Vill du ha minneslapp?

Sweden, Sweden, Sweden, that’s the country where I’d most like to be.  Always dancing or fishing, or just watching TV…  First of all, I want to say that Sweden is pretty awesome.  It would be incredibly fantastic if I spoke Swedish and had lots of money. 

Good things about Sweden (in contrast to Russia):

·         People seem genuinely happy here.  I don’t know if I can point to any specific instances to back up this claim, but it just feels happier. 

·         Life is slower.  The costumed dinner party we went to (a gasque), went on for 5 whole hours, just for soup, main course, and dessert!  

·         You can cross the road without being in danger of losing your life.  Most times if you are standing at the edge of a crosswalk, the one car in the road will stop to let you walk.  Even if there are no cars behind it. 

·         The sidewalks actually exist, and are in good repair.  I haven’t encountered one loose stone!  The wider paved sidewalks are sectioned into a bike half, and a walking half.  EVERYONE has a bike here, probably because they tax the heck out of gas.

·         People smile at you!  Cashiers, waitresses, people on the street, you name it!

·         There’s recycling!  It feels so wrong to throw glass and plastic away.  Here they have a ridiculously complicated recycling system, but at least they do it.

·         YOU CAN DRINK THE TAP WATER.  AND YOU WON’T DIE.  I’ve just blown your minds, right?  I’ve been much enjoying the freedom to fill up a glass at the sink when I’m thirsty, rather than having to boil water and put it through a filter.  

As nice as all that sounds, there are some not good things about Sweden:

·         It’s freaking expensive.  They tax EVERYTHING to death here, including food!  I thought food was supposed to be cheap so poor people could still afford it.  Apparently there are no poor people in Sweden, because they wouldn’t be able to buy a $4 loaf of bread. 

2. People assume you can speak Swedish.  In Russia everyone seems to know who's a foreigner and who's not.  Everywhere else I've been I stick out as a foreigner, so people automatically speak English to me.  But here, I'm bombarded with Swedish all the time.  I hate telling people I don't speak the language.  It's a little disconcerting to have people shouting "Hey!" at you all the time, until you realize that it means "Hello!"

I have to share the internet with Nyssa, so I'm going to save more info for later and sign off now. 

Lessons

I had four lessons with this 12 year-old boy Nikodim, and then his Mom cancelled them because it was "too hard for him."  That little stinker.  It wasn't too hard for him!  He surprised me with his speaking ability for his age. He just didn't ever want to do any real work.  He never tried to learn the new words I attempted to teach him, even though they were mostly fun words.  I even designed an entire lesson around a Top Gear video for him, but he just didn't want to study.  He forgot to bring his books with him to the last lesson we had.  So, for an hour and a half we talked.  I tried to get him to formulate the present perfect tense, but he wasn't having any of that.  I found out that he's a Mac person, and that he is particularly biased toward the Mariinsky theater over the Bolshoi.  I asked him why, and he got all secretive and told me he'd tell me next lesson.  Now I'll never know!  He told me that October 10 was the "Day of Secrets" in Russia.  I asked him what happens on that day and he said he didn't know.
I have a new student today, in about an hour.  All I know is that her name is Maria and she's about an intermediate level.  And she wants to have three lessons a week, an hour and a half each.  I don't have any materials for her, so how am I going to entertain her for so long?  I hope she mostly just wants to talk.  I love getting paid for doing next to nothing.

I think teaching has made me much better at making conversation.  It’s been weird for me, a person who prefers to remain silent and let others guide conversations, to have to lead them.  I have to listen carefully to everything my students say and think up responses and/or probing questions on the spot.  Some of you may be thinking that this is what making conversation means, how does everyone not just do this automatically?  I think I’ve always been more focused on worrying about what I’m going to say next than listening to what the other person is saying.  I thought I was just doomed to make bad conversation forever, but apparently it gets better with practice.  I learned the theory of good conversation in Personality Assessment last semester, but I didn’t get enough practice in that class to allow me to improve the practical aspect.  Now, it’s my job to talk and to get people to talk, and I can do it!  This is actually great practice for a clinical psych job, if I decide to do that.  Maybe I should try to get to the bottom of Mikhail’s hatred of Russia, help him be content with his own life.  Do you think he’ll notice if the topics of our classes are suddenly all focused on his past rather than on current events?  He could be my case study, and I could write a thesis for grad school. Teehee.  

Internet Woes

My free internet quit on Sunday.  I came home to find that I was completely cut off from the world, and succumbed into a mild state of panic.  I'd thought I had at least another couple days left of my free two months.  (Slight interjection: I am searching for ways to leave the country later this month at the moment-WHY is a one way ticket to Stockholm $171? Good grief.) I sat for awhile and pondered my options:  1. Put more money on my MTC modem, 2. Call my landlady and ask her about a way to connect to the wifi networks that exist in my apartment building,  3. Buy another modem with free months of internet, or 4. Buy another source of internet entirely.  I didn't want to do 1 because the internet from my MTC modem is rather crappy.  It can only get EDGE in my apartment.  I really didn't want to do 2 because it's so freakin' hard to understand Russians on the telephone, and I hate talking on the phone in general.  I did end up calling her though, to no avail.  She was at her dacha, and therefore couldn't be bothered with my paltry internet problems.  I didn't understand most of what she said (something about a sim card?) other than that she'd call back when she got home.  She still hasn't.  I went to the big shopping mall to look at all my options for buying more internet, but I just got very confused.  So, I have temporarily decided to visit a cafe with wifi every day until I figure something out.  I'm so incredibly decisive, aren't I?
On the jobs front, I now have offers coming out of my ears.  Today alone I was offered three new jobs, and I have taken them all!  I haven't even started to work for my fourth school yet.  That school called me today to ask if I had my curriculum planned yet.  "Ummm, No?" I said.  I was unaware I had to do that, especially since I don't know anything about my group(s) yet.  Do they want business English, or normal English?  What's their level?  These are things I kind of need to know to plan anything.  Of course, they can't really tell me anything about my group(s) because they are still forming them.  Gosh, life is hard.  

Wandering listlessly as a flounder

I went back to Benedict today to meet up with Lindsay for some coffee during her lunch break. Just as I stepped out of my apartment a torrential downpour began.  It lasted for two minutes, and then gave up.  Then when I got out of the metro, it decided to start up again, and add some ferocious wind.  What a beautiful day in St. Petersburg.
I spent most of today in coffee houses and bookstores.  I didn't want to go all the way back home after coffee, but my lesson on Wednesday is at 8:30.  I really need to find a place to hang out in the center that doesn't require a purchase, or get so busy that I feel bad for taking up a table for so long.
After wasting 6 hours, I headed to my lesson way in the north at Ozerki.  This is an interesting student.  He's a 50 year old guy who lives with his ~28 year old girlfriend.  He thinks he knows English grammar pretty well, and therefore doesn't need to go over anything.  He just wants to talk.  Because I am such a great conversationalist, the conversations sometimes fall flat.  He usually says something, but I feel like I should be doing more to lead things.  So today I taught him a big list of new words from an article in the St. Petersburg Times, and made him read the whole article out loud.  It was about the siege of Leningrad from the memories of a survivor.  After he had read and understood the whole article, he said that half of it was lies.  He said that the 80 year old survivor lady was making up stories to capitalize on her status as one of the few remaining survivors.  Wow.  What a pessimist!  It probably stems from his hatred for everything Russian.  He loathes Russia so much,that we end up talking about that most of the time.  He keeps telling me that "Russia is misunderstanding the world."  I asked him if he meant that Russia is misunderstood by the world, or if Russia misunderstands the world. He insisted that his original sentence was correct.  I'm not sure what he means.  Well, he's nothing if not entertaining.  And he makes me delicious tea and makes me eat apples and chocolates every lesson.  Today he gave me a whole bag of apples from his dacha to take home.  I only wish it didn't take me a whole hour to get home from Ozerki.  

Slimy Viktor

So the Lenta group I was supposed to teach in October postponed their lessons YET AGAIN.  I was supposed to start teaching them the second week of September.  I've had their first lesson planned for so long.  The John Deere people are sticking to their schedule though.  I had my first meeting with them today.  I got there early, so they told me to have some tea or coffee (REAL coffee) in their break room until it was time to meet.  That building is really complicated.  I have to talk to the lady at the front desk to let me in the gates so I can get to an elevator that goes to the fifth floor.  But I don't have the key to get to the fifth floor, so I have to get out early and walk up the steps.  Then on the way out, someone has to use their key card to let me out the gates.  Oh security in Russia.
On the way to John Deere, which is way far away in Kirovsky Zavod, I had to wade through lots of mud.  No one warned me to wear my waders, and there was no slimy Viktor there to rent me any rubber boots, like my 1st year Russian book promised me.  I think they must pave the roads and sidewalks with mud down there.  Before my lesson I grabbed some dinner at the small mall close by.  I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see what Russians think Mexican food is, so I got a chicken burrito at the "Quick Mexican Food" place.  It was almost spicy, but lacking in any Mexican authenticity.  When, oh when will Chipotle open a franchise in St. Petersburg?
I still don't feel like a real teacher.  I feel like I'm pretending.  I just want to say, "Why are you listening to me?  I don't know what I'm talking about!"  Students always have questions about the things that really have no explanation.  I try to explain as much as I can, so I never have to say, "That's just the way it is."  

Back in the U.S.S.R.

Yeah, I know.  I've already been here for two months, why haven't I been writing blogs all along?  Because.
The first month I was busy all day long teaching and learning how to teach.  This last month I've just been figuring out how to sustain myself on my own in Russia.  And mostly doing a lot of nothing.  Which is why I finally decided to write some more, after considerable nagging from Mom.
They turned on the heating in my building today.  That makes it smell all funny, and be way hotter than it needs to be. It's 55 degrees out today.  I don't think that calls for turning on the heat full blast.  I have to have all my windows open so I don't burn up.  So far the only thing I've done today is go grocery shopping.  I went a little overboard when I reached the tiny "exotic foods" section.  I bought coconut milk, rice noodles, hot sauce, sweet chili sauce, limes, ginger, peppers, lime flavored pepper, and other less exciting things.  I don't know exactly what to make from this stuff, but I really had a craving for some food with flavor.  I might have to go back and get some chicken before I make something from this.  I tend to stay away from the meat section.  I've been an unintentional vegetarian, or at least a vegetarian who occasionally eats chicken.  I refuse to buy any hot-dog-flavored meat!
Aside from my grocery shopping adventures, I mostly watch TV online.  And do a little teaching.  These past two weeks I have had only two individual students, once a week, for two hours each.  Starting in October I will also be teaching business English to workers from Lenta and John Deere.  None of my jobs are very sure though.  They tell me about new possibilities all the time, but something ends up going wrong.  I was going to teach a 10 year old boy, but after the first lesson they decided to cancel.  He wasn't at a high enough level to be talking with a native speaker yet.  I kind of wish I could still teach him, because he lives in an incredibly fancy house with a cat and a dog.  Then there was a class I was supposed to have at a different branch of one of the schools I work for, but the director of that branch had no idea what that was about.  She just said she'd call if she had openings.  I should just find a bunch of private students.  They pay better anyway.