(continue from part 2)
By Oleg Vereshyagin
Mikko, 10 years old, Finland: The snitch.
Zorko, 13 years old, Serbia: About Russian Carelessness.
Mikko got beat up by four of his classmates. As far as we could tell – it really wasn’t too serious: he was knocked off his feet and hit a few times with backpacks. [Textbooks used in Russia are about 1/4 the size the ones we are used to see in the U.S.; consequently Russian children’s backpacks are not so bulky and weigh much less – RV] There was a reason for that. Mikko bumped into a couple of boys smoking in the orchard behind the school building; was offered a smoke, too, but refused it and immediately told his teacher about it. The teacher punished the little offenders by taking away their cigarettes and making them wash the floor of their classroom (that latter fact alone astonished us in this whole story) She never directly mentioned Mikko’s name, but it was really not that hard to figure out who ratted the boys out.
Continue reading “Why I Moved to Russia. Stories 3 & 4 of 7”