It's all a Conspiracy

    I have it all figured out. They thought that they could hide it from me, but I saw through their plan. Everyone is only PRETENDING to believe that it's the end of March, when really, Moscow is stuck in a gigantic time warp in which we are reliving January over and over and over again. Otherwise, it couldn't possibly STILL be snowing. Yet even as I type, the little clumps of snowflakes are tumbling merrily past my window - as they have been all day and periodically ever since...actually, ever since the end of October. Of course, every once in a while the conspirators will clear away the clouds and hang the sun up for a little while, let it melt a little of the snow, get everyone talking about spring, and then WHUMP! They dump a new load of the white stuff out of the sky. Don't ask me who "they" are...my conspiracy theory hasn't advanced that far yet. Maybe in the next blog...

 my crocuses think it is springtime 

 

 However, note the background. Clearly, it is not spring.

 

 not that the snow isn't beautiful (note the individual snowflakes) :)

IN MODERATION!!!

 some sort of blessed spring on the walk to work - people always come to fill jugs of water here

 beautiful birch :)

 This bush seems to be the official bird hang-out spot - they are always here outside my building!

    I feel so sinfully luxuriant - I got to leave dance practice early, and I've already showered and eaten dinner and have a whole three blissfully empty hours stretching ahead of me before bed. But then, I think these last few weeks have merited three hours of dawdling. It's been really hectic here! Teaching is getting busier - I was just assigned two new students, one of whom is a 15-year-old teenage boy with whom I will have a 2 HOUR AND 15-MINUTE CONVERSATION COURSE ONE-ON-ONE. ("Conversation" means that there isn't even a textbook.) I mean, I have four younger brothers, I think I can say that I to some extent understand teenage boys, and there is NO WAY any teenage boy would want to sit and speak a foreign language for two hours and fifteen minutes by himself. That's not even counting the fact that conversation classes don't require students to take a placement class before they start, so I have no idea what his actual level is. It's entirely possible that we will get into class together, and get past the mandatory "Hello, how are you?" "I'm fine, thank you.", and then I will say, "How long have you been studying English?" and he will give me a blank stare and say, "Не понял вопрос," ("I didn't understand the question.") in which case we will be doing a lot of blank staring at each other for the next two hours and fifteen minutes.
     Ok, rant over. Maybe it won't be that bad. I hope. The other fun student is an older businessman named Vladimir, who I just started teaching this past week. He is an extreme beginner; I had to explain the difference between "is" and "are" to him last class. Not that I mind beginners, but he has a reputation for being a difficult student. Not only does he question the purpose of every exercise, he also has a set-up with the school wherein he doesn't have a scheduled lesson time - he can just call any day he wants and the teacher has to scramble together a lesson plan/ refresh her memory on the lesson plan she prepared a long time ago anticipating his arrival, and be ready to drop everything to teach him at any moment when she is not in a another class. However, so far it hasn't been too bad, in part because I have a plot to hide my limited Russian skills entirely. In other words, "Ya ne govoryu po-russkiy." (I don't speak Russian.) I think this will be to my advantage, because then he will have a lot harder time challenging my exercises or trying to give me condescending little compliments because a) he doesn't have the vocab in English and b) I don't understand him when he speaks Russian. Actually, I get a devious pleasure out of it - and I have even set it up with the administrators so that they won't speak Russian to me anytime Vladimir is in the building, and they won't let on that I speak it. In the last class, he was trying to compliment me on how I had such good handwriting, and how that really speaks for a person's character. But I could tell from the way he said it that he wasn't really complimenting me so much as just trying to get on my good side and smooth the way for himself. So it was great fun to look at him with a half-pained, half-smiling "I'm sorry, but I just don't understand you" face, and then continue the exercise. Maybe I shouldn't get so much devilish amusement out of it, but I can't help myself.

 

more snow

  sunshine!!

   Outside of the school, dance is pretty much the only other thing I'm managing to do at the moment. Right now it's a bit exhausting - some nights I'm so tired it's all I can do to drag myself onto the metro to get there, and yet I love dancing. I think it probably doesn't help that right now we are preparing intensively for our show, so we don't normally do a full barre before starting rehearsal, so my stamina is down. And try as I might, I can't seem to find the energy to give myself barre at home, at least not right now. But hopefully after the show, when we've finally escaped the January loop and there isn't so much tension in the air at rehearsals, I can find some energy to get in better shape.

 

more sunshine - on the way to dance

 our dance hall - also a school (we rehearse in the gymnasium)

beautiful snow on the branches on the way to dance

     I'm really excited about our show. I'm not dancing that much, which is actually good because I didn't have a lot of time to learn the choreography and I definitely don't have as much time as I would like to dissect the pieces I do have. Plus, I think trying to figure out all the different costumes and pieces of costumes might be just too much of a tax on my Russian skills - they are being pushed to their max right now remembering names of dances, "vest," "ribbon," "scarf," "safety pin," etc! And it is so wonderful that we will get to perform in the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. It is the home stage of the Moiseyev Company, so I have seen it on film and didn't even hardly dream that I would ever get to dance there. It's really exciting for me.
     I'm also really excited because I bought tickets to go and see the Bolshoi in June - and I will get to see "Chopiniana," which is a ballet I've danced in twice myself, and one of my favorites - the choreography is lovely, and Chopin's music is so beautiful.
     Well, teaching and dancing - that is about all that I have on my agenda at the moment! Oh, and I've been re-reading Harry Potter in Russian. Normally I wouldn't do something like that when I have Pushkin sitting around my flat, but sometimes it is so nice to be able to read something comfortably, and my level is about at Harry Potter right now - specifically the sixth book - and not higher! I had the ambitious plan of trying to read something else last week, and on a whim I picked up Turgenev while walking out the door to work. But after having to look up twenty words on the first page, I decided that Turgenev is useful for keepng me humble about my language skills, and the best way for him to do that is to just sit on my bookshelf unopened and stare at me. I also took a brief break from Harry Potter to sample my first - and probably my last - Stephen King book. We have a few random English books lying around the school, and that is one of them. I took it home last night when I was too tired to read Russian. Basically, it doesn't even merit disgust. The characters were caricatures rather than real people; he tried to make deep evil sound enticing and alluring, and he showed a lack of understanding of the Catholic faith in particular and Christianity in general. And the worst part is, I don't think he really set out to do any of these things - he just wanted to write a gross vampire story that would sell well. If it were my book I would rip it up into little pieces and throw it away - and I'm an English major! - but it's not, so I won't (probably).

     Well, that's all folks! Except for the fact that my family and I have unanimously decided that skype is no longer sufficient and we are ready to see each other face-to-face. Of course, I'm still enjoying my time here, and I will continue to try to enjoy every minute until I leave, but I'm also really eager to see all my loved ones, family and friends again. I'll be home at the beginning of July! :)

    

April Showers Bring May Flowers...what do snow showers in March bring?

     Ah, the joys of procrastination...actually, I've been quite productive this morning - got up and went to the shop and cleaned the kitchen - halfway. Then I got ready to go to work and just found out that my first class has been cancelled, so I have a whole extra hour. Theoretically I should use it to clean the kitchen, but...I'd much rather blog instead.
     MY DAD GOT A JOB!!! That's the biggest and best news of this blog! And hopefully it will be one he will really like. So thanks so much to everyone who was praying. :) :) :) :) :)
     Spring has arrived in Moscow - the birds are singing, the sun is shining, the snow is falling gently...yup, it's still snowing here. And that is an actual sign of spring - in the dead cold of winter, the sky was most often clear/slate grey, with no precipitation whatsoever. But now even the quality of the light has changed...and the temperatures are just a few degrees below zero, so it almost feels like our coldest days in NC. I'm actually glad the snow hasn't started to melt yet - I still haven't had a chance to go sledding! Not to mention that when all that snow does melt Moscow is going to turn into one gigantic mud puddle...it'll be back to washing my pant legs out in the bathtub every day again.

I treated myself to some crocuses - can't wait to see them bloom! :) 

 

     I'm definitely glad spring is coming. It will be so lovely to only have to put on one layer of clothing to go outside! But winter hasn't been as bad as I thought it might be. Even though it was crazy intense cold here, and I can't imagine winter in Siberia, I really loved having so much snow. Granted, it was a bit much for my taste, but I could see living somewhere with a winter that's just a bit milder and really enjoying it.
    But anyway, enough about the weather and on to more important things, like politics! Actually, considering all the furor about politics that's been going on in Moscow this year, I really haven't experienced much of the uproar. Part of the reason is that I live in Mitino, way outside the city centre, but another part is that I really don't want to get involved in the political rallying. It's safer and calmer to stay out of it, and since I can't vote anyway I'd pretty much be just a spectator. And though I can see how it might be interesting - history in the making and so forth - I'm kind of a wimp and would prefer not to see a protest firsthand! Despite my best intentions of staying away, though, I did see the beginning of one of the protests a couple of weeks ago. Lena and I met to go ice skating in the centre - they set up a huge outdoor ice rink on the site of the soccer field at the old Olympics stadium in winter - and we didn't realize that there was a pro-Putin demonstration set to start pretty much right at the gates of the ice rink! So after being sent back and forth through a maze of security gates and past any number of guards, all of whom had different ideas about the best way to get to the ice rink, we finally realized that the rink was simply inaccessible - there were masses of people clustered at the entrances, with flags and balloons and signs, and more people pulling up in big buses with "We're for Putin!" written across the side. So Lena and I hightailed it out of there, and instead we went to a smaller outdoor rink at Park Pobyedi. It was so much fun to ice skate outdoors, with the snow falling! I think I've really turned into an ice skating addict - I'm definitely planning to keep it up when I get home!
     We went ice skating Thursday before last - it was a holiday, Men's Day, or, to use the proper name, "Day of the Defenders of the Fatherland." Most people were sleeping in, so the rink wasn't too crowded. And I didn't even fall down once! (Which is a major improvement over the last time.) That evening, I had the neighbor kids over and we attempted to make chocolate chip cookies - I say attempted, because, even though they turned out fine and Lilya and Timur really liked them, they didn't quite turn out the way I'd hoped they would - which is what I get for stealing the recipe off the internet before checking with my mom! Now I've checked, and here is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe in the world: weeeellll, I would've shared the recipe, but the site isn't working. Anyway, if you look up Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe, you can probably find it.
     That Sunday was probably one of the coolest days I've had since coming to Russia - my dance group was hosting their annual festival/dance competition in honor of their founder, Faina Nikolayevna Hachaturian, who died just last year. It was held at the Central House of Artist-Workers (you really can't beat the U.S.S.R. for names!), which was a neat old Soviet building with a cozy theatre. Apparently, Stalin even attended performances there. Anyway, since we were in charge of organizing, our group had to get there at about 8:30 in the morning to set up for the performers and the judges. The first half of the morning, before the rehearsing and the festival started, was not too enjoyable for me. I really wanted to help, but sometimes my not-so-great command of the Russian language is a real handicap. Whereas the director could just fire a quick sentence at one of the other girls and she would understand immediately, with me she had to speak a bit slower, and if it was a complicated task, she had to sometimes demonstrate to make sure I understood. It's not that anyone else gave me a hard time about it - but I was giving myself a hard time. Of course, I didn't totally lose my sense of humor - probably the 'best' part of the morning was when I was told to organize the programs for the directors. I excused myself for one moment to run to the bathroom, but then I got locked in the stall. I yanked at the lock so hard that when it finally snapped open, my thumb got caught and the latch tore a chunk out of the top of my thumb. It immediately started bleeding generously, and for the next ten minutes it refused to stop. Having a bloody thumb is not conducive to sorting papers. Aaaaaand I didn't know the word for "bandaid" in Russian, so my scheme was basically to ask, "Does anyone have something...?" and hold up my thumb. Then nobody had a bandaid, though I did learn the word for the bandaid in the process, so I had to sit uselessly in the corner for about ten minutes until my thumb finally dried up. It was frustrating but humorous at the same time. And then there was the time when the director sent a bunch of us to bring extra chairs upstairs, and after the main group left she sent me as an afterthought. But I couldn't find anybody else, so after wandering up and down the stairs a couple of times, I finally ran into the other director, who asked me why I was smiling. I told him, "I'm laughing because I have no idea where I'm going!" at which point he gave me directions.

a bad picture of the Central House of Artist-Workers

     However, the rest of the day was wonderful and straightforward - once the dancing started and no one was talking directly to me I could relax! A number of amateur groups - mostly kids but some adults - came to present their pieces. There was the usual range for an amateur competition - a few really good numbers, a large number of mediocre ones, and a few that were painfully bad. But the panel of judges was really unusual, at least for the U.S. - There were three Honored Artists of Russia on the board, AND several current/past soloists with the Moiseyev! Of course, this was like a dream-come-true for me - here were people I'd watched on film for years, and I was getting to see them in person!
     And it gets even better - after the competition ended, the judges adjourned to the room we'd prepared to discuss the results. It was also the room where our group had all of our things, and I got to sit and listen to the judges deliberate! That was so amazing - all of these really smart artists dissecting the dancing they'd just seen and arguing and analyzing. They caught every point I'd noticed and more, and they were really thorough in their going-over. It was so exciting to hear how they thought and how they took apart each piece, from costumes to choreography.
    But the most amazing part happened next. Usually, in the States, at an amateur dance competition, the dancers dance, the judges adjourn to discuss, and then they award the prizes, with maybe a few comments, usually praise, directed at the performers. But at this competition, after they discussed the results, the judges sat for two hours with the teachers and choreographers of the pieces and discussed each one with them. AND I GOT TO HEAR THAT TOO! It was absolutely fascinating - they touched on everything, from noting that a student in a white costume shouldn't wear black dance underwear, to asking straight out, "What was the point behind that choreography?" And they were honest, dead-honest. If a dance was great, they said so. But if it wasn't, they said that too, and they went into detail as to what was wrong with it. You would hardly EVER see that kind of thing in the States - criticism like that is taboo. But really, we could use it - after all, if you honestly want to improve your art form, then wouldn't you want to hear professionals from your field tell you how you could improve it? I wish we had this tradition in the States - my former dance teacher, also a Russian, was honest like that, and a lot of people gave her a hard time about it. But really, there are things we need to hear.
     Anyway, it was all fascinating - so fascinating that I forgot to eat! I was so eager not to miss anything that I didn't want to leave the theater for the whole day - needless to say, I was exhausted and famished when I got home that night! But it was so cool - and I got the autographs of all the judges, too, which was neat. :)

 so cool!!! :) :) 

     However, the excitement and exhaustion might have helped to get me really sick this past weekend. That, and the change in the weather, and the fact that I teach kids - I'm pretty sure that with all of that working against me, I was doomed. It started on Thursday with a slight sore throat, but by Saturday I was so groggy-headed I couldn't see straight. And I made the mistake Friday night of taking Niquil, when I never take Niquil, so it completely knocked me out and helped turn me into a zombie all the next day. But I skyped with the family a lot (after all, that's when you miss your mommy the most - when you're sick!), and in the end I think it was good that I got sick because it forced me to sleep. I think, even if I hadn't gotten sick, I had hit a wall in terms of exhaustion. But after this weekend, surprisingly, I feel a lot more refreshed - it's made me resolve to get more sleep more often! When you've had rest, it's surprising how you can actually notice things like how beautiful the snow is, or how much your flat needs cleaning, or how cool it is that you can actually give directions on the street now in Russian without having to think about it.
    Speaking of the flat, I really like our new flatmate - her name is Melanie, and she's a French teacher at the Central School. It makes me wish I'd kept up my high school French so I could practice with her! Anyway, she's really sweet, so that's good. And hopefully NO ONE ELSE will leave before time so we won't have any more flatmate changes! Her arrival makes me realize how lucky we are, once again, with our flat - apparently hers was infested with bedbugs!
     Teaching is going well - I've got what I feel like is a good routine with most of my classes, which makes it enjoyable. Though I've got a new student in my upper-intermediate class who's quite an oddball - at least in appearance, she kind of looks like a female Johnny Depp with short bright orange hair - she came to class in a silk top hat last night. She's only in her early twenties, whereas my other three students are middle-aged, so it makes for some interesting chemistry in the classroom, particularly since she likes to cut up just a bit. But she seems nice enough, so I think I can work with her. Thank goodness she didn't come around when I'd first started teaching, though - she might have scared me away from the class!
     Anyway, I've now dawdled away about an hour, so I'd better sign off and actually go to work tomorrow. Tomorrow's a holiday - Women's Day! - which I plan to spend visiting with a friend and dancing. So it ought to be fun.

a funny card a friend of mine sent me - she knew it wasn't my birthday, but we have a Tennyson connection :)

Anyway, I had to share it because I think it's hilarious :)