26-30.09.07

26.09.07: I got up as early as I could make myself which turned out to be 7:30 and started planning my lessons. I had to make myself get up a little early as I promised a friend that I would come to their English class to converse with the students. Thankfully I had planned enough the days before that I didn’t have a lot to do during the day. I still went in to the office and found a few activities. One of the teacher trainers was there so I talked to her a little bit about my teenage class. Like the other teachers, she said that I should work more with discussion topics and not so much strictly out of the book. She gave me a few books that have some pre-made discussions in them so I am going to try them out next class. I met my friend around noon and went to where they teache, St. Tikhon’s Institute, and spent about an hour and a half with their students. The building where the school is, as with most buildings, has a security guard. When we were entering my friend explained that I was a guess for class but he didn’t want to let me through. So my friend started pleading with him and eventually asked me if I had any sort of identification about my work so I pulled out my same pass that I would use to get into the building where Language Link is and he was pleased... At my friend’s class I mostly talked about my conversion to Orthodoxy and such history and my schooling. They asked me various questions about my impressions of Russia and what American’s think of Russia and I as well asked them what they think about Russia (particularly the position of the Orthodox Church therein). I enjoyed talking to and hearing from them so hopefully I will have time to visit again soon (it would especially be good for them as my friend said that they have never spoken with a native speaker before). I was escorted back to the metro by the class so on the way they asked more questions and told me about various things. I had planned on leaving for work by 145 to be a little early and get set up for class but didn’t leave until 2 so I was very worried about being late, however, I made it to school about 2 minutes before class was to start and found none of the students there. They showed up about 10 minutes late and the “fun” began... So I decided to start out with an activity today hoping that it might get the energy out of them and calm them down. We played “action charades” where they had to act out simple activities like brushing teeth. Some of them didn’t turn out to be so simple as they didn’t know such phrases as “comb hair”. Things went pretty well for about 10 minutes but then they decided to start writing on the board when they got up so I decided to cut it short. I had them complete a little revision test in the book which they actually worked pretty diligently on (except for the one who always acts up); but he was at least pretty quiet. I really wanted to let them go on forever working but they did finish so I had to check in... They did pretty well overall so maybe I have taught them a little bit... The rest of the class was pretty calm considering past classes. After the usual 30 minutes my next class started and thankfully we had a third person show up. Everything went pretty well and it seems I even managed to spark a slight interest in history for the girl who said she always hated history. We had a chapter which included some readings about Henry the VIII and his wives so that kept them fairly interested. And 15 minutes after that class... (actually it turned out to be about 25 as I waited a few minutes for the last person and checked someone’s homework) Everything went well in this class other than getting a slight headache...

27.09.07: I got up early today (not as early as I had planned, however) to go to the liturgy for the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross at the church by my house. I was about 15 minutes late by the schedule for the start of the liturgy but they were still doing the 3rd hour so all was ok. As on Saturday and Sunday the church was packed and I had to squeeze through people to get to a spot (I still, however, often had to shift as people are most of the time shuffling by). I hadn’t particularly planned on staying for the whole service as I thought that I should do some more planning for my lessons. However I got sort of stuck towards the front of the church and didn’t feel like squeezing back through everyone; besides, I thought that it was only about 10 o’clock...it turned out to be almost 11. This wasn’t a problem in the end as I realized I didn’t need to go to the office today and could just make copies (which was all that ended up needing to be done) at school. So I got something to eat at my favorite little shop in our local food/anything market and spent a little leisure time at the flat. I left early for work as I though I would walk around the neighbourhood near the school and I had looked up to see if there were any churches nearby. I had forgotten to write down the address but ended up on the right street (turned out that the church is on the same street as the school). When I went in the church I noticed a few people up towards the front on the side and thought there might have been a service recently and it turned out there had been...a funeral. There was a +recently reposed babushka surrounded by what must have been her family. So I bought a few candles and lit one especially for her. I headed back to school thinking that I had plenty of time as my class didn’t start until 4:45...well I got there, made a few copies, talked a bit to the secretary, headed to class and found two of my three students. I told them that they were rather early, as it was only 430, and proceeded to prepare for class...I started class about 4:50 when the last student arrived and only then when I took my register did I realize that that class starts at 4:30... My Mon. Wed. classes are the ones that start at 45 minutes past... Class went fairly well over all but I’m pretty sure it’s painful for the students as they’re probably very bored. I tried one of the discussion topics I was given but it didn’t arouse much interest. My evening class went very well other than again having a very difficult grammar question.

28.09.07: We had a training session today on methods of teaching a class which is preparing to take an English proficiency test so my day was interrupted by this pointless activity... I went into the office but hadn’t gotten up as early as planned so I only had about an hour to look for materials for next week. I described this training as pointless as 2 weeks ago we had almost 4 hours of training on the makeup of this proficiency test; at this days session we simply were told of some books to use and more activities. Before this session I saw one of our other teacher trainers and asked about my passport which I hadn’t seen for a month... She said that they should call me when it was ready but that she would check into it. She sent me a message a short time later that said it was at the main office...who knows how long it had been sitting there...other people that arrived when I did had received there’s about a week and a half earlier. When I returned to the office after our training I found the rest of my materials but was not able to do completely everything I wanted as everyone else decided to come in and just hang around... Afterwards I checked out a little cd shop by the metro to look for Alisa cds but didn’t find any. I ended up buying the first set of cds from a band called DDT as a fellow intern had said they were good and at the first birthday party I was at they sang one of their songs and I liked it. I shouldn’t have believed the intern or gone by what was sung...out of 7 disks I have only liked one so far... I next went on a search for Fr. Arseny (the book) so I went to one of the Orthodox shops in Moscow - Pravoslavnaya Slova. They however didn’t have the book either so I bought a book by Fr. John (Krestjankin) to try and read. I walked around the neighbourhood some and came upon another church so I stepped in to see if they had the book. They’re in the process of re-painting the interiour so it was interesting to see them at work. I asked the woman at the bookstand if they had what I was looking for and told her that it was about a 300 page book but she looked through her whole stock of tiny booklets looking for it... I felt bad for having her do this so I decided to buy something; I bought a book that has short histories of all the churches in Moscow and a small calendar for next year. I met a friend later at Vorobyovi Gori and we walked around the park there and along the Moscow river.

29.09.07: I had planned on preparing more for teaching the following week but again didn’t get up as early as I had hoped. After half heartedly looking over the books I decided that as it was Saturday I didn’t need to be working since I would be preparing all my weekday hours anyway... I received today while I was home a telemarketing call; I didn’t know that they would exist in Russia... So I had decided to make a trip to the South of Moscow to the Optina Pustyn Podvore. This was the one other place where I thought I might find Fr. Arseny and I was correct - although I almost overlooked the book as it was shelved with Literature and not saint’s lives. I visited the three separate shops they have in the Podvore and also the church. Last time I was at the church the relics of the Optina startsi were out but this time they were in a part of the church that was roped off. On my way out of the grounds I was harassed by what appeared to be a gypsy child of 6 or 7 begging with his mother; I gave him my pocket change (about 15 rubles) and he started following me saying something I couldn’t understand; he must have realized that was all I was going to give so he ran off to follow after his next victim... I walked around the neighbourhood and a little into Bitstevsky Les and then picked up a few pirozhki and a yoghurt for a late lunch. I later met a friend downtown to go to their church, St. Tatiana, for the vigil. This church is on the old campus of Moscow State University (right across from the Kreml), which I had seen before but didn’t realize that it was a church (it looks like a university building other than having on the front “The Light of Christ Illumines All,” which I thought strange...). After vigil we went to McDonald’s where we waited in line for about 20 minutes...more because we were talking and not forcing our way up front...and ate outside the Kreml in Aleksandrovsky Sad. We spent some time eating and talking on various and sundry topics. At one point a woman approached (she looked German) and asked in English how to get to Red Square. I was thrown by the fact that she just decided to talk to some stranger in English so it took me a second to respond.

30.09.07: I met the same friend again this morning to go to St. Tatiana’s for liturgy. After the liturgy my friend introduced me to a few of their friends (2 of whom were also Aleksanders...). I was also introduced to several of the priests and the deacon, all of whom speak English so now I have someone to whom I can go for confession. We then walked over to Christ the Saviour as I hadn’t been there yet. This being the main cathedral in Moscow, and all of Russia, of course is beautiful but a lot of the iconography in the lower church I like better than what is normally seen by people and associated with the church. I met another friend, whose birthday party I had been at a few weeks previous, at Kolomenskoe, one of the summer homes of the tsars, in the afternoon and we walked around a few hours. We visited the church of the Kazan Mother of God where there had just been a wedding, was another one going as well as a baptism... After walking around for a while we returned to the church and stayed for a bit of Vespers and an Akathist. When we were leaving we coincidentally ran into a few people from MP who were going for a walk.

I had not expected to have a Fall in Moscow but we're having a "Baba Leto" (when it get's cold and then warm again)

The road...

Random Russian child

What appeared to be a private house in the middle of the park...

The same

The implements

This isn't your backwoods outhouse...

The similar

Near the graveyard there is a big apple orchard (I was slightly weary of eating the apples so I didn't try one)

The orchard (notice the man in the tree)

Detail of the gate to the graveyard at Kolomenskoe

The graveyard at Kolomenskoe

The graveyard at Kolomenskoe

After trecking up a big hill to the other church Katja and I found it closed...

Detail of main church at Kolomenskoe

The bell tower and some other building at Kolomenskoe

A view of Moscow from Kolomenskoe

The main church at Kolomenskoe (still under repair)

Detail of door in gateway

One of the gateways to Kolomenskoe

Detail of one of the buildings at Kolomenskoe

The Church of the Kazan Mother of God

The Kazan Church

A chapel spotted on the way to Christ the Saviour

Dostoevky statue

Dostoevky ironically outside the library by the name of Lenin (a man who would be his arch nemesis)

Lomonosov, the founder of Moscow State University

A "structure" at Bitsevsky Park

Detail of the "structure"

More Beautification

More Beautification

Someone loves Yasenevo

The entrance to Bitsevky Forest

Bitsevsky Forest in Yasenevo

Yasenevo district (seems that the people are trying to, understandibly, liven up the atmosphere)

Optina Podvore

Optina Podvore

Optina Podvore

A fantastic building...

A fantastic building detail...

St. Mitrophan's

St. Mitrophan's

St. Mitrophan's

St. Mitrophan's

St. Mitrophan's