So now I've been here for 2 weeks. Hard to believe that time is passing so quickly!
There's nothing new here really, which is why I haven't posted anything for a few days. Classes start Monday so I have to finish lesson planning this afternoon. I did finally put some new pics on facebook, so those of you there should check them out.
Tomorrow most of us new teachers will be going on a school paid-for excursion to Burana Tower. I've heard it's worth it if you're not paying for it, so I'm not expecting anything amazing. But the other teachers Evan, Mike, and Andy (all British) are all fun so we'll have a great time together.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Campfire and Teaching Schedule
Sundays are lazy days in Bishkek for the most part. I went to the internet cafe and then played chess in our school courtyard. Little by little more and more teachers kept joining us outside (it was a beautiful fall day) and we decided that we should make a campfire. We found old wood behind the school and Ed from Alaska got a great fire going. We even bought redwine and some people made Gluehwein on the embers. It was really cold- I was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, my winter jacket, a scarf, and my knitted neon socks on my hands since I didn't bring any mittens. But it was wonderful. Then we had a movie night and I had my very first viewing of an Indiana Jones movie- we watched Temple of Doom in Katy's room. I guess we'll watch the 3rd one of the trilogy next week.
I also got my teaching schedule for next month! Every Thursday from 13:00-14:00 I'll have oral placement interviews. I will likely have an upper-intermediate class from 9:00-10:20, which means no sleeping in :(. Then I'll have classes from 16:00-20:20. Advanced 1, Advanced 4, and Upper Intermediate 2. I also get the 2 best students that all the teachers crave every month, so I guess I really can't complain! I had been expecting to have lower levels, but with such high levels we'll be doing less grammar and I guess a lot more fun stuff. So once I hear for sure that I have the 9:00 class, I'll start reading through textbooks and planning lessons. All the afternoon classes I'm inheriting from teachers now, so I'll just pick up wherever they left off in the textbook.
Also, I got my first letter in the mail. It was from my mom, and she had mailed it Sept 12. So 10 days is much faster than I thought! So all of you should start writing to me!
I also got my teaching schedule for next month! Every Thursday from 13:00-14:00 I'll have oral placement interviews. I will likely have an upper-intermediate class from 9:00-10:20, which means no sleeping in :(. Then I'll have classes from 16:00-20:20. Advanced 1, Advanced 4, and Upper Intermediate 2. I also get the 2 best students that all the teachers crave every month, so I guess I really can't complain! I had been expecting to have lower levels, but with such high levels we'll be doing less grammar and I guess a lot more fun stuff. So once I hear for sure that I have the 9:00 class, I'll start reading through textbooks and planning lessons. All the afternoon classes I'm inheriting from teachers now, so I'll just pick up wherever they left off in the textbook.
Also, I got my first letter in the mail. It was from my mom, and she had mailed it Sept 12. So 10 days is much faster than I thought! So all of you should start writing to me!
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Ala Archa National Park
I went to Ala Archa National Park with 8 other English speakers. Most of us are English teachers at The London School, but 3 are here learning Russian or Kyrgyz. We were 4 Americans, 1 Australian, and 4 Brits. We called 2 taxis to take us 45 km outside of Bishkek, into the mountains. We were dropped off at the end up the public road, 2,150 meters above sea level and next to an Alpine-esque hotel/bar. I was glad I'd brought my hoodie, corduroy jacket, and scarf, but thankfully Katy had extra gloves, otherwise my hands would have frozen.
There were 3 main paths to choose from, and we chose the waterfall path, a 3.75 km walk. We didn't realize that it would all be up steep mountain slopes. We trekked up and up over the snow-melt river and high up past the tree line. The "waterfall" we were aiming for ended up being a few droplets of water and lot of little icy hailstones falling high from the top of a rock face. We had a few minutes of a great view down in the valley, but the clouds descended quickly. It took us about 4 hours to get up the mountain, but we stopped rather frequently for food and water breaks, and to wait for the whole group to catch up. The higher peaks were covered in clouds the whole time, so I'm not sure how high they towered above us. Had we kept walking up, we'd have gotten to 3,300 meters and to a glacier, but my guidebook said that's for serious mountain people only, and altitude sickness really gets to a lot of people there, so it was definitely not a trek for me. Maybe next summer.
Apparently Ala Archa National Park is home to 170 animal species, including bear, wolves, lynx, wild boar, and even snow leopards, but we had to content ourselves with beetles and birds. Two people in our taxi saw a deer jump across the road, but I was unfortunately looking the other way at the time.
We got back down to the Alpine lodge around 4:30 pm, and sat inside for a while drinking tea and warming up. Some of the teachers who had been before said there was a "Bridge of Death" nearby. It was a wooden bridge that people had stolen all the wood boards from, and there were only two metal slats going across the raging river. So to get across, you had to spread your legs out and inch out on the metal beams. It didn't sound at all like my kind of bridge, but we didn't end up finding it at all, but we got close to the river and it was really clear and beautiful, so it was worth the little extra walk to the water's edge.
We hadn't asked our taxi drivers to wait for us. They would have (for 50 som/less than 2$ an hour), but we figured we'd try our luck finding a taxi or marshrutka/mini-bus back into Bishke, or of course hitchhike back, which they say is safe here. We called some cab companies, but they all refused to come all the way out of the city to pick us up. Katy said that marshrutkas picked up at the entrance to the park, 12 km lower down the mountain. So we walked down the road, hoping that a car would drive by and pick us up. In Kyrgyzstan, all cars basically can be taxis. Regular drivers often pick people up for some money, and I guess people also pick up hitchhikers for free. Around 10 cars and marshrutkas drove by while we were walking down, but none of them stopped to pick us up. Two hours later and after dark, when we finally got down to the entrance gate, it turned out there were no more marshrutkas leaving and there were also no cabs waiting around to pick people up. Ed, an Alaskan in Bishkek for 2 weeks studying intensive Russian and living in a host family, called his host dad, who owns 2 marshrutkas, and he agreed to come out and get all of us for 2000 som/55$ (6$/person). We hung out for 30 minutes at the gate, taking pictures of the bats flying around, and then had a nice clean marshrutka all to ourselves all the way back to the city. If Ed's host brother hadn't come to get us, we would really have had to figure some way to get 9 foreigners 45 km back into Bishkek. We had food and matches so we COULD have camped in the forest, but that would really have been last resort.
So it was a wonderful day in the wilderness, and it's so convenient that in just a half hour you can get out of the dirty busy city and into such pristine nature. We've already made plans to go again in the winter and frolick in the snow, and then maybe try for one of the glaciers in the spring/summer next year. I took tons of pictures, but it might take a while to upload them since it takes so long here. There's an internet cafe a bit farther away that has ActiveX on facebook so that it goes much faster, so when someone heads over there, I'll probably tag along.
I'm quite sore today, but actually didn't feel so exhausted during the walking. Tonight we are all taking it easy and having movie night in someone's apartment, and then I'll have to do my Russian homework at some point. I don't teach at all this week, so I'll again have LOTS of free time to fill. But I will find out my teaching schedule and I can finally start planning my lessons!
There were 3 main paths to choose from, and we chose the waterfall path, a 3.75 km walk. We didn't realize that it would all be up steep mountain slopes. We trekked up and up over the snow-melt river and high up past the tree line. The "waterfall" we were aiming for ended up being a few droplets of water and lot of little icy hailstones falling high from the top of a rock face. We had a few minutes of a great view down in the valley, but the clouds descended quickly. It took us about 4 hours to get up the mountain, but we stopped rather frequently for food and water breaks, and to wait for the whole group to catch up. The higher peaks were covered in clouds the whole time, so I'm not sure how high they towered above us. Had we kept walking up, we'd have gotten to 3,300 meters and to a glacier, but my guidebook said that's for serious mountain people only, and altitude sickness really gets to a lot of people there, so it was definitely not a trek for me. Maybe next summer.
Apparently Ala Archa National Park is home to 170 animal species, including bear, wolves, lynx, wild boar, and even snow leopards, but we had to content ourselves with beetles and birds. Two people in our taxi saw a deer jump across the road, but I was unfortunately looking the other way at the time.
We got back down to the Alpine lodge around 4:30 pm, and sat inside for a while drinking tea and warming up. Some of the teachers who had been before said there was a "Bridge of Death" nearby. It was a wooden bridge that people had stolen all the wood boards from, and there were only two metal slats going across the raging river. So to get across, you had to spread your legs out and inch out on the metal beams. It didn't sound at all like my kind of bridge, but we didn't end up finding it at all, but we got close to the river and it was really clear and beautiful, so it was worth the little extra walk to the water's edge.
We hadn't asked our taxi drivers to wait for us. They would have (for 50 som/less than 2$ an hour), but we figured we'd try our luck finding a taxi or marshrutka/mini-bus back into Bishke, or of course hitchhike back, which they say is safe here. We called some cab companies, but they all refused to come all the way out of the city to pick us up. Katy said that marshrutkas picked up at the entrance to the park, 12 km lower down the mountain. So we walked down the road, hoping that a car would drive by and pick us up. In Kyrgyzstan, all cars basically can be taxis. Regular drivers often pick people up for some money, and I guess people also pick up hitchhikers for free. Around 10 cars and marshrutkas drove by while we were walking down, but none of them stopped to pick us up. Two hours later and after dark, when we finally got down to the entrance gate, it turned out there were no more marshrutkas leaving and there were also no cabs waiting around to pick people up. Ed, an Alaskan in Bishkek for 2 weeks studying intensive Russian and living in a host family, called his host dad, who owns 2 marshrutkas, and he agreed to come out and get all of us for 2000 som/55$ (6$/person). We hung out for 30 minutes at the gate, taking pictures of the bats flying around, and then had a nice clean marshrutka all to ourselves all the way back to the city. If Ed's host brother hadn't come to get us, we would really have had to figure some way to get 9 foreigners 45 km back into Bishkek. We had food and matches so we COULD have camped in the forest, but that would really have been last resort.
So it was a wonderful day in the wilderness, and it's so convenient that in just a half hour you can get out of the dirty busy city and into such pristine nature. We've already made plans to go again in the winter and frolick in the snow, and then maybe try for one of the glaciers in the spring/summer next year. I took tons of pictures, but it might take a while to upload them since it takes so long here. There's an internet cafe a bit farther away that has ActiveX on facebook so that it goes much faster, so when someone heads over there, I'll probably tag along.
I'm quite sore today, but actually didn't feel so exhausted during the walking. Tonight we are all taking it easy and having movie night in someone's apartment, and then I'll have to do my Russian homework at some point. I don't teach at all this week, so I'll again have LOTS of free time to fill. But I will find out my teaching schedule and I can finally start planning my lessons!
Friday, September 19, 2008
One week down, 41 weeks to go
So I've been here a week. It's been a great week, even though I've spent most of my time by myself with nothing to do. I wanted this year to learn to be really independent, and that's what I'm getting!
On one of my many exploring-the-city walks, I happened upon a grocery store with no power. It was open, so I went in to check out how it worked with no electricity. It was really dark, and once you got a few aisles back, it was almost impossible to see very much. But lots of people were there, shopping away. I bought a Pepsi can just so I could check out, and they were doing the registers all by hand. Writing down the item, the bar code number, and then calling one of the three security guards to run and do a price check. Then they added it all up on a calculator. They all seemed very used to the whole process.
Technically I should find out my teaching schedule for October today, but that hasn't happened yet and probably won't happen at all. On Monday I'll go to the office and see if they know yet, and then I can start planning my first lessons!
I now know how to have a basic conversation in Russian. Today we started family members, and I have to write a composition about my family for Monday.
Tomorrow we're going to Ala Archa mountain/valley/national park (I'm not really sure which one). It's about 45 km from Bishkek. That's all I know. But no matter what it should be fun!
Bishkek usually has 247 sunny days a year, which means that tomorrow should be wonderful! It's finally cooled down to fall crispness, so it's perfect walking weather. There hasn't been a drop of rain since I've been here, but I don't know what the forecast for this next week is.
On one of my many exploring-the-city walks, I happened upon a grocery store with no power. It was open, so I went in to check out how it worked with no electricity. It was really dark, and once you got a few aisles back, it was almost impossible to see very much. But lots of people were there, shopping away. I bought a Pepsi can just so I could check out, and they were doing the registers all by hand. Writing down the item, the bar code number, and then calling one of the three security guards to run and do a price check. Then they added it all up on a calculator. They all seemed very used to the whole process.
Technically I should find out my teaching schedule for October today, but that hasn't happened yet and probably won't happen at all. On Monday I'll go to the office and see if they know yet, and then I can start planning my first lessons!
I now know how to have a basic conversation in Russian. Today we started family members, and I have to write a composition about my family for Monday.
Tomorrow we're going to Ala Archa mountain/valley/national park (I'm not really sure which one). It's about 45 km from Bishkek. That's all I know. But no matter what it should be fun!
Bishkek usually has 247 sunny days a year, which means that tomorrow should be wonderful! It's finally cooled down to fall crispness, so it's perfect walking weather. There hasn't been a drop of rain since I've been here, but I don't know what the forecast for this next week is.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Russian
I had my first Russian lesson today. Didn't cover much, just greetings and how to introduce people to each other. My teacher doesn't speak much English, so I'm sure I won't get any linguistic definitions like I'd like. But she's nice and it's just one-on-one, so we can progress at whatever level I want. I meet with her MTThF 13:40-14:40 for the rest of this month, and then October will be figured out once my teaching schedule is set in stone. Lessons cost 100 som/ hour, which is less than 3 dollars. What a bargain compared to what it would be at home with a legit teacher- more than 25 dollars/ hour! I did my homework already, I had to write my own dialogue about saying hello, goodbye, my name, where I'm from, and introducing someone else. It took less than 10 minutes.
My stove isn't broken, I was just too scared to put the lighter close enough to light the stove. Now I've discovered that I can use a candle as the middle man and then it lights fine. So I have to go buy some food now, I've lived this entire week on one pot of chicken broth with noodles in it and part of the box of Wheat Thins that I brought from home. At this rate I will gain no weight this year!
My stove isn't broken, I was just too scared to put the lighter close enough to light the stove. Now I've discovered that I can use a candle as the middle man and then it lights fine. So I have to go buy some food now, I've lived this entire week on one pot of chicken broth with noodles in it and part of the box of Wheat Thins that I brought from home. At this rate I will gain no weight this year!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Kyrgyzstan has the 9th highest murder rate in the world according to The Economist
So another few days have passed. I've been busy!
Some more observations: Kyrgyz men squat. When waiting for a bus or just resting, they squat on the sidewalk. Shawn Savage had pictures of men in Georgia doing the same thing, so I wonder if it's a former Soviet thing. I'll have to start waiting for the bus/mashrutka that way.
I've been out a few more times with the other teachers and students here learning Russian, and it's so much fun with them. We went to a Kyrgyz restaurant right across the street from our school and we had shaslyk, which is basically like a long giant shish kebab with fatty mutton. It was juicy and goood. I also had my first entire glass of beer! It was Russian beer and not too bad... at the next place we went I had Kyrgyz beer, which wasn't nearly as good... probably because it has live yeast which apparently isn't how beer usually is.
A few of us have decided to probably go to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan for Xmas and New Years. We'll have to start looking into visa stuff and planning a more specific itinerary. Saturday we're going hiking, and next Wednesday there's a school excursion to a tower nearby.
I start Russian lessons tomorrow! It will be one-on-one, so hopefully I'll get a lot out of it. I signed up for 4 hours a week, so hopefully I'll have some survival phrases in just a few days. I also have another observation.
I just got back from a Turkish restaurant where I had AWESOME Iskender kebab, almost as good at Jalopeno in Tampere. Tonight after I observe Talking Club we're going to an expat place for burritos. I've been eating out a lot, but I justify it by saying I have to try local stuff! Plus I think my stove is broken.
I walked downtown yesteday to find the post office, so I got to see the more touristy things. The White House, Ala-Too square, the changing of the guards, and a bunch of statues... I'll post pictures on facebook in the next few days.
I'm trying to learn as much British English as possible, because there are 5 people here from England. It's great because basically everyday there's an argument between the Americans and the Brits about pronunciation or word choice. I love linguistics :)
Even though today is actually a "weekend" (no classes taught), there is Talking Club to observe. Poka! (Goodbye in Russian)
Some more observations: Kyrgyz men squat. When waiting for a bus or just resting, they squat on the sidewalk. Shawn Savage had pictures of men in Georgia doing the same thing, so I wonder if it's a former Soviet thing. I'll have to start waiting for the bus/mashrutka that way.
I've been out a few more times with the other teachers and students here learning Russian, and it's so much fun with them. We went to a Kyrgyz restaurant right across the street from our school and we had shaslyk, which is basically like a long giant shish kebab with fatty mutton. It was juicy and goood. I also had my first entire glass of beer! It was Russian beer and not too bad... at the next place we went I had Kyrgyz beer, which wasn't nearly as good... probably because it has live yeast which apparently isn't how beer usually is.
A few of us have decided to probably go to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan for Xmas and New Years. We'll have to start looking into visa stuff and planning a more specific itinerary. Saturday we're going hiking, and next Wednesday there's a school excursion to a tower nearby.
I start Russian lessons tomorrow! It will be one-on-one, so hopefully I'll get a lot out of it. I signed up for 4 hours a week, so hopefully I'll have some survival phrases in just a few days. I also have another observation.
I just got back from a Turkish restaurant where I had AWESOME Iskender kebab, almost as good at Jalopeno in Tampere. Tonight after I observe Talking Club we're going to an expat place for burritos. I've been eating out a lot, but I justify it by saying I have to try local stuff! Plus I think my stove is broken.
I walked downtown yesteday to find the post office, so I got to see the more touristy things. The White House, Ala-Too square, the changing of the guards, and a bunch of statues... I'll post pictures on facebook in the next few days.
I'm trying to learn as much British English as possible, because there are 5 people here from England. It's great because basically everyday there's an argument between the Americans and the Brits about pronunciation or word choice. I love linguistics :)
Even though today is actually a "weekend" (no classes taught), there is Talking Club to observe. Poka! (Goodbye in Russian)
Monday, September 15, 2008
Slow internet
I was going to post my first set of pictures, but the internet here is too slow. Maybe tomorrow!
I learned that the heating is not connected with the electricity. Instead, hot water runs through and heats the pipes/radiator, so that when we have blackouts in the winter I won't freeze.
Also, it's interesting that a lot of the cars here have the steering wheels on the right side. Since cars drive on the right, it must make things a little bit more confusing.
I went out to dinner last night with some of the teachers- we went to a Kyrgyz place called Jalalabad. We sat at one of those tables where you take your shoes off and sit cross-legged. We all had plov, which is one of the national dishes here. It's rice with grated carrots and peppers, topped with meat. It was pretty good!
I slept through the whole night last night! I'm trekking downtown today to mail a letter to Aissa, and then I'm observing my first class tonight so see how the other teachers run things.
I learned that the heating is not connected with the electricity. Instead, hot water runs through and heats the pipes/radiator, so that when we have blackouts in the winter I won't freeze.
Also, it's interesting that a lot of the cars here have the steering wheels on the right side. Since cars drive on the right, it must make things a little bit more confusing.
I went out to dinner last night with some of the teachers- we went to a Kyrgyz place called Jalalabad. We sat at one of those tables where you take your shoes off and sit cross-legged. We all had plov, which is one of the national dishes here. It's rice with grated carrots and peppers, topped with meat. It was pretty good!
I slept through the whole night last night! I'm trekking downtown today to mail a letter to Aissa, and then I'm observing my first class tonight so see how the other teachers run things.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Bishkek observations
So this is my second full day here. Jet lag is killing me- I stay up basically all night but then want to sleep all day. The first night there was no power so there was REALLY nothing to do- I listened to my iPod for hours before I finally fell asleep... until 2:30 pm. Last night there was power so I watched a movie (Maedchen Maedchen 2) and then Aissa called me so I talked to him for 20 minutes until his 5$ phone card ran out. Then I just lay around, unpacked some more, looked up some Russian words, and then stared at the ceiling until I finally fell asleep around 4 am and woke up again at 8:30 am. I went on a walk and tried to use the internet cafe, but there was no power so it was of course closed. So I went home and fell asleep for 4 hours. I just went to the grocery store and bought some essentials, cooked some pasta, and now I'm here. The internet is suuuper slow.
I haven't walked much beyond my neighborhood, but what I've seen around my apartment is really nice (considering I'm in Kyrgyzstan). It reminds me a LOT of Bulgaria and Eastern Europe, which makes me feel comfortable here. There are lots of trees on the streets, and a little canal/runoff/(not sewage) brook running alongside the sidewalks. There is less garbage here than I saw in Bulgaria, but I guess I live in a rich part of town, and so that could be the reason. The mountains in the distance are GIANT and snowcapped,I wasn't able to get a good picture because it's pretty hazy out. There are stray dogs running around, but they are all small and cute and not scary, which is always good.
I really speak no Russian, but unlike in Finland where I could get around with English most everywhere, no many people here speak English. I managed to buy a phone card with just a few Russian words and then some Bulgarian mixed in, and I don't think he ripped me off either. I've been using my byki.com Russian computer flashcards when there's power and I'm awake at night because I'd like to get as fluent as possible! I can take one-on-one lessons at the school. Tomorrow I have to get that figured out. The other teachers say they take only 2 hours per week, but I would like to take a lot more than that if possible. I'll only teach 21 hours a week, and the other teachers say lesson planing doesn't take very long, so rather than doing nothing like I've done the past days, I'd like to take Russian whenever I can. The people here are very friendly and seem to be interested in foreigners. I've been told that it's safe for me to walk around during the day by myself, and so far I've never felt uncomfortable or scared while I've been wandering around.
I met with the director of the school on Friday, and I saw the classroom I'll be teaching in. I'll have 8 students per class, 4 classes a day, 4 days a week. Beginning levels are taught by local teachers, so I'll have classes from Elementary-Advanced. Most of the are teenagers, but some adults take evening classes. If needed, I will have to teach a 5th class some months, but I'd get an additional 150$ for that month. So rather than having an academic year, classes meet all the time and are one month long. So every month I will have new students and possibly new levels. That means I'll get to cover a vast array of topics and meet a lot of different students, which will make things less likely to be repetitive. I start teaching on Sept 29th, so I have a whole week (starting tomorrow) of classroom observations so I can get an idea of how classes are organized.
My first night I went out with the other teachers and English-speaking Russian students here. The first restaurant we went to wasn't serving food. Then the pizza place we went to didn't have pizza. We finally ended up at a Turkish restaurant which had no alcohol because of Ramadan, but we stayed there anyways because we were sick of wandering all around looking for food. I had chicken kebab (like meat on a stick, rather than a doener). It was fine. There was a Kyrgyz guy who is friends with the teachers. He went to college in Montana and visited both Connecticut and the Twin Cities last summer! So we had a lot to talk about. The other teachers are all interesting and cool. Since that night I haven't seen much of them, but Tuesday and Friday nights are "going out" nights, so I'll see them again in a few days.
My apartment is just fine. My bed is actually a fold-down couch, but it's really comfortable. I have a table, a stool, an ancient gas stove, a sink, a cupboard, an easy chair, and a wardrobe. I share a bathroom, shower, washer, and fridge with another new teacher, Nicola, who just arrived this morning. I haven't even met her yet. Our shower is super short so I have to slouch the whole time and be careful not to hit my elbows on the ceiling. But the water and gas don't run on electricity, so there are still some things I can do when the power goes out!
I will post pictures at some point. I'm not sure these internet cafes (called internet clubs here) have USB ports accessible, but Jane puts lots of pics online, so I'll have to ask her where she does it. For now, you'll just have to imagine.
It's hot and sunny here, but the leaves are changing.
So that's all for now!
I haven't walked much beyond my neighborhood, but what I've seen around my apartment is really nice (considering I'm in Kyrgyzstan). It reminds me a LOT of Bulgaria and Eastern Europe, which makes me feel comfortable here. There are lots of trees on the streets, and a little canal/runoff/(not sewage) brook running alongside the sidewalks. There is less garbage here than I saw in Bulgaria, but I guess I live in a rich part of town, and so that could be the reason. The mountains in the distance are GIANT and snowcapped,I wasn't able to get a good picture because it's pretty hazy out. There are stray dogs running around, but they are all small and cute and not scary, which is always good.
I really speak no Russian, but unlike in Finland where I could get around with English most everywhere, no many people here speak English. I managed to buy a phone card with just a few Russian words and then some Bulgarian mixed in, and I don't think he ripped me off either. I've been using my byki.com Russian computer flashcards when there's power and I'm awake at night because I'd like to get as fluent as possible! I can take one-on-one lessons at the school. Tomorrow I have to get that figured out. The other teachers say they take only 2 hours per week, but I would like to take a lot more than that if possible. I'll only teach 21 hours a week, and the other teachers say lesson planing doesn't take very long, so rather than doing nothing like I've done the past days, I'd like to take Russian whenever I can. The people here are very friendly and seem to be interested in foreigners. I've been told that it's safe for me to walk around during the day by myself, and so far I've never felt uncomfortable or scared while I've been wandering around.
I met with the director of the school on Friday, and I saw the classroom I'll be teaching in. I'll have 8 students per class, 4 classes a day, 4 days a week. Beginning levels are taught by local teachers, so I'll have classes from Elementary-Advanced. Most of the are teenagers, but some adults take evening classes. If needed, I will have to teach a 5th class some months, but I'd get an additional 150$ for that month. So rather than having an academic year, classes meet all the time and are one month long. So every month I will have new students and possibly new levels. That means I'll get to cover a vast array of topics and meet a lot of different students, which will make things less likely to be repetitive. I start teaching on Sept 29th, so I have a whole week (starting tomorrow) of classroom observations so I can get an idea of how classes are organized.
My first night I went out with the other teachers and English-speaking Russian students here. The first restaurant we went to wasn't serving food. Then the pizza place we went to didn't have pizza. We finally ended up at a Turkish restaurant which had no alcohol because of Ramadan, but we stayed there anyways because we were sick of wandering all around looking for food. I had chicken kebab (like meat on a stick, rather than a doener). It was fine. There was a Kyrgyz guy who is friends with the teachers. He went to college in Montana and visited both Connecticut and the Twin Cities last summer! So we had a lot to talk about. The other teachers are all interesting and cool. Since that night I haven't seen much of them, but Tuesday and Friday nights are "going out" nights, so I'll see them again in a few days.
My apartment is just fine. My bed is actually a fold-down couch, but it's really comfortable. I have a table, a stool, an ancient gas stove, a sink, a cupboard, an easy chair, and a wardrobe. I share a bathroom, shower, washer, and fridge with another new teacher, Nicola, who just arrived this morning. I haven't even met her yet. Our shower is super short so I have to slouch the whole time and be careful not to hit my elbows on the ceiling. But the water and gas don't run on electricity, so there are still some things I can do when the power goes out!
I will post pictures at some point. I'm not sure these internet cafes (called internet clubs here) have USB ports accessible, but Jane puts lots of pics online, so I'll have to ask her where she does it. For now, you'll just have to imagine.
It's hot and sunny here, but the leaves are changing.
So that's all for now!
Friday, September 12, 2008
Bishkek
So I arrived safely! I got in at 5:00 am local time, which is 6 pm Thursday Minnesota time. The flight was long, but here I am!
I haven't seen or done much- got to my apartment and have slept ever since. I'll post pics when I get the chance. Now I'm off to a meeting with the director of the school, and later I think I'm going to bar/cafe with some of the other English teachers.
That's it for now, Greetings to all from Kyrgyzstan!
I haven't seen or done much- got to my apartment and have slept ever since. I'll post pics when I get the chance. Now I'm off to a meeting with the director of the school, and later I think I'm going to bar/cafe with some of the other English teachers.
That's it for now, Greetings to all from Kyrgyzstan!
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