Hello, hello, guys. Welcome back to another episode of the Big Afterschool podcast, where the goal of this show is to help you improve your English listening skills by listening to us. So my name is Benjamin. I'm from London, and I have three wonderful guests with us today. Our first guest is...
And last but not least, we have...
So welcome back, guys. Happy New Year to all of our listeners and everyone here. Today is the day after the Russian New Year. Old New Year excuse me.
I think it was yesterday.
It was yesterday. That's what I mean. It's the day after. So it's New Year's Day or Old New Year's Day. When did this change? You know Olya?
Not quite remember, like I don't remember it. But I know it's something to do with the calendar, maybe.
Yeah, It was after the revolution.
They went from the Julius Caesar... Julius calendar to Gregorian.
Exactly. So it is the old calendar and that's why Russians have Christmas on the 7th of January. So what did you all do for your New Year's holidays? Anything special?
Oh. What concert did you go to?
There were just some local bands. But, you know, they were really amazing. Like, I never thought local bands can actually play, you know, stuff like that, so wow. It was just...
Well, was...? Yeah. What was the venue? Sorry, I was just curious.
That's уздечка. Have you ever heard of that?
So it's like a club, a nightclub, I guess.
Mhm. Cool. So you went to a club.
Yeah. And I'm going there today to the concert again.
So what about you Ugur? Did you do anything? Did you just relax?
Yeah, I relaxed and watched videos like the serials and the movies that I haven't watched and I finished them finally. And just relaxed and drank. Beer.
Now, what time did you get up?
Like 2 p.m. in the afternoon.
Yeah, because it stays so dark anyway. Who knows what time it is.
Yeah, well, speaking of beer, actually, for our listeners and for our viewers, we had a wonderful podcast just before the New Year where we discussed different beers and we tried different beers on the set. So definitely check that out and you can find that on our website or on the Telegram chat for the Big Apple School. And yeah, it was a very beery, boozy podcast.
So, yeah. What else happened over the New year? What did you do, Varya?
Well, I did go see the lights on Lenina street.
Mhm. Oh, okay. So like for our listeners who are not from Novosibirsk, we had the New Year capital of Russia hosted here in Novosibirsk and...
They kind of cheated us because I think they took some lights from Central Park and put them over there. Yeah. And I think they cheated us with our ice skating rink too. Not that I go... That I would go ice skating, but I like to watch. And there was no ice skating rink at Central Park or Lenin Square as I saw.
Oh, right. Didn't the skating rink have a funny shape?
Yeah. They got tired of...
Well, how to explain that...
So everyone in Russia discussed it.
Yes. Well, for those of you who are not familiar, just type in Novosibirsk skating rink shape.
For the new year. It was quite funny. So maybe they realized they don't want to be the joke of the world.
But there was a skating rink over at Spartak, as I understand.
Oh, yes, yes. At the football stadium. Exactly. Well, you don't say... The soccer stadium.
Oh, it's so... It was soccer you're talking about.
I thought it was football.
It's just the classic difference between British English and American English.
Right, Right. I thought it was football because everyone said football and didn't think of soccer.
Yeah. Well, so I had a fun New Year's holiday. I just relaxed a lot. But I went to the theater. I'm not a theater person. Don't normally love the theater, but I went and saw a play called Авантюристы. Have you heard of this one, Olya?
It wasn't my favorite play, but it was interesting to see a play in Russian. And to be honest, I couldn't understand really a lot of it. I could understand bits of it.
And where did it take place?
It's in the Красный Факел. So the Red Torch theater.
Okay, okay. So yeah, that's why I don't know it. I really don't go there a lot.
So it was interesting to see. I mean, I'm not a huge theater person, but it was fun to see. And also I was on the metro and I saw an advert for a cat show. And I know, but I don't believe you like cat shows, do you guys?
Right, I think they... Yeah.
But I just thought I'd take a look at it just to see what it was like. And I saw my favorite breed of cat being a British Shorthair, and they had this huge cat. It was so big. It was like probably the size of the BigAppleSchool sign in front of us. For those of you who are watching the video version of this podcast.
A big fat head and little ears?
And bagel eyes and squished in nose.
Yes, yes. Yeah. And then, of course, you get the Persian cats are even more squished in. But yeah, they seem to be treating the animals pretty nicely, but I don't know if I would like it if I were a cat.
But one of the cats was hissing at the other cats, so I think that's a sign that he didn't want to be there very much. And another thing that I thought was strange was when they presented the cats to be judged, they would hold the cats like a bottle of wine being served by a waiter.
And they are stretching them.
They are stretching out. And I thought maybe this is not the cat's favorite thing to experience, but it was an interesting thing to see nonetheless. I've never been to... I had never been to a cat show before, before that. But yeah, it was on the left side of the river in Novosibirsk. Marks Square, in a shopping center.
Oh, shopping center. Really?
Yeah. That was my New Year celebration. And of course, I had a lot of great food. Did you have good food?
I've, you know, I've eaten salads for seven days, back then. Yeah, so. But that was my food. That's it.
What kind of salads were your favorite?
Hmm. It's hard to say. I love all of them. I don't really think I have my favorite ones.
What do you think about салат Оливье?
We always have it. What about you guys, by the way? Do you actually make it?
Well, my wife's family, her mother made an amazing selection of meals for New Year's. We had everything from сельдь под шубой which in English should be...
Herring under a fur coat. I know it's a funny translation, but...
Yeah, I know. I tried it.
Yeah. Amazing. Varya, did you try?
You should do that. Definitely. I know it sounds disgusting, but it's really tasty. If you like fish.
Wait, you're a vegetarian, aren't you?
Yeah, I probably won't have it. I found some beautiful dragon fruit at what we call it...Ярче.
And so I've been going there and getting my dragon fruit.
Actually, I've found that Ярче has pretty good fruits, actually.
The apples are crisp. Yeah.
Not that we're getting paid by Ярче, c'mon Ярче give us some money. But they do have good food.
But their shop assistants aren't very friendly at all. At all. There are so young and preoccupied with other things besides me because I think I'm the star when I go to the cash register. Look, I'm here and they don't care.
Yes. I found the shop assistant at Auchan to be more friendly than the ones that at Ярче.
Well, guys, let me just do some housekeeping before we move onto the main portion of the podcast. So definitely check out our aftershow segments to this podcast show. The aftershow information can be found in our Telegram podcast, and we have a special private chat on Telegram, which you can join and you can be a part of the conversation and practice your English writing skills and speaking skills if you want to send us voice recordings of your voices.
And also in the aftershow segments, you can see us and you can get access to a special vocabulary list of all the words that we discuss in the podcast itself. This vocabulary will be very useful for you on your English learning journey, so definitely check that out.
And also, I want to say a special thank you to the lerundel who left a comment for us on YouTube. Lerundel said, Hey there, I love your podcast. Will there be a new Year or Christmas podcast? Well, we're not going to have a specifically Christmas New Year podcast, although we did just talk about Christmas and New Year. Today we're going to talk about the subject of winter itself. So I guess that all kind of feeds into it. But thank you, Lerundel, We love your... We appreciate your comments. We appreciate your feedback.
So definitely keep it coming. And also, another thing I have to mention is we have online speaking clubs and you can find you can find information about the online speaking clubs on our Telegram chat. And we're trying to... We're aiming to have them at least once a week. So definitely check that out. And if you want to join and speak on these online speaking clubs, just drop your name in the telegram chat and mention what level you're at and we'll be able to accommodate you and of course, help you practice your English speaking skills. So, yeah, that's about it.
So, freezing or are you not freezing right now?
So Novosibirsk, what's the weather today?
And really humid as always.
Would you classify it as a blizzard?
A whirly wind but not a blizzard.
Well, -15. If you said -15 to anyone in London or I guess back where you're from, it would be. Or Ugur where you're from as well. It would just be...
Would be a crazy kind of suggestion. But 15 is almost tropical weather.
It's warm, yeah. Compared with last week.
We are talking about Celsius, not Fahrenheit.
Well, let's mention that. Is there a particular formula you have to follow to convert Celsius?
Yes, there is, but I don't know it, but I just google it.
I think it's something like... It's really complicated. Something like minus five eighths, and you have to multiply it. But it's really what makes it really strange is the fact that -40 Celsius and -40 Fahrenheit is the exact same.
It just works out that way. Yeah. Yeah. Just by coincidence.
So clearly, I did not study mathematics to a higher level at school. I kind of wish I did, to be honest, but I think there is a special kind of formula that you have to follow in order to convert the two temperatures.
Same with the measurements. Like inches to centimeters. Yeah.
Yes. But I would say inches centimeters. They follow a linear kind of conversion. If I'm using the right word, of course. Linear.
Because it always remains a constant throughout the conversion. Whereas the Fahrenheit to Celsius conversion follows a kind of curve on the graph. So -40 is equal to -40, but then 100 degrees Fahrenheit is what? It's about 28 Celsius, something like that. Maybe...
Something like that. But I don't know the exact one. So it's quite...
Well we could start with 0. So 0 Celsius equals 32 degrees Fahrenheit. So you have to multiply divide something like 30 to something or something.
Well, I'm sure we have quite a few listeners who are mathematics experts.
Russia is filled with amazing mathematicians, so do enlighten us with your knowledge of Fahrenheit to Celsius conversions. So yeah. So pretty cold out there. And last week was absolutely wickedly cold.
Horrible. I hated it. It was so cold. So cold. So cold.
When I first arrived here two years ago, just over two years ago, it was minus, it was cold. It was -35, -34 at one point. And at night it was -40. Well, I was surprised about how relatively easy it was to tolerate. It wasn't too crazy. I stood outside. I took a picture of myself and go, Oh, I'm really cool, and braving -34 degrees Celsius. But then I realized that, yeah, there was almost no wind.
Last year was also warmer.
But this one is pretty cool.
Starting in November, I felt cold and clammy because it was like, -23. And then it felt like -30 or -33. Yeah. Humidity. I was very uncomfortable. November and December.
But this year, it was just absolutely wicked. Because it was the same temperature was -34, but it was windy. And I walked to the BigAppleSchool on one of these colder days. It was a what... Is it, like a 30, 35 minute walk.
I was freezing. I couldn't bear with it. So I just, you know, called a taxi to go back home. Well, I couldn't do that. For real.
Oh, this is like the first winter that I really feel like I have to cover my nose and my face. And I've noticed some of my students have come in with really red cheeks.Oh, you've got to cover your skin. You've got to protect your skin.
I do that this year. Yeah, I didn't do that last year. That was all right. It was warm. But this one... Yeah, it's kind of itchy.
Yeah. Is that my wife bought me a turtleneck sweater for Christmas, and it's very useful to walk around with it. But the problem is if you wear glasses, winter is not your friend.
Exactly. So we have the verb to fog up, which is a phrasal verb. And I can't go anywhere without...
You need little windshield whipers.
Exactly. Windshield wipers. Exactly. Or just your fingers.
Obviously, it's not a hygienic thing to do to get your fingers and wipe the fog or the condensation off your glasses. But when you're on a bus and you can't see anything, it's better to do that than to not see anything at all.
Yeah. My eyes have actually been watering this year, unlike previous years.
So have... Have icicles formed in your eyes outside?
Yeah, the eyelashes. Yeah. Have you noticed that they kind of stick?
Yeah. And have you felt inside your nostrils?
Yeah, exactly. It freezes, and it's a little bit unpleasant. It's not the worst feeling in the world, but a little bit strange.
And it makes you cough. Yes. This time when you breathe.
And just if you're going from a warm apartment to a warm building, it's no big deal. You've got your goal. You can brave it for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour if necessary. I wouldn't really want to be out more than an hour. I think.
Well, we'll speak more about our personal tips in the aftershow segment. We'll talk about perhaps our clothing and what we decide to wear in the winter in the aftershow section. So definitely stick by to hear more about that. But I want to ask you, do you think Christmas is not Christmas if you don't have snow?
Well, I cannot imagine Christmas without snow because, you know, the whole life of mine, there was snow.
I don't know what it's like, to be honest. So I think for me, like, if I, you know, had to celebrate New Year in a different country where it's really warm. I think I just wouldn't get that spirit, I guess.
Yeah. Well, Ugur, there is sometimes snow in Istanbul. Yeah, sometimes.
Sometimes. I only seen twice.
Oh, okay. Yeah. But there are snowy bits, of course, of Turkey.
And not in Istanbul. You can... All right. The eastern Turkey is like border to Georgia or Armenia. We have snowy peaks and mountains over there, like. So it's kind of not compared with Novosibirsk. But that part of Turkey is kind of snowy and cold in winters.
Yes. We have like six or seven.
But I've never been into that kind of mindset that I can ski or I want skiing in wintertime or Christmas time should be snowy or whatever. So...
Well, tell us about Christmas in Turkey. Is it really celebrated a little bit?
Yeah, like three days in a row. One day is a bank holiday and two days like national holiday, kind of.
Also the 28th of December, the 25th, excuse me, of December is celebrated.
Also technically, there's a national bank holiday for that day.
I guess not for Christmas, it's for New Year. But for Christmas, 25th is kind of observed as a holiday.
Oh, interesting. So people don't normally go to work on the 25th.
The Christian people, they don't go to work. But for the other religious or the religions, they don't care, I guess. I don't know.
So even if you're like not a religious Christian, just a Westerner, I guess maybe they have...
They have day off. They have a day off. Yeah.
So Varya what do you do for Christmas? Do you...?
Well, I grew up in California, so a snowy Christmas was really not an option. Of course, if you went up to the mountains, there are ski resorts up in the Californian mountains. But yeah, in Georgia, in Atlanta, it would snow for one time, like every few years. Yeah. And everyone would be really excited. But it would ice up the freeways and there would be reports of people being stuck on the freeway for 24, 48 hours in traffic and having to abandon their car and horrible things because we're not used to that ice.
Well, even Florida gets snowy sometimes. I've heard.
I've never heard of that. I don't recall snow in Florida. I don't recall that.
Yeah, maybe I'm wrong. Or maybe it was just a freak winter once.
Maybe. I can't imagine it's snowing in Florida.
Yeah, I mean. I thought it was surprising.
Well, London, where I spent most of my life, we have snow once every two years. Maybe it's just a little small layer of snow. So we don't normally have white Christmases. Unfortunately. As a younger kid, I spent my early years in Brazil and there, yeah, you basically don't have any snow whatsoever. There are, of course, small sections of Brazil where snow might fall, but generally speaking, we don't have any snow there. And of course, it's in the southern hemisphere. So it's summertime during Christmas, which is actually really strange.
For those of you who are not used to it. So really hot and humid during Christmas.
Yeah. No, I can remember having a little Christmas tree or a plastic Christmas tree, I believe, as a little kid in Brazil, which was quite funny.
And you know, lots of people here have plastic Christmas trees cause, you know, people don't support cutting down the trees or they just think it's more convenient, you know, and you actually save like lots of money because...
Cause you can reuse it and...
Sure like, you know, we've been reusing the plastic Christmas tree for ten years, I guess? You can imagine how much money we've saved actually.
And also, I've read this article on NGS, the Russian online newspaper.
And there was this really horrible story about someone who bought a real Christmas tree, a pine tree. And it had loads and loads of insects impregnated in the tree.
Bugs all over the houses, and he wanted to get a refund, but he I don't believe he was able to get a refund.
Cause if you buy a live tree, the people who store the trees can't really inspect the trees over a microscope. And there were all these horrible insects all over his apartment.
How did they get rid of it?
A while ago we had a podcast about pests. For those of you who are interested, definitely check that out. I love that episode.
Yeah. That was a nice one.
But yeah, I'm not sure how to get rid of such an infestation.
That's my imagination. Yeah, Yeah.
Burn down the tree. Yeah. But then they get all over the carpets and all over..
They kind of screwed it. Yeah. So be careful with buying real Christmas trees. I would say coming back to the question of snow for Christmas. Yeah, you need snow at Christmas. Kind of isn't really Christmas if it hasn't got snow.
Well, all the pictures Christmas cards are always with that kind of fantasy. A romanticized Christmas with the snow.
Well, do you love snow? Because I love snow. I mean, I wouldn't have moved to Russia, to Siberia if I hated snow.
I love snow. I love it. I love it. Love it.
I'm still processing and I'm still, yeah...
I don't think the novelty will go away because I just love looking at it and I could stare at it. I can be in it. I just love it.
It's just magical, right?
Yeah. And it kind of like, freezes you in time. And it's like this very quiet time where you just kind of, I don't know, get into yourself and just kind of be, like, in a time capsule.
Yeah. And it can also make places that don't look pretty. Look really pretty.
Yeah. Even garbage and cigarets, you know.
Exactly. They can cover all that stuff, which is why in April here in Novosibirsk, the town is not... The city is not exactly the best.
But in the summer it's glorious. Novosibirsk is great in the summer.
I don't know why you say great in the summer. What do you mean, great in the summer?
It's a great place to be. You have beaches, you have nature around you.
Well, nature's amazing. Yeah.
Yeah, last summer wasn't sunny.
That was enough for me. I can say. After Vietnam. I mean, I guess that's all right.
No, I don't need the sun. No, I'm fine without the sun, but I wouldn't call it a summer. I would call. Oh, this is. I don't know what this is.
Oh, yeah. Definitely not a Californian or a Georgian summer, of course. But I quite like the summer here. Except for the pollution of course that's not a nice thing. But if you get out of town you don't really have that problem. Much. I don't like spring and autumn. I love winter or summer. What about you?
Summer. I'm a summer guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here is also cool. Like snow and everything. I'm just trying to get used to it.
It's just... It's the complete opposite. Extreme.
Whereas spring for me... It's just in the middle. It's like, what are you? What do you do? C'mon, hurry up.
Well, do you like spring in autumn? Or fall, sorry.
No fall or autumn. It doesn't matter.
Oh, you can say autumn in America?
Yeah, definitely. We say autumn.
Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Um, let's see. Oh, in California, where I was from or where I am from or was from, we didn't have the Four Seasons, as they call it, so they didn't, we didn't have the colored leaves. But when I moved to Georgia we had the colored leaves and that is so beautiful. And then I see here too. There are colored leaves. So it's very beautiful.
You do have a clear distinction between all four seasons.
Yeah. And I love when the like the first leaf falls. Oh there it is. There's the first leaf and then you kind of scuffled through the leaves. I love that. Yeah. And I'm talking about in Novosibirsk. That's what I... Not, not, not in California.
Yeah. Well... Oh, yeah, you were in Vietnam, of course. What was their season... Seasonal change like, or is it just remain constant like California in a way?
We had two main seasons, wet season and dry season, but the temperatures stay same like 40, 45 degrees.
All the time, yeah, I remember like my last five Christmases.
We were relaxing on the beach having our mimosas on Christmas Eve.
Yeah, that was. That was quite an experience.
It starts around like the end of January till the beginning of April or May. But think about the other way around the summer season like June, July, August is literally the winter season in there.
So, when is the best time to go?
September. September. October. You don't have that much humidity that you can breathe, at least when you go outside, but around like a January, February, so..
So it's like hard to breathe?
Hard to breathe like in 45 degrees and like 100% humidity, plus the exhaust fumes off the motorcycle, the cars and everything. And you need to change your T-shirt like more than three times in a day. But that was fun.
You say it's hard to breathe. But then remember when we... When you were in Las Vegas.
I was just going to mention...
That dry, that air and heat and it would be like 100 degrees.
For our listeners. So I spend time and Varya spent time in Las Vegas. How long were you there for?
A year in 1982... 81, 82. Almost two years.
So me too. I was there for just about under two years as well.
The winters were actually really mild and that's a good thing.
And there'd be snow somewhere isn't there? Yeah. There are Mount Charles, right?
Yeah. Charleston. Charleston.
Oh, God. What was it called again. Whatever. But you can go, you can go visit it and it's... They have bobcats and wild animals up there.
But the aridity makes it very dry in your nose. And you can't breathe because you're talking about the humidity, but... Extreme, extreme weather.
And then you have flooding... Floods in Vegas during, um, autumn, winter, I believe.
It's really funny because you think of Vegas as being a desert and there would never be floods there, but there are really big floods there. And, um, but the summer is really hot. It's like what? The hottest temperature I experienced was in Celsius was 48. In Fahrenheit that must be... like 120 something.
Yeah, it was another level of heat. But I guess to be honest, I think Vietnam would be more intense because you have the humidity.
Yeah, sometimes it's impossible to breathe. Really. You need to just sit under air conditioner and just be there to exist. That's the thing.
Yeah. In Vegas, I lived in a pretty bad apartment and it had a really disgusting air conditioner, which was really old. It was like from the 80s or something.
Yes. Yeah, there was some kind of damp inside the... It was horrible. And I just couldn't have... I had a choice between the heat...
So I decided alright, no air conditioning.
Yeah, me too. And it was hot. But we usually... There'd be pools in each apartment.
There was a pool, but it had to be closed because there was so many homeless people who would do weird things.
I mean, I know this is another subject altogether, but did Vegas have a problem with homeless people?
No, I went there before they invited families to come. So I was in Sin City where we were all adults. So it was much better. It was still in the mafia.
Who ran it. So it was exciting times.
Cause I loved Vegas, but it was really sad to see, like, all these homeless people everywhere.
Cause I went back in... Later on and I saw that, I thought, Oh, that's horrible.
Well, speaking of the weather, the reason why the homeless people are there is because the weather there is somewhat, especially in the winter, which is what we're speaking about today, it's quite a tolerable place to live. Whereas if you're in Colorado or in a...
Yeah, the Rocky Mountains, you're going to freeze to death. So, yeah. Speaking of homelessness, we don't really see much homelessness here. Well, there is homelessness and I've discussed it before in previous podcasts, but would you say it's because of the winter is so cold you can't really be homeless there?
Yeah, I guess so. So like, maybe we used to have, you know, much more homeless people because I remember being a kid and seeing lots of homeless people.
Yeah, around that time. But still, I don't know. I think I haven't seen a homeless person for, for a long time now.
I mean they do exist, but I guess the economy has improved. Yeah.
And also it is just too cold to be homeless.
Yeah. So it's not like you know, it's not that big problem as in the USA for example. Cause I've heard it's like now it's a real problem, right?
Yeah. In the States unfortunately it is a problem. In England is also becoming a problem too. Yeah. And England is... We have a much milder climate of course than here. But in the winter it does get cold even though it's not really minus kind of cold, minus Celsius cold, it still gets cold because it's a very humid country, the UK. And when it gets around two degrees Celsius, which is about what, like 35 Fahrenheit, you can really, really, really feel the cold. To be honest would much rather be in -15 Novosibirsk than zero degrees in the UK because you can you feel the the bite of the cold in the UK whereas here has to get...
Exactly. Yeah. Whereas here...
Yeah. -15 is alright if you have a nice warm... So yeah. So if you're homeless in the UK it's not exactly great to be in the winter when it's raining and really cold. So yeah. Another question I have is do you say you become less productive during the winter?
I guess so. I guess everyone.
Would say winter is my more productive season.
Because I'm inside and I just have time to deal with it. What about you? Do you notice a shift in production levels when summer or winter?
Because of the sun rise. So it's, it's....
Problem like 10 a.m., 9:30. So I just feel like it's the night time I sleep more. So, yeah, it affects my productivity a little bit. Yeah.
I'm one of those strange people who actually likes it when I gets dark... When it gets lighter later. I quite like that. Makes me sleep better and... Well, what... What do you feel, Varya? Do you like it when the sun comes up earlier?
Oh, May. This is the month I dread because I don't have blackout curtains. And I'm really disturbed by the sun. And at 5:00 in the morning, it comes blazing in, and then I can't get back to sleep. And so I really lack the sleep. And then it doesn't get dark until 11 or 12.
It messes up sleeping pattern.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It messes me up. And I rarely sleep at all in the summer.
Yeah, there's some... I find it... I just... I feel drowsy throughout most of the day because it's so hot and it kind of makes it harder for me to concentrate if it's really hot.
When you when you lack sleep, like every day, it can make you feel depressed. And it makes me feel really depressed. So I have to be ready this May I just... I can't go through that again. It's horrible. I love the winter these short days and long nights.
Like this morning it got lighter at, what, 9, 9:00 or 9:10 or something like that. I luckily had a good sleep. I woke up refreshed. Whereas in the summer, well, not all of us wake up, but in the summer. Yeah. Gets lighter at sometimes four in the morning.
And when I lived In Georgia. Oh my goodness. It would be so hot and humid and you can't sleep at night. And I live in a little house, so I couldn't keep the windows open because someone might crawl through the window so the windows would be closed and it be so miserable. And I really hated that. So I think summer is like worse for me. I maybe that's why I love the winter so much. I'm just more comfortable.
Yeah. I would say yeah. Product... Speaking of productivity, yeah. Winter. Like I said before, it helps you be more productive in my opinion, because you can just be inside. Yeah. Get out your... Hand in paper and do your work. Whereas in the summer I just want to, to melt into the..., into my sofa.
And go like to the beach or somewhere like sunbathe and not, not to work. That's it.
Exactly. Well. I've got another question. Do you have any specific winter activities that you get involved with? Do you like skiing, snowboarding, making snowmen?
Well, I've tried snowboarding for, you know, it's like too extreme for me. I cannot do that I'm really scared. But, you know, cross skiing, I guess, is absolutely fine.
I would like to try that. So you're just on level land and you're just...
Yeah. That's what I would love to do.
They have different skis, don't they? Where the boots are lift up.
And yeah, where did you try that? Here in the city or did you go outside of town?
Yeah, sure. Like we have, you know, we call it Сосновый Бор. I'm not sure what you call it in English.
Well, kind of, yeah. It's kind of forest, but it's not like real big forest. So you just go there, you ran skis, and you go skiing. That's it.
There are no inclines, no slopes or anything?
No, no, no. So if you want to, you can find some slopes, but most of the time is just flat, and I just love it.
Yeah, I guess the reason why the boots come up is because it helps you move forward. Cool. So I've only tried downhill skiing. I love skiing. It's great. I haven't been for many years. Um, have you tried it before?
Yeah. When I was 11, I went skiing one time with my girlfriend. It wasn't for me. It's nothing I want to do. There's no point in it. You just stand there, you go down.
And then you have to go back.
And then you fall down, break your leg.
I mean, I love going fast down the slope.
It's the best part of it.
Yeah. I haven't done in many years, but I love this. It's so fun.
Yeah, scary. I wouldn't do it.
Like, I'm really afraid to break something. Yeah.
Yeah. Some people do break bones.
Lots of people do that. I know lots of people who, you know, have actually broken legs and even, you know, back. Yeah, it's a really serious thing.
It is serious. Yeah. And I had a student who, um... She told me this horrible story. She was in Germany, and she broke both of her arms, when she was skiing. And she had to be airlifted by helicopter down to a local hospital. And there was like, a whole line of people with broken bones. And it wasn't even a big that big of a ski resorts. And they have a special hospital dedicated.
Yeah, exactly. Dedicated to people with broken bones. And so, yeah, it is dangerous if you're not careful, but it is bloody fun.
In Prague. That was great.
Yeah, in the city center. That was great.
And we were drifting in and out. And that was kind of adventure. That was great.
That's awesome. That's so fun...I did not...
Snow cat or... it's also called a snow cat, right?
Yeah, it's a funny one. It's funny because I just spoke about this with... I had a lesson yesterday. I was speaking about this and yeah, there's four main brands. Snow cat.
Bombardier, which is a Canadian company that makes planes and other things and Yamaha.
I can't remember the other one.
Trans...m or trans... Something with name or something. And the four of them. Or five of them, yeah. That was fun.
That's they're great. Like 60, 65 horsepower or whatever. So you can, you can just push the limit and drift in a way.
You can hear the engine running well.
And do you go down slopes?
Whatever you like. You can just ride it to the mountains or in the city center or slope down to heel. The main point is just drifting. That was quite a...
Drifting. Do you mean sliding or what do you mean drifting? What does it mean?
It's a new.. It's like a drivers....
Drift the back of the vehicle...
Yeah. It's like a new.... We have...
You whip out the tail. It's like a...
Word that these street races use. Yeah. And in Dubai they have Dubai drifting because people love to drive, drive like maniacs.
And they have lots of money. It's lots of luxury cars.
It's like burn rubbers like...
Well, so you went snowriding right in the center of Prague?
It it was considered to be the center, but it's not the city center. City center like it was a forest.... Kind of like.
It was a parkour. Yeah, well, like a 10 minutes drive from the city center.
So that... That was cool. Yeah, it was like in 15, 2015.
Yeah, cause I was thinking, you're doing it in what is it called, Charles Square or what?
Charles Suqare Bridge. What was the name of the bridge?
Yeah. It is the parkour is around the corner up to the castle. So that... Around that corner. Yeah. There was a parkour so you can just drift.
Prague is beautiful. I mean, I've only been there in the summer, not the winter.
Winter time. It's cool. Yeah, it's cool too.
Yeah. Yeah, I can imagine. It's quite romantic and oldschool.
Well, which place do you think has the best winter vibe? Which city would you love to visit for a week?
Novosibirsk. Prague. That's two cities that I've been in the winter conditions, that's it. But Novosibirsk...
Amsterdam looks really pretty in the winter as well.
Oh, Finland. I would love to go to Helsinki. I think that is a really great place.
And Lapland, which is the north of Finland, where Santa Claus is supposed to have this little ghetto.
Grotto. Not ghetto. Santa's Clause ghetto.
Cause ghetto just means like a community of people living.
Shortguns and everything.
Gangsta Santa Clause. Santa's grotto. Elves.
Yeah, exactly. Drug dealer elves.
Yeah. I would love to check out Finland's. There's this little town called I forgot... I don't know how it's pronounced Rovaniemi. And it's right in the middle of nowhere in the north of Finland. And people fly there from all over Europe to...
The northern lights and everything, right?
Yeah. The Northern lights.
Igloo hotels and everything.
I've never seen the Northern Lights, have you?
No, but you can actually see it in Russia, but you have to go like to the north actually.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like places like that.
Well, guys, definitely stick by for the aftershow segment of the podcast, where we will further discuss our personal experiences with winter. And definitely leave a comment in the Telegram chats so you can practice your English skills. And definitely check out our website, which is www.BigAppleSchool.com. And there you can find articles, videos, other important and useful materials for your English learning journey. So guys, thank you very much and we'll see you in the aftershow segment of the podcast here.
See ya. Bye for now guys.
Ольга Рожкова
