Yoga

For about a month and a half now, yoga has been part of my weekly routine. I usually go two or three times a week to a fitness club on "Factory road" with my friend Iolanta. It's great to have a yoga partner--we wake each other up in the morning and encourage each other to go to class. The first day I met Iolanta (after a lecture I gave to her public relations class at the university), I told her that I just started yoga. In a city of about 120,000 people, I was fairly surprised when she said that she goes to the exact yoga classes that I had tested out. She started about 6 months ago. We've been going together ever since that day.

Class is fun. I'm finally getting a hold of all the words I need to understand the exercises in class. That doesn't mean I'm able to repeat all the Russian yoga jargon, but can recognize it, for sure. Sometimes I giggle a little when I misunderstand a command and go one way while everyone else goes another. It happens. (It's like when I played French horn in an orchestra in Finland and sometimes tooted the horn in the wrong spot because I couldn't count in Finnish fast enough).

The gym seems to be the only place in Ukhta that sells Indian spices. At least that's what my friends tell me--and they are much more experienced with shopping for food around here. I've been checking grocery stores for more spices without too much luck. Does this mean that there is a higher demand for spicy foods among athletic people in Ukhta than among nonathletic people in Ukhta?

Integration

Last Tuesday, high school students came from all over Komi Republic (and from Labytnangi, as well) to present research projects at a conference called Integration. The conference was held at the local Technical Lyceum. Every Wednesday, I lead some classes and an English Club for high school students at this lyceum. Being a familiar face at the school, I was asked to judge the student presentations in the International Language section of this conference.

We listened to 14 presentations, only three which were not in English but Russian. Topics included: ghosts-believers in England, the history of the American dollar bill and how video games can help Russian youth learn English. I was fairly impressed by the students' language skills and the extent of some of their research. One girl, knowing she wanted to participate in this conference last summer, interviewed people during a trip to England in August.

I was also impressed by the awards ceremony at the end of the event. Everything--the MCs, dances, songs, short films--was very well choreographed and in a beautiful hall that I had never seen before in the university. (I'm always surprised by what the university holds). As the one native English speaker around, I almost had to act as Queen Elizabeth during the ceremony (right after the actor Karl Marx), but was let off the hook when another teacher wore an ornate dress. I presented the International Language awards, instead.

English Club

Our first meeting

So far, I have held eight English Club meetings for students at the Ukhta State Technical University. For each meeting, I pick a topic and we go from there. Sometimes I bring props, sometimes clips of movies or radio programs, sometimes fun handouts that I find on the internet or in the various English-as-a-foreign-language books I schlepped along with me in my luggage. So far, so good. My audience has dwindled a little from the first few weeks of about 20-30 English-enthusiasts, but I've still had a steady flow of 8-10 people. And, it's actually not accurate to call the students who come to the English club an audience. Really, I try to be in the audience for a good part of the club. I try to get the students to talk. Of course, it doesn't always work out that way, but I try.

The last three English clubs have been particularly memorable. First: the Turkey Club. Despite my Thanksgiving dinner cooking dilemmas I wrote about in my last blog entry, Thanksgiving with the English Club went wonderfully. On Thursday--Thanksgiving Day--I was a little sick. I taught a few classes in the morning, but by midday just wanted to crash. A teacher could tell I wasn't feeling too well and asked about English Club: What would I do? Would I still have English Club and prepare food for Thanksgiving? What? I was going to prepare the food and carry it across town myself! That wouldn't do! I told her that it would be fine. But, as soon as I left for home, she must have called some of her students, because next thing I knew, two girls from class were trying to locate me. Well, they aren't just girls from class--Kristina and Nastya are good friends. They just happen to be in one of the weekly classes that I teach. Bearing loads of potatoes, they found me. Together we managed to make mashed potatoes in the nick of time. I gathered the other foods I had prepared (right along with the Pilgrim, Indian and turkey hats) and we called a taxi to bring us across town. Only four minutes late to club, we placed the hot food on the table! We ate, chatted and laughed. I asked the club to put on an impromptu play using the hats. The students preformed wonderfully: a strange plot involving a turkey in a Russian McDonalds.

Memorable club number two--the theme: superheroes. Last week, a few new students came to the club, so I decided to start off with a name game. Say an adjective that starts with the first letter of your name and then your name. Mine was easy: Super Sara. (I mean, it went well with the topic, right?) We went around the room with a couple funny adjective suggestions (it can get hard with many names starting with K and O or Y). We only let one noun slide: Cucumber Ksenia. The names stuck till this week. Next, I asked the students an important question: if you could choose flight OR invisibility, and you are the only person in the world who could have this power, which would you pick? (I got this idea from an episode of This American Life last summer--the first segment of "Superpowers" is great. ) This led to a great discussion of powers and capes.

Memorable club number three: funny laws. I found lists of outdated or just funny laws around the world, both in English and Russian. I gave the students the Russian lists and asked them to translate any ones that they liked. We laughed quite a bit. Did you know that in France, it is illegal to call a pig Napoleon? (That one came from: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article2251280.ece)

Halloween with the English Club

Getting the thanks ready for English club

Tomorrow's Thanksgiving, and I've been thinking about it constantly. What can I make here that I can share with my English clubs? What decorations? What food? What activities? But, the question isn't only what can I prepare--it's how. I have thought about the possibilities of presenting a turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pies, cranberry sauce--just about anything--to the clubs. But, I've run into difficulties with ingredients, my own time, my lack of an oven and lots of equipment for cooking and the fact that I don't have many hands to get everything to the clubs, warm and on time. I could have solved this with more planning, but unfortunately, I didn't ask for much help. So, it's the night before Thanksgiving, and I'm trying to be creative in the kitchen. First, I decided to make some cornbread in the fifth floor oven.  One cornbread down (shaped like a flower, because I borrowed my friend's flower oven-safe pan), and one more to go. It's funny running up five flights of stairs every time I check the oven, but I'm thankful that I am allowed to use it. The fifth floor is a special floor, with a special guard at the entrance. I don't know what sets the students living on that floor apart, but I know I'm allowed in because I am the American who is living in the building for the year. They let me wash my clothes in their washer and, as I found out today, use their oven. It's very kind. The rest of the people living in the dorm do not have such luxuries.

(Side note about the dormitories: At our university, the curfew for the dorms is 11pm. This means that if you are out later than 11, you must notify a guard beforehand. If you don't notify a guard, and you come back late, you probably won't be allowed out the next night. I somehow don't fall under these rules, though, so I can ring the doorbell whenever I'd like and a guard will open the door. A guard is one of the several women who rotate shifts, constantly sitting in a room next to the entrance. One of these women always puts my hood up before I go out into the cold. Today she told me that it was -5 degrees Fahrenheit before I headed out for a half and hour walk across the city. Chilly.)

Next, I was hoping to make some pie. Unfortunately, I can't find all the pans I need, so I've decided to make just pumpkin pie filling. (Update: I just cooked the pumpkin, and it turns out that it's a spaghetti squash. Who knew?) Lastly, I'm making cranberry relish. I bought fresh cranberries from someone selling at a stand on the street. (There are regularly people selling berries on the street. Berries, potatoes and woolen clothing.) I understand that these dishes only represent a little bit of the Thanksgiving table and that they, alone, don't really go together. I'm excited to share them, nonetheless. English club's on Thursday at 5. Hope you can make it.

Well, the snow didn't stick

People have been telling me that we are having abnormally warm weather in Ukhta. When you hear "warm," though, don't thinks that it's that warm. Since I arrived in late September, the temperature has been pretty constant, hovering around freezing. Rarely, it's been 40 degrees (Fahrenheit, that is). Rarely, it's been 20 degrees. Regularly, it's been 32. It seems to me that almost everyday there is some sort of precipitation falling from that sky. I say "some sort of precipitation" not only because it changes frequently, but also because I don't really know what to call it. Sometimes it's clear: rain. Sometimes I think it's rain, but it's definitely some sort of slush. Sometimes  I step outside, see it's raining and run back inside to get an umbrella. But then, umbrella in tow, I step outside and I see that now, in fact, it's snowing. Hmm, interesting.

Last week, snow was on the ground for a few days. The streets were lighter. The streets looked cleaner. The birch trees were more camouflaged. The air felt fresher. The sidewalks were slippery. In fact, the sidewalks were very slippery. I'm amazed that I haven't seen more falls (I've only seen 2) because every sixth step or so, pedestrians seemed to take a long and not-always-elegant skate on the ice. Personally, I love snow. I love the crunching sound when it's not too wet out and I love that everything gets white (and light). And, right now, light is very important to me. It starts to get light around seven in the morning and it's dark again by three in the afternoon. And, in general, the clouds don't like opening up to the sun, so it stays pretty gloomy. This is why I welcome snow. It brightens the place up.

That being said, I try to take advantage of the brighter part of the day. I go for long walks when I can. These walks can be nice when it's dark out, too, but I try to get my fill of vitamin D by going when there's light. When I'm lucky on these long walks, friends take me to places I haven't seen yet. Ukhta is really not that big. That's why people laugh when I tell them that I got lost once. But, there are a bunch of streets that I have not roamed down yet. Once, I went for a four hour walk through town and out into the nearby woods and fields. Out there, my friend Vika showed me a natural spring where some people get there drinking water. While we walked happily through lots of mud of huge puddles that were on the road next to Ukhta River (happily because we both wore big rubber boots), we even spotted the town's token camel grazing in a field. This camel was given to the town as a present some years ago. I'm not quite sure why, yet. Below is a picture of the camel in his usual hangout spot: Komsomolskaya Square.

On that note, 'til next time! 

Thanks for reading,

Sara

The last two weeks of lessons

Where to start? In the 14 days since I wrote my last post, I taught 22 classes (an hour and twenty minutes each), held two English clubs and a Halloween party, went on many long walks around town (getting lost only once) and sat through a few important meetings that will help to determine some of my activities this year in Ukhta.

So, first: classes. I am based out of the international language department at Ukhta's university. In the teacher's room, the language teachers (all female) speak to me in English and Russia. And, sometimes in French. Unfortunately, I'm usually limited to greetings with the francophones. German is also taught at the university. It's in this teacher's room that I try to design my schedules for the coming weeks. First, I sit and hope teachers will invite me to their classes. Then, if I'm running low on scheduled groups, I seek out the teachers. Whose class can I come to? What are the students' English proficiency level? What topic do you want me to teach? When and where do I need to be?  With this method, I've been able to pretty much fill my weeks.

The teachers have all been very kind and inviting. Some come to me excited about certain topics of discussion. My repertoire includes: American versus British English (a topic that has been popular every week); opportunities to get jobs in America;  me, my life and my family; university life and American education; youth problems in America; free time. Today, prompted by student interest, I gave a whole lesson on names of American towns. They students thought the Los Angeles might mean Lost Angels, and that name Detroit might come from the verb "to destroy." Nope. As of yesterday, I am well versed in the name history of Los Angeles, Hollywood, Las Vegas, Chicago, Detroit, New York and Horseheads. It was actually a great lesson, for me and the students, in realizing how many names in the United States are adopted from other languages: French, Spanish, Native American languages. Each lesson that I give is sprinkled with new vocabulary for students, but rarely do I give full out grammar lessons. Today was a great exception, though. I gave a whole lesson on command forms. Positive, negative, impersonal, polite...everything. I was so happy to test my grammar-teaching skills, and so happy to do it with this group of students in their 2nd year of Public Relations. I've been to their class several times, met with some students outside of class and have now etched out a time-slot every Tuesday to teach them an interactive grammar lesson. Sweet! Who ever thought I'd be so excited about grammar. As my schedule develops and I start finding more classes like this that I can teach consistently, I will be able to focus more on practicing certain grammar and vocabulary skills with students. But for now, I'm the king of practicing general conversation skills. I often say, "Don't be scared to talk to me. I just want you to feel comfortable talking. It's okay if you make mistakes. I also make many mistakes when I speak Russian." Sometimes, I prove this by speaking a little bit of Russian in class.

Classes can sometimes be great, and can sometimes be difficult. Partly, I think this is because I don't know what to expect with each new class: the size, the language ability, the interest. But, with each variant, I'm slowly learning how to get more and more students to interact with me. It's when they interact that I feel good.

Pictures from the first day the snow stuck

The sun was shining, and I took a long walk. I hadn't realized that the clocks turned back an hour, so I had an extra hour to my morning to roam around. 

 Взрослий Парк (Adult Park). I walk through this park every day on my way
to the International Office.

Детский Парк (Children's Park)

Three dear looking out on Ukhta River.

Pushkin's statue and Building E, where the international office is located. 

Lenin.

Some garages in town.

A bridge in Adult Park. Its a tradition for couples put locks on bridges when they get married.