Love Stories "School" video with comments

I can't remember how I came across this video.  I was probably looking for Russian contemporary language use.  When I think of all the long hours I spent in the language lab at the University of Michigan for my Russian 300 and 400 level courses, watching and re-watching boring and crappily recorded political TV, I could cry.  Now people learning Russian can just log on to the internet, watch MTV-esque videos and google the translation.  Presto.  Amazing.  I would never have imagined things could change so fast in 15 years.  I'm not even going to get started on using the card catalog, the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, the deep, dark stacks, and an old typewriter to write research papers.

Anyway, here's the video.  It's in Russian.  The title is "School" and it's by the group Любовные Истории, Love Stories.  

Even though this is in Russian, I think the average person can still get what's going on here, at least upon repeated viewings.  Four women in their twenties are meeting in a cafe and seeing a schoolgirl at a table nearby (the girl with the bows in her hair, a very Russian look for girls), they begin to relive their school days together.  

What they remember is the usual - schoolyard play, crushes, bullying, jealousy, and competition over a guy, in this case their science teacher.  Yet they all miss it.  The song's refrain is "School, school, I miss you..."

 What's most interesting to me, having taught in a Russian school, is the background detail.   The classroom's wooden desks.  The plants in the back.  The big, wide glass windows.  this was my schoolroom here to the right.   Most of the core elements are the same, although Kaliningrad School #50's exterior wasn't nearly so elegant looking. 

Then there are the pretty, clean, smart-looking girls just becoming aware of themselves and their power over men.  The wide boy gap with its two unbridgeable sides: geek and punk.  The erect, earnest way the dark curly-haired girl holds her hand up to answer a question.   To the left here are my 10th formers - not nearly so mature looking, but this pic isn't from a music video.  

And then there's the ending story shocker (roll over): The shy, geeky (gorgeous) girl gets the guy.   I did not see that coming!  But perhaps I should have...

Another point of interest for me was how happily these girls remember school.  Most of my relationships with other girls in middle school and high school were so distressing and anxiety provoking that by 11th grade I pretty much gave up on them and hung out with boys instead.  I can't imagine missing school this much.  It's been 19 years for me, long enough for much of the trauma to fade, but I'm still watching Buffy and Veronica Mars and Mean Girls for cheap therapy.  Maybe it's different when you're gorgeous.  And Russian.  I don't know.  Still, it's a happy dream. 

And while I'm waxing nostalgic, here are few more pictures, this time of that much younger me with my students.  

Wow, I was young!