Recently one of our teachers, Sue, was invited to teach a small group of teenagers in St Petersburg, Russia, on a trip organised by Perspective Language School. Here is Sue’s account of her trip, with some great photos.
Hi everyone, my name’s Sue and I am one of the teachers at Hilderstone College. I have been working here for nearly five years and I love it!
Recently I had the wonderful opportunity to go to St Petersburg in Russia for the college to teach English to a group of teenage students from the Orenburg area in the South of Russia. It was a special project arranged by their school for them to combine learning English with a winter holiday including the period from New Year to the Russian Orthodox religious celebration of Christmas Day on the 7 January. Due to that I had a second Christmas with the students and we enjoyed all the lit up Christmas trees and beautiful sparkling lights in the city and after lessons on Christmas Day, exchanged Christmas presents, played games and compared Christmas traditions in our different countries.
The students were lovely and worked hard in the morning before daily excursions to historical sights, museums and palaces like the Hermitage in Palace Square. Everyday we met our super guide Viktoria, who is Russian and lives in the city… but she spoke in English all the time, which the students had requested so they could practise their English all day.
Of course, we also found time for shopping in Nevsky prospect, which is like Oxford Street in London, and at the Christmas Markets. We did a lot of walking in the snow and the lowest temperature was -16, and we went on the metro every day especially Admiralteyskaya, which is one of the deepest metro stations in the world at 86 metres below ground. We timed it and it took 5 minutes to reach the platform!!
All in all, it was an amazing trip to a beautiful and cosmopolitan city and I am looking forward to meeting some of the students again when they come to Hilderstone in the Spring for some more English lessons!
