The Teapot Song

This week I have my last classes with my two linguistics groups, since we only have them for one semester. This morning one class, which I named Amethyst, decided to give me a parting gift.

As some of you may know, every year I teach my students the song "I'm a Little Teapot." When they are late to class, their penalty is to sing the song for us, complete with the dance. It's become quite the class joke, and often late students are greeted with "Hello, teapot!" when they come in the door!

This morning I was running late myself because I had to print out their final exams, so I was preparing to sing to them. As I came up the stairs I looked up and saw several of my students on the landing above me. When they saw me coming, they all hurried to get to the classroom first- or so I assumed. But when I got there the room was empty. A moment later they all filed in with big smiles, apologizing for being "late"...

I love my students!

Thanksgiving

Hello again! I'm still here! I apologize for the lack of posts over the last month and a half- we've been without internet in our apartment for the last three weeks, which makes things decidedly harder. For the three weeks prior to that I have no excuse (insert sheepish look here). But here I am, back on track, with a lot to share!

This past week was our Thanksgiving retreat, and it was a wonderfully fun and relaxing time. Our country team (Jeff, Erica, and me, plus Andy and Timon from Vologda) spent the better part of the week in Riga, Latvia. It is a beautiful city and we rented an apartment smack dab in the middle of the historic (read:tourist) district. We're talking cobblestone streets, beautiful architechture, and cathedrals around every corner. We spent a fair amount of time just walking around and exploring the city. Erica and Timon are photographers, so we have no end of amazing pictures from the week. There was a whole photo shoot in front of some cool, weathered doors we found in Jelgava (very CD cover-esque). The perfectionist in me wanted to wait to post this until I got the pictures from them, but that's how I got in this mess in the first place!

This retreat was almost like a small getaway to America. First of all, it was English only the whole time! When I'm in the states I tend to underestimate the value of simply understanding what's being said around me. Even in the stores and restaurants most people spoke English. And one night Jeff took us all out to dinner at T.G.I.Fridays! They also have a great store there, Stockman's, that sells a lot of American brands. I bought a can of Dr. Pepper there for only 70 cents. The only Dr. Pepper I've found in St. Pete was $4 for a can! That's definitely not happening. But the best part is that they have a movie theater there that shows movies in English. Jeff, Erica, and I saw the new Harry Potter movie- or rather, Harijs Poters. I wanted a picture in front of that movie poster so badly, but when we tried to do it a security guard came up and stopped us.

In addition to all our explorations, we spent a fair amount of time just chilling in our little apartment. We watched "It's a Wonderful Life" and "The Santa Clause" and a lot of "Big Bang Theory," which Andy had on his computer. We played a few games of Settlers and Dutch Blitz, made up nicknames, took (and subsequently laughed at) surreptitious pictures and videos of each other, and just generally enjoyed one another's company. All in all, it was a great time, and just the break I needed.

In parting, here are some of the pictures I took while we were there. Most of the cool ones of the city are on other people's cameras. I'll add more on my "Pictures" page once I've gotten them from everyone.

Timon playing the air-saxophone on a street

corner. He actually kept it up for almost 10

minutes, and even got 3 Lat (about $1.50)!

Strikingly similar Russian and American

political posters... in a Latvian store window.

I guess some things are universal! :)

Schnitzel with Noodles

As random as it seems, Erica and I have found ourselves friends with a whole community of German girls working in St. Pete. We met Elizabeth on our first Sunday here, and she has since introduced us to Antonia, Lisa, and Kati.

Our German posse (minus Kati): Elizabeth, Lisa, and Antonia

Last Friday night, the six of us decided to check out the opening of the bridges. Every evening the drawbridges over the Neva river open up for a few hours to let ships come in and out. So we met the girls at a coffee shop and hung out until about 1 am. Then we walked down to the river to check it out. From where we were standing, we could see three different bridges. It was beautiful, even before the bridges were raised... St. Petersburg all lit up at night is definitely a sight worth seeing.

Afterwards we walked Antonia home (she lived about 3 blocks away) and the rest of the girls spent the night at our flat. The next morning we got up early (not an easy feat!) and took a bus to Peterhoff. Peterhoff is the location of one of Peter the Great's palaces, and it's known for it's beautiful gardens and fountains. It turned out that we chose the perfect day for it. The sun was out for most of the day, and it was one of the last warm days of the autumn (we got our first snow on Friday). The leaves had mostly changed color by then and they turned off the fountains the day after we were there, so it really was perfect timing! We got a ton of great pictures. And it doesn't hurt that my roommate is a photographer!

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Playing in the leaves at Peterhoff

The following Monday, Elizabeth came over to make schnitzel for us and a few other people. Our friend Anya showed up first and showed us how to make blini (super thin Russian pancakes), so it turned into a truly international dinner party! And I, of course, spent the entire evening humming "My Favorite Things." Now I know why schnitzel with noodles makes Maria von Trapp so happy! It was delicious!

Our international dinner party: Dima, Anya,

Elizabeth, Sharon, me, and Erica

The moral of the story: St. Petersburg is starting to feel like home. We have friends here. We have to schedule down time on our weekends. We're even running into people we know when we're out and about.

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It's kind of nice. :)

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PS. Check out my "Pictures" and "Thoughts" tabs at the top for more updates.

Home Strange Home

Well, we've been here four weeks tomorrow, so I guess it's about time to introduce you to my new home!

St. Petersburg is a gorgeous city- even our walk to the metro is beautiful. One of my favorite things to do here is take walks around our neighborhood. We live in one of the oldest districts of the city, so there are tons of beautiful old buildings and little parks tucked into the most random places. And I've heard tell of a bazaar within walking distance, which makes me happier than I can say. Now I just have to find it!

"The Castle Around the Corner"- we pass this

every day on our way to the metro

This is so St. Petersburg to me. These are the directions to our school from the metro: Walk towards the beautiful and historic cathedral.... and turn right at the McDonalds

And last but certainly not least... even though these signs are written in Russian, I bet you can still guess what they say!

Yeah, we're really roughing it here. It's almost a disappointment, actually. I didn't come to Russia to eat at Subway! But don't worry- we'll overcome this obstacle!

Lesson Plans, Escalators, and Inside Jokes

"How can I be so tired of lesson planning after only a week and a half?" Erica and I have wondered this aloud several times over the last few days. There have been quite a few adjustments over our first week of teaching, but lesson planning is definitely one of the more exhausting ones. Originally, we thought we'd be teaching 3 lessons per week (one more than our fellow teachers in the CIS). But it turns out that there is such a wide range of levels between our classes that it's more like 5-6 lessons per week. And they follow one after another like waves on the shore. No sooner do we finish one lesson than we are wondering what on earth we are going to teach tomorrow. I have a new respect for all my public school teacher friends who have been planning 5 lessons a week for years- you're all amazing!

Other than that, things are going pretty well here. Erica and I have bonded over home cooked meals, movies, and cultural observations. We've decided that there are so many instances of PDA here that they should be broken down into further categories. So we have SDA (on the street), MDA (on the metro), and our favorite, EDA (on the escalator). I mean, it is a 2 minute ride down to the trains. You have to pass the time somehow, right?

A quick side note: Those of you who have seen the Disney movie "Anastasia" might appreciate the fact that I've had the song "A Rumor in St. Petersburg" stuck in my head for about a week!

Well, I think that's about all for now... stay tuned for more adventures and mishaps! There are sure to be plenty of both!

From Russia with Love

Well, I've been here a week now... I guess it's time to update my blog, huh? Between settling into our new apartment (video tour to follow) and meeting our classes on our second full day in St Pete (!) we haven't had a lot of time to explore the city. But we've had our share of little adventures nonetheless. Like the woman who pulled us onto the metro with her so she could give us directions, only to tell us that we should have gotten on the train going in the opposite direction. :) Good thing we were only on the way to the supermarket, not to class!

On Sunday we met a friend of a friend, Anya, who took us and another German girl (Elizabeth) to her Sunday services and then to lunch afterwards. We decided to walk to the restaurant instead of taking the metro, which gave us our first up close glimpse of some of the landmarks we'd only seen in pictures. It also gave us our first awesome, if tourist-y, photo opportunity!

I had my first typical overseas teaching experience on Tuesday when I went to print out my lesson plan and materials only to find that I hadn't saved them in the correct format and couldn't open them on the office computer! So Erica and I quickly brainstormed ways to do my reading lesson without having the actual text for the students to read. Yikes! I ended up telling them the story and having them work in groups to write down the gist of it (and I took the opportunity to teach them the word 'gist' :) ). It worked out well enough, but I will definitely be more careful of how I format my documents from now on!

All in all, not a bad way to start our year here in St. Pete!

PS. Check out my "Thoughts" page at the top for updated requests

Gratitude

Let me start by saying that I'm typing this latest blog entry on my new computer! As you may know, while at training I dropped my laptop and pretty effectively killed it. But a former ESI teacher who was in St. Pete two years ago has generously given me his old laptop (not even very old, really)! And his wasn't even the only offer I recieved. The generosity of the people in my life amazes me!

I've been thinking a lot lately about how extraordinarily blessed I am. While some might think that I'm 'sacrificing' a year of my life to do this, I'm mostly in awe that I get to do this! God truly does give us the desires of our hearts! That doing his will would send me to the ends of the earth to explore new cultures and make new friends while doing the thing that I love (teaching) simply astounds me when I stop to think of it. I am truly blessed.

In light of this, what business have I to worry about the details of his provision? As can be seen in the story above, as well as in numerous instances of generosity by my friends and family, he has it all in control. I am reminded that the earth is the Lord's and everything in it.

Of the many blessings poured out on me, one of the greatest is all the wonderful people he has put in my life. Every season of my life has brought with it some amazing friends. It is for all of you that I am particularly grateful right now- for your support, your encouragement, and your love. I truly can't thank you enough.

I really am overwhelmed with blessings!

Back to Reality

Well, training is over (at least for me and the other alums) and I'm back in Las Vegas for another month. I really miss my teammates already. But I definitely need this time to shop, pack, earn some more money, and study Russian (hopefully).

I'm also using this time while I'm still in the States to continue support raising. I'm currently hosting a fundraiser on facebook, which I'm calling the "$25 Challenge." The idea is that if 250 people will donate $25 to my ESI account by the end of the month, I'll dye my hair whatever color the donors vote for! There's currently a tie between red and blue, but there's still a long way to go, so we'll see. Whatever the end result, I will definitely post pictures here.

Speaking of posting pictures, I figured out how to create different pages on this blog (see the tabs at the top) so I can have a photo album, and also a page for prayer requests. I haven't done much with them yet, but check back later!

Since this has been mostly an informational post, I'll end with a little tidbit from training. One day as we were driving back from somewhere, some of the guys saw a handwritten sign advertising "Free Taco Soda." Once on campus we spent a good 20 minutes discussing what exactly taco soda might be, gathering more and more people all the while. Taco flavored soda? Soda you drink when eating tacos? Finally a group of us decided to walk down to the store to investigate. Here's what we found:



Notice the tiny little "or" slipped in there? Yeah, we didn't either! But we congratulated the guy behind the counter on a very effective ploy to bring in customers, and took a picture for our trouble. I love these people!

Training Again

Hello all! Well, it's been a few years since my last post (though hopefully not as long since we've last spoken), and you may be wondering at the sudden revival. But it's official: I'm going back overseas, this time to St. Petersburg Russia!

I'm currently in Pasadena, California, attending ESI training once again... or as some of you may remember it- boot camp. Training is a time to prepare new teachers to teach and cope with life in a different culture, as well as for learning about our new teammates (and ourselves). It's a very stressful but also a very rewarding time.

It was quite a shock when I found out that they were sending me to St. Petersburg instead of another Central Asian country as I'd expected, but now I am so excited. I absolutely love my new roommate, Erica, and the rest of our country team (Jeffrey in St. Pete, and Andy and Timon in Vologda). We're already forming bonds and inside jokes, and our morning getting-to-know-each-other discussions are usually filled with laughter.

The Russia team (minus Jeffrey)- Timon, Molly, Erica, Andy

We just found out our flight information, and I will be flying out on September 7th. I should have my cell phone with me until that last day if you want to call me, and I'll try to check my email regularly once I'm in Russia. If anything else noteworthy happens before then, I'll be sure to keep you posted. And then off to Russia! Stay tuned!