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.