for every step of life

I went to church with Laura last Sunday. It's a Russian-Korean church. It was....interesting. I'll leave it at that. I didn't understand much, but Laura bought an Orthodox prayer sheet at one of the metro kiosks and translated it for me to meditate on during the service. This is it here:

Ikos 1

I was born into this world a weak and helpless child, but your angel spread his "light" wings to guard my cradle. Since then, your love as shined on all my ways, wonderfully leading me to the light of eternity. I praise the generous gifts of your Providence which have appeared since the first day and up to now (to this day). I thank you and call out (to you) with all who know you.
Glory to you, who has called me to life.
Glory to you, who has revealed to me the beauty of the universe.
Glory to you, who has opened up before me heaven and earth as an eternal book of wisdom.
Glory to your "eternalness" amidst a temporary world.
Glory to you for your secret/mysterious/hidden and obvious/evident mercies.
Glory to you for every sigh of my breast.
Glory to you for every step of life, for every moment of joy;
Glory to you, God, forever.

After church Laura and I went to Novodevichy Convent for the day. It was 70 degrees outside, the warmest it's been since I've been here. Absolutely beautiful. We sat on the steps of the Smolensky Chapel and baked in the sun for two hours, just talking, watching a few nuns here and there, and tourists. It was one of the best days I've had so far. Just sitting inside the peaceful walls, soaking up sunshine.

Smolensky Church inside the convent.

I can't remember which one of the buildings Tsarevna Sophia Alekseyevna was locked up in, but her brother Peter the Great forced her to take the veil because she was a threat to his power. To "torture" her, he had dead bodies suspended outside of the window of her room in which she was locked. Creepy! As Svetlana, my Russian teacher says, "Russia's peaceful times were when the women ruled. You never hear about them, but they brought peace to Russia."

Door inside the outer wall.

Orthodox nuns and monks look very different from Catholic nuns and monks. They all wear black, head to foot. No white at all. No cappuccino brown.

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This week I said goodbye to my students. It was hard. Grace, one of my seventh grade girls (she's in the grey and yellow outfit next to me), wrote me the sweetest letter, and she gave me a Korean "cell phone charm." Haha. Something she said in her letter really encouraged me; I'm not sure why because it was so simple, but I guess it's the simple things in life that move us. She said, "In Jesus I know you will find yourself in the best place where you could be."

This is Tony. I haven't talked much about him. That's because he's quiet and likes to keep to himself. He's half-Russian, half-Zimbabwean, but English is his first language. However, he has this amazing African, British, and Russian accent going on. (He went to school in England for awhile.) So, he's definitely a unique and really cool kid.

This sixth grade. I love how the American boys are adopting the Asian peace sign picture fad.

I LOVE this picture! They are so funny, all crammed into the cafeteria window. L to R: Jin-Young, Ho-Jin, David, and Kang-Wook.

The eighth grade.

I almost felt blasphemous taking this picture. I want to remember her though. Every day she is at this corner near the metro. I have seen her daily for months now, and she is a part of my time in Russia even though she doesn't know it. I don't want to her forget her, her little white money bag, and her icon of Jesus.

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On Thursday I went on an unexpected boat ride on the Moscow river. It started at a metro which I can't remember the name of, but it translates Sparrow Hill. Then we went all the way through the center of the city. It was a chilly and cloudy day.

Russians HATE this statue. A few years ago there was a plot to blow it up. Haha...

Passing the Kremlin...

Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

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Something I am going to miss about Russia are the numerous flower shops. They are EVERYWHERE! And many of them are open 24 hours a day.

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Soon I will post about the amazing day I had today at Sergiyev Posad with Svetlana, her husband Igor, and her son Vasya. And of course their giant of a koshka, Dimok (Smoke).

I will post more pictures of Novodevichy on Facebook soon.

Love,
Meredith

Music Concert in the Morning

What's cool about the cafeteria at HCA is that there is a piano in it and always someone playing on it. Because it is in the middle of the school, it fills the whole building with music. I like it.

Yesterday morning In-Sung and Hanna were practicing together...a nice mini-concert.

Today is my last day of teaching. I'm subbing on Thursday and Friday, but just in the mornings. It's hard to believe that my time in Russia is coming to a close. More on that later...

On Saturday my Russian teacher, Svetlana, is taking Laura and me to Sergiyev Posad which is a city outside of Moscow. In Sergiyev Posad is the most important Russian Orthodox monastery in all of Russia. It is the Orthodox equivalent to the Vatican.

Then, Sveta is taking us to her dacha. I am so excited about this! I have not yet been to a dacha before. She lives ten minutes from the monastery. At her dacha we are going to have tea, and then we will take a short-distance train back to Moscow. I can't wait!

I need to post pictures of the convent Laura and I went to Sunday. It was...the best day ever. More on that later!

Love,
Meredith

Victory Park, Teaching, etc....

Hello! I feel like I haven't written much lately (posted pics, yes, but not much writing). Things have been busy, but the semester is winding down. Today was the last day I taught 7th grade. I'm going to miss teaching them. As I was grading the quizzes they took today, I kept thinking, "Oh, I need to tell them this and remind them about this and reinforce this and ask them this question," but I realize that I'm not going to have that opportunity again. It made me sad. Artyom, my only Russian student, wants me to come teach at HCA next year. It's when my students say those kind of things that make me want to cry. I don't want to leave if they don't want me to, but the truth is I know that they will forget about me. Every now and then they will mention the student teacher they had last semester. I realize that I will be a distant memory next year too like he is now. That is normal.

I don't remember that much from middle school except that I hated it. That is normal too. Everyday Artyom and Matt come in and say, "Miss Beck, middle school sucks."

"I agree."

"Why does it suck?"

"I don't know, Matt. I don't know."

They are really funny. They are best friends, and if I don't play soccer on Tuesdays at recess duty, they sit with me and talk about stuff. Middle school conversation is so funny. It consists of a series of questions.

"If you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would you go? One place. No, three places. Go."

"Do you think Spiderman could beat Batman?"

"Do you like Lost better or 24?"

I'm going to miss these kids.

Here are some pictures of the 6th grade:

I love this picture.

Glory trying to get Emma to cooperate.

Emma cracks me up with her bangs.

I wrote a diagram of the preamble to the Constitution on the board and sang half of it in front of them. I couldn't finish singing it because I was too embarrassed! haha.

We've been reading Romeo and Juliet in the 8th grade, and I have the kids move the tables to give space for a "stage." They get to sit on the desks, and whoever is reading lines comes to center stage.

Some of the kids. Here you can see Paris in the tomb on the left slain by the hand of Romeo in the middle. He is also dead as is Juliet who is played by Dasl on the right.

Dasl is a really cool girl. I absolutely love her name. I asked her what it meant, and she explained to me how Korean names work. Kinda confusing, but this is how I understood it... "Da" is a letter, and "sl" is a letter. "Da" is used in many words, so her parents choose which "da" it comes from. Apparently "da" is part of the word "active" or "lively," but it can be a part of many different words. "Sl" is a part of the word for "wise." So Dasl's name means active and wise. She said though that Dasl is a common name, but they all have different meanings depending on what words the parents chose them from. I thought that was really interesting. Now it makes sense why all my Korean kids have two-syllable names: Ho-Jin, Jin-Young, Kang-Wook, Sang-Joon, Sung-Kyoung, Haesl (Dasl's sister), Yeji, Hye-Rim. Interesting.

Group discussion.

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On Sunday, Laura and I skipped church unintentionally and went to Park Pobedy, also called Victory Park. Metro Pobedy has the longest escalator in the world. I was so excited! I counted 140 Mississippis. That's pretty darn long! It is 410 feet long
.

I like this metro station a lot.

Napoleon.

Victory Park.

This is what the side of that tall statue looks like.

This is the Hall of Glory inside the WWII museum at Victory Park.

Inside the museum.

Dioramas of famous battles...

Almost looks real, doesn't it? This one I believe is of the siege of St. Petersburg.

Haunting art at Victory Park. It's strange to see so many people rollerblading, skating, eating, and drinking around such disturbing statues.

Face covered.

Flowers at their feet.

Strange shoes!

Tortured statue.

The mosque at Victory Park.

The synagogue at Victory Park.

The church at Victory Park.


Christ is Risen! (That is what is written above the door.)

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Laura and I also went to another park. It was woodsier, but it offered a better view of Moscow.

A hazy skyline.

The 1980 Olympics building.

This is Moscow State University. It is one of the seven Stalin buildings, also called the Seven Sisters.

Speaking of the Seven Sisters, last night was the faculty and staff appreciation banquet. We ate dinner at an Indian restaurant on the 16th floor of some building which had a fantastic view of the city. From the windows we could see six of the seven sisters. Not bad at all!

Moscow State University.

Moscow State University at night.

Night skyline. Beautiful!!!

I was really shocked, but I got a "gift" like all of the other teachers. I'm so thankful for HCA. They have been so accepting and welcoming. They are such wonderful people. My gift was a tea cup with my name on it, written in cursive Russian. Cursive Russian is like a different alphabet altogether. My name in cursive Russian looks like "Mepudum." I think that sounds funny. :P

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Tomorrow Laura and I are meeting at the metro at 6:45 a.m. Eek. Not fun, but we are going to the American Embassy. From there we are going on a train to Vladimir and Suzdal for the day. We'll get back around 8ish. Then we'll hang out in the center of the city till midnightish, and then we're going to an Orthodox Easter service. I don't know how long we'll stay though because their services last till dawn. I don't know if I can make it that long. Especially after having touring all day long.

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Some random things....

In Moscow they paint the lower half of all the trees white. I don't like it, but it's supposed to protect them from bugs that kill the trees.

Near the metro is a group of kiosks and little produkti stores. The theme along this walkway is animals. I found this little guy takin' a smoke break, and I just had to get a picture. :)

Brooms have now replaced snow shovels, and all the -stan cleaners are now working to clean the streets. However, their brooms are old-fashioned stick brooms....as in witch brooms. I've never seen someone use a witch broom before now.

Even though the street cleaners are using brooms, it still snows occasionally. Yesterday it snowed in the morning. You should have heard my 6th graders! It was like a funeral in my room for a full hour. They moaned and wailed as if someone had died. Nobody wants snow anymore. Everyone wants summer. Myself included!

Much Love,
Meredith