The Homestretch

This morning I downed the last Centrum Advanced Formula High Potency Multivitamin/Multimineral Supplement pill in my bottle. Considering how lopsided my usual diet was when I had somebody to cook for me in America, my mom suggested that I bring along some vitamins to supplement whatever nutrition I managed to kill and swallow. I wound up bringing two bottles of 180 pills each. 180 + 180 = 360, which is round about a year. Using my excellent deductive prowess, I reckon that since I just finished the first bottle I'm halfway through my Russian sojourn. I began taking the horse-pills on my first day here back in August so you can figure out how many days I skipped if you're interested. Oh yeah, there is one other piece of information. Each bottle has 20 free tablets (180 + 20 = 200).

I suppose it shouldn't come as a surprise, but in a way it does. The weather is back down around freezing. This is the third day. I had to go dig out my scarf and gloves to keep warm. As much as I love cold and was sad to see it go, I adjusted to the spring weather and now a leap back is playing games with my head. Fortunately it hasn't affected my health.

Following my class this afternoon I took a walk to the nearest cemetery. Russian cemeteries are pretty strange. Why would I choose to do that on such a lovely day? Well, last night I went on a slightly morbid trip during class and we discussed cemeteries for a good 20 minutes. Afterward I knew where the three cemeteries in Kaliningrad were and decided that I should visit. The typical American graveyard (in my mind) is very spacious, or if space is at a premium there is at least a lot of green things around. Things were green at the cemetery I went to, but not necessarily due to grass or trees or normal things. It seems that half the cemetery was submerged under 2-3 inches of water. I'd be walking down a little path when all of a sudden the water would start chasing me and I'd have to run right back from where I'd come! Most of the little plots have knee high fences around them with a walkway about 18 inches between. Now I am curious about the logistics of planting somebody. I mean it must be incredibly difficult for the pallbearers to maneuver a coffin back to its final resting place. Maybe they make like it is Venice and use the casket as a gondola. Now I'm being irreverent so I'll get back to the facts. Most of the tombstones had pictures of the deceased. Whether the portraits were etched into the stone or a photo was weather proofed and attached, at least a face was on virtually all markers. I came across one dude that was life-size etched into a big pillar. It was mildly humorous that the shirt he was wearing had a huge Reebok logo on it. The haves and have-nots were also painfully obvious. There could be a freshly painted fence with an immaculately manicured little lawn 18 inches from a crumbled headpiece with litter piled higher than the mound of ground. To any of you who think that there are only 5 Russian names, I'll have to disagree after my visit. For the hour and a little bit I meandered about I didn't see the exact same name once. Actually, I even discovered a couple cool ones. Watch out future kids, your dad may have picked your name out today from among some Communist's dilapidated tombstone!

An unusual thing happened this semester. I teach Levels 2-6 with a significant jump between 4 and 5 in my opinion. This semester was the first time somebody that started in Level 2 when I arrived last fall made the jump. Come to think of it, it was also the first time that any of my pre-Level 5 students moved up. It didn't go too well. And I'm not sure whether to blame myself, the books, or the attitude I have to the different classes. My lower three levels use books from the same series. In these books, there is a lot of good information integrated with new grammar rules. The upper levels have a grammar resource at the back of the book and during the lesson I tend to focus much less on grammar and basically just discuss the information and tangents that spring up. At the beginning of my second semester I decided that since the center was in need of students (money) and the difference between the textbooks for Levels 5 and 6 is marginal, that the highest I would place an incoming student was Level 5. So up until now, I've been able to maintain a very high English level and the material has been interesting, or at least I think it has been. Now, however, I have people who are fluent side by side those who aren't anywhere near that level and I feel that both are suffering. To paraphrase my old trumpet teacher's thoughts on American public school: "The smart get dumber and the dumb get dumber." Not exactly something I'd like to be remembered for.

One of the people who attend the weekend classes regularly gave me an excellent pointer today about how to learn Russian. I hope that I can make myself do it. She relayed how her brother learned German when he was living in Germany. He just talked to people like crazy. Head to the travel agency and ask about a trip to Egypt, try on expensive clothes and ask for them in a different size, go dishwasher shopping, talk to the old lady selling plastic flowers for the recently deceased. Unfortunately, she concluded by saying that her brother was unique and a bit strange. That is unfortunate because people have told me the same thing on occasion. Therefore I feel obligated to give it a whirl. I need to buy a few plane tickets within the next week. Maybe I'll go make a fool out of myself at the ticket office and begin my terrorizing of local merchants.

This is a nice random thought that occurred to me on a bus ride today. The accountant for the ELC is a really nice lady with two daughters about my age. I think that I'll send her a New Year's present next year - a nice hardcover book of some pictures that I took. Sorry, but I think I'll leave the nude self-portraits out (see second comment on prior entry)!