The Kremlin: Cathedral Square

Here are some photos from Cathedral Square in the Kremlin from Saturday: 

The entrance is in the back of this photo. Don't start thinking I am as short as I look here. I am standing down a step (just want to clarify). 

 Such a beautiful autumn day! I wish it would stay like this....I am afraid of what is to come in the next few weeks as far as weather goes....

     There are six buildings edging the square, 3 of which are enormous cathedrals. Most were designed by Italian architects in the 14/1500s. During Soviet Russia, they were shut down along with other religious buildings. I do not have photos of the insides of the cathedrals because photography is prohibited. I can just tell you that they were all gorgeous with dazzling chandeliers, and frescoes all over the walls and ceilings.

 The cathedral in the back on the right is the Cathedral of the Annunciation. That is where the royal families would go to worship, get married, baptize their children, etc.

The Cathedral of the Annunciation

This is The Assumption Cathedral.  From the 1500s until the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, this is where czars were crowned. 

The Assumption is the oldest cathedral in the square. It boggles my mind to be standing in buildings that are older than my country.  

    This is the Cathedral of the Archangel. Many royal czars (czars until the time of Peter the Great. Peter build St. Petersburg and made it the capital instead of Moscow) are buried in here.  This includes Ivan the Terrible and his sons...one son that he killed himself. I wanted to see Ivan's tomb, but I couldn't find it. So guess what? I asked the lady who worked there in RUSSIAN where to find it.  She understood my butchered up attempt at Russian, and responded. Based on her gestures and the few Russian words out of her mouth that I understood...I concluded that Ivan was behind a door she pointed to, but was not open to the public.  

Side note: It is beginning to be fun for me to try and communicate to the natives with the little Russian I am picking up...however I am positive that I have the thickest American accent ever. But I swear everyday I learn something new. I am enjoying it very much! 

I forget the name of this cathedral, but it was not open yesterday, so I didn't go inside. 

...did you know that this is the largest bell in the world? It is. The other side has a chunk of it that is cracked off...I tried to get a photo on that side but it was crawling with small children like ants. So I retreated to this side. 

    After my cathedral square excursion, I met my roommate at a mall because I needed to hunt for a new pillow. Instead of going straight to the store where I would find said pillow, we accidentally wandered around the mall. Then we accidentally went in a shop, accidentally found the sale rack, accidentally tried on several dresses with weird European sizes, and accidentally purchased dresses. Hate when that happens. 

...wished my mom was there. She usually acts as my personal assistant when shopping (hanging up all tried on clothes, separates between keep/not keep items, fetches different sizes when needed, tells me what she can tailor, etc). BUT LOOK MOM. I hung everything up myself, and found a dress that will not need tailored. 

I think it would look nice with a sash or belt of any color, tights, cardigan, etc, etc...

    Did I need to buy this dress? You may think the answer is "no"...but in reality the answer is "yes, yes I absolutely did need to buy it". I am related to Jerry DeRiso (my grandfather), which makes me a bargain shopper and it was only 500 rubles (about 15 bucks). Pap would be so proud. 

   I had plans to go shopping again today at a large store reminiscent of an unorganized version of TJMaxx around the corner from my flat. However, as it is already 3 pm and I am still in my bathrobe, and blogging with wet fingernails, my 4th cup of coffee, and need to tutor in 2 hours...I don't see that happening this afternoon. 

     Did I tell you that I am going to St. Petersburg next Monday? Well I am. We have a whole week off of school for fall break, so that is where I will be going with two of my pals, Jamie and Courtney. We are quite excited! 

     Also, my 2 month anniversary of living in Moscow is on Tuesday. I am shocked at how fast the first two months have flown by. 

-Gina

Intriguing

      On Saturday I wanted to venture out to visit a museum.  However, as most Saturdays go...I did not get a move on my day early enough (getting to be a bad habit, I must work on this). What I mean is that I bummed around in my PJs until about 4pm.

   I changed my plans to accommodate to my laziness, and decided to check out a monastery that would be open later instead.

    Before I arrived at The Monastery of St. Peter, I did not know what to expect.  I thought maybe it would just be like a big church and some buildings open to the public to wander through and look at.
(Side note: it took me about 45 minutes to find this monastery once I got off of the metro. My sense of direction is improving from being here, but I still just wander around until what I am looking for miraculously pops up in my face. Anyway...here are some photos from when I was aimlessly wandering around) :

   I have noticed advertisements for The Little Mermaid musical all over the city...and don't you know, I ran right into the theatre where it is showing! I almost ditched the search for the monastery and got in line for this. Then I remembered the monastery would be free...this show definitely was not. So I trekked on.

   For two seconds I thought maybe this church was what I was looking for. Then I remembered that the pictures on Google of The Monastery of St. Peter were of red buildings. "Nooooo, you Gina you!" I thought to myself. "This religious looking building is not red, silly!"

   Then suddenly...completely out of the blue...I turned a corner, and TA-DA! There was The Monastery of St. Peter:

"I knew I'd find it! Easy!"...I didn't just think that, it burst out of my mouth. A little family who was also entering this area heard me. The small children stared at me like I was a complete 3 headed alien. I just stared back and thought to myself "well I think you sound and look funny too!"....or maybe I said that out loud as well. You know what, I may have..but I don't remember...anyway, that's not the important part. The important part was that the females in this family had their hair completely covered as they entered. I was beginning to realize that the people showing up were here for an actual Russian Orthodox mass.  Not tourists wanting to gawk at an old beautifully decorated church. I thought "Good thing I wore a scarf today!" as I quickly wrapped it around my head to cover up my hair too.   I  could see inside this building, that there was in fact actual worship happening.

    Some background: This monastery was founded in the 1300s. In the 1700s, Peter the great sought refuge here when he was in some sort of trouble back in the day, and he had a hand in the construction of some of the buildings. Here, if you want to read more, click here---->HERE! 

  I could tell from what I could see through the windows, that this church was very pretty, and I decided I wanted to go inside. But, as there was real Russian Orthodox worship happening, I did not want to just barge in, do everything wrong, and offend the entire congregation. So I became the biggest creeper in all of Moscow.  I circled the outside of the entire church on tiptoe, as I peered in all the windows to make mental notes on what they were doing, so I knew how to behave once I entered. I'm not going to lie, I felt pretty mysterious as I slivered around the old church at dusk with my head covered in a black scarf.  My "playin' it cool" cover was almost blown when this thing showed up to creep on me while I creeped on the church:

  It proceeded to follow me and "meow" until I felt I creeped enough to enter the church.
Once I entered, I thought it would be best if I just acted like I was Russian and knew exactly was I was doing...and not lead on that I was actually copying everything the little babushka did in front of me.
No one was sitting, in fact there were not even pews. Everyone just stood around, and it seemed there was a line. So I got in it.  Did I know what was going on, or what I should do? No! But I bet the babushka in front me did, and I'd just copy! Anyway, what they do once to the front is this: They genuflect (and it is opposite from the way catholics genuflect), bow with their forehead touching a picture of Jesus, then kiss the picture....and THEN do the same thing with another picture of some other icon and flowers. After this, turn around, they walk straight back to the main priest and some of his monk friends. The priest dips a paint brush in oil, and marks the cross on their forehead. Then they kiss the priests wrist (before I did this, I contemplated for a moment whether or not I should ask him if he recently washed his hands...just as a precaution). Then comes the good part. They get the communion from a monk, which was some kind of delicious raspberry bread (I ALMOST got in line a second time so I could have another piece).
I copied all of this, as if I knew PRECISELY what I was doing, "because I do this every Saturday night".  I don't think anyone suspected a thing.

    After communion, the lights were turned out so that the whole building was only lit by candlelight....which was still pretty bright! There were many chandeliers hanging from the ceiling which was where many of the candles were located. The priest circled the standing congregation as he flung incense all over us. After this, the priest and monks stood for a long time on the alter with their backs towards us. There never was a sermon or lecture. Only a bunch of hymns echoing loudly. I really felt like I was put in a time machine. Throughout the hymns, people would randomly walk to the mosaics of Jesus and other icons on the wall, and kiss their feet.

   I copied as everyone would genuflect and bow together at what seemed to me as random times. One time, we genuflected and bowed at least 10 times in a row! After the 11th time, I stopped and thought "Alright thats enough, I already did yoga today", and decided it was time to go.

   I spent about an hour in there. People seemed to be coming and going the whole time, so I did not feel bad when it was my turn to peace out. The inside was absolutely beautiful, but if I whipped out my camera in the middle of their worship to a million photos, no one would think I was Russian anymore. So I do not have photos of the inside.



In 1st grade news: They are learning about the 4 seasons, so tomorrow I will be making this with them:

...I'm caving and letting them use scissors. I better still have all of my hair and limbs by the end of their lesson...

-Gina

10 quick stories....

1. I played this song quietly in the background with my 1st graders in an attempt to calm them down and create more peace and harmony:

2. I started playing "rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" with some of my first graders during their breaks this week. The little boy who recently learned the word "shoes" from me always says "rock, paper, scissors, SHOES!"  

3. In 3rd grade, two of my boys were verbally fighting in Russian.  Roman knows more English than Misha.  I wasn't sure what they were arguing about, but I said "Boys, stop fighting, be nice to each other.  Be friends."  Roman says in a calm, serious, Russian/British way "But Miss Gina I can't." I responded "Why not?" Roman: "I don't like Misha". Gina: "Why" Roman: "Because Misha stupid".  

...its hard not laugh when Misha has no idea what is being said, so he just smiles as he is unknowingly being torn to pieces by his "enemy of the day". 

4. My 3rd graders were learning how to describe people (what are they wearing, what color hair/eyes/height/etc.) I asked them to describe what I was wearing, hair color, etc. Here are some things that I got: "Miss Gina not tall, not short", "Miss Gina is brown straight hair", "Miss Gina has beautiful blue eyes!" (this started a trend), "Miss Gina has beautiful red trousers", "Miss Gina has got beautiful white clock (watch)", "Miss Gina has beautiful black eyebrows", "Miss Gina has beautiful shoes", Miss Gina has beautiful red mouth", "Miss Gina has beautiful long (points to sleeve) shirt".   Either these children think I'm the most gorgeous lady that walked the planet, or their adjective vocabulary is not so broad. I like to believe the first one, really boosted my self-esteem that day. 

5. I gave my 3rd graders an activity sheet where they were directed to draw specific articles of clothing on a person.  I was confused at first when for number 2 that said "blue pants", most of my students were drawing blue underwear on their person. Some children have learned British English.  I later learned that in British English, they use "pants" to say underwear. To say pants, they use trousers. 

6. While my 1st grade girls were getting ready for gym in their locker room, I noticed they were gossiping about each other. I don't specifically know what they were saying, but they were whispering, and mentioning another little girls name and looking at her. I don't need to fully understand Russian to know what was going on. So I started chanting and clapping in some impromptu made up rhythm: "Secrets, secrets are no fun, unless they're shared with everyone!" I did this over and over until some of them started to try to chime in.  One little girl even added a "Hey!" at the end.  I doubt they knew exactly what they were saying, but as long as they were too busy chanting to gossip to each other, I was happy.

 7. One of my 1st graders LOVES music and to sing. And let me tell you, she is a belter. I played this song over and over for her during playtime, until she started singing the chorus with me:

8. You should see my 1st grade boys play soccer at recess. The cutest, most hilarious thing ever. They are actually pretty good. They get really into it, and as I really don't know specifically what they are saying, I make up dialogue in my head. I should video tape them and add my made up dialogue subtitles one day.

9. I made my favorite soup for dinner last night (ham/cabbage/potato). As I was shopping for the ingredients, I ran into another English speaking American at the grocery store.  He bumped into me and said "Sorry". At first I was confused. (no one speaks English here... normally if someone were to bump into me, it would be followed by some mumbled jumbled letters and sounds towards me...or just nothing.) I was half paying attention so I didn't really think anything of it at first. He thought I was Russian so he was attempting to ask me in Russian if the fruit in his hand was an orange or a grapefruit. I was getting ready to spout out my Russian catchphrase (Ya-ne gavaroo pa-rooskee...."I don't speak Russian")..when I slowly realized that this man apologized to me in English! So I said "Do you speak English!?" He said "Yes! How do you know English so well? Are you American?" We then made quite a scene as we became the loud mouthed expressive Americans that we are.

10. After the grocery store, I went to another store to try to find a pot to cook my soup in.  Normally I think customer service here is awful, usually no one asks if you need help...which is ok, they usually do not know English and couldn't help me anyway. Which is why I was extremely flustered, nervous and uncomfortable when a man working at this store asked me if I needed help in Russian. I told him in Russian that I do not speak Russian, and then I told him in English (knowing he would not understand) "It is ok, you really won't be much help to me. I'll just figure it out myself like I always do. You can leave, I'm fine." He told me in Russian to stay right there.  I should've bolted out of there while I had a chance. In all honestly, I did not need help. I knew they did not have a pot I needed. I didn't need anyone to help me. But I did stay right there.  The gentleman came back with about 4 other people that worked there. They all were super tall and wearing red shirts as they completely surrounded me (kind of like the pirates from a few posts back...if you remember), which made me even more flustered.  One of the workers came forward as the one who "knows English" (but really he must've just started taking lessons the previous day) and slowly asked "Interested...uh... what you?" After I performed some pantomiming and very little Russian words...they basically told me they do not have what I am looking for.
No duh, people...but how nice of them for trying to help me.

11. (I know I said "10 quick stories"...but I thought of one more) I asked a  Russian colleague how to say "thirsty" in Russian. He did not understand what the word "thirsty" was in English, so he handed me my Russian/English translator and asked me to show him this word "thirsty" in the translator.  When I flipped to the "th" section in the dictionary he asked in a shocked voice "No f? Firsty not start with f?" This is ok, I make similar mistakes with Russian on (more than) a daily basis.

-Gina

Teacher's Day

The first Friday in October here is national Teacher's Day.  Just like on September 1st (Knowledge Day and first day of school), I could tell something was up from the minute I left my apartment in the morning. Children everywhere....with flowers and gifts (for their teachers). Festivities actually began yesterday (Thursday).  The children left school early, and the teachers had a party complete with teacher performances, a saxophone player, endless wine/champagne/fruit/sweets, and merriment.

Gifts started flowing from the students yesterday as well. I received a bottle of perfume from one of my second graders, which I traded with a Russian colleague for a more desirable gift that he received from  one of his students:

      

It's okay that I traded away some perfume yesterday...today I received more. I also received chocolates, teas, coffee, cookies, a generous gift card to a book store, and of course; flowers.

...I could get used to this Teacher Day business. I would be OK if the states stole this idea from Russia.

The English teachers were asked to perform something during the celebration yesterday, so we recorded our version of Justin Bieber's "Baby". It is silly, and if you would like to have a chuckle as I completely embarrass myself...check it out on my Facebook wall.

Go back and count how many times I used the word "received" in this post. Ah, where's my thesaurus when I need it...

-Gina

I Love Monday

....and by that, I mean only this Monday (today). My 1st graders were MIA as they were on an excursion to some bird park or something....which left me with a whole day to get work done in complete PEACE and QUIET. The only bad thing that happened today, was that I stepped on a thumb tack without shoes on. Unfortunately, there was no one there to help me.  Also unfortunately, if there was someone there to help me, they wouldn't help me. (English isn't easily understood in my work environment.) So if someone was there and heard me yelp in shock as my poor left heel was pinched...maybe they'd think I was just trying to sing, and clap for me. I actually don't know, I'm just making stuff up now.

So today I got some things done. I had my 1st graders create the letters of the alphabet with tissue paper glued onto paper plates.  I had time to hang those suckers up today:

 Look closely. I'm balancing on the arms of the chair so to be raised higher in order to reach. Did you know that teachers are balancing artists? Especially the short ones.
I made that up just now.

Some of the children were thrilled to return from their excursion and find their award winning works of art displayed above their lockers.

I also had time to create a "Behavior Traffic" chart for my 1st graders.  This is another attempt of mine to create peace and harmony in the 1st grade.  I got the idea from student teaching/my roommate, Ashley/I made stuff up.

Every child has their name on a clothespin. On Monday, everyone starts the week with a clean record on the green light...this is so they have a chance to show me (and the other teachers) good behavior.

If a child exhibits poor behavior (fighting, being obnoxiously disruptive during lessons, running away en route to dance class, smacking tea cups against the table at lunch, etc...), then their pin will move up to yellow (which is a warning):

If a child on yellow continues to misbehave, their name will be moved up to red. Red is where you do NOT want to be because it means you are destined to be sad and lonely during the all hailed time of recess.

After a child on red has served their time, their pin will be moved back down to yellow so they have a chance to improve their behavior, and join the gang for recess the following day. If a child whose pin is on red or yellow, shows major improvements in their behavior before recess...it is possible to move their pin back down (But at the teachers' discretion.  You can't give child X a bloody nose, try to redeem yourself by pushing in a chair, and expect to have recess...you just can't.) And obviously, if a child's pin arrives on red after recess on a certain day..then their sentence shall be served the following day (except Friday, in which case they will lose end of the day playtime).

    I started private tutoring last night. The little boy I tutor barely knows English, but I can tell he is really smart. He remembers a lot of what I say. I tutored him tonight too...by the end of our session he kept saying on repeat "GOOOD....JOB!" and putting his hand up for a high five.  I think he understands what it means...or just assumes that is what you say after you answer a question...regardless of the quality of the answer.
   Yesterday I caught on to the fact that he gets "How are you?", and "How old are you?" mixed up. We made paper people puppets, and my puppet asked his "How are you?" He just said "Yes". So I made him repeat "I am fine, thank you!". He got a little defensive and said "NYET! I am SIX!"
What is so wonderful is that both times I've tutored him so far, he gives me parting gifts. Gee...just what I've always wanted. Ninja lego trading cards in Russian, and lego accessories:

You may recall from a previous post the little lego man I confiscated from a 1st grader and found in my pants pocket a week later? I certainly am building quite the lego collection. I know you are so jealous.

I wish I had a cooler camera, that would capture how awesome the moon looked as I walked to the metro tonight after tutoring.  Just pretend the quality of this photo is better. Anyway, I love the moon.

-Gina

P.S. Here is an attempt to get a greater moon picture from my flat (Tuesday morning):