Reading Russian

Kathy and I got together again today to work on our paperwork and expense reports from our trip to Russia.  We have to turn in the expense report and summary of our project by the end of Sept.  Thought we'd get a jump on it (ie. our mtg last week), and today we had to redo what we had already done because this kid didn't read the directions carefully.  Oops.....
Needless to say that means I've been able to stare at paperwork and reciepts in Russian allllll over again! The bonus is I'm actually reading words in Russian...not sure of the pronuciation of some of them, but recgonizing words none the less.  For example, I can read water, salad, chicken, total, change, various restaurant's names, soda, etc.... Who knew it would all click after I was home?! It's actually making me miss Russia, well St. Petersburg. I keep picturing the buildings and streets in my head, and I'm replaying everything (partially because we are going through the days' receipts) and loving it.
I can't wait to write our summary and to tell so many others how infulential our trip was on us.  I can't wait to teach my kids about everything I learned.  I can't wait to show my kids and coworkers pictures and materials from our trip.  And I can't wait to someday take a trip back there with my husband.  He would love it! We will have to rearrange our list-o-trips for sure. Hopefully by then I'll still remember how to "read" Russian.

Gettin' Together!

Kathy and I have had a fews weeks to recover from our trip, so we're getting together this week to go over the items we need to put together for Fund for Teachers.  I'm excited to see her...seeing as it's summer we have our own busy non-school lives to keep up with. (Did bump into each other last Thursday nite @ 5th nite @ Utica however, which was fun!)

We have to sit down and go through receipts, and start discussing what we want our reflection of our trip to look like.  I'm excited to put that together and really start placing all my ideas in one spot, which then means I should place my ideas for my classroom/school in one spot too....like written on paper, so I don't forget them!  Maybe I'll get to that this week too. =)

PS. If you love that Kathy and I were able to experience a trip and a culture like this to share with our children it was made possible through donors of Fund for Teachers.  You too can donate....think about it.

So good to be home!

Well, so a week or more after we are home, I finally have time/the energy to post about our trip again!
We had such a wonderful time, and we both learned so much to bring back to our classroom. 

We are truly blessed to have had such a wonderful experience!

Moscow was tough for both of us because we are such outgoing, smiley people, and it was hard to not have those kinds of feelings while in Moscow.  The opera we saw in Moscow was wonderful, and the theatre was of course gorgeous. But Moscow just isn't my kind of place.  It is definately somewhere that you reflect on the history and politics of the country of Russia, and somewhere that you are thankful for your country and your life.  But none the less it was an experience I wouldn't trade for the world.

St. Petersburg was more our speed.  It was a city for culture. Every building we past (it seemed) was an old palace now used as some kind of museum. The people were very different from Moscow, everyone was smiling and seemed to be enjoying their day.  The museums were AMAZING, and the shows we saw will soooo benefit our students!

Overall, we brought back some great resources from both cities, and I can't wait to share them with my new students! And we are both very glad to have had the trip and experiences, but we are glad to be back home with our families...we missed them so.

Maybe someday we will take our families to Russia to share those wonderful experiences.

Picture yourself in Russia

St. Petersburg is Beautiful!

Well, today we spent practically our whole day inside the Hermitage Museum/Palace.  It was an amazing collection of paintings, sculptures, antiquities, furniture, and the rooms were all gorgeous as most of the museum was a palace originally.  The original building is the Winter Palace, and after it came the Small Hermitage to it's left and was connected to the palace.  Lastly came the New Hermitage which was constructed originally as a public museum, so it still serves it's original purpose and is not nearly as detailed in the decor.  It has since been connected to the Small Hermitage and the Winter Palace to make one VERY LARGE museum.  Our guide Olga is amazing and I got some great resources at the shop inside the museum.  Kathy picked up a Children's Guide to the Hermitage Museum, and I picked up Pushkin's Fairytales as well as a book that overviews the rooms, the people that live in the Palace, and the artwork that is part of their permanent collections. Can't forget on the way back we stopped at the building were Tchaikovsky died, pretty cool considering part of our trip is to visit dead composers LOL!  We plan to head to the monastery were he is buried along with other composers tomorrow afternoon.
Tonite we have tickets to "Feel Me Russian"...silly name, yes, great informational show about the folk music in Russia.  It will be very entertaining (so we are told) and we plan to get lots from the show, information and cultural experience both.

As for my Russian...it's not good.  I keep forgetting how to say some of the phrases I have "learned," so basically I say "yes" and "no" and "thank you."  I've got "thank you" down like nobody's business. LOL! =) It's been ok though, I'm cute and I just smile and say..."you speak English please."  Seems to be working fine...the people of St. Petersburg are much more helpful than those in Moscow...VERY different vibe/outlook/attitude/everything.

We are having a wonderful time, but of course miss home.  We can't believe it's only one more full day in St. Petersburg and then we head home.  Hopefully, we have seen/done/gathered everything we need to enrich our students, co/workers, and families' lives.

Do svidanja.

St. Petersburg!

Well we made it to St. Petersburg via overnite train this morning.  We had a city tour with our guide Olga and visited several locations in the city, and got a good lay of the land.  Kathy and I really like the atmosphere of the city....I think it's like Florence and Venice combined into one, because of all the museums and canals.  I shall write more over the next few days as we have more time and once pics are loaded onto Flickr they should start to appear on the slideshow at the top, so stay tuned!!!! Love to you all!

Moscow

Well we r here and we've spent last nite @ an Italian opera, Tosca. Today we toured the city. We saw several cathedrals as well as the Kremlin. We explored the Moscow Metro system & it's galleries. It has been an overwhelming and very enriching experience so far. Kathy is taking in a ballet tonite after we eat a quick dinner. I am going to rest up & do some reading in my Russia book. :-) Tomorrow we will see Red Square (b/c it was closed today for some motocross event...yes I said motocross). Then the afternoon is ours to look about and probably shop. Then our train to St. Petersburg leaves around 11pm and we will wake up to a different city. Love to you all back home.