So... Russia...

Basically, my entire Russian life can be explained by one phrase: "I think she said..." Most people are pretty hard to understand, including my teachers. My politics teacher especially because she isn't supposed to be teaching us Russian, she's just supposed to lecture. And it's not a dialogue or anything: we sit around a table in her office and she talks until it's time to go. About once a class (twice if we're lucky) she'll ask if we understand And most of the time this question is at the end in an "Any last questions?" manner. I also found out that I'm in the harder grammar class, which is good because it'll be challenging, but bad because I'm the weakest person in the class. This is strange for me because I'm always in the top when it comes to grammar. I'm not sure if I'm actually worse, but I read out loud really horribly so it seems like it. We get tutors for free if we are struggling in our classes so I asked our coordinator, Karen, to get me a tutor for "Phonetics" but I'm really just going to make the poor sap teach me how to read out loud. Hopefully that will make a big difference.

Also, I have a cold. It started on Monday with a sore throat, but now it's just a stuffy nose. This is after I missed two days of school last week because I had the flu. I think I slept something like 40 of 48 hours. It took me 4 or 5 days to get over it. Hopefully this cold clears up soon. My friend Annie, from the UK, told me that Americans always get sick when they go to Britain, and the English always get sick when they go to Russia, so Americans must get doubly sick when they come here. Ну, что делать? (Nu, sh-toe d-yell-let?; trans. "Well, what is there to do?" Implied answer: "Nothing.")

How do I have a friend from the UK when all of my classes are only with Americans, you ask? I GOT A JOB! Before I left everyone was asking what I'd be doing in Russia and "just taking classes" seemed like very little to be doing, but I thought for once in my life it might be nice to not have a job. Yeah... I had a job before I was here for a week. :D My speech practice teacher said she had a friend who needed native speakers to teach English. Native speaker? Check. Freaking nothing to do? Check. Money-grubbing? Check. Well, looks like I'm perfect for the job. So I go to what I assume is an interview and Helen (Елена) the principal asks me these questions: "What days can you work?", and "Do you have any experience teaching?" So I answer that I can do the Tuesday/Friday classes, but not the Monday/Thursday classes, and that the only experience I have is tutoring college students. Then she asks me to start the next day (two weeks ago). :) I teach two one-and-a-half-hour classes twice a week. One group is eightish and the other twelveish. One and a half hours is too long for ME to have class (Every class in Russia is two "academic hours" long, called пара (pah-rah, trans. "pair").) let alone a bunch of eight-year-olds. Luckily, most of the other teachers actually know what they're doing and I just steal their games and activities. Robert is from England; Annie is from Scotland; Andrea is from Germany (but her mother's English); Justin is from western Pennsylvania (or should I say Ohio?); and Luda (Люда), the music teacher, is Russian. There are also a few other people who work there, but they don't go out with us after work so they're less important. On Sunday, we had a dinner party at Luda's apartment (which is closest to my metro station, but still like a half an hour away if I walk. There are маршрутки (marsh-root-key; trans: "marshrutkas"? They're vans that drive on specific routes like busses, but have better routes and stop more often... I think. I've never been on one.) that go over there in less than ten minutes though, and Luda is very sweet. Anyway, dinner party: we got together and had appetizers while we cooked delicious Indian curry. Oh, and we drank. Somehow they ended up finding out that I hadn't had vodka since I'd been here, and were shocked even though it had only been two weeks at this point...so they went out and bought some. You know how alcohol usually kind of burns when you take a big shot of it? Yeah, that doesn't happen with Russian vodka. I can't really explain it. It's kind of like that first big gulp of coffee/tea/cocoa when you're REALLY cold--except warmer. But that's it, just warm..all the way down. It still leaves an unpleasant after-taste, but not anything like American vodka. It's rather tolerable. I'm sure there will be more vodka stories to come... :)

Oh, I lost my phone the other day. I took it out to look at the time and when I put it back in my bag I think I dropped it on the ground. Either that or the person who stole it was really stupid for not taking my wallet which was right next to it in the pocket. Now I have an ultra-spiffy phone that does email and everything. In fact, it's what I'm writing this on. :) So, if I gave you my old number, or you didn't get it all, let me know and I'll get you my new number.

Well, that's probably enough for now. Even with school and a job, I still find I have a LOT of free time. I've read two whole novels just for fun in less than two weeks. Now that I have a way to update from anywhere, I'll be able to update more often and about a greater variety of things. For example, Russian fashion: Why do Russians wear so much denim? It's not that everyone is wearing it, but rather that the people who do, wear way too much. Your jacket, pants, and purse should not all be denim, especially not three different colors of denim. Or, music: if I hear the songs with the lyrics "I'll be your number-one fan!" or "Out of my head / Out of my bed / All the things that have been said" one more time, I think I'll scream. The first one is just ridiculously bad, but I think the second one is good except for these three lines that literally make me cringe when I hear them. Ugh, I don't even want to think about it...

Ну, спокойной ночи. (Nu, spa-koi-nieghy no-chee; trans. "Well, goodnight.")

*PS* It takes approximately 9 days for a letter to go from Philadelphia to Moscow. (Thanks, by the way!) ...Hint, hint to everyone else. :)