Sorry for the lack of updates this past week. I've been going into the office as little as possible so therefore haven't had much access to this interweb. (Now I have even more pictures that will eventually be uploaded...)
08.10.07: After preparing the day before I didn’t have a lot to do today. I went in to the office in the morning though to work on preparation for my high school class. The teacher trainer I had talked to about this the other day turned out to have gone to St. Petersburg... So I talked to another one and she gave me some good advice and suggested that we watch The Godfather as it might go well with having them read a little ahead and then watch some. So I read ahead some in the book and worked on questions to ask. Hopefully this will keep their interest for the next 7 classes... When I arrived at my school the security guard (who finally recognizes me-I’m thinking it’s because of the wallet ordeal of last week) stopped me when I went in...at first I thought there was a problem but then he gave me some booties for my shoes to put on...(I assume because it was wet outside) So about everyone in the building was wearing blue booties and the place looked like a hospital. (I wonder if they’re going to be handing these out all winter as well...) My elementary class went well again today...the child who likes to act up was gone again. The atmosphere is much more relaxed when he isn’t there and an hour of class went by without me really realizing it. Next class went well also; one student was gone so I didn’t want to work to far ahead so I had the other two students talking for most of the time and we went at a relaxed pace (I’ve decided that it really doesn’t matter if we cover all I planned as long as they are talking and hopefully learning something). And the next class went well...
09.10.07: I was around the flat most of the morning preparing for classes and then went into the office to prepare some more; to talk to someone to get some ideas about how I was supposed to present the movie. I found a script online and selected several dialogues and took out some words for the students to put back in. All this preparation took a surprisingly long time so I again rushed off to class, not as early as planned but not late. The students were a little late as usual so I had time to get everything ready. I started out this class with another writing exercise; this one I had a picture of a dwarf that was in the Moscow Times today... We did a little discussion about The Godfather from the text they read and I tried to have them do a roleplay but it didn’t work the best...it wasn’t a total flop though. So we started watching and I had them try to fill in missing words but I hadn’t so much considered how difficult all the Italianesque accents are to understand. So after the first dialogue I realized that they needed to see the subtitles; at that point it was a little pointless to fill in the blanks as one of them pointed out. So we just watched another few scenes and then I had one dialogue in which I had left the list of words to fill in after they had seen the scene and that worked better... Now hopefully the next 7 classes will go as well. In my evening class one student didn’t show up so there were only two so I didn’t really want to do a full lesson. We did some reading and they ended up talking a lot and I decided not to stop them (the fact that they are dating helps the class to go pretty smoothly). So we discussed the topics in the book and then went off into other topics; by the end of the class we were talking about literature and movies...
10.10.07: I finally made myself get up at 7; it was the hardest thing I’ve had to do since I’ve been here... The problem was that it looked like it was still about 5 in the morning and I had just previously woken up and had looked outside and thought I had a few more hours to sleep... So with my extra time I simply prepared a little more for class and was going to go into the office to do a few things. When I got on the metro I decided to go ahead and drop my money off for the trip I am supposed to be taking on Sunday (to Kolomna a town outside of Moscow). So I had been to the church one other time (when I first arrived) but couldn’t remember exactly how to get there from the metro. I had looked at the location on a map a few times so generally knew which way to go so once I got coordinated from the metro station I figured it out. Thankfully when I went in I ran into a man who was patient enough to listen to me and direct me to the woman at the candle stand who took my money. So I had planned the day before to visit a friend’s English class again but ran by the office beforehand to check my email and make some copies. I had also “lost” my flash drive the day before (I thought for sure on the metro) but thankfully remembered to ask at the office and it was there. So I rushed off to St. Tikhon’s and my friend had procured for me a document that says I’m some sort of teacher and have permission to go into the building... So this time at the lesson my friend wanted to discuss the book where they were at at the time. The class was more talkative this time and I think they’re getting used to hearing an American talk... We discussed technology and at one point when Victoria said that she didn’t love technology I was tempted to bust a rhyme like Kip... So after class I had a little lunch with my friend and ran into my fellow American Thomas and talked a little bit about my teaching so far and other some such. So off to class... The woman who runs the franchise I work for, Maria, had told me the day previous that she was coming to my class to observe my discipline problem (which I informed her hadn’t been present but she came anyway) and sat in on class for about an hour. Class went pretty well as lately it has been. After class Maria talked to the students and asked them about the class and said some things about how they should act in class (such as not pulling the girls pony tale [which he hadn’t done before, I think he is starting to like her]) and told them not to speak in Russian, which I’d been trying to control unsuccessfully. Maria gave me some ideas of a few things to do and told me about the child that I will be teaching on Saturdays. Next class went well, however, after we finished the current chapter I turned the page and realized I hadn’t even looked at the next chapter... So I read the first thing and tried to have them talk a bit while I was trying to look ahead... I stumbled a bit but overall I don’t think it was bad. I think they’re used to my mess ups. Thankfully the vocabulary part took up the rest of the class after we had read a little story at the beginning of the chapter. In my next class I was giving a test so there wasn’t a whole lot to do. I did review the homework at the beginning so as to wait for one student, who never showed up. So the test and grading it took up the other hour and a half of class.
11.10.07: Spent a lot of the morning preparing questions and script excerpts for The Godfather. I went to the office around noon and spent some time copying exercises for next week and looking over materials especially for the new student I’m supposed to have on Saturday. I’m supposed to give a diagnostic test first and then give a sort of diagnostic lesson so we’ll see how it goes... I also was informed that next week I would have an observation of one of my classes. So it will be my upper-intermediate class on Monday. The teacher who will be observing me asked if I had a lesson plan and I was shocked...I haven’t made a lesson plan since about the 2 or 3 day of teaching... I found it pointless as even when I had one I forgot to go by it...or if I tried to I only got confused with having to refer to the lesson plan, the student book and the teacher’s book all at the same time. Basically I now just go by the student book in which I’ve made notes and refer to the teacher’s book if I hadn’t written all the answers in the student book. So now I’ll have to spend several hours writing up a pointless lesson plan... So my advanced group went pretty well today. We discussed the clip we had watched the previous class and also the reading which they had done. All four students showed up (one had missed basically the previous two classes-so all of The Godfather so far). However, this said student read over the text fairly quickly and I had the other students retell the story to her so she caught up pretty quickly. We watched about a 10 minute section and then I had them go over some of the script which I had prepared but after we had gone over it I realized that they were not very excited about doing this so I asked them if it was of any use and they said it wasn’t really... So I said we could just discuss the film which we did for the remainder of the class (about 40 minutes). I didn’t really have enough questions to ask so thankfully two of them argued for awhile about some things... The other two I kept trying to involve in the conversation but didn’t have much luck. My next class went well as usual. In the metro station at my school I was awaiting the train and watching it arrive when I spotted a friend whom I had met the first weekend I was here so I ran down to the car he was in and we rode together to my next stop. By another chance when we were transferring we ran into several other people from MP. While they were talking (I couldn’t make out half of what they were saying) we heard several small crashes from the hall behind us so we looked to see a man yelling at an older woman to “get out of here” and proceeded to kick her things (she was trying to sell two kittens). So my friends went over and I followed... There was already the man, the woman and two other men standing there arguing. I couldn’t make out anything but one of the men was between the yelling man and the other and the woman was standing there looking on; one of the girls we had met was between “ole yeller” and the woman. ...Evidently “ole yeller” was standing opposite the woman in the hall (many people sell things in the halls of the metro) but I didn’t understand why he decided to push around this woman. I asked my friend what happened and he just said something about like “such it is in Moscow”...
12.10.07: I had planned on visiting Butovo Polygon (the place where many people were killed under the communist yoke; and where part of the reconciliation services between the two halves of the Russian Church were held) today so I headed to where I thought I would find it...I was wrong that I would find it. I went to the end of the line of the Butovo district and thought that I might spot it from the metro but no such luck. I did see another church so after looking around a bit and realizing it was a waste of time I decided to ask at the other church. There was a funeral ending when I arrived (and a sign not to enter) so I walked in the graveyard for a while before returning. I spent a few minutes in the church waiting for the attendant to have some spare time when I went up to wait an old woman had also come up so I waited until she was done. So I listened in on what she was asking... she was buying some icons and had first asked for one of St. Nicholas and looked at several. Then she asked about the Theotokos and about the different ones of those; at that point the attendant said asked if she had one of the Saviour and that it was necessary to have one of the Saviour as that’s where it all begins. So she spent some time looking at the different sizes and contemplating about a book; finally she purchased the lot... So the woman didn’t really know the exact way to the other church but told me which bus. So I found the bus stop but there was no where to buy a ticket (for such buses one needs a ticket before getting on). I walked a ways looking for a ticket book but the one I found wasn’t open... It was also very cold by this time (a few snowflakes had fallen when I was on the way to the first church). So I decided to give up the search for another day and headed back to the metro. I had wanted to go to Tsaritsyno next but decided I was not dressed appropriately so I went on a pointless trip to Izmailovsky park where I walked around the booths and bought a cup of tea. (I thought Izmailovsky park might have something different than 2 years ago but I was wrong...) So I loitered around awhile as I was supposed to meet a friend later to go to an art exhibition. So we went to a group of art galleries that are on the grounds of a former factory (appropriately named “factory”) and looked at 5 different galleries. So we didn’t actually go in the first one-it didn’t look that interesting from the outside. The second one had really big prints (probably 4’ x 6’) of people with down syndrome-they were mildly interesting because of the size and the backgrounds. The third one had an exhibit of photos from Australia which were also mildly interesting. And the fourth one had paintings that were in what I might call the “stream” effect (picture paint running down a canvas) with general shapes of objects. A few of these were mildly interesting for the texture. And finally (we actually almost missed it) what we had come for-an exhibit of movie posters from the 20s and 30s. These were the most interesting (it didn’t take much) as they were originals and one could see the pasted letters overlapping the hand drawn pictures. So after this I had time to make it to the MP meeting where a bard singer (Aleksei Kirillov) was going to be playing. So he played for about an hour-an hour and a half. Aleksei has played and organized a lot of festivals for Orthodox since he was baptized (if I remember right about 15 or 20 years ago).
13.10.07: So waking up with the thought of the new student I was to teach was not fun. I prepared a little before and tried to make my silly lesson plan for Monday’s class. I met someone from the office at a metro to be taken to the flat of the boy. The flat was about 10 minutes away (though it took a little longer as we had to find the way). I was prepared for an awkward situation but it turned a little more awkward when the parents (who spoke English, and very well, to my surprise) wanted to sit in on the lesson. I told them that I was going to give him a test and see where I think we should start. So at first they didn’t join but after a while they came in. We ended up doing the test together as he didn’t totally seem to understand it. I really don’t know why they’re having a private instructor as the parents are well capable of teaching him and he seemed pretty advanced for his age. I returned to my flat after this and prepared a little for the next week and went to the vigil for Pokrov at my local Church of The Annunciation. I had a pretty good spot to stand but when it came time for the annointing the church became like a rush hour metro (packed like a can of overcrowded sardines).
14.10.07: Today the awaited trip to Kalomna came; the first time outside of Moscow (and the farthest from Moscow so far). We left on a coach about 7 and made the approximately 100 kilometer trip to this town which is something like 30 years younger than Moscow. We arrived for the liturgy at the Pokrov Church at Novo-Golutvin Holy Trinity women’s monastery. The church was packed as to be expected but not overcrowded. The singing was by the nuns of which there were about 30-40. After liturgy we had a small tour of the other churches and a look at the monastery camel. They were kind enough to feed us a little lunch after which we listened to Abbess Ksenia give a talk and a question and answer session. A friend sat next to me and translated different parts of the talk so that I got the just of what was said. Next we walked to the local cathedral which is just outside the monastery and then a little bit around the old part of town. After this we got back on the bus and headed to the seminary/monastery where Fr. Iosaph (the spiritual director of Voskresene) attended and had a tour; this monastery was founded by a disciple of St. Sergius of Radonezh. We stopped at a local church near the monastery which was built in the Byzantine style and is currently being restored. Among other great things this church does is give rides on four wheelers to children after liturgy. We were then off to the other side of Kolomna to visit a men’s monastery opposite the river Oka from the women’s monastery. At this monastery we sang an akathist to the icon of the Theotokos Feodorovskaya. We had a short tour of the two churches and then made our way back to Moscow. My friend had mentioned earlier in the day that traditionally Pokrov is when there is the first snowfall which “covers” (pokrov). It turned out that the Covering is still over Moscow as when we were heading back we came across several centimeters of snow covering the ground.
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