The Modern Gulag?

I am almost halfway through the roughly 600 page "Gulag" by Anne Applebaum. This is an amazing book, and I will definitely try to write more on it once I am finished. The history of the Russian Gulag system is unbelievable, as is the fact that the average educated American knows so little about it. (I actually thought I knew a good bit about the Gulag before I began reading this book; however, the knowledge I had of the Gulag system barely scrapes the surface of what is in this book.) Anyhow, last night I came across a passage that I found particularly striking, as it reminded me very much of an experience I had during my last trip to Russia. Here is the passage:

"General Gorbatov also describes how he sent an uncensored letter to his wife from inside a [gulag] transport train, using a method mentioned by many others. First he bought a pencil stub from one of the criminal prisoners:

'I gave the convict the tobacco, took the pencil from him and, as the train moved off again, wrote a letter on the cigarette paper, numbering each sheet. Next I made an envelope of the makhorka wrapper, and stuck it down with moistened bread. So that my letter should not be carried by the wind into the bushes beside the railway, I weighted it with a crust of bread which I tied on with threads pulled from my towel. Between the envelope and the crust, I slipped a ruble note and four cigarette papers, each with the message: would the finder of this envelope please stick on a stamp and post it. I sidled up to the window of our truck just as we were going through a big station and let the letter drop...'

Not long afterward, his wife received it."
Back in June 2005, I wrote a little on my other blog about the Kresty Prison in St. Petersburg. (I apologize to those of you who may have already read this segment.) This passage recounts an experience I had during my second trip to Russia back in 2000. Granted, this information is five years old, but there is definitely a similarity here:

My friends Alyosha (Russian) and Shannon (American) and I were walking along the Neva embankment (for those of you who don't know, the Neva is the river upon whose delta the city of St. Petersburg was built) when we walked past the Kresty Prison. I'd had no idea it was even there before that day. Alyosha explained a bit about the prison and its history... He said that this was the prison where alleged criminals were kept while they awaited trial... and that friends/family were not allowed to visit. He also said that the prison was incredibly overcrowded, and that tuberculosis was rampant within the facility. I don't know if that information is true or not though, but what really struck me was the people I witnessed standing outside of the prison along the embankment of the Neva. They were picking through what looked like trash along the sidewalk. We took a look ourselves, and discovered that the "trash" consisted of crude, homemade projectiles, sealed and weighted with a small chunk of bread, containing small notes to family members wedged inside, which had been launched from the tiny prison windows in the hopes that they would be found by loved ones. Some of the people found notes addressed to them, and were very excited. Others searched in vain, and wept. Some waved their arms towards the prison, spelling out Cyrillic letters in a charade-like form of communication; arms reached out through the tiny windows of the prison, spelling replies. The emotions I witnessed on that day were so incredibly strong, and this is one of the most poignant memories of my seven months in Russia.

Higher Education in Russia

To clarify before I begin this post: Galya is the 'director' or principal of the AH. Her husband, Alexei, is also employed by the AH doing various things, and in addition, he is a professor of English and Latin at the Vladimir Pedagogical University.

One of Alexei's classes is an English language conversation class. He invited any of the American AH teachers who were interested to come to the Ped today to participate in a discussion on higher education in the United States and how American institutions of higher education differ from their Russian counterparts. I thought the whole experience was extremely interesting. Six of us went. We (the Americans) started the discussion by talking about where we went to college, what type of college it was, why we chose that school, and the advantages/disadvantages to attending said school. Of our group, B went to Stanford, Y, J and I went to small liberal arts colleges (yeah, Sewanee calls itself a University, but as it only has a grad program in Theology, I’m lumping it in with Gordon and Swarthmore), and M went to Indiana University, a big state school. I've written a good bit on my other blog about my opinions of Sewanee, and what I liked and disliked about the place, so there's no point in getting into that here. Besides, this is from Russia with blog, not from small-liberal-arts-college-in-Tennessee blog. The students asked us questions about our schools and our experiences, and we compared the differences between our schools and theirs.

A lot of what I learned regarding the Russian higher education system is incredibly interesting. For starters, when you apply to a Russian university for undergrad, you must apply to a specific department. None of this applying to a college and then declaring your major a few months or a year into your college career. And no changing courses of study, either. Once you are accepted into a department, that's your department until you get your degree or drop out. In order to apply, you do not simply complete an application and submit essays. You must take both a written and oral entrance exam, for which you must prepare extensively. In other words, if you want to study, per say, English lit, you must already have damn good knowledge of English lit to even get accepted. Each department accepts a specific number of students (this varies by both school and department). Let's say for example that the English lit department accepts 30 students. Those 30 can attend the school for free. But, there might be more than 30 students who get to attend classes. Other people who score high enough on the tests can also enroll; however they have pay tuition. (I think the number of "commercial students" is limited, but I don't know for sure.) In the US, we get to choose which courses we want to take and when. There are certain core courses required for graduation and certain courses that are required for each major. However, when we take these courses is rarely predetermined, and we have a wealth of electives to choose from. (For example I, a Russian/PolySci major, got to take Astronomy, Geology, and Pseudopsychology while in college.) For most Russian students, there aren't any electives. Each department has a set of core courses and "electives"; however, the school determines which "electives" will be offered and which courses its students will take and when.

Another really big difference between the Russian and American educational systems is the attitude towards cheating. In the United States, cheating is viewed as a bad thing. If you copy someone else's work verbatim in an essay and neglect to cite your source, that's plagiarism, and will very often cause you to be kicked out of your school. At the very least you'll get a zero, and then you're pretty lucky. Same goes for copying someone else's homework assignment or cheating on an exam. Not so in Russia. The Russian cultural mindset regarding cheating is completely different from in the US. Over here, if you quote someone else's work directly within your work, and neglect to cite it, it does not matter. You are not cheating. The fact that you went out and discovered this information in order to use it in your work shows that you are scholarly. And now that you have read at least the portion of this work that you've copied, surely you now know that information, and therefore you have learned something. (I can almost understand this logic if you are copying out something by hand, but I do not think it can be applied to this modern age where one can simply cut and paste off the internet.) There is also the idea that copying the homework or exam of a fellow student is not cheating; your classmates are obligated to help you! And of course, students are not punished for cheating. Like I said, it is a cultural mindset. No one thinks it's wrong. When B and I mentioned the Honor Codes at our universities, and how there were no teachers in the room for exams and yet no one cheated, this was received with disbelief.

This whole view of cheating as acceptable is quite prevalent in my classes. Cheating on quizzes is very difficult to control, although I try my best. And it is not just the kids. I find adults of all ages hiding cheat-sheets or cribbing off their neighbors. I also discover cheaters after the fact (ex: when I was grading quizzes, I discovered that two students, seated next to one another, both spelled "spacious" as "spaceout.")

Additionally, in case you don't know, a pedagogical university is a university for training people to be teachers. We asked the students in the class (there were about 40) if any of them wanted to be teachers. No one raised their hands. Not a one. They all said that the salaries for first-year teachers in Russia were way too low (roughly $40/mo I think), and thereby really not enough to live on. They were all either planning on continuing to study at another university following graduation, or hoping to get a job employing their language skills (they were all studying English and German).

Unfortunately, there were three Russian classes all together for this conversation, amounting to 30-40 students, and the groups did not know one another. This made them all a bit shy around each other, not to mention in front of the Americans. Only a small handful of the students ended up doing most of the talking. Alexei is planning on inviting us back to the Ped periodically to chat with his conversations students in smaller groups, which will probably lead to more conversation. I will definitely go. Today was fun, and I certainly got something out of it. (Not to mention that Alexei compensated us for our time by giving each of us a very large and scrumptious Russian chocolate bar.)

After the morning at the Ped, we returned to the AH for the monthly staff luncheon. Supposedly the Russians and Americans take turns cooking these lunches, alternately called "Russian Lunch" and "American Lunch." I am sure the Russian lunches will always be better, as they have access to all of the proper ingredients. Lunch today was delicious, and I was totally stuffed. We had borscht, Russian salad, beef stroganoff, potatoes, and a yummy cinnamon apple and ice cream concoction for dessert. Mmmmmm.

I got flowers!

I got flowers! One of my classes gave me roses for my birthday! No one has ever given me roses. They snuck them in and had them under the table. When I was starting class, one girl interrupted me and stood up with the roses. She said something along the lines of, "We want to congratulate you on your birthday!" Then all of the other students stood up and clapped! It was so nice and so exciting, I almost cried. How wonderful is that? They are in a vase in my bedroom (they smell wonderful) and they make me very happy.

Birthdays Suck

The worst birthday I have ever had was in 2003, when I turned 25. I had a migraine which defied the norm and refused to go away despite a dose of both Imitrex and Zomeg. I spent about eight hours on my bed (which was unfortunately situated under the flight line for Lindbergh Field), in excruciating pain. When people called to wish me a happy birthday, the sound of the ringing phone simply made the pain worse. That one wins; it sucked.

My twenty-seventh birthday was this past Sunday, and it was pretty crappy. I had been feeling sickly throughout the past week, and felt really bad on Saturday. I awoke late on Sunday morning, and while I did not feel great, I did not feel worse than I had the day before. I needed to go to the AH to do some lesson planning, so I made my way down there. I did not do much other than check my email and roughly plan my Monday class. I definitely began to feel less pleasant. I decided to bring home all of the worksheets, quizzes and journals that I needed to grade, so that I could grade them from the comfort of my bed. Returning home was a good decision, as things rapidly degenerated. In addition to getting my lovely germs all over my students' stuff (sorry, guys!), I slept a lot, and began coughing and sneezing and in general feeling miserable. Nina M came home around six, and made me dinner. I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast, and was feeling hungry, but imagine my surprise when at the sight of food, my stomach turned. I tried to eat the soup, but couldn't keep it down. I'll spare you the details. Anyhow, Nina M. fussed over me, and tried to make me feel better, but really the whole day was simply horrible. She told me that when her husband was still alive, when she got sick, he used to make her drink a glass (not a shot glass, a regular, tall glass) of vodka, mixed in with a tablespoonful of salt. She said that it was disgusting, but it made her feel better. I was terrified she would try to force me to drink such a concoction, but it didn't happen. She did, however, forbid me from taking a shower. Apparently, according to Russian lore, showering while sick will only make you worse. Unfortunately, according to Annie-lore, showering while sick feels wonderful, like you're steaming all the germs away. But instead of a warm shower, I was sent to bed with extra sweaters and blankets.

Monday was substantially better. I did not set my alarm. (If it had been up to Nina M., I would not have left my bed all day today.) I woke up at 11:00am, and while I did not feel like a normal, healthy person, I didn't feel like I was dying either. Woohoo! I have Russian lessons on Mondays and Thursdays at 11:30am, and unfortunately, I missed my lesson. I hadn't been up to doing my homework the night before anyway, and besides, I doubt my Russian teacher would have appreciated spending an hour and a half in close contact with my germs. We do not have a specific time when we have to be at the AH, so long as we have our lessons prepared before classes begin. I usually go in at 10:00, simply so I can spend a few hours attached at the hip to the internet before beginning my lesson planning. So, when 11:45 rolled around and I hadn't come to check my email or to study Russian, the school called my apartment, and received Nina M’s version of how I was deathly ill. I got on the line and said I wasn't dying, I'd be in. I was not sick enough to stay in bed all day. So, I went to work. They threw a little birthday party for me, and gave me a beautiful bracelet with traditional Russian scenes engraved on it, which I love. And we had cake and fruit, yum! My VEMZ lesson at the end of the day was a little off, simply because I was working off the plan I had written up on Sunday, and apparently I left out some key points. Well, go figure. Anyhow, I am not entirely prepared for tomorrow's classes, so tomorrow morning will be busy. Sigh. At least I am starting to feel better.

Birthdays suck. As a kid, you're conditioned to expect that this one day of the year is somehow special, something to look forward to with great anticipation. It's a day of great celebration all day long, where you're the focus. And when you're a kid, that is essentially true. But the older you get, the less special the day becomes, until one day you realize that your birthday is simply the same as any other day, and the only gift you want is the hot shower your babushka has forbidden you to take. Twenty-seven makes a girl bitter.

In sickness and, er......

Friday, September 23rd was Male B's wedding. Male B is a teacher at the AH, and this is his second year teaching at the AH. His new wife is a Russian woman named Alyona. I have mentioned Russian wedding traditions before on this blog, but in case you missed it, I'll reiterate: First the bride and groom go to some sort of government office where they are legally wed. Then they, and a very small group of close friends and family, drive around the city, getting their photos taken at city landmarks, and visiting other friends and acquaintances. I think that this type of wedding celebration seems like a lot more fun than the ordeals that traditional American weddings tend to be. Anyhow, Male B and Alyona were married a little after 1:00pm. After a few photo stops, they came to the AH, where we had prepared a small celebration. For starters, as they walked through the AH, we had an American big band march playing. It was selected by the Russians, although we Americans thought it was odd. I don't remember the name of the march, but it is the song of the US Army! (It was on a CD that also had "From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli" and "Anchors Away") So, after the rather amusing military march through the house, we all emerged in the backyard, where there was champagne, candy and fruit for everyone. Alexei had written a song (in Russian) about Britt and Alyona, and he played the guitar while we all sang along. (Part of the song included a simulated cannon-salute, performed by G and M popping balloons!) Toasts were given in Spanish (Male B was a Spanish major), English and Russian. There is apparently a Russian tradition where an apple is stuck with many toothpicks. The bride and groom are supposed to take turns pulling toothpicks out of the apple. Each time a person pulls out a toothpick, he/she has to say something nice about his/her lover. According to Russian tradition, whoever pulls the final toothpick will always have the final say in everything in the marriage. Not exactly the sort of tradition I am predisposed to be fond of, but when in Russia… I am not sure if Russians do the whole bouquet tossing thing or not (perhaps Alyona wanted to throw the bouquet to her friends, not Male B's coworkers), but instead of throwing her bouquet, they made a bouquet out of the popped balloons from the song's simulated cannons. All the Americans (male and female) from the AH stood behind Alyona as she tossed the balloon-bouquet. The damn thing came right towards me, and everyone else dove away from it. I instinctively put up my hand and then thought "wait a minute!" It smacked my hand and fell to the ground. Everyone else insisted that it meant I'd caught it. I tend to disagree. If I'd caught it, it wouldn't have ended up on the ground now, would it? Anyhow, we partook of the champagne, fruit and sweets, and then Male B, Alyona and their entourage went on their way. Russians do not have the tradition of trying crap on the back of the bride-n-groom car, so several of the AH people got together and tied a bunch of crap to the bumper. (And we all fervently hoped that they didn't end up with a traffic fine!)

I had been feeling fine all day long. I thought I was finally over my cold. Then, about an hour after Male B and Alyona left the AH, my throat began to ache. I snagged some rather potent cough drops from B, and set off for class. As classes went by, I began to feel less and less like a healthy person. I began sneezing and coughing and my sore throat got worse. I left my last class and went straight home (ahh yes, a fantastically exciting Friday night, that). I arrived home, and Nina M took one look at me and asked me if everything was okay. I had dinner and went straight to bed...

Saturday, I slept until nearly 11:00am (a nice, Nyquil-aided rest) and awoke to feel mostly okay except for the even scarier sore throat. This would not have been a problem, except for the fact that on Saturday at 3pm I was scheduled to give an hour long talk to AH students on the road trip that A and I took this past summer. I had been looking forward to giving this talk, although when I got up, the thought of talking for an hour given the way my throat felt was not pleasant one. But the talk had been scheduled and advertised, so I got dressed and made my way to the AH. The talk (aided by Cepacol and DayQuil) went pretty well, I think. The students all seemed very interested in the trip, and in my photos. Alexei took tons of photos of me giving the speech (inevitably every time the flash went off, my mouth was open, so I am sure they will be ridiculous), and the next time he distributes his photos to the teachers, I will post any that are decent. After my talk, we showed the movie City Slickers, which also seemed to go over well. (There is a lot of physical comedy in the movie, so students with low language skills can still understand the humor.) After the movie, I dragged myself home and returned to bed (mmm, Saturday night, just as exciting as Friday night here….)

Linguistics, Denny's, Garbage and Yoshimi

This is going to be full of teacher geekery. Sorry. I just can't help myself.

I have office hours on Wednesday evenings for an hour and a half, for students with questions, students who simply want extra practice, and students who need to make up missed quizzes. I had several students come in for office hours today. One did not understand part of what we discussed in her class last time: This, That, These and Those. What it boiled down to was a simple linguistics problem. The Russian letter that looks like a backwards N sounds like "eee" and it is transliterated into the Latin alphabet as the letter "i". Because of this transliteration, words containing the letter "i" are often mispronounced (ex: the word "give" often ends up sounding like "geeev"; "him" "heeem" etc.) Conversely, words with the double-e are often misspelled (even the most advanced of our students often write "slip" when they mean "sleep"). Anyhow, in class, we discussed This v. That before moving on to These v. Those. My student had written "this" on her paper, but somehow neglected to write "these" (yes, I did write them on the board, and yes, these words are in her book, but this was one of my sickly students, so probably all pistons weren't firing...). Anyhow, when I began the discussion on These v. That, she simply assumed that when I said "These" I meant the word "this" which she had written on her paper. No wonder she was confused!

Students seem to really enjoy it when I bring real American things into class. I have had a lot of success with songs and with photographs. The AH is also full of various American items, collected over the years for use in class, including a set of ten Denny’s menus. Now, I like Denny’s and despite the fact that it's essentially an unhealthy grease-pit, I rather frequently find myself craving Denny’s fare. Looking at the full color photographs of Denny’s food featured in the menu definitely sets the mouth a-watering. These menus are also very different from the usual Russian menus, which are, in general, mere lists of foods and prices, sometimes with descriptions, sometimes without. Anyhow, I have decided that even though my VEMZ class is a business English class, they are going to learn about going to Denny’s. Well, okay... they are going to learn about going to restaurants in general, with Denny’s as the example. The way I see it, if they are ever traveling in the States on business, they may very well get asked out to dinner by a colleague, and are going to need to know what to do. Of course, as these students are at a very low level of English, I have to keep it simple. The grammar points I'm focusing on are "do you like" and "would you like to". I wrote up a nifty little dialog exercise, although once I finished, I realized it could make for a totally cheesy Denny’s commercial. What do you think? I think my VEMZ class is about to learn why so many Americans are so overweight.

1. Ed: Sarah, ________ you _______ to go to Denny’s after work?

Sarah: I _________ like to, but I have to work late.

2. Ed: Anne, ________ you want to go to Denny’s after work?

Anne: I don’t know. What type of food do they serve?

Ed: Everything! _______ you ______ eggs?

3. Anne: No, I _________. I ___________ like breakfast food.

Ed: ________ you ______ to eat hamburgers?

Anne: They have hamburgers? I ________ love to come!

4. Anne: Hey, Tom, _____ you _______ to come to Denny’s with us?

Tom: I ________ love to! Denny’s is my favorite restaurant.

5. Sue: Why ______ you want to go to Denny’s? I can’t stand that place!

Tom: Why ________ you like Denny’s?

Sue: I ________ like the food, because it is very greasy.

6. Tom: Well, I love greasy food! What kinds of food _____ you _____?

Sue: I ______ healthy food. I love salads.

Tom: ________ you like a Garden Chicken Salad?

Sue: Denny’s serves Garden Chicken Salads? I __________ love one!

Songs used in class so far this week: The World is Not Enough (hereinafter abbreviated as TWINE) by Garbage and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by the Flaming Lips.

TWINE did not work very well. My students did recognize that it came from a James Bond movie, which did lead to a very short discussion of the film (namely which JB film was it, did they see it and did they like it); however, as far as discussion of the lyrics or introduction into grammar it was not that great. The main problem was that there simply is not a coherent plot or storyline within the lyrics. I wanted to introduce "not enough," but how do you explain what the song *means* by "the world is not enough"?

I was disappointed in the reception of Yoshimi. This is another of my favorite songs and it is simply so weird! (Perhaps it was too weird??) It is sung slowly and clearly, and most of the words are familiar to the students (and the strange words and the meaning of the song are easily explained). The class seemed disinterested. Of course, this class contained my sickest students, so that might be one reason why no one got ecstatic over Yoshimi karate chopping some evil, man-eating robots. I do think it worked for introducing "those" though: "You won't let those robots eat me, Yoshimi..."

Trinity Cathedral Reflected in the Windows of the Drama Theater

A Few Slightly Sickly Days

Sunday

Well, the cold weather seems to be arriving. Today, the temperatures did not get out of the upper forties and lower fifties, and for much of the day the sun was reduced to a hazy orb, obscured by a dismal blanket of clouds. Not exactly the most inspirational day for accomplishing anything. I got up early (with the help of my alarm), for the sole purpose of beating everyone to the washer and dryer at the AH. I woke up before Nina M, and was simply planning on heading out without waking her up. I’m a big girl; I can fetch my own breakfast. Of course, she woke up before I could escape, and was horribly offended that I wanted to leave without breakfast. She insisted that in the future, if I wake up before she does, I should bang on her door and wake her up. Protestations that I didn't want to disturb her sleep fell on deaf ears. So, following some yogurt and some kasha (like oatmeal), I set off for the AH with my laundry. I succeeded in making it to the washer and dryer first, and spent the morning cleaning my clothes. And I got to talk to A while waiting for my clothes to finish, which made my morning substantially more exciting than it would have been otherwise. I spent a few hours in the office, grading tests and journals and preparing my Monday lesson for VEMZ. My tests had mixed results. The average grade of the AH class that is at the same level of the VEMZ class was lower than the VEMZ grades, although they still performed quite well, and I had several students score 99%. My other two classes are supposed to be at the same level as one another, although one is definitely "slower" (as they would say in Forrest Gump). The "slow" class had a lot of students who wrote, "I am from in Russia" (despite the fact that we have drilled "I am from Russia" vs "I live in Russia" every day) as well as many who did not remember the correct past tense forms of verbs or who did not understand the "used to" construction. (Of course, at least half of the students in that class *did* understand those concepts, so I do not feel too bad.) My more advanced class of that level did very well on the test, with at least three students scoring 100%. Woohoo! I did not stay at the AH for very long, once my clothes finished drying; I have been feeling more headachy and back-achy than normal the past few days, and such feelings are more conducive to lying in one's bed than to planning lessons or being social. (I am getting old!) Okay... off to do my Russian homework.

Monday

Well, while yesterday I did manage to do my Russian homework, I also took a four hour nap. Later, when I went to bed, I did so wearing not only my pajamas, but socks, an extra sweater and a ThermaCare heat wrap. No, it was not cold in my room; my chills were illness induced. Today I was still achy, and my sinuses were doing something funky, but I managed to keep myself high on a combination of Advil Allergy & Sinus and Excedrin, which buoyed me through the day. B wasn't feeling well today either. It seems that today she felt as I did yesterday, although while yesterday I took a four hour nap, today she taught three lessons. I am hoping that my four-hour nap nipped this thing in the bud, because Brooke is also suffering from a sore throat, and we all know what happens when I get a sore throat. Remember last year when I had to email in sick to work? Yep, when I lose my voice it's gone for days, which is not exactly conducive to teaching. But, I think I am on the mend. While I am still planning on taking some cold meds before I go to sleep, I feel infinitely better than I did this time yesterday.

When I awoke this morning, the thermometer outside the window read 3 degrees C. According to the Fahrenheit/Celsius conversion chart in the back of my Lonely Planet, 3C is 38F. (Ahh yes, 38, the unlucky number strikes again. No wonder I felt like crap.) Anyhow, the morning was cold and dreary, and the day seemed to hold little hope for improvement. Oddly enough, it blossomed into a beautiful day, with temperatures in the upper fifties, and a bright blue sky. Russians love to talk about the weather; I seem to be picking up this habit. My day was fairly uneventful, and the class at VEMZ went well.

On the bus ride home from VEMZ, a thought occurred to me about gender roles in Russia. The buses and trolleybuses each contain two members of the city transportation staff: drivers and conductors. The driver, as you might guess, drives the bus/trolleybus. The conductor collects the money. You do not pay right as you get on. Instead, the conductor walks up and down the aisle, collecting money from newcomers. I have ridden on many, many buses and trolleybuses in the past six weeks. All of the drivers have been male, and all of the conductors have been female. Today I found myself wondering why that was. Do women simply not want to be drivers? Do men simply not want to be conductors? Or are these gender-specific roles? It is not as though being a conductor is glamorous work. In fact, in the six weeks I've been in Vladimir, not one of the conductors has seemed the least bit glamorous. Additionally, the work of the conductor is not exactly easy. I have seen conductors break up fights, and forcibly throw drunken and/or non-paying passengers off the bus/trolleybus. I am curious as to why men never fill the role of conductor. Do any of you have any ideas?

Tuesday

Well, there goes that idea. I may have seen a female trolleybus driver today. Of course, it may have just been a shaggy haired dude, but I think she was a she. Still no male conductors though, but I'll keep you posted.

Today was my "long day," my day with three classes. The first one (my "slow" 3rd-level class) was observed by L, our Teacher's Assistant. L is a great help to all of us, as she know the library and our gargantuan collection of resources inside and out. She can always find you supplemental materials if you're having trouble finding them yourself. Anyhow, I wanted her to observe my "slow" class and to give me suggestions. They are always so lost! Meanwhile, my other 3rd-level class understands everything that I tell them and all of the students do really well on their work. I am glad she observed the group, and I hope she has suggestions, but since she has *only* observed that class, I am worried that she will now think that I am ineffectual! Ahh well; I will talk to her about it tomorrow. Anyway, getting the students in both the "slow" class and my second class to participate today was like pulling teeth. (I hate to keep using that tired old expression, but it gets the point across quite well.) Additionally half of the students in each of those classes were obviously ill (where oh where could B and I have snagged this bug? Hah.), and not wanting to participate in the slightest. In my second class, I have a student who is always raising her hand and volunteering to speak or to go first or whatnot, and this class, she was obviously sick and did not say a word. I really wanted to tell her to go home; English class isn't worth it! Luckily, my last class of the day (the "fast" 3rd-level class) went fantastically, so at least at the end of the day I had something to feel positive about.

I am definitely getting better; I am no longer miserably achy, although I still have the remnants of a cold. I am hoping it will be gone tomorrow, although who knows how many virulent new Russian germs I was introduced to today in my sickly classes. However are teachers supposed to stay healthy? I'm taking my vitamins and washing my hands, what more can I do? Ahh well.

Mushrooms in a tree

Mushrooms up close and personal

A typical Russian apartment building

How great to have the ability to read!

Explorations

B (who lives about a ten minute walk from me) and I decided to go exploring today. It has been very easy to fall into the routine of getting up, going to work, then simply coming home. While I have done some exploring in the area surrounding the AH, I have not done much exploration near my home, and neither had she. So, we met outside my apartment a little after 11:00am, and began to walk. We went into a lot of different small stores in our neighborhood, and looked at various things we could buy if one day we happened to need those items. We discovered that exactly midway between her apartment and mine is the World of Shoes, a rather amazing shoe store full of all of the boots (leather and lined with fur, but pointy toed and atop stiletto heels) that any woman living in Russia would need during the winter. No, I did not purchase any (I'm certain I can get boots cheaper at the market), but I can easily envision myself purchasing several pairs. Sigh. We also discovered a nice bookstore very close to Brooke's apartment. No English language books, of course, but a nice selection of very Russian notebooks. (My students, male, female, adult, and teen) all have the most adorable notebooks that they use in class. I bought one today; I simply could not help myself. On the cover is the cutest little black kitten, sitting atop an open book. The Russian caption reads "How great to have the ability to read!" We took some pictures of typical Russian apartment buildings, and I took some incredibly cool shots of two mushrooms growing out of a knot in a tree. We also went to the post office and mailed some letters to the States. (Again: hint, hint, people!) Afterwards, we went to the AH. J offered a clinic in playing American Football this afternoon. I think I have mentioned before how impressive J is with a football. Anyhow, sports are definitely not my forte, but I was very pleased to see that not only was there a large turnout among our students for the clinic, but many of them were girls. Good for them! Meanwhile, I went inside and participated in the great American sport of internet surfing, which is far more up my alley. The Weather Channel had predicted a cold snap for the beginning of last week. True, it has been a tad cooler, but the cold snap never materialized. Of course, this evening it has begun to rain, and I suspect that the wonderful weather we've been having might now be coming to an end. We shall see.

Sleeping With The Gulag

Thus far, I have not graded the tests from my second set of classes, so I do not yet know if they have caught on as successfully as my VEMZ class. (As the success of my students reflects on my success as a teacher, I cannot yet fully evaluate my performance.) I can say that the White Stripes did not work so well in the classroom. I only used the first few lines from Red Rain (I wanted to emphasize the phrase "in the morning") but I do not know if it served to do anything other than confuse my students. Up until yesterday, I had been making my students sing along with each song, but I did not bother with this one. Did I really expect them to keep up with Jack White? What was I thinking? And only one of the students seemed to appreciate the style of music. (This is too bad, as Get Behind Me Satan is starting to compete with In The Aeroplane Over The Sea for first place in my CD collection.) I only used Red Rain in my ZII (lower level) class. In the other classes I used the Dionne Warwick song, "Do you know the way to San Jose?" We were discussing how to ask polite questions, and the song led up perfectly to the lesson. And the students all seemed to appreciate the meaning of the song, and we got to talk about pollution in Los Angeles and how so many people go to L.A. to become movie stars and end up getting their dreams shattered. (Cheery, I know.)

I have finished reading Alexandra: The Last Tsarina by Carrolly Erickson. I have mixed feelings about this book. When I blogged about the Anastasia book, I said it read like a novel. Let me clarify. The Anastasia book was a well researched work, written in a literary style that made for good bedtime reading. Alexandra, reads like a Danielle Steele novel. It's an entertaining book, but not exactly profound. And a tad over-flowery with the prose. Erickson seems to have essentially taken the already researched story of the last Tsarina, and prettied it up for consumption by the layman. But while the flowery style of the book irritated me nearly every page along the way, I do feel that I learned a good bit about Alexandra and Tsar Nicholas, and the goings on during their reign. If I were still in college, working on a paper, this would not be the book to use, but if you are simply interested in some light historical reading, go for it.

One of the most interesting things in to book (to me) was this one sentence: "The vast blue and white Catherine Palace at Tsarskoe Selo was made into a hospital for officers, its beautiful amber-, lapis-, and malachite-decorated reception rooms filled with beds, its ornate ballroom converted to an operating theater." See, I have toured the Catherine Palace at Tsarskoe Selo, and I have seen the "beautiful amber-, lapis-, and malachite-decorated reception rooms" and the gorgeous formal ballroom. I had no idea that during WWI the palace had served as a hospital. (Was I not paying attention, or did the guides leave this info out of the tour for some reason?) It is also interesting to note that Erickson states unequivocally that all four daughters of Alexandra (yes, including Anastasia), were killed in Ekaterinburg in 1917. She does not mention a hint of controversy on the subject. Hmm.

On a different, although slightly related note, I rummaged through the AH library looking for the next book to occupy me in my free time. The AH has a fairly large library, although since its purpose is to educate Russians about America, there are very few books in the library about Russia. (The ones that are there have, for the most part, been donated by previous teachers; I have donated Anastasia.) I did find another book on Russian history, although I can't imagine it will be very cheery: Gulag by Anne Applebaum. Is this really the book I want to curl up to every night before I fall asleep? Well, I have to admit I snagged some fiction too. There was one Dick Francis book in the library, and I have not read it before!! Dick Francis is one of my favorite mystery authors (all his books involve horse-racing to some extent, and most are set in Britain), and I was sure I had read all of them. The book is entitled Forfeit, and its discovery was quite a pleasant surprise. So, I'm off to bed, and I shall be curling up with Mr. Francis. I can sleep with the Gulag another day.

A lime green Matiz in South Korea

Foreign Imports

My class yesterday at VEMZ went a lot better than Monday's class, as I stuck to the normal amount of grammar and did not try to overload them. I gave them their first grammar quiz, over the stuff we've covered so far, and the lowest grade was an 86, and the highest was a 99. I am quite proud of them all for doing so well. I am giving tests to my three other classes today; I hope they all do as well. The VEMZ class also requested to have our classes start at 5:00 from now on, instead of at 5:30. That is fine by me, as VEMZ is the only class I have on Mondays and Thursdays, and the earlier we start, the earlier we finish.

The last time I was in Russia (2000), there were virtually no foreign cars. True, the wealthy (a teeny tiny percent of the population) tended to prefer Mercedes and BMWs (nearly always black, with tinted windows), which they imported from somewhere, and every now and then you would run across a rare Volvo or Volkswagon or something (and remember, I was in St. Petersburg, a big and modern city), but for the most part, Russia was the land of the Lada and the Volga, the two most common Russian brands of car. Russia is definitely beginning to import more vehicles. Here I am five years later in provincial Vladimir, and there has definitely been an influx of foreign cars. Not a substantial amount mind you (it isn't like the US or anything), but the Lada and the Volga have some competition. The two most noticeable imports are the Ford Focus and one of my favorites, the Daewoo Matiz. I have no idea how well these cars run, or whether or not they are reliable, but it seems that (in both Vladimir and South Korea), they most commonly come in Lime Green. That is enough to endear me to any car (except the impractical and overpriced new beetle). Lexus and Audi have also made good headway in competing with the other luxury car companies over here. Granted, most Russians still do not own cars (with reliable public transport, there is really no need), but I find this interesting. Go Daewoo!

Classes - music and films

My classes went much better today than yesterday. I had enough time to rewrite my lesson (the one that was the same level as the one I botched yesterday), and, for the most part, that class ended up going very well. The song I chose for class did not work as well as I had hoped. I used one of my favorite songs, Here Come the Martian Martians by Jonathan Richman. Grammar-wise, it tied in with our last lesson (nationalities), so when we did our review, I added in: A person from Russia is Russian; a person from Mars is Martian. The students got it, and laughed. Also, we were able to discuss the lyrics, and I think they understood them, although the lyrics are so weird in English that it is hard to tell if they could be translated very well. The main problem came when we tried to sing. I had never thought about how incredibly FAST the tempo of that song really is, and my poor low-level students were simply not able to keep up. Things to keep in mind for next time, I guess. In my other two classes today I used Walking After Midnight by Patsy Cline, and it worked fabulously. The song is slow enough for the students to listen to, understand, and sing along with, and they lyrics were very easy to explain. AND the grammar topic of the day was that nasty phrase "used to." But I got to explain the story behind "I go walking after midnight, out in the moonlight, just like we USED TO do" (which is really depressing, actually), and it made a great introduction to the topic. I also used some of my photos from home (I used to have blonde hair. A used to have a beard. M used to be single. I used to live in Florida.), which the students seem to enjoy looking at. I have to admit that I got choked up, not once, but in both classes, in the middle of the damn Patsy Cline song. I am turning into such a sap in my old age!

In the Patsy Cline classes, we are watching Forrest Gump. The plan is to watch approximately five minutes of the movie every class. I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I hate Forrest Gump. The first time I saw the movie, I thought it was neat how they managed to edit together real historical footage with the image of Tom Hanks, but that was all I really liked about it. In high school, I had some friends who loved this movie, and who insisted that we watch it at nearly every sleepover. I grew to detest that film, and I still do. Plus, I really do not enjoy sad, sappy movies. I may get all teary eyed at Patsy Cline, but I haven't yet degenerated to the point where I enjoy sobbing my way through tear-jerker films. Especially when it's a film I have already been tricked into sobbing my way through more than once. Life can be sad enough. Why should I choose to inflict extra sadness upon myself? Give me a comedy, or an action flick with a happy ending any day. Or Team America, which has both. But back to Forrest Gump. The reason why Forrest Gump is shown to the lower levels is because of the fact that Tom Hanks's character speaks so damn slowly, making it easy for others to understand. I was not looking forward to watching Forrest Gump; however, now that we are watching it, I have decided that it will be a very educational movie. After all, we are the American Home, and we are supposed to be teaching our students about American language and culture. The movie focuses on many of the important events of American cultural and political history. Today in my classes we talked about the Civil War, slavery and the Ku Klux Klan (in case you are wondering, Forrest Gump was named after Nathan Bedford Forrest). It was not a very in depth discussion (they are at a low level, after all), but they knew about the Civil War, and agreed that slavery was bad, and that you should not name your children after jackasses who found racist organizations. I also got to explain the phrase "His back is as crooked as a politician," which was simply an amusing thing to explain in and of itself.

Of Russians and Hobbits

Part I: Russian Lesson

Back when I took my hair raising trip to Moscow with Vanya in order to reclaim my suitcase, all the other Americans at the AH took a Russian language test, in order to see what they would need to go over in their Russian lessons. (Each American teaching at the AH receives two 90 minute individual classes in Russian per week for free... this is the same amount of instruction our students receive, except that our classes are one on one, which is fantastic.) I, being in Moscow at the time, did not get to take my test. Russian lessons began today, and the first thing I got to do was take the test. I did surprisingly well, especially considering that I have not studied Russian since I graduated in May 2001. Of course, I feel I have a bit of an advantage over the others, in that I have had a month of daily speaking practice to refresh my memory, and they had been here less than a week when they took their tests. But I did well on the test, and when Nellie (my Russian teacher) and I discussed my mistakes, nearly everything that I had done incorrectly made sense as soon as we talked about it. Woohoo! Of course, she assigned me what I thought was quite a lot of homework... and then told me (in complete seriousness, as far as I could tell) that next time she would not give me so little homework! Sigh. But, I told her that I want to study Russian so that I can work for an American non profit that does international relations and development work with Russia, and she says she will try and focus the theme of our lessons accordingly. I have no idea how one would do that, but I suppose I will find out.

Part II: VEMZ

Today my class at VEMZ did not go so well. This was not the fault of my students in any way. I simply got over ambitious and tried to cram two days' worth of grammar into one lesson. For some reason, when I had looked at the topics in the book, it seemed perfectly reasonable to combine the two grammar topics into one session. Unfortunately, it turned out that the authors of the book knew what they were doing when they divided the chapter in two. Instead of spending part of the class explaining boring grammar rules, and spending the rest of the class doing various written and oral (and fun!) activities to reinforce the grammar, I ended up turning nearly the entire class into one long and tediously boring grammar lesson. I feel terrible that it was so boring. Plus, since we did not do any reinforcement activities, we will have to do them next time. On one hand that is good; next class we will get to do all of the fun things I had planned for this class. On the other hand, the reason I did the two grammar topics in one lesson was so that I could accomplish more before the midterm. As it is, I will not be able to introduce a new grammar topic next class. I am going to have to rewrite my syllabus for both VEMZ and the syllabus for the class I have at the AH that is the same level as the VEMZ class... not to mention that I have to rewrite my lesson plan for that AH class (which is tomorrow) as I had planned on doing two grammar points in there as well. Sigh. I hope my VEMZ students do not decide that my class is too boring to attend in their free time!

Part III: Students everywhere

So, I am starting to feel like my mother. In my hometown it seemed that just about wherever she went, she would run into her current or former students. She has only been teaching in the small town where she currently lives for a little over a year, and already she is running into students all over the place. This has begun to happen to me as well. Yesterday, as I was walking down the street, I saw someone whose face looked familiar. She smiled and said hello (in English), at which point I realized who she was and what class she was in, and I was able to say hello in return without feeling too thrown off. Later the same day, I saw a friend of the daughter of one of the Russian teachers at the AH. (How small-townish is that?) I hardly know this girl (in fact, I do not remember her name at all), but there she was, waving at me from across the street. Today, on the trolley ride home from VEMZ, as I was preparing to disembark, I noticed a young woman watching me. Now, I do not always stand out as a foreigner, although when I do, people tend to stare. I did not think that I looked too non-Russian today, and I kind of thought I recognized her. Then she smiled. Russians do not smile at people they do not know and simply accidentally lock eyes with while on public transportation. Crap. I must know her. Who is she? I smiled back. When it was my stop, she stood up to get off too. I decided that she looked a lot like the new girl in my VEMZ class. I had only seen her today, and as she sat in the very back, I could not see her clearly. (At this point I figured that it was probably her, because the trolleybus came from VEMZ. Sometimes I am a tad slow.) Anyhow, as we disembarked she asked me where I lived, and then we had a nice little conversation. I am 90% certain that she was from my VEMZ class.

Part IV: Mushrooms!!

So this morning, Nina M asked me if I liked mushrooms. Well, what she said was the Russian equivalent of: You don't like mushrooms, do you? You know, the kind of question that is phrased such that you expect the answer to be No. She seemed genuinely surprised when I said that I love mushrooms. Perhaps none of the previous Americans who have lived with her liked mushrooms. Although I felt kind of like that scene in the Fellowship of the Ring (the book, not the movie) where Frodo and Sam arrive in Buckland with a basket of mushrooms given to them by Mrs. Farmer Maggot. The Hobbits in Buckland, upon hearing that Frodo and Sam had already eaten mushrooms once that day ask something along the lines of: Well, you won't be wanting seconds, will you? But of course Frodo and Sam want seconds. Who turns down mushrooms? Anyhow, Nina M made me mushrooms for dinner. I do not remember the name of the type of mushroom I was fed (it sounded something like the Russian number 5, so kind of like pyat, but not quite), but these were absolutely the best mushrooms I have ever had in my entire life. They were not cooked in any sauce or seasoning; they were simply stir-fried in some cooking oil to a nice texture, but wow! I have never tasted mushrooms with such a rich, incredible flavor before. I could have eaten them all night. No wonder Russians are such avid mushroom pickers if this is the kind of delicacy they can find in the woods!

In the countryside near the dacha

Happy Annie at the Dacha