Bear Island

There is an organization at the academy that puts together activities for the staff and teachers here. The recently organized a trip to Bear Island to the north of Novosibirsk. Originally it was going to be me, Morgan, and the director (Marina Viktrovna). Well, I guess Marina never said she was going, I just assumed she was because she invited me and signed me up. Morgan had to back out because he has Aisic (no really sure what the acronym is of that organization) stuff to do. So, I went alone and found the mooring spot not too far from the university, about a thirty minute walk. Well, everyone was surprised on Monday that I found it on my own, but they did give an address. Well, as I understood it we would just bring our own food, take a boat ride up the river, walk around on the island for about half an hour then come back. The poster said there would be activities or "konkursy" games, etc. but I did not expect an all day affair!!!!! It was wonderful. On the ride north to the island this old man busts out traditional songs on his accordion, old women start dancing and singing. Ah it was so much fun. One old woman asked me to write something down for her, some numbers. She saw what I was writing and said give it here, you're writing in Arabic or something. Haha, I just wrte numbers differently than Russians. She was so funny.

This is a video of them singing and dancing.

On the trip there I sat with the very sweet and kind Galina Ivanovna, who was the only other person from the Foreign Languages Kafedra.

When we got to the island we broke into groups (foreign languages and law were together that day). We had our first concourse there, the table contest. Oh boy, Russians can decorate their tables:












More to come tomorrow about the crazy bear island

Arrival and first week and a half.

SO much has happened in the short week and a half that I have been in Novosibirsk. My arrival was late at night (well, I guess early, at 2 am I got to the dorm), thereby allowing me to get some rest before starting my day. My host contact is a wonderful woman, Elena Lyuks. She met me at the airport with her husband, Aleksandr (Sasha), who's 27). Elena is barely older than me. Sasha is a mecanic and will work himself to death. He is always busy working, but so is Elena.

I have a small but very comfortable office that I now share with a funny and sweet French guy named Morgan Melie (MeleeAY). He's from Bordeau and the Russians love him for it. One of my new friends, Sergei (he just graduated and works as an Economist for the Academy) asked him for advice in buying wine. Soon there will be a third foreign teacher with us, the former Fulbrighter here, Kevin Brondam. He arrives later this week.

Our office is part of a larger room called the "Upravlenie mezhdunarodnyx svyazei" which is like the Office of International Studies at Beloit. Well, when you walk into the upravlenie m.s. there is an office to the left where the director is, then our office, then another large office where Elena (hence known as Lena) works with Yulya, which leads into Irina Gulyaeva's office. We often take tea breaks and eat sweets together. What I like about this wonderful group is that they are always joking and being god-hearted. I like them very much.

I am not really sure who I am teaching longterm yet because I am waiting for Kevin to come, but it looks like I will have four classes a week, but they have asked me to go to so many extra ones that I have probably averaged 8. I even missed one because I was confused about what was actually mine and what they had just asked me to cover the week before when someone was sick. Oops. They yelled at me a bit for that, but they could see that I had innocently forgotten. I had actually been in the building the entire day, getting ready for my evening class.

All of the students are so friendly except for the class that had to do grammar with me. I thought they were going to kill me by the end. It was after all 6pm on a Saturday. They had six days of class that poor group. Why the Academy gave them grammar from 4:40 to 6pm on a Saturday is beyond me.

I really love my students so far, especially one group in particular. They aren't necessarily the best at English, but they're a great bunch. They're active and aren't too mean to each other when they get something wrong.