And another week...

16.10.07: I spent a good deal of time trying to figure out how I was going to stretch out my high school class in discussing The Godfather. I compiled questions for the reading sections and also for the movie sections; as the fill the the blanks dialogues didn’t go over so well I skipped those. I was very worried about not having enough stuff to do but in the end it worked out ok. I had them write as usual in the beginning and then we discussed some, watched some, discussed some, watched some and read another chapter. Now I hope I can just stretch it out over the next four classes... Evening class went pretty well - I had two trial students and one regular was missing. I feel kind of bad for anyone who has tried to join this class because the people in the class are pretty strong for their level and everyone so far who has sat in has been somewhat behind. The two girls that were there tonight had actually covered the chapter we were doing before but thankfully it had been a while and they didn’t remember that much. I had planned on calling my boss to talk about the elementary class but in the end decided to give it one more chance...

17.10.07: Once again I wasted an hour or more preparing a pointless lesson plan as the observer simply didn’t show up for class...and I was that close to telling her after she didn’t show up before that I refuse to waste more of my time. So that is it - no more lesson plans, ever. And once again the elementary class was “hell on wheels” (from the belt buckle of my new upper intermediate student) Although I had them somewhat under control for small portions of the class (I had them doing a lot of writing) it was a disaster. So I am from this point refusing to teach the class as long as said child is present. In my next class I yet again had a new student; now it is my biggest class - 5. And in my evening class the same two people were missing - so again we got through a lot of material but class just dragged on and on...

18.10.07: So my would be observer messages me saying that she wasn’t able to make it because she “got lost” and her “phone died” which was no consolation. I also was sent a message by the boss of my branch saying that she was coming to observe my advanced high schooler class. So considering that I modified my lesson plan - I found a few other things to do before continuing with the Godfather. I didn’t know what she would say about watching 20 or 30 minutes of a movie... But I am just going along with what other people have told me to teach... She only stayed for about 45 minutes or so (the first 20 were a writing exercise). She also informed me that her and the other boss want to meet with me next week for some odd reason. I also informed her that I don’t have the ability to control the elementary class; that I’ve tried everything I can do and it’s useless. She told me that they were thinking of stopping the class (which I highly doubt as they’re making at least something for paying me a pittance to babysit these children for 2 hours). For my evening class only one girl showed up so I started with going over the homework then something from the last lesson after which we ended up simply talking for the rest of the class. It turns out that she is Orthodox (before when we talked about it I didn’t realize that they probably wouldn’t know that word...). So we talked about various topics concerning marriage and saints. She doesn’t seem to attend services regularly but says that she believes...

19.10.07: My day when I try to push all thoughts of teaching out of my head. However, today I very much wanted to talk to someone about my past week and everything teaching so far. I was to meet someone that evening to go to a concert but she had the afternoon off so we met after lunch and walked around a bit downtown and spent several hours at a cafeteria talking. We went a little concert of traditional Russian peasant singing that evening after which we walked around a bit with a few singers from the show and other young people after which we ended up back at the cafeteria of that afternoon... I almost forgot to mention... When we were walking around in the afternoon my friend took me by the church where the relics of St. Alexei Mechev of Moscow who was a widowed priest who was blessed by St. John of Kronstadt to be an elder in the city. His son, St. Sergei, was also a priest who was martyred by the Bolsheviks.

20.10.07: Had my second lesson with my individual student. It was a little easier today as his parents didn’t sit in and I had an idea of what they wanted me to do with the boy. We looked through the book he uses at school and reviewed the stuff he just studied then reviewed the material I gave him the week before and then a little bit of a new lesson and that was it...fairly painless...and today they served me tea and cookies. Afterwards I saw a church so decided to go visit it...it turned out not to be a church but from that place I spotted another church...that turned out to have been a church but now was an iconography studio (could also still be a church but if it was it was not open-which would be a little strange as most churches are open everyday). So spent a few hours back at the flat before meeting a friend to go to a gathering of folklorists of the type we saw sing the night before (who were having a celebration for Pokrov). The place was rather hard to find and so my friend, wanting me to practice my Russian, had me ask every person that I was willing to for directions. So while speaking (especially using new phrases) I often forget what I’ve already said so about every time I would misspeak and end up using some other phrase that probably sounded quite abrupt (though I was trying to use polite phrases). The worst came with the last people I asked-two elderly women sitting outside their building. It started out poorly because I almost laughed when I went up to them as one of them looked like the other had recently punched her and given her a black eye. While I was trying to spit out the question the other who must not have heard started asking what we wanted and mumbling things. While the other was trying to explain she was beginning to understand where we were going and while we were leaving exclaimed “А дом творчества!” When we finally arrived we found out that there was also another folklorian happening that night so not so many people came. For a little while we sat around a table and they sang some songs and passed a common cup toasting to different people. Once more people arrived the balilaika was brought out and the dancing began. We danced some not too complicated dances so I picked up most of it. I think the dancing went on for about an hour maybe less and it was time to end. However they ended up singing until everyone was kicked out of the building then continued singing outside for a while...

21.10.07: Went this morning to St. Tatiana’s which I visited a few weeks ago. In the bookstore I bought another little book to try and read-this one is letters from the 50’s and 60’s from a priest to his spiritual children. Afterwards a friend and I went to Izmailovsky Park as there was another celebration for Pokrov. We spent some time in the kremlin (a reproduction) at the park and sat in for about an hour on a children’s concert during which we heard/saw Agni Partheni, Bless the Lord O My Soul, a few dances and a folk song. Next it was off to a church downtown where an akathist to Sts. Peter and Fevronia of Murom was being sung. Afterwards there was a regular gathering of young people with the priest during which they discuss various topics over tea and snacks. Tonight’s topic was freedom but before that the previous topic, problems in relationships, was rehashed.