TEFL Adventures: Visiting Tula - the Land of Gingerbread, Samovars & Literary Genius

I never said I was a painter.

As of August 25th, I've now been working outside the United States for a year. Consequently, I think it's fitting for me to FINALLY blog about my first work experience in Russia, considering it was a week-long trip and I've never actually written about it.

You see, once work started, I became way too busy working at school and reuniting with friends whom I hadn't seen for a year. Writing about my first work experience thus was placed on the back-burner. I was planning on writing it during winter break, but then I got pretty busy during that period as well, and only now that my summer vacation is ending have I remembered that I wanted to write about it. Unfortunately, I don't know if I'll remember everything that happened since it was a year ago but I'll try.

My job started in probably the best way possible. I was getting to go on a week-long field trip with the sixth grade to Tula, which is just over 100 miles from Moscow. Tula is famous for four main things: gingerbread ('priyaniki'), samovars, weapon production and Yasnaya Polyana (the home and burial place of the famous Russian author Leo Tolstoy).

That's not a space station.
That's one big gingerbread cookie...

In order to arrive in Tula, the students, teachers and I took a night train, which is a special train that leaves in the late evening and will take all night to arrive at its final destination in the early morning. The nice thing about this type of train is that beds are provided, which automatically makes this method of transportation infinitely more comfortable and convenient than any airplane ride.

Regardless of what it looks like, the student is NOT
aiming at the teacher.

The first day was dedicated mostly to going to museums and the local kremlin. The main museums we went to were for, naturally, samovars and rifles where students would deliver a short presentation, which they had prepared over the summer, regarding the current topic. And like most boys younger than 13, they were bored by the samovars but they loved the weapons museum. Any moment they had a chance to hold a rifle, they would scramble and wait in line in order to pretend they were firing it. Understandably, they were most excited when presented with the chance to hold a mock AK-47.   

Want to give Levsha a hand?

On the way back, we passed a statue dedicated to Levsha. Created in a folk tale written by Nikolai Leskov, Levsha is a left-handed arms maker from Tula who adds horseshoes with inscriptions to a small mechanical flea made by English gunsmiths. Levsha is then taken to England to learn about its accomplishments and the English way of life. However, as he is homesick, he returns to Russia as soon as he can, but on his way back, he engages in a drinking duel with a sailor. Neither win the drinking duel as both collapse from consuming too much alcohol but here's the kicker. The English sailor, because he is English, is taken to a hospital and treated but Levsha, as he doesn't have any identification, is left untreated as it is assumed he's a typical Russian drunkard. As a result, Levsha eventually dies.

The story of Levsha is oftentimes treated as a depiction of Russia's pre-WWI relationship with the Western world. Citizens of Western countries are treated like royalty but Russian citizens are oppressed and mistreated.

The next day, we went to School #25, which is our sister school. Students from School #25 often travel to our major school forums and competitions, which is why it's probably considered a sister school.

Footloose meets Russia meets
Ferris Bueller goes back to school

Anyways, it was the first day of school, which is how I learned that apparently the first day of school is a big thing. All the students, teachers, administrators and some of the parents gathered in the courtyard to listen to a couple short speeches ringing in the new school year and enjoy a dancing performance put on by some of the older students. At the end of the celebration, LOTS of balloons were released into the air.

The day was kind of cool for me though. While my students were taken to some Russian history or culture classes, I was guided to sit in on an English lesson. Naturally, I found myself giving a short biographical speech in English. But I did have a chance to surprise everyone!

At this point, none of the students or teachers at School #25 knew I could speak some Russian. So when the English teacher asked me if I was going to try to learn some Russian, I responded with an explanation of how I studied it at Dartmouth and majored in Russian Area Studies. If only I had a camera to document the reactions around the classroom.

Afterwards, there was a small tea and gingerbread party, followed by a couple small master classes where we painted some clay statues and made some kukla dolls. Following the master classes, students from our schools competed in a soccer match which School #25 won... big... 

The score was something like 7-1. I don't remember any more, not because watching the game was painful, but because my students kick my butt at soccer. So if my students kick my butt at soccer, I don't even want to think what would happen against the other students.

Meeting the students of School #25 was important because several of the students joined us on our day trip to Yasnaya Polyana, the home of Tolstoy. If you're unfamiliar with Tolstoy, he wrote the classic novels War & Peace and Anna Karenina, in addition to some children's stories.

I see the peace but where's the war?

The day started out pleasantly. There were plenty of clouds but it hadn't rained... yet. We went in three groups on tours around the estate, and whenever we entered a building, we needed to put shoe covers over our shoes in order to keep the floors clean. The tours explained the various rooms of the house and the importance of some of the artifacts stored in different rooms.

Once the tours ended though, the teachers and students formed small groups so as to act out some of Tolstoy's children stories. I was grouped with some of the teachers from School #25 and the story we recreated was about a baby that was discovered. Guess who had to play the baby...?

That's right. Me. And that's because the baby's only line was "WAAAH!"

In some ways, it was unfortunate that my role was just 'waaah,' because my students would tease me for the next couple weeks about it (thankfully, they're still children so they have short memories).

Once each group performed its designated story, we began a easy, but long, hike. On our way, we looked at Tolstoy's burial place, which is an unmarked mound in the middle of a small clearing he loved to play in during his childhood. Moving forward, our situation became more difficult as the weather got worse. There were points where rain poured heavily... numerous times.

The experience was still enjoyable though. There weren't any major problems or injuries, and I was fairly popular with School #25's students. For many, it was their first time conversing in English with a native speaker. For those whom it wasn't their first time, conversing with a native speaker was still a rare experience. Moreover, along our route, they kept picking fresh apples and giving them to me as small gifts (it was rather cute).

The forecast said there would be showers.
It didn't say it'd be liking Splash Mountain.

At the midway point of our hike, we found a small camp of Russian 'boy scouts,' or at least the Russian equivalent of a boy scout. There we had a barbecue of sausages, fresh tomatoes, fresh cucumbers and lots of tea. And when I say lots of tea, I mean lots of tea.

A River Runs Through It

Thankfully, the rain finally stopped for the second leg of our hike, but that just meant the mosquitoes came out in force. It took just 10 minutes of being annoyed by mosquitoes that I found myself wishing that the downpours would happen again.

Cabin in the Woods, anyone?

The rest of the trip wasn't as eventful. We brought our school bus from St. Petersburg so we were able to ride around to some of the smaller towns surrounding Tula where other famous, but not as famous as Tolstoy, cultural figures lived. It was at this point that my understanding of what was happening completely plummeted. And on the final night, one student had a small birthday party. It was only when I arrived for the small party that I learned everyone had written short comedic poems about the student. Due to lack of preparation time, I simply sang 'Happy Birthday' for him.