September 11, 2009

I am about to go to sleep on my fifth night in Russia. Wow, so much has happened this week. Where do I start?

Monday:
My flight arrived in the gigantor Moscow on Monday afternoon. However, once I arrived, I find that they left one of my bags in Chicago! Booo. I file a claim and wait a long time, meanwhile thinking, “What if the man who is supposed to meet me here just leaves?” BUT, Thank the Good Lord the man was still there. He was not friendly, a Russian-speaking man who works for Language Link somehow. So, we drive and drive and he tells me to sleep so I pretend to, but I was actually just in awe that I was arriving into my very own new city. SO WEIRD. This driver got so lost, but we finally make it to my flat! A nice woman was waiting outside to show me in, she works for Language Link too. Let me just mention that Russian flats are generally very ugly. The outside of the building looks horrid, and there is a whole row of them that look exactly the same, I got lost at least three times in the first few days merely because every flat looks the same…
ANYWAYS. My lovely roommate Carolyn was waiting inside my flat, she had been sick that day so unable to go to the first day of training. We chat and she shows me the place. Later I shower and go to the 24 chasa (hour) market down the street to get basics: bread, cheese, milk, cereal, yogurt and tea.
My other roommate Jenny came home later with two guys from our program: Jeff and Chris. They are quite nice right away, and I am not overwhelmed at all. If feels very natural to be here and do this.
I finally went to sleep on my first night in Russia!

So Tuesday through Friday I have been in training. We will train for the next 3 weeks to prepare for teaching. Our commute is an hour fifteen to an hour and a half—we walk 10 minutes to a nearby bus stop, ride for 30-50 minutes, and take the Metro (Subway) for 30 minutes.
In training we have been going over tons of grammar and teaching methods. It can be fun, but the material is mostly dry. We have 4 teachers who take turn instructing us, and some are nicer than others…We trained from 11am-6:30-ish every day this week. We have done practice lesson plans and implemented them in front of our class. For the next 3 weeks we will be teaching real classes of English to Russian students—2 to 3 lessons per week. My first is on Tuesday. AHH.

The people: My roommates are Jenny and Carolyn. They are very sweet and welcomed me right away as family. We commute together, debrief the day, and make dinner together in the evenings, sharing some of our food with each other. We are all very social, so 3 out of the 4 nights this week we have had people over to our flat, even though it is VERY far away from anything else. There are 5 women and 5 men in the training, and they are all great. We are a very odd bunch, but we are suffering and learning and experiencing a lot together already. We stick together in class and support one another, joke all the time, and generally make plans together every day. Some of them will move out of Moscow after training, which nobody is happy about.

Since we are immersed in studying English this month, I think it will be pretty hard to learn Russian. My mind and body are fried, I have no time or energy for anything besides the commute, going to class, and doing social things my roommates plan in the evenings. We have met a couple Russian guys through friends, and I’m hoping being around them will help our Russian skills. We also met a few Brits last night, and I believe 13 people total were sleeping in our little flat, as we had them over for dinner and drinks and the bus and Metro stopped running. There were 3 in each bed plus people sleeping all over the floor. Ha. It’s already a very different and funny life. But it’s good.

It’s Friday night and I’m alone in my flat—soon I will go to bed and sleep as long as I want. Tonight my roommates met the Russian guys and a couple others from our program to go to a club. BUT, since I have been up late every night this week and only flew in 4 days ago, I stayed in and organized my life, cleaned, and am getting caught up on updating people!
Tomorrow my goals are to find internet and finally have some real communication—we are hoping to get it in our flat next week, but it is unsure at this point. At school we have a few computers for email only, nothing else. I haven’t talked to anybody yet, tomorrow I will also buy a phone card for my family!

In conclusion, I am doing well and am happy here. I am very afraid to start teaching, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it.
Until I find more time to type away…

Ponderings on the plane

September 6, 2009
Well, here I am in the SEATAC airport….It’s 8:32a.m. and it’s been quite a week. I just popped two Dramamine, hoping that when I sit down onto my luxurious window seat of my plane I can just stick my little iPod headphones in, tune in to the peaceful playlist and conk out.

On Sunday I arrived in Seattle, Washington around 4:20 a.m. Sleep an hour. Wake up, shower, pack, drive to airport. Bags too heavy, add a carry-on duffle. Family prays for me and mom cries a little. We do well. I fly away to Chicago. Talk to many of my lovers on the phone in Chicago, change my voice message to say I will be gone for 10 months. SO WEIRD. Now I’m on a plane from Chicago, Illinois to Moscow, Russia. I chose tomato juice and look down the aisle to find that 5 out of the 6 of my (Russian) neighbors on the plane chose tomato juice too. I guess I already fit in with the Russians! This flight will be another 9 hours long, then I arrive to pick up my luggage, go through passport control, find someone from Language Link who will pick me up, arrive to my flat in the middle of Monday in Moscow, and avoid jet lag so I can begin training the next morning.

(Just now a little toddler boy saying “Da, Da” came wandering over to me in order to put his little grimy hands all over my laptop. I keep repeating “Nyet” to him in sterner tones, until he understood. If he comes back, I will surely tell him “Nilsya” (You shouldn’t do that). )
I am so ready to be done with luggage, packing, goodbyes, and transitions. The time has come to end it all and get this show on the road. I should be bawling, I should feel sheer terror. But instead, I feel a little sleepy and find myself looking forward to a good year ahead of me.
Moscow, here I come!

Goodbye is not The End.

Sometimes I feel like this whole thing is a much bigger deal to EVERYONE ELSE than it is to me. I mean, I'm excited and nervous and all. But everyone else is acting like I'm going to die and this goodbye is REALLY GOODBYE. Like, it's the last time we are going to see each other.

Maybe it's like when someone dies it is easier for them than for everyone else. To them, they may be in peace and bliss finally. But their family and friends don't know how to make it without them. Their lives are changed because of it.

Slightly too dramatic, but I'm just trying to understand the clinging.

Goals for today:

• Admire my two PACKED SUITCASES
• Read my new summer novel: Memoirs of a Geisha
• Leave the house

T - Minus EIGHT days!

And here marks my very first blog post. As I type this, I am listening to Rosie Thomas and sitting alone in the living room of my house in Rogue River. I woke up early to pack, but instead decided to create this blog. Equally productive, yes?

I guess I will start my very own blog with an explanation as to why a blog is necessary in my new life. September 2009 is about to arrive, which will mark an exciting/terrifying/
disrupting change for me: a move from my faithful home base on the West Coast of the U.S. all the way over to Moskva (Moscow) i.e. RUSSIA! I will be there approximately TEN months, getting trained to teach English then teaching all by my self like a grown person.

I think it's besides the point to say I am VERY nervous and apprehensive about what I am about to do. BUT, I am fed up with goodbyes, planning, and packing, and most-of-all LASTS. So it will be a relief just to get on that plane next Sunday.

All that's left to do is say goodbye to people in the Rogue Valley, goodbyes in the Portland area, goodbyes in Seattle, drive to my lovely Sarah Fisher's wedding on Saturday the 5th, goodbyes there, drive back, sleep a few hours, and FLY OUT of the fabulous SeaTac Airport at around 9am on Sunday, September 6th.

Goals for today:

• Figure out a way to fit all my stuff into my two large suitcases
• Talk to roommates and lovers on the phone
• Be nice to my family