End of my first term teaching....

So I'm coming up on finals week, which means I've successfully bluffed my way through my first term of teaching. It sounds like I might even make it into the Carleton alumnus magazine in January, which proves that my life is interesting! Yeah! I realized that I'm really going to miss some of my students, especially the 14-15 year olds who I can't really...invite to hang out....or anything. I actually feel pretty bad, I told one student who probably isn't going to pass the class that he could come get extra help...and then I forgot. So, now I invite him to come to an exam review, stand him up, and...fail him? It isn't looking good for me :(

Also, this may have slipped my mind in my last post, but I was legit stopped by the Russian police on Thanksgiving night! Adam and I were leaving a bar at about 1am and I sat down on the steps outside of a building to fix my shoe and wait for a taxi to come by. BIG MISTAKE. Russians DON'T sit on stone. Ever. Especially women. It is common knowledge that after that you are no longer capable of having children. Anyway, like a storm of buzzards to carrion, the militia swooped down upon us. They first demanded to see our passports. (All Russians carry passports with them all the time, it's their identification. Weird right?) Then they wanted to know where we worked and so on. The leader finally said, 'We have hooligans in Russia too!" with a derisive laugh and walked away. Hmmm..... But I was pretty cowed all around I must admit. Adam on the other hand was asking very diplomatic, carefully worded questions such as: "What, we're not allowed to sit here??" which is VERY out of character I might add.

There is just so much about Russia that makes me realize that I don't know how to predict even tiny aspects of life here. So much stuff that you completely take for granted in America. Like, when you walk into a room, you have a pretty good idea of where the light switch might be located, right? Even if you don't know where it is, you know where to look. And something you might not have considered before, when you see a bathroom door completely closed, you assume that someone is in there. Americans usually leave the door cracked if it's available. Heck, you even assume that there is going to be toilet paper in public bathrooms, that the public bathrooms in malls will be free, even that there are GOING TO BE public bathrooms.
Let's see, what else. Russians don't have voice mail on their phones, so you can either text someone or not leave a message if they don't answer. Even businesses rarely have answering machines and personal cell phones certainly don't.

You also rarely see young teenage boys photographing each other in what I can only call "artsy ways". In general the photo culture here is WEIRD. Every time I turn around there are Russians taking pictures of other Russians. And not just snapshots, we are talking draped all over the wall, peering longingly through iron fences, languishing on park benches photos. WITH NO SHAME. Men and women alike. It is also perfectly normal (as I found out) for a young man to tell his guests that he wants to show them some photos....of himself. And then just click through his photo album. Full of all these posed, artistic, emo-looking photos. I mean, what do you even say in that situation??? Let's be for real, it's weird.

Two other significant events to touch on before I end this. First, I visited Kamila's English class the other day, and it. was. awful. No wonder Russian students are afraid to talk in class when they first come in! No wonder they don't know how to relate to us and in some ways don't show respect at all! We don't act like teachers! Apparently my experience over the summer was me getting off easy. This teacher was rude, domineering, she bullied her students, she IMMEDIATELY got on them the second an incorrect word came out, she tried to use me to back up her crazy assignments (every time someone spells a word wrong in homework, they all write that word 20 times or something), she was totally threatened by me (didn't introduce me...ever...didn't really direct questions at me during our little discussion over snacks....). And everyone was really surprised when I told them I thought she was really strict!

Finally, I went to a Russian orphanage with Adam and Emily on Wednesday. Everyone told us beforehand that it was going to be really, really sad, really depressing, etc. Russians don't have a volunteering culture, AT ALL, the idea is almost incomprehensible to them. Anyway, we were braced for the worst, but actually it was pretty nice. The place was colorful, there were toys, there was a routine for the kids (aged newborn to 3 years), they had photo albums full of holidays, their summer garden and their little outings. A lot of the children were disabled in some way or dealing with emotional issues. (For example, when we first came in they all began chorusing mama? mama?) A lot of them LOVED Adam, he was the only man I saw the entire time we were there so they kept asking me and Emily "Who's THAT?" We are going every Wednesday from 10 until noon, which is their playing outside time. We are going to stuff them into their little snowsuits and pull them around on sleighs. Last time I pulled one little boy for about 40 minutes and he didn't seem to be having fun or even noticing, but as soon as I took him off the started crying. It was sad....but I think the reason it seems so sad to the Russians is because there are people with disabilities *gasp* IN VIEW. There are no handicap facilities anywhere, really, and it obviously isn't a part of the school system, so seeing those children is almost horrific to some of my friends here. It is really sad, but at least the facilities weren't the concrete prison I was imagining.

That's all this week! Happy Holidays everyone!