Smorgasbord: Teaching, News, Tallin

I am terribly sorry that I have been neglecting you, my devoted and dear readers, but things have been quite busy lately. Fortunately fresh from a two-hour nap, I have time on this Wednesday night to work out a draft and likely will be able to post it on Thursday. Buckle your seatbelts and grab the nearest babushka, cause this is going to be a doozie of an entry.
So much has happened! Where to begin? I suppose I will begin with a few words about the English class that I am teaching. I believe that I wrote in my last entry that I signed up to volunteer to help teach an English class for students either in high school or university, to get to know some Russians, have them get to know an American, and possibly to practice my Russian a bit. Little did I know that I would be assigned a class of my own to teach (I have absolutely zero teaching experience, by the way). Anyway, I was given a class of 8 high school students, between 16 and 17 years old, to teach one time a week for three hours. Three hours is obviously quite a long time, but over the course of just three class periods, I think that I have gotten better at managing it so that we cover the necessary material in the given time. Or maybe it was just because I could explain infinitives and gerunds much more effectively than the difference between “few” and “some,” countable and uncountable nouns, and the use of articles. Regardless, my class on Tuesday went much better than either of the two classes.
A quick funny story about the class the previous Monday: I usually receive cassettes and a cassette player to accompany the textbook in places. Well, two Mondays ago the cassette player wasn’t there, but I got the CD player and a CD. Should be no problem, right? Even easier than cassettes, right, especially because I am a kid that has grown up with CDs? Well, I tried to play the CD but it started to skip, indicating a scratch or dirty disc. First, my teenage wisdom told me to blow on the disc and wipe it off, and blow in the CD player. I tried it again, with the same result. When that fails, teenage wisdom recommends that you lick the CD, then wipe it off again. That’s right, I licked the CD. And not in an inconspicuous, I-am-ashamed-that-I-am-doing-this sort of way. No, I turned to my class, licked the CD (arousing the fits of laughter that I intended) and then put the CD back in the player. And what happened after this attempt at humor and way of showing how cool I am? Of course, the CD refused to work at all! We had to go the rest of the class time without the accompaniment of the CD, but at least my class didn’t tell the other teacher why the CD doesn’t work…
Anyway, perhaps now a few words about my students: there are two girls that always come, who giggle a lot, and one of whom asked to take my picture with her during the first class I taught. During that class one of the boys suggested that they are both very interested because they want to marry me. All arrogance aside, I haven’t found anything yet to disprove this theory. One guy in the class is evidently a very good basketball player, having received a sportsman’s medal, and loves American rap music, especially Eminem. Although my knowledge of rap is quite limited, we have been able to discuss that a little bit.
In terms of general life news, things are going pretty well. I am about at the halfway point of my time in Russia, and that is hard to believe. I have definitely learned a lot already, and am much more willing to converse that I was when I arrived. The vocabulary is still weak, but I’m at the point where if I need to know something, I can find it out one way or another. Classes are going well enough; they’re not as hard as classes in the U.S. and there isn’t as much work. However, commuting is much more work, so I think it evens itself out.
One thing many have asked about is news. A very interesting thing is how Russia is reporting on the Global Financial Crisis (or whatever you want to call it). Almost every day, it seems there are reports on the TV that the western economic system is falling to pieces, when in fact the Russian economy is doing even worse! On the television at least, the news coverage of the Russian economic collapse is laughable—I know more about it than Russians. Even as our economy is looking weaker by the day, the exchange rate reached the highest point since I’ve been here this week—nearly 27 rubles to the dollar! My host sister, a teacher for a public school, hasn’t been paid for almost a month. However, the authorities are sure that “everything is under control.” Just today, my host mom said that the newspapers are reporting that every third person will lose their job. While this is surely doomsday reporting, trying to sell more newspapers, there are nevertheless VERY serious problems in the Russian economy right now, more serious than most other western nations. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next two months, and if the reporting and true investigating will get any better (doubtful). The fact that a newspaper could report that 33% of people will lose their jobs and not be laughed at shows you just how serious the crisis has affected Russia.
Now for the fun part of this blog entry: my trip to Tallin, Estonia. Last Friday morning the whole group of 52 American students left for a trip to Tallin, Estonia. Estonia is a Baltic State, formerly a part of the USSR. It was independent prior to World War II, was under Soviet control for 51 years, and has been independent for 17 years, since it declared independence with the “Singing Revolution,” which is pretty much the coolest thing ever. The population is around 1.4 million, and more than 400,000 people live in the capital, Tallin, which is on the Baltic Sea. Estonia is an EU nation, and, while they have their own currency—the kroon—right now, will be moving to the Euro in the next year or so.

Cathedral in Old Tallin
Estonian Parliament Building
Estonian President's House

We began our bus ride at 7:30 in the morning and eight hours later (after two hours at the border, having had to stop at the Russian and Estonian borders) we arrived in Tallin. Not surprisingly, the roads on the Russian side are noticeably worse to the point that the bus couldn’t have been going more than 35 mph at times simply because the roads were so poor. We checked in to our nice hotel (work out room, pool, great buffet breakfast, FREE WI FI IN ROOMS!!!) and started a walking tour. While the weather was not the kindest (low 40s and raining) we were all glad to be out of Russia.

Estonian Baltic Sea View

Our first encounter with the difference between Russian and Estonia was through our tour guide. Because our educational program, CIEE, tells our universities that we are in a language immersion program, all of our tours have to be in Russian. In Russia, tour guides give the same tour they give to Russians, without accommodating the fact that we are at a relatively elementary language level. The Russian mentality is that “You’re the one that wants the tour, why should I change to make it better for you?” not only in reference to tours, but in general. Whenever I don’t pay with exact change, the question is “do you have other change?” not because it’s a huge deal, but because it makes their job marginally more difficult.

The coolest tour guide every: note the rainbow umbrella
Largest town square in Old Tallin
Huge, old cathedral

However, the Estonian tour guide was terrific. He spoke more intelligibly and slower (which could have been because we understood his accent better) and truly cared that we knew what all the words he spoke meant. Rather than Russian tour guides, who take their history very seriously and believe themselves to be the vanguards of some sacred ancient Russian history that they cannot change to make more interesting for the tour, even in the kids don’t fully understand everything, the Estonian tour guide poked fun at his nation and its history, telling funny anecdotes about the Russian-Estonian relationship which I think gave us a fuller picture of the small nation. Friday night we had some free time and some friends and I went to a local beer hall and I tried some very tasty honey beer.

Triumphant Picture! Glad to be in Estonia!

Saturday morning following the best breakfast in two months we headed off for a bus tour to see more of the city. Having only seen the “Old Town” on Friday, which was very medieval European, we ventured to the newer parts of the city and I noticed many more contrasts with Russia. Simply put, in Estonia capitalism seems to work. Having only been free of the Soviet Union for 17 years, it is amazing how many new and modern buildings the city has. The wide streets, significantly less traffic congestion and foot traffic reminded me of Saint Louis or any smaller city in the United States, but with even more new, modern buildings. Surely Estonia’s membership in the EU and the fact that is a much smaller, easily governed nation has something to do with its quick turn around from Soviet days, but it is still amazing to see the post-Soviet world from another nation’s point of view.

Medieval Restaurant: Sweet

After the bus tour, we walked around Old Town some more, bought some souvenirs, and made reservations to eat at a Medieval restaurant called Olde Hansa. It truly was a meal for the ages. Two friends and I, Andy and Harrison, decided ahead of time to try the bear, but split it three ways because of the cost (too much, don’t ask, but how often can you eat bear?) Upon getting to the restaurant, I inquired, do you have the bear today? Yes (YES!). Then out of curiosity, “how often do you get the bear?” “We usually have the bear, yes, but then again he likes to hide in the woods and is sometimes very tricky. He doesn’t like to be caught, yes.” (Oh and the waiters spoke English and were helpful, also a contrast).

Ready to eat some bear, obviously. Above, clockwise from the bottom: boar, bear, Andy, Harrison, duck.

I don't look as hungry, but just look ridiculous

So Harrison, Andy and I split a meal of bear, boar, and duck, in addition to trying some of the ladies' food: elk, rabbit, chicken, fish, and beef. Yes, eight different types of animal were consumed on that great night, and I didn’t even have (much) indigestion! Olde Hansa got two thumbs up, definitely. After dinner, we walked around Old Town some more until we felt it was time to head back to the hotel.

The boys showing some estonian pride

Sunday was mostly a travel day, as we checked out of the hotel at noon, but we stopped at a castle on the Estonian-Russian border. Not much notable there—it was a pretty standard castle. We arrived back in St. Petersburg at 11 at night on Sunday, ready for another week of classes. Our next trip is to Moscow from Nov. 6-10, then during the following week of fall break, my parents are coming, from Nov. 11-17 or 18. I am very excited!!!
One last story before I depart. Occasionally I feel a bit like I am on candid camera. On Tuesday after teaching my class, I decided to stop in at the McDonald’s on the way back to the metro stop (I know, gross, but its American. Give me a break.) I get in line, and order two double cheeseburgers. She looks confused. I say it again. I put the noun in the wrong case, I now realize, but it still wasn't too hard to figure out. Seriously. The cashier looks at the burger slot, and there aren’t any. She goes back, turns back to me, “do you want something else?” “No, thanks.” “Will you wait.” “Yeah, sure.” I mean, how long could it take, it’s just the same patties they’re cooking everything else with, right? Evidently double cheeseburgers are a strange order in Russia. So I’m waiting, and she starts whispering to the other cashiers behind the counter, and they’re all looking at me. It becomes clear that she is just getting off her shift, and needs other people to fill my order. So that makes sense, I know why they were looking at me—they were exchanging necessary information. Then, for some reason, I see customers in line looking at me. I know when people are looking at me—I get it a decent amount here—and multiple people in the line next to me were just looking at me. I wasn’t doing anything special or strange, just standing. As I’m waiting I see Big Mac after Big Mac, Quarter Pounder after Quarter Pounder (Royal with Cheese here, too) added to the burger slot. Finally, I get my burgers and sit down. I pick a table close, a four-person table as it happens to be, so that I can leave quickly. I notice two of the people who were in line near me who are eating somewhat across from me looking at me again and whispering to each other. I keep eating, and keep making eye contact with them. Then, another woman from the line comes up to me and asks if she can put her stuff down at me table two—she has a group of two other people. There are plenty of open tables, but she decides to put her food down across from me. Sure I say, trying not to be confrontational, as I’m almost done with my food. But she proceeds to stand behind the chair, waiting for her friends, and staring at me. I gave her the eyebrow-raise, simply because I was confused, but in retrospect probably should have asked why everyone was acting so weird. Even though I thoroughly inspected the burgers before eating them, while on my way home I was convinced that the McDonald’s workers must have done something to them and that everyone must have known about it. What else could explain all of the looks? If I fall dead in the next week, I’m definitely blaming those burgers.
So what’s the resolution of the story? Is it simply because no one orders double cheeseburgers? Did I somehow make it obvious that I’m American (I don’t know how I could have done that)? Did they do something to my burgers? Was something wrong with my face? Am I simply that attractive? Or was I in fact on some sort of candid camera show? The answer to this day evades me, but this is life in Russia, and every day is interesting.