Guess what ya'll? I'M HERE!!! I didn't ever think this day would actually come, but here it is! Currently I am sitting in my dorm in the World of Knowledge school in Moscow, Russia. Except, we're not exactly in Moscow, we're in a suburb of the city. Literally, we live in an apartment in the woods surrounded by such a cute-looking gated community. But more about that later, let me tell you all about what led me to my arrival at my apartment/dorm.
Flying has never been my thing. I've flown very few times, but every time that I have, I experienced terrible anxiety and was unable to sleep a wink. I must have been really excited, because this flight I was absolutely fine! The flights were long, 1 hr, 3.5 hrs, and the long 9 hr flight, but somehow I made through it without any anxiety at all, and only being able to sleep for maybe 2 hrs total between all the flying. But, I did it! Yay! :)
There are six of us girls in my teaching group, and only Kris did I know beforehand. But I feel like all of us girls were just made to be each other's best friends, and we all get along so well! I don't know what I expected to happen as soon as we got off the plane, but everything was so much different than I could have expected. The Russian language looks and sounds like NOTHING I've ever heard before, and words that seem so simple are so hard to pick up. The only word I really got down is "spasiba" which means "thank you". And even that has taken me two days to get used to.
After going through the LONG customs line, being confused about the language barrier and where to go, we finally found our way to Gulia. Gulia is our native coordinator here, she's worked with ILP for a few years now and directs us and helps us out with whatever it is that we need. Gulia then introduced us to a teacher at our school, Kasusha. Kasusha and our bus driver took us to the bus, which really wasn't like any bus I'm used to. The bus is like a big 70's van with like 10 seats and was this nasty yellow color. Before getting in the bus though, we had to get ready to face the cold Russian air. And boy oh boy... it was FREEZING!!! It was so chilly, unlike anything I really had experienced. It literally took my breath away. It's definitely going to take a lot of getting used to! But we loaded our bus up and got on our way.
The drive to our school was an adventure. We were driving through the outskirts of Moscow on this crazy highway basically in the middle of the forest. It was sunny outside, but snow was everywhere and the trees were long, tall, and super skinny. I felt like I was Little Red Riding Hood or something, going through the woods to meet my grandmother. Our bus driver was very nice, but was a crazy driver. Even worse than any Utah driver I've ever encountered. On our drive to the school, Kasusha got hungry so she had us all stop at a small restaurant on the side of the highway. When I say on the side of the highway, I mean it literally. We parked on the side of the highway where the restaurant was just there, hanging out. I then experienced my first meal in Russia, which was actually from Uzbekistan. Kasusha bought us all lunch, a huge long burrito/wrap thing stuffed full of chicken (maybe), tomatoes, potatoes, cucumber, bean sprouts, some sauce, and a lot of other things I was unfamiliar with. It was really yummy though!
We've been made fun of everywhere we go, because we are so obviously American. I don't get what it is... possibly Mindy's American Eagle sweatshirt? :)
After a long drive, we finally arrived at our school. Whenever I imagined our school before, I imagined something almost primitive, something similar to a prison. It might be that way in other schools in Russia, I'm not sure. But our school, it is NICE. It is so modern and was built less than five years ago. It's a huge school and many kids of different ages come here. It's pretty great though, already it's feeling like home to me. The school is separated into different buildings for the different age groups. We live inside the junior high/high school where we have everything available to us, including our own awesome chef named Lena. There are three of us to a room, and it is very very little, but I don't mind. Our bathroom is also small, and our shower is... interesting. It is basically a box in the corner of the bathroom, with a small drain in the center, and there is no shower curtain. So to shower, you basically need to be hugging the corner of the room so as to not make a lake in the bathroom.
We have awesome security guards at our school, and every time we need to get into another area of the school we need to ask them for the key. Trying to ask them for something is always crazy, they don't speak any English at all and we don't speak any Russian, so we end up playing a lot of charades to figure things out. The men here... are great though :) Seriously, um, who told me that Russian men are unattractive? Because whoever said that, spoke a very great lie. These men are so freakin ATTRACTIVE!!!! Seriously. They are the very definition of manly. Our head teacher, Sarah, asked one of the Russian teachers, Sveta, what time our school locks the doors. Sveta's reply was: "We don't need locks, we have man power." So don't worry, I'm totally safe with the power of these men. Oh yeah. :)
Yesterday we toured a bit of Moscow and got a feel for the Metro and places we'll be going to. I visited Red Square, the Kremlin, and St. Basil's Cathedral. But seriously, I was so jet-lagged and insanely tired, the whole day felt postively surreal to me. I'm glad I live in the city so I can see these sites whenever the heck I want to, because it honestly didn't feel real to me and I don't think I was able to fully appreciate it. I will be visiting again sometime, hopefully soon!
Oh, have I mentioned how cold it is? Cold would be an understatement. I am FREEZING. I bundled myself up very much, many layers upon my body, but I'm still chilled to the bone. It's much worse than I imagined, and I'm already very excited for when it starts to warm up come May!
I found out my teaching schedule! I will be teaching the new kindergarten, so my kids will be anywhere between ages four and six. And I will be teaching Monday-Friday 4-6 PM. I don't start teaching til Wednesday, which gives me a few days to get prepared with my lesson plan and get procedures and discipline all figured out. The kindergarten is only a 13 minute walk from my dorm, so I don't even have to spend any money to get to school, which will be really nice! The bus is 60 rubles, which is about $1.50 in America. It's cheap, but it can add up pretty fast.
Along with teaching the kindergarteners, I found out that I'll be teaching at a new school three or four days a week to try and test out the ILP method with them. Also, I had no idea about this, but I will be going to a University in Moscow once a week to be teaching English to University students my age! Crazy, eh?! I'm pretty excited about it though, I hope to make friends with some of the University students and figure out all the cool stuff in Moscow that only the locals know about.
The food here has been AMAZING. Seriously... it is insanely delicious. My favorite so far has been the yogurt and the pastries we've had for breakfast. I am in love with this food, and I already know that I will miss it. Oh.. and I LOOOOOVE the cheese!! All the dairy products are delightful, but the cheese is probably the best thing I've ever tasted. I love this food!
I have had such a great experience so far! It's only been a couple of days, but it's been quite the adventure already. I am so excited to see what this next semester brings me! I'm so happy to be here and feel so blessed to have had this opportunity to come. Thank you everyone for your prayers and encouragement, love you all! :)
Here in Russia, they rub this dog statue's nose for good luck. Wish me luck! I might need it :)
Flying has never been my thing. I've flown very few times, but every time that I have, I experienced terrible anxiety and was unable to sleep a wink. I must have been really excited, because this flight I was absolutely fine! The flights were long, 1 hr, 3.5 hrs, and the long 9 hr flight, but somehow I made through it without any anxiety at all, and only being able to sleep for maybe 2 hrs total between all the flying. But, I did it! Yay! :)
There are six of us girls in my teaching group, and only Kris did I know beforehand. But I feel like all of us girls were just made to be each other's best friends, and we all get along so well! I don't know what I expected to happen as soon as we got off the plane, but everything was so much different than I could have expected. The Russian language looks and sounds like NOTHING I've ever heard before, and words that seem so simple are so hard to pick up. The only word I really got down is "spasiba" which means "thank you". And even that has taken me two days to get used to.
After going through the LONG customs line, being confused about the language barrier and where to go, we finally found our way to Gulia. Gulia is our native coordinator here, she's worked with ILP for a few years now and directs us and helps us out with whatever it is that we need. Gulia then introduced us to a teacher at our school, Kasusha. Kasusha and our bus driver took us to the bus, which really wasn't like any bus I'm used to. The bus is like a big 70's van with like 10 seats and was this nasty yellow color. Before getting in the bus though, we had to get ready to face the cold Russian air. And boy oh boy... it was FREEZING!!! It was so chilly, unlike anything I really had experienced. It literally took my breath away. It's definitely going to take a lot of getting used to! But we loaded our bus up and got on our way.
The drive to our school was an adventure. We were driving through the outskirts of Moscow on this crazy highway basically in the middle of the forest. It was sunny outside, but snow was everywhere and the trees were long, tall, and super skinny. I felt like I was Little Red Riding Hood or something, going through the woods to meet my grandmother. Our bus driver was very nice, but was a crazy driver. Even worse than any Utah driver I've ever encountered. On our drive to the school, Kasusha got hungry so she had us all stop at a small restaurant on the side of the highway. When I say on the side of the highway, I mean it literally. We parked on the side of the highway where the restaurant was just there, hanging out. I then experienced my first meal in Russia, which was actually from Uzbekistan. Kasusha bought us all lunch, a huge long burrito/wrap thing stuffed full of chicken (maybe), tomatoes, potatoes, cucumber, bean sprouts, some sauce, and a lot of other things I was unfamiliar with. It was really yummy though!
We've been made fun of everywhere we go, because we are so obviously American. I don't get what it is... possibly Mindy's American Eagle sweatshirt? :)
After a long drive, we finally arrived at our school. Whenever I imagined our school before, I imagined something almost primitive, something similar to a prison. It might be that way in other schools in Russia, I'm not sure. But our school, it is NICE. It is so modern and was built less than five years ago. It's a huge school and many kids of different ages come here. It's pretty great though, already it's feeling like home to me. The school is separated into different buildings for the different age groups. We live inside the junior high/high school where we have everything available to us, including our own awesome chef named Lena. There are three of us to a room, and it is very very little, but I don't mind. Our bathroom is also small, and our shower is... interesting. It is basically a box in the corner of the bathroom, with a small drain in the center, and there is no shower curtain. So to shower, you basically need to be hugging the corner of the room so as to not make a lake in the bathroom.
We have awesome security guards at our school, and every time we need to get into another area of the school we need to ask them for the key. Trying to ask them for something is always crazy, they don't speak any English at all and we don't speak any Russian, so we end up playing a lot of charades to figure things out. The men here... are great though :) Seriously, um, who told me that Russian men are unattractive? Because whoever said that, spoke a very great lie. These men are so freakin ATTRACTIVE!!!! Seriously. They are the very definition of manly. Our head teacher, Sarah, asked one of the Russian teachers, Sveta, what time our school locks the doors. Sveta's reply was: "We don't need locks, we have man power." So don't worry, I'm totally safe with the power of these men. Oh yeah. :)
Yesterday we toured a bit of Moscow and got a feel for the Metro and places we'll be going to. I visited Red Square, the Kremlin, and St. Basil's Cathedral. But seriously, I was so jet-lagged and insanely tired, the whole day felt postively surreal to me. I'm glad I live in the city so I can see these sites whenever the heck I want to, because it honestly didn't feel real to me and I don't think I was able to fully appreciate it. I will be visiting again sometime, hopefully soon!
Oh, have I mentioned how cold it is? Cold would be an understatement. I am FREEZING. I bundled myself up very much, many layers upon my body, but I'm still chilled to the bone. It's much worse than I imagined, and I'm already very excited for when it starts to warm up come May!
I found out my teaching schedule! I will be teaching the new kindergarten, so my kids will be anywhere between ages four and six. And I will be teaching Monday-Friday 4-6 PM. I don't start teaching til Wednesday, which gives me a few days to get prepared with my lesson plan and get procedures and discipline all figured out. The kindergarten is only a 13 minute walk from my dorm, so I don't even have to spend any money to get to school, which will be really nice! The bus is 60 rubles, which is about $1.50 in America. It's cheap, but it can add up pretty fast.
Along with teaching the kindergarteners, I found out that I'll be teaching at a new school three or four days a week to try and test out the ILP method with them. Also, I had no idea about this, but I will be going to a University in Moscow once a week to be teaching English to University students my age! Crazy, eh?! I'm pretty excited about it though, I hope to make friends with some of the University students and figure out all the cool stuff in Moscow that only the locals know about.
The food here has been AMAZING. Seriously... it is insanely delicious. My favorite so far has been the yogurt and the pastries we've had for breakfast. I am in love with this food, and I already know that I will miss it. Oh.. and I LOOOOOVE the cheese!! All the dairy products are delightful, but the cheese is probably the best thing I've ever tasted. I love this food!
I have had such a great experience so far! It's only been a couple of days, but it's been quite the adventure already. I am so excited to see what this next semester brings me! I'm so happy to be here and feel so blessed to have had this opportunity to come. Thank you everyone for your prayers and encouragement, love you all! :)
Here in Russia, they rub this dog statue's nose for good luck. Wish me luck! I might need it :)
