Ich war vierzehn, schüchtern und unsicher. Vor mir auf dem Tisch lag ein Anmeldeformular für einen Schüleraustausch in Deutschland mit dem Hinweis, dass Teilnehmer:innen extrovertiert und selbstbewusst sein sollten. Tja, ich fühlte mich nicht ganz …
Has autumn arrived with you yet? Has it brought a cool crispness to the air? Have you pulled your jacket a little tighter around you? Let me warm you, then, with this summer souvenir. I …
The sign on the door confuses me: PLEASE KNOCK LOUDLY is printed beside a man in a black bowler hat who seems to be in the act of kicking his way in. Cautious of …
My year abroad is over. After twelve months in Russia and Austria, it’s time to return to Durham to complete my university degree. It would be a lie to say I have loved every minute …
He bounces. There’s no other way to describe it. He sits down next to me, but the chair doesn’t allow for bouncing and before long he’s jumped to his feet again. While we talk he …
‘Do you want some cucumbers?’ Stas and I have been in the restaurant half an hour when Saul arrives, looking slightly flustered. ‘Elvira got back just as I was about to leave,’ he says. He …
There were dragons and volcanoes and castles; there was tea and watermelon and cake; and there were six of us contemplating the square tiles on the table. We were playing Carcassonne, an extended version. Bit …
I want to tell you about the light. It is nearly five o’clock in the morning when we emerge, blinking, into the grey pre-dawn of St Petersburg. We push through the crowds milling outside the …
No stocking. No tree with tinsel. No roast dinner. Is this really Christmas? Not as I knew it, perhaps. Christmas was beautiful in Tomsk. Ice-skating on a lake at night, Christmas trees on every square …
It’s over. I have returned west. One hundred days in Russia comes hand in hand with one hundred stories to tell; and yet no hundred thousand words could do justice to the country and its …
