Recounting Rus: Training

Showing posts with label Training. Show all posts

08 October, 2007

04-06.10.07 - The weekend

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.

Happy shiny people

Another...(with great texture)

Another pavilion

The pavilion for Karelia (one of the few that has any wooden parts)

Detail so you can see their smiling faces

More happy proletariat

The Soviets did have a good taste in texture...

More detail

Detail

Another grandiose building.

"The Man" himself.

Forget about Roswell - here is the real deal.

The happy proletariat with their bountiful bough of wheat.

The grand entrance to the VVTs

01 October, 2007

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.