What would you say?

  I was thinking tonight, while I was cooking dinner; If I were to go back in time ten years and tell my thirteen year old self that, "In ten years you'll be living in Russia working as an English teacher." What would I have responded with? Well the answer is easy, If when I was 13 my 23 year old self came and talked to me, the ESL teacher in Russia thing wouldn't phase me....I'd be too @&#^#^$ freaked out to care what I was telling myself, and if you think differently, you're wrong. Of course I'd get over the shock, and eventually be able to have a conversation with myself....maybe. Really the happenings of this hypothetical conversation aren't what's important, what is important, is taking a minute to sit back and think, "If ten years ago, I knew this is where I would end up, would I be okay with it? Or would I change something to end up somewhere else?" 

 So, I'm 23 living in Russia and working as an English teacher....glorious huh? What else could I have been doing?

• If I had worked harder in school, maybe I'd have my degree. 
• If I had my degree what would I be doing? I might be working as an Ed Tech III, or if I was lucky I'd be a long term sub.
• Would I be happy if I was working either one of those jobs? Probably, because I wouldn't know any better. Besides, what's the point of being miserable?
• If I had my degree and was working full time, I'd probably have an apartment, a car, bills, and I'd be a grown up. 

Luckily for me, when it came to budgeting time at UMM, academics weren't my first priority. Sure, my GPA is eh, I'll have lots loans - but not more than every one else, I wasted money on classes I did poorly in. and again - my GPA sucks. So what? It's just a number. I still have time to go back, finish my degree and be an adult. The important thing, is that instead of taking the 4 years of college then getting a job...I moved to Russia. Russia isn't perfect, but no place is. I'm happy, I love teaching, but I'm still figuring things out...and the last place I want to be is in the real world struggling to make ends meet. So going back to the beginning of this, frankly I don't care what my thirteen year old self would say, or for that fact anyone else. In my short time on this planet, I've already figured this much out; If you aren't happy with yourself, you won't be happy at all. So, moral of the story, be happy with your choices, and don't waste time thinking about what would've happened if you'd done one thing instead of another... I'll leave you with this poem that I live by:

Robert Frost (1874–1963).  Mountain Interval.  1920.

1. The Road Not Taken

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;	5
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,	10
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.	15
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.	20

Death of a Hippo

Well, I haven't had a new blog post in over a week, and I've got 3 hours until I have to teach again so here we go:

Well today is Wednesday, and I can't decide if I actually like my schedule. I teach from 2:15-3:15, then I have a break until 6:15 when I have to teach the open class. The open class is coming close to becoming the bane of my existence, it's easy...but I hate it.

What is an open class you ask? Well it's an open house for Language Link, anywhere from 1-10 people interested in taking EFL classes comes for a demo lesson. So I get to teach a cookie cutter lesson, we do a silly conversation exercise, then another silly talking exercise "I went to the supermarket to......" it's brutal, and after that we play "Who am I". This takes anywhere from 30-45 minutes. Afterwards I administer a placement test to everyone that came to the open class. The class is generally filled with students in the beginner and elementary level of English. I'm a firm believer a native speaker is far less effective teaching lower level classes than a Russian teacher. Plus I don't have any low level classes, so I don't ever get into the mindset of dumbing down my language to that level. Either way I hate it.

To alleviate my hatred of the open lesson, which has been steadily dropping in attendance with each consecutive week. I suggested today that we should do the open lesson every other week, to keep up attendance. In the off weeks, LL would host an English movie night. After all I'd much rather get paid to sit and watch a movie, and maybe explain a few vocab points.

Onto the weather, on Saturday it was beautiful and in the 60's, Sunday also was beautiful and in the 40's, Monday was beautiful...and in the 20's. Tuesday wasn't too bad either, but it was also in the 20's. Today, it's in the low 30's and raining...Fall died a quick and brutal death. 

As to the title of the blog, I went to the zoo Sunday. I have a some pictures at my apartment, which I can put into their own zoo related post. However the zoo had one hippo, and I found out yesterday that (s)he tragically died in a horrific hippo accident.

I'll write another blog post or two tonight, and they will have some pictures. So in the words of Forrest Gump, "That's all I have to say about that."

You would figure....

There is something synonymous about Russians and waiting in line. When you think Soviet Union, one of the things that pops into your mind, is little old ladies waiting in line for hours to get their bread ration.

 Well, turns out despite what you may think Russians SUCK at waiting in line. (I'm going to be on the lookout for picture opportunities of Russians waiting in line since I don't have any.) After being part of a culture where, for 90 years you had to spend multiple hours everyday of your life in line, just to get food, you should be really, really good at standing in line. From the moment Americans go to preschool, we're taught how to stand in a straight, orderly line to wait for our turn.  In Russia, it's just a free for all, here's an example:

Yesterday, I was waiting in line to get some tokens for the metro, it wasn't a long line, maybe five or six people. Well I got up to the window, asked for my tokens. While I was getting the money out of my wallet, a man pushes me aside, and asks the cashier for metro tokens. I was absolutely aghast. I was coming down with a cold, ready to be home, and not in a mood for shenanigans. So, I did what any good American would do, I turned to the man and let off a long angry string of expletives that I won't repeat here. When I was finished yelling, he just stared at me like I was Jesus coming back for the rapture. He  leapt back to the wall about ten feet away. The cashier was in total disbelief of what had just happened, her jaw must have dropped three feet. To get her out of her stupor, I said "Three please!" angrily in English, she gave me my tokens and change... Off I went. I didn't see the man on the platform, he was probably still shaking up by the ticket window. The best part about this is, that since Yekaterinburg was closed to foreigners until 1991, and it is a city of 1.4 million containing no more than two dozen Americans...There is a huge number of people here that have never heard or seen an American. So, this man's first interaction with an American was me yelling at him. Great for diplomatic relations, it's a good thing he probably can't tell the difference between an American and a Brit.

I'll be on the lookout for some great Russian line pictures.

Only in Russia

Well, I was teaching my advanced class on Tuesday, and they asked me how I felt about Russia. Talk about a loaded question, what it they really mean is: Is it better than America, do I like Russian people, do I like Russian food, do I like Russian vodka, and do I like Ekaterinburg. Well I told my class the truth; I love Russia. This being my advanced class, they then proceeded to ask why. Why do I love Russia? I told my class I love Russia because it is so different from the United States. That answer prompts a follow up question; "Well what is different?" The easy answer, is everything.  So I'll share a few stories with you, that would only happen to a foreigner.

This picture was from two weeks ago, I think...It's all a blur.  I was on a quest for Parmesan  cheese, however my grocery store didn't have any. So I was debating if I wanted to go into the center and visit Stockmann's, which is a very expensive import grocery store. While I was standing outside the grocery store, one of the two other Americans at Language Link called me. Chris invited me downtown to meat his best friend for lunch. I had eaten lunch already, but I wanted to go Stockmann's anyway, so off to the metro I went. Chris and I went to Stockmann's to find Parmesan cheese, they had it for 1800 rubles/kilo or $30/pound. Quite a bit out of my price range, especially since all I wanted was enough to make Carbonara. After some searching we fond little mini packets of grated Parmesan for 60p or $2, so I bought those. Cheese in hand we headed to Subway to meet Chris' friend. Well after second lunch, we headed to a restaurant called Pepper for tea. Well another friend came, next thing I know it's 9:00 and I just got invited to go drink cognac in celebration of our new friendship. It was a Sunday, but it's Russia.

And there we drank, next to a memorial devoted to Michael Jackson.

  The first picture; That guy was being pushed from Moscow to Astana Kazakhstan in his shopping cart, or so he said. Frankly I find the story a tad suspect but I went with it.  He just looked so happy though:

Either way, meeting two Americans totally made this guys day. He actually begged me to take his picture, because it would be "F@#*^% AWESOME!" to have an American take his picture. So I did, and shortly after, he and his friend continued their journey to Astana at the speed of one drunk guy pushing a second drunk guy in a shopping cart. I can't imagine this happening anywhere else.

Next we have a lovely story from last week on the metro;

Last week when I was going to the clinic to get my HIV test, I was coming out of the metro, and I felt a hand on my shoulder. I was meeting Justin, so it took me a second to realize how terrible this person smelled, and as I turned around in horror I realized it was just some random drunk Russian...at 10AM.

Now I don't have any pictures of Russian Militzia, but rest assured, the gentleman on the left could have been a stand in for the Militzia that saved me.

As I turned around to face the drunk Russian, a Militzia officer grabbed him by the neck and threw him to the ground, then kicked him half a dozen times, and proceeded to grab him by the coat, lift him up and demand his passport. I couldn't believe it, I was actually thankful that there was a Militzia nearby.

On the topic of the Clinic, I went yesterday and waited two hours for my results.  After waiting almost two hours, I called Tanya my administrator, and told her how long I had been waiting, and that I'd be late for class if I didn't get my results soon. So in turn Tanya called the clinic and asked why the only American there had been waiting for two hours. The woman that answered the phone promptly apologized, and as Tanya was relaying this to me over the phone, I was called to get my test results. Lesson learned, being an American does have some serious perks.

Story three; The Babushka and the Drunk man

On Monday I was walking to work minding my own business a drunk guy bumps into me, then stumbles forward. He goes on shambling like this for about ten more feet and then his path intersects with that of the fabled Russian Babushka:

That is just some random babushka, the babushka this unlucky drunkard decided to run into was much more squat, and carrying a bag. Just watching this, I knew there was only one way for this collision to go. A Russian babushka isn't just a normal, frail, old lady, these women lived through Russian Revolution,  since they all look old enough to have ridden a Triceratops to the potato field. Well this drunk guy hit this babushka and she didn't miss a beat; she whipped around like Barry Bonds pumped full of enough steroids to kill Jose Canseco, and filled with all of fury of  Red Sox Nation come September, she used her bag like a frying pan, connecting full on with this poor mans face...He flew back a few feet, shook his head then sprinted through a hole in a fence, and dove into a stand of shrubs...Where he immediately fell asleep. I bet that isn't how you expected the story to end.

When I told my advanced class these stories, they were shocked, nothing like this had ever happened to them...These thing happen only to foreigners.

Until then Пока!

Finally I've figured it out!

Well it's about time Blogger finally decided to work for me, almost a month since my last post

I also figured people would want to see what my apartment looks like. Well here it is, my living/bedroom has been rearranged, I moved the bed to where the futon/entertainment center are, and put the futon and entertainment center on the other side of the room. The first picture of course is my bathroom, when you picture an old soviet apartment, I'd imagine you'd expect that bathroom. Then goes the kitchen, with a stove that is 60 years old, and an oven that won't light. Then the living/bedroom, I live in a relatively typical soviet flat. The first two weeks in it were hard, but I've finally come to accept it as my "home"

School is going great, I teach from 2:45-8:45 on Mondays then 4-9 every other day. It's a pretty awesome schedule. I'm loving all my classes so far, ESL isn't Social Studies which is something to cope with. Other than that, I love it. I'll put up pictures of my classroom, the other teachers, and the office on Monday hopefully.

I just emailed my mom a letter applying to become a product tester for LL Bean, hopefully the take pity on me and say yes. It snowed yesterday morning, I mean it was only flurries and nothing stuck...but it's September! I have about a 40 minute commute to work everyday, that consists of a lot of walking. Wednesday and Thursday, it was so cold I NEEDED a scarf. I'm not used to weather like this in September especially when it's still in the 60's at home.  Apparently when it comes to winter, Russia doesn't disappoint

On Wednesday I had to go to a special foreigner clinic to get tested for HIV. As some of you might know, I got tested for HIV in July before I applied for my visa, well apparently 2 months later it is no good. So I needed a new HIV test. Well Justin one of the other Language Link teachers came with me. The best part about the clinic is there is a sheep pen right outside of it. Well we got there at about 11:20, and walked into a waiting room with 20 people from Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan,   and Uzbekistan. Well little known secret, these people are all over Russia, and in huge numbers. Comparable to "Illegal" Mexican immigrants in America. The major difference, is the racism. Sure there's alienation towards Mexican immigrants in the US, but I'd say that's mostly class discrimination, not race.  Anyway though, Justin and I walked into the clinic gave the receptionist my documentation, which she promptly put into a pile of other passports without looking at it. Justin and I went back to the waiting room to sit down. About ten minutes later the women both leave the reception area. Then 15 minutes after that, an old security guard comes out to say that the registration women are on lunch break and to come back at one. So Justin and I headed off to grab some lunch. When we got back at 1:10, the old security guard shot into the waiting room and bee-lined right for us. Yelling "Americanski!" Well I'm not sure what he said, because it was all in Russian, but the gist of it was that they had been calling my name for 10 minutes, and it was my turn. Well there were still several familiar faces in the waiting room when I had left for lunch, that obviously had got in line before me. As soon as the registration desk noticed my passport though, I got put on the top of the list.  So I was led in to to get my blood drawn, and Justin talked to the security guard named Sergei, whom Justin knows from all of the times he's had to go the clinic. (You need an HIV test whenever you get a new visa, and Justin has been here for 4 years) Moral of the story is Sergei loves Americans and hates the "Stani's". So after my blood was drawn by two nurses that were totally thrilled to be taking the blood of an American, I went into a room to get asked all sorts of questions. Well the questions are asked in Russian, so Justin came in with me to translate. Our friendly doctor was having no part of this and told Justin that it was my problem that I don't speak Russian, then had Justin to leave. Well I was slightly worried about this interaction I would be having with the friendly doctor, but he stamped my paper had me sign it then shooed me out. Then Sergei spent 10 minutes explaining to me when to come get my test results, and how I should go about it. Oh and one more thing, Westerners only need an HIV test, those coming from the "Stans" need to get 4. I know racism is bad and all, and everyone is created equal, but I won't lie; it felt good to be put in front of everyone else just because I'm American. The guilt was there of course, but in Russia, that is just the way it goes.

Until I post again, which will be probably tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

A day in the life of me

Well, I haven't posted since Sunday...and for that I'm sorry, it would be lovely to have a scribe to do this for me. Now I'm assuming some of the wonderful people that read this blog might be interested in my basic day. For the sake of awesomeness, we'll pick a day that I teach at 7:00, or as they say here; 19:00. So let's begin!

8:45 - iPhone alarm goes off, I wake up just long enough to decide if I want to make myself breakfast.

8:45 and 5 seconds - I hit the snooze button.

8:50 -  iPhone goes off again, I turn off the alarm and turn on the alarm I have set for 9:15.

8:55 - I hear my cell phone alarm go off on the other side of the room. I get up and turn it off, then fall back asleep.

9:00 - My iPhone alarm goes off again because I hadn't actually turned the first alarm off. I finally turn it off.

9:10 - I wake up 5 minutes before my alarm is set to go off. Time to lay in bed for another 5 minutes.

9:15 -  iPhone goes off for the final time, I turn it off and go to take a shower/brush my teeth/get dressed/pack my bag.

9:40 - Stand in the kitchen for a minute debating if I feel like I have time to make a sandwich for lunch.

9:42 - Decide I don't have time to make a sandwich, instead I grab four packs of 3-in-1 instant coffee, some little bottles of drinkable yogurt, fill up my water bottle...Debate if I want to make myself a sandwich again.

9:45 - For the second time, I decide I don't have time to make a sandwich. I put on my shoes and head out the door.

9:47 - Finally finished locking the doors, now I spend 3-5 minutes waiting for an elevator. I haven't found the stairs yet.

9:50 - The elevator came quickly, so I take it down to the lobby, turn on my iPod, look around to make sure someone is watching - then put on my sunglasses all cool like. Now I can walk to the metro in style

10:00 - About 1,000 feet from the metro the smell hits me...it smells like I just got punched in the face by raw sewage.

10:03 - After wading through the gypsy farmers market I make it on to the metro...Now it's time to sit and make use of my Kindle.

10:10 - Three stops later the train is packed, at this point it is imperative to avoid contact with all women over the age of 50, or they will come take my much coveted seat.

10:20 - I get off the Purple line at Taganskaya, so I can switch the the Brown (Ring) line.

10:23 - Look around the platform for people I know, 14 out of 15 times I don't see anyone I know.  Train arrives, time to bring the Kindle back out...Standing room only on the train though.

10:40 - I get to to Novslobodskaya(sp) and it's time to look around to see who else is here that I know...I'm usually much more lucky here. Take the escalator up to the street, before I leave the station it is most important to put my sunglasses back on.

10:47 - Walk through the doors of Language Link, training starts at 10:50.

12:00 - Break one, time to make a cup or two of instant coffee, odds are at this point I need to give a pack of coffee to Max.

12:15- Session two, I can't wait for lunch.

1:15 - Lunch time, what to do now? Oh wait I haven't planned my lesson yet, sigh. This severely limits my options for lunch. Go down to the alley to get a Doner Kebab, or if I feel like eating something that won't make me sick I'll go to Teremok for blini, or to Micky D's.

1:30 - Lunch in hand it's time for planning -

2:10 - Spent the last 40 minutes aimless perusing the internet/Facebook and talking to people...Looks like I'll plan my lesson at 4:30.

2:15 - Session three: STOP - Grammar Time!

3:15 - Break time, more instant coffee for me, and some aimless wandering

3:30 - Session four - More grammar

4:30 - "Done" for the day, however I still need to plan my lesson - Time to plan!

6:00 - Lesson is planned and signed off on. Time to go get something to eat before teaching.

6:30 - Last minute tweaks to my lesson, and photocopying.

7:00 - Teaching time

7:05 - Realize I need to go the bathroom.

8:30 - Break for the class, and bathroom break for me.

8:35 - Class resumes, only another 45 minutes.

9:20 - Class finishes and now it's time to mingle with everyone before we leave.

9:30 - Everyone walks to the Metro.

9:37 - Get on the Metro to go home, this trip is a million times better with a riding buddy who can speak English.

10:15 - (Riding buddy gets off - If applicable)

10:25 - Arrive at my station, I can pick up the sweet scent of raw sewage before the train pulls into the station.

10:28 - Walk through the remnants of the gypsy farmers' market.

10:33 - Go the grocery store to pick up some more drinkable yogurt and instant potatoes for tomorrow...Maybe buy something to cook for dinner.

10:40 -  Decided against cooking dinner, walk next door to Micky D's.

10:45 - Dinner in hand I walk home.

10:53 - get to my apartment building and wait 5 minutes for the elevator.

10:58 - Spend 3-4 minutes unlocking the doors to get into the apartment.

11:00 - Wash my hands to get the grime from everything off them, then go into the kitchen to put away my groceries and refill my water bottle.

11:05 - Get on my computer to peruse Facebook while eating dinner, maybe watch some South Park if the internet is working well enough.

12:15 - Continue perusing Facebook.

12:45 - Get ready for bed

1:00 - Someone from home starts talking to on Facebook chat right before I'm about to go to sleep.

1:30 - No longer tired, so I read for 20 minutes.

1:50 - Fall asleep.

And that is a generic day in the life of Kyle. Some days I get reviewed, or teaching at 5. Other days I come home and cook dinner, and occasionally I'll make myself a sandwich for lunch...I usually just pack instant potatoes and a hot dog to throw in them. Tonight though, I made Chop-Suey, so maybe, I'll bring that to school tomorrow!

Internet Burgers

I was asked the other day to start keeping a journal of the foods I eat while I'm in Russia. I hadn't though about it until then, that some of the stuff I eat every day is kind of cool...especially the context I eat it in. Well on Friday I had the perfect meal to describe.

This Friday at Language Link happened to be internet burger Friday. In Moscow there is a company that has a website (but no actual restaurant), and you go onto the website and order the burgers...you know so they can get delivered to where ever you are. I know no one can read this, but here's the link. BIG BURGER! So two of the teacher trainers ordered internet burgers and eight interns. I'm not sure why our trainers ordered them, knowing full well how they tasted. Us interns though, we had no idea what we were getting into. We all placed our order an hour before our lunch break, so our burgers would arrive on time. That hour seemed to take forever, all I wanted was my internet burger.

Well the burgers came in almost exactly an hour, and this is what it looked like:

 

It sort of looks like a BK wrapper...well Big Burger could learn a lot from BK. 

There's only so much I should've expected from a burger I ordered off the internet...but it did cost 200 rubles, so all of us had high hopes. 

 Well by the time the burgers had come, all of us were starving and I forgot to take a picture after I unwrapped it, so here's what it looked like half devoured. I got a Stolichny burger, and on it came lettuce, tomato, salami, bacon, cheese, and thousand island dressing.

The Bun: One word can describe this...Stale

The Salami/Bacon: It tasted okay probably better than the meat patty

The Cheese: I couldn't taste it, it there was too much sauce

The Meat...this deserves its own paragraph...Remember in elementary school, the hamburger patties that tasted like rubber? Well this was a step below that. Except in the US you assume the patty is made of beef, here well not so much. Who knows what it was made of, except some sort of protein that is very elastic.

The verdict: For 200 rubles I could've had an entire large value meal from McDonalds that would have been delicious, the only catch is I would've had to take a 10 minute round trip walk...Internet burgers are a cool concept, but let's keep them that way...a concept

A rose is a rose by any other name

According to Shakespeare, a rose will always smell sweet no matter what you call it. I might have to argue him on that though, some of the roses the gypsies sell...well that don't smell so rosy. What do you expect though.

Today was my first day teaching real live Russians, and it went as only in Russia it could.  I my lesson plan set, I had my first day of school activity (It was speed dating), I had enough materials for the students, the classroom set up, and I was in teacher mode. Thank god I had teacher mode, that's about all I can say. I was told there would be 7-8 students, even though 10 had signed up...there never is a full class. This wasn't much of a problem to me, I had a classroom the size of some janitors closets.

About 15 minutes before class, I was given the packets the students needed for the week, I got ten just in case. As students started to meander in, I had them make name tags, and checked them off the class roster. Wouldn't you know it, the 4th student to enter the room wasn't on the roster. I didn't mind, I figured someone else wasn't coming...and even if the rest did show I had enough materials. By 7:05 I had 12 twelve students, three of them not on the list and materials for 10. It took about another 5 minutes to get the class settled (the class supposedly started at 7).

Well it turns out, Russians don't know how to speed date, so I had to teach them. They took to it like ducks to water, or Russians to vodka. There were most certainly a couple hiccups before speed dating was flowing seamlessly, but that was my fault for not clarifying the rules enough. I'd compare teaching an Advanced English class to teaching 7th or 8th graders. The Russians loved speed-dating as a way to get to know one another, they even understood the harder questions "If you were a board game, what would you be? Why?" I heard a student explaining what board games were, it made me smile. I never did hear an answer to my favorite question "Describe your ideal partner, could it be an ostrich?" oh well, next time maybe. Speed-Dating makes a fantastic ice breaker, just for the record...as long as you make sure to preteach the rules. By the time we finished speed-dating, my lesson plan was useless, and I was two handouts short. My lesson ended up being alright even though I only got through 3/4 of the material.

I didn't think I'd enjoy teaching English, but you know what...I loved it, even with what did go wrong, I felt at home in front of those 12 Russian strangers. I must not have done that bad of a job either, a few asked me after class if I could teach them tomorrow, sadly I must move on and teach a different class. Word of the day: Flexibility


I didn't proofread this

Sometimes there are things you just can't understand

I've been in Russia for 6 days, and in those 6 days I've figured out a lot. 1) Most Russians are totally willing to help you 2)When I walk into McDonald's I just need to ask for the photo menu 3)British English and American English are as different as night and day 4)In Russia anything can happen 5) There's no "American" coffee in Russia

I'm kind of going to skip the first point about Russians being helpful. I asked the security guard in the grocery store where the bathroom was in mediocre Russian, and he looked at me like I had three heads then shooed me away. However my cashier was great, she tried asking me for 7 rubles because she didn't have the right change in her drawer, and I just totally wasn't getting it. So she put up 7 fingers and said "Rubles?" The cashier, a babushka behind me in line, and I...we all burst into laughter. Only in Russia

The 2nd thing I've learned, well I didn't go to Micky D's today, so it isn't totally relevant. However it was a miraculous discovery for me to realize I can walk in and go "Photo Menu Pezshalsta" point at the basket with the photo menu in it, then order away. It's much easier than miming or trying to pronounce the Russian right.

Today was the 3rd day of of the Intern Training Program at Language Link (yawn). Sure it's fun to have something to do, but I'd rather just bum around Moscow with all of the other interns. Moral of the story though, Language Link teaches British English. I speak American English, as do the majority of the interns. "What's the problem Kyle? British and American English are the same, all except for the funny accent." WELL THEY'RE NOT! There are some many different was Americans and Brits use tenses, verbs, and other parts of speech. It's like British English is an alien language. Oh and the Brits spell things weird...There is no "U" in the word COLOR!

 Today was also the day of training where I had to give a mini 15 minute lesson to "Elementary" level students (the students were played by the interns in my group). EFL and Social Studies...you'd figure teaching them would be somewhat similar...it isn't apparently. Well there's some obvious differences, and some things carry over...such as being comfortable in front of a class, and classroom management. The "Teacher-Trainers" want to keep "Teacher Talking Time" or "TTT" to a minimum. That means eliminate narrating what you are doing, example: "Alright class, I'm going to write this on the board and I want you to copy it down." Totally unacceptable for EFL. I'm supposed to just say "Copy this" and then proceed to write. 

I had a unique review of my lesson today, I was intimidating to my students. I treated this mock class as a class I was familiar with and was familiar with me, but that came off as intimidating. There are clear ways to communicate with a brand new class versus a class that you have a fantastic rapport with. For instance, I gave instructions for students to talk to their partner, and after 7 seconds no one was talking...So I clapped and said "I don't hear anyone talking yet!" It wasn't said in a mean way, or even yelled...it was just said sharply, to get the students going, and you know what? It worked. Oh well, I guess if the "Teacher-Trainers" had told me this was my first day or even week with the class, I would have done that differently...but no, it was just a way for them to Nit-Pick.

4) Expect anything in Russia: Nata isn't overly fond of sharing her internet, I bet she would be if I made a big deal of it. Instead of going that route, I figured I could spend some money and get a wireless 3G card for my laptop. I had heard they were about $30 for the card and then another $30/month for mediocre internet. Well, after beers with the other interns and with some help, I went to look at buying a 3G card. I was expecting to pay about 1750ryb for it. Well turns out, it was 750ryb ($25) for the 3G card...I was about right on the price there. BUT! The card came with 2 Free months of unlimited internet, and each month thereafter was 350ryb (about $12). You might think that internet this cheap would be terrible...I mean it costs about as much as dial-up in the US. Road Runner's standard speed is 7mb/s, the 3G I got with MTS has a speed of 7.2mb/s. So the internet I got is actually faster than Road Runner, can go anywhere in Moscow, and costs $12/month whereas RR is $30. I don't get it either.

Now on to coffee, all coffee in Moscow it would seem is espresso. Now espresso isn't bad, however there is something magical about a huge cup of American drip coffee. I haven't found it, and I don't expect to. The best substitute I could find, are these little 3 in 1 packs of instant coffee, sugar, and creamer...just add water.


That's my rant for today, sorry there's no pictures.

Red Square and Starting to Beat the Culture Shock

Yesterday was a big day for me, not only did I get to go sight-seeing, but I also got to meet all of the other interns and a few of the Language Link teachers. Being around other people that speak English and that are in the same boat as me, was a huge boost to me and made me feel much better about my situation...more importantly it alleviated some of my home sickness. It makes me excited to start training tomorrow, so I can A) have something to do and B) Not being alone in the apartment all day.

Before I get into talking about how awesome Red Square is, and how party crazy Moscow is. I finally went grocery shopping. I'd been putting it off for 3 days, and tonight I finally manned up and went to the supermarket, frankly grocery shopping deserves its own post but I don't want to write two posts today. Moral of the story: I'm thrilled that Russia has a taste for Nestle and Dannon. They have all sorts of Nesquik things, such as cereal (which I bought), chocolate dipped blonde sandwich cookies, and ice cream. Dannon of course is all yogurt, but there are some neat flavors like chocolate coconut, and some weird other ones, but it made buying yogurt easy. I bought a small loaf of bread for 18 rubles, which is basically 65 cents. It's easily some of the best tasting bread I've ever had. The milk however comes in cardboard boxes that are just stacked in the middle of the aisle. Oh and I bought a Pepsi, that was probably the highlight of my day, having something that "American" just totally did it for me.

Alright, Red Square: Two other interns and I met at Plushad Revolutsii, which is a ridiculous station, it's filled with all of these awesome bronze statues:

 whenever people walked by the dogs, they would rub its nose...

I think there's something like 32 statues, but only 8 different types, there's a lot of repeats. The metro in Moscow is really a work of art, I'll put all of my pictures on Facebook from Red Square and Revolutsii.

Well I put all of the pictures on Facebook for you lovely individuals to enjoy.

So Saturday with all of the Interns we went to a "cafeteria style restaurant", and I went again today for lunch...fail. For $10 I'd expect to the food to at least be better than Micky D's. When we left the restaurant today after lunch we ran into some interns that had gotten these awesome sandwiches from a street car for 25 Rubles...less than a dollar.

Back to Saturday though, after 5 hours at Vokzal we all went to an apartment to continue festivizing til about 4am. At 4am, it was decided that the plan of action should be to go clubbing. So what do you do in Moscow, when the Metro is closed and you want to go somewhere? Take a Gypsy cab. I couldn't get any pictures of it, but let me assure you, it was as sketchy as you'd believe. The 18 of us took a caravan of Gypsy cabs across the city for the lump some of about $3.50/person, or $14/cab. To those of you who don't know what a Gypsy cab is, it's just a regular guy who picks people up, and for a negotiated price drives you somewhere. The "cab we were in must've been 30 years old, with not seat belts in the back. I wasn't overly worried until I noticed the driver buckled up...when a Russian where's a seat belt, you know it's bad news. It wasn't though, we arrived at the club as a group, and hung out there until last call, which in Russia is about 6:30 when the Militzia come in.

I had had huge plans for being a tourist on Sunday, and seeing the Redbull Flugtag, but getting home at 7:30 killed that dream. I think all of us that went out slept until 5. I'm glad for the first time ever that last call in Portland is at 12:45.

The Post You've been waiting for

This year I got the best birthday present I could've ever asked for, well actually three unforgettable presents.

1) I know understand the meaning of the term culture shock.  It's not every day you get the chance to wake up in a country almost completely opposite of your own. It also isn't every day when you place your order at McDonald's, you need to use the picture menu.

 

Story time, and this leads into my second birthday present. This morning I was supposed to meet with a Language Link rep at 10:15am. I left the apartment a little before 9:00 to make sure I had plenty of time to get where I was going. Well I got on the metro, a little tentatively I may add. Without a cell phone I was traveling into the depths of the Moscow Underground (More on my bricked iPhone later). So I started at the end of the purple line, and had to transfer to the gray line, then get off a Novoslobodskya Station. Well low and behold, I missed me transfer stations a couple times. I finally got to  Novoslobodskya, which is beautiful I might add...here's some pictures 

This looked really cool

 There were ten of these, all different

Well I got to the station, and the company rep was gone. So at this point, I was beyond stressed and I just decided to go home. On the trip home I finally started to get the hang of the metro. It's neat to see all of the different people that come onto the metro and how differently they all dress. In America, we all dress somewhat similarly, but in Russia, it's as if everyone went to Marden's at came back with something different. I'll have to take a picture next time I'm on the metro so you can understand. The ride home was uneventful, but I was still totally fried, and starving...then in the distance, my salvation:

So yeah, I had to order off the picture menu, because apparently a Quarter Pounder with Cheese has another name here. Yeah, I was that homesick the only thing that could help me was the golden arches. So I finished my walk home to my building. Well I got home and my host Nataliya told me Language Link called wanting to know where I had been. So I called the company and had to turn right back around to get to my meeting. This time around, it went much more smoothly....Sort of. I got to the right station, but I couldn't find anyone that looked like they were waiting for me. I must've spent a half hour looking, and finally I decided to call the company on the pay phone. Well, turns out the pay phones only take calling cards, good news was; there was a kiosk right out front the sold them...however the girl didn't speak a lick of English. So I spent about 15 minutes asking people if they spoke English and could help be buy a phone card. So I bought my phone card and called the school, the company rep had been downstairs waiting for me. So the rest of that trip was totally uneventful, and I made it home in one piece with a new found understanding of why Russians looks so downtrodden on the metro.  

At this point I forgot what the 3rd birthday present was, it might be my iPhone not getting any service because it needs to get unlocked again, but it won't restore. So I have to wait until tomorrow to get a working phone. Tomorrow I'm going sight-seeing, so that should be awesome. 

Here's some more pictures I took today:

Sunrise from my room

 Novoslobodskya

 The escalator up from Novoslobodskya, it's probably 300 feet 

 A cool picture of the lights going down the escalator at Novoslobodskya

 

Here's a Start

Well I created the blog back in April, and now less than a week before I leave I can make my first real post.

6 months ago when I signed a piece of paper, that I electronically sent to Language Link in Moscow, it never dawned on me that I was just mere months away from moving to the other side of the world. Well...now we're less then a week away, and I've finally had my 'Oh Shit!" moment. Until today, when I had my last shift at work I understood...I'm leaving everything I know and love to literally move to the other side of the world in less than a week. You know what else I didn't realize? How expensive it is to do such a thing. First you need a plane ticket, that was $632, then the Visa...another $270, on top of that I'm paying for my first month of housing out of pocket...so another $600. So there we have $1502 for an initial investment, and I'm not even counting living expenses, or the junk I need to buy before I leave. Happily, I'm getting reimbursed for all but the $600 of housing at the end of my contract, however this is still a nice chunk of change out of pocket. Adding all of that up just led to a second "Oh Shit!" moment, that it really is expensive to move to the other side of the world.

Well with that said, I still need to pack. Now may I ask, how to do you pack to move to Russia? I certainly haven't figured it out yet. Honestly I probably won't until Tuesday night, after all, that's how I packed for all four years of college. The only difference is that I can't drive down to Bangor to meet my parents and pick up whatever it is I forgot.  Every one says, "Pack warm, you're going to need it!" The only issue with that, is when I land in Moscow it's going to be 75, and this week Moscow was in the 90's. So shorts or a parka? I think I'm going to be packing mostly Summer/Fall clothes, I can always buy new Winter clothes (or have them sent to me). Oh and I need to bring some peanut butter, they don't have peanut butter in Russia. When you think of Russia, can't you just imagine some old Babushka cutting the crusts of a PB&J for her grandson? Well apparently not.

I think that's enough to write for today. Don't forget to come to my party on Saturday 3:30-whenever.


-Kyle

Picking a Name

I decided today I need to start keeping track of some of my ideas. It was between a journal or a blog, and you can't misplace a blog.

To me, the most important part of creating a blog is picking the name. If you have a bad name, you're probably going to have a bad blog. So after 20 minutes I picked Moderation isn't just for Moose Anymore. I was torn between doing a title about my traveling to Russia in 3 months. Instead I picked a title more fitting my political beliefs/current aspirations and my home. From Russia with Love just doesn't cut it, neither did Ekaterinburg or Bust. So here we are the blog named and ready to roll, I guess it's time to get started.

Welcome to my brand new blog.