Well, my apologies...I've fallen terribly behind with this blog. To be fair, the last few weeks have been really hectic, though, so I think I have a bit of an excuse. Where to begin, where to begin...
Winter has set in with a vengeance - it hasn't started snowing yet, so I'm sure the season will become progressively more vengeful as time goes on - but for now the weather hovers just above or at freezing, and the sky is perpetually grey. This is a bit of a mental adjustment for the small-town Southerner from sunny-skied North Carolina, where clouds actually mean rain. Here, the one doesn't necessarily follow the other - it is entirely possible to simply have leaden skies without precipitation for days on end. This gave me cause to question myself in one of my classes the other day, when I was teaching uses of the present simple. To illustrate present simple usage for "something that is always true," I gave them the sentence, "The sky is blue." After that class, I was walking home through the park and looked up at the sky and realized why they seemed confused with my example! It makes you really appreciate the sunny days when they come - even the sunlight is different here, though - the sun never crosses the midpoint of the sky - it performs a low arc on one end of the horizon, so even at midday the light is on a slant and casts shadows.
Teaching is falling into a routine now, which is both a good and a bad thing. It's good because I'm feeling more confident in my classes, and I'm starting to see my students making progress, which is always reassuring - at least they are learning something when I'm standing up in front of them for two hours! I'm quite enjoying some of my classes - I have an upper intermediate adult class which is almost downright fun - they are really interested in different shades of meaning in words, and I'm having them read Nevil Shute's "A Town Like Alice" and Calvin and Hobbes comics, which for me is one of the coolest parts of teaching - being able to introduce people to new things to read! And I teach a six-year-old girl who is adorable, and I have Sasha whom I mentioned earlier...and I don't have any classes I dislike, either, which is nice.
The bad side of falling into a routine is that my routine fills almost my whole day. Readers, you have permission to roll your eyes - it's a full time job, so obviously it should take almost my whole day. This will sound like a complaint, but really it is a fact that's been becoming more and more obvious to me the longer I've been here: I didn't come to Russia to spend my whole time teaching English. I like it, but it is not my passion - it's naive, probably, but I want to wake up every morning and be so excited about the things I'm going to do during the day that I just can't wait to start work...and for me, teaching doesn't spark that kind of excitement.
So, onto things that do spark that kind of excitement...specifically, one thing, namely, dancing. I've actually made some progress in the past couple of weeks towards joining a dance company. The teacher at my dance studio gave me the name of his friend who is the director of a small company here in Moscow. He told me that they do folk dance as well as other types of dance, and that I should go and take a company class to try it out. So last Friday I mustered up my courage, my dance shoes, and my google map directions, and I set out to take a class. The journey was quite comical - I've been trying for almost a year to join a dance company, and never once before had I even come close to the actual "taking a class" stage, so I was convinced that something would happen to prevent me from actually getting to class. When I left the house a few minutes later than I'd planned, I thought, "Oh, so that's what will stop me - I'll be late." When I got off the metro at the station, I tried to figure out which street exit to take and thought, "No, this is what will stop me - I'll take the wrong exit onto the street and get completely turned around and not know where to go." But somehow I came out onto the right street with the first try. I walked down the street looking for the building number, and realized that something was wrong - the building numbers were decreasing rather than increasing. Then I knew, "Of course, I won't be able to find the building - that's what will keep me from taking the class." But I asked for directions and managed to set out in the right direction after wandering up and down for a few minutes. When I found the building - an old, nondescript building used as a Dom Kultury - a house of culture, literally, sort of the equivalent to our YMCAs, the hallways were apparently deserted. "This is what will stop me - I won't be able to find the studio in this building." When I found a lady in the coat check room and asked for the company class, I knew she would forbid me from taking class since I obviously was a newcomer. When I was waiting outside the studio where she told me to sit until the director came, and the minutes were slipping away before the beginning of class, I knew that the director wouldn't come until the last minute and I would be late to go in because I hadn't had time to change. When one of the company members kindly pointed me to the dressing room, I knew that the director would come while I was changing and I wouldn't get a chance to introduce myself and he would summarily refuse to let me take class...Ok, ok, I'll put you out of your suspense...I did actually take the class. I won't say it was a brilliant success, but the director didn't kick me out on my rear, so I didn't stink. And honestly, just taking the class was such a huge step for me - like I said, it's the closest I've come to joining a company after almost a year of trying.
Of course, the question of whether I want to join this particular company is another issue entirely - it depends a lot on their repertoire. I really believe that dance companies have a moral responsibility towards their audience with the choreography they show. Also, joining any kind of company would entail major changes in my teaching schedule to enable me to take company class and attend rehearsals. Sooo...we'll see. I'm excited that I've come a lot closer than I've ever been before to joining a company, but at the same time I'm acutely aware that I have a loonng waaaayy to goooooo...
In other news, I got to attend a play at the Moscow Art Theatre a couple of weekends ago - we went to celebrate Tom's birthday. We saw the play "Vassa Zheleznova" by Gorky. It was very interesting - probably not the play I would have chosen if I'd had a number to choose from, but the effects were quite good and I was pleasantly surprised at how much easier it was for me to follow the dialogue than the time before, when I tried to see "The Inspector General" in St. Petersburg - I was so tired and understood so little that I just left in the middle of the play! Plus, it was neat just to go to the Moscow Art Theatre - it is quite historic, and I actually did a paper on it in college, so it was really cool to go and see a play there.
I haven't had much time for other things - I did attend a lovely party at another Mitino teacher's house - we had delicious food and played Russian Monopoly (Park Place is the Arbat!), and we did a Halloween party for the kids this past Sunday at the school - but teaching is keeping me pretty busy. However, I'm planning to go see the Bolshoi and the Moiseyev soon, and to visit some art galleries, and churches...I really need to make a list! November's arrival has made me realize how fast time is slipping away...
But anyway, tomorrow is a bank holiday, so most places will be closed, and I don't have work, so I'm planning, for the first time in a couple of weeks, to just laze around and do absolutely NOTHING....aaaaahhh, what bliss!
Oh, yes, and Happy belated Halloween! There was a derth of pumpkins in Mitino grocery stores, so we got creative at the school party and carved a melon instead - the insides of which, I must say, are a good bit tastier raw than the insides of a pumpkin. Our theme was Harry Potter, and yours truly was Ron Weasley. I should have a good Ron Weasley-ish quote to end this blog, but at the moment my mind is drawing a blank, no doubt in part because of the fact that I'm currently reading the books in Russian so anything I remember from the first time I read them - in English - is getting jumbled up with the Russian version (where Snape is Severus Snegg; Voldemort is Volan de Mort, and Hermione is Germiona) so I'll just fall back on my usual - I hope everyone is doing well, and I hope you all have a good weekend!
Winter has set in with a vengeance - it hasn't started snowing yet, so I'm sure the season will become progressively more vengeful as time goes on - but for now the weather hovers just above or at freezing, and the sky is perpetually grey. This is a bit of a mental adjustment for the small-town Southerner from sunny-skied North Carolina, where clouds actually mean rain. Here, the one doesn't necessarily follow the other - it is entirely possible to simply have leaden skies without precipitation for days on end. This gave me cause to question myself in one of my classes the other day, when I was teaching uses of the present simple. To illustrate present simple usage for "something that is always true," I gave them the sentence, "The sky is blue." After that class, I was walking home through the park and looked up at the sky and realized why they seemed confused with my example! It makes you really appreciate the sunny days when they come - even the sunlight is different here, though - the sun never crosses the midpoint of the sky - it performs a low arc on one end of the horizon, so even at midday the light is on a slant and casts shadows.
Teaching is falling into a routine now, which is both a good and a bad thing. It's good because I'm feeling more confident in my classes, and I'm starting to see my students making progress, which is always reassuring - at least they are learning something when I'm standing up in front of them for two hours! I'm quite enjoying some of my classes - I have an upper intermediate adult class which is almost downright fun - they are really interested in different shades of meaning in words, and I'm having them read Nevil Shute's "A Town Like Alice" and Calvin and Hobbes comics, which for me is one of the coolest parts of teaching - being able to introduce people to new things to read! And I teach a six-year-old girl who is adorable, and I have Sasha whom I mentioned earlier...and I don't have any classes I dislike, either, which is nice.
The bad side of falling into a routine is that my routine fills almost my whole day. Readers, you have permission to roll your eyes - it's a full time job, so obviously it should take almost my whole day. This will sound like a complaint, but really it is a fact that's been becoming more and more obvious to me the longer I've been here: I didn't come to Russia to spend my whole time teaching English. I like it, but it is not my passion - it's naive, probably, but I want to wake up every morning and be so excited about the things I'm going to do during the day that I just can't wait to start work...and for me, teaching doesn't spark that kind of excitement.
So, onto things that do spark that kind of excitement...specifically, one thing, namely, dancing. I've actually made some progress in the past couple of weeks towards joining a dance company. The teacher at my dance studio gave me the name of his friend who is the director of a small company here in Moscow. He told me that they do folk dance as well as other types of dance, and that I should go and take a company class to try it out. So last Friday I mustered up my courage, my dance shoes, and my google map directions, and I set out to take a class. The journey was quite comical - I've been trying for almost a year to join a dance company, and never once before had I even come close to the actual "taking a class" stage, so I was convinced that something would happen to prevent me from actually getting to class. When I left the house a few minutes later than I'd planned, I thought, "Oh, so that's what will stop me - I'll be late." When I got off the metro at the station, I tried to figure out which street exit to take and thought, "No, this is what will stop me - I'll take the wrong exit onto the street and get completely turned around and not know where to go." But somehow I came out onto the right street with the first try. I walked down the street looking for the building number, and realized that something was wrong - the building numbers were decreasing rather than increasing. Then I knew, "Of course, I won't be able to find the building - that's what will keep me from taking the class." But I asked for directions and managed to set out in the right direction after wandering up and down for a few minutes. When I found the building - an old, nondescript building used as a Dom Kultury - a house of culture, literally, sort of the equivalent to our YMCAs, the hallways were apparently deserted. "This is what will stop me - I won't be able to find the studio in this building." When I found a lady in the coat check room and asked for the company class, I knew she would forbid me from taking class since I obviously was a newcomer. When I was waiting outside the studio where she told me to sit until the director came, and the minutes were slipping away before the beginning of class, I knew that the director wouldn't come until the last minute and I would be late to go in because I hadn't had time to change. When one of the company members kindly pointed me to the dressing room, I knew that the director would come while I was changing and I wouldn't get a chance to introduce myself and he would summarily refuse to let me take class...Ok, ok, I'll put you out of your suspense...I did actually take the class. I won't say it was a brilliant success, but the director didn't kick me out on my rear, so I didn't stink. And honestly, just taking the class was such a huge step for me - like I said, it's the closest I've come to joining a company after almost a year of trying.
Of course, the question of whether I want to join this particular company is another issue entirely - it depends a lot on their repertoire. I really believe that dance companies have a moral responsibility towards their audience with the choreography they show. Also, joining any kind of company would entail major changes in my teaching schedule to enable me to take company class and attend rehearsals. Sooo...we'll see. I'm excited that I've come a lot closer than I've ever been before to joining a company, but at the same time I'm acutely aware that I have a loonng waaaayy to goooooo...
In other news, I got to attend a play at the Moscow Art Theatre a couple of weekends ago - we went to celebrate Tom's birthday. We saw the play "Vassa Zheleznova" by Gorky. It was very interesting - probably not the play I would have chosen if I'd had a number to choose from, but the effects were quite good and I was pleasantly surprised at how much easier it was for me to follow the dialogue than the time before, when I tried to see "The Inspector General" in St. Petersburg - I was so tired and understood so little that I just left in the middle of the play! Plus, it was neat just to go to the Moscow Art Theatre - it is quite historic, and I actually did a paper on it in college, so it was really cool to go and see a play there.
inside the theatre
closeup of the seagull - from Chekhov's play
Sara, Tom, Laura, and me outside the theatre
But anyway, tomorrow is a bank holiday, so most places will be closed, and I don't have work, so I'm planning, for the first time in a couple of weeks, to just laze around and do absolutely NOTHING....aaaaahhh, what bliss!
Oh, yes, and Happy belated Halloween! There was a derth of pumpkins in Mitino grocery stores, so we got creative at the school party and carved a melon instead - the insides of which, I must say, are a good bit tastier raw than the insides of a pumpkin. Our theme was Harry Potter, and yours truly was Ron Weasley. I should have a good Ron Weasley-ish quote to end this blog, but at the moment my mind is drawing a blank, no doubt in part because of the fact that I'm currently reading the books in Russian so anything I remember from the first time I read them - in English - is getting jumbled up with the Russian version (where Snape is Severus Snegg; Voldemort is Volan de Mort, and Hermione is Germiona) so I'll just fall back on my usual - I hope everyone is doing well, and I hope you all have a good weekend!
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