Let me see, I arrived on the 10th of November and it's now the 4th of December, so I've been here about 3 weeks. Everything is going well, in stark contrast to my first 3 weeks in both Korea and Sicily. On the job training in great, although I have been swamped with lesson planning latley and will be for the next two months apparently. But after that it gets much, much easier, so I'm told.
I won't bore you with the details of the teaching method, but in short, my job is to check the students have learned what they are supposed to by giving a lesson covering the grammar and language in various exercises and assess whether they are good enough to go onto the next level or need to do it all again. On top of that we have to design lessons called 'Social Clubs' which are more of an opportunity to practice speaking in a natural environment. Yesterday I did a lesson about the Jack the Ripper, to use deductive language, for example.
The students are generally nice, sometimes a bit crazy, sometimes a bit scary. This is probably highly illegal, but I couldn't help but chucke when this students name appeared on my schedule :
Overall, the teaching is fine and probably the easiest i've ever done.
But enough of all that!
Moscow is pretty cool (poor choice of words!). I've been out and about a bit, unfortunatley, to the detriment of my feet :
Of course, the metro/subway/underground is the easiest way to get about. I don't have to use it to get to work, I'm just about a 15 minute walk away, but all teachers get a monthly pass, paid for, for the tube, so it's no bother using it whenever you like. I haven't managed to get any god photos of the amazing architecture in some of the stations yet. I don't really want to be too obviously a tourist. There can be some suspect characters down there. (That's just reminded me, I've been asked for directions about 5 times now! Maybe I really do look Russian? Braynski has a certain ring to it.)
Anyway, :
This is Sokol station, my local portal into the vast, mysterious madness that is modern Moscow.
This is Emma and Andrew, two other teachers, both from blighty, on the way back from Ikea I think , or maybe a pub?? Not sure.
And this is a rubbish photo of an average station. Still, I quite like the marble and the equilateral descent into tinyness (new word there I think).
And this is how good it can get! Imagine that at Bank!!
Of course, the Kremlin is a must see, but my first day off it rained all day and most of the night, so I only went out about 8pm, and my camera isn't that great in the dark, hence the poor quality of the photos. It was also mostly closed and my blister was giving me hell, so I just did a little walk around. Next time I'll goin the day and there's talk of a big group of us going, tickets n'all so we can go inside and see all the crazy Soviet gubbins.
This was at the entrance, I think. Bit blurry but you get the general idea, y'know, that kind of grandiose Soviet style.
Am I in Moscow or Oz?
This is called GUM (pronounced Goom) and it's basically Harrods but bigger and beter lit!
Not exactly sure, but looks pretty cool.
So that was the Kremlin/Red Square, the Buckingham Palace of Moscow if you will, something you have to visit while in Russia. "What, a bit like going to an ice hockey game?" I hear you say. Exactly!! And that's what I did next.
David, the other teacher in my school, kindly invited me and a bunch of other hooligans to CSKA Moscow vs Amure (from Siberia).
I'm in no way interested in ice hockey at all, but thought it would be worth a watch. Turns out it was pretty good, even without knowing the rules. Here are some snaps, and a little video.
Aforementioned hooligans, Emma, Andrew, Glenn, Lauren and Jen (an Arsenal fan from Texas!!)
The teams line-up....
.....the score-board says something...
.....the teams play....
....Police watch on....
At half-time, it's 2-1 to CSKA!
Cheerleaders....
Fattest Russian so far seen.
Happy winning team!
Final score-board.
By far, the best bit of the whole game was at the beginning, when this happened :
It reminded me of Rocky 4 or something!
Well, it's Sunday evening now and I'm pretty tired. Last night me, Andrew and John went to what we thought was going to be a kind of dingy jazz club. Turned out it was quite a swanky affair reminiscent of a Poirot scene, very art deco and really rather posh. But it was reasonably priced and the music was fantastic. A Russian band, by the name, Funky Soul, with a lead singer we christened Tomski Joneskaya for hs remarkable resemblance to the similarly aged Welsh crooner. Unfortunatley I left my camera at home :(
Great stuff!
I have a very busy week or two coming up, but I hope to have some good adventures along the way and maybe get some photos to boot.
TTFN...
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