The Spirit of Christmas

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and will have a very Happy New Year to come! This is my last full day in Russia for about two weeks – tonight I head to Istanbul for an extended weekend trip, then I come back to Moscow to ring in the New Year with my friends at a holiday party. New Year’s Eve is the equivalent of Christmas in Russia, due to the Orthodox calendar being on a different time frame than the Catholic calendar. Instead of our traditional December 25th, families exchange gifts and celebrate together on New Year’s Eve, then they celebrate church Christmas on January 7^th. The national holidays last from January 1^st to January 8^th, during which I will be taking my first trip to Germany to visit some Mankato friends, who are currently living near Frankfurt. I’m very much looking forward to some sightseeing combined with rest and relaxation over the next two weeks. I hope you all have an equally enjoyable holiday break.

Festivities in Red Square

Although it was hard to be away from home for the holidays again, I realized how much I enjoyed being in a foreign country that celebrates Christmas again. In Korea, Christmas was a nominal and artificial holiday, as most of Korea is traditionally Buddhist. But in Russia traditions are similar to Western traditions, the colors and decorations are the same, and though the dates are different, the spirit of Christmas is still prevalent. There were lights up all around the city, Starbucks had holiday drinks, and most of the stores had beautiful holiday displays to admire. I ventured to the city center a couple of times throughout the month to see and enjoy some of the festivities in Red Square.

Fabulous fur coats

Another part of the Christmas spirit was experiencing a proper winter again. Though we weren’t nearly as cold as most of the Midwest this month, we still had significant amounts of snow and below freezing temps. One of my favorite winter activities has become admiring the beautiful and extravagant fur coats that the ladies have started wearing, complete with matching fur hats, stoles, gloves, you name it. I don’t believe I will ever wear one but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying them. Every time one of the teachers comes into the school with their fabulous fur coats I start petting it. Don’t tell PETA.

Skating success! 

In addition to fur coat spotting, this winter I’ve made a comeback to one of my favorite cold weather activities from childhood: ice skating. On the first day of December, I finally broke my seven year streak and got back on the ice with my proudest ever purchase: a $12 pair of ice skates from my local grocery store. A group of us – two Canadians, a fellow Minnesotan, and a Tennessean – all got together for the evening skating session at Gorky Park, the largest skating rink in Europe. You can guess which one of us was on the ice the most. But she improved significantly by the end of the evening.

Skating at Gorky Park

Gorky Park by night

Gorky Park was fantastic – some of the walking paths have been flooded and iced over, so it’s more like going for a stroll instead of skating around in a circle. At night it really is something special, with all of the colored lights on the trees and lining the trails. There was live music and recorded music playing, and one of my favorite parts was to skate directly over the lights they had installed underneath the ice before they froze it. There are a few cafes and even a restaurant that you can skate right up to walk inside, then sit at a table still in your skates to take a coffee break or have a meal. After we ate dinner at the restaurant the crowds thinned out significantly, though the ice was choppy. That was the only disadvantage to coming on a Sunday evening – there were so many people that it didn’t even matter if you could skate well – you just had to skate enough to keep from either crashing into people or keeping people from crashing into you. Kind of like bumper cars…but on ice and with skates. The skate rental is free, with a deposit, and the ticket prices are the most expensive in the evenings on the weekends, but for the experience we all agreed it was worth it. And with an added bonus of a light snow falling, it made for a perfect winter evening. We ended up going again two weeks later, and although I think it gave me a cold because we were out for so long, it was probably worth it.

As we did for both Canadian and American Thanksgiving, we also had an expat Christmas party this past Sunday, where we all contributed some of our favorite holiday foods, and had a lovely potluck and gift exchange. Most of us will be spread out among the European continent and the States for the next two weeks, having experiences which will be fun to hear about once we all return and get together again.

Expat Christmas 2013

Santa came to visit!

As indicated above, I worked on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but because all of the students and teachers knew they were holiday days for us American teachers, plus it was just before a two week holiday, we all allowed lessons to slide a bit. Who really gets anything done the last week of school before holidays anyway? Instead, we had visits from ‘Santa’ (they have a rough equivalent they call Grandfather Frost, but the biographies are a little different for these two characters. No chimneys or reindeer for Grandfather Frost), we played Christmas games, and topped off the week with a Christmas movie and some cookies.

Christmas Eve Church

On Christmas Eve I headed straight to the city center after work to join some friends for a 10:30 pm church service at an Anglican church in the city center. It was definitely an expat gathering, as I heard English spoken all around me in a variety of accents, and the pastor performed a traditional English church service. It was wonderful to sing Christmas carols and read the scriptures - and by the time the service ended it was officially Christmas! On Christmas Day I only had to teach two classes, then headed to the center again to spend some time in Red Square with some friends and enjoy the beautiful lights and Christmas markets.

Snowy St. Basil's 

So, despite having a busy and stressful December due to graduate school application materials (now finished!), and of course being away from home for the holidays, I also had a fun month enjoying the traditional Christmas spirit. Although being with the people you love is the most important part of the holidays, also being surrounded by at atmosphere of joy, beauty, anticipation, and generosity is an aspect to realize and appreciate. My moments drinking Peppermint Mochas at Starbucks, singing Christmas songs at church, or walking around Red Square to admire the giant Christmas tree allowed me to have my own private Christmas cheer, because these things reminded me of home. And now, I’m so thankful that my Mankato friends have agreed to host me next week in Germany, as being with familiar faces at this time of year will be exactly what I need.

Merry Christmas from Red Square!

Once again, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to your New Year’s celebrations, wherever they may be. Best wishes for a fantastic New Year!

A Weekend in St. Petersburg

Once again – where did the past month go? I almost refuse to believe it’s December already. That means that there are only four weeks left in the semester, I’m starting another round of traveling at the end of the month, and this weekend marks three full months of living in Russia.

                Prior to about three weeks ago, my experience of ‘living in Russia’ had been limited. I was learning the language, I had seen some of the touristy sights, was starting to pick up on cultural differences, and was easing my way into learning more about Russia and its history from reading and from my kids, but my life was more focused on work and adjusting to a new lifestyle. Then, through a lucky arrangement of covering some classes for another teacher who then covered for me in return the following week, I found myself with a three day weekend, and decided to spontaneously book a ticket to St. Petersburg. It was the best thing I could have ever done to help deepen my understanding of Russia and start to really develop a connection with the country.

                True to my budget traveler self, the cheap tickets I had booked left at 6 am on Saturday morning, so since the public transportation stopped running to the airport at midnight, I packed up my bag and headed out to the airport Friday night via the $5 airport train after celebrating a birthday with some friends, and slept rather soundly on a bench at one of Moscow’s three airports. My iPod’s Celine Dion Playlist is still my faithful travel companion thanks to its magical ability to put me to sleep in even the strangest of sleeping locations. I woke up at 5, zipped through security (an added bonus of odd flight times – no lines!), got myself a large coffee, and spent most of the flight reading Lonely Planet’s St. Petersburg PDF chapter to figure out what I wanted to see most.

                I was met at the airport by Tamara, who had informed me she would be wearing a red beret. I told her she didn’t need to pick me up, but she insisted, saying that otherwise she would worry too much. Who is this woman, you ask? Tamara is a connection of mine from my former Russian history professor at UWGB, who had lived in Russia for five years in the 1990s. While living there, she met Tamara, a now-retired English teacher from St. Petersburg, and has stayed in touch with her ever since. When I told my professor that I would be moving to Russia, she told me I had to “go to St. Petersburg more than once or twice” while I was there, and that I could stay with her friend Tamara. Actually, when I booked last minute I was prepared to stay in a hostel, as it’s pretty rude to invite yourself to stay at someone’s house only four days in advance, but I took a chance and e-mailed Tamara, who replied that she would “host me with pleasure.” I got lucky!

                 I didn’t even know how lucky meeting this wonderful lady would turn out to be when I first met her, but I realized it more and more as the weekend went on. She may have one of the most interesting life stories I have ever encountered firsthand. First of all, she was born in the 1940s during the German siege of St. Petersburg. She said that some of her earliest memories were waking up in the middle of the night to bombs, which has caused sleeping problems to this day. No one could get in or out, with the exception of trucks trying to smuggle people out by driving across the ice to Finland, but she said when the authorities tried to force all of the people from her neighborhood into the trucks to escape, her mother refused to go because there were so many stories of the trucks falling through thin ice. This happened three times, and each time her mother refused to go with her two young children. They later discovered that all of the people from their neighborhood had perished in the icy cold water trying to cross to Finland. In Tamara’s words, “there has always been someone guiding me through life.” 

The first children's hospital in St. Petersburg, where Tamara was hospitalized after the war.

                    She grew up in the heyday of Soviet communism, proudly joining the Young Pioneers and “believing in everything,” simply because she couldn’t imagine any alternative. After graduating from high school she went straight to work, but a couple of years later she decided to take some entrance exams to see if she could continue her studies. She passed the exams and was able to enter the State Pedagogical School, to train in both English and nursing. She became an English teacher once she completed her studies, and spent many years teaching “as much as I knew,” which lacked proper exposure to spoken English. She said they had occasional recordings to listen to, but most of it was guesswork, since there were so few foreigners and Russians weren’t allowed to travel abroad without special circumstances. Eventually, after the fall of the Soviet Union she encountered many more foreigners and, in her words, would “grab them and take them to my students at school” so that they could gain valuable language experience. She was even able to travel to America in the 1990s, where she said she learned much about and identified well with American culture.

Tamara and I with the Hermitage in the background. 

                The first day Tamara and I simply went for a long walk, where she brought the streets to life by telling me little tidbits about most of the buildings as we passed them. We walked from one end of Vasilevsky Island – the first civilian settlement in St. Petersburg - to the other, which culminated in the joining of the Neva River and its tributaries to provide a beautiful panorama of old and new St. Petersburg, spanning over three hundred years of history. Straight across the water was the St. Peter and Paul Fortress, the first structure built by Peter the Great in 1703, which contrasted heavily with the bright electric bridge and the name “SAMSUNG” lit up just behind it to the right. Turning more to the left provided a view of Petrogradskaya, a more modern area of the city, and turning more to the right yielded the western side of the Hermitage Museum, formerly the Winter Palace which had been stormed by the Bolsheviks nearly one hundred years ago at the start of the Russian Revolution and changed Western history forever. That’s a lot of history in one shot.

St. Peter and Paul Fortress

Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood

Though Tamara went back to her flat for the evening, I chose to stay out a little later and finish my walk across the Neva to cross the bridge into the City Center. I walked through the expansive Palace Square, in front of the entrance to the Winter Palace, then continued onto what is perhaps Russia’s most famous street: Nevsky Prospect. Nevsky is a delightful street lined with beautiful buildings, canals on either side, fancy shops and restaurants, bookstores and cafes. It is a place to see and be seen, and a delightful walk through history, as many of St. Petersburg’s famous sites are located on or near Nevsky, such as the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, so called due to it being built on the assassination location of Tsar Alexander II in 1881. I returned to the flat for a delicious dinner that Tamara prepared, elated at the sights of St. Petersburg I had seen that day and excited to visit the world famous Hermitage Museum the next morning.

Rastrelli's Jordan Staircase, Hermitage Museum.

After a much needed restful sleep, I woke up on Sunday morning, shared coffee and breakfast with Tamara, made plans to meet up with her in the afternoon, then took off for my morning at the Hermitage. The beauty of the Hermitage is that not only is it an expansive museum with an impressive collection of European, Russian, and world art, but it is in the former Winter Palace of the Tsars, where the Russian royals lived not even one hundred years ago. Beginning with the Jordan staircase, designed by the famous Italian architect Rastrelli, each room through the Hermitage was a delight to walk through. It’s also a workout to walk through – the Hermitage Museum itself is about 15 miles worth of gallery to walk through. I knew I wouldn’t be able to see everything, so I planned to attack it in sections. But then, nature threw a wrench in my plans and decided to clear the cloudy skies to reveal the sun, not even one hours after I started at the museum. I decided that since I got in at a discounted rate, and that I would be back, I would rather spend time outside in the sun to walk around. So, I left the Hermitage much earlier than planned, but it was worth it to see the city through partly sunny skies. I met up with Tamara in the afternoon at the Pushkin statue (in front of the Russian Museum), and she walked me around some more of the Nevsky area, before we returned to the flat for dinner. She pointed out the various art, music, and ballet schools that still continue to train some of Russia's finest artists today. St. Petersburg has always been a city of culture, and as one walks down the fine streets lined with an impressive variety of European architecture, this impression remains. 

Nevsky Prospect

                    My last full day in St. Petersburg was spent, of course, walking around and taking pictures. I started the morning at the Russian Museum, set in another former palace for one of Russia’s richest families, where I took in a morning full of purely Russian painters, sculptors, and designers. I don’t know much about Russian art, and since many of Russia’s greats studied abroad or under European tutelage, most of the art seems pretty standard European. The earliest displays in the museum were Byzantine art, which focuses more on icons (with the gold halos behind the heads of the saints) than typical French or Italian religious art, but all of the religious art still came from the Bible, therefore I was able to recognize some of the stories portrayed in the paintings. Three hours later, I had managed to see the entire Russian museum, and I had even recognized a modern Russian artist that I remembered studying back in the fourth grade. Museum success.

Pushkin and the Russian Museum

Sunset walk

St. Issac's at sunset. 

                The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around with Tamara, after a coffee break at an old Soviet café, which still keeps their Soviet prices ($2 for two cups of coffee and two doughtnuts) and is hidden on a street off Nevsky – somewhere I would have never found on my own. She took me to  the other side of the city center, where we could see famous sights such as the Mariinsky Theater and St. Issac’s Cathedral. After she went bac, I spent the early hours of the evening wandering alone and taking pictures, and already planning my return trip to St. Petersburg. As I finished my walk and waited for the bus to take me back to the apartment, where Tamara was planning a lovely dinner for us, I reflected on my impressions of St. Petersburg. I remembered learning about how Peter the Great had set up shop on a swampland over three hundred years ago, after traveling abroad and seeing the great cities of Amsterdam (why St. Petersburg has so many canals), Paris, and London, and everybody thought he was crazy for trying to build a city in such an unfavorable setting. But, looking at his grand city three hundred years later proves that he had a vision that he realized, and I’m sure he would be proud to see what it has come to, with thousands of visitors each year to see its splendors.

Sunset on the Neva

For me, understanding and appreciating both sides of Russia – the more traditional and Orthodox buildings of Moscow, built centuries before the grand European style St. Petersburg, creates a more complete picture in my mind of Russia. Moscow appears to be the soul of Russia, where St. Petersburg is a display of its beauty. But of course, neither city takes into account the true heart of Russia, which lies in the vast expanse of farmland, villages, and towns where Russia first began. This is where I must visit next to continue to understand Russia and its people better, but for now, I’m grateful for the opportunity I had to visit St. Petersburg and be hosted by Tamara. It was a wonderful introduction to this stunning city that I’m very much looking forward to going back to next year.

Goodbye St. Petersburg

And today, as everyone back home celebrates what they are thankful for with their friends and family, I feel thankful to have these opportunities to continue exploring and learning about the world. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

What Happened to October?

Well, hello November – where did you come from?

I can’t believe I’ve been in Moscow for two months now. I’m quickly realizing that although I enjoy the thrill of seeing my countdown back to the United States diminish, I need to make sure that I take advantage of Moscow before it’s too late. I’ve taken a sufficient amount of time to myself to establish a weekly routine, understand all the components of my job well enough to start working ahead, and begin working on graduate school applications, but now I need to remember one of the most important reasons I’m here: to learn more about Russia! There’s only so much books can do.

We were lucky enough to have some lovely fall weekends this month – the weather actually improved from September to October, so I made sure to take advantage of the sunshine and crisp autumn air when I could on the weekends – pictures to follow. Other news from October includes celebrating my first Canadian Thanksgiving, sadly having to miss three wedding celebrations from back home that I compensated for with thorough Facebook picture stalking, and managing to make Halloween last for six days straight. I’m also pleased to report that all of my students are now well acquainted with the YouTube Halloween song “Spooky Spooky.” I hope it gets out of my head sometime before Christmas. Here’s a picture of some of my little ones doing the ‘Spooky Spooky dance’ with excellent technique.

Spooky Spooky

On the school front, I’m feeling more and more like a ‘real teacher’ every day. I’ve graded tests and writing assignments, I’ve helped write progress reports, and I’ve employed the teacher techniques that I used to hate when I was in school (examples: keeping the kids after class for one minute in silence while adding a minute for each person who talks, threatening to take away games and movies and then actually following through, and even giving extra homework to disruptive students). I’m not only responsible for improving English conversation, but also for teaching the mechanics of English grammar (which I’ve had to brush up on and even learn about before certain classes). The balance of power shared between me and my Russian co-teacher is nearly equal, which is different than my experience in Korea, where I felt almost guilty for the lack of responsibility I was given compared to the Korean teachers. Here, the only exemptions I’m granted with are parent conferences and progress reports in Russian.  In my Korean classes I was lucky to have a co-teacher in the room with me to help with discipline and assignments, but here I’m on my own. I’m enjoying connecting with my students, however, and the desire to help them improve makes me want to work harder. We only have seven weeks left until the end of the semester, which I’m sure will fly by as much as the first half did!

Taking a walk along the river at
 Kolomenskaya

On the social front, I’ve been lucky to have a group of friends who enjoy ‘doing’ things – two of whom have already spent some time in Moscow and know more about what to see than I do. One of the social activities that Russians enjoy is simply “taking a walk with friends.” This is how the word must be literally translated, because when I ask my students what they did/want to do for the weekend, most of them respond with this. Simply strolling in nice weather and enjoying the scenery might not sound like something we all think to do, but I definitely advocate it for a fall activity. Some of the following pictures will be from a ‘walk’ I took with some friends at a nearby former country estate called Kolomenskaya. The weather was perfect and the scenery was beautiful – definitely one of my favorite days so far! The day after, I celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving for the first time in my life, hosted by one of the Canadians from my orientation. Much like foreign holidays in Korea, we celebrated by bringing a random assortment of food and enjoyed being together and hanging out more than anything. I’ve also never celebrated Thanksgiving with vodka, but hey, there’s a first time for everything.

Canadian Thanksgiving Dinner,
minus the chicken. 

Happy Birthday Mat!

Another fall activity we had here at our apartment (also involving vodka) was hosting my roommate’s birthday party, which was a fun way for me to meet some other English teachers living in Moscow, along with a few of his Russian friends. Mat, my roommate, is a fellow American who works at my school and has been here for the past year, so he’s basically my walking Google about everything there is to know about living in Moscow and working at my school. He probably finds me pretty annoying for asking questions all the time. The picture on the left (below) is me and Jen, the other American teacher at my school. She studied Russian in college, and lived in Moscow for a summer to take a Russian course. We barely see each other at school, but have started a weekly tradition of having pizza together on Friday night at a little restaurant near the school – the perfect end to the week.

Me and Jen

Kolomenskaya

And last, on the ‘exploring Moscow front,’ I have another pictures from Kolomeskaya and some from Novodevichy Convent, a beautiful place not too far from my apartment. Novodevichy was a Russian Orthodox monastery established in 1524, back when it was on the outskirts of the city. It was founded in commemoration (I’m basically spitting out Wikipedia facts here, you can read more about it here,) of an important conquest, then has since served as a defense fortress, a military hospital, an orphanage, a museum, and now has become a convent once again.  

Novodevichy 

Novodevichy Cemetery

The last set of pictures are from Red Square, both at at sunrise, (which isn’t as terrible as it sounds considering the sun didn’t rise until 8 that morning) and at sunset. The sunset ones were taken on the first day I’ve seen Red Square completely open, with no bleachers or setups in the middle of it. However, the sun goes down over the buildings first, so the sunset isn’t as impressive in Red Square as it is just beyond the Square, where there is a bridge overlooking the Moskva River, with the beautiful cathedral in front of the sun. I shared the bridge with many other Russians out enjoying the scenery and taking pictures of the sunset. 

Sunrise

Sunset

Oddly enough, Moscow has experienced record high temperatures the past few weeks, and there's definitely no sign of snow yet. I know that once it comes I'll have my fix for a long time, but I must say it's strange to think that it's actually warmer in Moscow now than it is back home in Minnesota. In other news, I've decided to take advantage of the weather and of my unexpected three day weekend coming up and will be heading to St. Petersburg to finally experience this famous and world renowned city! I realized that two months is the longest I've stayed put in one place since...college. My travel legs are getting restless - it's time to go explore someplace new. Stay warm back home and take care everyone - happy early Thanksgiving and I hope you enjoy the start of the holiday season! 

Ah, I'm going to include my school address, as some of you have asked about it. 

Gina Covert

EF English First Nikulino

Nikulinskaya St. 5

119602, Moscow, Russia

From Russia with Love.

We always want what we don’t have. We crave vacation time, relaxation, extra sleep, and lazy weekends. In the midst of our busy lives…that usually doesn’t happen. In my case, I found that by the time September hit, I was craving the opposite: I was craving routine, a place to be each day, responsibility, and a busy schedule once again. I had an incredible year of travel and experiences, but by the time it was over, I was ready to go back to being a contributing citizen of society. 

So far I haven’t been disappointed. The past month of adjusting to a new country, new job, and new lifestyle has flown by. I can’t believe I’ve been here since September 1^st – I’m still feeling very brand new in terms of language, all the components to my job, and figuring out Moscow, but at the same time I’ve fallen back into teaching like my last class was yesterday. I’ve had a happy reunion with teaching, and have already found myself ready to face the week on Sunday nights because I’m looking forward to seeing my students and having class with them. Most of my students, anyway. Teaching is still teaching, no matter where in the world you are. Some of them are little terrors.

I’ve frequently gotten the question: “Why are you here in Russia?” from my students, and I can give a flippant answer: “to teach YOU!” or a basic answer: “I’m interested in Russian history, culture, and language,” but the most common answer I’ve given is: “I like teaching English in other countries because I can learn about the country from my students.” Truth. Who better to learn from? The more effectively I teach them English, the better we can communicate, and the more we can learn from each other. They ask me questions about America, I ask them questions about Russia, we discuss. It’s a win-win.

 I landed in Moscow on September 1st and was picked up by my school director the very first day. I immediately liked him. His English was fantastic, he was friendly, he answered my zillions of questions, and he made sure I was settled in on his Sunday afternoon off. Though my school technically started the next day, Monday, I found out that all of my classes would be covered for the week by other teachers so that I could attend the orientation at the head office. I’m working for a private school, one of about fourteen in Moscow, and one of many in the world. EF (English First) is a company that has schools in Indonesia, China, and Russia. They develop their own curriculum that follows the standards of the Cambridge English exams, of which there are a variety of ages and levels. Basically, parents pay a lot of money for their kids to attend our schools after their own public school, and we teach English while simultaneously preparing them for whatever level of the Cambridge English test they’re planning to take next. So in a way it’s teaching to the test, but at the same time there are regular course books and independent lessons outside of the test.

Gina Teacher back in action - with flowers from one of my students for Teacher's Day

This is a huge contrast from my job in Korea, where my job was simply “get kids to speak in English.” Actually, that's not a simple task at all, but that's another story. In Korea I was given a very small amount of material to create a 50 minute lesson out of that usually involved PowerPoints, games, and no homework or tests. Here, I teach for an hour and 40 minutes, using materials that have already been created for me, and there’s not much time for games because I have to assign homework and give exams. In Korea, I taught with a Korean co-teacher in a classroom of 8 to 24 students. Here, I teach by myself in a classroom with no more than 14 students, though I ‘share’ a class with another Russian teacher, who teaches them for the other of their two weekly lessons. There, barely any of my kids could hold a basic conversation in English. Here, some of my high level students and I have discussions about politics, customs, and modern art. Just to give you an idea of what I’m working with here. And speaking of work, here I teach sixteen classes a week, which is comparable to my last year in Korea…except here the classes are twice as long with no breaks. I teach many more hours here, but to compensate for this I only have to be at school for my lessons, compared to Korea when I had to be at school all day regardless of when I was teaching. In Korea I spent 50 hours a week getting to work, staying at work, and getting home from work: here my ‘at work’ presence is about half that amount, as I don’t have a commute and I teach from 4 to 7 hours each day. I can prepare for my lessons by coming in early, staying late, or even coming in on Saturdays, which I’m finding I enjoy because then I can feel better about the week and enjoy my Sunday.

So yes, there are many differences for me to get used to. But, what do I find the same throughout both of my teaching jobs? My incredibly kind and helpful fellow teachers. They all speak fluent English, most have been teaching with EF for years, and they’re all willing to help, give advice, and chat with the new teachers. I’ve gotten so lucky with my team teacher, whom I already decided will be the equivalent of my Russian mother (she has a daughter the same age as me and she’s also an Aquarius like my mom, which are obviously signs of fate), as she always updates me on what we need to do next with our classes, offers me suggestions, and even copies extra workbook pages for me to use in class in case I didn’t have time to look for supplementary materials. She wrote “I’m sorry” on one of her notes to me the other day about not finishing an activity in class, and when I started laughing at it and told her she never needs to be sorry for anything, she said “but I am just trying to make things easier for you, so I feel sorry that you will have to finish this activity that I planned to finish in my class!” She gets a gold star.

Team USA pride

Most of the other teachers are younger, and even though the teacher’s room is pretty comparable to Wal Mart on Black Friday during the ten minutes we have in between classes, (picture a tiny room filled with teachers running around photocopying, looking through books, cutting out flashcards, trying to eat a quick meal, printing worksheets, and gathering materials for class), they always try to find time to chat to me and see how I’m doing. We had a bowling activity one Sunday evening with some of the younger teachers, (Team USA plus an honorary Brit won vodka shots twice for dominating both rounds against the Ruskies. You’re welcome for upholding American pride.) and it was really fun to hang out and chat with them outside of work when we all had time and weren’t trying to do a million things at once.

So that, in a nutshell, is what I deal with at school. What else is happening in my new life in Moscow? I live in an area called Yugo-Zapadnaya, or “south-west area,” which is also the name of the closest metro stop. The stop is at the very end of the red line, which makes it foolproof to not miss the stop. It also makes it easy to get a seat when you’re the first one on the new car, though sometimes you’ll have to fight for it because everyone crowds the doors as the subway pulls up. So far the Japanese are the only culture I’ve encountered that actually waits in line for the metro.

My apartment building

Kitchen view

My area is very ‘suburban,’ with a few shopping centers and coffee shops near the metro, but otherwise mostly apartment complexes, grocery stores, schools, and bus stops within a ten minute radius. I can get everything I need by walking about ten to fifteen minutes in any direction, and I can always hop on a bus at the stop right outside the apartment complex. In between the massive apartment buildings (I live on the sixth floor) there are nice little sidewalks lined with trees and benches that people like to stroll or walk their dogs down, and some little playgrounds for kids to play on. I live next to a massive park that I haven’t really explored yet, and there’s also a small park across the street with some trails. 

The reason I haven’t explored much in the parks or even in the city center so far is because the weather has been terrible. I’m not usually one to complain about something so unchangeable as the weather, but even I got frustrated with the past month, as it was cloudy, chilly, rainy, and windy nearly every day. Picture wind so hard it flips your umbrella, while you’re tromping around in boots to keep your feet warm and dry, while wearing a coat and a scarf to keep warm…in September. I think I saw the sun for a total of 24 hours in the past month. There was one mostly sunny day last week and it was a work day so I didn’t really get to enjoy it. But, what can you do? I’ve still done some walking around and exploring, but as we’ve already had snow twice this past week, it’s looking like I’ll be hibernating early this year, and will have to save my city street walks for the spring. The good thing is that I can hit all of the museums and do all the reading up on Russia and Moscow I want to in the winter months, then I can hit the pavement in the spring and actually know what I’m looking at.

So if I don’t go outside to walk around and I don’t have to work until the afternoon, then what do I do in the day? I’ve established a bit of a routine that I’m very happy with and again, I was craving after a year of traveling. My day begins with waking up to go to the gym at opening hours, which is 8 AM. It’s a bit of a trek to get there, but for the cheap price it’s worth it. The gym is very basic, but it has everything I need, and I very happily spend one to two hours a morning at the gym re-establishing a fitness routine. The gym I found isn’t busy or crowded in the mornings, and while I’m sometimes the only female, the dudes just hang out by the big heavy weights and leave me alone while I do my thing. This is a nice change from the small crowded Korean gym I went to for two years where everyone always found some time to stare and usually there was a wait time to use the equipment. A lifetime of swimming and training can’t be erased, so now that I’ve started going to the gym about four mornings a week (I give myself one morning off on my busiest day of teaching), I no longer feel lazy, and my day is significantly better when I know I’ve already gotten my workout in.

Bird's eye view from the apartment. 

After I get up and go to the gym, I usually come home to make coffee and get some things done during the two or three hours I have before going to work. One thing I have to work on is calming down my stress levels about the potential to go into work early and get a ton of planning ahead and preparation done. If I did that, I’d live at work and have no time to myself, because I’ve learned that it’s not possible to get fully ‘ahead.’ Instead, I’m trying to take it one day at a time and one week at a time, and if I allow myself not to think about work while I’m at home and just go in one or two hours prior to my lessons, I’ll be able to get everything I need to done and still have successful classes. That’s the one drawback for me working in the afternoons, as opposed to getting the work done they having time to myself like at my other job. It’ll take some getting used to.

Pinch me, I'm in Moscow. 

So, aside from venturing out in the nasty weather to get groceries, go to the gym, and go to work, I spend time at home studying and reading, then on the weekends I usually get together with some of the teachers from orientation. In comparison to when all of my orientation friends were spread out throughout the province I was teaching in, here all the teachers are spread out over the city instead. I look forward to our typical Saturday nights of getting together for a meal and some drinks, where we can catch up about the weeks and continue getting to know each other. I usually find myself getting off an extra metro stop early or late when we meet up just so that I can enjoy walking around and reminding myself that I live in Moscow. I always get chills when I approach Red Square and see St. Basil's Cathedral.

Russia has been a fun transition. It’s vastly different from living in Asia, because it’s much more western and familiar, but at the same time there are tons of differences that I’m still trying to figure out. One very strange difference is not being marked as a foreigner anymore – the only way someone can pick up on this is if they ask me for directions and I just shake my head and smile, or start speaking English to them. I prefer the anonymity, but at the same time it’s harder to mark any other foreigners since most of us look the same. I’m starting to delve deeper into the history and culture of Russia, and already my students and fellow teachers have taught me some “this is why this is like this” tidbits. I’m enjoying the opportunity to explore a new culture and learn even more, and I’m hoping to make a trip to St. Petersburg before the winter sets in. Otherwise, I’m very happy in my new city and hope I will make the most of it in my time here.

And…that’s my new life here in Russia! I hope this appeases some of you, but life has been so busy this month there hasn't been time. I just put up some new pictures on Facebook if you want to look at the album, though some of them are repeats from this post. I hope everyone is loving the fall weather back home, and that your October has gotten off to a wonderful start! 

Prague: The Fairy Tale City

Prague is one of those cities that everyone raves about – its beauty, its history, its charm. So I decided I had to go. When my recruiter told me I shouldn’t book a flight to Moscow until I received confirmation on my visa processing, I figured instead of book a last minute (and probably more expensive) flight to Moscow, I’d book an early cheap flight to Prague, then a last minute flight to Moscow from there. After saying goodbye to everyone in Wisconsin, Minnesota, then Colorado, I took off for Prague via two layovers (cheap ticket) in Chicago and London. I finally arrived in Prague a day and a half later, jet lagged and sleep deprived. I checked into the hostel after lugging my suitcase (a big change from always traveling light) up the freakishly slanted metro escalator steps (I was seriously concerned for my trip back down the escalator with my suitcase in three days time due to the odd design that made everyone look like they were going to tumble straight down any second) and down the cobblestone streets of Prague. Once I dumped my stuff, took a shower, and had some time to compose myself, I took off on a little walking tour of Prague for orientation.

Old Town Square

Prague looks like a fairy tale city. It is one of the best preserved medieval towns in Europe, with a variety of architecture and charm that makes every street pleasant to walk down. The Old Town Square was my favorite place to hang out and watch tourists, but I fell in love with the Charles Bridge and its view of Prague Castle early the next morning, when I got up at 6 am to beat the crowds and see the sun rise over the Charles Bridge. 

Charles Bridge, Prague. 

I love the idea of “waking up with the city,” as Paul Theroux described it in one of his travel books, when just a few people are out starting their day, the streets are quiet, and everything glows in the early morning light. That morning (the day before I only managed to walk around for a few hours then passed out at the hostel early) I got myself fantastically lost two times, took lots of pictures, and enjoyed every new twist and turn down the streets to see what view I would come upon next. I actually never really oriented myself very well in Prague after three days, as the streets are pretty windy and tended to set me off in the complete opposite direction than where I thought I was going. But, as always, that’s the best way to learn, and I was rewarded with new discoveries each time I got lost.

View of Prague Castle

                I didn’t do much in Prague besides walk and take pictures, but I did cough up entry fees to both the Prague Museum of Communism and Prague Castle. The Communism Museum outlined the history of communism in Prague, between the end of World War II and the advent of the collapse of the Soviet Union. The story is typical among most communist outlines: collectivization didn’t work, children were indoctrinated in their textbooks, and everyone was essentially brainwashed to ‘serve the state.’ Footage of live protests and riots in some of Prague’s main gathering areas, including Old Town Square and Wencelsclas Square put the events into better perspective for me. Czechoslovakia was famous for the “Velvet Revolution,” which alludes to the smooth transition from communism to a republic, followed by the splitting of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993.

St. Vitus' Cathedral

                The next day I took my history lesson back to the medieval period, where I learned more about Prague Castle, situated on top of a hill above the Vlatava River, and its Bohemian kings. I arrived right at opening time, and was so glad for my timing especially when I returned to the entrance two hours later and found it swarming with tour groups. I enjoyed the old cathedral, the original castle, constructed in the 9^th century, and the castle grounds with relative peace and quiet. I learned that the founder of Prague castle was the grandfather of Wenceslas, of the Christmas Carol “Good King Wenceslas.” Though Wenceslas was revered as a saint and the “eternal protector of the Bohemian lands,” he was never actually a king. I guess “Good Duke Wenceslas” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it. After touring the castle complex I hung out in the castle gardens for a while and took in the views of the city from the heights of the eastward facing castle – I bet Wenceslas saw many a beautiful sunrise in his day.

View from Prague Castle

Beef Goulash

                Prague offered many advertisements for ‘authentic’ and ‘traditional’ foods, to make the tourists happier, but as always, I was traveling on a budget and therefore only indulged in one ‘Czech’ meal, at a restaurant from a recommendation book at the hostel written by local Prague residents. I chose the menu of the day in Czech, as there was no English translation for the specials, only the full priced meals, and was treated to a hearty plate of goulash (basically beef stew), bread dumplings, shredded horseradish (interesting…), and some veggies. It was delicious, and 1/3 cheaper than the more touristy restaurant next door advertising the same dish. Win. Other Czech speciatlies that I noticed on menu boards seemed to be roasted duck, garlic soup, and a type of sausage that looked like a giant hot dog on a baguette.

Morning sunrise

                I felt like I was getting my traveling legs (and sore traveling feet) back during my three days in Prague, and it was thrilling to be back in Europe after three years and reminded so much of the beauty I experienced three years before. To me, there’s really nothing to compare a beautiful Gothic cathedral to in the world, and I enjoyed running back through my Western civilization courses in my head to review architecture, empires, and dynasties so that I could put Prague’s history into a better perspective. I’ve never spent much time studying Central or Eastern Europe, so I’m hoping the next nine months in Russia will help round out my European history education. It was fun to hear familiar languages again, like French and Spanish, and to try to guess where people were from. My stopover in Prague was the perfect introduction to the next year I have to look forward to in Europe, and now that I’m finally on my way to Moscow, I’m very excited to get back to work, have a place to live for more than a month at a time, and meet some new people.

                My layover here in Stockholm is just about over, so that’s it for now. I’ll write more from Moscow – I’ve got a week of orientation coming up, then I imagine I’ll start teaching a week from Monday. Wish me luck, and enjoy your Labor Day weekend! 

A Room with a View

My room. My view. 

                I’d say this title (thanks E.M. Forster) is an apt description of the past two months of my summer in downtown Minneapolis. Though it has absolutely nothing to do with the book, which I actually haven’t even read, I’m prepared to argue that my summer lodging has provided a pretty sweet view, one that I appreciated every day and will miss very much.  I was staying in a condo that I lucked out in ‘renting’ for the summer, and the luxury of not only having a place to myself again but also being within walking distance of so many neat features of Minneapolis was so wonderful to experience for a few short weeks.

Go Twins!

                Honestly, I wasn’t at the condo all that much over the past two months, because I ended up traveling around the state and to Wisconsin just as much as I stayed put. But every time I came back and waltzed back into the condo and looked out the window, I took a minute to be grateful for the opportunity to live there. It was the perfect staging point to come back from nearly a year of traveling, have a place to myself, and get ready for my next overseas adventure. This past summer at home was a summer of reunions, with people from all stages of my life, who helped remind me how lucky I am to have such great friends and family. It was also a summer of first experiences, highlights of which include completing my first half marathon, my first brewery tour, my first state fair (sorry Minnesota, it was actually in Wisconsin, which means you have next year to impress me even more), my first time at the new Guthrie Theater, and, as every devout Minnesotan must experience, my first time at the new Target Field for a Twins game.

Training paid off!

                But in between all that fun stuff, I had my room with a view. Every morning for a month I would wake up with the sun and trot five blocks east of the condo to hit Mill Ruins Park, where I would either run or walk to train for my half marathon. It was the perfect way to start the day, with clear mornings, perfect temperatures (for the most part, depending on the humidity), and a great view of the sun rising over the Mississippi River. After working out, I’d come back to the condo and lounge around with coffee while eating my breakfast and doing some prep work for graduate school applications. After my ‘work’ was done for the morning, I’d usually spend the afternoons walking, going to a coffee shop, or running errands (aka getting lost) in various parts of the Cities, which only helped my sense of directions. I’ve got those interstates nailed down in my head now. In the evenings I’d sometimes see my friends who were living and working in nearby Uptown, or I’d find something to keep me busy. It was a perfect weekly routine, and I had just the right balance of time to myself and time with my friends to keep me happy and to keep the time passing quickly.

Visiting Target Field

Brewery tour in Milwaukee

                I also had some visitors at the condo – Allie came to visit for a few days, during which we toured essential parts of Minneapolis, such as Mill Ruins Park, Lake Calhoun, the Nicollet Mall, and Target Field. A couple of my long time Mankato friends also spent a night or two with me at the condo, which was a fun way to catch up and enjoy the Cities with them. And if I didn’t have people coming to visit or didn’t see my friends nearby, I made a few trips throughout the summer to do some visits and have some reunions. Between a week up at the cabin with my family, some time in Mankato, Rochester, Milwaukee, Green Bay, and even Big Lake to celebrate my cousin’s birthday, I was busy. It was a fun few weeks, but all good things had to come to an end, and before I knew it it was time for me to leave the state and make one final trip for some reunions: this time back to Colorado, to visit friends and family.

Reunited after a year.

                My last morning in my room with a view was…spent frantically running around after oversleeping by nearly an hour to catch the light rail to the airport. Not fun, and not a great way to say goodbye. I made it to the airport with “seven minutes to spare” for check-in (thank you check-in lady) and then collapsed into the seat on the plane bound for Denver, a large Caribou coffee in hand. I arrived in Denver and spent the day with Ceci, my travel buddy from Asia and South America, and we went to Boulder for the afternoon to meet up with Roxy, my serendipitous friend who led to me meeting Ceci in the first place. It was nearly a year ago that I bought her camera for her to provide her cash to get a Vietnamese visa so that she could go teach English in Ho Chi Minh City, where I met up with her and her friends Cecilia, Jen, and Andrei a few days later. From there, she stayed to teach and I traveled north with her friends, and I hadn’t seen her since. It was great to hear about her teaching experiences and life in Vietnam, and so strange to think a whole year had passed since that day we met at the border of Thailand and Cambodia.

Conquered the Incline

                The next day I was picked up by one of my best friends from elementary school, who was living in Colorado Springs and I had only seen for about three hours in the past three years. I spent the rest of the week in the Springs, keeping busy at her apartment while she was at work, then hiking with her when she got off. The second hike we did was the hardest hike in my life, topping Machu Picchu by a mile. It was called “the Incline,” and is favored by coaches and trainers at the nearby Olympic Training Center to throw their athletes at for training. Ouch. A mile of intense vertical incline at high altitudes did not agree with me well. I knew I wasn’t out of shape, as I had just finished a half marathon a couple weeks before, so I was astounded at how ill I felt due to the altitude and the sheer intensity of the climb. I applaud everyone who makes it up that thing, and decided if I lived in the Springs I would do it once a week (like Amanda does – I’m so impressed.) On top of hiking, we maximized our time together by going line dancing and cooking delicious meals, then had a fun night out in Denver when she had to return me to Ceci.

                The weekend was spent catching up with four of my fellow UWGB swimmers, all of whom have relocated to Colorado in the past two years, and none of whom I had seen since I left in May 2010. We had a fun night playing cards, catching up, and going out on the town with Ceci and Andrei, and it was fun to have my friends from different times in my life interact together and get along. My last full day in the state I spent with my cousins, whom I had barely seen since we moved from Colorado nearly twenty years ago. Our ‘brunch’ turned into an all day affair, and we didn’t part ways until late afternoon as we were having such a great time catching up and chatting. By the end of the week I was exhausted from all of the talking and emotions that accompanied seeing loved ones after such a long time. I was also thrilled, however, that in one trip I was able to see so many people, so I predict another visit to Denver isn’t too far off in my future.

                My last day in the States I spent zipping around Chicago in a sporty little red rental car. My excessively long layover between Denver and London proved to be extremely convenient in that it saved me a separate trip to Chicago over the summer to visit two grad schools there that I will be applying to. I was lucky enough to meet with a grad student at the Univeristy of Chicago and a history professor at the University of Illinios-Chicago, as well as tour the campuses and get a feel for what going to school there would be like. Both meetings were really helpful to me in terms of how to direct my applications, and I’m looking forward to applying to both schools to see if I might end up at one of them next year.

                Looking back on the summer, I realized just how busy everything was, but I also wouldn’t change a thing. The amount of people I was able to see and catch up with, to hear about their lives and update them on mine, was priceless, and I doubt I’ll ever be able to spend a summer like that again, nor will I probably ever get a room with a view like this. It was the perfect way to end my year of traveling (which, ironically enough, included even more traveling) and a great start to one final year abroad. This time around I have an end date for coming and I’m looking forward to being back in the States next year. But first, I have a fantastic opportunity to experience yet another new culture, lifestyle, language, and country that I can’t wait to get started in. I’ll be blogging from abroad as always, so check in every so often if you’re curious! Enjoy the rest of Labor Day weekend and have a great start to the fall everyone!