Bogolyobovo

Today was Wednesday and we had a little bit of free time, so Nicole, Molly, and I headed for Bogolyobovo. It's a small village just to the east of Vladimir that was once the seat of the aptly named Andrei Bogolyobsky (the Pious). It's is most famous for the little white church in the picture. It is praised by many as the epitome of medieval architecture in this part of Russia. The location, at the confluence of two rivers, adds something to it too. It took is a long while of tromping around (part of the time on the wrong side of the river) to get on the right side and on the path to the church. When we headed back to the AH, we arrived just in time for Russian lunch, which was delicious. In addition to lunch, we were celebrating Molly's birthday, which is today. ;)

Also, Jessa, to answer your question: Yes, there is "Russian Dressing" on Russian salads. Russian salads rarely have any lettuce in them. The constant ingredient is the dressing. By dressing, I mean "mayonnaise." I'm not a big fan of mayonnaise anyway, so it's like a holiday when we find way to order vegetables in a restaurant that lack this all-important ingredient in every salad.

Where's My Hair?

So after having had one haircut since I got here in August (and that one months ago) I finally broke down and went and got a haircut. If you know me, you know that it's usually pretty short, but I had gotten used to looking like the fifth-Beatle or somthing like that. So, here are the before and after pics:

Politics Again

Yushchenko's Opinion Piece about why he chose to call for elections. There is also a piece in The Moscow Times about the Situation in Kiyv. As an American I am inclined to see it from the pro-Western Yushchenko's point of view, but clearly there are a lot of people in the country who support Yanukovich.

Here in Vladimir, winter has made an attempt to return as the temperature plunged yesterday and there were patches of snow here and there on the ground and on buildings this morning: another day in paradise.

More Ukraine

More Ukraine Fun Another article in The New York Times about what seems to be a developing Ukrainian political crisis.

Here'sWhat The Moscow Times has to say about it.

It's hard to tell right now, but it seems like the normal growing pains of a functioning, if tumultuous, democracy. This is of course in stark contrast the politics of many of the other post-Soviet countries.

Other than that, a warm, sunny day at work.

Bagpipes?

Molly, Nicole, and I were headed to the coffee shop Sunday afternoon for a cup of coffee and some relaxation when we came upon this guy:
I'm not sure how a bagpipe-playing guy showed up in Vladimir, but we put down a few rubles and listened for a few minutes.

Here's a picture of Nicole and Molly that I snapped at the same time. We're all sad because we are going to be losing our Nicole at the end of the month as she goes back to the States to claim her Master's and find what is known as a "real job!"

Also in the news today is more political turmoil in neighboring Ukraine. The pro-Western president, Yushchenko, is facing an over-assertive parliament and it's leader, the pro-Russian Yanukovich. (You might remember that Yanukovich is the guy who was Yushchenko's opponent in the presidential election back in 2004.) As a result of a further strengthening of the opposition majority, Yushchenko is calling for new parliamentary elections late next month. It may not be as scandalous as Italian politics, but it is very interesting because Ukraine is riding the balance between pro-Western, EU-facing influences and East-leaning, pro-Russian ones. Read All About It

April Begins

It's hard to believe that March has come and gone and April is here. We've had some of the best weather I can imagine lately. It's been sunny and cool for two weeks straight now.

Yesterday I gave a presentation here at the American Home about College Sports, something near and dear to might heart that doesn't really exist here. We followed that up with Rudy and a game of whiffle ball in the back yard. All in all, a fun day. Other than that, we have several busy weeks to finish up this semester. We've got about two and a half weeks of class and then a week and a half of exams and other semester ending fun! The good part is ten or so days vacation at the end of April/beginning of May.

So in all, another Sunday afternoon to work a little, read a little, and hang out a little before diving back into another week of the madness that is the AH.

Here's a Contrast

Pro-Kremlin Nashi Youth Organization Rally in Moscow

Not-so-pro-KremlinRally in Nizhniy Novgorod broken up.

Blogger Ate My Last Post...

...so this is what I have. I was writing about a man who somehow managed to break into the Moscow Zoo, get drunk on a bottle of vodka he brought with him, get into a fight with a rare owl in its cage, and then fall to his death. I suppose it's possible that 's what happened, but it seems fishy to me. Unfortunately, the Moscow Times' stories are archived very quickly, so I can't link back to it. Amanda has a little about it too.

There was apparently yet another fire in Russia. This one at a nightclub in Moscow. Add this to the one at a pensioners' home in the south and the mine explosion in the Kuzbass and it's been a rough week for Russia. NYT

An Update, a Little Belated

It's been a while since I blogged. Not a lot to report, just very busy. Things are great. Spring has finally come. The last couple of days have been the beginning of Spring. There was little grass to be seen in the AH yard on Monday morning due to snow, but by yesterday afternoon it was all gone due to a couple of Sunny, 50 degree days. Today is much the same. A beautiful day and I took advantage of it to walk a good part of the way to work!

Also, there are a couple of News stories I thought I would link to:
I wrote a while back about conditions and education in Russia's university system.University Students in Revolt not just in some out of the way place, but at MGU, which is like the Harvard, Yale, and MIT of Russia.

Also, more on the Curbing of Russian Media. It's still in process, but it seems that each year of Putin brings less and less independent and critical media.

Finally, a couple of recent tragedies. If you missed, there was a Fire at a Retirement Home and a Mine Explosion, both of which claimed many victims.

Election Day Results

Election Day Results are in and, not surprisingly, United Russia cleaned up. I like the part where the leader of United Russia is indignant that they only won in 13 of 14 regions and is demanding that the governor of that one region be sacked.

As I said before in my post about Petersburg, most of the advertising there was for United Russia and what little was not was for the other party that backs the Kremlin, "Just Russia." (See the picture below of me with Plushenko: He's endorsing "Just Russia.") The powers that be seem to be trying to play it as if these two parties oppose each other, with United Russia, the majority, as a center-right group and Just Russia a center-left "opposition." I'm not sure exactly what they oppose though, because they clearly support the Kremlin and Putin. Oh well, the winds of Russian politics are never easy top read. It seems that the Kremlin is trying to build a two party system and force out the two real, but very weak, oppositions, the liberal Yobloko (Apple) and the Communists, who are a long way from being a power, but are popular amongst older folks.

In large part, these are judged by most commentators to be a dress for the federal legislative elections in the fall, followed by the presidential contest next spring. We'll just have to tune in again and see how it unfolds.

Education System

Reforming the Russian Educational System which is the same system that operated during Soviet times. For example, we went a few weeks ago to sit in on a lecture of an introductory literature class. It was just that; a lecture. There were no questions and no pauses during the entire hour and a half. The professor clearly knew her stuff, but I'm not sure how much the students will learn by writing down everything she said and then repeating it in a few months when it comes time for the exams.

My limited experience observing it and talking to students and Russians in general is that it has some serious problems. Two of these is that it is narrow and vocational. Once you finish high school and enter the university, you enter into one department and one "specialty" which you are set into. It's hard to change and you don't take very many classes at all that are outside that field. It is in this way very different from the ideal of a liberal education that we pursue in America. There's no such thing as the student who switches from Chemistry to Philosophy and Biblical Studies in the middle of their third year of college. (I knew a girl who did it.) It just can't happen here.

They are talking about changing the system so that it is different in many ways from the American scheme, but much more flexible than the current scheme. I think it seems like a good idea, but implementing it may be very difficult.

Petersburg Adventure

So, back from our trip to Petersburg and back to the real world. Molly and I had a great time. I love Petersburg more every time I visit it and look forward to having a chance to live there some day for a while. We saw a lot of fun stuff, wandered around, and hung out in cafes and things. As you can see from this traditional "Aaron with coffee" picture, I decided that the beard was getting too itchy and shaved it.


One of the cool things that we found was this group of lions. The real marble lions are on an embankment overlooking the Neva not far away. These replicas had been painted by various groups, including some young students, which was pretty cool. We took pictures next to a couple of our favorites.





Another prominent feature of the city was election posters. The trick is that even though there were many parties running, only two actually had campaign materials out. Surprise, they were the two pro-Kremlin parties. In Indiana, I often get told I look like Larry Bird or Peyton Manning. (My common response is to say that I wish I could play and or get paid like they do.) In Russia, I am told that I look like Evgeniy Plyushenko, the Olympic Gold Medalist figure skater.

Along the way we visited a museum to Anna Akhmatova, the poet and searched out several used bookshops where we made interesting discoveries like Czech textbooks and books on Soviet economics.





All in all it was a great trip and we had a blast. The weather was typically Petersburg-like, but other than that we had a great time. This last picture is from one of our evening walks in search of a bar that has been opened in the boiler room where our favorite Russian rock singer, Viktor Tsoi, worked. Come to find out, it was a block from where I used to live when I was a student in Petersburg. Sadly, the bar was closed because of a private party there.

We caught the train back to Vladimir on Saturday night and arrived before the crack of dawn, a little tired but happy!

Fun With Balloons, or: Off to Petersburg

Just a funny picture I took the other day. Fun with balloons! Clearly we are easy to entertain.

On a more serious note, here's an interesting commentary column from BBC.com that I found. Mostly about ostentatious spending and ostentatious consumption of energy resources, both of which are clear to anyone who visits Russia, especially Moscow.

BBC Commentary

We also have our train to Petersburg to catch tonight. As you can tell, I am very excited as this is the second time I've blogged about it and we haven't even left. On an interesting side note, the train we are taking goes from Nizhniy Novgorod to Petersburg via Vladimir and Moscow. But there's a catch. Even though Nizhniy changed its name over a decade ago, the train schedules still call it by its Soviet name, Gorky. I love this country.

"Monday Morning Coming Down...."

The weekend was good, but busy. Friday we gave exams for the second day. I actually enjoy exams; even though they are a lot of work to grade, it is nice to be able to more acurrately guage where our students are. Sometimes they surprise us!

On Saturday, we had a celebration at the restaurant next door in honor of the two Russian holidays, honoring men and women respectively. Other than that, we've spent a lot of time grading exams and evaluating our students' progress. We have class tomorrow and then we are off on the night train to Petersburg for several days' rest and relaxation in what is pretty much my favorite city. I'll try to post some pictures and things as soon as I can.

In other news, spring has made a slight appearance. We've had some above freezing weather and the snow has melted some. If this is it for winter, we got of lucky with only about 6 weeks of the really hard stuff.

Exams and Things

Exams began today. It's always fun: Our students cheat. We try to catch them. It's pretty much like the circle of life, but without an accompanying Elton John song. The adults can sometimes be worse than the kids. I had to take away the exam of one middle aged guy because he was constantly talking to the person across from him. I leave you with another picture from me on vacation in Moscow. This time next week, I'll be doing the same in Petersburg. Ain't life cool?

I'm In

I am such a dork for telling everyone I know, but I am so excited I can't help it. I got a letter of acceptance to UNC-Chapel Hill to study history nexzt year and I am jumping up and down! I still want to wait and hear from the other places I applied, but this is sweet and I really think it is the best for me!

Smoke on the Moscow River

Well, I didn't write about it earlier because we had to find pictures to confirm our suspicions, but Molly and I had an encounter with Rock and Roll greatness in Moscow on Thursday night last week.

We were sitting in a cafe/restaurant having coffee and two or three middle aged non-Russian men came in and sat at a table in the corner. Middle aged men are not out of the ordinary, but their appearance was. They screamed: OLD ROCK STARS. Then the rest of the band came in. Then some roadies. Then some more roadies. You get the idea. Soon there was a large group of them trying to order, but the waiter didn't speak English, so they found someone from somewhere to translate. This would have been rather comical, except that it was our waiter, we wanted our check, and Deep Purple over in the corner was taking him up for half an hour ordering everything on the menu!

We finally got our check, got our coats from the coat rack behind them (pretending to be not speak English) and then left without talking to them because we weren't sure who they were!

We're not positive exactly who it was, but from some of the pictures we found on the Internet, it appears to have been some former members of Deep Purple. We also saw a poster for a concert, but I don't remember the names, just the "ex-Deep Purple" that was all over them.

There you have it...out brush with Rock and Roll fame. We have some pictures that we took, pretending to just take pictures of each other, but they are on Molly's camera: I will try to get them up soon!

Have a Nice Trip!

Our trip to Moscow turned out great. It was very relaxing. I hate to admit it, but every time I visit Moscow I like it more. The first few times, I was not a fan, but it's now becoming more familiar, if still a little overwhelming. We got in on Thursday morning and spent the day hanging out and walking around the city. We went and found our hostel, which was in a cool like neighborhood and close to a good Metro stop. (The Metro is the only way to get around Moscow.) We went through some of the regular tourist places around Red Square, went to a cool little book store, and had some sandwiches in a little shop. We also took advantage Moscow's many coffee shops to stop and warm up with coffee, tea, or cappuchino...a lot. [Pictured]

Friday we went to the Tretiyakov Gallery which has Russian art. It's a pretty cool place. We spent several hours there and then met up with Joanna and Eric for some dinner at a place that ostensibly served Arabic/Middle Eastern cuisine, so we ordered up some tabouli and hummus. After dinner we went to the Spleen concert which was pretty cool. Spleen is a Russian rock group that we like, so we were excited when we saw that they were playing in Moscow during our break. The venue was not that great, but the show was good and they played for close to three hours.

On Friday we hung out on the Arbat and spent plenty of time warming in coffee shops before catching a train back to Vladimir in the evening. At the train station we had a conversation that could only happen in Russia.

As we go through the turnstyles:
Train Station Lady, Angrily: Not that way, this way!
Us: Okay...
Train Station Lady, Still angry, but not quite so angrily: Have a nice trip!

Today we are catching up on some reading and doing a little bit of work (not too much!) We've got exams to give this week, another teachers seminar Monday and Tuesday, and a further Wednesday-Sunday vacation in two weeks that we have no hard plan for yet!

Maslenitsa! It's a Party!

Sunday was Maslenitsa, a Russian equivalent of Mardi Gras, complete with lots of blinni. We traveled to the nearby town of Suzdal to enjoy its well known celebration. It was a big festival in the town square where we danced, played games, and spent time with some Russian friends. I'll admit that it was cold, but also a lot of fun! Some of the most interesting games were pillow-fights and a Russian version of "Red Rover." There was also a large log standing and men took turns trying to climb it...most of them removing various articles of clothing to aid them and climbing to cheers of "Davai!" (Let's go!) There was also a lot of good food and drink and lots of people just out enjoying the festivities. In all it was a great time.



We also ended up walking around the town, hoping that movement would keep us warm. Instead, Ira, Sara's hostess, set off a chain reaction by pulling me into a snow bank. The result you can see for yourself!

As you can tell from all of this stuff in the last couple of posts, we have been very busy. In addition to all of this, we of course have to do our real jobs too! This week we have class Monday and Tuesday and some work on Wednesday. Then, Thursday and Friday we have a short vacation. Joanna, Eric, Molly, and I are going to Moscow. The main aim is to go to a concert on Friday night. It's a Russian group called "Spleen" which we like a lot. It should be a great chance to relax and enjoy a few days of something out of the routine, which has been crazy lately, as you can tell.

Also, thank you to Joanna and Nicole's student Larissa for the pics!

Of Holidays, Hectic Life, and Puppy Love (Ours, for Said Puppy)

First off, the puppy has a new home. I forgot to write about it, but the Thursday of the week we had him, an acquaintance of Galya and Alexei agreed to take the puppy. They apparently have a 12 year old son, so I'm sure that little Bashi has plenty of attention these days. While he was with us, we did our best to potty train him and educate him in the ways of the world. Here we have a picture of Eric doing a reading of Rudyard Kipling's "If."

"...Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!"

Otherwise, I haven't written much lately because we have been so busy. Wednesday last week was our "American Lunch" where we fixed dinner for the Russian staff and ourselves. We went with Italian food (spaghetti and meatballs) and had some fun with appropriate Valentine's Day poems.

We also found some appropriate Valentine's cards, with "I love you" and "Be mine," which was a bit surprising because Valentine's Day is a bit of a new phenomenon here.

Our students are also pretty awesome because they give us gifts at different opportunities, one of which was Valentine's Day. Molly got these flowers from a student...pretty sweet, huh!

Thursday was Joanna's birthday which was accomanied by blinni and a trip to our favorite Caucasus style restaurant. Friday was more Joanna's birthday celebration with a group trip to steam in the sauna. We passed the time relaxing, singing kereoke, and wondering why everyone in America hasn't figured out that this is an awesome tradition! Saturday was the American Home Mardi Gras Party for students, which turned out pretty well. We had food, games, music, contests, and a whole lot more.

Glorious Day of Nothing But Relaxation!

Yesterday, I did nothing! At least work-related. I read at home. Then, I went to the coffee shop...and read. I went for a little inadvertent walk when I picked the wrong trollybus by mistake...that 1 looked like a 7 from a distance! Finally, I went back home...and read (and studied Czech and Russian). Somewhere in there I found time to eat. I also got about 10 or 11 hours of sleep. In all, it was everything I hoped a cold winter's day away from work could be!

Avast Ye' Survey Dogs...

...Turn Loose the Prisoners or Prepare to Walk the Plank.

So, I was sitting at there kitchen table the other day grading homework, when someone (you know who you are) decided to give me a temporary tattoo: you can see the results for yourself.

This week flew by very quickly, with lots of work and craziness. Today has not been a lot better; I did sleep in a little, but I've also spent the day working and helping prepare for the Mardi Gras party that we are having next Saturday. Tomorrow, there will be no coming to the American Home at all! Instead, I'm going to read in the coffee shop, play some chess, maybe go ice-skating or skiing. Who knows what tomorrow brings, but it is a day off!

I leave you with a self-picture of Nicole, Molly, and I during our foiled attempt to go skiing at Park Druzhba last weekend. We were freezing!

Weekend Extravaganza

The has been quite a weekend so far! Friday night after class we went sledding on the steep hill that stands next to the Golden Gates down the block. (It's apparently an embankment that is one of the remains of the western city wall.) Then Saturday morning we got up and gathered at one of the city parks in an attempt to go cross-country skiing. Unfortunately that was the day of the Avtopribor(a car parts factory) company ski day. so we couldn't rent skis.

We left Joanna (who has her own skis) and ventured to the new mall that just opened in the center of town. It is new, clean, and best of all hosts a cafe called "Coffee Bean." This is nothing less than a little slice of paradise. Usual Russian cafes, as I have mentioned before, are notoriously lacking from our perspective: they often won't serve items on the menu, getting a seat is often dependant more on weather the person at the door likes the look of you and less on weather or not they have a seat. This place, on the other hand is nothing short of miraculous. It's run by an American, has great big cups of whatever you want and a plethora of big tables, couches, and chairs. In short, it's an real coffee shop! We sat for over an hour, had coffee, and the people who worked there were super friendly and helpful! It was awesome!

We followed this up with an American Home chess tournament. I acquitted myself pretty well, even though I haven't played in a while. In fact, I have a feeling I'll end up spending some free time in the future playing some more. We also had, thanks to Nicole, a delicious dinner of Middle Eastern cuisine. It was amazing too!

Finally - Sunday: not just any Sunday, Super Bowl Sunday. Now as you might know, I'm a huge fan of the Colts. I haven't missed a Super Bowl since before I was old enough to know what the Super Bowl was. Of course, now that I can't watch it, the only team that matters to me miraculously reaches the Big One. My plan is to camp out here at the American home and follow the game through Internet play by play and commentary from the family. I can't be there with them, so this is the next best thing.

The other interesting event showed up on Amanda's door this morning: a puppy, somewhere around 2 months old. It doesn't belong to anyone in her building. It's healthy but attention starved. It's some sort of Rottweiler or something related. Its tail has been clipped, so it belonged to someone at some point. I have no clue what we can do with it, but hopefully we can find someone with the space and time for a dog like that.





Things are not getting any less busy here. We have a Mardi Gras party to throw together, a vacation to plan and take, midterms to give and grade, and then another vacation. Somewhere we have to find time to work! I leave you with pictures of Nicole, Amanda, and Molly doing just that!

The Cherry Orchard

On Tuesday we bought tickets to go to the theater on Wednesday. Even thought it is right outside the window (I can see it now as I type) and I walk past it every day, I had not partaken in a trip to a performance yet. Sooo...Sara, Joanna, Sara's hostess and I bought tickets and went. Two of Molly's students had invited her to go, giving us the idea. In all there was a pretty strong contingent of AH teachers (all of us who didn't have conversation classes).

The performance was, you might guess from the title of this post, Chekhov's classic The Cherry Orchard. It's the story of a mother returning to her childhood home and finding that she and her brother cannot save the estate and its renowned cherry orchard from encroaching modernity, the rise of the middle class, and the fading of the old Russian gentry. It has its comedic and absurd moments. I really enjoyed it and found that for the most part, like most Chekhov, the language was not hard to follow. I hope we get to go back to the theater again soon.

Sara's Pictures

I was lazy and didn't take any pictures in Moscow (not helped by the fact that I forgot my camera.) Sara has some pictures up of the Kremlin in the snow and Molly promises to put up some pictures that she took on her blog soon as well. I've been pretty horrible about getting pictures up here recently. I'm glad I have friends to bail me out. On another note...READ NICOLE'S BLOG! She's been on a role for a while now.

Kremlin, With a Side Order of Ballet

Yesterday was our first chance for some cultural enrichment in a while. We joined a group of Russians and boarded a bus full of people at 9:00 yesterday morning. The bus ride was about three hours and was pleasant enough except for the leader of the trip giving a year-by-year, blow-by-blow history of the Russian ballet. It was like a Russian museum tour, without the museum!

We got to Moscow had had enough time to hit up a fast food restaurant (there are none in Vladimir, so this was a novelty.) Joanna and Eric chose McDonalds; Molly, Nicole, and I chose Sabarro; and Sara chose to stand in line to try to see Lenin's waxy dead corpse before they closed the mausoleum at 1:00. She succeeded, so we were all very jealous, because Lenin is not something you find around every corner.

After that was a mad dash to get through Kremlin security and into the hideously, gloriously Soviet building that hosted the ballet. It was originally built to house Communist Party functions in the 1960s, but now serves different purposes. Plus, it's huge! We all had a good time with Esmerelda and the man with no pants who served no purpose to the plot other than to dance at the ball. After the ballet we piled back on the bus and headed for Vladimir and another day of work.

WINTER!

I've written a little bit before about how the winter had been unusually warm, sort of like an Indiana winter. Well, that is no more. The last couple of days have been bitterly cold. This comes with the upside that the sun is out for the first time in a long time.

This morning we went to the orphanage again, which was fun, if a bit stressful. Other than that, we have a usual week followed by a trip on Sunday to Moscow to go to the ballet. It should be fun to get some culture. We'll see how it goes.

Thursday...

I realize that I haven't posted much lately. Things have been very busy for the last week and a half since we got back to classes. We had teachers from the city and region come to do professional development seminar on Monday and Tuesday. I'm not sure how much we actually teach them, but it is really great that we get to speak English with them. I'm starting to learn the character of each of my group a little bit. I also have to say that it is much easier to teach the material the second time around. There is not the sense of feeling your way forward. Part of it is experience and part of it is comfort: It will be interesting to see how things go from here on. I also have an individual student who comes a couple of times a week. He works in the sales department of a company and wants to improve his English to get a better job. In addition to all of this, I am keeping my fingers crossed about graduate schools. I hope to begin hearing answers in the next few weeks. Yikes!

The weather here has been unusually warm, still. There is a link on Jane's blog to a story from NPR about the Russian winter this year. They temperature hovers around freezing and we get a a little snow every now and then, but nothing like the record-breaking snow and cold that Russia experienced last year. This is much more like an average Indiana winter than I thought was possible here.

In all, things are pretty routine, which is comforting, but it would be nice to break out of the routine some. We are supposed to go to Moscow a week from Sunday to go to the ballet and we also have two short vacations coming up in late February and early March. I think those will be great chances to get out a little and have some fun!

First Week Done

The first week of class is over for me. I'm a little tired, but pretty happy with the way my classes are going so far. I have five of the same level, AI, which is one of the levels that I taught last semester. I think for the most part most of the groups are on about the same level, which makes my job a lot easier.

Back to Russia

So after a good long trip from Indy to Moscow via Chicago and Brussels, I'm back to Vladimir! The trip was not too bad actually. I think that the trans-Atlantic trip goes easier every time I do it. I actually got a decent night's sleep at a normal time of day last night. We have class today, which begins very soon. I'm glad that I got to spend the holidays with my family and friends, but I am also happy to get back to Russia. I will try to write more later in the week when I have time.

My Vacation

Vacation has been going very well. I have seen a few friends and some family, had some fun, and spent a lot of time with my parents. Before you say, "Why would you do that?" take a look at my sister's Smugmug gallery on the house project.

Picture Gallery

The house was built in 1910 and is about two blocks from my parents' house. They've been working on it for quite a while and are finally making some headway on putting things back together. The eventual goal is to turn it into a Bed and Breakfast. This week has been drywalling in the downstairs: I know...me with a cordless drill and a pocket-full of screws...scary,huh? I'm having a relaxing break, but I bet that Sunday and my flight back to Russia will come sooner than I think.

More Russian News

I thought that the story of the poisoned ex-KGB officer had pretty much disappeared. Then I opened up the NYT online and they tell me that the Russian authorities are trying to connect Litvinenko's death with the case of Yukos, the now defunct Russian oil giant that was dismantled by Russian authorities on the basis of some sketchy tax violations. This included the exile of most of its leadership and the imprisonment of its chairman, Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

More Russian News Fun

Home!

I made it! Stumbled in the door with the family just a few minutes ago. I'm exhausted, but happy to have made it. I smell something wonderful coming from the kitchen, so I had better go see what Mom has whipped up for a little Christmas Eve/Welcome Home dinner.

Peace, Joy, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year to everyone...

36 Hours...

A few pictures for you all; today was the last day for classes that meet on Monday and Thursday. I also snapped a quick picture of the AH under a couple of inches of snow this morning. The first picture is of my AI (3rd level class).

This is a picture of my BI (fifth level) class. Today was a pretty easy day planning-wise, but I still had a load of grading, individual student teaching, Russian movie-watching, worrying about how I am going to be packed in 34 hours, etc....yeah, anyway. This is a picture of my usual state these day...really tired.

Wednesday...3 Days and Counting

Wednesday morning came and Molly, Sara, Nicole, and I made a trip to the orphanage to play with the kids. This time it was a little more restrained as it was the four of us with one group of about seven kids. The teacher explained that their group was very small because they had had two children adopted the day before. I don't know for sure, but I get the feeling that they have a pretty high turnover and the kids get adopted fairly quickly.

This week has been going great! Exams are done, now we just have to grade them and all. Last night, to celebrate, I fixed dinner: It was supposed to be Mexican food, which it sort of resembled. The key is that it was different from Russian food. We sat down and had a nice dinner to celebrate.

It's hard to believe that we are splitting up in about three days. Some of us are going home and some are traveling, but it's going to be the first time we've been apart for any length of time since the beginning of August. This has really gotten to be a comfortable routine, even though tings are rarely routine.

Exam Day!

Exams just started! (I have prep so my first one to give is not for another hour.) I am a little bit nervouse. I want all of my students to do very well. I have made every effort I can (I hope) to make sure they do, but it's up to them in the end. We will see.

In other news, yet another interesting NYT article about Russia. There is an interesting sub-plot here. Every day folks get a raw deal from the city administration in order to benefit the super-rich who can pay $33K per-square-foot cost of new housing near one of the more monsterous of Moscow's churches.

Tale of Money, Power and Real Estate in Moscow

Просто отлично!

In the end, after quite a bit of work, the Christmas Party was a big hit. There was a gingerbread decorating contest: It was supposed to be houses, but we didn't have any good way to mold walls, so instead each group got a slab of gingerbread (good work Nicole!), candy, and icing. The results were pretty cool. We also played party games like Twister, Musical Chairs, Limbo, and (since it was the first day of Chanukuh) Spin the Dradle.

This is the Big Boss (actually, second in command after Gosha the American Home cat), Galya, with our Christmas/New Year's Tree.


We also taught the students who came to the party to sing Christmas Carols. Here are a couple of pictures of Sara and Joanna leading a the group in stirring renditions of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," "Jingle Bells," and "The Twelve Days of Christmas," among others.

All of these activities didn't stop us from having time for a little bit of dancing, including Joanna showing of her "Toxic" dance moves.

I hope that everyone is getting as excited for the holidays as I am. It's hard to believe that I will be home to see my family in just a week!

Dinosaur Comics, Christmas, and a Whole Lot More!

Molly has made a committed reader of a little something that, in the parlance of out times, is known as "Dinosaur Comics." Funny, irreverent, and updated daily!

T-Rex and Friends

Today, we have our American Home Christmas-New Year's-Chanukah Party. We're going to have cookies, gingerbread houses, dancing games, and a whole lot more! I will try to take a few moments to take some pictures to post.

In other news, we are finished with giving our oral exams. For the most part they went pretty well, but I was disappointed with a few of them. We'll see how the written exams turn out on Monday and Tuesday next week. Having just spent the last four years on the taking end of final exams, I can say with some certainty that it is better to give than to receive.

С Рождеством!

Merry Christmas to everybody! I figured that now would be a good time for a pic of the AH Christmas/New Year's tree. I also thought I would toss in a picture of the gift that some of us got from Nastya and Lena, two of Joanna's students that we have hung out with several times. The stocking also had some chocolate, a little animal that looks a little like the warthog from the Lion King, and a calendar with pictures from different cities. My first Christmas gift and a pretty cool one at that!

Put Em' Up!

Volodya on the Cover of "The Economist"

Putin is on the cover of the Economist this week looking rather gangsterish. Someone at the Economist had some fun photoshopping this one. You have to have a password to read, but I gather the article is about how the Kremlin seems to consistently try to muscle its rivals by means of energy policy, especially its near neighbors and the EU.

The other interesting thing I can not resist posting it this little gem:

"Scots isna juist English written wi orra wirds an spellins. It haes its ain grammar an aw. If aw ye dae is tak an English text an chynge the spellins an swap a puckle wirds it'll juist be Scotched English an no Scots."

That's right, Wikipedia has a Scots Edition. I love it! Here's the article about Scotland...

In other news, we are giving oral exams and reviewing for the written exams today. The written exams are Monday and Tuesday of next week and then we have a final day to wrap-up, hand back exams, play English games, finish films, etc. It is really hard to believe that I'm going to be heading home for Christmas in little more than a week. There's no snow on the ground here (although we got a few flurries late last night, our first snow in what seems like a month.) There are only a few trees up and decorated because the Russian holiday season begins with New Year's a week after Christmas, has Christmas according to the Orthodox calendar on January 7 and then "Old" New Year on the 13th.

I bet people who actually read this thing are getting sick of me posting links to stories about Litvenenko, but I can't help it. It's so bizarre and interesting, like something out of the Cold War. There's a quick summary of the people involved from the BBC.

Can't Tell the Players Without a Program

This is also an interesting article from the New York Times about the loads of former security servicemen (and maybe some women) and their effect on the politics and economic lives of their countries after the fall of Communism.

Article on Former Spies

And now, for a little humor. If you remember back a while I put a picture up of "Flovers." This notebook belongs to one of my students. I have a little laugh every time I see it.

Pics and Some Spy News

As promised some pictures from the weekend. This is outside the museum that we went to. Nastya, my student is on the right in both. One is with me, one is with Molly.

In a case that continues to get "curiouser and curiouser," there is more today about Litvenenko. Appartently the German police are finding traces of polonium in the apartment of the ex-wife of the man that Litvenenko met with in a London hotel bar not long before he became ill.

You Try To Make Head or Tail of It

Утка, Утка, Гусь

Molly and I made it back from out trip this afternoon. On Saturday afternoon, after helping to put of the Christmas tree and decorations around the American Home, we took a bus ride about an hour-and-a-half south to the little town of Gus-Khrustalniyi. (Гусь-Хрустальный) (I shouldn't say that it is all that little because it has a lot more people than Loogootee.) The first part means goose and the second part comes from the city's glass works. My student, Nastya (short for Anastasia), me us and took us home to her mother and grandmother for dinner. Russian hospitality was in full display. We were encouraged to eat as much as we could. After dinner, we met her friend Anya at what seems to have been the only place to hang out in town; a movie theater/disco/billiard hall/bowling alley. We had a good time hanging out but were very tired and headed home. This morning, we were a little slow leaving (a situation that was not helped by the big stack of blinni at breakfast.) First we went to an open air market where they sell crystal and glass from the town's factory and other places. Then we stopped to visit Nastya's mother at work and got an impromptu concert by some very cute four year-olds accompanied by piano. Then we stopped off at the town's glass museum, which sounds boring, but was actually pretty cool. After thatm, we went back and visited her family one last time for another Russian hospitality laced meal and then the bus trip back home. All in all it was a fun time. We spoke a lot of Russian, met some new people, and it was nice to get away from the American Home for a little while (which doesn't stop us from having tons of work to do, but I will deal with that tomorrow.)

Bizzaro World News

A Little More About Russia's Youth

I found this article, also on the BBC, as sort of a follow-up to the Q & A from yesterday. It talks about the state of youth in Russia. It is a bit hard to imagine, but all of our students have been deeply affected by the fall of the Soviet Union. Even though the youngest ones, like the kids in the article, were born after 1991, their lives have been indisputably changed by the economic and social chaos of the 90's. In some way, this helps us to understand why the current state of affairs, a prosperous but strange and sometimes lawless Russia, doesn't seem so bad to them.

A couple of other news tidbits for your enjoyment...

Litvenenko Laid to Rest

Remember what I said about a strange and lawless Russia,this qualifies. It's not so much that these sorts of events happen, but the fact that it's safe to consider that there is some sort of ulterior motive. Anytime anything happens, one must ask, "Who benefits?"

Same goes for this gem in the safety inspection realm.

Did I mention oil is involved?

Last but not least, this is the fifteen-year anniversary of the agreement between Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus that led to the breakup of the USSR at the end of 1991. Say what you will about Yeltsin (his name is practically a swear word in Russia), he did help oversee the break-up of an empire encompassing hundreds of ethnic groups and fifteen new nations with a minimum of violence. Just imagine if the former USSR had gone the way of the former-Yugoslavia...

Update
So according to the NYT, a Muslim cleric performed last rights over Litvenenko's grave in London. A spokesman for his family left open the possibility that he made a deathbed conversion to Islam. This whole thing just keeps getting harder and harder to understand...
NYT Article

The part about Islam is at the bottom of this article about the investigation, which doesn't seem to be going all that well.

Wow...What a Workout!

So, I'm sitting here this evening, trying to get motivation to write my final exams, but I am having a hard time because I my shoulders are extremely sore. I didn't even have to go to the gym to get this effect, all I had to do was volunteer to go to the orphanage and play with the kids.

All eight teachers intended to go and six of us made it to the bus stop for the trip to Dobroe, technically a separate village, but really just an extension of Vladimir. We are supposed to make this a weekly event, but I think it will end up being groups of four of us on alternating weeks.

We got there around 10:30 and they introduced us to the director and the teachers. Regularly I think we will spend time with them indoors after lunch and possibly try to teach the kids a few words of English. The kids range in age from 2 on up to about 7-8 I think.

This time, we ended up being there at "go outside and play" time, so we joined in. Bob, Amanda, and Nicole ended up with about 8-10 relatively calm well-behaved younger kids. Sara, Joanna, and I ended up with about 20 or more hyper kids that wanted to run, jump, and go crazy. Let's just say that I am updating my resume to read "experience as airplane, helicopter, and climbing-wall." I went into the thing with clean jeans and shoes, but that didn't last very long. Then one of the kids decided that it would be a good idea to come and ask me how my mother let me out of the house with dirty pants....There you have it.

After an hour and a half of pure chaos, it was time to go home...And by home I mean here, to work. I know that I was exhausted. Judging by some of the looks around the teachers' office, I'm not the only one.

Politics Warning!

The other thing of note is politics. The current class between Russia and Georgia has many reasons (most of them not all that valid) and lots of bad results (gas price fights, deportations, wine import bans, etc). This is an interesting Article I found on the BBC's website: It's a Q and A between some Georgian High School Students and some Russian ones.

Q & A

A Teaching Update, With a Guest Appearance By the Passive Voice

After an especially exhausting day, I almost made it out the door of the AH before 9:00. Then I decided to go back and check one last thing on the computer. Once I got this far, I started to blog. Dang.

So, I just realized that if you didn't know any better you would think that we didn't actually teach around here. Believe it or not, we do. In fact, final exams are coming up in two weeks and I am excited to see how they go. I have a couple of classes who will do just fine and a couple of students I can honestly say have a better chance of flying to the moon than they have of passing the final on the first try.

The last several weeks have been spent, it seems, on the same topic: conditionals. You know, those sentences that begin with "if" and don't give you any trouble because you are a native speaker. By some strange coincidence, I am teaching these to both my third and fifth level classes at the same time (at slightly different levels.) If I hear one more sentence that begins with "If it rains tomorrow," I think I will scream!

So in the end, we've had some fun with this conversation:
Me: Complete this sentence, "If I had a million dollars,..."
Them: "But Aaron, it's not real!"
Me, under my breath: I know its not real, that's why its called an "UNREAL CONDITIONAL."

This week, third level AI, starring the passive voice.

"The tennis ball was thrown by Aaron."

Never a Dull Moment

NYT on Former Russian Agent's Death

The Latest From the Moscow Times

I don't know how much press this is getting in the states, but it seems like I am finding articles on it every day in the newspapers on-line. The whole affair seems very bizarre and I am quite sure that no one is telling the whole truth (except for the London police when they say they have no clue what is going on.) The whole thing seems like something from a John la Carre novel. When people ask why Russia is so interesting, this is one good example: there is never a dull moment.

The Moscow Times (usually a Kremlin critic) talks about the tracing of the polonium through BA flights back to Moscow. Sounds a little suspicious, right?

Another recent development involves Yegor Gaidar, who was one of Yeltsin's revolving door of Prime Ministers. He presided over some of the most catastrophic of the economic privatization shocks of the early '90s, but is now not seen as much of a big player. He suddenly became very ill last week in Ireland and turned of the next day in a Moscow hospital with what appears to be the after effects of a poisoning attempt. The plot thickens...

On a lighter note, a Russian version of one of my favorite TV shows, "Law and Order," is due out soon. Here is a link to an article about it.
Law and Order Po-Russkii
My favorite part is the quote, "For most Russians, a police force without corruption might sound as implausible as borshch without sour cream, or a legal document without a stamp. But if you tune in next February to watch the Russian adaptation of "Law & Order," don't expect to see Moscow's finest planting evidence, beating confessions out of witnesses or extorting cash out of illegal Tajik workers."