Last post

Well this will be the last post while in Russia. As I speak riots are breaking out; probably because we're so well loved and they want us to stay. Oh well, they have to deal without us.

I've got to say I found one thing to be true this whole trip. If you've ever heard the "In Mother/Soviet Russia..." jokes you'll know what I'm getting at. With these jokes you take something we do in America, my example will be Waldo. Everybody knows about the "Where's Waldo" books in America. Anyhow the joke goes: "In Mother Russia, you don't find Waldo, Waldo finds you!" That simple joke explains Russia's culture compared to Americas. It is backwards from what we're used to. It's hard to explain without you actually being here. It's irritating like no other. I think that's what has been bugging me the whole time over here. If you bump into someone the appropriate response is to turn and glare at them like it's their fault. There is no sense of politeness in public places, no sense of hygiene, no law against public intoxication, and cigarette ads. That's just to give you a taste of it.

Concerning my teaching. I think this part of my trip could have been better. I had some problem students that could have been removed from the program that weren't. I found out that I can't teach little kids. They are the spawn of the devil. They don't listen. I even had one student tell me that she hated me. It could have been a lot better, but due to a poor performance of our native coordinator it was bad. I still want to be a teacher however. I think the ILP program is fundamentally flawed because it is an after school program. If the kids don't want to learn they will stop paying attention. We tell the parents, they yell at the kid, the kid pays attention for a day or two and goes straight back to disregarding us. It needs to be integrated into their schools so that when they do poorly in class it is on a report card and when they fail it affects their lives in a negative way. Unfortunately that will never happen. Maybe I'm just cynical.

Would I do it again? Maybe. The only way I'd come back here, or go to Ukraine/Mexico (screw China, I could never live there) is if I could convince my friends to come with me. No offense to the people I came over with, they're great, and now they're all good friends in my book. It would get rid of the getting to know you phase of the trip. We'd know what we could say that would offend each other, make each other laugh, make each other curse. I think we found out those things for each other during the long vacation. That was when we were over halfway through our time over here. It would be KILLER to come back as a Head Teacher with all of my friends. It would be a completely different experience.

Well, I'll be back in Utah around 10:30 P.M. on Sunday. I assure you that I will send out a mass text when I touch down in D.C., so you will know that I've reached America and am once again happy. Oh, and on a side note, most of the group is really bitter towards Russia right now. I'm not quite there. I really want to be home, and I'm really sick of being in a place where no one speaks my language, but I don't absolutely hate Russia. I still can't believe that I've been living in Russia for the past 3 1/2 months. It's absolutely surreal to me.

Last post! Tra-laa-la-laa-laaaaaaaaa-la! I'll be home in 3 days! ish

Updates, and a story I found funny.

Past week has been boring. We're all in autopilot mode for the next 6 teaching days. I invented a game called English Uno, and it's just Uno, but when you speak in a language that isn't English you have to draw a card. It's funny because they say something in Russian, draw a card, then curse in Russian and draw another card. Needless to say my Uno skills have never felt this kind of inflation. I read 10 books in 10 days, which is up from my 5 book weeks I was having awhile back. If you travel and like to read an e-reader is a must. I would have died 100 times over if I didn't have my Nook with me.
The funny story is recently I've been having problems with my laptop. Normally I just jump on to Dell's support page, let the people do a scan of my computer, and have them send me a new motherboard, problem solved! Well, unfortunately, I'm in Russia, where Dell doesn't have a way of sending a technician over to fix my computer. This whole thing started because one day I woke up and Chrome wasn't letting me browser the internet. I tried Firefox, it worked, IE, it worked, but not Chrome. I mess around with the settings a bit to no avail. Finally it just stops working all together. I do a diagnostic check and it comes up with an error. Today I got it up and running again, though I don't know how, and I decide it's time to ask the experts on the Dell chat. I get on, ask about the internet, they say they can't help. So I ask about the aforementioned error. Working at a chat center must be painful. I know Corky told me some stories about when he helped people with computers the first thing he'd ask is if their monitor was on. I think it's surprising when I use acronyms like HDD for them. I ask about the error, and it tells me the agent is typing for awhile until he finally asks "What prompted you to run diagnostics?" It clicked that I wasn't his average costumer, and knew a few things about computers. When he asked that I couldn't help but let out a cackle. It amused me greatly. So I'm getting a new harddrive for Christmas, as well as a new keyboard, plastic casing, and if I can talk them into it, another new motherboard and wireless card. My warranty is awesome!