7.09-9.09 - Weekend

7.09.07: Training as expected. We will be teaching everyday next week so we received the lessons so we can start preparing. We will be teaching Pre, Upper, and regular Intermediate classes. Yesterday I heard that we had to totally make up our lessons only using the book that is usually taught out of as reference, however, today our trainer said she did that with the last group but may not with us. (She may have been punishing them for being late en masse last Saturday as they all went out Friday and drank the night away....) Saturday, you say? Yes, we have training tomorrow: how to give an exam. I attempted to work on my lesson for Monday after training today and think I have a good idea... I have plans all weekend so hopefully I can fit some preparation in. Tonight I went to the first meeting of MP for the school year. They talked about options of things to do. For instance, they go to orphanages, nursing homes, on pilgrimages and help rebuild churches. I understood about half of what was being discussed and every once in a while I had my neighbour translate into comprehensible Russian. After the meeting I accompanied said neighbour and another friend on a leisurely trip back to the metro and headed home... In interesting news today I had the longest yet conversation with the woman at the kiosk where I usually buy lunch. I was a buying cookies and had to describe the particular ones and she had to climb up and get them to ask if they were right and then find another one from somewhere in the bowels of the kiosk...usually kiosk people are pretty short but maybe she’s warming up to me. Also today was the first day when I’ve been on the metro when it is more than packed. Of course it’s not a huge problem as a new train comes every minute. Tonight I made plans to go visit the Kreml in a few weeks... 8.09.07: Training again. We learned how to “teach to the test” as they say; the test for different certificates in English. Some of these tests are even hard to complete for native speakers... We went through each part and did a little to see what it’s like and some parts are very tricksy. We did finish a little early so that was a relief but since it was still the middle of the afternoon it didn’t really make much difference. Plans had changed to go to a friend’s dacha instead of the futbol match but as the dacha is over an hour away I ended up going to the match with another friend. I met them at a metro station as usual and as I was waiting new groups of militsia appeared with every train. Some stayed in the metro and wandered back and forth on the platform but the majority, and additional hundreds, were met near the stadium. Near the stadium there was a line of army personnel who made a gateway through which everyone had to pass. After that when we entered the stadium fence we had a bag search and upon entering the stadium itself there was a metal detector, pat down and bag search, and at the door to the seating area there was another bag search... So we finally got to our seats after having a little cup of coffee to warm up (it was cold all day). The game started out well with a goal for Russia within the first 5 or ten minutes. After a fierce competition Russia scored 2 more goals in the last 10-15 minutes. In other news it appears that I have a shin splint or somesuch that hurts my shin muscle very much. And the final score:




9.09.07: I attended Liturgy at the Church of the 40 Martyrs of Sebaste but arrived about an hour late as I though it started at 10. It is the church where Father Maxim who leads MP serves. It was raining a little bit when I went in and after service it started raining more. I was supposed to meet some people at 2 in the afternoon so I decided to find loiter somewhere which turned out to be a terrible idea. I decided to find a Citibank to make sure my account worked (which it did) so I went downtown. At first I didn’t get very wet but the rain started picking up and since I was on the streets for about 2 hours I was almost completely drenched. In my wandering I did, however, come upon a marathon... I also went into an underpass which turned out to be a changing station for all the finished runners; when I came out on the other side I was encircled by various fences and a bunch of very wet runners. By the time I started heading to the metro to meet people, as I said, I was very wet and my schplint (what I’ve decided to call my shin ailment) was throbbing. What was worse was that my feet didn’t dry all day even in the warm metro. So I met various people in the afternoon to go to a birthday party which turned out to be in Mitischi which is a suburb of Moscow. This party was similar to the previous one in a lot of ways except without the guitars (there was a balalaika, however).