Training Week 2

10.09.07: Went into the office early today to prepare my lesson; didn’t do any good as I totally went down in a ball of flaming corn. Maybe tomorrow will be better... I’m still being told that I’ll be fine but I’m starting to have a hard time believing it. There was actually a problem on the metro today (the first one I’ve seen). There were delays for some reason on the circle line which is the busiest line. When I arrived on the platform the train had been there for at least 7 minutes (totally unheard of when trains normally go through every minute or so in rush times). There were probably several hundred people waiting for the next train (since this one was filled to the brim) which I did manage to squeeze onto. I shoved in (literally) and thought that there couldn’t possibly be any more people when another guy refrigerated on and about killed some poor woman. So then we were all on....and stood there for probably 5 minutes...and when we finally left we stopped at one point before the next station (thankfully I only had to go one stop) and stood there for probably 3-5 minutes. After my transfer all was back to normal... That’s about it for today.

11.09.07: Went in early again today to work on lesson planning. After going to bed the night before with an idea of what I was going to do I arrived at work having forgotten... I looked over my stuff for a while and found a few exercises but didn’t think they would do so I finally asked one of the trainers what she thought and she said that it was great and should work fine. So that’s what I planned on doing. More training and I thought most of the day about what I was going to do. After the previous nights failed attempt I was quite downcast for another performance but in the end everything worked out fine. They group we taught was the best group I’ve seen so far. All the people will talk on their own and they understand very well. So my lesson went as planned and even a bit over since they were having so much fun. However, I teach another grammar point next which doesn’t look so hopeful unless if I can find some great activities... I ended up meeting a friend from Chicago who’s in town after work and we ended up going to McDonald’s (my first time in Russia). They food was the same but here in Russia they are a bit more of a classy joint (at least this one was...).

(Don't forget to see the new pictures and video added to the last post.)