2nd to Last

Not too much has been hanninin' here in Moscow. We finished up a good couple of weeks teaching at the school and are now looking forward to our LAST week of teaching. We have some fun things planned!

Last week as we were walking from the preschool to the elementry school, we took a quick detour. Seeing at christmas was 3 1/2 weeks away, it was time to get festive. We needed a Christmas tree! The area where our school is located looks like a Washington campground; surrounded with trees and trails. We trudged through the forest to find the perfect mini Christmas tree. Once spotted, we pulled the little sucker right out of the ground, wrapped it in a towel, and stuffed it into Julie's backpack for the two hour ride home.

That night we decorated our christmas tree as a family and shared a delicious pot of hot chocolate. The tree is in our kitchen on our window seal. It's PERFECT! The spirit of Christmas is alive in apartment 48 in Moscow, Russia.

With it being so cold here, half the Russian population is dressed up in fur everythings.Jenny made up a game to keep us entertained our last week here; Grope fur game.
Objective: Recieve as many points as possible throughout the day by touching/ rubbing/ groping the fur of any persons coat, hat, boots, etc.
1. Anyone living in our apartment may participate
2. Fur coats= 1point (this includes hoods, lining, outside, or inside of the coat)
3. Fur hats= 3 points, due to difficulty & danger level of both yourself and the hat wearer
4. Fur boots= 4 points due to difficulty and rareness
5. No fur item can be touched more than once
6. You may only use your hand to touch  the fur. It doesn't count if you just rub up against them
7. If you are caught by the Russian with whom the fur belongs, points are not elegible.
8. Participants may award style points to other participants for creativity, style, and effort.

We are a pretty competative group of girls. It gets nasty!

You know what else has gotten pretty nasty- the protesters. We recieved an E-mail from the ILP offices warning us to stay away from Red Square and the popular metro stations surrounding it. Some elections and political demonstrations were held this past week in Moscow and have caused some uproar. dont worry, we are entirely safe...mom.

With 9 days left  in Moscow, I am still waiting on more than one lousy inch of snow! It has been cold, but apparently not that cold. I was warned multiple times before leaving to Russia of how I would freeze my bal...toes off, but I have managed, even witout a pair of gloves.

Merry Christmas

Initiate countdown sequence

Got stuck on the bus the other day. The public transportation is crazy. The bus literally stops for les than 10 seconds and you have to get off or on in that short amount of time. I was waiting by the door when we were about a block away from the stop. The bus halted to a stop and all of the sudden the doors were rushed with people. I ran to the other bus door behind a lady who seemed she was hurrying to get off as well. NOPE! She stopped right in front of the door I was hurrying to get off from and blocked my way out! Before I knew it the bus doors were closed and the bus was driving away. The rest of my group had successfully gotten off, but I was stuck. I channeled my Russian dictionary and yelled “STOY! STOY! STOY!” (wait, wait , wait)as I banged on the door. The bus driver yelled something back and I then said in panicked English, “OPEN the dooor!” he opened the door and I literally ran off the bus and straight to my group. It was HALARIOUS and kinda scary at the same time.

Last weekend we were able to go to a Russian folk dance show. All the performers were wearing native Russian outfits head to toe to tip of the hair with long braided pony tails.  The music was played by a live Russian orchestra. I loved every number. And yes, all the men were doing the “squat and kick” dance move. It was very impressive. I really felt culturally fulfilled that night.

On the following Monday, Gulya our native coordinator came over to teach us how to make a Russian dish. We made a ravioli type of noodle called pelminni. They were pretty tasty at the moment, but one hour later we were all rolling on the floor holding our bellies. Food poisoning. For two days we were sick. There was only one day that week that all 4 of us went to the school. By Friday all of us were completely recovered and back to normal. Which was perfect because we had a vacation starting Monday!! Well, more of a STAYcation.

We enjoyed our week off very much. On Monday we went to a HUGE flea market. It was so overwhelming. There were probably over 500 shops, mostly clothes and shoes. We were on a mission to find ties, and we did. The owner of the tie shop was a PERVE! But made for a good story. We told him we were all married, but he still continued to stroke our hair and arms, and asking us if he could kiss us. You better believe we got a good deal on them ties.

On Tuesday, Gulya invited us to her house to bake some more Russian food and learn a little more history. This time we made peroshkie. It is a roll stuffed with different fillings such as meat, cabbage & onions, mashed potatoes, or jam. They turned out really delicious, and no one got sick this time.

Wednesday we had to wake up early and teach at the university. After a good lesson with the students we had the rest of the day to spare! Jenny and I went to this really cool market two stops away from our house. We found ourselves some delicious candy and I bought a pair of socks that I LOVE! We found an “AWAH” (uh-shawn), the huge grocery and department store. Now that we found one closer to us, we will probably start going there. I had a really good day with my best, Jenny!

Thursday was, of course, Thanksgiving! I did exactly what I would have done if I were in the states; wake up at noon, start munching, lounge, make a last minute run to the grocery store, cook, eat, clean, more munching, and more lounging! Our dinner consisted of baked chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, bread, and rice. And our desert was mini apple pies and ice cream! It had been a thanksgiving like no other, and I will never forget it. I was missing my family a lot, but I was thankful to be here.

On Friday a few of us went to a popular park. It was very big and there were paths and trails leading in all different directions. There were a few churches within the park along with a beautiful wooden palace. We must have walked around the park for 3 hours! That night we made cupcakes and took them over to our neighbors who we recently met. They were very thankful and sent their 20-something year old son to our door a little while later bearing a jar of mushrooms as a thank you for our cupcakes. The son speaks a little bit of English and was very nice. His name is Ivan. He offered to take us out on a night excursion of Moscow; as in clubbing and drinking and partying. I think I’ll pass, thanks.

On Saturday, we had been invited over to an American family’s house for a turkey thanksgiving dinner. In Russia, a turkey can sometimes cost 200 dollars! This family specially ordered a full turkey dinner from the American school and had it delivered to their door. It was very delicious! It was so nice for them to have us in their home, and refreshing to be around people that spoke our language and appreciated our stupid humor. They even invited us to stay and play games and eat pie. it was a fun night!

This week has been amazing!

 I am having mixed feelings about returning to the school tomorrow. But there are only 3 weeks of teaching left, and looking back I can’t believe how fast it seems to have gone by.

23 days

Goods

daily life at school

Our trip 

time after some time

Been a while. We went back to teaching since my last update. I cant believe how comfortable I am here now. After mid semester visits, (when the big boss man came to visit from Salt Lake) everything seemed to smooth its self out. We were having some issues with the school and the teachers and those problems got worked out while he was here. I finally feel like I am in a solid routine and I love it! I enjoy teaching and the two hour bus ride home doesn’t even seem to phase me. 

A week ago was HALLOWEEN! Only to us Americans though because sadly, they don’t celebrate it here. We did have to teach at the kindergarten on Halloween so instead of a lesson we had a party. The kids made masks and we played games and ate candy. I was a pumpkin. Then later that night me and my room mates watch a scary movie and ate cupcakes. It was un-like any Halloween I have ever had, but I enjoyed it very much.

Three days after Halloween we set sail to Finland, Sweden, and Estonia on the Princess Anastasia cruise ship! We left our apartment and hopped on a sleeper train to St. Petersburg. We had almost a full day to spend time there before boarding the ship. We had already spent a week in St. Petes when we first got to Russia so we knew all the spots we wanted to see. We ended up getting kinda lost, but we were able to navigate to downtown. It was a long walk and we had the opportunity to get on the metro but instead we took the senic route. It was so fun to just walk all over the city. We ended up at the Hermitage/ Winter palace and then headed to the Catherdral on spilled blood. Those are my two favorite spots in St. Petes so it was nice to see them again.  We showed up the the port of St. Petersburg at about 4pm and waited in line for a couple hours before getting on the ship. (passport control :/)It was a very nice boat. It had 11 decks, a few restraunts and bars, a movie theater, casino, strip club,spa and pool area, duty free store, and a show room. My favorite place on the boat was a bar called the drunken rabbit. They had karaoke nights every night and it was so fun to watch drunken Russians sing. A few girls in our group got up there and showed them all how we Americans do it. It was fun and entertaining. There was also a free show every night in the huge show room. Except it had to be the WORST live entertainment I have ever seen. It was entertaining because it was out of the ordinary, and dumb. But it was the only free thing on the boat.

Our first stop was in Helsinki, Finland. We got lucky with the weather in Finland. It was perfect. The architecture here was beautiful. Every building was worth taking a picture of. This little city was full of friendly people. Just about everyone spoke English here, which was nice. I noticed as I waled around that the moose was Finland’s mascot or something. Moosen everywhere ;) we walked along the port of Helsinki and it reminded me of the waterfront in Tacoma, but way better. There was a small bridge with locks all over it. Putting a lock on a bridge is a love thing. When you get married or when you are really in love, you put a lock on the bridge. We put a lock on the love lock bridge with all of our initials on it. Now there is a small piece of us in Helsinki. I have so many stories I would love to share, but to sum it all up… I LOVE FINLAND!

Next stop was Stockholm, Sweden. (I always thought Sweden was spelled “sweeden” until my recent trip to this country) I’m not ashamed!  There were two main parts of Stockholm, old town and new town (city area). The city area looks a lot like any downtown city in the states; tall buildings, stores and coffee shops all over, and lots of people walking the streets. We went to McDonalds for breakfast and interwebs. Let me tell you, the people in Sweden are BEAUTIFUL. The people working at McDonalds were like the cheerleaders and the star football players at your typical high school. Gahhh!! You should have seen the fry cook, maaaan. He was gorgeous. Annnnnnyways, the older historical part of town was the best. Cobble stone streets lined with old buildings with tons of character. Both sides of this tow(ish) mile long street was lined with tons of cafes and restaurants, souvenir shops and candy stores. I got to have the real deal “Swedish fish” and “Swedish meatballs”. But no, I did not see an ikea. We were able to stay late enough for all the street lamps to light up and it was the cutest thing. I really enjoyed my time in Stockholm. I would love to go back.

The last stop on the map was Tallinn, Estonia; a place I had never heard of until this cruise. The main attraction in Tallin was this old part of town that used to be a huge monastery. This whole part of the city had a wall around it. Inside looked somewhat similar to the old town areas of the last two countries; Cobble stone streets and old buildings. The difference here was that there were more churches and cathedrals. This place had lots of cute and unique doorways. Every door was a different color or shape and size. Pretty interesting. I don’t think I could spend more than one day in Tallinn. It was beyond beautiful and I am very happy to be able to see it.

The next morning we woke up in St. Petersburg again. It was strange, but when we got off the ship I had this happy feeling, a relief to be home after a long vacation. I never thought I would be excited to be BACK in Russia but it really does feel like home.  It was my BIRTHDAY J! We took a lazy day. We walked around a new area and found a T.G.I. Fidays where I had my birthday dinner. I had the perfect birthday. I missed my family and friends and all the people I love, but I got to spend the day with my best friends in a foreign land. How many people can say that?! BOO YAAAH!And when we got back to Moscow, Jenny & Julie made me cupcakes and yummy food, and I got to blow out my birthday candles :) 

I feel so lucky to be able to have gone on this trip. It was an experience I will never forget. I really LOVED every second of the time I spent in Finland, Sweden, and Estonia.

Tallinn, Estonia

                                                       Helsinki, Finland

Stockholm, Sweden

More pictures will be posted on my facebook, too. (facebook.com/kaysirenae)

Halfway

I cant believe it is already mid October! The halfway point has arrived! It took its sweet time getting here though, that’s for sure. Unfortunately today is the last day of our vacation. Or should I say “staycation”. We were given a week off from teaching. We discussed leaving the country, maybe visiting Latvia. But we have been so busy these past 6 weeks that we haven’t had time to explore Moscow, our home for 4 months. So instead of leaving, we took the opportunity to relax and see the sites of our city. 

The highlight of my week was going to this HUGE market, twice! This place was amazing. First of all, the location was beautiful. I guess this place was used during the Olympics as a hotel for all their many foreign guests. Now it is a huge market full of souvenirs, clothing, and other goods.  I may have got a few things :) I also got mistaken for a Russian vendor. An Asian man was looking at this hideous painting, turned to me and asked “skulka?”  I looked at him funny, and he asked again “skulka?” I then responded, “I am not a Russian, this isn’t my stand.” I don’t think he understood the words, but he got the idea and said “oh sowwwie!” and walked away. Well at least we know I blend in!

One of the days we spent walking all around this part of town. First we went to a women’s convent, (where nuns live), and we just looked at it from the outside because we were too scared to go in. Then we went to the huge sports arena area. The soccer field was there, along with 30 blocks of other sports related facilities. A huge area dedicated to sports. It was pretty cool. I’m hoping one of these days we will be able to go watch a futbol game!!  Next we went into the middle of the city to the old Arbat street. It was really cool! It’s a brick road lined with shops and restaurants, street vendors, and traveled by many. And there was a Wendy’s!! We ate there :)

It is really beginning to get freezing cold here. I really sucked at packing. I didin’t bring any boots or a warm enough coat! I told myself I would just get those things while I was here. So I have had my eye out for a coat and some boots. 6 weeks later, and I finally found what I needed! Now im cozy.

Back to work tomorrow. But I am actually excited. We only have 2 weeks until our cruise! Then after the cruise we only have 2 weeks of teaching until our next vacation! And then after that vacation we only have 3 more weeks until I come home.

Don’t get me wrong, I love it here. But being away from home for this long makes me think of all the things I want to do when I get back. I submitted my application to University of Washington Tacoma. So hopefully that works out. I do miss my mom and dad. Distance sure does make the heart grow fonder. 

OH! I cant believe I forgot to mention the CIRCUS!! Last weekend we went to the Moscow circus! It was the happiest time of my life! I had never been to the circus before, which might explain my excitement. It was great, so great.

                                                       

                                                   

                                                   

                                                   

                                                     

                                                             

In russia, the radio listens to you

07:30               wake up

08:00               leave the apartment

09:45               arrive at school

10:00               eat breakfast (GROOLE & cheesebread & noodles)

10:30               teaching in the Kindergarten

12:45               lunch (soup & meat & a starchy substance)

13:15               plan future lessons & wait

16:00               teach in the elementary

17:30               dinner (lunch, minus the soup)

18:00               leave school

20:00               arrive at our apartment

This is what our schedule looks like on most days. I’ll be honest. It is quite exhausting. We are working an average of 56 hours a week. But, its good for me right? You can imagine with a schedule like this it has been hard to update my blog.

We have been teaching in the elementary school level for 2 weeks. The kids we teach are between the age of 7 & 10 and have a small background in English. We use a totally different method of teaching than we have been using in the kindergarten. We are actually teaching school subjects like math, science, and language arts to them IN English.  The kids are great! I like teaching them because they understand me. They seem to get bored fast, but we are quick on our toes and so something stupid to catch their attention. I’m pretty sure they all think I’m crazy. I am OK with that. I am excited to watch them learn and grow in the English language.

Last Wednesday was our first day at the University. We will be teaching there once a week. It is a very fun commute! We get on the metro that heads towards the city. And let me tell you- if you have ever been in a crowded place, think again, and come to Moscow metro stations near the city. At 8:00am EVERYONE and their moms are using the metro. It was insane!! I was literally picked up and moved aside twice by some handsy fools. Apparently I am too slow and in the way. You have to squeeze yourself onto the metro. And a couple of times we lost part of our group because they couldn’t squeeze on before the doors closed. It was a fun experience to have and I will be having it every week now.

My group is teaching a small class at the university and we were able to meet them on Wednesday.  It is a group of 4 girls, all our age. On our first day they served us tea and cake as we talked about our families and where we were from. The girls are so nice! I am excited to get to know them better and be able to help them better their English. All of them are already fluent, but they need to work on their spontaneous speech, which is what us Americanskies are for. We told them how in america people smile and nod or maybe even wave to strangers on the street. Compared to Russians, Americans are very nice socialites. They told us that if we did that in Russia, people would probably just assume we are drunk! We shared a few laughs and sipped our tea. It was a good day. They are sweet girls, and I am hoping that in the end we will be friends.

I am physically and mentally exhausted. This past month has been full of surprises twists & turns and ups & downs. There are moments when I ask myself why I signed up for this, and then there are times when I am thankful for this amazing experience.

I am still waiting for the day where everything runs smoothly and I am able to rest easy.  I came into this expecting some hiccups, but the hiccups wont stop. It has been a challenge but I know that by the end of it I will have grown in so many different ways. Just trying to stay positive and enjoy my time with the students- that is all I can do.

The leaves are changing and falling like snowflakes.

Its getting colder.

I need a coat.

Haiku?

On with it

Our first whole week of teaching has passed. Not bad, not bad. I can do this for 3 more months. There are 3 groups of kids that rotate between the teachers and learn something different in each class. The subjects are gym, arts & crafts, shop, drama, and games. Not the typical school subjects. This is becasue our teaching method is differnet than they typical classroom taching method. We use activities and objects to teach and model the language. I do alot of talking and demonstrating and the children are having so much fun with the activity that they dont even realize how much english they are using. By the end of the day they have learned a hanful of words, and by the end of the 4 months they will have learned a handful of phrases (if i do my job right). We each have a "home group". I LOVE my home group. I have 2 boys-Dima & Alyosha, and 2 girls- Kaatia & Daniella. Dima is the sweetest little boy. I can tell he wants to learn so bad. Every time I say anything he will try to repeat me word for word but it mostly comes out in a blend of the more dominate sounds. Alyosha is a handful! He thinks he knows it all becasue he has been through the program once already. He has his precious moment and can be the sweetest kid at times. Kaatia is rarely there, but when she is there she shows her strong desire to learn. And Daniella is a bit spacey... never really know where her mind is. But when it is here, she does a great job! I am excited to see them all grow and get better and better. Once they can actually answer my questions rather than just repeating everything i say, i will rejoice so good. (can I add... I am so temped to teach them a little somethin' like "whaddd uppp" or "whass hanninin")

It turns out to be quite the commute to school every day, about 2 hours. We walk from our apartment to the metro, then take the metro 1 stop & tranfer to another metro. Then we get on that metro and go 1 more stop. Now we have arrived at the bus station where we get on bus 121. This bus ride can last anywhere from 60-100 minutes. Then we get off at a bus stop and call the school to send the driver to come pick us up. OH, and then there is the journey home. The school provides a bus for all its employess who dont drive. We ride this bus every day after school, which drops us off right at our doorstep. Which is nice, but it also takes about 90 minutes. The ride home is a little more entertaining. The bus is about 98% women with only 2 men; the driver and the PE teacher. There are probably close to 30 people on the bus every day and it is so much fun to sit there and watch all the ladies pass around Cosmo and their favorite recipes. Our first day on this bus was a little intimidating and i felt like all these ladies hated us Americanskies. But just one short week later and im starting to feel the love :) Maybe i will even be able to form relationships with these ladies, even though we dont speak the same language.

We had some extra time one day so we went exploring around the gated community where our school is located. Its a woodsy/ forrested area. It looks like it ould be a state park where you can reserve a camp site or cabin. We found a lake on the property. It was very beautiful. We also notice that there are lots of mushrooms around this area, and people pick them and take 'em home. for what? I dont know, maybe mushroom soup or to get high? no, no, no. We had a good time taking some pictures on the dock, too!

I love these girls that I am with. I had and AH HAA! moment today; I can't believe I am around the world-in a foreign country with my best friends and no parents or supervision!! As we walked around Moscow today without the slightest idea of where we were going or where we were- I was felt so happy to be here with 3 awesome girls who make me laugh and who i get to share this adventure with.

Whelp, one and a half weeks down and 14 to go. Though 3 of those weeks will be spent vacationing!! Our first vacation is October 6th-10th, and we have no idea what we are going to do. I need ideas-ASAP

My flat, or yours??

                                                        front door

                                                  apartment stairwell

                                               bathroom/ laundry room

                                                 hallway/ laundry room

Kitchen/ computer room

                                   living room plus built in fort, that we built

routine time

We have been teaching for 3 days now. The first day was hectic-as expected. I actually did really good for my first day teaching :) the second day I did kinda bad, and today I did good. My lesson today was the 3 little pigs and the big bad wolf. They LOVED IT!!  And today was the first day we used token bags and starboards. It helped them all to behave better. The kids are so cute and sweet and I love them all, even the ones who I want to slap.

We eat at the school every day (except weekends). Right now we eat at least 2 meals a day. Usually we always eat lunch and lunch usually always consists of soup. Today it was beat soup- borsch. It was surprisingly good. Sometimes the soup is chicken noodle (russian style) And there is some sort of meat, or something with meat included in the meal. I like it all except that breakfast is always questionable.

Tonight when we left the school they gave us 2000 rubles!! That’s like 60 bucks…just for our weekend groceries!! So as soon as our bus driver dropped us off we got on the metro and went to the bus station and hopped on a bus that we THOUGHT was taking us to the huge grocery store we had been dreaming about.  We drove, and drove and then our heads turned as we drove RIGHT on past the grocery emporium. luckily we got off at the next stop and walked to the store.

The store is pronounced “Ah-shaun” it is HUGE! Its like a super walmart/Costco/home depot. It has almost everything you’ll ever need. It was so fun! when we left we didn’t know where to catch the bus back home, so we walked back to the bus stop where we got off…which didn’t make sense because it was on the wrong side of the road. This meant we had to cross the road- or should I say freeway. Yes, we ran across 4 lanes of traffic!! I was real nervous, but I just went when Julie went, but Julie went at the STUPIDEST time. It didn’t help much that it was dark and it was pouring down rain! If I would have went even a little bit slower, I would have got hit by the car honking at us! Jenny and Melissa were smart. when me and Julie got across we looked behind us to find them two strolling across the freeway. No big deal.

The whole purpose for coming to Russia was to tach little kids English, and now that I have finally started teaching, i am really looking forward to these next few months. I am also looking forward to all the extra curricular activites! We are currently planning our trips to Sweeden, Finland, and Estonia! Can't wait. 


also, here is the video i made a couple weeks ago: 

A week and some days time

I have arrived in RUSSIA! And actually, I have been in Russia for almost 2 weeks now. Me and my three roomates (Jenny, Julie and Melissa) have settled in to our quant little fully stocked fridged apartment right outside the city.It has been quite the adventure already. lemme tell you a little about what has been goin down in this hood. It all started with a hop, skip, and a jump from Salt Lake to Washingtn DC then straight away to Moscow, Russia; about 20 hours total travel time. The day after our plane landed we got on a nine hour sleeper train to St. Petersburg for four days of adventures. I was able to see so many beautiful cathedrals and palaces such as the Winter palace and the the Cathedral of our Savior on Spilled Blood, my two favorite :) Inside the Winter Palace was the Hermitage Museam. It was FULL of ancient artifacts and famous paintings by famous people (that i would brag about seeing, but i know nothing about so that wouldnt be fair).

We also got a little sneak peak of our city, Moscow. We spent an afternoon in and around red square which is the center of moscow. I am sooooo looking forward to living here and spending time kickin' it in red square with the Ruskies :)

And our most recent adventure has been a day trip to a little town in the country-side called Sergiyev Posad. It is famous for its old cathedrals and Russian othadox churches.This is where the founder of the Russian Orthadox church is burried. Peaople from all over Russia come there to touch/ kiss his  grave becasue they believe it will bless their lives with heath and happines. The line was out the door. We were able to go inside without waiting in line just to see the cathedral. That day trip was an amazing experiance for me and I really enjoyed our visit in that little town.

I know i am speeding through my trip so far-leaving all the dirty deets out, but there is so much to tell and I figure pictures can do a better job than words.