Arsen is from Moscow, Russia, Below he talks about his childhood in Russia.
Moscow, Russia
My Childhood in Moscow
I am three years old – it’s my birthday and I’m looking in the window in my kitchen.
Semolina porridge with chocolate, a glass of pineapple juice and Russian cream cheese.
I lived with my mother and her parents so there were four people in the house.
When I was three, my mother showed me a cartoon in English called “Muzzy in Gondoland”. So I started to learn English then and continued learning during the lessons in school.
There were 6 lessons of English a week because it was a school with English language as a special subject.
There were 6 lessons of English a week because it was a school with English language as a special subject.
I wanted to be an actor.
I was scared of getting low marks in school.
Chess, football and table tennis. Also at the age of 8 I was given a PC and I enjoyed playing some strategy and car race games.
I really liked to read encyclopedias, especially with maps in them. And also I read a lot of books about adventures. But the main book series of my childhood was the Harry Potter series.
I used to go to bed in 11pm or a bit later. Some months ago I started to go to bed this early again though recent years there was a lack of discipline and I went to bed quite late (3am).
I don’t think that I’m very similar to the majority of the Russian population. I’m not really into hunting and fishing trips and I have never been drunk. Also I always obey the laws even if the laws seem a bit silly. Sometimes this is not good for me because I become unable to out-manoeuvre legal obstacles.
Firstly, I wanted to visit France because I was in love with its culture. Secondly, I wanted to visit Georgia because my mother has been there a year before my birth and brought some interesting maps, books and postcards from Georgia that seemed magical to me.
I visited Crimea every summer since I was 5. We explored many wonderful sights and tried to make our trip as active as possible. I suppose it was the only travel destination for me in the childhood.