I don't have anything exciting to tell about--no more helicopter rides, and I still haven't tried skydiving. But there are some items of good news to report:

-Lena (our teachers consultant) is back from the hospital. She's doing well and helping us out a lot, as usual.

-Molly, the other teacher who didn't arrive when we all did, came this week. Now we have our whole team together.

-I found out what levels I'll be teaching. I'm teaching two sections of ZII, which is the second level out of ten at the American Home. I taught this level last fall and liked it a lot. The students are very much beginners, which means that you can see a lot of progress as the semester goes on. I'm also teaching two sections of BI, the fifth level. I haven't taught this level but I'm looking forward to it. I taught six classes of AII last year, so I know where the BI students are coming from and I might have some of my old students. BI is the level in which, finally, the amount of grammar you need to teach is reduced. There is more time for review and conversation. I'm happy to have one level I've had before, and one that's new. And the best thing of all is that I don't need to watch Father of the Bride (the AII movie) one more time!

-Football is winning out over frisbee this year (unlike last year) as our backyard activity of choice. We've even played a couple games of two-on-two.

-In a few minutes I'm going to visit my old host family. I like living on my own, but it's great to see them, especially my host brother Pasha. Well, I've gotta go!

I'm becoming domesticated. This is largely thanks to my like-named friend Joanna who came to visit me this weekend. She has been living in Nizhni Novgorod for the past three years and is quite adept at the art of homemaking in Russia. On Saturday we went to two markets and bought lots of food, a new knife, and a little French press (now I can make coffee!). We spent the next few hours in the kitchen, making shi (Russian cabbage soup), baked chicken with garlic, and a salad with the leftover cabbage. I called my friend Vova and invited him over for dinner. Eric was coming by to pick up his keys, watch, and socks (long story), and on the way over he happened to see Aaron, so they both joined us for dinner. It was nice to sit down for a family-style meal, and Vova told us that the shi tasted like what his mom makes. After a couple hours of hanging out in the living room playing guitar and harmonica and watching the rain, round two of guests came over and finished off the leftover food. I'd say my first complete home-cooked meal in my new apartment was a success. Thanks, Jo.

And now, for the helicopter pictures I promised:
Andre and his girlfriend, me and Konstantin

Before we went up in the helicopter, we watched the skydivers jumping.

I loved looking out the window.

Thinking deep thoughts. Or wondering how I'm going to get that huge knot out of my hair...

Inside the helicopter after all the parachuters jumped out.

That little white speck on the smaller river is the famous old church, Pokrov na Nerle. The bigger river is the Klyazma.

Now I want to be skydiver too.

Thanks for the pictures and the invitation to ride in the helicopter, Kostya!

I love tea. I drink it constantly throughout the day when I'm here in Russia. For some reason, my dear co-teachers of last year thought my tea habit (yes, it's a tea habit, not a caffiene habit) was reason for mockery and ridicule. Well, guys, take this:

1. The new teachers drink tea ALL THE TIME.
2. Tea is healthier than water.

How do you like them apples?
Miss you guys.

Yesterday I was doing the usual chilling at the American Home (I mean, working) when my friend and former student Konstantin called. "Joanna," he said, "Do you want to fly in the helicopter?" I sure did. He came to pick me up, and after a talk with my boss (who apparently told him she'd have his head if anything happened to me), we drove out to an "airport" outside the little town of Bogolubova. I've ridden in a car several times with Konstantin behind the wheel, and I figured that nothing could be much scarier than that, so I wasn't too nervous about the helicopter.

Konstantin's friend Andre, who used to be a student at the AH too, met us at the airport. I'm not sure what his job is, but it involves flying helicopters. For awhile we waited and walked around trying to figure out what was going on. Apparently there was a problem with helicopter availability or something. We ended up near a group of people that were preparing to go skydiving and it was decided that we would go up with them. But then it started pouring so we all went inside and we thought that was it for our helicopter-riding plans. Fortunatly the storm rolled through quickly and the sun came back out. We rejoined the group of skydivers, and watched from the ground as they went up in the helicopter and took their first jump. It was cool to see them jump out, open their parachute, and float all around before landing skillfully and safely on the ground. I decided I really want to try it someday.

The second time the parachuters went up, we joined them. The helicopter is called an MI-8, it's pretty big (not that I know a lot about helicopters, I don't have much to compare it to), and you can learn more about it on Wikipedia. There were a couple open windows near the back of the helicopter, and I spent most of my time with my head hanging out of one of them. We went up pretty high, and then the skydivers jumped. I liked sticking my head out the window and seeing them jump out the door, fall right below me, and open their chutes. A few times they fell so far (at least it seemed really far from my perspective) before opening their chutes that I was sure there was a malfunction and they were going to die. But nothing of the sort happened, and I became more convinced that I have to try it sometime.

Up in the helicopter we could see the Klazma River, which flows by Vladimir, and the Nerl River. There is a very famous, very old church in Bogolubova called Pokrov na Nerle, and we could see that from the air. We saw little villages and clusters of houses and cottages, and lots of trees and fields. I got scolded several times by Konstantin for hanging my head out of the window. He said I was going to catch a cold for sure. I stayed there though, it was the best place to get a good view.

We stayed in the helicopter for two rounds of skydiving and then headed home. I had an awesome time and I was right, driving with Konstantin is much scarier than riding in a helicopter.

P.S. Konstantin took lots of pictures and when I get my hands on them, I'll try to post some.

One of the main reasons I decided to live alone this year, rather than with a host family, is because I wanted to invite guests over. I've never lived alone, and although I appreciate some time to myself, I usually like having people around. I wasn't sure before I came if I really would have people over, but so far my apartment has been bustling, with someone there almost every day. Yesterday was a good example.

I was actually having a nice quiet Sunday, enjoying my solitude and making lots of plans to have a productive day. I went to church, then to the store to buy some food. I put away and organized that food, then went to the market. I hadn't done any serious food shopping yet, so I had a lot to buy. And at the market I bought more than I thought I would; pretty much anyone who tries to get my attention will get me to buy something, and probably much more than I need. This is especially true if they are really elderly and sitting at a bare table with something like a big jar of berries or pickles that they picked or pickled themselves. Anyway, I came home with more food and less money than I intended, but I figured it would be OK because my food would last a long time. I was thinking about my plans for the rest of the day--go running, go to the banya, cook something, do laundry at the American Home, plan the next day's orientation activities--when I got a call from my friend Alyosha, who I hadn't seen yet. "Denise and I were wondering what you were doing," he said.
"Nothing," I said, "You should come over."
"OK," he agreed, "But we're with Sara (another teacher) and Irina (her host)."
"That's fine," I said. "Come over."

About a minute after I got off the phone with Alyosha, the phone rang again. This time it was my friend Vova. I told him to come over too. Pretty soon Alyosha, Denise, Sara, and Ira were sitting in my living room (really my only room) drinking tea and eating cookies. When Vova came, we headed out to a park outside of town. Then we went to the American Home and played a full-contact, yard-destroying game of 500. After that we decided we wanted to introduce Sara to Ali G since most of us have been quoting it since we got here (the tradition continues...) . We recruited Nicole to come with us, and on our way out we ran into Eric and Aaron, who wanted to come too. Soon we were crammed into my room, watching Ali G, drinking more tea, and eating more cookies. Later we started playing charades and other games and eating more food. In the middle of one game, Alyosha got a call and turned to me. "Sergei wants to say hi," he told me. I reached for the phone but Alyosha said, "No, not on the phone, he's coming over." In a few minutes Sergei was at the door, along with his girlfriend and another friend. So at this point my solitary Sunday afternoon had been transformed into a 12-person party in my tiny apartment. Pretty soon I had an empty fridge, a sink full of dirty dishes, I had gotten nothing done, and I was happy.

So I gave up, and now I have a blog. I resisted for a long time, not wanting to aquire an exaggerated sense of self-importance or waste even more time on the computer and end up sticking a pencil in my eye. But apparently some people want to read about my life, and they keep bugging me, so here it is. My life, blog style.

After spending last school year teaching English in Russia and having a great time, I decided to come back and give it another try. I teach at the American Home in Vladimir. It looks like an American home, as you might have noticed from the picture. It has an English program and does some other projects in the community. Check out the website: http://serendipity-russia.com.
I came back to Vladimir last week, on August 10th, and was joined by 6 other teachers, all new to the American Home (there's one more on her way, but she's not here yet due to problems with her visa/passport). It was good to meet the new teachers, but it's sad to be here without my old crew. Their ghosts haunt every corner of the American Home (not litrally!) and I think about them all the time. I think this year will be great as well, just different.

This year I'm the high and mighty lead teacher, so I get to deligate stuff, help lead orientation, and remind people to do their dishes. A few days ago, unfortunatly, our omniscient and extremely hard-working teacher's assistant had to go to the hospital because of complications with her pregnancy. I'm worried about her, and now I'm more or less leading orientation by myself.

I feel like I've been on the computer all day trying to set up this blog stuff, so I have computer ADD and if I get a pencil in my hand bad things could happen. So I better go, and ramble about my life more later. Thanks for reading, and please comment.