Just another day in St Petes

There is so much to see here in St Petersburg.  My last adventure was a very successful one.  We were able to see quite a few things, which I will share with you, and find something that we really wanted.  That will all come later.

We rode the metro and then got off the metro at Площадь Ленина so of course one of the first things that we saw was a big statue of Lenin.  There were a bunch of fountains around and the “Finlandski вокзал” which is to say the Finland train station.  All of the trains that go to and from Helsinki go to that train station.

We then walked along the river and then all the sudden we didn’t have any more sidewalk.  There was construction and so then the sign that we saw earlier made a whole more sense.  The side said something like the sidewalk up ahead was really tight or something.  But I really didn’t understand the sign.  Upon getting closer we realized why it said what it said.  It actually meant that the sidewalk was closed and that we should go on the other side of the street.  Well, we didn’t want to walk all the way back to where the crosswalk was so we just j-walked across the street.  There a couple people that we saw j-walking at the same time that we were j-walking.  Here is a picture of the street.  The street was more of a highway than a street.  We just had to wait for the cars to stop coming and then crossed halfway.  Then waited again and we were home free.

In the midst of the construction I see a store that says “я heart sale” and I thought, “hmm this should be an interesting store.  I walk in then go to my right to go to the male section of this clothes store.  I was thinking that it was going to be like a t-shirt store maybe.  It ended up being a super expensive store that had huge discounts.  But discounts disregarded the clothes were still super expensive.  The jacket that I tried on was 70% off but it was still like 5,000 rubles.  So the full price of the jacket would be like 30,000 rubles which is a whole lot of money.  The jacket was very styling with its missing button and being too small.  So needless to say all of these things made it so that I didn’t buy this jacket.

We left the clothes store and then stumbled upon this theater that just happened to be playing Swan Lake, the play that the other ILP teachers were talking about going to see in Moscow.  So then I took a picture of that theater and later went to the website listed there.  It turned out that that direction was the wrong direction and we had to backtrack to get on the bridge to cross the water.

Coming back I see this guy with a Justice League America shirt on.  I just happened to have my camera out and on at the time.  So yep I took a picture of him in all its creepiness.

We then finally crossed the river/canal and got close to the Russian Cruiser Aurora.  This cruiser was used during WWI and WWII and now just sits on the Neva River in the middle of St Petes as a naval monument.  Unfortunately we arrive too late and so we could enter the vessel on this day.  But our trip was not in vain.  We visited the mini-рынок that was there.  I bought 2 magnets and Jessica looked at scarves and then joined Katie in looking for postcard.

Right across from Cruiser is the Naval Academy.  While we were by the academy there was a group of naval recruits that came out.  Unlike all the other groups that I have seen there were actually some girls in this group.  In fact there were like 3 girls.

We ran into this ran and Katie loved the stickers on the car.  There was the exclamation point which signifies the new driver.  Then there was also the “ш“ which Олег told me that the card had studs for extra traction.  But I didn’t see the studs on the tires. So I am kind of confused now.  Then there was also another sticker that I haven’t seen before.  It was the “woman driver” sticker.

We ran in to the Mosque.

Then for dinner had subway which was tasty but not as good as I remember it being here in Russian. I love my Italian BMT.

While we were waiting for the other teachers to come we stood on Nevsky Prospekt.  Jessica and Katie were minding their own business off to the side and I was looking for the other teachers.  While I was doing that I noticed this African guy with a bunch of flowers and it looked like he was trying to give the flowers away.  So I told Katie and Jessica and they walked past the guy.  He didn’t give either of them a flower.  But once they walked past they just kind of stopped and he looked at them for a while.  Then Jessica and Katie came back around trying to avoid the African.  It was pretty funny.

Once the other teachers came then we had a boat tour.  It was pretty sweet.  The only thing was that it was cold.  I was fine except for the fact that I didn’t have a hat or hood to cover my ears so I had to use a blanket which Marci made fun of me for how I wore the blanket.

Teaching

It is definitely a skill to find something that the kids will have fun with.  Then to have all the kids to be having fun is even that much harder.  For me this includes the little boy that “doesn’t know how to walk.”  But the last couple days I have seen the kids more happy than they have been in the past.  So what that means is that I need to continue doing these activities but find little ways to change them so that the kids don’t just come and do the same thing every day.

One of the things that I did do was play bowling.  Now this kid didn’t hit all of the pins but that wasn’t important to him.  He just wanted to hit the pins and he was so happy when he did.  You can just see the fun and excitement bursting from him.

Then there is Tyoma.  Every single day he has come to my class he is always crying.  Always.  He is always asking where is mom and dad.  But on this day he started out crying but then we started bowling and he cheered right up.  He really liked knocking down the cups.  He even helped me a couple times pick up the cups. But it was super awesome to not see him upset.

Then for level 2 which is elementary I have a favorite kid I think.  His name is Arseny.  First of all I really like his name.  It’s cool.  Plus he is pretty smart and does pretty well in English.  The other kids are pretty good also.  The other two boys in the picture whose names are both Yegor are both troublemakers.  Yegor on the left is super smart and gets bored with what we are doing and so then he acts out.  Then the other Yegor likes to make sound effects.  If there are fat illustrations then he is the first to point them out and then make a sound effect for them.  Yegor loves to make sound effects for verbs, especially the violent ones.

"Russians are better than English"

It was a nice, rainy Sunday afternoon when I was coming home.  I had already got into the stairway and I see the elevator closer and so I hurry to get in it.  The thing was though that there was an old Russian man there in the way and the elevator doors were closing.  I try to get around the guy without touching him and I do it but he definitely knows that I am there.  Then he looks at me and I wish I remembered the exact words that were said but here is my best attempt.

Russian old guy said, "Englishman can't be Russian."
Then I said, "Unfortunately."
Russian, "Which is better?"
"..."
"Russians because they are more harsh"

Then we arrived at my apartment level and so I stepped out of the elevator and laughed at what the guy had said.  I think he was pretty happy that I laugh also.

The Sights

I love Saint Petersburg!  There is so much to see!  I have already seen quite a few things and there is still more that I have left to see.  This week I started a second memory card.  I finished my first 2 gig memory card.  I already had some pictures on my card from camp and so I wasn’t sure how much memory my pictures have taken up.  But after today I have taken 2.01 gigs of pictures.   I was working it out and I started taking pictures on the 5^th.  So I have taken that many pictures in 2 ½ weeks.  Wow!  I don’t know that I have ever taken so many pictures so quickly.

So you ask, “Well, what have you taken pictures of?”

Of course I had some pictures from the flights that I had and the airports that I was in flying to St Petes.  But that isn’t very many pictures.  Where have all the pictures come from?  We have been doing excursions.  I have been to the Cathedral on Spilled Blood (Спас на Крови) which is the church signifying the place that Tsar Alexander II was assassinated.  It was built by his son Alexander III.

I also found the forever flame.  Every Russian City (I have been in) has a flame that is always burning in memory of the people that died during WWII.

No good visit to St Petersburg would be complete without a visit to the Winter Palace which doubles as the Hermitage, one of the biggest museums in the world.  There a ton to see!  There are the exhibits, the walls, the ceiling, the floors.  Everything is decorated and intricate.

 It's impossible to see the Hermitage without seeing Alexandrian column which is crazy as to how tall it is.  The column is 47.5 m which makes it the tallest in the world.  The column was build when Russia beat Napoleon's forces.

 We have walked by Kazan Cathedral multiple times on Nevsky Prospekt but haven't gone inside yet.

 We always take the metro to get places because you can get to the majority of the city using the metro.  This is because all 5 lines are connected and transfers are free and frequent.

We have also walked through a couple parks like this one above.  Some we purposely find and others we stumble upon them.  Either way its awesome.

Then we also went to this park.  It was called Miracle Island and it was awesome!  It was a normal park but it had all of these amusement rides.  Each time you ride a ride you have to pay and so that could add up pretty fast.

Since the Neva River runs straight through the center of the city and it is like 8 stories deep there are huge ships that just sit on the river.  This boat for example is a night club.  There are others that are restaurants and other things.

There was one day we were looking for the Summer Gardens but didn't really know the way.  So we just started walking and stumbled upon this might cathedral in all its glory.  This cathedral is called Smolny Cathedral and it was so tall!

On Saturdays we go with Sveta on excursions.  For this excursion we went to Peterhof which is a collection of palaces, gardens and fountains.  Peter the Great wanted something similar, but better of course, to the gardens in Versailles.  It was really pretty.  The canal actually goes all the way out to the Gulf of Finland.  So in the distance of the picture you can actually see Finland.

Another Saturday excursion.  This is Saint Isaac's Cathedral.  The cathedral took 40 years (1818-1858) to build and is the biggest cathedral in St Petes.

We passed the statue of Alexander Serveyevich Pushkin.  Russian adore his poetry and author.  There is museum of the last place that his lived.

Here we have Peter I.  He is also called the bronze horseman.  He is pointing the way to Asia.  The statue was constructed by Katherine the Great.

I found my namesake.  This sign says that in this house lived Nikolai Nikolaiovich Petrov who was a fantastic surgeon and oncology professor.

There are a lot of bridges in St Petes and here is one of them at night.

On a weekday morning we decided that we would go to the Summer Gardens and this time I actually knew the way that I was supposed to take in order to walk there.  We found it and I was very happy and took lots of pictures.

The next place to show is the Finlandsky Voksal, Finland train station.  We didn't go there to go to Finland but just to look around and see what a train station looks like because the people I was with hadn't been in one yet.

Really close to the Finland train station there is this statue of Lenin.  He immortalized himself all over Russia.

We also saw the Cruiser Aurora.  Unfortunately we got there too late to actually get on so that is still on our bucket list to do.  This cruiser is a memorial to the navy and also the October Revolution.

Facing the Cruiser Aurora is a Navy Academy.

We also found the Saint Petersburg Mosque.

Then the last sight for this post is a picture from the boat tour that I went on.

Leaving Courtney on the station

While Courtney and I were on an escalator transferring between 2 metro lines I asked her if she felt comfortable getting around.  That if she needed to get somewhere the she would be able to get there.  She said, "Yes.  I was in London and their metro is similar to this one.  There were more lines but its the same."
By this time we had got off the escalator and onto the platform.  I noticed that our train was already there.  We walked over and on the way over I hear, “Остарожно! Двери закрываются.” That translates to “Careful! The doors are closing.”  Instinctively I hurry onto the train because I think that Courtney is going to be right behind me.
Nope.  I turned around and saw her about to come in but then she pulled back and the doors closed.  I just see her face a little scared and a disbelief expression.
But there really wasn't much I could do.  I was on the train and Courtney was not.  As I was just standing on the train there was a lady that talked to me.  I am not going to lie and say that I know what she said.  But I responded saying, "Things are going to be alright.  She knows the way home.  She can get there."  Which is something that I knew because she had literally just told me that.
I then got off the train at the next stop and just waited for the next train to come.  It was only like 3 minutes or so and then tried to find Courtney.  It wasn't hard.  Luckily, Courtney got on that same car on next train and so I just had to walk onto the same car on the next train.  When I got on I stood in front of Courtney and said, "I promise that I didn't do that on purpose."  She believed me.
Then we laughed at the irony of what just happen.
This story has also been referenced many times.

Too much woman

I am kind of experiencing shock right now.  But it isn't really from the culture or from really being in Russia.  It is because I hang out with and talk with a bunch of girls.  There is me and 6 other female teachers and Marci, the head teacher.  Then both of the coordinators, Alla and Sveta, are Russian woman.  So I am surrounded by woman which is something I am not used to.  I spent my summer working up at a boy scout camp where there were a bunch of boys there and not many girls.  There were about 10 girls that even worked up at camp but a handful of them were younger than 18.  After scout camp ended then I lived at home with my parents, brother and sister and that was still that was pretty normal.  Normal meaning something that I am used to.  Hanging out with 7 girls ALL of the time is not normal.  Its like I don't know what I am supposed to do because guys and girls act different (Profound? I know. I have learned a couple things.).  I will explain using some experiences:

Things start even before we even got to Russia.  I flew with my sister Katie, Megan and Ty to St. Petes.  In the Frankfurt Airport after we had gotten off the plane we had to go up the escalator.  I thought "Oh there are a ton of people so my fellow travelers will just follow the crowd and go up escalator."  Well I went up the escalator and waited.  Then after what seemed like forever though it was probably only a couple minutes I see them coming up the escalator.  Fast forward past security. I see a bathroom and decide that I need to use it.  So I go around the corner to the mens' side and all the girls went to their side.  I get done in the bathroom and then I thought somebody might have stayed outside of the bathroom to look after luggage and I was wrong.  They had all gone into the bathroom and taken their bags with them.  So I waited and waited.  It was about this time that I reminisced about the last time I was in the Frankfurt airport.  I was with Elder Sare and Sister Jensen and Sister Read.  We would wait on the sisters quite a bit then also.  But things were pacified because I had Elder Sare to keep me company.  This time I had no Elder Sare to keep me company and make things less awkward.  So I just stood there, kind of awkwardly because I am not sure if they went on without me or were just taking a long time in the bathroom.  If I would have really thought about it I would have guessed that they were taking a long time in the bathroom because they took a while coming up the escalator.  Then Megan makes the comment that they took a while in the bathroom.  I don't remember if I replied out loud but in my mind I thought, "yep, definitely took long enough."
Another funny little experience was like the first night I came over to the ILP apartment.  Everybody was there and we were just sitting in the big room.  I was just looking around at the apartment and then I realized that I was starting to feel a little nervous.  It was really weird.  Then I recognized why I was feeling that way.  While on the mission you are not supposed to be in an apartment alone with the opposite sex and I was in an apartment with 7 other girls.  I was actually thinking about how much the bookshelf really made the room look Russian and then it was like "BAM!  What are you doing?  You shouldn't be alone with girls in an apartment."  I suppressed the nervousness and continued on with whatever we were doing because it isn't warranted anymore.
That same night I took Katie home and I felt the same feeling.  I didn't have a problem walking with Katie because she is my sister.  But once I dropped her off at her apartment I was walking alone.  Then accented by the fact that it was dark which would totally be нельзя "forbidden" if I was on a mission still.
Moral: I don't have mission rules anymore.  Be patient.

Then today I felt very much like a 3rd wheel.  This isn't the first time I have felt like this here in St Petes because the girls that I am walking with just talk to each other and I walk alongside, quietly.  ON this occasion Marci and Courtney were talking and I wasn't involved.  There were a couple times that I said something but not very much.  I wasn't included in the conversation.  They were talking and I just kind of walked along side them not saying anything.  I pointed this out to Marci when we were on the metro because Courtney and Marci were sitting on one side of the metro car having a good time talking and I was on the other side of the car  writing in my book.  I joked "oh, don't mind me.  I will just mind my own business over here on my side of the train.  I will just write my own little secrets in my book while you two gossip away."  It was pretty funny.
Later that night we went to get blini (surprise surprise) and on the way back Marci was talking with Sydney and I was walking along side.  Then Marci told me that if I have something to say then I should just say it and be assertive and forceful about what I have to say.  She is one of those types of people that has a hard time with silences.  If nobody else has anything to say then she has something to say.  If she doesn't have anything to say then she always has something to say about herself and so never runs out of things to say.  She is the queen of associations.  With this noted I made sure that my presence was known the rest of the way home.  I contributed to Marci and Sydney's conversation and, even though I interrupted Marci like 5 times, they were happy that I added to their conversation.  Sydney even said that I had grown a backbone.
We were getting close to the apartment and I hadn't interrupted them for a while and so I wanted to interrupt her but I really didn't have anything to say.  But actually I did have one thing to say.  That was, "Marci.  I don't really have anything to say but it has been a while since I interrupted you last and I think it is about time that I interrupt you again.  So that was my interruption."  Marci was like, "oh okay."  "You can continue with your conversation again."  "Where was I?"  The funny thing was that I was the one that prompted her what story she was telling and even where she was in the story.  Courteous or something.
Moral: Grow a backbone and be assertive when talking to others, especially Marci.

Peterhof

For our second excursion we went out to Peterhof.  Now I really didn't know what that was until Jessica said that she really wanted to go to it like the first day that we got here.  Then I heard that there were bunch of fountains and gardens.
To get there we got on the orange line of the metro and then transferred to the red line.  Between our adventure yesterday and our adventure today I think I like the red line metro stations the best.  I like the way that they look. The thing is though that the trains are smaller and so they are more crowded. After the metro the we went to get on a bus to go the 40-something kilometers to Peterof. The first van driver we saw really wanted us to get in his bus. He was very insistent.  We got in, paid our 70 rubles and then were on our way.
We ran into some traffic and so the driver decided to take a side road, which I really didn't know that they had those here in Russia.  I haven't been missing out though.  The road that we went on was really bumpy. I caught air a couple times because of the bumps. That was pretty fun.
Once we got there Peterhof was absolutely stunning.  There were so many fountains and gardens and trees and so much water. I really can't give words to describe Peterhof. Pictures are worth a thousand and will do better justice than words.  The really cool thing about Peterhof is that all of the fountains are nature-powered.  There are no pumps.  It was incredible.
Another incredible thing was that the only reason Peterhof looks like it does is because there has been restoration that has been done.  Back in WWII the German Nazis occupied Peteroff for 28 months and destroyed a lot of it before relinquishing power.

Of course there is a cathedral.  Though I believe it is used as a museum now.

Looking out to the Gulf of Finland

Looking back at Peterhof

"Warning: look after your belongings."

After we enjoyed our time there we got on a different bus and went back to St. Pete's.  We stopped by a mall and got some food.  I, for the first time since coming back to Russia, went to Macdonalds.  While I was doing that everybody else went to Teremok and got some blini. The we came back to the apartment and watched Arrested Developement and eat cake for Ty's birthday.

Privacy?

One of the first nights that I left the ILP apartment and was standing on the landing waiting for the elevator to come I sneezed and alerted the dog(s) in the apartment(s) on that floor.  It was really funny to see how the sneeze would go through the walls.  Not sure what that means for privacy. 

Aw how precious!

I believe this happened Friday night, it not Saturday night. I was coming home and got into the подъезд to wait for an elevator to go to my floor and there was a man already there.  I got in the elevator with him.  He went got to his floor and then I saw one of the cutest things.  His daughter was waiting at the other door for him to come home.  She was so excited that he was home that she jumped and he caught her.  It was precious.

Lightning Storm

One of the first couple nights we were in St Petes there was a really cool lightning storm.  The first couple days it rained a lot but we didn’t really see lightning and didn’t hear thunder but on this night the lightning was very present.  I didn’t take any pictures but Courtney did.  It was really cool to see the lightning.  I was thinking “hmm, it’s kind of late for fireworks” because it was like 1 or 2 am but whatever.  But there really wasn’t any color so I wondered what it was.  Then I looked out the window and saw the lightning.  I couldn’t really hear the thunder which seems consistent with what I remember from Siberian and Ural Russia.  When I talked to Courtney though she was saying that the thunder was so loud and set off car alarms but I really didn’t hear either of those.  The windows weren't open and they keep out a lot of sound.

Thank you Courtney for the awesome picture of lightning.

Yeah, I really am in Russia again

Things I love about St Peters or Russia:

Saying, "Yeah, I really am in Russia again."

Chocolate

Candies

Super snickers

Fresh food

Slippers

Metro

Ornate architecture

Buildings, especially churches

Borsch- beet soup

Dom-o-phones
Shower heads that aren't stationary

Crossing the street

watching OTHER people drive- driving myself would frighten me somewhat I think

Internet and Food

I hate the internet at my host family’s apartment!  It sucks.  Plus it is weird.  My computer says that it is connected to the internet but then when I try Chrome then the internet doesn’t work.  “The webpage is not available.”  But Skype works perfectly well.  I have no problems connecting to Skype.  I am not sure what the problem is but it is annoying.

In another post or place I wrote about how I wasn’t sure if I was going to gain weight or just stay about the same.  Well I think that I will gain weight.  This is why:  I will have breakfast for me prepared for me by my host family.  Then for lunch each day I plan to eat at the kindergarten which so far been a variety of delicious soups and then a side.  Today’s side was stupendous mashed potatoes and carrots.  It was so good!  The only thing that might keep me skinny is the fact that I will eat at the kg (kindergarten) at 1 and then won’t eat until I come back to my host family’s apartment.  I should note two things.  First, there are times, like today, that I eat a dinner of sorts before I come home because we go out to eat.  Second, I have been coming home between 9 and 10:30pm so that is a long time between meals if I don’t eat something.  But every night I have come home and had a plate of food just waiting for me on the kitchen table for me to put in the microwave for a minute to reheat.  That has been really nice to come home to.  Usually Oleg and/or Anya are there also and we talk about things for a little bit.  Then they go to bed and I get on my computer and write stuff and check facebook and what not.  Talking to Oleg is fun because I speak in English and he has a hard time understanding me but really wants to try.  So I am patient with him and he kind of speaks this mix of Russian and English.  I try and model the language really well for him.  He really appreciates it.  So I believe I am set for the whole time I am here in St Petes as far as food goes.  Living the good life.

First Day teaching

A lot of my posts so far have been about firsts.  That is because that is what I am doing.  This is the first week.  My first class. My first host family.  My first time living in St Petes.  There are somethings that aren't my firsts.  Not my first time in Russia.  Not my first time talking to Russians in English.

This morning was really pretty crazy.  We got to the school like 20 minutes early so that we could take a look around and take a mental inventory of the supplies at the school already.  I did a little bit of translating between Marci and Ludmilla.  We went to the big room for opening and found a bunch of kids sitting on benches against the wall.  Ludmilla was trying to see who was present and who wasn't but her phone kept ringing.  She, of course, had the universal cell phone ring that almost everybody else has here in Russia.  I think it really funny that they all seem to have the same ring tone. Highlight here was that Ludmilla told me to tell Marci that she really isn't involved in ILP.  She is just in charge of getting the kids to us and the taking the kids back at the appropriate times.  She told us "okay, its time to play."  So I guess things are a lot more relaxed here than they are in Thailand.
We then had all the groups split up and meet their teachers.  The group that was going to to do Basic Reading was with Courtney and I look over and like 3 or 4 kids are giving her the fig and laughing.  A fig is kind of like the American equivalent of flipping somebody off.  You can give the fig to your friend I guess meaning "No, forget you!" but in a playful not incredibly rude sort of way.  But if you were to show the fig to a stranger than that would be incredibly offensive and rude.  They were giving Courtney the fig and so I quickly walked over there and told her what they were doing.  She was smart enough to realize that the boys were laughing and so something was up.
Once the kids were separated into their groups then Ludmilla showed each of the teachers the rooms that they would be teaching in.  I ended up doing some more translation for Ludmilla and Marci.  Then I was with Marci observing the different groups.  We would try and help out the teachers and introduce ourselves and then it was time to rotate.  We did that for a while and then I went to check on Courtney and ask her if she had given her kids a break and she said that she hadn't.  So I thought that it would be a good idea to go on break because the kids looked kind of bored.  Ludmilla had told Marci and me that Basic Reading could be in one of the halls but they couldn't go through the doors.  So I told Courtney that they could be in the hall.  She then had them take a break and told them that they could be in the hallway.  It was a disaster!  I stood at one side of the hallway and she stood at the other and I would tell them to go see Courtney and she would tell them to go see me and they just got all riled up.  Then the break never really ended for Matvey and Vova.  They never calmed down.  It took for ever the other students but not for those two.  In this part of the school there are 2 little rooms that are side-by-side and you can do a circle by going through the doors.  We did that circle a lot because we would close one door and then they would just run around the other way.  It was horrible.  Then a guy showed up, I think he was one of the fathers of somebody from another group, and he told the kids to "Be calm!" and to "Sit down!"  Which really helped for like 20 seconds.  Class was really close to being over and Courtney really didn't have much else planned and so we just kind of sat there with these crazy kids, trying to calm them down.  Eventually we got smart and locked the doors using the keys that were in the keyholes.  That was exciting.

All the teachers then met up in the ILP room and talked about how their mornings went and how teaching went while we waited to lunch to be ready.  Lunch was really good.  It was a beef and potato soup with a really nice broth.  Then there was some really good bread.  Tasty!  Everybody else was really glad that I spoke Russian and that I could translate for them.  It was about this time that other teachers recognized that the Russian teachers didn't call me Andrey anymore.  But the Russian teachers have called me Andrushka.  Andrushka is a more endearing way of saying Andrey. So now some of the other volunteers may start calling me Andrushka.  It makes me laugh a little inside every time I hear it.

So that was only half the day.  We then came back to the apartment and worked some more on lesson plans and did whatever.  There is a lot of preparation that needs to be done and some of us still don't understand really what we should be doing while teaching.  A lot of time right now is spent preparing lessons and getting the supplies that we need ready for our upcoming classes.

I teach a level 2 elementary class in the evenings.  It is 2 hours long and I had 4 kids.  They all have pretty normal names: Masha, Arsenni, Yegor, and Misha.  I didn't really know too much but I did have a plan and so here was the plan.  For the first 5 minutes I was to welcome.  Then for the next 40 minutes we would introduce ourselves make name tags and then I would take their pictures.  Then we would have a 5 minute break. We would then play a get to know you game where I asked questions and people would say "oh, I have done that." and then we would look at the printed pictures that I brought to Russia. Stop for another 5 minute break and then read the story Grizzle's Grumbles in our book.  Then I would wrap up and send the kids on their way.
Things didn't go like that hardly at all.  Saying my name and everybody's name with name tags and pictures took all of 15 minutes.  Maybe.  Then I tried to stall for something to do.  I looked at the pictures that I had brought from home and thought "oh, this won't be interesting to these kids.  They are just of my family and we aren't doing anything. There are no stories here."  But then I did take one picture out.  It was of all of the kids in my immediate family.  I then talked to the kids about how many members there are in my family and if they were older or younger.  Then I asked about their families.  Nothing seemed to fill this thing we call time.  We took a longer break than I planned for and then we started to read the story.  I was kind of surprised that I kept the kids attention pretty well up until I pulled out the book to read the story.  All of the kids saw the book and said, "No! No! No!"  So they already knew what it was and they don't like it.  I wasn't really sure what to do.  We need the book in order to read and so that is what we did.  It was kind of like pulling teeth getting them to read.  While one of them would read the other 3 would talk to each other in Russian.  They didn't like reading because they don't understand what they are reading.  Actually, I am not really sure how much they did understand.  At times it seems like they really understand a lot but then they start reading and its like they didn't understand even a single word they were reading.
We finished reading the story and had like 5 minutes left in our class and I really didn't want to just hold onto them for no reason.  But I didn't have anything else to say to them so I just let them go.  Masha was so glad when I said that she could go.  She said, "Hurray!" The other kids shared her opinion.
I, myself, was happy it was over.  It was definitely a learning experience and I know a couple things that I can do better for next time.  I am sure after I teach a couple more times than I will do things a lot different than I did them the first time.  So now that is over now I can just get better.
The other thing about is teaching is that afterwards its just like, I want to talk to somebody that actually understands the things that I am saying.  I want to go talk to the other teachers to 1. see how their classes went and 2. have a coherent conversation with people. Teaching is hard.

First Sunday

I want to tell a about my first Sunday here in Saint Petersburg.  It was awesome!  Very much like everything else it has been eventful.  I don't know what I am going to do if my whole stay here in Peters is going to be this eventful.  I won't have time to write about everything.
Saturday night our ILP group were talking about when we wanted to do training the next day (Sunday) and we said that we wanted to do it later and so we said 12 because Marci (head teacher) said that we had a lot of training that we had to do.  Then I walk my sister back to her babushka's apartment and then head to my host family's apartment.  At the apartment I am ignored by the little boys because they are so entranced by this stupid internet game.  It is on the equivalent of facebook and it is like the old school tanks game where you try and hurt the other players avatar.  Well since I was being ignored I decided I would get on my computer and do some stuff, i.e. facebook, music, pictures, and blogging.  Then Luba got on facebook and we were talking about how things were going.  She asked me if I was going to church the next day.  I said that I didn't know anything about it.  I didn't know when or where church was going to be but I probably wasn't going to go.  Then she said that tomorrow was going to be district conference and that Elder Nelson was going to come.  I was really excited about that but then I found out that church and the trainings were to start at the same time, 12 noon.  Then Luba said that Elder Nelson was going to be creating a stake here in St. Petes and that I really should come.  So then I talked to Marci and told her what was going on.  She said that I could go and that we could do trainings later.  I got the necessary information like time, address and metro stop from Luba and then I was ready to go.  This conversation happened after midnight and my computer lost the internet and so I decided that it was time to go to bed.  But before I turned off my computer I was also able to tell Ty and she was excited also.
Sunday comes around and I wake up and have a wonderful breakfast of a sausage/ hotdog omelet prepared by Anya (host mom) and then I was on my way.  I got to the ILP apartment at the right time and it didn't really look like anybody knew that I was going to church.  Then I said that I was going to church and Ty went and got ready and everybody else continued on because They would have needed time to get ready for church.  Time that we didn't actually have.
So Ty and I went to church.  We rode the metro the 3 or 4 stops and then we got off and started walking to the address.  We were looking for building number 16 and we found 16/1 which was a really big building and so I decided to chance it and so we just kept walking past.  Immediately past the building we found building 10 on that street and so I knew that we had to walk off the main street and try and find the building in between the main streets.  We walk on the side street and I see a smaller building and I couldn't see the name of the building so we stopped.  I could see a man in the doorway and when I stopped he motioned for me to come to him, which isn't a common thing for people to do in Russia.  So instead of taking out my camera and zooming in on the sign that said what the building was we walked up.  Once we got closer I recognized the sign as one that says, Церковь Иисуса Христа Святых Прследних Дней "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saint."  So we found the church really quickly and that was good because we were about 25 minutes late.  We went inside and put our jackets (Its kind of cold here in St Petes already.  We walk around in pants and jackets) in the coat room and then went up to the third floor for the big room in the building.
When we walked in there was somebody speaking and so we quickly found an open seat.  There were various members that were bearing their testimonies at the time.  I think that they are past or future stake leaders.  At first I didn't translate for Ty and then I asked if she wanted me to translate and she said no.  But then I was thinking about it more and another speaking came up and Ty probably wasn't understanding anything.  So then I started translating a little bit.  The area president and his wife got up and spoke (in Russian which I was surprised at) and I started to translate then.  It was a little bit hard because it was an American (I believe they are American) speaking Russian and I was translating back to English.  It was choppy.
We sang a hymn and then it was Sister Nelson's turn to speak.  She did a really good job and her translator did amazing.  She didn't just translate but spoke as though a Russian would say things instead of just English structure and grammar with Russian words.  Sister Nelson compared the creation of a stake with the birth of a new baby.  Everybody loves both of them and how they are both such great blessings. She also talked about how they both need a lot of care and love to work out.  Then it was Elder Nelson's turn to speak.  He, like Sister Nelson, would say a sentence and then his translator would say it in Russian.  His translator did a good job.  He said what Elder Nelson said.  Elder Nelson shared some really good, meaningful stories about the beginnings of the church in Russia.  He talked about what qualifications needed to be met to be recognized by the Russian Federation as an acceptable religion.  It was a difficult process but "with God all things are possible."  Elder Nelson also named names of key people that have played important parts in the church's history in Russia.  He also shared the names of mission president here in St Petes and those that have served from Russia including Sister Efimova that served as a mission president in my mission in 1995-98 (it was mid 90's for sure).  Elder Nelson also talked about gratitude and quote from Doctrine and Covenants where it says paraphrasing, "Against none else is My wrath kindle than those who do not profess My hand in their work and unto those that do not give thanks unto Me."  Elder Nelson remembers going to the Summer Gardens, here in St Petersburg which are the same gardens where Elder Francis Lyman gave the dedicatory prayer in 1903, after being recognized by the Russian Federation and giving a prayer or gratitude for allowing the church to be recognized in another country on the earth.  I was really glad that I came and witness it.

Another cool part of going to the conference was that I saw some people that I haven't seen a fairly long time.  The first one I actually saw midway through the meeting.  He had walked out and I thought to myself that this guy looked familiar.  Then when walked back to his seat he saw me and had eyes of recognition.  He just stood there a minute and then cocked his head to the side.  I mouth привет to him and he smiled and then went and sat down.  After the meeting we found each other and reintroduced ourselves.  It was Igor Pavlov.  He was one of the native Russian missionaries from the MTC.  He said that he was just here for the conference and actually lived in Moscow.  But it was definitely unexpected to see him.  Then while  I was talking to Igor Elder Mizin walked by but I didn't say anything to him.  Maybe next time.  Then as we were about to walk down the stairs I ran into another former missionary.  Though this time it was Elder Zaretcky (I don't exactly remember his name but it was something close to that) who was called on a mission in the Helsinki Temple for the majority of the time I was on my mission.  It was awesome to run into him at the temple and now afterwards.  Then of course I ran into Luba at the conference.  She was in the choir and I was able to pick her out pretty quickly.  I loved church so much!  I was so glad that I went!

Luba!

The rest of Sunday was spent at the ILP apartment.  We did some trainings and then worked on lesson plans so that we would be ready the first day of classes which were the next day.  I decided today what the factors behind if I am going to lose weight or not here in Russia.  If I continue to eat breakfast and dinner at my host family's apartment then I will get fat because I eat a lot of food because it tastes good.  The things is that I haven't been getting to their apartment til later at night.  For example, I left on Sunday at 11am ish and then wasn't back until 10:30pm.  In that time I had very little food, nothing you could call a meal.  Also as I am writing this I had lunch around 1pm and it doesn't look like I am going to eat again until I go back to my host family's apartment at 9 or 10pm tonight.  So maybe I won't get fat?  We shall see.
Sunday was also good because Marci was able to Skype some of the previous ILP volunteers that had done elementary in the past because Marci only did primary in Thailand.  We found the calls to be very helpful because they helped us not feel so stressed and fearing the unknown.  It would be so much easier if somebody would explain what we were to do instead of having to read what we were to do. Because then we could ask questions or maybe an example to make things more clear.  Also finding the needed supplies has been a hassle.

I luckily don't start teaching until Monday night so I will be able to observe everybody else Monday morning.  Marci also asked me to be there so that I could translate if I didn't mind.  I plan on going so that I can get a feel for the class and the students.

Saturday, Excursion with Sveta

September 8, 2012

Last night we met Sveta at head teacher’s apartment and worked out our first excursion around St. Petes.  She was very enthusiastic and it was awesome.  We decided that we would meet today at 10:15am to go to the store to exchange some money.

Well, that was the plan anyways.  I woke up at around 4 and had a little problem and then I couldn’t go back to sleep after that.  So I just stayed up and wrote down some things and was up for like 2 hours.  Then I went back to sleep and thought I had an alarm at like 9am that would wake me up.  My alarm didn’t wake me up.  I ended up waking up at like 11:05am which was after the time that we were supposed to meet at the metro station to go into the center of the city.  So then I started to talk to my host mom (Anya) and was getting something really quick together to eat and run.  I got some yogurt and an apple and then I was on my way.  Right then Anya received a phone call from Sveta asking where I was.  Anya told her that I was on my way and that I would get to the metro station shortly.

I asked Anya about riding transport to get to the metro station.  She told me 2 buses that I could go on and that it would either cost me 22 or 35 rubles.  I was thinking that I didn’t want to spend that.  So when I got to the bus stop I just kept walking.  Then I walked like two bus stops and then I was like, “I don’t want to do this.” So then I got on the next transport and asked the conductor (the woman that works on a trolleybus) if this trolleybus goes to the metro and she looked at me like I was stupid and said, “Да, едете.”  Which means, “Yes, it does go.”  Then I asked her how much the bus fare was and she answered 23 rubles like I should already know.  So then I gave her the money and she gave me the ticket and she walked away.  There was another lady nearby that  heard our conversation, actually everybody probably heard our conversation, but this lady was interested and when we were approaching my stop she motioned that my stop was the next one.  Then she also made sure to let me know when the trolleybus stopped that this was my stop.  I was thankful for her kindness even though I knew where I needed to get off.  I just needed to know if the trolleybus went there.

Inside the metro I met up with the rest of the ILP group and with Sveta and we were off.  We rode the metro to the center of the city and our tour began.  We went to a ton of places.  We visited St Isaac’s cathedral, Astoria hotel, a monument to Nikolas I, Marinski palace, a statue to Peter the Great, the first (of literally hundreds of) palace in Peter, the Neva River with its cruise liners, bridges, and pirate ship/night club, one of the first universities, Hermitage which includes the Winter Palace with its thousands of windows and thousands of doors and everything else.  We also visited St. Paul’s column right there by the Hermitage.  It was humongous!  We took a picture with these navy recruits and it was really funny because they were trying to pick up on the girls, maybe just a little bit.  But nobody could really understand each other because they didn’t understand English and the girls don’t understand Russian.  But when we were walking away I faintly heard one of the navy guys say “Russia Forever” which because one of the highlights of today.

Pushkin

Then we went to a couple performing halls and спас на крови, the Church on Spilt Blood.  When I was still on my mission and was stuck in St. Petes for a couple hours we hit up that church then the market right behind it.  At that market I spent 1000 rubles and $26 for my huge шапка (fur hat).  Not the best deal but the vendor did really well and knew that I really wanted a hat.  After that we continued walking and went to the Fine Arts square where there are a couple theaters and other places for fine arts.  There was also a statue of Alexander Pushkin.  Then the last thing we saw before lunch was Kazan church.

For lunch we went to Teremok.  It is a popular place to get blini, which are very similar to crepes.  I really like them and so did the other volunteers.  I had the Italiansky blin which was like chicken, tomato, and lech (salsa) and a blin with chocolate and banana.  That was amazing. 

Blin with chocolate and banana

Then we still had time and so we went to the “park.”  The park was actually called like “Miracle Island.”  It was pretty cool.  It was free to get in but all of the rides cost money.  There were a bunch of rides like you would see at any amusement park.  There were some rollercoasters and slingshots and even a batman ride. Then from the park we went back to the head teacher’s apartment to do some more trainings and more preparation for lessons and general socializations.  Plus we were all really tired because we did A LOT of walking.  More walking than most of us have done in quite a few weeks.

Another part of today that was simply awesome was Sveta.  Sveta is this really perky Russian lady that has been working with ILP since about its founding here in St Peters.  She made sure that we were all together and that we knew some of the history about the places that we went to and the ones we just observed.