Tuesday May 12th - Professional Day

Today was our professional day. We visited a drug company called Chiratrade which exports drugs to different pharmacies throughout the country. As Robin is a pharmacist this was more her cup of tea and I am sure she will talk about it. Next we went the "American Home". It was a home built in the American style by Americans who were flown over here. All the materials except the stone were brought in from America as well. You can check out the following websites if you would like to learn more about it. They have opportunities for American teachers to teach English here and it has a very interesting history. I have included a picture in this blog and you can compare it to the one found on the second website.

Teach English in Russia

American Home

Next we went to a school that went from grades 1-12. I have video of the school and will post at a later date but here are the basics:

1. Students go to school in two shifts. The younger students go from 8-1 and the older from 1-5.

2. Many students wore formal dress and I did not see many in pajama's or sweats. On the other hand like the other schools we have visited the schools are quite run down and look like they really need some work. But the students do not seem to notice. They were all very polite and respectful and again as with all of the other schools we visited they stood up when we entered.

3. As in the other schools many of the students spoke basic American English and were very excited to see us. They had many of the same questions that the students from other schools asked like what do we like to do for fun in America, what is our favorite music and movies. They talked about sports and asked us what we have done in Russia and what we liked. They were very talkative and we enjoyed our time there a lot. The younger kids were a lot more interested in us than the older ones though.

We next visited a vodka factory..........not sure what to say here because I am unsure if I remember most of it. I remember touring the facility but was a tad bored by the vats and discussion on how it was made and how it worked and all that stuff. We then went in to talk to the director and in his office he had a spread out for us for lunch of meats, cheeses, veggies, and bread. That was not all though. At one end of the table he had at least twenty bottles of vodka, cognac, and gin. In front of each of our place settings were three glasses. One for taste testing, one for water, and I have no idea what the other was for but am sure I used it at some point. Here it gets a little fuzzy!
We began taste testing and the technician that had given us the tour began walking around and giving each of us a "sample" in our glasses. I did not want to be rude and for the first few I drank all of it until the director who was sitting next to me pointed to the huge vat in the middle and everyone began laughing because none of us new we could just take a sip and dump the rest out. This was very difficult for some of us because we hated wasting it but by the 5th bottle when we realized that we were going to be tasting them all we really lost all choice in the matter! I really can't say more except see the pictures I have attached.
Lastly at about 3 p.m. we went to a University which I do not recall the name of... surprising after the visit to the vodka factory. I have no words that can accurately describe what we did at the University. I do believe I captured it on film but have yet to watch it because from there I am unsure what we did until I woke up at 9 p.m. and realizing I still needed to pack for our train at 6:30a.m. to Moscow!
Enjoy the pictures and I will talk to you in Moscow!

Early morning at the drug facility. As you can see there were many cups of coffee to go around.


The American Home- from left to right (Sarah Phillips, Jennifer Vincent, Robin Lee, John Bentley and Mike Maholchic)


The school we visited that included students from grades 1-12. This young class was the most talkative and every time they asked a question they stood up!!


The vodka factory along with our tour guides for the day. This picture was taken about half way through the taste testing.


The next two pictures were taken towards the end!! The first one is of the whole group and the second is of Sarah Robin and Myself.