Peterhof

Yesterday we got touristy and went to Peterhof, the Summer Palace of Peter the Great (the Hermitage is the Winter Palace). The whole thing takes 2 days to see, and we just did the gardens and fountains. Totally lucked out, because we found out when we got there that yesterday was the last day the fountains would be on, I guess they are shutting them down early because it's getting cold. If we had waited another week, we probably wouldn't have been able to see the beautiful gardens at all, except from the palace windows (we're going back later to tour the palace.)

If you've seen pictures of Peterhof, they are mostly of the Grand Cascade, which is totally amazing, it has statues of different Greek gods and goddesses, as well as the main fountain part, which is Samson wrestling a fish. It represents Russia beating the Swedes in a war. Kind of weird, but hey, Peter the Great was an interesting person. There is also a statue of Neptune that he himself made by melting down one of the cannons used to beat the Swedes. The gardens are huge, with miles of pathways bringing you to two other cascades (Gold and Chessboard) as well as a fountain for Eve amd one for Adam, and plenty of other fun ones. He was in to jokes, so their are a couple fountains that you can spray people with, this is hard to explain but basically one person sits on a bench to the side and has a button that he can press to make the fountain come on, so people will walk (or run) across, and get wet. It was quite hilarious to watch.

Another source of amusement was the period costume area, where you could pay to wear a dress (or whatever the guys wore) and take pictures and stuff. Five of the teachers did it, and I was in charge of taking pictures and filming them. It was quite hilarious! I have video of them tripping over their skirts, taking pictures with random people walking by (from a little boy and girl to some middle-aged guys from Siberia who were hitting on them) and, most brilliantly, of them doing the can-can. It was an interesting afternoon!

Next week we would like to go to Moscow, but have to wait to get our passports back (we had to get new visas, I think someone messed up on the original ones.) And we're starting our plans for the week-long vacation, some of the girls want to do a circular tour of countries, going down into Ukraine, then up through Poland, through Sweden and Finland, then the Baltic States. Not sure if we're gonna get to do all that. Maybe we'll do a 3-day weekend in Talinn or Finland and Sweden and get those countries seperately. But either way I'm gonna have a few more to add to the list of places I've been!

Two weeks down

Still no pictures, sorry people. Just know that I'm stocking up on them! This week was pretty boring, I got sick on Saturday and my family wouldn't let me leave the house at all for 2 days, but they gave me warm milk with honey and chicken broth and gave me movies to watch so I wouldn't be bored. Then Sunday night Yelena's dad had a stroke, so they've spent the week going out and staying with him, I feel like I'm kind of being a burden, they feel like they have to come home and feed me. But they are so sweet. I'm gonna get them lots of flowers.

Then it was back to teaching. Monday was bad enough, I didn't have much of a voice and was congested, which meant a more chaos in my level 5 class, and I don't even want to remember Tuesday, I had a pounding headache that night. Seriously wondered how I would survive 3 months of this! Then Wednesday was awesome, really, the kids were paying attention and working with me and I think they actually learned something! And Thursday only 3 of the boys came, which cut WAY down on the chaos. Of course Zhenya still spouts off in Russian every other minute, he really doesn't want to be there. Actually, the class reminded me of trying to teach Jon, Chris, and Matt. The kid like Matt is Ilya, adorable and very smart, but you have to keep his attention.

Wednesday night Megan got here, so all the teachers are here now. We had a little party for her, stayed up late at Nicole's house watching a Chinese art film, and ended up crashing over here cause it was too late to walk home. Today a bunch of us went shopping and I got some good boots :) Right now Sveta is here and we're learning how to make blini (crepes). Exciting! Tomorrow we're going to see the gardens in Peterhof, we'll see the inside later in the year, when outside is all frozen. Then next weekend we're going to Moscow for a couple days, apparently if we're there for more than 2 we have to register or something. And Masha wrote me back saying I have to come visit, so now I just have to convince 2 other teachers to come with me....

NOT gonna be a teacher

Today was actually the best class we've had so far, it was my level 5 class minus the instigator, and they were all involved and learning. SO NICE! Especially since last night with my level 3 boys was total chaos and I could barely talk...had a killer headache after that! Anywho, our last teacher just got here and we're all talking to her, sorry this isn't longer!

One week down! (sorry, no pics yet)

Wow, so much has happened since I last got to post. Just today I got a haircut and since we had the afternoon off, we went down to Nevski Prospekt to the House of Books and the church on Spilled Blood (see the picture down the page, it's the cathedral with the different colored onion domes). Very glad to be done with my first week of teaching. I have levels 3 and 5, with kids from the 9-14 years old. And some of them are a handful! My entire level 3 class, 6 kids, is rowdy boys. The other class, 8 kids total, is evenly split between boys and girls. I of course took pictures of them, and of everything else that's happening, but unfortunately we haven't gotten that far with the 'special' technology here. Teaching requires so much preparation, especially because we're not supposed to have quiet reading time or anything, we're supposed to talk as much as possible. I have no problems with that :) but sometimes the kids get a little carried away. The level 5 kids are on a point system and are earning a pizza party for good behavior, good English, not speaking Russian, etc, but the other class...I haven't come up with a way to simply keep them from spouting off in Russian every chance they get!

A few people have asked me about food. So far, the majority of it has been awesome. When the teachers get together for training and talking, or just hanging out, we snack on chips and bread with cheese and sausage. Every morning my host family feeds me a porridge made from oats, milk, and dried fruit, along with a fruity tea. It's wonderful! I've had all kinds of things for dinner, noodles, sausage, soups, etc, and it's all been good, expect for something I got last night that seemed to be slimy vegetables....didnt' work out to well for me! I've also gotten tons of tomatos and cucumbers, which I love, sometimes they are in a salad with parsley and goat cheese. We have lunch at the primary school (I teach at an elementary school a couple miles away, I ride a bus there, but the primary school is a five minute walk from home). So far it's been good bread, a really brothy soup, some kind of meat (usually it's been meatballs, today it was liver, of which I've discovered I'm not a fan) and either really good mashed potatoes or pasta. Not bad. My babushka feeds me tons! Every time I walk in the house I'm given something to eat, even if I just had breakfast two hours ago! Oh, Mandy, you would hate it, they have mayo on almost everything, in salads and all kinds of stuff. And Mutti you would be jealous, I can get good German yogurt and chocolate and jams at the store, about 15 min walk from my house! All the food is so good here, we go shopping and get awesome bread for really cheap (an 8-inch baguette is about 20 cents!), with sausage and spreads and cheeses and of course desserts :) Haven't found italian ice yet, but we really haven't gotten out much, too busy teaching! And we were at a blini place earlier and saw something along the lines of a mini doener, so we have to go back there.

I can't make any promises, but I'm gonna try my hardest to have pictures in my next post. SO MANY! Then you can see where I live, where I work, who I work with, etc. Until then, everyone stay safe! I miss you!

Technology is dodgy here....

Don't know how often I'll be able to post on here, this is the computer at my head teacher's apartment and sometimes things don't work. Unfortunately I can't put up my pics yet either, sorry!

Only have time for a short note, it's getting dark and I need to head back home before that. The first couple days with my host family I wasn't sure if they would talk to me at all but I think now they were just giving me a chance to get adjusted, because we're talking about stuff all the time. Last night I taught Igor and Yelena how to play Uno (minus some of the harder-to-understand cards.) It was so fun! I also spent time showing them pictures of my family and places I've been, and they've done the same. Elena, Igor's mom and Yelena's daughter, is the manager of advertising and marketing for Mitsubishi (impressive, no?)

We've spent a lot of time getting things ready for school to start tomorrow. Our school supplies are organized at the primary school, which is a 5 minute walk from my house but isn't where I'm going to be teaching (go figure). I have to teach 5-8 pm four days a week, alternating with two different age groups. I'm developing a lot of respect for elementary school teachers right now! The program is immersion, with the goal of letting the kids speak like natives. I'll be teaching them things they learned the previous year in Russian school, only in English. So if they studied fractions or geography last year, they'll learn this year how to talk about the same things in English. It's really cool but requires a lot of work, because they have to be speaking as much as possible to really learn anything. No sitting and reading quietly! My kids should all have been in the program for a few years though, and I'm excited to start teaching!

Today we tried to go to church, had directions to two different buildlings, ended up traipsing all over the city and not finding either...so Nicole is gonna call the mission president and get better directions. In the mean time we know the metro a little better....