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.

New People, New Words, and Too Much Coffee

While most Russian university students have classes on Saturdays, I fortunately get a full two-day weekend. I had two items on the agenda for Saturday. After doing a little class prep work, I went to a small dorm gathering with mostly international students. It was hosted by a couple Russian students from the psychology department. Essentially, they had us participate in team-building, friend-making activities while they filmed us (likely to analyze us later). We did a couple cheesy group activities that were made slightly more awkward with the constant presence of a camera. One project, however, was pretty fun. We split into two teams and were instructed to create a depiction of the Tower of Babylon without communicating among ourselves vocally. I don't actually know how it all lasted, but after an hour and a half, I left to meet with Oksana and some of her friends to go to a movie. (Oksana is a student in the international relations department who I met at the forum.) We took the bus to a mall and met her three friends Dasha, Sasha, and Zhenya. First, we had a quick bite to eat at Traveler's Cafe. The movie was called "Духless" and is based on a contemporary novel. The rest of the group was pretty excited about, but afterwards, we agreed it was just ok. As with any other Russian movie I've seen thus far in my life, I gathered most of my information from context and visual cues and only understood about half of the dialogue.

I only had one fun activity slated for Sunday before working on lesson plans for Monday. Irina, my boss, set me up with four of my students to take me on a small city tour and to just hang out a bit. After first speaking in Russian for a few minutes, I realized that this excursion was also intended to be good English practice for them. We walked to a few typical sites in the city center such as, Lenin Square (with a massive statue of Lenin), a square filled with cat sculptures dedicated to the cats sent from Tyumen to St. Petersburg to alleviate a serious rat problem, and the newly constructed boardwalk along the river. We stopped for a long time at Traveler's Cafe (same cafe, different location than on Saturday). The coziness, coffee selection, and pastry choices makes the cafe seem like a place my Grandma Rosemary would really enjoy. I ordered some french press coffee from a Costa Rican blend. The three cups there plus the two cups from this morning made for a total of five cups of coffee for the day. As I write this post, I expect to crash from my caffeine high at any time. The group (Andrei, Masha, Masha, and... another guy) was a lot of fun to talk with and I think we both helped each other with Russian and English. I walked away with two new Russian words: piracy and spontaneity.

Since we didn't go out for lunch as I expected, I prepared a late lunch back home. When life in Russia doesn't present you with Ramen noodles, you find a substitute. Luckily, I found the Korean equivalent, "Doshirak." I may be a teacher now, but I still eat like a college student.

I'm a Teacher Now

Thursday was my first day as a teacher. I gave two lectures to two different groups of students, both of which are composed of more advanced students. For these groups, I'm expected to prepare them for a college entrance exam known as TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) which is intended for non-native speakers of English to prove their competence to study in foreign universities. Since it was my first time meeting with these students, I wasn't expected to do much besides give a small presentation on myself and answer questions about my life, home, hobbies, etc. My fellow teachers told me that the students were eager to see me and meet me but were, all the same, very shy. So, as part of my first day, I also had them introduce themselves and I tried to elicit some participation. In general, I was pretty impressed with their language skills. But it was also somewhat expected as they were handpicked from among the best of the third-year students. I prepared a PowerPoint presentation with pictures documenting my life, but it didn't work on the first computer in my first class and the second class didn't even have a computer. As a result, I did everything from memory and the class was maybe a little less exciting than it would have been otherwise. Regardless, I consider it a success and I think the students had fun asking me questions about America, stereotypes, and my education.

I had three classes on Friday. One was a small group of advanced second-year students and the other two groups were composed of "bachelors" students with beginner/intermediate English skills. This this time, my presentation worked and I got to show off some pictures to illustrate my life and American culture. Many of the questions they asked were similar to those on Thursday, but there was a clear drop-off of language proficiency with some of the students. I'm fairly certain a number of them barely understood more than a couple full sentences and understood almost none of my questions. This didn't come as a surprise though since many have probably never heard English spoken with a true American accent. Also, as with most language courses anywhere, many of them are there because they have to be or feel obligated to be there and really have no strong desire to learn English anyway.

Now that I've given my introductions, the real, scary work begins. I have to begin planning lessons, topics, activities, and homework. This is my first time with a class full of real students dependent on me for an hour and a half of guidance and learning. Life as a student seems so much easier now...

First Impressions

After spending the weekend getting acquainted with my immediate surroundings and catching up on much needed rest, I finally met with the Tyumen State international office and the foreign language department within their legal studies division (in which I'll be working). My Monday morning was relatively relaxing and I was awaiting my 12:30pm appointment to go to the university when I got a call. Pavel, my supervisor/coordinator, called to tell me that I was urgently needed at the university for emergency paperwork. He hired a taxi for me and I was off. When I got to the international office, I was told by the woman in charge that she "was very angry with me" because I had been in Russia for over 7 business days without getting registered. This was, of course, untrue because I had been registered during my entire stay in Moscow. Once I mentioned this and gave her a copy of my registration, she was much less angry with me. According to her calculations, this violation would have stripped 400,000 rubles from the university (almost $13,000).

So, once the paperwork was finalized, I got to meet with Irina, my "boss," again. She introduced me to all of the other foreign language teachers in the department and provided me with my current tentative schedule. As it currently stands, I'll be teaching about 6 one-and-a-half-hour classes per week. All I keep hearing is that I'll be very busy. On the bright side, I won't have to develop a complete lesson plan for the year. In general, I'll be following their lesson plan and textbook, but I've been given some flexibility to spice things up with discussions and games. I was also given my own personal office mug with "I <3 NY" stamped all over it. I was told that my first class will be on this upcoming Thursday. Now I need to prepare a PowerPoint presentation on myself (a topic I'm fairly familiar with).

Later that day, I had a lot of shopping that needed to be done. A pot, pan, clothes hangers, french press (Very important! I can't handle this fake instant coffee anymore!), cleaning supplies, and more food besides bread, cheese, and cereal. I overestimated my strength and underestimated the walk home. As a result, I hobbled slowly home and broke a sweat on what was an otherwise crisp, pleasant autumn afternoon.

To cap off my day, I finally mustered enough courage to do my laundry. Unsure of how much powder detergent to use and, more generally, unsure of how the washing machines worked, I was pretty fortunate to befriend a couple students from Tajikistan. While they helped me out, we made small talk about this and that.  Now to dry my clothes. For those who don't know, dryers don't exist in Russia. I've never seen one and I probably never will. Instead, I used this clothesline-type table already set up in my room to let my clothes sit.
Not exactly expedient, but they'll be dry eventually.

On Tuesday, I met with a couple English teachers in a separate division of the university, the resident English Language Fellow (ELF) in Tyumen, and a group of foreign students who I will be taking at least a few Russian language courses with this year. The group consists of 3 French, 1 German, 2 Tajik, and 6 Chinese students. The ELF and I are the only Americans. We all had tea and our choice of snacks from a table full of candy and pirogi (pastries). I meet with all of them again tomorrow for our first Russian language class!

After tea, I picked up my finalized registration from the international office. On the street, I bumped into Oksana, a student I met at the forum, and she helped me pick up a SIM card for my cell phone. I finally have a working phone! Perhaps the most rewarding part of the day though was dinner. I prepared a hefty bowl of pasta with bread and Coke. It was a good dietary escape from the Russian-style cuisine that is so often at odds with my stomach.