NaNoNoWriNoMo
With this post I am falling out of the NaNoWriMo competition. (Post title means National Novel No Wri' No Mo') I still like my original plan and think that it would have worked quite well. Except the first week I didn't teach so my schedule was a little looser than usual which interprets to I felt lazy and didn't start for the whole first week. On the upside, I gathered a lot of stories from my students. Some of them are unbelievably hilarious. It would be a pity to loose them, so although I won't reach the 50,000 word cut off by a long shot, I will be writing a few short stories. Then as I get a chance I'll edit them and serve them up for your reading pleasure.
I had many plans for last weekend. Of them, I honestly don't think I finished even one. But I did have an enjoyable time. Saturday I arrived halfway through the lesson study. I tend to do that because listening to two back to back talks fries my brain. I can almost manage one and a half, but even that depletes my mental resources. Following the main service I had planned on heading over to the office and printing out the handouts to be used at the afternoon English class. Except that one lady came up and grabbed me to show me something. Her name is Olga and she was my translator. As we were walking to the place she wanted to show me, she explained that from now on she would not be helping out as translator. Her reason was nice enough I suppose - she thinks that the way I run the Friday and Saturday extra classes are better than the way others have in the past. I make her job unnecessary. Class moves along fine and when somebody doesn't understand something there are others who do and can explain.
After a short five minute walk, we arrived at an old Catholic church. After the war the place was in pretty sorry shape. I forget when, but I think that it was in the early 80s, it was restored to be a concert hall. Now the building houses the Kaliningrad Philharmonia and is the location for a number of concerts. Olga invited me to attend the concert that evening, and I decided to take her up on the offer figuring that she must have some friends that could sneak her in for free. Agreeing on a time to meet, I high-tailed it for the nearest bus stop to try and make it to the office. When I hopped on my bus and sat down, I was surprised that somebody came up and started speaking English to me. It was a nice Polish dude named Gregory. He had tried to invite me over to his apartment for lunch before but I had been busy. Now, looking at his watch, he figured that I would have time to stop by for 15 minutes worth of tea. I politely declined stating that I really had to make copies. He understood, then mentioned that Kristina was with him and would be there for tea. Now that changed the story! Just kidding.
As I got up at my stop, Gregory and Kristina were getting off too. Surprise, surprise. Certainly I could find the time to just walk with them the five minutes to the apartment, right? Well, I supposed I could manage that. When we got to the outside of his building, he thought that perhaps I could come up for a brief 5-minute tea. Okay, I thought. After drinking his tea and learning what was on the menu for lunch, I thanked both of them and politely excused myself. Running to the office, I made my copies and was only a few minutes late for my 3 o'clock class.
As we were walking from the bus stop to his apartment, I was not an active participant in the conversation, but listened with some interest. Gregory teaches German at the same school where I teach. He actually works for the school teaching schoolchildren while I work for a company that rents a few rooms in the school. In any event, I had met and spoken with him before. His upbrining and moves between various Polish and German cities left him fluent in both languages in addition to English. Right now he is living in Kaliningrad to improve his Russian. Back to the walk from the bus stop. As I was listening to him speak, I was amazed. He was speaking at a rather nice pace with a native speaker. How cool is that? Then came the clincher for me - he was using the Russian equivalent of the word which correctly. This word gives me problems because it has to agree with a couple different words in the sentence. Lesson learned: it is possible to learn the Russian language.
After arriving back at my apartment and eating more macaroni and cheese I began the first draft of the last post (which was deleted accidentally when the computer did not wake up from sleep properly). About 6ish, I left to meet Olga for the concert. Not knowing exactly where the closest bus stop was I stayed in the van too long and ended up running to meet her. The concert was the second installment of the First International Kaliningrad Jazz Festival. Seemed like it would be interesting. We sat above the stage because all the seats in the hall were sold. The first three groups were decent enough - they were small combos. A couple keyboardists were quite good, but overall nothing out of the ordinary. After the intermission came the heavy hitters for the evening. A pianist from Moscow named Daniel Kramer and an organist whose name escapes me. The concert hall's name is the Organ Hall on account of its very nice organ (although the roof is a little bit low to do it justice). Maybe I'm totally unaware of jazz trends, but when I think of jazz music a large concert organ is not the first instrument that comes to mind. So I was a bit skeptical. Mr. Organist started out their half of the program. From where I was sitting, I he was maybe ten feet away at the console, so I had a pretty decent view. I think they decided to put his piece in at the last minute because as he walked onto stage he yelled over his shoulder to the pianist that he would be three, maybe four minutes and no longer.
The unmistakable first chords of Bach's Toccata from that famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor shook the building. I didn't particularly care for his interpretation that much. After maybe the first ten measures, his feet started vamping on this funky bass line. That was interesting. Then a few measures later the whole piece morphed into an organ rendition of Caravan. I was surprised at how well those two pieces worked together and how the timbre of a large organ fit the mood of Caravan. After the predicted four minutes passed, the piece ended. Now the piano man joined the organ in a piece that they had clearly just talked through back stage and not rehearsed much in the hall. I liked it despite the rough edges due in part to the distance between the piano and organ and lack of visual contact which led to imprecise entrances and so on. Overall it was very obvious that Mr. Kramer had enormous technical and musical prowess. However, I didn't much care for his verbalizations during the song. As he got more into it he sang what his right hand was doing. This coupled with his metronomic foot provided quite the picture of a crazed musician. Maybe he has just lived in Moscow for too long, who knows? (Pardon the cheap joke at all you Muscovites out there, I couldn't resist) After several more pieces and then a few encores by Kramer the last combo took the stage. I have to give a big thumbs up to the vocalist. She sounded American, which is a big thing for a Russian singer. From what I've observed, if a native Russian person can speak English at a very high level with only a small accent perceptible, when singing all the un-English pronunciations return. In addition to pronouncing the English words to my liking, she had a gorgeous voice, and helped convince me that the females grown in Russia are, on average, more beautiful than those from other parts of the world. Maybe the reason is similar to why the vegetables are so big over here - Chernobyl!
On the long side for sure, but well worth my free ticket. As I spoke with Olga before the concert I discovered that she was able to get me in because she worked at the Philharmonic. She is a pianist and plays for many of the children's productions the place puts on. That could be nice because now I have my 'season pass' if you will to all concerts at the Organ Hall. I think the next one I'll be able to attend is a concert of authentic Russian instruments. That means I get to hear the famed balalaikas. Oooh, ahhh. Somehow we missed our ride so walked for the nearest tram stop. I think it was almost 11, so the trams are few and far between. We ended up walking all the way back home. Along the way she asked if I was determined to learn the Russian language. I evaded the question and said that I've learned a lot of new words or something like that. She persisted and asked again. I don't think I ever did give her a straight answer, but the question has hung with me ever since. Am I determined to learn the Russian language?
Judging by how much effort I've put into it thus far, I would honestly have to answer a resounding no. In retrospect, knowing enough to guess what people are saying and grunt a two word response may not have been the best thing for me. Everybody tells me when they first meet me that I speak excellent Russian, and I think I let this go to my head. As a result I haven't been putting in the personal study time with new vocab, grammar structure, and reviewing those lovely endings and when they get used. With nearly three months of my twelve month stint finished, I have to say that my progress has been marginal at best. If I hope to be more fluent than when I left home, I need to put forth a Spartan effort for the remaining nine months. Am I up to the challenge?
I called a few people when I got home Saturday night. May I take a moment and hail the marvels of Skype. For a little over one dollar, I was on the phone for about an hour. My computer to real live phones in the USA. That is a sweet deal as they say. Using my cell phone to call somebody in Kaliningrad costs 7-11 cents. Transatlantic connection for much less than my neighbor is a bit of a marvel. The downside was that my head didn't hit the pillow until a little past four. So much for my plan to be out of the house at 6 on Sunday. Instead, the phone woke me about 11. It was Sasha telling me where to meet him for a ride to the Harvest Festival. All the virgin sacrifices in the spring and bacchanal parties in the fall are still in full swing over here in the Motherland. Actually they aren't, but it does paint an interesting picture. Every year the local Adventist church has a little fall festival for people to invite their non-religious friends and colleagues to. I arrived late and probably missed an hour or so of the program. It was pretty lengthy - maybe 2+ hours. During it, the tiny kids put on a skit, soloists sang songs, and poets read their poems. There are a few new pictures from the gala event available here. The grapes they had at this were amazing. Sure, they had seeds in them, but they were succulent to say the least. Not too sweet, not too sour, but just nice and mild and mmm-mmm good.
After the service, I spoke with several of the people my age. Here is a picture of Elena and Valya - two Russian girls. Elena has an incredible set of lungs. Really. She sings for church maybe every other week. I recorded a few samples of two songs she sang on Sunday, but when I listened to them, they did not do her justice, so I won't be posting any links for your listening pleasure. Whenever I get a decent recording, I'll be sure and serve it up. Valya has been the secretary at my work for maybe a month. How do you say this nice and indirectly...she plays a mean game of solitaire on the computer. But she is nice. In one of the lessons I teach the reading mentions different ways that help people when they are learning a language. One of the negative ways you can aide somebody's learning is to raise your voice. I think it is rather humorous that she uses this method with me. Honestly, it does get a little annoying to be semi-shouted at whenever I clearly don't understand what she tells me, but on the other side it is something to smile internally about.
An interesting thought struck me as I was riding back from the festival - it was the first time I'd been out of the city since arriving here on the 6th of September. Over two months and I've probably not traveled outside of a four mile radius. It was really refreshing to get out into the country. I wasn't expecting to feel as good as I did. Back home, on a normal day I drive at least 50 miles a day, if not closer to 80. Considering this, it makes sense that on some level staying in one place for so long would cramp my style. The country provided a welcome change of scenery and, for a change, the weather was excellent.
Before I sacked out I turned on the tube and The Nutty Professor was at the "Hercules, Hercules" family gathering. I think it is more funny in English than Russian. I watched for maybe a half hour. The very sexist comments of Eddie Murphy came in handy Monday evening at the free talk session. Only males attended and some how the topic turned to phrases (bordering on inappropriate) one might utter at a fine female one sees strolling by. A few of them had tuned into The Nutty Professor, so this made my job a little easier.
I had many plans for last weekend. Of them, I honestly don't think I finished even one. But I did have an enjoyable time. Saturday I arrived halfway through the lesson study. I tend to do that because listening to two back to back talks fries my brain. I can almost manage one and a half, but even that depletes my mental resources. Following the main service I had planned on heading over to the office and printing out the handouts to be used at the afternoon English class. Except that one lady came up and grabbed me to show me something. Her name is Olga and she was my translator. As we were walking to the place she wanted to show me, she explained that from now on she would not be helping out as translator. Her reason was nice enough I suppose - she thinks that the way I run the Friday and Saturday extra classes are better than the way others have in the past. I make her job unnecessary. Class moves along fine and when somebody doesn't understand something there are others who do and can explain.
After a short five minute walk, we arrived at an old Catholic church. After the war the place was in pretty sorry shape. I forget when, but I think that it was in the early 80s, it was restored to be a concert hall. Now the building houses the Kaliningrad Philharmonia and is the location for a number of concerts. Olga invited me to attend the concert that evening, and I decided to take her up on the offer figuring that she must have some friends that could sneak her in for free. Agreeing on a time to meet, I high-tailed it for the nearest bus stop to try and make it to the office. When I hopped on my bus and sat down, I was surprised that somebody came up and started speaking English to me. It was a nice Polish dude named Gregory. He had tried to invite me over to his apartment for lunch before but I had been busy. Now, looking at his watch, he figured that I would have time to stop by for 15 minutes worth of tea. I politely declined stating that I really had to make copies. He understood, then mentioned that Kristina was with him and would be there for tea. Now that changed the story! Just kidding.
As I got up at my stop, Gregory and Kristina were getting off too. Surprise, surprise. Certainly I could find the time to just walk with them the five minutes to the apartment, right? Well, I supposed I could manage that. When we got to the outside of his building, he thought that perhaps I could come up for a brief 5-minute tea. Okay, I thought. After drinking his tea and learning what was on the menu for lunch, I thanked both of them and politely excused myself. Running to the office, I made my copies and was only a few minutes late for my 3 o'clock class.
As we were walking from the bus stop to his apartment, I was not an active participant in the conversation, but listened with some interest. Gregory teaches German at the same school where I teach. He actually works for the school teaching schoolchildren while I work for a company that rents a few rooms in the school. In any event, I had met and spoken with him before. His upbrining and moves between various Polish and German cities left him fluent in both languages in addition to English. Right now he is living in Kaliningrad to improve his Russian. Back to the walk from the bus stop. As I was listening to him speak, I was amazed. He was speaking at a rather nice pace with a native speaker. How cool is that? Then came the clincher for me - he was using the Russian equivalent of the word which correctly. This word gives me problems because it has to agree with a couple different words in the sentence. Lesson learned: it is possible to learn the Russian language.
After arriving back at my apartment and eating more macaroni and cheese I began the first draft of the last post (which was deleted accidentally when the computer did not wake up from sleep properly). About 6ish, I left to meet Olga for the concert. Not knowing exactly where the closest bus stop was I stayed in the van too long and ended up running to meet her. The concert was the second installment of the First International Kaliningrad Jazz Festival. Seemed like it would be interesting. We sat above the stage because all the seats in the hall were sold. The first three groups were decent enough - they were small combos. A couple keyboardists were quite good, but overall nothing out of the ordinary. After the intermission came the heavy hitters for the evening. A pianist from Moscow named Daniel Kramer and an organist whose name escapes me. The concert hall's name is the Organ Hall on account of its very nice organ (although the roof is a little bit low to do it justice). Maybe I'm totally unaware of jazz trends, but when I think of jazz music a large concert organ is not the first instrument that comes to mind. So I was a bit skeptical. Mr. Organist started out their half of the program. From where I was sitting, I he was maybe ten feet away at the console, so I had a pretty decent view. I think they decided to put his piece in at the last minute because as he walked onto stage he yelled over his shoulder to the pianist that he would be three, maybe four minutes and no longer.
The unmistakable first chords of Bach's Toccata from that famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor shook the building. I didn't particularly care for his interpretation that much. After maybe the first ten measures, his feet started vamping on this funky bass line. That was interesting. Then a few measures later the whole piece morphed into an organ rendition of Caravan. I was surprised at how well those two pieces worked together and how the timbre of a large organ fit the mood of Caravan. After the predicted four minutes passed, the piece ended. Now the piano man joined the organ in a piece that they had clearly just talked through back stage and not rehearsed much in the hall. I liked it despite the rough edges due in part to the distance between the piano and organ and lack of visual contact which led to imprecise entrances and so on. Overall it was very obvious that Mr. Kramer had enormous technical and musical prowess. However, I didn't much care for his verbalizations during the song. As he got more into it he sang what his right hand was doing. This coupled with his metronomic foot provided quite the picture of a crazed musician. Maybe he has just lived in Moscow for too long, who knows? (Pardon the cheap joke at all you Muscovites out there, I couldn't resist) After several more pieces and then a few encores by Kramer the last combo took the stage. I have to give a big thumbs up to the vocalist. She sounded American, which is a big thing for a Russian singer. From what I've observed, if a native Russian person can speak English at a very high level with only a small accent perceptible, when singing all the un-English pronunciations return. In addition to pronouncing the English words to my liking, she had a gorgeous voice, and helped convince me that the females grown in Russia are, on average, more beautiful than those from other parts of the world. Maybe the reason is similar to why the vegetables are so big over here - Chernobyl!
On the long side for sure, but well worth my free ticket. As I spoke with Olga before the concert I discovered that she was able to get me in because she worked at the Philharmonic. She is a pianist and plays for many of the children's productions the place puts on. That could be nice because now I have my 'season pass' if you will to all concerts at the Organ Hall. I think the next one I'll be able to attend is a concert of authentic Russian instruments. That means I get to hear the famed balalaikas. Oooh, ahhh. Somehow we missed our ride so walked for the nearest tram stop. I think it was almost 11, so the trams are few and far between. We ended up walking all the way back home. Along the way she asked if I was determined to learn the Russian language. I evaded the question and said that I've learned a lot of new words or something like that. She persisted and asked again. I don't think I ever did give her a straight answer, but the question has hung with me ever since. Am I determined to learn the Russian language?
Judging by how much effort I've put into it thus far, I would honestly have to answer a resounding no. In retrospect, knowing enough to guess what people are saying and grunt a two word response may not have been the best thing for me. Everybody tells me when they first meet me that I speak excellent Russian, and I think I let this go to my head. As a result I haven't been putting in the personal study time with new vocab, grammar structure, and reviewing those lovely endings and when they get used. With nearly three months of my twelve month stint finished, I have to say that my progress has been marginal at best. If I hope to be more fluent than when I left home, I need to put forth a Spartan effort for the remaining nine months. Am I up to the challenge?
I called a few people when I got home Saturday night. May I take a moment and hail the marvels of Skype. For a little over one dollar, I was on the phone for about an hour. My computer to real live phones in the USA. That is a sweet deal as they say. Using my cell phone to call somebody in Kaliningrad costs 7-11 cents. Transatlantic connection for much less than my neighbor is a bit of a marvel. The downside was that my head didn't hit the pillow until a little past four. So much for my plan to be out of the house at 6 on Sunday. Instead, the phone woke me about 11. It was Sasha telling me where to meet him for a ride to the Harvest Festival. All the virgin sacrifices in the spring and bacchanal parties in the fall are still in full swing over here in the Motherland. Actually they aren't, but it does paint an interesting picture. Every year the local Adventist church has a little fall festival for people to invite their non-religious friends and colleagues to. I arrived late and probably missed an hour or so of the program. It was pretty lengthy - maybe 2+ hours. During it, the tiny kids put on a skit, soloists sang songs, and poets read their poems. There are a few new pictures from the gala event available here. The grapes they had at this were amazing. Sure, they had seeds in them, but they were succulent to say the least. Not too sweet, not too sour, but just nice and mild and mmm-mmm good.
After the service, I spoke with several of the people my age. Here is a picture of Elena and Valya - two Russian girls. Elena has an incredible set of lungs. Really. She sings for church maybe every other week. I recorded a few samples of two songs she sang on Sunday, but when I listened to them, they did not do her justice, so I won't be posting any links for your listening pleasure. Whenever I get a decent recording, I'll be sure and serve it up. Valya has been the secretary at my work for maybe a month. How do you say this nice and indirectly...she plays a mean game of solitaire on the computer. But she is nice. In one of the lessons I teach the reading mentions different ways that help people when they are learning a language. One of the negative ways you can aide somebody's learning is to raise your voice. I think it is rather humorous that she uses this method with me. Honestly, it does get a little annoying to be semi-shouted at whenever I clearly don't understand what she tells me, but on the other side it is something to smile internally about.
An interesting thought struck me as I was riding back from the festival - it was the first time I'd been out of the city since arriving here on the 6th of September. Over two months and I've probably not traveled outside of a four mile radius. It was really refreshing to get out into the country. I wasn't expecting to feel as good as I did. Back home, on a normal day I drive at least 50 miles a day, if not closer to 80. Considering this, it makes sense that on some level staying in one place for so long would cramp my style. The country provided a welcome change of scenery and, for a change, the weather was excellent.
Before I sacked out I turned on the tube and The Nutty Professor was at the "Hercules, Hercules" family gathering. I think it is more funny in English than Russian. I watched for maybe a half hour. The very sexist comments of Eddie Murphy came in handy Monday evening at the free talk session. Only males attended and some how the topic turned to phrases (bordering on inappropriate) one might utter at a fine female one sees strolling by. A few of them had tuned into The Nutty Professor, so this made my job a little easier.
posted by Troy on 22:20
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When did you first start thinking about the whole living in Russia thing? What was the thought process? Especially the throw yourself into the fire aspect.
Your modified post title is brilliant.
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