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