the defense of petrozavodsk

Regular readers--all five of you--might remember I mentioned that I attended a reenactment in town a few weeks back.  It was my first time actual witnessing a reenactment in person, and I have to say it was quite interesting.  I don't know how they do things stateside, but in Russia they let you stand basically on the battlefield, which is naturally where I planted myself.

I don't know what I was expecting, but it was actually quite intense.  Despite the fact that they're using blank rounds, the rifle fire is still extremely loud up close.  I could certainly appreciate the intimidation one must have felt upon hearing the infamous MG 34 open fire.  You feel the sound in your chest as much you hear it in your ears.  I won't be volunteering to lead a charge on one of those bad boys anytime soon.

 Me with one of the good guys.

The reenactment itself was of the defense of Petrozavodsk during the Continuation War in 1941.  Sadly, Finnish forces, with the aid of Nazi Germany, captured Petrozavodsk on 1 October 1941 and held the city for three years.  This wasn't really reflected in the reenactment, as there was no real choreographed conclusion as far as I could tell.  Everyone just sort of stood up once they'd run out of ammunition.

That said, they had clearly planned a number of set pieces, the most entertaining of which featured an armored vehicle leading a charge on a nest of Finnish/German mortars.  It suffered a direct hit from one of the mortars, and a small band of Soviet soldiers dashed forward in a daring attempt to save the tank driver's life.

I took some video with my digital camera and compiled the best bits into the 2-minute clip embedded below.  Unfortunately, I didn't capture the tank driver rescue, but I did get them blowing up an actual tree.  You can see the explosion at around 1:34.  I panned away, as I thought it was just some kind of effect, but you can see when I pan back after about three seconds the thing's already gone timber.  The let us walk the battlefield afterward, and I can confirm that it was, in fact, a real tree.  Was being the operative term.

wait, you mean there's an american here?

Despite my initial misgivings, the Moscow trip was highly enjoyable.  We got to visit the  massive U.S. Embassy complex,  which is an interesting experience if a bit underwhelming.  The problem is security is so tight there that we got to see basically two things: 1) the room all of our scheduled activities were held in; and 2) the hallways leading to that room.  Anyways, it was just nice to be back on U.S. soil (Note: before I get snarky emails, I know that's not actually true).  Additionally, the two-day ETA training was extremely helpful and, frankly, everything the D.C. training should have been.

By far the highlight of the trip was getting to see all the other ETAs again.  It was very interesting to see the sheer variety of experiences people have had so far.  One thing that became very clear to me was that my arrival had garnered the least interest out of all of us.  This, of course, proving that Russians are nothing if not excellent judges of character.  That said, things are certainly looking up.  Shortly before I left, I had finally been invited to a class other than Tanya's, though, fittingly, the new teacher's name is also Tanya.  Wouldn't want things to change too rapidly, after all, lest I get confused.  Apparently it went well, despite my best efforts to the contrary, as I've been invited to make it a standing arrangement.

Yesterday, I paid a visit to the American Corner at the National Library of the Republic of Karelia--impressive name, right?--where the coordinator, Marina, and her co-worker Natalya were extremely happy to see me.  I ended up staying for around three hours, which included much tea drinking and cake eating as I was informed it was Marina's birthday.  Natalya was particularly pleased to inform me that we were celebrating as Americans, because it is American tradition to eat cake on one's birthday.  It was a good reminder that Russians are awesome and amazingly hospitable.

After my library excursion, which I should mention included my volunteering to speak at what's destined to be way too many universities and schools in the area, I returned home and received two invitations to two different classes within ten minutes.  Already, today, those two classes have turned into three classes and my participating in the Department of Foreign Language's annual drama  performance.  It appears after four weeks of lying prostrate in the middle of Prospekt Lenina with an American flag draped across my chest that the word is finally getting out.  The American is here.

off to moscow

Now that I've been teaching classes on my own for nearly a month, it seems as good a time as any to attend an orientation meant to teach me how to teach, right?  I'm joking.  Mostly.  However, I am leaving tomorrow night for Moscow and the in-country orientation.  Much like the orientation in Washington, the real deal is on Friday with the ETAs staying for an extra two days of workshops.  I wish I could say I was more excited about this mini-trip, but it feels a bit like I'm being pulled away from my new city and my teaching just as I was finding a rhythm.  

This is compounded by the fact that I'll need to leave Wednesday night.  Since the orientation begins Friday morning, I need to be there by Thursday night; since the regular trains from Petrozavodsk to Moscow are overnight trains, I have to get on a train Wednesday night to be there Thursday.  And lest you think I missed the obvious choice, yes, the Thursday night train would get me to Moscow too late.  I don't want to be a total Debbie Downer, however, as there are aspects of the trip I'm definitely looking forward to.  It will be nice to see most (if not all) of the other ETAs again and swap stories, theirs destined to be cooler than mine.  And despite the fact that it feels a bit like getting safety instructions after already having jumped out of the plane, it will be useful to pick up some new methods during the ETA sessions and hopefully find some solutions to common classroom problems I've encountered.

I'm not taking my laptop with me, as it's large and clunky and not particularly essential to have over the next five days, so I'll be incommunicado until Monday.  I should have plenty to write about then, both about Moscow and about the live reenactment I attended over the weekend (with working armored assault vehicle!).  I've got pictures and some footage from the event to put up; it was actually quite exciting.  Oh and don't worry, the good guys won.

the american revolution (now with fur lining!)

Not much to report this past week.  I'm settling into some semblance of a rhythm, though I've had the added task of gathering all the various documents, photos, etc. required to obtain my visa extension.  While I'm here for ten months, it's easier for the university to apply for and obtain a 90-day, single-entry visa first and extend it rather than get a 12-month, multi-entry visa right off the bat.  So I have my list of a dozen or so things to get turned in to the visa registration office at the university by next week.  The good news is I've taken care of the most complicated portions (including another HIV test, which is mildly annoying seeing as I got one in early August for the first visa, which is technically still usable under RF regulations).

That aside, however, things have been going swimmingly.  As per their own suggestions, I'm currently doing units on American subcultures with my fourth-year students and early American history with my second- and third-years.  We talked about the greasers in class last week, which was fun.  Despite their claims to the contrary, my fourth-years understand English very well and already have a good foundational knowledge of American culture.  It's great because I can have a bit more fun with them, such as teaching them about the important American idiomatic concept of "The Man."  Let's just hope they don't emulate the anti-rebellious creed of the greasers too much and decide to "stick it to The Man" (aka not do their homework).

With the two's and three's I've done lessons on the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War.  It's been a lot of fun because they know just enough to volunteer guesses when I ask them questions, but not so much that they already know all the details of what I'm telling them.  I'm also getting a better feel for what makes them participate and what scares them back into their shells, so that's an improvement.

The other big news is that I've recently purchased the winter coat that will see me through the Arctic Russian winter.  Tanya and I were on our way to a computer store to purchase a microphone when we passed a coat store.  We went in on a whim and she laughed at me wearing various ridiculous leather/fur combos for about twenty minutes.  Even though about half the coats I tried on were plainly too big for me, the salesman (and what a salesman he was) insisted that they would fit better when I had a sweater on under them.  At one point he even had me put on a light jacket underneath to simulate the look, and looked at me triumphantly when the shoulders fit better.  They did, but I looked like the Michelin man.

On Tanya's thankful suggestion, they steered me toward the down coats, where I quickly found one more my speed (and for less than my month's rent!).  It's a beautiful steel gray with a wolf's fur lining.  Okay, it's not wolf, but that's what I'll be telling people.  Our little secret, okay?  To sum it up, I look like Paul Walker in Eight Below, except for the part where I look nothing like Paul Walker.  Observe:

Paul Walker in Eight Below. 

 Me, in my living room.

I can't wait to break out the sled dogs.  The thing is seriously warm.  Only problem is it takes me about five tries to get the zipper, but I figure it'll be easier when in below-zero weather with enormous gloves on.  I'm not concerned.  I'll leave you with a shot of my favorite feature of the coat, which is it's comically-large hood.  I defy you to put on this hood and not make that face.

 

the internet has arrived

As given away by the title, I finally got my internet connection up and running beautifully in my apartment.  Okay, "finally" might be a bit exaggerated, given that it was only a shade under two weeks, which isn't really that long.  But I'll be damned if it doesn't feel like a long time when it means you get to check your email once a day for an hour.  If I were in the field of psychology, I would most certainly do my research in the psychology of the Internet.  While it sounds a bit silly, I just feel so much more connected to the world now that I can get an email whenever someone sends it to me and actually take the time to look at things like the news and what's happening in the world.  It almost feels like the first time I discovered the Internet all over again.  I remember I was in college at the time, and Al was off with another one of his crazy ideas, but darn if it didn't turn out to be a good one.  Oh, and while we're on the subject, you've probably heard that Al Gore and Tommy Lee Jones were roommates in college.  What never gets mentioned, much to my chagrin and their respective delights, is that it was a triple, and I was the third guy.  It's not my fault I'm not famous, and for the record, it stinks.  It's like being the one Wayans brother who didn't go into acting.

Anyways, classes have been going well.  I'm going right through American history with my group of second-years, and with the fourth-years I think I might skip ahead to the 20th century.  They're fourth-year historical archiving students, so they already know most of what I would tell them.  On the first day of class one of the things they wanted to learn about was American subcultures, so I figured starting with 50s beat-era stuff and then going right into the subcultures-as-mainstream 60s would be good.  Now that I've got the net I can do some proper research for these things, too, and not have to really on my memory.  And trust me, that's better for everybody.

more classes, optimism

Sorry for the lack of updates--I'm currently trying to resolve an ongoing internet access situation.  While my apartment is hooked up to the net, in Russia most people still pay usage instead of a flat monthly rate, so there's no money on my "card."  In order to put money on it, I need the account info, which is proving harder to get than it should be, not because of any technical difficulties but rather...how shall I put this...lack of focus on the part of the girl renting me the apartment.  While it's not a priority for her, it means everytime I want to check my email I have to go to the netcafe or one of the cafes with free Wi-fi.  Not the end of the world, but it gets a bit tiresome and makes it near impossible to coordinate Skyping opportunities with people back home.  Hopefully it will be resolved soon, however.

In more cheery news, I had my first full day of classes on Friday with fourth-years, third-years, and first-years.  The third- and fourth-year classes left me very impressed.  Turns out the second-years I had first are just a wily bunch, as the others were much more interested in and focused on learning and speaking English.  While most of the class time with the first-years was dedicated to separating them into two classes based on their skill level, to their credit they spoke very well for their first college English class.  Both the 3's and 4's had lots of good suggestions for what topics of American culture they'd like me to cover this year.  As expected, holidays and history were both very popular choices (oh, I forgot to mention they're all history students) which is great for me as a teacher as I'll enjoy both subjects.  It looks like I'll be taking over the 4's class once a week very soon, maybe even next week.  I'm sure the same sort of format will emerge for the 3's.  It's still unclear how we'll handle the 1's and 2's.  While I'm certainly not afraid to take on my own classes, I'll probably be best utilized with the more advanced students, as I'm not a trained teacher of English, something I think Tatiana appreciates.

I'm to prepare a short lecture on a topic of my choice for tomorrow.  I decided since holidays were so popular in the suggestions I'd start with the Fourth of July.  It seems a perfect choice for many reasons--it's the quintessential American patriotic holiday, it's got a lot of history tied up in it, and I get to talk about fireworks, barbeque, and Will Smith blowing up aliens.  I'm looking forward to it, and trying to scale the follow-up activity based on skill level.  We'll see how it goes!

first day of class

Well, today was my first day of class, both for the school year and as a teacher.  It's more than a bit weird to be on the other side of the desk with everyone looking at you for instructions.  I'm starting out by just teaching with Tanya as her in-class assistant and resident Superteacher of English®.  The class was made up of second-year students, so they weren't total beginners in their English studies.  It was a little less weird than I had thought it would be being the one in semi-charge, as kids tend to start university a bit younger in Russia and thus there was a larger age difference than I'd feared.

There was a lot of Russian spoken in class (I'd estimate up to as high as 90-95% of the words spoken), but it was the first day back from summer vacation so I'm trying not to put too much stock in it.  I'm definitely planning on running things a bit differently if/when I take on my own classes, though.  Tomorrow I've got three classes, including fourth-years, third-years, and first-years, so we'll see how those differ.  I've been tasked with preparing a 10-minute activity for the third- and fourth-years, sort of an icebreaker type thing, so I'm going with the one where you write three sentences about yourself, two of which are true and one which isn't.  The rest of the class then has to figure out which is the lie.  It's simple, but it'll use vocabulary they know and it'll get them talking.  We'll see how it goes.

In other news, I'm going to have to take some kind of instruction at the university as I'm here on a student visa.  While I'm obviously here to teach, they need some kind of official reason for my having that type of visa, so it looks like I'm going to be getting some private instruction in Russian a few hours a week.  It's fine with me, as it's something I'd wanted to do anyway, and I could definitely use it.  Not much else news as of now, more later.

I did want to say thanks to those of you that have subscribed as followers.  If you'd ever like to ask any questions or anything, you probably know of other ways to get a hold of me, but I will check the comments on any posts and respond as soon as possible.  If you'd like to post a comment, you just need to sign into a Google account.  If you don't have one, it takes about forty seconds to sign up for free.  I'd set it to let anyone comment, but I could do without the automated comments offering me real natural male enhancement.  You understand.