8th graders and the zoo, too

Today we met with Olga’s 8th graders—an enthusiastic group. We had a lively conversation and were pleased to see some familiar faces among them. At the end of the class they surprised us by asking for our autographs.
















The next class was the “optional” English group. We would call this an elective class. We had met with them before and they suggested that we come back for an excursion to the zoo. We walked to the zoo with Anya, Anya, Nick, Helen, and Olga. Nikita and Andrew joined us a little later.



The zoo was a great place to exchange vocabulary words. We saw several different kinds of bears. This huge Russian bear was impressive when he stretched up the side of this cage.










An interesting animal turned out to be a yellow-throated marten. The Novosibirsk zoo is one of only four zoos where this species breeds.








This is a better photo from the internet.








There are white tigers who have been at the zoo only a few years.














A unique animal is the liger whose father was an African lion and whose mother was a Bengal tiger.






We really enjoyed our time at the zoo with these students. They found our feeble attempts at Russian humorous but were patient in helping us with pronunciations. They are great teachers.






























Bob, Anya, Helen, Nick, Olga, Nikita, and Andy.




When we left the zoo, the students went their different ways and we returned to school with Olga. She pulled out the hot water pot and choco pies and tea for a warmer-up. What a pleasant way to end our visit.