Rocket Rollers and Caviar

I love the random things we find here in good old St. Petersburg.

Heck yes, we saw the Navii.

We finally compilled our Russian bucket list, to which we checked one off this weekend when we took a boat ride down the river around St. Petersburg. Most of the sights we had already seen, but the view from the river was incredible and gave another perspective. Plus, boat rides are awesome. Plus plus, in a matter of weeks the whole river will be completely frozen.

The blue building in the background is the lovely Hermitage, which visiting was another item on the bucket list, which we completed on Sunday.

P.S. If you were to spend 30 seconds at each exhibit in the Hermitage for 8 hours a day 7 days a week, you would not finish for SEVEN YEARS.

 

So I feel like what we saw was practically nothing. Sydney took some photos of the Hermitage, but this is the only good one I have. And this wasn't even anything at all compared to what we saw.

MADNESS!!! TOO MUCH BEAUTY!!!

Seriously, the Hermitage was just oozing unbelievable sights.

 

Like us!

 



Another P.S., you have to pay to take pictures in the Hermitage. But we didn't. Shhh.....

 

 

Today in my level 3 class, we talked about Transportation. We had some extra time, so I decided to let them invent their own form of transportation. I illustrated their ideas.

 

Are you ready for this?

 

Excuse my horrible drawing skills....

 

 

 

The one on the left is the propeller-brella. You sit on the handle and steer with a fan, while a propeller on the top flies you around.

 

The one on the right is the class favorite. Rocket Rollers. Roller blades with a rocket on it, a built in radio on the food, knee and elbow pads (for safety), a helmet with an attached TV and disco ball, and to steer you use ski sticks, which have cookies on the bottom.

 

I also taught them what 'like a boss' means. New class catch phrase? Yes.

 

When I came home today, Anya and Artom had friends over. None of them spoke English, but it was still fun having dinner with them. My host family went to Finland this weekend, so dinner was all the food they brought back.

 

I ate caviar.

 

I promised myself I had to try everything here (except alcohol), because it would be good experience to have new foods from a foreign country.

 

But the whole time I ate that little slice of bread with orange caviar on top, I swear I could hear the shrieks of Nemo's lost sibling screaming in my ear.

 

Needless to say, I won't be eating caviar again. But I am glad I tried it!

 

Alena got new books that have English and Russian in it. So I've been teaching her English, while she teaches me Russian.

 

 

We make a pretty good team.

 

 

 





The Labyrinth

So this is a dual-day coverage.

Yesterday was Wednesday. I had my Primary and my Level 2 class that day. Primary ended up being great, because it was only girls, so we definitely had fun.

Then in my Level 2, the challenging child (Yegor) was a complete angel. Seriously, it was an insane transformation. He went from kicking other students papers off the desk to quietly asking if he had spelt his words correctly on his work. Go parental confrontation!

He even decided to draw me a Labyrinth, which he explained to me in great detail.

Yegor is crazy smart, which is probably why he is a little obnxious.

I am also glad to say I dominated that Labyrinth.

I left Level 2 early so I could get home. It was Anyas birthday, and her friends, parents, and brother and sister were coming over for a huge family dinner.

I arrived a tidge late, and realized everyone was really dressed up. So I quickly slid into a skirt and called it good!

The food was absolutely incredible, of course. Anya made bacon wrapped mushroom stuffed chicken breast, along with 2 salads, one tuna and the other baked spinach, and there was also sesame topped german cheese filled crossants.

I was also offered wine. Which I declined, and I got to rock apple and peach juice in my wine glass for all the toasts that were given. I definitely love my host family.

Today was a lazy day. I really did nothing until about 4 when I got ready and headed to my Level 4 class. I do believe Level 4 is my best behaved class, there are quiet, attentive, and quite hilarious if I say so myself.

They have been so good, I decided to teach them how to stand on eggs.

It ended up being hilarious, of course. We all loved it.

The lesson was about pressure, but mostly we just squished eggs.

I came home today to find we had company. I walked towards my room to hang up my jacket, when who do I see?

Good 'ol Yegor.

His mother chatted with me, she is really fluent in English. She told me how she threatened Yegor that if he misebehaved in class, he wouldn't be allowed to go with them to Finland.

Well, it worked.

After  dinner, I decided to go hang out with the kids, since the adults were all speaking Russian anyway and the children I could at least communicate a little with.

 

I found out Alena loves the Little Mermaid.

Boo ya.

I showed her my Little Mermaid shirt and she got so excited, she took out all her mermaid dolls.

Yegor was helping Tima build tracks for their cars. They were absolutely hilarious together.

Alena then showed me some pictures, and asked me how to say things in English and I in turn asked how to say things in Russian.

Basically, I love being in St. Petersburg.

Drunk St. Petersburg Men

Today was an adventure day.

Marci, Sydney and I went to go pick up some stuff from our University here where we will all go for Russian classes. When we were done, it was only about noon and Sydney and I didn't have class until 5, so we went exploring.

St. Petersburg is so old that there are historical buildings everywhere. Not only are they everywhere, but they are incredibly beautiful. We strolled for a while until we came across a lovely bridge with a lovely view.

We stopped to take a picture. There were only 3 of us, so one took the picture while they other two posed.

When luck be with us that day, two men came up. One asked (in Russian) if we would like him to photograph our moment. We said yes, and the other man asked if we were American. Yay! He spoke English!

We made a little small talk with the English speaker while the other proceeded to take multiple photos.... after each one telling us he needed 4 more. He slowly sank down to the ground... awkwardly. He then proceeded to slowly law himself in the most unflattering way to take our picture.

 None of us knew what to say, so we just chuckled. Finally, he stood up and they asked, (in a tone...) 'Would you like us to take more pictures?'

'Umm... No? But can we get a picture of you guys?'

The reply was yeaaaah! From the awkward photographer and a 'No picture of drunk St. Petersburg men!'

It made sense.

Obviously.

After fluffing his hair, we took a souvenir snapshot of our drunk and awkward photographers and we were on our way.

When they left, Marci flipped through the pictures he took, and they were most definitely AWKWARD pictures.

After that, we had a lovely lunch of bliny. Again. It's so delicious, I will never complain about eating a blin.

My Level 4 class was awesome today! I feel like I either underestimate or overestimate my classes, and these kids were definitely little geniuses today. They are also hilarious, and they make fun of my drawings. Which means they have a sense of what is art and what is pathetic.

I'm pretty sure one of my students has a crush on me and Marci. When Marci came in to observe, she just stared at her blankly. His name is Grisha, and he seems to be quite the little daydreamer. When Marci leaves however, he will jump from his seat and throw his little 10 year old hand in the air whenever I ask a question. When I dismissed them today, he sat in his chair until everyone left, walked up to my desk, and in his little Russian accent said,

"Miss Ty?"

"Yes, Grisha?"

"I like you very much."

"Well thank you Grisha. You have a good evening!"

"Miss Ty?"

"Yes?"

"Will you help me zip my jacket?"

That kid. He is a little cutie, but I don't do the whole craddle robbing thing. Not me.

However, if Matvia from my Primary class was 13 years older, I'd be chasing him down.

Am I allowed to say that? I have dang cute students!

How To Use Non-Items

In ILP Lessons, they reccommend you use between 6 and 8 different objects per lesson. That way, you have different things you can talk about and get the children to learn different words in the English language.

There are also things called non-items they want you to use while teaching, which are objects used in the lesson but aren't actually necessary for the activity.

I think I have done a pretty good job of using Non-Items.

EXAMPLE 1:
During my last Level 4 class, I was teaching them what rhymes and poems were. They weren't really understanding what a poem was, so I told them that songs are poems. That made them even more confused, so I asked if anyone had an iPod with them. After each and every one of my students pulled out either an iPhone or an iPod Touch, (making me feel mediocre with my 3rd generation iPod nano that I've had since 2007) I took one from a student, and searched for the first English song I could find that would be popular enough for everyone in the class to have heard.

The one I found?

Fireflies by Owl City. A personal favorite of mine.

Everyone knew the song, so after every few phrases I would pause the song and have the students tell me the words they heard that rhymed.

After that, everyone was a pro.

EXAMPLE 2:
This one may be a little interesting, but no judgements allowed.

While teaching comparison words to my Level 2 class that I now teach with Andrew (sup buddy!) I tried to look around the room for something I could use to demonstrate 'heavy' and 'light'. There were 2 books in my bag that would work perfectly.

 

 

This was the first one. I was taking it home to help my host-sister Alena learn to read English. (More on that later....)

 

The second book was.....

 

 

Well...

 

 

 

Don't ask me why I used that book. It was the only one I could find.

 

 

On to the next part of my day...

 



 

 

I have to give credit to my host-sister, Alena. She loves English and gets so excited to talk to me with the little bit that she knows. She asked me (through her translator aunt) to help me teach her to read better.

 

Before I came to Russia, I learned how to read in Russian. Not that I understand what I am saying, but I can pronounce words I see and read them to myself with no comprehenion of what they actually mean.

 

Anyway, for knowing how the Russian alphabet works and helping Alena learn to read, she is a little trooper. For being 7 years old, she was doing incredible reading the Dr. Seuss alphabet book. There were some stumbles, for example the letter B is pronounce like V in Russian and she would get those confused, but her youthful brain is packing a lot of basic language in there.

 

Go Alena!



 

Sundays!

Hellooooo Sabbath Day!

I never said anything about it, but last week the first stake in St. Petersburg was organized. I got to go with Andrew, a fellow teacher, to the conference where Elder Nelson was there. Although the other talks that were given I didn't understand, Elder Nelson spoke in English and the message was very clear. Because of the faith of the people in St. Petersburg, there are enough members to create a stake. It is not an easy thing to do, believing in something that is practically unheard of in your country. It was very spiritual and I am very blessed to have gone.

Yesterday, we went to see the Peterhof! Needless to say, it was absolutely gorgeous.

One thing I love about St. Petes is all the architectural beauty. The buildings everywhere are gorgeous!

I can't remember exactly how many fountains there were at the Peterhof, but it was definitely a lot.

This one was my favorite.

 





After we spent a few hours blowing up my mind with all the beautiful sights we saw, we had our first movie night together as teachers! Because it was my birthday, I got to choose.

So we watched Arrested Development. (Tell your friends about this show.) If you haven't heard of it, I pity you and go watch it right now!

This morning, Andrew took Katie, Sydney, Courtney and I to a ward that is a lot closer to where we live than the stake center. Even though I still couldn't understand a thing they said, it was good to feel the spirit and to know that these people truly love the church. And Andrew was nice enough to translate the basic gist of the talks for us.

Thanks dude!

When I got back home, Anya's parents had arrived. Her mom was upset with me because I was barefoot. She asked Anya, 'Do you always let her feet freeze?' The babushkas here like to look out for us little hooligans and even though my feet were fine, I put on some slippers so she wouldn't worry!

After a few hours of being lazy and planning a few lessons, Nastya came over and we went out with Artom and Anya to walk around St. Petersburg. We are  very close to the Cathedral of Spilled Blood, so we adventured around that area which even though I have seen it before, is unbelievably gorgeous.

 

Yes it is sideways, but it is still gorgeous.

 

 

I have some photos with Anya and Nastya in them, but compared to their natural Russian beauty, my short stubby American physique is quite laughable, and I already have self esteem issues so we are just gonna skip that step!

 

Nastya was very helpful to tell me all the information about the places we saw. Of everyone with us, she is most fluent in English. Her husband Kioro joined us and we went to this Chineese restaraunt called Skyway Palace. Have you had milk oolong before? It is absolutely incredible!

 

I love going places with my host family. They are so great, I definitely got very lucky!

 

And no one yelled at me in Russian today, so I am feeling pretty darn good!

 

Russian Birthday!

And I am now officially 19!

I feel older. But I guess age isn't something that can be negotiated.

Anyway, teaching! It has been crazy so far but incredible. The kids are adorable and hilarious, and it is definitely worth everything I did to get here!

Stories?

I have a few.

On my birthday, I still had to teach. So as I was getting ready to leave, I was also replying to an email from my mom telling me Happy Birthday (which coming from her was not right, it wasn't by birthday when she sent it!) and she asked if anyone here knew it was my birthday. Some of the teachers knew, but for my host family? I had no idea. Right as I had typed that in, Anya, Artom, and Alena came in and said happy birthday. Coincidence? I think not! I got a traditional Russian pattern scarf (woo!!) and Alena made me a birthday card that said 'May all your dreamsz come true. Happy birthday to you' it was absolutely adorable! Timosha even made me a little paper heart.

Then off to class. If I haven't metnioned him before, here he is: Maxime.

Demon spawn of evil.

Along with screaming in high pitched tones and mauling other children, his hobbies include tearing down piles of stacked up toys, laughing at you while you chase him, and wailing on anyone who attempts to contain him.

Me and Marci were attempting to get him out of the classroom (if a student misbehaves, we have to find a Russian teacher) he claws my arm, wraps his legs around my thighs, twists around with a hold on Marci, and bites so hard she bruised within minutes.

Evil.

The rest of the Private 1 kids are adorable!

I will get pictures up asap!

Random fact about Russia, no one liked to give you change.

Now I had been told this since ILP training, and never planned to have to ever need so much change.

Until today.

I thought I had enough roubles in coins to get me on the private bus to the Metro station for the day, but I was mistaken. My smallest bill was a 500 rouble (about $17) and it is 35 roubles to take a private bus. I was hoping for the best as I handed the driver my money.

He began to lecture me in Russian, shaking the money at me, and I told him I spoke no English, and I shrugged because that was the smallest bill I had. He continued to growl at me until a man sitting behind me said something to him, to which the driver stopped in the middle of the road to count out my change. Very begrudgingly.

The man who spoke gestured for me to put my wallet away. I told him thank you (in Russian, one of the few words I know in the language) and took my change from the very grumpy driver and walked to the back of the bus very red in the face.

It's not exactly that they do not have the change to give, Russians just dont want to give it to you.

So if no one gave you change ever, where will you come up with small enough bills to do exact money?

Logic.

However, America has it's quirks too so I can't complain!

Today, I also used Owl City to teach my lesson. I was teaching my 10 year olds about how certain words rhyme, and make a poem. I tried to explain that songs were poems and one of the kids said, 'Like Linkin Park?' (High five to that kid) And I asked if any of them had an iPod (they all raised their hands) and I borrowed one from the girl in the front row. The first English song I saw was Fireflies by Owl City. So I started the song and asked, 'Who knows this song?' Everyone did, so we listened. I would pause after every phrase and they had to tell me the words that rhymed. They were surprisingly good at it.

I also made it safely TO and FROM my head teachers apartment using the bus system BY MYSELF WITHOUT getting lost. At least, today I didn't get lost.

I guess that is what being 19 gets you.

The Metro... Train of Wonder

I am starting to realize a lot of cool thing about the Metro (underground train) in St. Petersburg. I compiled a list.

1.) No one looks at anyone else. Like Sveta told us, Russians are kind, but put on a hard cover. Open your heart, but not your purse. People watching is a no unless you are super sly and have ninja control of your peripherals.
2.) As you ride the escalator to/from the metro, the hand rails run faster than the steps. I am not sure why, but it drives me absolutely insane. One moment my hand is gently resting next to me, the next I am all up in some old guys armpit (true story).
3.) The ladies who you buy metro tokens from are usually cranky with blank stares. And heaven forbid you need change for more than a 100 rouble bill, all hell will break loose in their eyes.
4.) Even though you shouldn't people watch, there are some crazy people on the metro. Not all bad either. Today as I rode home from one of my schools, a man walked up and down our train car playing the accordion.

Umm... AWESOME!

I'm lame and thought it was beyond amazing. So what did I do?



Because you can't really react without drawing attention to yourself. Especially when you don't speak Russian. The condescending eyes of the passengers scream 'AMERICAN!'.

Besides the metro, new things have been going on. I started teaching today! I teach 3 different groups of kids, Primary 1 (5-6 year olds) And Level 3 and Level 4 (Between 10 and 12, not exactly sure yet). Today I met the Primary one group.

Oh

My

Goodness.

I think I might die of cuteness by the end of the semester. One girl, Kyrra, has this one tooth. This huge, sideways, crooked tooth. I had the exact same thing when I was her age, except it made me look like a beaver. She looks like a cute bundle of adorable. There is another girl, Mariana, who is a chub. Big chub too, she literally rolled from room to room. When we played duck duck goose, she couldn't stand up so she crawled around the floor until she could roll herself into an upright position.

We also found our hellian child. (We meaning me and my co-primary 1 teacher, Sydney) His name is Maxime. Oooh the stories that will unfold about that boy....

I came back to the apartment with Sydney and I tried to start planning my lessons for the rest of the week.... Marci graciously distracted me with videos of cute animals and hilarious songs on YouTube.

Because hey, you can't be friends without knowing eachothers favorite You Tube videos.

That is all I have for now, I hope you enjoyed the meme.

Paka!

Tourist Day 1

A great thing about living with a host family is they spoil you. Especially with food. Breakfast today was eggs and sausage. I don't think these were normal eggs though, they were bigger than my face. Regardless, still delicious!

Anya took me to the bus station to show me the route to the first school/head teachers apartment. I got scolded in Russian, which is always great but I suppose she only wanted me to sit down instead of hold onto the rail.

After I got to the head teachers apartment, we headed to exchange money. I do have to say that the exchange rate is definitely in favor of the Americans and prices here rule. Cigarettes go for about 55 Roubles, AKA less than two dollars. That is just one example.

I went through the checkout line to get a bottle of water, and was scolded in Russian once more. All I heard was 'Nyet, nyet, sldfhjasuibnjvao;sldkxjoauhwrgifajsndamiowuhg.' I understood nyet which is no, but the rest scared me. She gestured for me to go back out of the line, so I did and went to another register and bought my water without issue. Sveta, (one of our coordinators) told me the cashier said she didn't want to give me change for my 1000 rouble bill, and told me to wait or go to another register.

Russians do NOT like to give change.

Then began our first Russian excursion!

We got to ride the subway again (WOOOO!) But this time went to the center of St. Petersburg. Sveta was our guide and I am convinced we are the luckiest group to have her as a coordinator. She would begin to randomly jump up and down and dance, and her favorite phrase is 'Exciting! Cool!' Greatest woman ever!

Our group walked around a lot, just to kind of get a feeling for how much history and art there really is in St. Petersburg. My eyes almost went blind from sheer awesomeness (name the movie). I saw palaces, cathedrals, canals, bridges, and Russian people.

What? Russian people?

As we were looking at the Winter Palace, lo and behold we spotted a crew of Russian Navy men. Being majority girls, a photo op arose! Sveta asked for a picture and so we all gathered in for an epic digital document of the moment. As the picture was shot, one of the navy men lifted his fist and said 'Russia Forever!'

Needless to say, it was hilarious.

Many more photo ops also arose that day.

I will take this time now to just state for all of the internet how freaking great all the teachers in my group are. I feel like I am with my kind here! And for the creepy stalkers reading this that ARE my fellow teachers, hey buddies! I feel like we all have a bond. A match made in heaven if you will.

Continuing, after about 4 hours of walking and filling our brains with beauty and history, it was time.

LUNCH!

On our way there, we were crossing the street with a different crew of Navy men (they were everywhere today!) And one decided to come up and grab my arm to escort me across.

I almost died.

He tried to speak to me but I was too busy cracking up and blushing to even attempt to understand the foreign jabber he was speaking. It was embarrassing, yet extremely awesome.

At last we reached the cafe. Sveta helped us order (because bless her soul, no one speaks Russian except Andrew) I got a cabbage and egg blini and a banana and chocolate blini (like crepes!) and I felt like an angel was singing to my tastebuds. It was a glorious meal.

When we finished, Sveta asked if we would like to go to the park.

When Sveta said park, I was thinking some trees, some swing sets, a slide or two. Yeah, a park!

Nope.

It was like disneyland.

But cooler, because I am in Russia.

It was like a crazy amusement park with rides that make you scream just looking at them! Well, I did at least out of sheer excitement. And a giant Yoda (photo op!) and random things like Batman bumber cars, Slingshot rides, rockets, and other things that you look at and want to pee your pants. They even had a teacups ride, with the pot from Beauty and the Beast and the clock and candlestick too (photo op!) We didn't ride anything, but definitely are planning to go back with loads of roubles and just go crazy.

We returned to Marcis apartment, did some AWESOME training, and after a while Marci turned on the Anastasiya soundtack.

Situation: Perfect

Now I am chilling at home. It has been a day filled with wonderous beauty and hilarity. I give today a big thumbs up.

Russia forever!


 

Status Report

Today I went to my first Russian hospital.

Ok sorry I had to give you a little heart attack. I did go to a hospital, but not becuase of what you think.

Today we went and toured the school, then we had to go into the main part of St. Petersburg. To do that, we walked a few block and then rode a (dun dun dun) SUBWAY! I was a little overly excited but it was pretty fun. Hey, I am a small town girl. The subway looks awesome! Looks like I'll be doing it a lot too.

 So we got to the Metro and we got to see a lot of beautiful things while we walked to the place where we were to become 'official russians' aka we got a student card and enrolled in language classes. The student card will get us into the majority of places for free, like the Hermitage, which we are going to see tomorrow or next weekend. We chilled at the language place as we waited for pizza, so we decided to walk around till it was done.

We ended up randomly going into a catholic temple which was pretty cool. I felt bad because I wanted to blow out some of the candles just for fun, but I didnt. Be proud, because that was incredibly tempting.

 Finally we ate pizza, which was kind of sad. Very sad pizza. One of them had corn on it? I do not understand. It was better than Brazil pizza, which isn't very hard. And still very sad.

 After that we went to the (dun dun dun) HOSPITAL.

We all needed check ups, skin tests, blood tests, and...............

a butt swab?

Yup. Nothing like flashing a guy who doesnt speak English and swabbing your butt with a qtip to prove you dont have unexplainable diseases. Probably my most interesting doctors visit.

And my most invasive.

Then we left the hospital and went to the head teachers apartment where we started our training a little bit. I teach two different classes, a class of Primary 3 (5 year olds) and Level 4 (10 year olds) and I start Monday. One of the schools I teach at is on the Metro, but I only go twice a week and I have Fridays off, so do two other teachers, we are planning epic journeys across St. Petersburg.

That is basically the extent of my day. I am going to shower because I feel gross. Anyway, good morning Arizona!

Arriving in St. Petersburg

I made it alive! I thought I was going to die on the flight to Frankfurt because I had hardly any leg room. But I did sit by a nice lady who had a cute little puppy, so it was cool.
I had a 2 hour layover in Germany then another 3 hours to St. Petersburg. I've also got all my baggage, so we are safe there. We went out to the airport and met up with our head teacher, Marci and she introduced us to who we would be living with.

Now I need you to brace yourselves for the next part, it will blow your mind.

My host dad (whose name is too complex for me to try to reiterate right now) came with his sister. Guess what his sisters name was?

Are you ready for this???
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
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.
Nastya.

Not exciting? Guess what Nastya is short for?

That's right. Anastasiya.

Boo ya.

Nastya speaks English so she came with her brother to be translator. They took me to their home wich is an apartment but is actually very nice. I get my own room too!

Quick side note about traffic in St. Petersburg:

1.) Street lanes? Naaaaah, if you can fit in there, squeeze that car right in.
2.) Stoplights? Yeah theyre pretty, but if you wanna chill in the intersection during a convoy while the opposing traffic has a green light, thats fine. They will drive around you if they can squeeze. Refer to 1.
3.) Brakes? Only if you swear to slam on them last minute.
4.) Space? If cars had a personal bubble, St. Petersburg would have exploded.

It's AWESOME!

P.S. no one is allowed to complain about my driving anymore.

Anyway we got to the apartment and I met my host mom, her name is Anya. They have two kids, a 7 year old girl named Alena and a 2 1/2 year old boy named Tima. (Remember, I dont exactly know how to spell these names. I just type what they sounds like to me.) We ate dinner, which was like a steak spaghetti and delicious! And Nastyas husband came, and Im pretty sure his name is Kioro? Ill figure it out someday. Anya speaks a little bit of English, enough so we can communicate the basics.

So the point is I am safe, I am alive, and I'm pretty sure this is going to be the greatest semester ever!