Recounting Rus: 04-06.10.07

04.10.07: I decided to get up early and go in to the office so as to find my materials for teaching next week so that I wouldn’t have to on Friday. I didn’t get there as early as hoped so other people were there coming in and out and in general distracting me from my task. I was also trying to figure what I needed to do to make my high-schoolers interested in the lessons. I talk to my teacher trainer and she gave me some good ideas such as watching a movie in parts and discussing it, reading “graded readers,” and showed me a book that has activities. I used one of these activities today and it went very well. Thankfully all 4 people were in attendance so I was able to have 2 groups. I also had them start doing a writing exercise at the beginning of the lesson which I think they all enjoyed. I read the most creative one to the class after their break. I had given them a picture of a middle aged man examining a high heeled shoe and told them to write about it whatever they wanted. Three of the four said such things as that the man was the owner of the store or of a shoe manufacturer but the fourth decided that the man was Lenin resurrected... After the break I realized I didn’t really have much to do so thankfully I had brought along an excerpt from a graded reader (The Godfather) so I started them on that and said that we would read some every class. I found out today that this class ends on November the 6th so I’m happy about that, however, unfortunately it may continue as an exam preparation class (before the end of the class the academic director came and talked to the students about the exam class and told them to talk to their parents about it and that she will call them on Monday...hopefully the parents won’t want to dish out the extra money...). The problem is that I will be done with the book next week so then I will have about 7 classes for which I will have to totally make up lessons. I was told the other day that I would be starting to teach an eleven year old boy in his home on Saturdays starting on the 12th. So now, even though I won’t for sure work on Friday, it will be the same as working 6 days a week as I will still probably have to go into the office on Fridays to prepare. I will be teaching said child for and hour and a half right in the middle of the day...and it will be at least an hour trip from my flat. To make matters worse the academic director at the school I taught at today asked me, “Do you like children?” I responded asking her what age children meant and was told eleven or twelve; so I assume from this that I will be given a new class of little brats. My evening class went well as usual other than a few hairy questions on quantifiers (if you remember the last time I “taught” quantifiers was the worst experience yet). We didn’t get through all the lesson, which I don’t mind, as we started a little late and got a little off topic some. I ended up asking the class about kefir (not totally unrelated as the chapter is on food) and they said that they like 1% better...

04.10.07: As we would have a training session on Saturday I decided that I wasn’t going to do anything involving work on Friday. (I write this on Sunday and somewhat regret not doing anything...but only somewhat.) So I had picked out a few places that I wanted to go and was off... I went to the All Russian Exhibition Center (VVTs [that’s “tseh” not “t’s”]) first which is only a few stops from my flat. This facility was built to show off the cultural diversity of the CCCP and had different pavilions for the different regions. Now shops of all sorts, offices and eateries occupy these pavilions. The grounds are very nice to walk on as it has a park setting. I spent a few hours here including having a little lunch at a cafe (I had my second bowl of borshch). I next decided to search out a church that I had spotted the previous week from Kolomenskoe. It had taken me some time to find out anything about this church as I had only seen it in the distance and Katja didn’t know anything about it. However, with my trusty map of churches in Moscow and my book about the same I found it and how to get there. As I had a lot of time I ended up walking from the metro to the church which was probably 5 or 6 kilometers. When I got there it turned out that the churches weren’t open... I did go into the bookstore for about 5 minutes but that was it... So back to the metro... I next decided to go to Danilov monastery, the headquarters of the Patriarchate. On my way to the monastery there was a shop of theirs where various goods are sold - I decided to try some Kronstadt bread. The first thing I came across at the monastery, through an outside entrance into the fortifications, was a little church of St. Seraphim where there was a bookstore so I spent a few minutes inside. Then came the monastery proper; there weren’t a lot of people around so I sort of followed someone who looked like they knew where they were going... I came across a church in which there appeared to be a service so I went in. An Akathist was being prayed so I spent about 15 minutes there and decided to see if the other church was open. In the other church Vespers was finishing up so I spend another 15 or so minutes in that service. Before I left I got in the queue for venerating the relics of St. Daniel. I sat down for awhile on a bench in the courtyard, as I had been walking all day, and watched people come and go and especially the security guards who were dressed uniforms of the early 20th century (I think that’s what I want to do when I grow up). I was supposed to go to Tsaritsyno that night with a friend but they had to cancel so I ended up going to the meeting of MP where they were discussing various plans (I only understood about a quarter of what was said so I just followed the gist). Afterwards a few people went to eat at the nearby mall type facility where I had another bowl of borshch.

05.10.07: Had planned on getting up early and doing a few things before training but that didn’t happen... The training was a little more relevant but we didn’t talk that much about children so at the present wasn’t that helpful (plus it could have been compacted into about an hour instead of almost 2 hours). As I was to meet people from MP at 2.20 to go to a children’s home I loitered around the office for a little while after which I decided to change some money as there was a good rate. Well, when I gave my $40 she asked for 40 rubles (to give me a 1000 ruble bill). She obviously wasn’t calculating according to the advertised rate so I tried to explain but she wouldn’t have it. After I got my money back I figured I would try the other one nearby... Their “rate” was only 5 kopeks lower so it was negligible. It also turned out that their rate was actually about 15 kopeks lower than the previous place so I just went with it... In the end I lost about $2 which in the land of plenty isn’t much but when I can buy 4 loaves of wholesome bread for that much it hurts... So about 10 or so from MP went to the children’s home and played some games, did some activities, ate some snacks and watched part of a Bible movie with the children. One of the children, Ilia, took a liking to me and called me his dad and gave me some small models of various animals and a plane (see below). He also told me that he wants to be an icon painter when he grows up and showed us all, and later gave us, some of his drawings (see below). Later several others took an interest in me when they realized I was American and started asking me various questions. Overall it was a very rewarding experience (as some of my fellow teachers wished me) and I hope to be able to go back soon. Please pray for Ilia and his fellows that they will continue to stay close to the Church. We spent about 3.5 hours at the home and headed home... I stopped at Arbat street to go to Dom Knigi and ended up buying a map of Moscow (I was really looking for a small metro map but none were what I wanted) and a book on Russian verbs. On the way I stopped by a church (see here) which was still open after vigil and venerated the icons.

06.10.07: I went to liturgy at the Church of the Annunciation down the street today. (It was hard getting out of bed at 7 when it was still slightly dark but I made myself). I was able to position myself somewhere from where I didn’t really have to move about until the end of the service (plus there were slightly fewer people there than on the feast). Afterwards I did a little shopping at our local product center. As I hadn’t done any preparation on Friday or Saturday I decided that I really needed to so the rest of the afternoon I prepared this weeks classes (except for my advanced high schoolers for which I need consultation to start planning lessons). I drank about 10 cups of tea which I think gave me a headache...that or looking at those dang books for so long in poor light. As I prepared all that I felt necessary I started studying my verb book and finally looked at the Orthodox news papers I’ve had a few weeks... Saw some ads for iconography and restoration schools...maybe I’ll go be an iconographer...

Note: I have about 150 photos from this weekend so it's going to take some time to upload them all; hopefully over the course of the week they will all be posted, keep checking back.

Ps. The order of the pictures goes from bottom to top.