are those popular people popular? Because of other popular kids. Doesn’t really m...

This was my class in year 1. Actually, I had this class for 3 and a half years. This is us while we were in year 1. It is photoshopped. Just the giant pencil and erasers and stuff. Not the faces. Some parts I think would be pretty easy to make without photoshopping. The photographer asked me to pose my hands as if I was holding a rose giving strange results, because I had hard time holding an invisible rose with invisible thorns and an uncertain thickness. It makes me look really tough they way I grip a rose that was never there. I have a feeling that me holding a fake rose would have been easier than taking my photo and changing it.   It on the top ledge in the second photo. On the left. Although it might be a bit different with giant erasers. A rabbit… I don’t know. You could probably pull that off without changing the photo. You might have noticed I haven’t written in a while. Well, gathering memories of classmates is a lot of memories. I know they were very im...