A very happy holidays to all! I'm finding it very hard to believe that December is already coming to a close, and that 2017 is looming just days away. I hope everyone is having a wonderful festive season and enjoying some family time or simply relaxing time in the sun or the snow.
Trying to gather my thoughts and stories for this entry has been a bit overwhelming- in only a month so many things (good bad and plainly ridiculous) have happened that is hard to know where to start! But I suppose there have been three major events that have taken place and drastically influenced my December- Firstly, I've started working, secondly, I starting taking dance classes, and finally I bought ice skates. I also cried watching the new Disney movie (Moana, dubbed into Russian) (there's something about being away from your family that really raises the emotional vulnerability levels) (also I wasn't the only one crying Emily I'm looking at you), braved a Russian beauty salon to have my eyebrows/eyelashes tinted and then was somehow surprised when the result was not quite as expected (read- somehow my eyebrows became the main feature of my face can I hear you say DEFINITION) and tried to take a vocally led yoga class and of course couldn't understand anything (we haven't really been working on yoga vocab in class) which was both humiliating and hilarious.
The job interview I mentioned in my last entry was successful, and I am now working as a substitute teacher for the Anglo American School of Moscow- a huge international school connected to the American, Canadian and British Embassies that offers a normal elementary, middle and high school program but taught entirely in English. So far I've been a middle school maths teacher, a high school film and photography buff, and a pre-k (3-4 year old) assistant- the last of which was for an entire week. I ended the week with glitter everywhere, and my hair smelling of gingerbread, but actually being paid to more or less play all day is pretty dang cool. Not only is having an income (and a really good one by Moscow standards) such a relief, working for AAS also means I can borrow books from their extensive English/Russian library (I currently have the max loan, ie 15 books) and I can play the pianos in their music rooms- I feel like the luckiest girl in the world. The only downside is that working in English has slowed my Russian acquisition, as there is now none of the survival panic that was fuelling my learning before. I am well and truly back in my language comfort zone and so am working really hard to stop myself from spending too much leisure time in English as well.
Luckily I have countered this somewhat with Model-357- a dance studio offering classes from hip hop to contemporary, from jazz funk to reggaeton. Dance classes are exorbitantly expensive in Australia, but in Moscow you can find top-notch tuition for an extremely reasonable price. My very first class was a dancehall lesson- which I signed up for, got changed, found a place towards the back of the class, and then was hit with several realisations at once. Firstly, I have never danced dancehall (google it- kinda Caribbean social hiphop), secondly, I hadn't taken a dance class in oh, at least a decade, and thirdly, that the class would (duh Lucy) be taught in Russian. And my dance vocab is similar to my yoga vocab- non-existent. Well! I could just keep up with the moves, and found myself having an amazing time regardless. Since then I've dabbled with jazz funk (great fun), contemporary (way out of my league- filled with complicated floor moves with looked extremely graceful when the teacher did them but just looked like I was having some sort of very active wide-ranging fit when I tried), strip (my most successful class which clearly says something about my normal dance style), and hip hop choreo (about as successful as contemporary aka dismal failure). I'm there for a couple of hours most days, it really is becoming my happy place (and oh man are my muscles getting a wake up call).
In what seems to be my continuing quest to become a feminine force to be reckoned with (I mean really, dance classes? Beauty salon? A new found affinity for red lipstick? Intervention plz) I also bought ice skates. Of the white, dainty, figure skating variety (in my defence they were on sale but anyway). For a mere 500 roubles (aka about 12AUD) I am set for the winter and many winters to come. Glory! The only small setback to my ascension to figure skating glory is that I'd only skated maybe 3 times in my life, none of which were recently. A fact that came back to me with painful clarity when I donned my skates for the first time and almost took out a security guard just trying to walk to the rink. However, I happily (tentatively)(extremely tentatively) stepped my way around the path (natural rink in a beautiful park in central Moscow) and after about half an hour had made an appreciable distance. A girl at the ice rink alone is a very rare sight (/never seen any other ladies there without their male accessories) and with my baby-giraffe vibe I have met many knights keen to help a damsel in distress- Max implored me to just yell his name if I get into trouble and he'll be right there to help me (and to be fair he pulled me out of my face-plant-into-snow-bed pretty speedily even though due to face full of snow I couldn't really summon him) Makar and Dima collectively caught me when I was on my way to a icy tumble, and Denis (who happens to be an ice hockey coach) has been giving me intensive lessons which have been so helpful (except for when he suggested I practice falling. No Denis. No). The cool thing about all of these interactions is they double as Russian practice, and I can't help but feel a glow of pride when I can answer off the cuff when they ask me questions or just say hi (though they always figure out I'm a foreigner from my accent pretty quick but hey.) And my professional skating debut? Well. I'm glad you asked. Before Denis began giving me skate lessons he roped me into a holiday skating competition, which involved slalom, limbo, and jumping over a pole. All this on my first day skating, where to say I was even skating is using the term quite broadly. I emphatically refused, but then it became apparent that the competition was actually just against myself and Denis was happy to just pull me around- all I had to do was hang on and stay upright, and jump at the right moment, and I was rewarded with a festively wrapped tube of Pringles (see photo below). However, Mum says that now I've won a prize that makes me a professional so I'm off to buy the Olympic uniform now as an investment for future success.
Moscow really dresses up for the festive season, as you'll see from the pics below. The main event is New Year- Christian Christmas isn't really a big deal but ooooh New Years is. Looking forward to some pretty impressive fireworks.
С новым годом! (Happy New Year! And also I typed that all by myself in but a moment- making hella progress on typing front).
Peace, Lucy.
Trying to gather my thoughts and stories for this entry has been a bit overwhelming- in only a month so many things (good bad and plainly ridiculous) have happened that is hard to know where to start! But I suppose there have been three major events that have taken place and drastically influenced my December- Firstly, I've started working, secondly, I starting taking dance classes, and finally I bought ice skates. I also cried watching the new Disney movie (Moana, dubbed into Russian) (there's something about being away from your family that really raises the emotional vulnerability levels) (also I wasn't the only one crying Emily I'm looking at you), braved a Russian beauty salon to have my eyebrows/eyelashes tinted and then was somehow surprised when the result was not quite as expected (read- somehow my eyebrows became the main feature of my face can I hear you say DEFINITION) and tried to take a vocally led yoga class and of course couldn't understand anything (we haven't really been working on yoga vocab in class) which was both humiliating and hilarious.
The job interview I mentioned in my last entry was successful, and I am now working as a substitute teacher for the Anglo American School of Moscow- a huge international school connected to the American, Canadian and British Embassies that offers a normal elementary, middle and high school program but taught entirely in English. So far I've been a middle school maths teacher, a high school film and photography buff, and a pre-k (3-4 year old) assistant- the last of which was for an entire week. I ended the week with glitter everywhere, and my hair smelling of gingerbread, but actually being paid to more or less play all day is pretty dang cool. Not only is having an income (and a really good one by Moscow standards) such a relief, working for AAS also means I can borrow books from their extensive English/Russian library (I currently have the max loan, ie 15 books) and I can play the pianos in their music rooms- I feel like the luckiest girl in the world. The only downside is that working in English has slowed my Russian acquisition, as there is now none of the survival panic that was fuelling my learning before. I am well and truly back in my language comfort zone and so am working really hard to stop myself from spending too much leisure time in English as well.
Luckily I have countered this somewhat with Model-357- a dance studio offering classes from hip hop to contemporary, from jazz funk to reggaeton. Dance classes are exorbitantly expensive in Australia, but in Moscow you can find top-notch tuition for an extremely reasonable price. My very first class was a dancehall lesson- which I signed up for, got changed, found a place towards the back of the class, and then was hit with several realisations at once. Firstly, I have never danced dancehall (google it- kinda Caribbean social hiphop), secondly, I hadn't taken a dance class in oh, at least a decade, and thirdly, that the class would (duh Lucy) be taught in Russian. And my dance vocab is similar to my yoga vocab- non-existent. Well! I could just keep up with the moves, and found myself having an amazing time regardless. Since then I've dabbled with jazz funk (great fun), contemporary (way out of my league- filled with complicated floor moves with looked extremely graceful when the teacher did them but just looked like I was having some sort of very active wide-ranging fit when I tried), strip (my most successful class which clearly says something about my normal dance style), and hip hop choreo (about as successful as contemporary aka dismal failure). I'm there for a couple of hours most days, it really is becoming my happy place (and oh man are my muscles getting a wake up call).
In what seems to be my continuing quest to become a feminine force to be reckoned with (I mean really, dance classes? Beauty salon? A new found affinity for red lipstick? Intervention plz) I also bought ice skates. Of the white, dainty, figure skating variety (in my defence they were on sale but anyway). For a mere 500 roubles (aka about 12AUD) I am set for the winter and many winters to come. Glory! The only small setback to my ascension to figure skating glory is that I'd only skated maybe 3 times in my life, none of which were recently. A fact that came back to me with painful clarity when I donned my skates for the first time and almost took out a security guard just trying to walk to the rink. However, I happily (tentatively)(extremely tentatively) stepped my way around the path (natural rink in a beautiful park in central Moscow) and after about half an hour had made an appreciable distance. A girl at the ice rink alone is a very rare sight (/never seen any other ladies there without their male accessories) and with my baby-giraffe vibe I have met many knights keen to help a damsel in distress- Max implored me to just yell his name if I get into trouble and he'll be right there to help me (and to be fair he pulled me out of my face-plant-into-snow-bed pretty speedily even though due to face full of snow I couldn't really summon him) Makar and Dima collectively caught me when I was on my way to a icy tumble, and Denis (who happens to be an ice hockey coach) has been giving me intensive lessons which have been so helpful (except for when he suggested I practice falling. No Denis. No). The cool thing about all of these interactions is they double as Russian practice, and I can't help but feel a glow of pride when I can answer off the cuff when they ask me questions or just say hi (though they always figure out I'm a foreigner from my accent pretty quick but hey.) And my professional skating debut? Well. I'm glad you asked. Before Denis began giving me skate lessons he roped me into a holiday skating competition, which involved slalom, limbo, and jumping over a pole. All this on my first day skating, where to say I was even skating is using the term quite broadly. I emphatically refused, but then it became apparent that the competition was actually just against myself and Denis was happy to just pull me around- all I had to do was hang on and stay upright, and jump at the right moment, and I was rewarded with a festively wrapped tube of Pringles (see photo below). However, Mum says that now I've won a prize that makes me a professional so I'm off to buy the Olympic uniform now as an investment for future success.
Moscow really dresses up for the festive season, as you'll see from the pics below. The main event is New Year- Christian Christmas isn't really a big deal but ooooh New Years is. Looking forward to some pretty impressive fireworks.
С новым годом! (Happy New Year! And also I typed that all by myself in but a moment- making hella progress on typing front).
Peace, Lucy.
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