Christmas Approaching: Time with Friends

Well hey, I guess the world didn't end on Friday. It looks like I'll get to celebrate a Russian New Year after all. This week was my first week of informal classes with some of my students. Not everyone came which was fine since it was even more optional than usual. We basically spent the time talking about anything and played a few games. I taught them one game called "Ghost" that, as it turns out, is also really good language practice. It requires thinking of a wide range of words and emphasizes the importance of spelling. I did that with my groups on Tuesday and Wednesday. Later on Wednesday, I worked quit a bit with Irina on her textbook. We're trying to get all of her materials finalized by January 10 so she can get it sent in for publication. I was promised that my name would be included somewhere as a contributor, so I'm pretty excited about that. We spent a couple hours organizing different units in the book to find out what was still lacking.

Thursday was another day of "Ghost" with some students but more interesting is what I did after class. On Wednesday, I got a text message from Pavel saying they really needed me on Thursday. Apparently, some participants of Tyumen State's Model UN club set up a video-conference call with a US Vice Consul at the US Consulate in Ekaterinburg. Pavel told me ahead of time that I would essentially act as a moderator. I agreed of course, but since I didn't really know any details or how the Model UN program works, I was also pretty nervous. Luckily, the video-conference was much more relaxed than I expected. It turned into a conversation about cultural differences between the US and Russia and a lot of the conversation was guided by questions from the Russian students. I wasn't really a moderator, but instead basically just served as a second American voice and gave my perspective cultural and educational differences between both countries. Since Coca-Cola was a sponsor of one of the university's cultural events, after the call, Pavel gave me some free stuff. I got a nifty glass Coca-Cola glass, a really cool little globe (in Russian), and a world map that can finally cover up at least a part of the bare walls in my room.

Friday. The end of the world. I was up late the night before so I knew the world didn't end at midnight. However, I was told by one source that the world was supposed to end at lunch. Since the world didn't blow up at lunch, I went to class for some more conversation practice. I was told by another source though that the world wouldn't end until 10:00pm, so I had some more waiting to do. Friday night was Niklas' second-to-last night in town, so Niklas, Nikolai, Sasha, and I decided to go out. First, we went to Subway for a bite to eat and watched as the clock passed 10 and the world didn't split in two. After that, we went bowling. My first game was less than impressive but I think we all felt comfortable knowing that we were all terrible. That said, my second game went significantly better (even though we didn't get to finish the last couple frames). After bowling, we stayed in the same building "Бриллиантовая Рука" (Diamond Arm) to play Russian billiards. Boy was that tough. Even though they had standard pool, I wanted to play Russian billiards because it was new to me. I'm guessing a little bit with these numbers, but the table is probably about 50% bigger and the pocket-sizes are practically 50% smaller. The competition was to see who knock in the most balls. We played for an hour and only knocked in about 6... It was clear that we were all as bad at billiards as we were at bowling. Of course, our talent didn't matter. We all still had a lot of fun.

Random picture on the way to American Corner

Saturday. Day 1 Post-Apocalypse. Even though, I never usually have classes on Saturdays, this Saturday we had one that we moved from our typical 8am Friday time-slot. Again, we had some discussion and another round of "Ghost." After class, I went straight to American Corner where we watched another movie. This time, we watched "The Onion," a film based on the fake news source "The Onion." It's a really silly (and sometimes even stupid) comedy that gives a lot of social commentary. After American Corner, I rode a horribly overcrowded маршрутка (mini-bus) with no room to move back to the dorm. I guess that's what happens around dinner-time and it's -20 outside. Niklas was hosting a final get-together before his departure on Sunday. Here's who came: Niklas, me, Sasha, Nikolai, Dima (Niklas' roommate), Raya, Lyusya (two Chinese students), Ira, Marina, and Anton(?) who are all Dima's friends. We had some sort of French-style meat/potato/cheese dish which was pretty delicious. After dinner, some people sang songs, we played a couple rounds of "Mafia" (another popular game here), and Lyusya, Raya, Niklas, Sasha, and I stayed late to just hang out and talk.

Niklas' farewell party (left to right: Nikolai,
Sasha, Raya, Lyusya, Niklas)

Sunday was, of course, the big day for Niklas and sad for everyone. A number of us gathered around 12pm to see him off. I had a lot of fun hanging out with him, so it's really unfortunate that he left. I guess that means I'll have to spend more time with other Russian friends which, when in Russia, makes sense. Later that afternoon, I met with some students from a different class to help them prepare for a Christmas celebration that's going to be on the 24th (today). I went to one their apartments (which was really nice, by the way) and we worked on the script for a short skit, an American Christmas song "the 12 Days of Christmas", and some artwork/decorations. I inherited the role of Santa in the play so... we'll see how that goes. It starts in a few hours so I've got to get ready soon. Details will follow once it's all done. I'll tell you what, today sure doesn't feel like Christmas Eve. And tomorrow? Christmas? It sure doesn't feel like it. On the other hand, I'm still excited about spending the holidays Russian-style. I leave for Nefteyugansk in about five days.

On a side note, it's -30 F today. Apparently, this is the coldest winter Siberia has seen in about 50 years and my city has had it easy compared to a few others farther east. I guess you could say I'm lucky.

First Semester Coming to a Close

Well, as I write this post, it is -28 F outside. But hey, at least there's no wind chill today, right? Actually, I've been fairly "lucky" lately with the weather if you compare my situation with some of the other Siberian Fulbrighters. Some of the others farther east have already had to deal with temperatures in the -30s. Our recent week of temps around -5 and -10 has looked mild by comparison. I don't have any work responsibilities today; however, I still have to go outside for a couple errands. I'm in need (and have been in need for a couple weeks) of a haircut. I also have very little food left, so I need to stock up. I won't lie. I'm a little nervous about the haircut. My plan is to just show my passport picture, say I just want "everything shorter," and hope for the best.

In other news, today is Monday, but last week was technically my last week of classes for the semester. My "boss" had me end classes two weeks before New Year's break, so last week with all of my groups we talked about American Christmas and New Year's Eve. I also gave a quiz and a survey about the course. I don't plan on grading the quiz very strictly since it was based on topics from the whole semester and we had some newcomers in almost all of my groups. One quick and interesting side note: Russian students don't seem to have any problem asking each other for help and getting on their cell phones during quizzes. Most of my students in all of my groups were guilty of this and it caught me a little off-guard. I constantly reminded them that helping each other and looking at cell phones was prohibited. Of course, any behavior like this was unacceptable during a quiz or test of any kind I was in college. So there I was, imposing our American quiz-taking etiquette on a bunch of Russians who are used to talking to each other during quizzes. Even though I was more strict than usual (which is never), I felt justified. I mean, what's the point of a quiz if everybody helps each other? I didn't want to know the group's knowledge. I wanted to test individuals. The most important thing though was the survey in which I found out how my students liked the course, what they would like to change, what topics they want to cover, etc. I'm supposed to spend the next couple weeks helping Irina more with her textbook project but, as it turns out, most of my students didn't want to end my classes yet. I admit, that was a pretty great feeling. My students actually want to come to class! We decided to keep meeting but we agreed that I wouldn't need to prepare my typical lessons. We're going to use that time to pretty much just chat and play games. I'd like to watch some shows or movies or something too, but I don't really know how to pull that off yet given the facilities we have at our disposal.

Yesterday (Sunday), I went with Katya to pick up some New Year's decorations for their place in Nefteyugansk. We went to a mall called Goodwin (Гудвин) and browsed a little bit and then ate a cafe with Russian cuisine. I finally had shashlyk for the first time in Tyumen which was as delicious as I expected (not like those horrendous shashlyk-flavored potato chips). After the mall, we went to Ira's place (Katya's sister) because she recently got a cat. It had been too long for me without any affection from a cat. He was really shy at first but he warmed up to me pretty quickly and even sat on my lap a few times.

On Saturday, I had American Corner as usual and this time we actually managed to watch a full movie. One of our usual participants brought the American movie "The Great Buck Howard," a comedy that came out four years ago about a mentalist. I was a little surprised that I had never heard of it before, especially because it has some big names in it. I enjoyed it too. We had a short discussion afterwards about mentalists/hypnotists and about the film in general.

Since I finished my lesson plans for the last week pretty early, I had quite a few free evenings during the week. Niklas, Sasha, and I decided to have a Star Wars marathon throughout the week. We met three nights in a row to watch the newest Star Wars films and watched Episode 4 (the oldest) a couple days ago. We still have two more to go. Other than Star Wars, sharing a few dinners, and having classes, not much else happened this week.

Wow ok, so just after finishing this post I had a pretty great experience. I did my laundry today and also swapped out my bed sheets for some clean ones. Shortly after taking the clean ones upstairs, I got a knock on the door from the lady who just gave them to me. She told me that she needed to give me some different ones because the sheets she gave me were for students. I was supposed to get the "guest" sheets or sheets for teachers. Now, of course, I had to ask what the difference was. She told me that since the ones for students are exchanged much more frequently (as most of the people living here are students), they aren't cleaned as thoroughly... This is one of those times when I am perfectly happy having special privileges.

On the Range

This Thursday I got a little more ambitious with cooking (by my standards). I decided to pan-fry some chicken and boil some potatoes. That sounds like super simple business, but I usually don't prepare meat raw meat due to laziness. I typically rely on eggs and summer sausage as my meat source at home. Anyway, Katya, Niklas, and Sasha came over and we fried up all the chicken. I added some "universal" spice that I bought at the store specifically for the chicken. I thought it turned out pretty great! It tasted good and nobody got sick, so it was a win-win. There were also plenty of leftovers.

Friday was a pretty interesting day. Of course, as usual, it was a fairly dismal start. I got up at 6:45am for my 8:00am class. Class went well but it's always a bit discouraging when it's still dawn when you're done with your first class at 9:30am... At this point, the sun come up until close to 10:00am and it's almost completely gone by 5:30pm. Days are getting shorter and shorter. For my second class, however, only two students showed up. Also, our usual classroom was taken and we didn't really have anywhere to go but sit in the middle of a very small library. I decided it would be much better to take our class to a cafe instead. We went to Traveler's Coffee, which I've now been to a handful of times and I still find it cozy. We got a pot of tea for all of us and just chatted about anything. In this sense, it really wasn't a class. It was more of a conversation. You could tell we had a good time because we stayed for about an hour longer than our normal class would have lasted. Golf was brought up in conversation and I convinced Olya and Anya, the two I was with, to come with me to CityGolf on Sunday (more details on this later).

After "class," I bumped into Niklas and Katya on the way back home. It was still pretty early but Niklas and I were both really hungry so we tried to figure out what to do for dinner. (This usually happens to me on Fridays. I eat breakfast at 7am, which leads to an 11am lunch, resulting in an early dinner. In this respect, Friday contrasts greatly with the other days of the week.) Anyway, Niklas and I decided to finish the leftover chicken and potatoes and, since that would not have been enough, we agreed to meet up about an hour and a half later to go to Subway for a second dinner. I was all for this idea because I've been curious to check out a Russian Subway to see how the sandwiches and prices differ from the US chain locations. To my surprise, it was actually noticeably more expensive. We both got the "nightly special" which is their cheapest foot-long option and it was about $5.20... without cheese. I added cheese and it put it about $6.50. Most of their foot-long subs were over $7. At least, that's what I gathered when I glanced at the menu. The selection was much smaller. They only offered one type of cheese as opposed to the 4 or so they offer in the US. According to Niklas, we were lucky with the bread they had that night. Usually they only have to options for bread, but we got some sort of special herb bread. Also, the meat looked different. I don't really know how to explain it, but it just looked more "Russian." I can't really complain though. I really enjoyed my sub. Also, now I can check Subway off my list of American fast food chains that I need to visit in Russia.

Saturday, like usual, held in store American Corner. This time, however, I don't think it was as good as usual. We were supposed to watch a movie but we didn't have one ready by the time the club started. Moreover, our coordinator couldn't come so we were strictly limited to a two-hour time limit. Due to a combination of poor time management and technical difficulties, our discussion club turned into an impromptu conversation over various topics, such as the economy, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and affirmative action. It certainly wasn't a disaster, but I just found it less enjoyable and fulfilling as some previous meetings.

On my way home, I once again bumped into Niklas on the street. He invited me over for dinner (again) because he had already made plans with Sasha to make something. So Niklas, Sasha, Dima, and I hung out and had spaghetti dish. It was tasty but I ate entirely too much dealt with an overly-full stomach all night. I spent the rest of the night in my room relaxing (with the exception of my stomach, who worked all night long).

Random Picture: A weekly favorite for dinner. Eggs with some combination of potatoes, red pepper, onion, or sausage, bread with raspberry jam, and coffee.

Sunday is absolutely my highlight of the week. I got to swing a golf club for the first time in two and half months! I went to CityGolf with Olya and Anya to use their driving range. CityGolf is a complex located within an office building that offers about five golf simulators, a tiny mini-golf course, a small driving range (into a net), a bar, a restaurant, and a teeny tiny pro shop. We went with the cheapest option, a bucket of golf balls for each of us, since this was their first time. I got a kick out of teaching a couple Siberian girls how to play golf. Of course, you're a bit limited when only have a few buckets and you're hitting into a net. Nevertheless, I think they had a great time trying something new out. So I had fun instructing them and getting in some swings for myself to keep my golf muscles loose. I also found out that they have a tournament coming up soon. There's one small problem though. All but one of the simulators requires that you play right-handed... If I properly understood the guy I talked to, then I might be able to use that simulator during the tournament. If it's unavailable, however, then he just suggested that I play right-handed. Yeah... no, that won't happen. I'm not going to spend that much money on making a fool of myself. Even if I can't make the tournament work out, I'll absolutely go back again to play in the simulator. On a side note, their simulators appear to be really high quality. One of them is panoramic and, instead of just one, has three screens. Maybe I can even rile up a few more people to make it a four or fivesome next time. What better way to combat the -15 and -20 temperatures than to get in a quick 9 holes?

Cold, Darkness, Cheese, Time Travel, & DDT

Normally, my posts follow a very typical day-by-day structure of the previous week. This post may resemble more of a "freeform" style because, in addition to my weekly activities, I have a few other notes that I've been constantly forgetting to include.

So, during my typical evening ritual of getting on the Internet, I've seen a lot of news regarding the absurdly warm temperatures back home in Iowa. I mean, high 50s and low 60s in early December? What is that?! Conversely, here in Tyumen over the last few days, we've had temperatures at about -12 Fahrenheit with wind chills dipping past -20. Only today has the "warmer" weather started to come back with 6 degrees around lunch and some light snow. I suppose I shouldn't expect anything else when spending winter in Siberia. Since all I had earlier in the week were my tennis shoes and formal black boots with fur, I needed a warm alternative for daily use. I bought some shoes with some sort of wool interior and they're super comfortable. I'm pretty much set with winter gear, but I wouldn't mind finding a little better scarf and/or hat.

I neglected to mention it in earlier posts, but a few weeks ago, I made plans to travel to Katya's and Ira's place in Nefteyugansk for New Year's Eve. I'm really excited for a few reasons. 1) I get to leave Tyumen for a while to see a new city. 2) I finally get to experience a Russian New Year celebration. 3) I get to spend the holiday with some close friends. Although, one thing remains a bit scary and funny at the same time. It's about 12 hours north of Tyumen by train. Of the few people I've told here, they have all asked, "Why? It's colder there!" It's true. It will be colder and darker. Another fun fact is that their trees are noticeably shorter due to the colder year-round climate.

In other news, I still don't have any light in my bathroom. This is something I've consistently neglected to mention. A couple weeks ago, I had my entryway, bedroom, and bathroom light burn out in a span of about 2-3 days. I asked some dormitory personnel to fix it, but nobody ever came (which is actually pretty normal by Russian standards). I went out and bought my own lightbulbs and changed almost all of them myself which was much more convenient. However, I couldn't change the one in the bathroom because it's too high. So, because I've been to lazy to ask for help again and because I can't do it myself, I've been pretty much using my bathroom in half-darkness with the door halfway open for a couple weeks. I've actually gotten pretty used to it.

Here's a piece of good news. After struggling for two months to find the right cheese at the store, I think I've finally narrowed it down. A couple days ago I made a very successful cheese purchase with the exact type of cheese I've been desiring. This should make my life a little easier and will likely result in less wasted cheese.

Similarly, my last two dinners have been success stories. I made my first attempt at mashed potatoes, but I didn't have anything to really go with it. I ended up making the mashed potatoes and adding fried sausage and onions which resulted in a fairly simple yet tasty concoction. It's nice to know that, even without buying any special ingredients, I can manage to make a few extra dishes with the ingredients I usually buy. Also, today revived another American classic: grilled cheese. Of course, grilled cheese it one of the easiest things in the world to make with a frying pan, but at least I'm varying my diet a little bit.

But what else was in the news from this last week? Well, on Wednesday, Katya showed me one of the computer games she's loved to play ever since her family got their first computer. It's called Heroes of Might and Magic. Sure, it's a really old game (by computer standards), but that doesn't mean it wasn't really well made and a lot of fun to play. It's for reasons like this (and nostalgic reasons) that some games, no matter how old, never lose their entertainment value.

On Friday, I went with Niklas and Raia, a Chinese friend of ours, to an Italian restaurant and a DDT concert. We split a couple pizzas, chatted, and killed a little time before the concert. Then, the concert. It was fantastic! DDT is a classic Russian band. Some of their songs have reached pretty much an iconic status. They're songs resonate throughout the country in a sort of Beatles-like way. Nearly all Russians, young and old, know songs like Это всё, Что такое осень, and Метель. The concert wasn't great just because of these legendary songs, though. There was a number of extremely talented musicians that utilized an electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, trumpet, trombone, drums, timpani, and two vocalists. They covered classic Russian rock, heavy rock, jazz, and Russian folk. It was one hell of a musical experience. I hadn't heard such quality music in some time. It was also interesting that the vocalist/acoustic guitarist (the lead of the band) mixed his poetry into the show.

On Saturday, I had American Corner which turned out fairly well. Again, we had a couple newcomers who were pretty shy and didn't talk much. Our topic was "technology of the future" and whether all scientific developments were good and adhered to typical moral standards. At times, it felt like it I just rambled. I pretty much seized the opportunity to spew out as much information as I could from watching National Geographic, the Discovery Channel, and reading Discovery News over the years. This was especially true when we touched on topics like time travel or teleportation. I'm no physicist, but it seems my exposure to educational television programming made me the expert in the room.

After American Corner, I made plans to meet with Nadya, Vanya, and Katya (other Katya) to go ice skating. When we got to the rink, however, it was packed. Since I was the only one without my own skates, it was pretty much my fault we couldn't get in until much later. As a result, we decided to leave before skating. Instead, we took a drive out to Katya's parents' place outside the city. I believe this was the first time I had ever been inside a house in Russia (all other visits have been in apartments). We hung out with her parents by the fireplace eating candy and drinking tea.

Sunday and Monday were pretty typical. The only thing of note was that Niklas and Sasha came over to my place to hang out late Monday night. It's a good thing I prepared all my plans for class ahead of time, because they didn't leave until 1am. But, I mean, that's college life, right?

On Tuesday, I had one class but I also attended a lecture from a visiting Polish scholar. Honestly, I was bored out of my mind. He gave three lectures today and thankfully, I only went to the first one. He spoke in a mixture of fairly poor English and Russian which I imagine made it rough for all listeners and not just me. I don't really have much more to say about it because, like I said, it wasn't exactly interesting.

Discussion Clubs Galore!

In the States, this was obviously a big Thanksgiving holiday week. For me, on the other hand, it was more akin to a typical week. That's not to say nothing notable happened, but there wasn't any Thanksgiving "in the air." I know some Americans in other cities put together some Thanksgiving meals. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get anything organized like I did with Halloween. Although, to be honest, I'm probably much better at carving a Jack-o-Lantern than I am at preparing a turkey feast.

Anyway, Monday was a little atypical in that I had two classes. Usually, I have either one or none, but we made some changes to my schedule recently. I had two one-and-a-half-hour sessions with the same group; one of my advanced groups. The first class was fairly typical, but for the second, I had them take some practice reading exams. For a teacher, this makes teaching very easy. In fact, I used the extra 45 minutes to work on my cartooning skills.

Tuesday... Tuesday... I had a class I guess and... that's it. Moving on.

On Wednesday, I had the one class that I always have. I also found out a few days prior to Wednesday that the video we filmed for that project didn't work out right and we had to refilm it. So I spent my entire Wednesday evening at a different studio working on the video again. They threw some makeup on me and threw me in front of the camera. I think it went well. Now I'm just waiting for the final product.

Thursday! Thanksgiving! Sort of... I went to work as usual and had three classes. At the very least, since I didn't celebrate the holiday in my dorm room, I made an effort to focus our classes on the history and traditions of Thanksgiving. I also decided to make class a little more festive by giving out candy to students who answered questions correctly. My "Thanksgiving feast" consisted of pasta with pan-fried onions and red bell peppers. Not exactly traditional, but I liked it nonetheless. However, it wouldn't be honest if I didn't say that I didn't miss having a big Thanksgiving meal at home.

Friday. Black Friday. Unlike yesterday, this is one day of the year that I'm very glad I wasn't in the US. I won't get into a rant right now about how much I dislike Black Friday, but I feel confident saying all of my students are now well aware of my stance on Black Friday. Both of my classes on Friday were like the classes on Thursday in that I talked about Thanksgiving and gave out candy (different groups of students). On Fridays, I usually have a huge gap of free time between my 8:00am and 3:10pm classes. This time, I was booked to give a presentation at a local school to 7th and 8th graders. It was organized through the program Global Classroom in which the other foreign students, like Niklas, are also participating. I'm expected to do it a few more times in different schools and I'm usually expected to do it in Russian. However, this time, because this particular group was pretty proficient in English, I was able to give it in English. This made the experience significantly easier for me. I don't know exactly how well they understood me, but I think they grasped a good part of it. At the very least, they got the gist of what I was saying.

I was actually semi-productive Saturday morning and got started on some extra work for Irina's textbook. That afternoon, we had American Corner for the first time in a few weeks. We had a crowd of about eight people show up and we had a discussion on "happiness" and what aspects of life factor into one's happiness level. It was a pretty interesting discussion and I was glad to see everyone participate. This time, the level of English was higher than it had been before and it led to a more active group. American Corner went without a hitch, but I did have some slight troubles getting there and back. I have to take a "marshrutka" (маршрутка) to get there, which is kind of like a mini-van that acts as a bus. They go faster and generally aren't as disciplined as normal buses. In other words, they don't stop at all the stops unless they see someone wave for them or somebody requests a stop. When leaving for the discussion club, I walked a few minutes to the bus stop and stood there for 20 minutes waiting for my marshrutka. When I finally saw it, I started to walk closer to the curb. But it never stopped. As a result, I had to stand for about another 10 minutes for the next one, which I was sure to wave down promptly. When leaving American Corner, the same thing happened. After waiting about 15 minutes, the first marshrutka stopped but I wasn't quick enough and the driver didn't see me before he pulled away. So, again, I waited. I didn't have any plans for the evening so it ended up being pretty quiet.

On Sunday, I had another discussion group called "New York" planned. Before that though, I went to the movie "Flight" with Olga, one of the American Corner participants. It's an American movie with Denzel Washington that I had never heard of before Sunday. I was pleased that I understood most of it, but the movie itself was fairly average. We had a quick bite to eat before heading to the discussion club. We ate at Sbarro's in the food court. The pizza looked great when standing in line, but it wasn't nearly as good as the Sbarro's pizza I've had in the US. It's pretty hard to beat American pizza (at least, according to my American  tongue). This discussion club has a significantly lower level of English proficiency than American Corner and is generally directed more towards beginners in the language. Nevertheless, I had a pretty good time meeting some new people. Also, I'll admit that it can be pretty fun to be the exotic foreigner in the room.

On Monday morning, like Sunday night, the weather was starting to get quite a bit colder. For example, when I left my room today (Monday) at about 2:30pm, it was only 6 degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature is supposed to go back up a bit over the next few days but it's supposed to sink down to -4 by December 1st. Hooray, Siberia! Anyway, I didn't have any classes this Monday, but I did have my third English-language "discussion club" over the last three days. This one, unlike the others, was hosted by the university and was held in one of the two buildings in which I usually teach. They selected the topic "Is it easy to be young?" and I was told to give a 10-15 minute presentation on the topic from an American perspective and to answer questions from the students and teachers who attended. They called it a "discussion club" but it was primarily just two lectures (one from me and one from another student) with a lot of questions directed toward me. I've grown more accustomed to speaking in front of people now that I have to do it almost everyday, but today the turnout was much higher than I expected. There were more than 40 people in attendance. It was a bit surprising, but I did fine and I think the club was generally a success. I spent my evening getting ready for the week's first classes and cooking a typical scrambled egg dinner with pan-fried red bell pepper and onion. If you haven't figure it out, I like adding pepper and onion to most things I cook.

(Sorry, no images this week. I need to get on that.)

The Least Important Person in the Room

This week was very unique and very interesting. However, it had a pretty weak start. My Tuesday consisted of one class... with one student. In other words, my day consisted of a one and a half hour tutor session and nothing else worth mentioning. It's unfortunate when some of my students miss class, but it can also feel pretty rewarding having a one-on-one lesson. You get to cover topics you know they're interested in and they participate more than they would in a normal class.

Anyway, let's get to the meaty part of the week. This week, instead of feeling like the foreigner, I actually got to be excited with other Russians about the arrival of three high court judges from the United Kingdom. Sir Peter Cresswell, Sir David Steel, and Sir Mark Potter visited our campus to give presentations to and talk with our law faculty and students. I suppose I can now say I've talked with a "Sir." The lectures were convenient for me since I didn't need any translation. Almost everybody else had to use headphones with a direct connection to the translator. The lectures themselves were fairly interesting even though I don't actually know that much about law (especially, the British system). Nevertheless, I was brave enough to stand up and ask a question during the Q&A. It wasn't a complex question. One of the topics they covered was the "social standing" of judges and I basically just asked how their lives changed (if at all) after becoming judges. Even though I didn't notice, some of my colleagues said they noticed some smiles on the judges' faces when I started talking. I suppose I'll just have to attribute that to fact that they were probably surprised to hear a question from an American in a Siberian law institute of all places. After the lectures, I was invited to a coffee break with some of the key participants present. I finally met the president of the university. Unfortunately, I didn't exactly seize the opportunity to talk with the judges. I didn't really want to stand in line.

I found Thursday to be even cooler than Wednesday. I signed up to "participate" in a round table discussion at the Federal Arbitration Court of the Western-Siberian Region. The round table was held on the top floor (the 9th floor) of the building and it was pretty fancy; equipped with plush chairs, microphones for each person, chandeliers, etc. I also got a free folder, notebook, and pen out of the deal. I'd like to add that it's a pretty great pen. Way better than the last free pen I got, which I'm still expecting to break or stop working at any given time. Anyway, I felt like the least important person in that room. I'm just a lowly 23-year-old English teacher with nothing to brag about besides my college diploma while the list of notable Russians in attendance included: the Governor of Tyumen Oblast, the president of Tyumen State University, four judges from the Federal High Arbitration Court, and a long list of chairmen from other regional arbitration courts throughout Russia. The highlight of the whole round table, though, was the presence of judges from the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States. The judges from the UK are the same as those I saw on Wednesday. The German is a judge from Munchen, Germany. From the United States, there were four primary participants: Diane Wood, Marilyn Huff, Robert Drain, and Collins Fitzpatrick. The most notable of all was Diane Wood who is a current judge of the the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. The highlight of my day (besides the pen), was getting to have conversations with the German judge and with Diane Wood during the coffee break before lunch. In addition to talking with a "Sir" from England, I suppose I can also now say that I've talked with a federal judge appointed by the President of the United States (in this case, Bill Clinton). Maybe this isn't as big of a deal as I'm making it out to be. Maybe being in Siberia is making it seem all the more interesting. Nevertheless, I value it as a unique and neat experience. I was only able to stay for the morning activities because I had afternoon classes. All the same, it was probably for the best. As interesting as the whole event was, I probably would've gotten really tired of listening to lectures on commercial law.

Starting on Friday, my week presented me with another interesting opportunity. I was asked by a girl I met at the Model UN, Elina, to help out with a project that one of her friends is working on. Basically, this one guy, Anton, came up with an idea for an Internet project/website and was looking for a foreigner to help with a video promo to help bring in outside help/investors. I was given a small script to practice and, on Friday night, we all met to practice our lines. I only had about four sentences to memorize but it was good for phonetic practice. That is, it was probably the first time since I arrived in Tyumen that I diligently worked on phonetics and Russian pronunciation. We met again on Saturday to shoot the video. First, we met in a cafe called Assorti to hang out a bit and practice our lines. Then we went to a studio to film. As it turns out, I had to wear makeup for the first time since performing in my last play which I believe was in 8th grade. Thankfully, they let me go first with my part because I was already running late to meet up with Katya, Ira, and a couple of Ira's friends, Alyosha and Sonya.

So, after finishing my part, I took a cab to Ticket to Dublin (an Irish pub) to meet with up with the people I just mentioned. The pub was celebrating its 7th birthday and so it was a special night filled with games and prizes. I didn't participate but that may have been for the best. I didn't understand the goal of most of games until about halfway through each one. They gave out stuff like bottle openers, beer glasses, baseball caps, and coupons. We got some bonus food because Alyosha won one of the games and got a coupon for a free appetizer. After the pub, after parting ways with Alyosha and Sonya, Ira, Katya, and I went to Ira's place for tea and cake. I met Ira's friend Sasha and the four of us hung out all night. I just now found myself wanting to use the Russian word "общались" to explain that were hanging out and talking instead of saying it in English. That tends to happen when I think a Russian word describes the situation better than any English translation I can think of. I consider the night a big success for two reasons: 1) I had a great time hanging out with them and 2) I used a lot more Russian than I usually do. The Russian part of my brain was fried by the end of the night, but I know it was great practice.

Sunday, on the other hand, often involves very little talking in any language. This Sunday, like several others, is basically just a chance for me to catch up on my blog and start thinking about classes for the week. Now that I've finished this entry, I'm going to go cook some dinner and get started on my lesson plans for Monday.

Since I don't have any relevant pictures from the week, here's a cute bunny from the farm I visited a few weeks ago.

Hittin' the Road to Tobolsk (Тобольск)

I've fallen out of the habit of writing more than one post per week, but since I went on a special excursion this Sunday, I made an exception. The plan to go to on this trip had been in the works for a few weeks and it was my first opportunity to get out of Tyumen since arriving. Our destination was Tobolsk. It's a city to the northeast, about four hours by bus. I went with a couple of my colleagues, Svetlana and Irina, and about twenty or so students. I wouldn't say I was exactly enthused at the start of the trip. I had to get up around 6:45am to get ready and walk over to campus to catch the bus. My sleep schedule currently doesn't permit me to get to sleep before 12:30am, so I wasn't exactly well-rested for the start. As soon as the bus started moving, our tour guide started talking. Undoubtedly, she was saying some interesting things about Tyumen. However, I was a bit too tired to care. Nevertheless, I was a little torn over whether I should just let myself sleep or try to listen. I slept off and on throughout the first couple hours of the ride, played a quick game of "stickers" with my seatmates, Nadya, Katya, and Zhenya, and I also did a little work with Irina and Svetlana.  Here's the short version of what they needed help with. On Wednesday, some high court judges from England are coming to town to visit our institute and give a sort of lecture/workshop type thing. It's Irina's and Svetlana's job to help screen and translate some of the questions for the judges (who don't speak Russian). The only problem is that I hardly know any legal jargon, both in English and in Russian. My neighbors were actually much more helpful than I was.

The courtroom with a portrait of Nikolai II

Our first stop in Tobolsk was a place to get some lunch. We went to a place called "Fiesta." Also written on the sign was "Bistro." I can tell you one thing for sure about this place; it has absolutely no connection with Mexican or Spanish cuisine as the name might indicate. I felt like I was eating at the university cafeteria only with nicer seating. I had my quick fill of plov, bread, and tea and we were off to see our first site: a courthouse from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Our tour guide at this particular museum talked about the history of the court system in Russia and how it related to Tobolsk's system. We saw a pretty nifty restored version of the main courtroom. After the court, we walked across the street to one of the former offices of Emperor Nikolai II. They had some interesting pictures of his family life in Tobolsk and much of the furniture was authentic. Oh!! And before I forget, on the way to Tobolsk, we stopped in a small town and our tour guide briefly showed us the exterior of the home in which Rasputin was born! It was lucky that I woke up for it at all.

The primary church at the Kremlin

Anyway, from Emperor Nikolai's office, we then went to the Tobolsk Kremlin. It's probably the coolest part of the city because it sits very high on a hill overlooking the whole area. Hundreds of years ago, it was used primarily as a fortress and religious center. On top of the hill, we saw rebuilt/renovated fortress walls, a large church with a bell tower, and an old (and miserable-looking) prison. All of this was really interesting to look at, but by far the most impressive thing was, in my opinion, the view. With the city covered in snow, everything covered in a sort of fog, and a river off in the distance, it was a beautiful sight.

From there, we hit the road back home. At the time, I didn't realize that we were going to make any more stops, but we did stop at a monastery/repentance church on the way back. We got to walk into one of the churches and it was pretty incredible. All of the walls were covered in Russian Orthodox style frescoes that I believe were painted within the last five years or so. Everything was vibrant and there was even an amazing view from inside the church of the surrounding countryside. Again, we were located on a hill overlooking a river basin covered in a light fog.

Me along the edge of the Kremlin overlooking the city

This time, we were actually off for good. After a couple hours, we stopped again at the same rest stop we hit on the way to Tobolsk for random snacks and bathroom breaks. I decided to buy a Snickers and heard a female student make an off-hand remark saying that it's unhealthy. She then immediately bought hard candy... I decided to not take any offense from her claim (even if she may be right). On the way back, I played a few more rounds of "stickers" with my neighbors and I even taught them a favorite group car game of mine, called Ghost. It was a word game and we played in Russian. Therefore, I was the first one to lose... but it was fun all the same!

The end of a long staircase leading up to the Kremlin

 We got back at around 10:00pm and I walked home from the university. Even though I was pretty exhausted from a long day, my internal clock still didn't let me sleep until after midnight. However, once I finally got into bed, it didn't take too long for me to get to sleep. All in all, it was a worthwhile excursion and I was happy to see another part of Siberia with a little more more of an ancient Russian flavor.

The view of the river from the monastery

Here Comes Winter

A heavy, wet snow

This week felt considerably less busy that the last couple. This was due, in part, to not having any classes on Monday and also due to the fact that I basically covered only one theme for all my classes the entire week. We covered a long list of words and phrases related to life and studies in American colleges. Certain processes and systems work very differently in American universities compared to Russian universities. For example, I shared my experiences with a liberal arts education that necessitated an exploration of different subjects other than my major. For my students (and for many Russians in other universities), they must adhere to a more strictly controlled schedule that doesn't allow for much freedom in class selection. Also, financial aid works quite a bit differently. For American colleges, tuition can be very high and require that you get a lot of scholarships and loans. For Russians, financial aid usually comes in the form of living stipends for students from poorer families and it's often not much.

This week, we've seen a considerable change in the weather. For the last couple weeks, temperatures have hovered around the low-thirties with off-and-on rain. Now we're finally getting snow and got our first taste of cold temperatures. On Tuesday (or maybe Wednesday?), the windchill dipped down to close to 0 degrees Fahrenheit with real temperatures closer to about 10 degrees. However, since then it's warmed up considerably back to the low-thirties and it's basically a big slushy mess everywhere. Sidewalks are giant puddles and the streets are covered in mud. It's pretty annoying, but there is one plus. If your shoes get filthy from crossing the street, they'll probably get clean again as soon as you get to the other side and hit another puddle. In short, I need to buy some better boots. Also, with snow on the ground, everything is considerably more beautiful, so I suppose that's another plus.

A view of some old homes from my room after a night of snow

I spent some of my free time this week hanging out with a few people. On Wednesday, I went to the movies with Pavel (my primary contact here). We went to Cloud Atlas. I remember seeings ads for it in the US before I left, but since arriving, I had completely forgotten about it. I'm glad we went because it was a very interesting movie. That said, it was a little confusing and didn't have a standard plot line. The fact that I watched it in Russian didn't help. Regardless, it was a very creative film and I had a lot of fun.

On Thursday, I didn't have as much work to prepare for my 8:00am class on Friday so I spent some time with Niklas, Dima, and Sasha. I donated the rest of my pasta sauce to their dinner which means I'll probably have to make a quick stop to the store tomorrow so I can have some pasta of my own soon. We basically just talked about random stuff and enjoyed each other's company.

Looking across the square in front of the philharmonic

On Friday night, Katya took me to another one of her favorite places in the city, called "Retro." It's a pub/cafe with a sort of Russian 1980s-1990s theme. Of course, my eyes gravitated to the most American things on the menu. As soon as I saw that they offered buffalo wings, I knew I had to order them. But, for the first time in my life, a waiter actually suggested that I shouldn't order a particular item from their menu. Katya explained that I wanted to see how they compare with buffalo wings as we prepare them in the US. The waiter said that they actually use some kind of curry sauce for the buffalo-flavored wings (there were other flavors as well). At that point, I was confused, but I decided that I needed to try them nevertheless. When we got our food, the waiter actually told us that the restaurant had recently changed the recipe and that they might resemble American-style buffalo wings more. I'll say that they were tasty, but I won't say that they were buffalo wings. They were close, but a bit off. Because it was Friday, we also got to enjoy some live music from a local group that played some covers but also, according to the waiter, some of their own songs. What's the most interesting thing about live music at this place though? The restaurant adds $10 to each table's bill for the live music! It's a good thing that the band was good... But all in all, it was a cool place with a neat atmosphere and good food and I had a lot of fun talking with Katya.

On Saturday, Katya invited me to go with her and some of her friends/classmates to a "concert." As it turned out before we left, nobody was quite sure what it was going to be exactly. They were certain where it was going to be and pretty certain that there was going to be a performance from students, but we didn't find out until we got there that the performance was a part of a program for high school students who were visiting the university. So basically, we hung out at a prospective student event for about a half hour while waiting for the show to start. I had seen a lot of the performances before because some of them were repeat performances from the Freshman Debut that I went to a few weeks ago. Nevertheless, some of those were very cool and I saw a couple new things that were really entertaining, such as a comedy skit and a Russian folk dance. Now I'm sitting here trying to figure out what to do for dinner and how to spend my Saturday evening. I suppose I also have to keep in mind that I have to get up early for a full-day excursion to Tobolsk tomorrow.

Halloween

This week, I hosted my first holiday party. I decided it would be fun to throw a Halloween-themed party for my Russian and international friends. Halloween is growing in popularity in Russia every year but only in a few specific aspects. For instance, more and more Russians celebrate Halloween by going to costume parties at friends' homes or to bars and clubs. However, some American traditions haven't carried over, such as trick-or-treating and carving jack-o-lanterns. In fact, for a few of my groups, I devoted a whole class to Halloween. On Monday, I met with Niklas and Dima (his roommate) to discuss possible party ideas and to create a guest list. On Tuesday, I went with Niklas to pick up a few items, the most important of which was the pumpkin for our jack-o-lantern. While searching for these miscellaneous items, we also picked up a few tickets to a DDT concert. DDT is a classic Russian rock band and they're coming to Tyumen later this month.

Classic Design

Wednesday was the big day. I had one class and basically spent the remainder of the day getting prepared for the party. Some guests started showing up a little after 5:00pm and the majority starting coming after 6:00pm. The list of those who arrived includes: 2 people from American corner (Roman and Olga), one of my students and her friend (Nadya and Katya), 4-5 Chinese girls who also live in my dorm, Sasha, Niklas, Dima, Nikolai, Iona (the English girl), and... I think that's it. Overall, it was a lot of fun. Honestly, almost nothing about the party indicated that it was a Halloween except for the jack-o-lantern and the fact that we had my room lit only by candles for a little bit. Oh, and Niklas also tried made a sort of "soup experiment" with some of the extra pumpkin from the carving. It wasn't incredibly popular. Besides the pumpkin soup, we had a lot of cookies, some homemade food from Nadya, and some peanut butter & jelly sandwiches from... well, I think it's obvious who prepared those. Everybody brought something unique to add to the food and drink supply. We played one game of "стикери" which is when someone writes a famous person's name on a post-it and sticks it to your forehead. We go around in a circle asking yes-no questions until everyone has figured who they are. Iona made me the Queen of England. I found out very quickly who I was. The English connection made it easier. We also spent some time playing and singing classic Russian rock and folk songs. I'm not much of a singer, but it was a great activity for the group. All-in-all, I think it was a big success and I'm pretty certain everybody had a good time. The only "problem" is that I was left with a pretty absurd amount of sweets that will take me a long time to get through.

Left to right: Niklas, Sasha, Iona

Left to right: Dima, Roman, Nadya, Katya (and others)

And then came Thursday and Friday... These are the two busiest days of my week and they seem to get busier every week. I spent all Thursday morning preparing for my afternoon classes. I spent those classes talking primarily about how the U.S. presidential debates and election processes work. Speaking of which, I'm pretty anxious for election coverage to start. Classes ended at 6:30pm, I had a quick dinner at home, then went with my colleague, Svetlana Sergeevna, and Niklas to Metro (the huge Sam's Club-type store) to pick up some groceries. The only thing really noteworthy that I bought was probably chips and salsa. I nearly missed the tortilla chips altogether because there was only one kind. Similarly, there were only two levels of "heat" for the Heinz salsa that I found. I made sure to try it as soon as I got home. It wasn't exactly the best salsa I've ever had... but I suppose when in Russia, you've got to make compromises. I spent the remainder of my evening trying to throw something together for my two Friday classes. I decided to stick with the American election theme and organized an activity for my students to hold in-class presidential speeches/debates and elections for President of Russia.

Getting up for my 8:00am class was miserable as usual. The class, however, turned out to be a pretty great success. I paired my six students into three pairs to act as presidential and vice-presidential running-mates. They all gave short speeches. Acting as a mediator, I asked them each some questions. Then, we held a secret ballot which resulted with the victor giving a short thank you speech. It's good to see students enjoying class that early in the morning. Before my afternoon class, I had to update Irina with some of my textbook research progress. That same afternoon, I had to give a presentation about myself (in English) to a group of high school students participating in a Model United Nations competition. They were very competent with English and asked some very good questions. Before the presentation, I helped Irina (Different Irina; this one is Katya's sister. From now on, she'll be known as Ira) transcribe a video in English so that she could translate it into Russian subtitles for the Model UN students to watch on Saturday. So, after giving my presentation, I rushed back to give my final class of the week. Because there was an uneven number of students, I had no choice but to participate. I acted as a vice-presidential candidate. Unfortunately, my running-mate and I didn't win...

After a busy second half to my week, I got a chance to relax. I spent Friday night with Niklas, Dima, and some of Dima's friends at Niklas' place. We had dinner and chatted. Admittedly, I was pretty exhausted and not as full of energy and enthusiasm as I would've liked. As a result, I slept that night for about ten and a half hours.

I didn't do anything on Saturday except attend the closing ceremony to the Model UN that Ira invited me to. It was pretty neat to see all of these accomplished Russian students in suits promoting more education and beneficial activities like the Model UN. Other than watching the closing remarks, I basically just munched on some post-ceremony snacks and tea. I also got a free children's book about the negative elements of nationalism out of the deal.

My Sunday was basically a lazy day when I rested in my room. However, I did make a very tasty goulash which, as easy as it may be, I was quite proud of.

There no classes for any university students on Monday because of a holiday. I'm still not entirely sure what kind of holiday it is, but I think it's somehow connected to WWII. Anyway, I've spent most of today getting prepared for Tuesday's class. I went out for coffee with Nadya and her friend Katya to chat in jumble of English and Russian. It was good practice for everybody, but it was pretty hard to predict when one language would resurface over another. We went to Traveler's Coffee, which I still regard as one of the most comfortable places in town.

Siberian Ostriches

Yet again, I let another whole week pass by without making a post. This week didn't exactly start with a bang. My Monday wasn't anything special. I can't say much beyond that I had one class and had a quiet night by myself at home. The same is true of my Tuesday. I had one class. If anything else happened on Tuesday, it must not be all that noteworthy if I can't remember it now. I suppose every day in Russia can't be a new adventure.

On Wednesday, I only had one class (if it wasn't already clear, the first half of my week is the easiest). I spent some of the afternoon doing some additional work and spending some time at home. That night though, Katya took me to one of her and her sister's favorite places to hang out in town, an Irish pub called Ticket to Dublin. We didn't go there to throw back any Guinness, but instead had tea and some Irish-style bar food, like fried cheese, peanuts, and sausage. There was even some interesting live music. A woman played an electric violin as accompaniment to a wide variety of popular music. It was actually really cool and a nice touch. The pub itself, as I've found true with a few Irish/English style pubs, was very comfortable and cozy. Random Irish memorabilia was all over the walls, but as expected, they used a lot of warm colors, like wood and green. We also inexplicably lost power about four times. I don't know what the deal with that was, but the other patrons used it as a good opportunity to crack some jokes.

Thursday... oh, Thursday... This is easily the day with the heaviest load. I usually spend the morning preparing for my three classes in the afternoon of my most advanced students. Ah, I actually forgot to mention that I've spent most of my classes this week discussing food and American cuisine in particular. It was a good opportunity to share a bit more about American culture with my students. I tried not to focus too much on American fast food and bar food culture, but it was pretty hard to avoid. The thing that was probably the most fun for the students was the fact that I brought peanut butter for them all to try. I didn't want to use up all of my raspberry jam and bread so they weren't fortunate enough to try a full PB&J sandwich. Nonetheless, about 2/3 of my students had never tried peanut butter before and many of them were surprised to find out that peanut butter isn't sweet. Most found it to be salty. Some were unconvinced that it would taste good with jam. A few didn't like it at all. However, I think most of them either liked it or were at least excited to try something new and different from normal Russian food.

My final class doesn't end until 6:30pm on Thursday which means I'm usually pretty hungry and ready to go home. However, I had planned to meet with Irina, Katya's sister, to give a practice presentation. I don't remember if I mentioned this presentation earlier, but in short, it's basically something I've decided to give to a few Russian high school classes as a part of a program called Global Classroom. Anyway, Irina was basically checking to see if I had a good slideshow prepared and I could give a presentation in Russian satisfactorily. I gave the presentation in my classroom and two others were there to watch, Danil and Anya, one of my students. I think it went pretty well, but it could definitely use some polishing.

My night continued when I came back and Niklas stopped by to see what I was up to. We decided to have a late dinner together at my place. I made some pelmeni and he made himself a sausage and cheese sandwich. We basically just chatted for a little while until I had to get to work again. Working late on Thursdays and having to make a quick turn around to prepare for an 8:00am class on Friday is probably my least favorite time of the week. I had no idea what to prepare. I rummaged through some of my notes from our Moscow teacher training and found a neat idea. It suggested a game/discussion where the students must act as a committee to establish a new curriculum for their school. I basically ran with the idea and worked on it for two and a half hours. I constructed a budget for a made-up biology department in a made up university. I filled out a scenario and made small strips of paper to hand out to students so they would each have different specific information about the budget. As a class, we had to explore different options and optimize the budget in the best way that we could. Not to toot my own horn, but I was pretty proud of the way it turned out (especially considering how tired I was when I made it).

So, on Friday, I had an early class and an afternoon class in which I revealed the new class activity with pretty good results. I spent the middle part of my day doing some desperately needed laundry and buying some desperately needed groceries. After classes, I also had to settle one more issue. Currently, I'm still not paying rent for my room. In fact, the dorm doesn't even have any of my paperwork yet. I had to hop around to some different administrative buildings until I finally got it sorted out. I plan on being properly documented by Monday or Tuesday.

On Saturday, I made my weekly appearance at American Corner, this time navigating myself there (without problems). The crowd this time was notably older: three middle-aged men, three young-ish, middle-aged women, Lily, and me. We listened to an audioclip about some law change in Hungary that prohibits state-funded students from leaving the country after graduation. Anyway, we had a discussion and talked about some other related topics. Right at the end of our discussion, I was introduced to an English girl from London, named Iona. I then went with Iona, Roman, Olga, and another to Шоколадница, a chocolate-themed cafe, to watch and support a few students from Tyumen who performed on "Minute of Fame" (a sort of American Idol-type show). It was a fun opportunity for Iona and I to talk in English and listen for differences in our language. Not only that, but it was fun for our Russian friends to hear two varieties of English and learn the differences. The evening wasn't only in English, however. It was sort of a strange mix of Russian and English.

Now to Sunday. Today I had a rather unique experience to visit an ostrich farm. Yes, in Siberia. I went with Nadya (my student), her husband Vanya, and their friends, Zhenya and Katya. We had to drive about 20 minutes outside of town to find this rather unassuming little farm. There we saw a wide variety of chickens, rabbits, sheep, and ducks, along with a horse, deer, and of course ostriches. A lot of ostriches. We bought some carrots and cabbage to hand-feed the animals. I can now say I've had an ostrich eat out of my hand. Fortunately, I wasn't one of the few who had a finger get nipped. It can be slightly painful, but entirely harmless. We then stopped in a tiny little building for a cup of tea before heading back to town. Once back in town, we decided to get a bite to eat. We stayed in Nadya's and Vanya's neighborhood. They live in a residential area with 15-20 story apartment buildings surrounding you on all sides. A sight you cannot find in the States. So we found a Central Asian-style restaurant. I decided to go with pizza because it just sounded delicious and very filling. It's alright though because I didn't totally waste the chance to enjoy Central Asian food. We all split some "manti" which are like huge dumplings. Now I'm sitting in front of my computer after taking a nap and feeling like I could use another. Please enjoy this riveting footage of today's events. :)
(Also, I apologize for the poor quality.)

A Week in the Life

It sure was difficult to find time this week to sit in front of my computer and punch out a few lines about what I've been up to. My week actually started out pretty easily. On Monday, I didn't have any classes scheduled. However, I was asked to come in to help Irina conduct some required English language oral examinations for students applying to graduate school in our university. It was a pretty neat, albeit unusual experience for me. They were all my age, but I was in there among the teachers in a more authoritative role. No doubt, some students were caught off guard by my presence and probably a little intimidated. I took this into consideration when listening and speaking to them. I didn't really have any responsibilities other than asking a few questions, helping with pronunciation, and giving my thoughts to Irina, who did all of the work with grades. In fact, it actually kind of turned into a game of "good cop, bad cop." I gave support when Irina criticized (this was by my design). Some students thought it was really cool that I was there at all. At the end of his exam, one student even asked me for my Facebook information.

Tuesday was probably my least eventful day. I only had one class, but I did begin to help Irina with some work on an English language text for law students that she's been working on for some time now. I've basically just been given some research tasks to find certain materials that would be good for the book.

Wednesday was when things started to get busy. I still only had one class and I did a little work on my tasks for Irina. However, Wednesday night was the opening night for a three-day "First-year Debut." This "debut" is essentially a three-day-long talent show for students to compete across institutes. That is, within Tyumen State, there are five primary institutes: Math & Science, Physical Education, Humanitarian Sciences, Law and Economics, and Psychology with something else. As a teacher within their institute, I was obviously a supporter for Law and Economics. On the first night, only two institutes performed. In general, I was impressed by the cohesion within each institute. They didn't just have random performances, but rather, they were all connected and related to one another. Also, each performance generally fell into one of four categories: dancing, singing, fashion, and theater. I already knew that fashion is more popular among Russian girls than it is among Americans based on what I see on the street and in stores, but display at the debut pretty much erased any remaining doubt. I was very impressed with the handiwork of the students and their athletic ability in the dances. In general, it was a very energetic, excited, and loud atmosphere. I went that night with Niklas and Katya who were there to support ИМЕНИТ (the math and science institute). However, my bitter rivalry with them didn't get fired up until Friday.

Thursday was a much longer day. I had four classes with the first one starting at 8:00am. I can tell you right now that my body and mind are not yet equipped to function at that time of the day. There is almost nothing I hate more than getting up in the morning when it's still dark outside. As far as I'm concerned, it's not morning until I can see at least a hint of the sun. I met with my most advanced students for most of the day and let one of my groups out early so anybody who was going to day two of the debut would make it in time (including myself). This time, I was accompanied by Irina, who was going to watch our ИПЭУ (law and econ.) students perform. Call it fate if you will, but at the very least I thought it was a neat coincidence that our institute's theme this year was the Wild West (the only American theme in the program). And I don't mean to degrade the other institutes, but on Thursday night, our performance was hands-down the best. It wasn't until Friday though that I found out our institute put considerably more money into their costumes and set. Nevertheless, I thought our group's creativity and execution was very sound. Afterwards, I met up with Niklas, Nikolai, Dima, and Igor back in the dorm to play cards. Specifically, we played durak. Since I had no idea how to play, I got a quick lesson in Russian on how to play. Let's just say that I haven't quite mastered all of the basics yet.

Friday was yet another long day that began in the early dark hours of the day. I only had two groups but I spent a large portion of my time between classes trying to figure out how to mail my ballot for the upcoming presidential election. I had Olya, one my colleagues in the office, help me figure out how to mail it. We were about to mail it through the university mail system until Pavel informed us that if we were to do that, it would never get to Iowa in time for the election. We then opted to use something like DHL to send it out. I don't get to do that until Monday, so I've still got my fingers crossed hoping that my vote will get counted.

That Friday night was the final night of the first-year debut. Once again, I went with Niklas and Katya. Other than the occasional shouting match of ИМЕНИТ vs. ИПЭУ, we had a great time. They showed some of the best performance from all institutes from the first two days. They handed out a pile of awards, but of course, we all waited patiently to hear result for the overall victor and recipient of the coveted green dragon stuffed-animal prize. As it turns out, my institute came out victorious! I couldn't help but feel a little proud. After the show, Niklas and Katya came back to my place to hang out and have some tea. We spent the first half talking in Russian and eventually switched over to English. It was a fun opportunity for me share some of my favorite music and to just talk about whatever.

Saturday was a very relaxing and very fun day. First off, I got to sleep-in. Already my day was off to a good start. I then just lounged around for a while playing a computer game and eating food. At about 3:00pm, I met up with Katya and we went to this year's second American Corner meeting. The turnout was as big this time but I met a few new people and we had good time watching a comedy skit and discussing it. Of course, we had tea and mountain of cookies to go along with it. I was even tested by a couple Russian guys on my knowledge of American states. I was supposed to list all of them from memory without looking at a map or writing anything down. I got almost all of them. (Lousy Oklahoma, New Jersey, Alaska, Hawaii, Kansas, and... another one that I still can't remember) It's actually pretty difficult if you're not allowed to write anything down. After American Corner, I had a little cross-cultural dinner with Katya. She made some pretty delicious chicken soup and I made an always-delicious peanut butter & jelly sandwich. I've decided to dedicate a part of my time in Russia to introducing as many people as I can to the wonderful American creation, the PB&J sandwich. (Also, after the last two posts, it might seem like I'm obsessed with PB&J. This is only partly true.) Anyway, we followed up dinner with more tea and great conversation. We even got to talk with Katya's French roommate, Matilda, a little bit.

Now it's Sunday and, while relaxing, I'm trying to get prepared for the week (and get caught up on blogging).

PB&J: Mission Accomplished

I did it! I found peanut butter! I went to a huge Sam's Club or Costco-type stored called Metro with a couple fellow teachers, Pavel and Svetlana Sergeevna, and Niklas. Since the store I usually go to ("Svat") is a little pricey and the choice isn't that great, this was a great opportunity to buy a few more exotic items and a few items in bulk. For example, I bought a six pack of quality orange juice, a big bag of penne pasta, two packages of coffee, cucumbers, pears, two frozen pizzas, pepper, a loaf of bread, two jars of raspberry jam, and two big jars of peanut butter. Those final three items are about to make my life here a lot more American. Sure, it's good to get immersed in a foreign culture, but I'm not going to wait eight more months for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. (For those who don't know, peanut butter is a rarity in Russia.)

With a freshly stocked kitchen, I was ready to begin my weekend. I spent the late morning and early afternoon hanging out with a couple of my first-year students who guided me to CityGolf. As soon as I found out about a golf facility in Tyumen, I knew I had to go. Since I'm in Siberia and golf isn't exactly popular in Russia, it's not a surprise that they don't actually have a real golf course. Nevertheless, They had 4-5 simulators, a small driving range (into a net), and a small mini-golf course. I think this place is most popular among businessmen and their families, but all are welcome. They even have tournaments! I had to miss the one they had this weekend but at some point I've got to show them what Division III Midwest Conference golf is all about! It's a little out of the way and the prices aren't exactly cheap, but I wouldn't mind getting there a few times to keep my golf muscles loose and just for something fun and familiar to do.

Also on Saturday, I was asked to take part in a weekly discussion club known as American Corner. There are a number of cities in Russia with these American Corners. They're essentially small sections of local libraries that offer books and films all in English. As the newest American in Tyumen, it was my privilege to take part in their discussion and introduce myself. About fifteen people showed up and, in general, I was very impressed with their English skills. It was also interesting to see who these people were. They had many different backgrounds and their ages varied. I gave a presentation about myself (probably the seventh one I've given thus far in Tyumen), they asked questions, and we talked about culture shock and the importance of second language acquisition.

After American Corner, I went to a movie with four other people from the club, Katya, Irina, Roman, and Lilith. We saw Frankenweenie, an animated film by Tim Burton. Since the target audience was for both kids and adults, the language wasn't very complicated. I was ecstatic to find that I understood practically everything! I understood much more than I did at Духless. Afterward, I stopped by Niklas' place. He had prepared a meal with Nikolai and Sasha. At this point it was well after dinner, but I had some of the leftover plov (a mid-Asian rice and meat dish) and talked with Niklas and is new Russian roommate, Dima. There are certain days when I feel like I can't get a single Russian word out and other days when it comes much easier. That night was probably one of most comfortable times have had speaking Russian since I arrived. It even carried over a little bit into Sunday.

On Sunday, I met with one of my students and her brother, who studies in Tyumen State U. of Oil and Gas. We basically just walked around town and got a snack at Pizza Mia. I was hoping to give them a little practice in English but they were too shy and barely tried. Well, what they lost in terms of language practice is then my gain. Either today was just a good day or my Russian is starting to smooth out a little. With a bit more than two weeks under my belt, I've become more confident and competent. I still have a long way to go, but seeing some progress is nice. For dinner tonight, I put a slightly more work into than usual. Instead of just boiling pasta and adding sauce, I actually fried some green peppers and onions to add. It was totally worth it.

(A church located across the street from my primary university building)

Keepin' Busy

My first full week began on Monday. For some of my first and second year courses, I was still giving the presentation about myself. However, on Monday, I also gave my first real "lecture." Since I was still lacking many of the necessary supplies, such as textbooks, to prepare for my more advanced students, I decided it would be a good idea to base the entire class on Columbus Day. (I actually got the idea from a fellow ETA.)  I originally had a Columbus Day poem prepared for the class to read with a painting to analyze, but of course, the room we were in that day didn't have a computer. Instead, we jumped pretty much straight to a story game in which I give a list of words that they must use in a creative story. We also had a debate/discussion on the pros and cons of exploration in the past, present, and future. In general, I thought it was a fun and beneficial way to conduct a class of only five people.

That night, my German pal Niklas came over for tea and to speak in Russian. He speaks English fairly well too, but we're both here to learn Russian so it's really pretty beneficial practice for both of us. We found ourselves talking mostly about differences and similarities between Germany and the United States. After hours of speaking English in school, it's nice to have my evenings to practice Russian.

(Right: Monday night dinner - pelmeni and bread with Nutella)

Tuesday was scheduled very similarly to Monday. I had a less proficient class in the morning, followed by a more advanced class in the afternoon. However, in addition to some of the students from my normal class, my fellow teachers invited a couple groups who are currently pursuing Masters' degrees in criminal and civil law. This made for a very, very large group. I had the same Columbus Day lesson plan, which as I soon found out, did not work quite as well with large groups. It was still a good class, but I simply found it much more difficult to control and keep quiet. Also, about halfway through the class, I realized that about a third or  half of the Masters program students barely spoke or understood any English... This explains the disappointingly low amount of participation.

I'm not sure if I mentioned before that, for the entire time I've spent in Tyumen thus far, our dormitory hasn't had heating or hot water. As you might imagine with temperatures hovering in the 30s and 40s for a week, I wasn't exactly warm much of the time. On Tuesday, however, the city completed most of its work on the pipes in our area and our heat turned on. We even got hot water for the day! Ironically, Tuesday was probably the first day since I've been here that we haven't needed any heat. Temperatures are back up into the 50s and now I have to crack open my windows to keep it from getting too hot.

(My dormitory with pipe repair in progress in the street)

On Wednesday, I only had one class and it was in the economics and management division of the university. In other words, I had to go to a different building just down the road from my primary building. I had a semi-advanced group with whom I spent the day talking about myself and answering any questions they had. As for tonight's (Wednesday night's) activities, I plan on putting a little more effort into my lesson plans, now that I have a clearer idea of what I'm expected to do. I also plan on walking around with Niklas and Nikolai, his friend.