We foreigners may be dumb, but we're not THAT dumb...
"Swimming [in the bushes???] is forbidden [and also impossible]"
I got the idea for my blog title from the second of these pictures; it's a sign I walk past every day on my way to work. There's a lake nearby, but there really is no water to swim in where that sign is posted. It makes me laugh every time I see it.
Well, I have been working for two weeks now, and I even got my first paycheck on Friday. That should have been a moment of euphoria - for the first time in my life, I was getting a REAL paycheck for a REAL job (not counting summer jobs and such). However, I was only getting paid for one week's work, and that shimmering bubble of happiness rather abruptly burst when I signed up for some dance classes at a studio later that night and found that the cost was exactly equal to the wage I had just received...not a ruble more or less! So I'm back to being a poor teacher with no money again...
BUT it's totally worth it - I'm very excited about the studio where I am taking classes. The teacher is really cool; he is also a teacher at the Bolshoi Ballet School (which is a big deal, take my word for it if you don't know already) AND he seems to really love teaching AND he offered to help me out in my search for character dance companies. As you can imagine, I'm most excited about the last bit; I've been working and praying and trying so hard for such a long time to join a character dance company, but once I got to Moscow I was rather at loose ends as to where to start. Of course, it might be that it still won't work out, but it is so encouraging even for someone to just offer to help. So I'm hopeful, and still praying, and we'll see.
In other news, the teaching is going well - I'm still getting to know my students, and since I'm teaching ages from 8 up to somewhere around 40, there's a lot to get used to. I have a very bright eight-year-old, Sasha, who comes into the classroom and starts telling me this detailed story about a shark eating a sailor out at sea on a little boat, and I'm standing there thinking, "I'm supposed to teach this kid names of household furniture today and he's telling a story using vocab I had no idea he knew..." And then there is the couple I teach every day. For the past few classes I've been struggling to find conversation topics that would interest them - even when I think I've found something interesting it tends to fall flat in the classroom. But then the other day one of my five-minute word-association games somehow expanded to fill the entire forty-five-minute-class because we started discussing the differences between the Catholic and Orthodox churches...go figure. And I have an upper-intermediate adult class that I'm pretty sure I'm going to love - they actually ASKED me for homework the other day. And I'm still really enjoying the walk to work - the autumn colors are so beautiful, although the predominant fall weather for Moscow seems to be rain, wind, and temperatures around 4 degrees Celsius (which I think is about 39 degrees Fahrenheit). But it was really pretty in the park a couple of days ago, which seemed a good excuse to take more pictures...
This past weekend was great fun because we did a company boat cruise down the Volga to celebrate Language Link's seventeenth birthday. There was music, dancing, a really lame karaoke bar, and wonderful opportunities to take pictures, and I got to see some of the interns I haven't seen in a while because they are teaching in other places, so I really enjoyed it. There was also quite a lot of free alcohol, but by the time I got to the point where I had eaten and might have enjoyed a glass of champagne, there was nothing left but beer, so I didn't actually end up drinking anything. The nice part is that my flatmate Laura is not much of a drinking partier either, so I had company home on the metro ride when I opted to leave after the boat party rather than going clubbing with most of the interns. Of course, Laura DID insist on carrying a huge bunch of blue Language Link balloons on the ride home on the metro, so we got some funny looks, but it was still good to have company, albeit weird company (just kidding, Laura!).
Well, I need to get ready for work, so I'd better finish up for now. I realize that this is a rather picture-heavy blog, but I'm just trying to make up for my long-windedness last time. I hope everyone has a great week!
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