Tuesday, 27 November 2012
There's no place like home
Our last few days in Orion were spent having three last lessons with the 4th form (we thought the last one was on Friday, but then we had one on Saturday, which we thought was the last one, but then we had another one on Sunday!). We made crafts for the first last lesson, then we watched Mulan for the second last lesson, and then we watched My Neighbour Totoro for the actual last lesson.
We also did a lot of washing up as there were lots of guests staying in the village over the weekend.
We had one last trip to the shop to buy some beer etc for our final night, and watched Fright Night (worth it for Colin Farrell and David Tennant), Dead Heads (pretty silly but oddly enjoyable) and the Muppets’ Christmas Carol, which I haven’t seen in years.
Yesterday, our last morning in Orion, it snowed, so we have some nice photos. We also got lots of thank yous, hugs, and cards, which was all really nice – they clearly really appreciated the work we’d put in over the past three months.
The tiny guest house!
Our house in the snow
We left the village at midday, and our flight was supposed to be at 5:50, although it was a bit delayed, so we got back to the UK at about 6:15 UK time (10:16 Russian time).
And that is the first part of my year abroad done!
Thanks for reading.
We also did a lot of washing up as there were lots of guests staying in the village over the weekend.
We had one last trip to the shop to buy some beer etc for our final night, and watched Fright Night (worth it for Colin Farrell and David Tennant), Dead Heads (pretty silly but oddly enjoyable) and the Muppets’ Christmas Carol, which I haven’t seen in years.
Yesterday, our last morning in Orion, it snowed, so we have some nice photos. We also got lots of thank yous, hugs, and cards, which was all really nice – they clearly really appreciated the work we’d put in over the past three months.
The tiny guest house!
Our house in the snow
We left the village at midday, and our flight was supposed to be at 5:50, although it was a bit delayed, so we got back to the UK at about 6:15 UK time (10:16 Russian time).
And that is the first part of my year abroad done!
Thanks for reading.
Tuesday, 20 November 2012
The final week begins!
I can’t actually believe that this time next week I will be home! These past weeks have gone so fast it’s incredible.
Anyway, annoyingly I got ill again last week (this time with a fever and possibly tonsillitis…), and Lois was also ill, so we didn’t leave our room for three days (though we still did ironing!). On the Tuesday and Wednesday before this, we had the 4th form for two lessons. On the Wednesday, they refused to have a lesson and wanted games instead; luckily we had flashcards with the vocab they were learning, so we could play a matching game, which was actually educational as well. We then played ‘krokodil’ (charades), which was hilarious, since they decided to act out Lois, and made me act as Katya. And also led to us being told off for being too loud by Yura.. oops…!
When we’d sort of recovered, on Saturday, there were lots of visitors from a Moscow school, which meant that there wasn’t much to do. I went to Masha and Anton’s house to do some ironing, and Lois did the same at Katya’s house. At first it was pretty dull ironing. Tamara was there looking after little Sasha, and she told me to put on slippers to protect my feet, so, predictably, I managed to drop the iron power cord onto my toe, the only part of my foot not covered by slipper… After a while, some of the visitors came and started talking to me. One asked me questions, and then took photos of me. While I was ironing. I have no explanation for this, and I am slightly worried about what exactly she’s planning to do with those photos… The other woman, when she found out I was English, switched to English and spoke to me about how nice it was to be in Orion. Apparently it was the first time they’d visited, and they’d had to really convince the parents of the school children to allow them to visit, as they were really suspicious about Orion. I’m not really sure why, but perhaps they didn’t understand this village and what it does? She also said that because of this suspicion, a lot of the parents wouldn’t let their kids visit, which pushed the price of the coach up to much higher than what it should have been. After I finished ironing, Tamara made me some tea, which was lovely, and I got talking to a girl, Nellie, who was visiting from Kitezh. The man, Andrew, who teaches English in Kitezh must be amazing because her English was fluent, and didn’t even have a Russian accent or anything. She was very interesting; it turns out that she’s the dancing teacher in Kitezh – she knows ballet, ballroom, and belly dancing (she could teach us!) After that, I was rewarded with more of these sweets that Han had brought from Vietnam. They are jelly-like, and come in different flavours, and it also turns out that they are illegal in the UK and the US due to people choking on them and dying…! Woops! But they taste really nice. I also had some fruit, which was good, as fresh fruit is not always available in the village.
The illegal sweets…
We’ve been doing a lot of puzzles lately, starting at 500 pieces and graduating to 1000 pieces. After we completed this, we thought we’d be able to tackle the 2000 piece one. We may have been mistaken. It’s even too large for our kitchen table…! We worked on it whilst sharing our new strange drinks, orange and grapefruit beer, which is pretty good, although kind of strong!
After Katya saw the results of our craft workshops with the older kids, she asked us to do one with the kindergarten. I was a little apprehensive, after our previous experiences with them, but it actually went reasonably well, and it was only an hour, so that was okay.
As part of the healthy week they’ve been having, the kids all had to make presentations on different health topics, and we watched a few more today. It always surprises me how confident almost all of them are at speaking, even when surrounded by people asking loads of questions all at once! Plus it’s good listening practice for us!
Today we had a lesson with the first form, which went well. We made flashcards of the vocab we’ve been learning, and played the match game with them, which took a while for them to pick up – we were surprised that they didn’t know how to play!
We are planning a potential further drinking evening on Sunday, being the day before we leave. Lois has accepted my dare to kiss the ground once we land in the UK (in just 6 days!!), so I’ll be ready with a camera to make sure she does!
This will probably be my last post from Orion, as there are only 6 days left, but I will update once I get home with a post about our final days here, and with a whole load of photos!
Thanks for reading!
Anyway, annoyingly I got ill again last week (this time with a fever and possibly tonsillitis…), and Lois was also ill, so we didn’t leave our room for three days (though we still did ironing!). On the Tuesday and Wednesday before this, we had the 4th form for two lessons. On the Wednesday, they refused to have a lesson and wanted games instead; luckily we had flashcards with the vocab they were learning, so we could play a matching game, which was actually educational as well. We then played ‘krokodil’ (charades), which was hilarious, since they decided to act out Lois, and made me act as Katya. And also led to us being told off for being too loud by Yura.. oops…!
When we’d sort of recovered, on Saturday, there were lots of visitors from a Moscow school, which meant that there wasn’t much to do. I went to Masha and Anton’s house to do some ironing, and Lois did the same at Katya’s house. At first it was pretty dull ironing. Tamara was there looking after little Sasha, and she told me to put on slippers to protect my feet, so, predictably, I managed to drop the iron power cord onto my toe, the only part of my foot not covered by slipper… After a while, some of the visitors came and started talking to me. One asked me questions, and then took photos of me. While I was ironing. I have no explanation for this, and I am slightly worried about what exactly she’s planning to do with those photos… The other woman, when she found out I was English, switched to English and spoke to me about how nice it was to be in Orion. Apparently it was the first time they’d visited, and they’d had to really convince the parents of the school children to allow them to visit, as they were really suspicious about Orion. I’m not really sure why, but perhaps they didn’t understand this village and what it does? She also said that because of this suspicion, a lot of the parents wouldn’t let their kids visit, which pushed the price of the coach up to much higher than what it should have been. After I finished ironing, Tamara made me some tea, which was lovely, and I got talking to a girl, Nellie, who was visiting from Kitezh. The man, Andrew, who teaches English in Kitezh must be amazing because her English was fluent, and didn’t even have a Russian accent or anything. She was very interesting; it turns out that she’s the dancing teacher in Kitezh – she knows ballet, ballroom, and belly dancing (she could teach us!) After that, I was rewarded with more of these sweets that Han had brought from Vietnam. They are jelly-like, and come in different flavours, and it also turns out that they are illegal in the UK and the US due to people choking on them and dying…! Woops! But they taste really nice. I also had some fruit, which was good, as fresh fruit is not always available in the village.
The illegal sweets…
We’ve been doing a lot of puzzles lately, starting at 500 pieces and graduating to 1000 pieces. After we completed this, we thought we’d be able to tackle the 2000 piece one. We may have been mistaken. It’s even too large for our kitchen table…! We worked on it whilst sharing our new strange drinks, orange and grapefruit beer, which is pretty good, although kind of strong!
After Katya saw the results of our craft workshops with the older kids, she asked us to do one with the kindergarten. I was a little apprehensive, after our previous experiences with them, but it actually went reasonably well, and it was only an hour, so that was okay.
As part of the healthy week they’ve been having, the kids all had to make presentations on different health topics, and we watched a few more today. It always surprises me how confident almost all of them are at speaking, even when surrounded by people asking loads of questions all at once! Plus it’s good listening practice for us!
Today we had a lesson with the first form, which went well. We made flashcards of the vocab we’ve been learning, and played the match game with them, which took a while for them to pick up – we were surprised that they didn’t know how to play!
We are planning a potential further drinking evening on Sunday, being the day before we leave. Lois has accepted my dare to kiss the ground once we land in the UK (in just 6 days!!), so I’ll be ready with a camera to make sure she does!
This will probably be my last post from Orion, as there are only 6 days left, but I will update once I get home with a post about our final days here, and with a whole load of photos!
Thanks for reading!
Friday, 16 November 2012
A big thank you...
…to the authors of the ‘Another English Site’ blog for linking to my blog! It was a lovely, unexpected find and made me very happy, it was very much appreciated!
Here’s the link to their post: http://anotherenglishsight.blogspot.ru/2012/11/a-british-girl-majoring-in-russian-and.html
Also I want to say thank you again to Lizzie Fane from Thirdyearabroad.com for publishing my article about a day in the life of a volunteer in Russia. Here’s the link: http://www.thirdyearabroad.com/work-abroad/volunteer-abroad/item/1369-day-in-the-life-volunteering-in-russia.html
I have just moved from Tumblr to WordPress because I’ve had enough of Tumblr confusing me, so sorry for any confusion! Also, I will make this blog look better when I get home, as I can’t upload pictures here as Orion’s internet doesn’t allow it.
Thank you for reading!
Here’s the link to their post: http://anotherenglishsight.blogspot.ru/2012/11/a-british-girl-majoring-in-russian-and.html
Also I want to say thank you again to Lizzie Fane from Thirdyearabroad.com for publishing my article about a day in the life of a volunteer in Russia. Here’s the link: http://www.thirdyearabroad.com/work-abroad/volunteer-abroad/item/1369-day-in-the-life-volunteering-in-russia.html
I have just moved from Tumblr to WordPress because I’ve had enough of Tumblr confusing me, so sorry for any confusion! Also, I will make this blog look better when I get home, as I can’t upload pictures here as Orion’s internet doesn’t allow it.
Thank you for reading!
Sunday, 11 November 2012
Half term for us teachers!
After 2 days of illness, we were slowly eased back into work again, with washing up and peeling potatoes. We were invited to see a part of the weekend game, which turned out to be an old-fashioned fair on the bottom floor of the school. It was really cute, with a fortune-teller (Vika), a matchstick game in which the person who picks up the last match wins, darts, pillow-fighting (the first person to knock the other person off the bench wins), a game against Yura where you had to estimate how many knocks it would take you to hammer a nail into a piece of wood, basketball (using a bin), a dancer, and skipping. With every game you won, you were given a piece of wood, which you could exchange for sweets or toys. I had a go at the basketball and the matchstick game, and attempted to teach Lois how to skip!
After all of the game people left on Monday, the big clean-up operation began. We have been set the task of washing and ironing all of the sheets, which we have worked out will take us about 12 days, as we can only wash one load per day as there is only a tiny amount of hanging space! We also cleaned the rooms. It was odd on Monday evening to have the house completely to ourselves; even Galia had gone away for the night!
Yay for washing!
On Tuesday we had the Sunday that we missed while playing the game, so it was a rest day, which we really didn’t need, since while we’d been ill all we’d done was rest! We had dinner at Masha’s house, which was really nice, we got to try some of her ‘day and night’ cake (the ‘day’ layers were plain sponge, and the ‘night’ layers were chocolate). Then, after most people had left the table, Masha’s older brother turned up with some home-brewed vodka in a mineral water bottle labelled ‘The Source of Life’ – love the irony! He offered us some, and at first we declined, but Lena, our Russian teacher, decided that it was part of our Russian cultural education and insisted we try some! But actually, it wasn’t that bad! It was much better than the vodka I’ve had in the UK anyway. We drank out of shot glasses, but Masha’s brother took a tea-cup full each time. We were then taught the rules of each shot, which included the fact that you aren’t supposed to leave much time between the first and second shot, so we had to drink again! And then, after some chatting, we were talked into yet another shot… Having not drunk much alcohol since being here, I wasn’t sure how I would react, but I seemed to be okay! But the fourth offered shot was definitely a step too far and so we declined the ‘walking stick for the road’, as it’s known here. We were also offered tea etc etc, but we managed to get away in the end after an enjoyable evening.
As this week was half term for us teachers too, we’ve had no classes, so we’ve been doing a lot of ironing, and filling in time by attempting to complete the 500 piece puzzles that lie in a pile in the school supply cupboard. I say attempt, because they are often missing pieces – we tried to complete one of a Japanese castle the other day, but it was ridiculously difficult as there was so much blossom, so we had to call in extra help from Max, Katya and Sergei, and discovered that there were sixteen pieces missing!
Yesterday was possibly my favourite day here. After washing the dishes, we helped Max do the 500 piece tiger puzzle, only he kept telling us off for laughing too loudly! He often does this, so he’s now earned the title of the ‘Fun Police’, making sure that when you have fun, you aren’t having too much fun, and in a quiet manner…
After I polished some furniture and Lois cleaned out the fridge in Katya’s house, we watched a film about some of the wonders of the world, which was interesting, especially as we’d been to one of them, Tsarskoye Selo, when we were in St Petersburg last year. We had my favourite tea (Redbush tea), and coconut biscuits, which are always good.
In the afternoon, we requested to have a sort of craft club thing with the kids, and Masha told us we could have it at 4. However, at 3.30, little Katya came round to see where we were, and to inform us that everyone was waiting! I don’t understand what happened there, but we quickly threw some things in a bag and headed to the school. Lois had the great idea of using the felt I’d brought to create hairclips (she’d brought some plain ones), which went down well. We also took thread, so that the kids could make friendship bracelets, the magic painting things, which Katya loves (and Vanya painted one too), and Vanya and I made Olympic torches out of gold card and flame coloured tissue paper. It was a really fun way to spend 2 hours, especially as we hadn’t seen much of the kids, since we’d been ill, and also because there were no classes. We also had a really good turn out, seeing as Vika, Zhenya, Roma and Anton are away for half term, and a lot of other kids are ill.
The results of craft club!
To further add to this great day, we had a barbecue for dinner (even though it’s November), which included chicken with cheese and mushrooms, which was really good, and even had Pepsi, which seemed like a novelty! They were obviously expecting a lot more people to show up for dinner, but so many people are ill! We met Max’s ‘Godparent’ Steve, who is nice and also English!
After dinner, we were caught by Max, who wanted us to come to his house and play Game of Thrones with him and Steve, so we went, and had a really good time attempting to explain the ridiculously confusing rules to Steve, who speaks Russian, but phrases such as ‘mustering armies’ are obviously things you wouldn’t expect to need…! He also gave us some wine which was nice. Of course, the only rule you really need to know is the Max always wins.
Once we’d finished the game, which of course Max won, we went back to our room. After sitting for a while at a loose end, I had the idea of making brooches with the millions of safety pins I’d brought (the kit list said I’d need them… I didn’t). So now I have a blue flower hairclip and a cute owl brooch which Lois made me. I made her an I <3 1D broach, because she clearly does love them..!
Today is Sunday, so another rest day, and the end of the holiday. At the Community Meeting, we were told that this week is health week, so I think they’ll be keeping a closer eye on what everyone eats, and making sure everyone wears warm clothes etc – which means I have to start wearing a hat…
And that’s all for now!
Slightly big news – I have officially dropped Chinese, so I am now doing Single Honours Russian, which means that I won’t be going to China next year, and will be going to somewhere in Russia instead – although I have literally no idea where yet…!
Thanks for reading!
After all of the game people left on Monday, the big clean-up operation began. We have been set the task of washing and ironing all of the sheets, which we have worked out will take us about 12 days, as we can only wash one load per day as there is only a tiny amount of hanging space! We also cleaned the rooms. It was odd on Monday evening to have the house completely to ourselves; even Galia had gone away for the night!
Yay for washing!
On Tuesday we had the Sunday that we missed while playing the game, so it was a rest day, which we really didn’t need, since while we’d been ill all we’d done was rest! We had dinner at Masha’s house, which was really nice, we got to try some of her ‘day and night’ cake (the ‘day’ layers were plain sponge, and the ‘night’ layers were chocolate). Then, after most people had left the table, Masha’s older brother turned up with some home-brewed vodka in a mineral water bottle labelled ‘The Source of Life’ – love the irony! He offered us some, and at first we declined, but Lena, our Russian teacher, decided that it was part of our Russian cultural education and insisted we try some! But actually, it wasn’t that bad! It was much better than the vodka I’ve had in the UK anyway. We drank out of shot glasses, but Masha’s brother took a tea-cup full each time. We were then taught the rules of each shot, which included the fact that you aren’t supposed to leave much time between the first and second shot, so we had to drink again! And then, after some chatting, we were talked into yet another shot… Having not drunk much alcohol since being here, I wasn’t sure how I would react, but I seemed to be okay! But the fourth offered shot was definitely a step too far and so we declined the ‘walking stick for the road’, as it’s known here. We were also offered tea etc etc, but we managed to get away in the end after an enjoyable evening.
As this week was half term for us teachers too, we’ve had no classes, so we’ve been doing a lot of ironing, and filling in time by attempting to complete the 500 piece puzzles that lie in a pile in the school supply cupboard. I say attempt, because they are often missing pieces – we tried to complete one of a Japanese castle the other day, but it was ridiculously difficult as there was so much blossom, so we had to call in extra help from Max, Katya and Sergei, and discovered that there were sixteen pieces missing!
Yesterday was possibly my favourite day here. After washing the dishes, we helped Max do the 500 piece tiger puzzle, only he kept telling us off for laughing too loudly! He often does this, so he’s now earned the title of the ‘Fun Police’, making sure that when you have fun, you aren’t having too much fun, and in a quiet manner…
After I polished some furniture and Lois cleaned out the fridge in Katya’s house, we watched a film about some of the wonders of the world, which was interesting, especially as we’d been to one of them, Tsarskoye Selo, when we were in St Petersburg last year. We had my favourite tea (Redbush tea), and coconut biscuits, which are always good.
In the afternoon, we requested to have a sort of craft club thing with the kids, and Masha told us we could have it at 4. However, at 3.30, little Katya came round to see where we were, and to inform us that everyone was waiting! I don’t understand what happened there, but we quickly threw some things in a bag and headed to the school. Lois had the great idea of using the felt I’d brought to create hairclips (she’d brought some plain ones), which went down well. We also took thread, so that the kids could make friendship bracelets, the magic painting things, which Katya loves (and Vanya painted one too), and Vanya and I made Olympic torches out of gold card and flame coloured tissue paper. It was a really fun way to spend 2 hours, especially as we hadn’t seen much of the kids, since we’d been ill, and also because there were no classes. We also had a really good turn out, seeing as Vika, Zhenya, Roma and Anton are away for half term, and a lot of other kids are ill.
The results of craft club!
To further add to this great day, we had a barbecue for dinner (even though it’s November), which included chicken with cheese and mushrooms, which was really good, and even had Pepsi, which seemed like a novelty! They were obviously expecting a lot more people to show up for dinner, but so many people are ill! We met Max’s ‘Godparent’ Steve, who is nice and also English!
After dinner, we were caught by Max, who wanted us to come to his house and play Game of Thrones with him and Steve, so we went, and had a really good time attempting to explain the ridiculously confusing rules to Steve, who speaks Russian, but phrases such as ‘mustering armies’ are obviously things you wouldn’t expect to need…! He also gave us some wine which was nice. Of course, the only rule you really need to know is the Max always wins.
Once we’d finished the game, which of course Max won, we went back to our room. After sitting for a while at a loose end, I had the idea of making brooches with the millions of safety pins I’d brought (the kit list said I’d need them… I didn’t). So now I have a blue flower hairclip and a cute owl brooch which Lois made me. I made her an I <3 1D broach, because she clearly does love them..!
Today is Sunday, so another rest day, and the end of the holiday. At the Community Meeting, we were told that this week is health week, so I think they’ll be keeping a closer eye on what everyone eats, and making sure everyone wears warm clothes etc – which means I have to start wearing a hat…
And that’s all for now!
Slightly big news – I have officially dropped Chinese, so I am now doing Single Honours Russian, which means that I won’t be going to China next year, and will be going to somewhere in Russia instead – although I have literally no idea where yet…!
Thanks for reading!
Saturday, 3 November 2012
A small update
For the past two days, Lois and I have experienced the worst sore throats we have ever had. Ever. I’m not exaggerating, the only other symptom I had was a horrible headache, but we couldn’t go outside for two days because we felt so rubbish. It hurt to breathe even. Katya and Yura brought us meals and checked on us. We spent the time sleeping/watching movies. They have a copy of the old BBC version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which is funny to watch (the animations are hilarious).
Galia remained her usual unsympathetic self. She said that we’d been relaxing all day, and that Lois should have said hello to her when she saw her. We don’t talk to her because she’s so miserable and we know we’ll normally just get a lecture from her! She didn’t bother to ask us if we were okay or anything. Although today, she did actually ask us at breakfast. There are lots of guests (at least 20) in the White House to help play the game thing, so that means huge queues for the only working bathroom! But Katya said we can take it easy today as we’re still recovering, so we’ve just been set some ironing, and we can watch the game if we want. However, as there were so many people at breakfast, there was a lot of washing up, and Anton was supposed to do it all by himself, so we lent a hand and washed up the cups and cutlery.
And that’s essentially what’s happened in the past few days! It’s now half-term, so that means no teaching, but I’m not sure what that will be replaced with.
We only have 23 days left now…
Galia remained her usual unsympathetic self. She said that we’d been relaxing all day, and that Lois should have said hello to her when she saw her. We don’t talk to her because she’s so miserable and we know we’ll normally just get a lecture from her! She didn’t bother to ask us if we were okay or anything. Although today, she did actually ask us at breakfast. There are lots of guests (at least 20) in the White House to help play the game thing, so that means huge queues for the only working bathroom! But Katya said we can take it easy today as we’re still recovering, so we’ve just been set some ironing, and we can watch the game if we want. However, as there were so many people at breakfast, there was a lot of washing up, and Anton was supposed to do it all by himself, so we lent a hand and washed up the cups and cutlery.
And that’s essentially what’s happened in the past few days! It’s now half-term, so that means no teaching, but I’m not sure what that will be replaced with.
We only have 23 days left now…
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