Some Randomness for Life

Tonight, I am really tired for some reason. Ever since I've started teaching, my sleeping schedule has been thrown completely off, like out of this world, an alien has inhabited my body off. Anyone who really knows me, knows that I am an early-to-bed, early-to-rise type of gal.

My senior year of high school, I would fall asleep between 8-10 pm and wake up at 4:00 in the morning to do my homework. I liked the quietness of the morning and the feeling of productivity I achieved doing work without the tv in the background. When I did my homework in the evenings, there was always some new episode of something to draw my attention away from the work in front of me. In addition, I usually did some of my best work when the clock ticked away my deadline.

Now, I can't sleep until 2:30/3:00 in the morning, which means I don't rise until 9:30-11:00. I don't like it as much. I've tried and tried to get my sleeping patterns back on track, tried to make it more comfortable. I've gone to bed at 10:00/11:00 on several occasions, but I always end up lying there for hours and hours and hours and hours, yawning into the darkness. And, I don't know who invented counting sheep, but he/she was an idiot. The only thing that counting sheep does is make you think of other barn yard animals which has you singing "Old McDonald had a Farm, EIEIO." Believe me, it is NOT pleasant to get that song stuck in your head.

However, tonight might prove to be the night that Mr. Sandman decides to visit me at a reasonable hour. See, this morning I actually woke up at 8:30 and did not, I repeat DID NOT, go back to sleep. I was assigned a Saturday class this week. And, although that means that I no longer have a day off besides Sunday, it does mean that I get paid extra for the class. A nice compromise I think. Plus, if today proves to be a template for the rest of the classes to come, I will really enjoy it.

For one thing, it is a TOEFL class. Because it is a testing class, the students are at a slightly higher level (intermediate-ish).

Second, there are only three students enrolled in the class, and one of them never showed up today. The two that did show up are a couple. They know each other and are comfortable speaking in front of one another. Even when I had games where they competed against each other, they would help the other person out.

Third, because it is a small, TOEFL class I can pick the curriculum. There is not a course book. In fact, the only book I have is a book of practice tests. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to give my students practice test after practice test after practice test. For those who don't know, TOEFL is the standardized test that international students need to take and score well on to get into universities in the United States. Its roughly the US equivalent of Europe's IELTS exam. However, I do think that it is better than the IELTS. The TOEFL is special because almost all of its tasks are integrated. Students are expected to listen to a lecture, read an article and then respond to both of them through speaking and writing. Most of the audio clips are from actual college lectures, which prepares them for entering university. In addition, the tests forces students to learn words or guess the meanings of words through context (which is a sadly lacking skill - even in the US).

The ambiguousness in the coursebooks means that I have more freedom to plan my lessons. When I found out that the class is extremely small and the couple is interested in some day moving to the States I asked them how they wanted the class structured (after all, it is a business). While they do want to practice and study for the TOEFL, they would also be interested in learning some English related to other things in the States (i.e. culture: movies, music, technology, shopping).


The good news for my students is I spent 21 years in the States. I've taken the Texas TAAS test and the Texas TAKS test many, many times. I've taken the ACTs and the SATs. I competed in expository writing in high school for four years. Basically, I know US standardizing testing. Now, hopefully I will be able to impart my knowledge to them.

The class meets for three academic hours every Saturday (which is 2 hours 15 minutes). I told my students that they will every week they will need to learn and write down in a vocabulary journal ten new vocabulary words along with the part of speech, the definition and a sentence using that word. They will also begin each class with a no-pressure journal question. Hopefully, without putting too much pressure on journal writing, they will be able to practice writing at length without feeling overwhelmed. The intense writing comes towards the end of each lesson.

Today, I combined American culture with the TOEFL skills by utilizing the holiday season. Today's focus was . . . HALLOWEEN. Russians don't celebrate Halloween, but they do know a little about it. I'll admit, I never celebrated Halloween either growing up. But, as a native English teacher, part of the job is to impart cultural traditions along with the language. It makes lessons more fun and interesting than regular grammar exercises. For my other classes I had found and used a few texts on Halloween origins and traditions in other countries (the US, Mexico and Britain). So, I reused them today to teach basic reading skills like scanning and context reading. The texts were at an upper high-intermediate to a low intermediate reading level except for a few Halloween-related words like ancestors, neopagans, graves, etc. However, they were able to guess the meaning of most of the words through context. I was so proud and happy.

It was just one of those lessons that actually made me feel good to be a teacher. I know that I made several mistakes in the lessons and not everything went as planned (for one I was expecting and thus planned a lesson for more students), but the lesson as fun (at least for me). I hope (and think) they enjoyed it too, and I hoped they actually learned from it.

Anyways, the lesson was good. The weather is fabulous. The night is just right. And I am very contented. How are you doing on this dazzling night of darkness ( no evil pun intended)?

Sincerely,
Your Russian Traveller

P.S. Thinking of the night makes me think of the old children's song.



I see the moon, the moon sees me
The moon sees somebody I want to see
God bless the moon and God bless me
And God bless the somebody I want to see.

Where are you tonight? Are you away from family and friends as I am? After all, Halloween was originally celebrated because people believed that on the 31st, the end of the Celtic calendar, they could communicate with their beloved departed ones. It was a blessing for those left behind. So, God bless you tonight wherever you are.

Your Russian Traveller

Mini Post on the Russian Weather thus far

I am completely in love with this weather. I think I have finally found a home. I know there is still plenty of frost bite and pneumonia to come, but so far it is incredible. This is the kind of weather that makes me feel like a little kid. I literally jump and skip about, making my coworkers laugh and wonder at my sanity. Some days it rains, and some days it snows in small little flurries that never stick but simply melt away. The temperature has probably ranged from around 4 to 8 degrees Celsius most days or around 35 to 45 degrees Fahrenheit. My flat stays nice and toasty inside. Actually, its a little too toasty and I have to keep the door to my balcony open (don't worry, it's a closed off balcony - no creepers allowed!).

Anyways, hope this sates your curiosity.

Sincerely,
Your Russian Traveller

Birthdays, Voyages and Sushi

Pictures:
1)Moscow river at sunset. Very pretty. That is all.
2) 3...2...1... Yes, that is a rocket ship! It's at the site of this mini amusement park. There is a ferris wheel, a small roller coaster, and a few other amusing tidbits.
3)Inside the Moscow metro Komsomolskaya. Many of the metros are like underground Cathedrals! Hushed, reverent tones.
4)Birthday cake. The top hat layer was a sheet of chocolate.
5)Group pic!


The past couple weeks have been a blur of much and nothing; however, they were not much ado about nothing. On the otherhand, their was quite a to do about some things. On either the 14th or the 15th (for the life of me I can't remember which day), all of the interns and many of the teachers gathered together at a little restaurant called Uchkaduk in order to celebrate the birthday of one fabulous teacher named Jon. This was fairly exciting as it was the first time all of the interns had congregated in one place since the ITP. The music was loud (as were the people). The food was good. The weather was perfect. Masha, Micah, Jon, Olga, Alyssa, Mark, and Adam crowded into one booth, while Zach, Misha, Janice, Lena and I occupied another.

Then on Saturday 2 marvelous things happened. The first was I bought a camera! I know it doesn't sound like much, but I love taking pictures of random objects. I am always telling myself that I am going to try to draw the random objects that appear in lens, even though I rarely do. It really bummed me out that my original camera broke my first day in Russia. But, due to payday the previous day and an early Christmas gift from my wonderful gparents, I was able to buy a Nikon S3000 with a 4GB memory chip and a cute little case.

And why was it so important for me to buy a camera on this particular day? I'm glad you asked. LL celebrated it's 16th birthday this year, and in order to celebrate the day, they threw a huge party for all of the employees. Yes, the LL employees celebrated this landmark by yachting down the Moscow River with friends, food and plenty of booze. Although I remained completely sober (along with a couple of friends), I did find the whole experience fairly amusing. I finally got to see some of my friends from the ITP who I had not seen in a while. We were able to sight see from the top deck, eat wonderful food on the second deck, and do karaoke on the bottom deck. Although I refrained from the singing, I enjoyed watching others dance and stumble about (including some of the academic trainers). :D It was probably one of the best nights I've spent in Russia so far!

And now, to bring us up to today. Sushi! For the longest time I promised myself that no sushi would touch my lips. I gave in last year and tried the tinsiest bit of it at the urging of a coworker. However, that morsel was soon thrown from my lips and "never more!" was uttered. Today, I recant. Some fellow teachers and I ate at a nearby restaurant called Sushki, and I loved it. It really was fabulous. Although, I have heard that they cook all the fish in the sushi in Russia according to federal regulations (which could make the difference b/n the bite in the states and the meal in Russia). But it doesn't matter. I have a new favorite restaurant.

On a down note, please be in prayer for one of the Zgrad interns. His mother was in a car accident and is injured. He is flying home to help with her recovery.

Sincerely,
Your Russian Traveller

Zgrad Baptist Church

Today I attended the Baptist Church in Zgrad, Russia. It is a fairly nice church, especially for Russia. According to my standards it is fairly large with a usual attendance of around 150 people. (Although this morning about 40 of them were absent due to a church trip to Israel). From what I hear they are a highly evangelistic church. Evidently the pastor keeps reminding them that while they do have over a hundred members, for a city the size of Zelenograd (3,000), they are small. I haven’t met the pastor yet. Last week and this week he is in Israel. Next week he will be at the international evangelism conference in South Africa, and the week after that he will go to Ghana. My translator at the church ---- is another Language Link teacher. She came here ten years ago as a missionary through world help (which coincidentally was founded by a man with close connections to Liberty U). However, since her missionary visa expired she had to get a job. She ended up working at Language Link, which works out very well for me.

I was greatly relieved to find that I recognized the tunes to the music portion. Among the songs sang were "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing," and "Great is the Faithfulness." Everyone in the church was very nice, and all of the old ladies grabbed me to give me a kiss and hug. A few times I caught the word "Americanka" or female American a few times, which amused me. A few of the younger women who felt comfortable tried to speak English to me, and we got on quite well for two strangers. I really enjoyed the Church and the service.

Playing Catch-up: From September 12, 2010

On Sunday the 12th, Masha, one of the secretaries at the 402 met me at 2:00 and showed me around Zgrad. We met at "This Cafe" and then headed to Victory Park. Victory Park is almost right across from my apartment (only about a 5-10 minute walk). However, I had never been there until she took me. Despite the endless line of empty beer bottles, it is very beautiful. In the middle is a series of tiered fountain/pools. There are plenty of flowers too. While we were walking by the lake, we saw a group of people getting ready for remote-controlled boat races.

Across from Victory Park is a supermarket. We didn't go in that day, I did find a towel in there when I went back a couple of weeks later, which was amazing. From the VP/supermarket area, we went to the local institute Miet. Behind Miet is a rather large forest area with plenty of walking trails. We took one and walked and walked. The canopy of trees kept the air cool and humid and the lighting was nice and dim with the shadows of trees on the ground. Once again, it was really beautiful and nice. The trail dropped us off just short of Kopeka which is a smaller and more random version of KMART or Target.

At the end of our walk, we hopped a bus back to the store I call "the 1000 things store" because it has a large, neon 1000 sign. It also has a pizzeria attached to it. So, Masha and I ate pizza.

After our pizza stop, we went to ------ Ploshod or Victory (?) Square. There, Masha helped me get a cell (or mobile as it is commonly referred to in Europe). After that (about 3 hours from the beginning of our outing), we parted ways. She was the first person to really help me get settled in Zgrad, and for that I am very grateful.

Sincerely,
Your Russian Traveller

Playing Catch-up: From September 4, 2010

This was my first Saturday after the ITP. Colleen, Stuart, Kayla and I had made plans to explore Red Square and the surrounding area. We were supposed to meet at 10:30 which means I woke up early - ughhh. I figured I would probably get lost somewhere along the way and would need the extra time, so 7:00 greeted me with a really loud and annoying alarm siren.

I knew that once I got into Komsomolskaya station, I needed to hop on the red line instead of my usual brown line. However, I wasn't entirely positive about which stop to get off at. I picked the stop with word "revolution" in it and hoped for the best (which is about all one can do when the word revolution comes into conversation).

I ended up getting lucky, but that luck only went so far. I later found out that I DID get off at the right stop (although, technically, any stop in that area would have worked). I just didn't know which way to go from the exit.

So, not being able to see a giant red square-ish thing from my position by the metro, I walked up the street, away from the growing crowed of chanting teenagers and young adults. After a couple of blocks filled with buildings lined with opera and ballet posters I saw a book store caddy-cornered from me. So, being me, I excitedly entered the premises, sure that my salvation was near. After all, it was a place of books, learning and education. Unfortunately, everything and everyone was Russian. No English tour books. No employee that could even point me to the Kremlin.

I exited feeling let-down and worried. By this time, I had missed the meeting time and was sure that the others would have gone on their own way by now. But, as fate is wont to do from time to time, she smiled on me (she must of been feeling guilty for the bookshop fiasco). I was walking back toward the metro station when I saw them - Colleen and Stuart. Two bright American/Scottish beacons. I could have cried I was so relieved.

The three of us then set off together in pursuit of the big, red square. We headed in a random direction looking for any clue we were headed in the RIGHT direction.

We hadn't been walking for long when I heard voices speaking in English. Could this be our help? YES! Turning around we came face to face with a couple of men - obviously and hilariously gay. They were carrying a map which their concierge at the Plaza had given them. They told us that because it was Moscow Day (which we did not know, but which explained the chanting crowds), many entrances to the Kremlin were closed. They gave us their spare map (which was later very handy). However, before we parted, another gay couple found us. One who remarked, "It's our own gay parade!" and a guy from the first couple responded, "It's like we never left the states."

We walked one way and the four men walked the other way. After having seen one of the men with a Starbucks cup, we decided to find it and regroup. We did. Then we began walking again and found none other than a McDonalds. The thing about McDonalds in Russia is that they are one of the few places that offer free wifi and free bathrooms with toilet paper (always a plus). You can explore the whole city of Moscow one McDonalds at a time. I challenge you to try it. Finally, after McDonald's we found Red Square. We must have got to the entrance either right after it opened or right before it closed, but we did make it.

Because it was city day, the Stadium was being set up for the military band or the Russian tattoo which would be playing later that evening. We walked past it and found the Basilica (or St. Basil's Cathedral). We ended up getting tickets at the student price (which was very good because it saved us each 150 rubles.

I enjoyed looking at the church, but the best part was seeing the individual rooms and thinking of how it was originally used and trying to guess everything that had been removed, replaced or restored over the past few centuries.

After St. Basil's we walked around the square some more. On the streets outside, huge masses of what appeared to be college students gathered with huge balloons, flyers, colored t-shirts and loud chants. Each section (or school) was represented by a different colored t-shirt and balloon. We stood and watched and listened for a while before moving on.

Stuart was our official and dedicated map reader and successfully managed to get us around all the closed streets and to our destination at Dom Kenigi (House of Books). Colleen finally had money and wanted to stock up.

After shopping we walked to the Arbatskaya metro where we were supposed to meet their friend Sergei. After adding one more to our number we headed off. Sergei acted as our tour guide and led us to an old Soviet/Military replica shop (which was actually pretty cool). He then took us to the Arbat walking district which is a street lined with shops (especially for tourists and music lovers) and musicians. We walked and talked and listend to Spanish, acoustic-styled rock songs and Russian reggae rap. We even stopped by another McDonalds. (See, I told you you could travel Moscow by the McDs.) Lunch/dinner was at Sbarro, an Italian pizza place. Finally, around 6:30/7-ish we headed back to the Arbatskaya metro and parted ways.

As I was getting on the Elektrishka, I noticed Zach and Micah (two other interns) were in one of the carts and so I sat next to them. When we got back to Zgrad, it was dark and the fireworks were exploding overhead. It was also Zgrad day. Overall, it was a very excellent day.

*FB statii for that day:
1. Exploring Moscow one MCDonalds at a time.
2. Moscow Day and Zgrad Day: crossed an 8 lane highway without a crosswalk or a traffic light, wandered around Red Square area till we found a place to go in, saw the Basilica, saw the outside of the Kremlin, saw a bunch of teens chanting with balloons, wandered around the Arabat, saw a string quartet, saw a group mixing rap and reggae in Russian and came back to Zgrad in time for the fireworks and drunken bicyclists.

Sincerely,
Your Russian Traveller