It happened at a school called Bashkirian Gymnasium Boarding School, which is popularly branded as BRGI. The school was in the city of Ufa. We lived in beautiful, warm, and sufficiently staffed dormitories. Food was also provided in plenty. The sad thing is that the school was more like a prison to everyone including me. I mean, no entertainment, no TV watching, no morning and evening walk that existed, no playing computer games, nothing at all. All we could do was study, study, and study. Book worming was the order of the day.
Despite what the institution subjected us to, we managed to have some fun amongst ourselves. Numerous funny events that we attended still linger in my memory as if they just happened the other day. Monthly results of academic performance earned us dearly-priced tickets from our teachers to the theater provided we emerged victorious in the course of every two weeks. Conversely, the punishment of cheaper tickets to the Ballet and opera theater befell us when we failed academically. In the early days, it was super dull, we were the newbies and clueless about the opera. But in the later days, we figured out how to go about it, upon arrival we conversed amongst ourselves, after that we dozed off listening to the opera.
Each teacher and student in my class bore a nickname based on their stories. For instance, as a result of my messed-up pronunciation, I was “mai Naim is,” which meant my name is. English was my worst subject. Who could know that I would eventually stay in the USA? One of my classmates was nicknamed “Yappparova” instead of Yaparorova because all the time, she said, “I am Lia Yaparova with one letter of P.” Of course, after that, she was branded Yaparova with three P.
Honestly, my entire life in BRGI was funny and humorous. Indeed, all the happy and sad moments remain memorable and make up the best stories ever.
