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Travel Zen
Joined: 02 Sep 2004
Posts: 634
Location: Good old Toronto, Canada
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 Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:04 pm Post subject: |
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Violence begets violence.
Should be kept on the big screen. This isn't your high school gymnasium, is it?
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bejarano
Joined: 12 Sep 2006
Posts: 67
Location: South Korea
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| Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 10:42 pm Post subject: |
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Its been 3 years since you have first posted and you have yet to go? Whats holding you back? Go, come back and give us your first hand experiences which are going to carry some weight regarding the subject.
Exercise caution. Act as you would in Lagos and in would say you have more chance coming a cropper there than anywhere in Russia. |
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Travel Zen
Joined: 02 Sep 2004
Posts: 634
Location: Good old Toronto, Canada
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| Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 8:22 pm Post subject: |
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I agree that I must go, just money is holding me back. I love Russian history and must see places like Moscow, Kursk, Tsaritsyn and the like.
I will go, no probs.
BTW, what's a 'cropper'? I'm guessing thats a british word ? Does it mean dead? Yeah, Nigeria is another place I want to go, and it's also not Disenyland. Neither was India or China, but i'm alive and well 
Russia is not so bad, I'm sure. Thanks all.  |
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sebastienupper
Joined: 20 Apr 2006
Posts: 29
Location: Australia, Western
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| Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 2:07 pm Post subject: |
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"come a cropper" is a colloquialism that means to fall over heavily, but it also means, in general (figuratively), to 'stuff up' or fail badly at some particular endeavour.
It was used extensively in Australia, could be dying out a bit now. I've definitely heard this used by Brits, so I think its origin is probably British.
Re GF: Yes, I thought as much actually. I agree.
Re: Larry Paradine. I read your story. Scary. Although, in actual fact, 10 years ago I walked around in the dodgier areas of Liverpool (Mersey side) at 3am while drunk (while I was 23!) and never had a problem. I felt pretty safe. Admittedly, you do get propositioned by prostitutes and drug dealers when you do this, but in keeping with the English stereotype, they were always very polite...
Actually, Samara is one of the areas/cities I'm looking at (I've been looking almost as long as you Travel Zen!) got any tips regarding this place--safety or therwise? |
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Larry Paradine
Joined: 22 Jan 2005
Posts: 64
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| Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 4:37 pm Post subject: |
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| On and off I've been in Samara for several years, have occasionally been on the streets in the small hours and so far (frantically touching wood!) haven't been attacked. An American teacher named Tim was badly beaten here a couple of years ago (somewhere in the back numbers you may find his acccount of it), but I've been told that it was very late and he was walking, if not staggering, back from one of the beach cafes. Generally I don't find Samara to be dangerous (whereas I've always felt rather wary in Ulyanovsk-Simbirsk, hence it was all the more stupid of me to go for that 3am walk), but obviously much depends on time, place and other factors. |
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maruss
Joined: 18 Mar 2003
Posts: 1145
Location: Cyprus
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| Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 8:29 pm Post subject: Samara etc. |
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| Avoid Togliatti-it's far worse than Samara and also has one of the highest drug abuse rates in Russia!If you are taking a job advertised as being in Samara,clarify before you accept it that it will be there and not in Togliatti as there is a notorious language school that cons people in this way! |
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sebastienupper
Joined: 20 Apr 2006
Posts: 29
Location: Australia, Western
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| Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 2:45 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks Maruss, Larry. I'll try to make sure of that.
I'm a long way from receiving job offers.
I know this is a bit off-topic, though it is concerned with danger: how do you feel when you are flying around (inside) Russia using Aeroflot?
Another plane of theirs crashed recently (in Samara).
Do you just grip the armrest really tight and down the complimentary vodka and pray?
Or do you just grip the armrest really tight and consign yourself to the fact that it's safer than driving (car accidents), safer than the train (you may get mugged) and safer than you'll be when it lands? (You may get mugged.) |
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moncur
Joined: 17 May 2007
Posts: 4
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| Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 12:11 pm Post subject: |
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| Travel Zen wrote: |
I can understand Nationalism (extremism) when things aren't as they used to be, but why the Nazi colors and symbol-ogy?
That's like the chinese taking Imperial Japan as a source.
Doesn't make sense, but dangerous nonetheless. |
A bit late on the reply, but here's my two cents:
Don't try to rationalise it. It's just white=good, non-white bad. You're probably more aware of the politics and history of their country than these idiots are. Any sort of political ideology they try to marry to their beliefs is secondary. They're angry and ignorant, and that's the end of it.
What gets me more is that it's springing up again in Germany. I mean, how can you look at the destruction Hitler brought upon that country and then turn around and say he had the right idea.
Or even worse, imagine being a veteran or the wife/widow of one and then see your grandson marching around in his boots with a shaved head and swaztika talking about the glory of the Nazis.
None of it is logic, which probably adds to their danger. |
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ColdRodear
Joined: 28 Aug 2006
Posts: 36
Location: St Petersburg
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| Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 6:05 pm Post subject: |
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| moncur wrote: |
| Travel Zen wrote: |
I can understand Nationalism (extremism) when things aren't as they used to be, but why the Nazi colors and symbol-ogy?
That's like the chinese taking Imperial Japan as a source.
Doesn't make sense, but dangerous nonetheless. |
A bit late on the reply, but here's my two cents:
Don't try to rationalise it. It's just white=good, non-white bad. You're probably more aware of the politics and history of their country than these idiots are. Any sort of political ideology they try to marry to their beliefs is secondary. They're angry and ignorant, and that's the end of it.
What gets me more is that it's springing up again in Germany. I mean, how can you look at the destruction Hitler brought upon that country and then turn around and say he had the right idea.
Or even worse, imagine being a veteran or the wife/widow of one and then see your grandson marching around in his boots with a shaved head and swaztika talking about the glory of the Nazis.
None of it is logic, which probably adds to their danger. |
Your assessment of it as coming from "ignorance" is almost as ignorant, I'm afraid, in that it fails to deal with the root.
The "root" is that they do not want to lose their culture, traditions, their language. They don't want the way of life that they have had for centuries to change. We can all identify with that. The problem is that their politicians have sold them out and only make their situation worse. Therefore, they are left to act on their own, sometimes in irrational ways.
It is a mistake to just dismiss them as ignorant. Irrational, emotional, dangerous, frustrated, maybe. Remember that situations like these can flare into something nasty. Take a look as the coop in Vanuatu, a few years back. It was caused by the same frustrations over loosing their quiet island culture to immigrants who wanted a modern western lifestyle.
The swastika bearers will disappear when the politicians stop selling out their people because there will no longer be fuel for the fire. Only a few of the hard c | | |
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