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!