On Monday and Tuesday, we had some training at the main school in Moscow. Abby and I will be teaching catch-up and basic reading. The kids we're gonna be teaching are in kindergarten (age 4-6) and second grade (age 8-9). We met our program director Irina, who showed us one of our schools. It's pretty close to our house, still a little over a mile, but that's okay lol. The school is called Barvikha, and it's really nice. We teach there every Monday-Friday. Three times a week we will teach at Captains kindergarten school after we are done at Barvikha. A bus will pick us up in the parking lot and take us there. Our bus drivers name is Alexander, and we have heard good things about him. And then after Captains we have a taxi home, which is nice.
Our first day of teaching was Friday. So this week we spent a lot of time preparing lessons and reading through some really exciting manuals about what to do. I was feeling a little nervous about teaching, especially basic reading cause I feel like there's a lot more to do, but I am sure I'll be fine once I get the hang of things. And we have a lot of resources to help us out too. The school will provide lunch for us, we just have to get there on time. We might have time for a snack and dinner on the days we go to Captains, but it honestly just depends on traffic. Irina showed us how to get lunch at the cafeteria at Barvikha. The lunch lady's name is Gulya and she speaks a little English so that is nice. We've eaten there a few times, and it's usually macaroni, rice, potatoes, and chicken. We drink a lot of tea at home, so we always get apple juice at school. They have a meat sauce for the rice or macaroni, and two kinds of chicken. One is just breaded, and the other is chicken with cheese. There a weird white sauce or cheese or something underneath more cheese. Our first day went alright. We taught basic reading, and then catch up at Captains. In basic reading, we had four kids. We might have more on Monday, cause one student was sick. They're really smart, and way cute. At Captains we had six kids. We just did an opening with them, so we sang songs and went over the calendar and weather. I felt a lot better after that because I felt like it went a lot better than it did at Barvikha. And they are also the cutest.
On Saturday our group went to the Izlomailovkaya market. It's huge. And there's so much to look at. I got some wool socks and a warm headband because I couldn't find my hat when we left our house and I was freezing lol. I talked the guy down so not gonna lie I was real proud of myself. Jk that's kind of a lie. My friend got one for 550 rubles (about $10) and then I told him I would think about it so he dropped it to 500 ($8) so I went for it cause my head was cold. I definitely want to go to the market again, it's really cool and it was just so cold when we went. Also Abby and I went to the McDonald's in the mall by our bus stop. We were a little sick of soup and tea lol. Luckily they had kiosks so we could order in English. They had hostesses who sat us down at a table, so it's a fancy McDonald's. It's still fast food, but it's better than American McDonald's sorry not sorry.
I don't know if I have mentioned Rex before. But Rex is my host family's German shepherd. At first, our family told us to let them know when we needed to leave, because he would bite us. But good news. This week we had a breakthrough. He didn't bite us. And he let us pet him. He did bite my boot, but don't worry I survived to tell the tale. Anyway moral of the story is he is used to us now, so we can come and go as we please. We still have to call someone when we get home to open the garage, but now we are not in peril every time we leave the house.
Overall, it was a little bit of a rough week. With lesson planning, getting a LOT of information, being uncertain teaching, and feeling a little homesick. Saturday morning was especially stressful. We were supposed to meet our group at the metro stop for the market at 11. But Abby and I don't ride the metro very often, so we didn't know where we supposed to go, but we still had to leave two hours early if we wanted to get there on time. Umeda called her relative and they picked us up on their way to the city so we didn't have to walk to the bus stop. We made it okay, it was just a crazy time. I'm sure I'll get used to getting in a car not knowing where I'm going or what's happening eventually lol. Good times. After that we had a really fun day. Also I want to go to church, but it's so far and we have to get up way early. Abby has just wanted to rest the last two Sundays, but I want to go. It's still dark outside when we have to leave to make it on time, and I don't want to walk alone in the dark and ride the bus alone so I'm having a crisis lol. Umeda was telling me to just wait until April or May to go because it's so far and it's so cold, but I don't want to wait until April or May to go to church. I don't know what to do help lol.
Things I took for granted in America:
-living so close to everything
-having cold and clean water to drink all the time
-dryers (they do not have dryers here so our clothes dry on racks)
Things Abby and I miss:
-popcorn
-peanut butter
-Lucky Charms cereal
-smoothies
Pretty much every morning we are craving something from America lol.
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