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Published: October 26th 2014
As mentioned in the prequel I'm actually liking Russia so far, except the coldness both weather-wise and people-wise. Russians are known for being cold, snarky and difficult to deal with in most cases and a lot of that has been true since I came, but there are also very cool and down to earth lovely Russian people also!
After a week of relaxing here in Moscow and getting to know my area where I'm living at and meeting some of the other teachers and head people at the company I'm working for here I got my schedule which is a mix of private one on one clients for tutoring and also a few schools mixed in. I was told in my skype interview I wouldn't be given any young kids to teach which has turned out to not be the case which is my only disappointment so far here, but Russian students have been much better to teach and farrrrrrrr smaller classes than what I was accustomed to in Vietnam. In Asia I would have upwards of 30-50 kids in one class all of which could barely speak ANY English at all and no TA in the class
to help which was amazingly frustrating to me. Here I have max 10 in a class which is heaven lol.
The weekend before I started my schedule the managers that have been here for a while took a few of us to red square, which was on my list of places to see in the world. The weather was awful, drizzling and cold, but still ok I guess..I mean this is Russia after all. The Kremlin and Lenin's tomb were both closed because it was Sunday, but I'll be here for a while so I'll definitely be going to see those at a later date. The grounds outside the Kremlin were packed with tourists as well as St. Basils church which has the iconic swirly colored tops you see in most features about Moscow. We paid 250 rubles to enter and inside they have some really old art, artifacts etc etc from the 1300's to 1600's. As many of you know I am not religious and do not follow that kind of stuff, but I do like to dabble inside of places like this as it is history and THAT I do love very much. The only
thing I was very disappointed with in the church is the inside walls are covered in art, but not original by any means which for me was a let down. All in all I had a good time though walking around this famous place where millions of tourists have been and movies have been shot. I can now scratch it off my list of about 100 places I want to visit and see lol.
Some of my roommates are going to St Petersburg for our upcoming 4 day weekend, but I decided to wait until spring time to go when it's a bit nicer and brighter which will be in May just before my contract is up and we have a couple long weekend holidays. I have other plans for the long weekend........no comment......
Anyway just wanted to give an update for those who follow me and enjoy my blogs and pictures. Right now I'm trying to save for Christmas and New Years break where we have three weeks off and I will be going to Rome, Athens, Switzerland and Istanbul before returning to Moscow for the final stretch of work.
Thanks for following and hope everyone is doing great wherever you are and whatever you are doing in this world!
PS.... I'm trying to decide between a few places to do when my contract is up in May....any advice or experiences or opinions would be happily welcomed!! The choices are between India and Sri Lanka ( 3-4 months of travel time minimum), Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea, China and Japan ( same amount of time as above) or Venezuela, Brazil and Colombia OR Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and some of Eastern Europe.......
Feliz Viaje!
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Culture Change
This experience all be very different from Vietnam. Sounds like you are embracing the changes. The architecture is amazing with such intricacies and color. Hopefully at the end of your contract you'll have time to visit more of Russia and Mongolia just like you did at the end of the Vietnam contract. Buy a warm hat and gloves! Have you been in touch with fellow travel blogger [blogger=85670]. I'm sure he would be a great contact for you.