Moscow

Hello again!

I write this post in the middle of our week off for spring break and having just arrived back early this morning (4:11 AM) from Moscow.  Amanda and I decided to take a short trip to Moscow over spring break and take in a few sites that one or both of us had not done.  It was my third and Amanda's second trip to the city, but it's a big city and there is a lot to see!  We took the night train from St. Petersburg Tuesday night and arrived a little after 5 AM in Moscow where we spent an activity-filled day that involved an incredible amount of walking before catching another night train back to St. Petersburg that same day.  It was a tiring experience, but also a lot of fun.  We have many pictures, so I will post a generous selection below and offer my own commentary. Enjoy:-)

We started the day off by visiting some of the more picturesque stations on the Moscow metro.  The Moscow metro is one of the largest in the world and the second busiest (next only to Tokyo), but many of its stations are strikingly decorated.  The metro was first built in the 1930s and has been expanding ever since.  In the early decades in particular, the stations reflected Communist art and stand as a reminder of the ideals of Russia's Soviet past.

Even though the metro is one of the busiest in the world, we were able to get some great pictures because we arrived literally as soon as the metro opened for the morning.  Later in the day it would be back to the normal packed cars and people shoving you, but for the hour from 5:30-6:30 AM it was like we were the only people in the city which was actually a very cool feeling.

The next three pictures are from Komsomolskaya Station.  This is the station nearest the train station we arrived at.  The ceilings are decorated with mosaics depicting events in Russian history.

The next noteworthy station we stopped at was Novoslobodskaya.  The station is decorated like stained glass windows.

The next pictures are from Mayakovskaya Station.  This station is decorated with a series of mosaics depicting images related to flight.  It opened in 1938 is often considered to be one of the most beautiful of the stations in the metro.

The last station I'll post photos of is Ploshchad Revolutsia.  This station is notable for the series of bronze statutes that line it.  The statues are of people who represent various Soviet ideals like soldiers, students, farmers, scientists, and miners.

After visiting these metro stations, we made our way to Red Square primarily in search of a place to eat breakfast (McDonald's!), but once again since we were there so early the square, which is usually packed with tourists, was virtually abandoned. You can see that I'm almost the only person in the square in the next photo.

Next we visited a few notable buildings in Moscow just to see them up close.  The first one is the Kudrinskaya Square Building.  It is one of the Seven Sisters (or Stalin High-rises as they are known in Russian), a series of seven skyscrapers that are more or less identical made on the orders of Stalin in the late 1940s and early 1950s.  The style is usually described as "Stalinist Gothic."  I wouldn't call it beautiful, but it is certainly striking.  You see these buildings throughout the city as you travel around.  The tallest is the Moscow State University building (about 750 feet), but we had to settle for this one:-)

The next building we went to is the Lubyanka.  The Lubyanka was the headquarters of KGB and its various other incarnations throughout Soviet history and still houses some of the offices of the FSB, the KGB's modern successor in Russia.  Some of the greatest political persecutions in human history were in all probability planned inside this otherwise innocuous looking building.

The next shot is just a very nice photo Amanda took that captures the Kazan Cathedral, State Historical Museum, and one of the towers in the Kremlin wall.

Our next destination was GUM (in Russian it's an acronym for "main department store").  GUM was built during Tsarist times as a major shopping center and it continues to serve that function day, offering mostly high-end stores.  While we could not afford to shop in the stores, the building itself is beautiful and is located right on Red Square.

The next sequence of photos is all of St. Basil's Cathedral, perhaps the most iconic of all Russian churches.  I had been inside the Church 4 years ago, but Amanda had not yet had a chance to go in.  The Church is very easy to recognize and has been reproduced in countless images around the world, but what many people do not know is that the "church" is actually a collection of nine churches connected to each other.  Walking in for the first time can be a bit surprising if you are used to walking into a normal Orthodox Church were you would encounter a large open area reaching up to the domes.  Instead, you find many smaller churches, each with its own beautiful iconostasis, connected to each other by dark passageways.  The interior is beautiful and the different churches inside all differ from one another at least somewhat in their decorations and in the style of their iconography.

We (and by "we" I mean Amanda, who took ALL of the photos that you see here:-)) got some good photos of the walls of the Kremlin as well:

The next place we visited was the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.  The Church has a very interesting history. It was originally built during the 1800s, but was destroyed by the Soviets in the 1930s because they wanted to build an enormous Palace of Soviets on its place.  However, lack of funds, flooding from the river, and the Second World War prevented this plan from being carried out.  Instead, the world's largest heated outdoor swimming pool was built there.  After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian Orthodox Church obtained permission to rebuild the Cathedral and the new building was finished in 2000 and is the tallest Orthodox Church in the world.  The inside of the Church is very impressive visually, as is the Church of the Transfiguration, which is located underneath the Church.  Since it is a functioning church, photography is not permitted, but we have pictures of the exterior of the church.

Visible from near the church is the Monument to Peter the Great, an enormous statue (about 300 feet tall) commemorating the founding of the Russian navy by Peter the Great.  The statue is controversial for its enormous size, its dubious connection to the city (Peter the Great hated Moscow) and is considered by many to be rather ugly.  The city has tried to give it away to St. Petersburg, but St. Petersburg has refused.  Say what you will about it, it is certainly a very large statue.

Our next destination was the modern wing of the Tretyakov Gallery.  I had been to the 19th century building before, but I had not seen the 20th century collection of the gallery, which is housed in a separate location.  Russia had a thriving avant garde movement during the first quarter of the twentieth century and we both wanted to go.  We didn't take any pictures there (I've never understood the inclination some people have to take pictures of paintings), but thoroughly enjoyed ourselves there.

After visiting the gallery, we went to the Arbat area of the city, which was a famous neighborhood in the past.  While Arbat Street is now mostly filled with souvenir shops and restaurants, it is still a nice area and a good place to walk.  We got food there and also enjoyed going to a Dunkin Donuts shop. American-style donuts are not common in Russia, so it was nice to be able to enjoy one!

I had one final place I wanted to see before we hobbled off to the train station to return home, and that was the location of the old Mosselprom building. Mosselprom was a general store of sorts during the early Soviet period. It was of interest to me because of the role that prominent Soviet artists played in designing advertising materials for it.  The artist Alexander Rodchenko and the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky worked together to design advertising posters that, in contrast to the monotonous Soviet posters that would come later, are actual works of art that are still striking.  The building still reflects some of the art of the time period and is an interesting reminder of a past era.

All of that in one day, not bad:-)

Thanks for reading,

- Matt

Variety Post!

Hello!
This is a nice little collection of different things in this post.
The first thing is a project I (Amanda) had my 9th graders do as a final project for the Odyssey. I have had many different projects throughout this year but this was one of the coolest as far as what the students turned in. The assignment was to take a bar of soap and carve a Greek statue of Odysseus at the end of the book. It needed to follow Greek form as best as possible and show effort. The results were amazing and our lovely yearbook teacher grabbed pictures for me. Some of the statues are now gracing the school bathroom and my own bathroom now! :-)

Triumphant Odysseus

Odysseus tied up to hear the Sirens

Odysseus with Penelope

Very impressive detail!

Odysseus in classic Greek pose

A bust of Odysseus (this guy made it to our home)

The second part of this post has to do with the future of IA. To begin with, I present to you two videos, one about the history of the school and one about the influence of the school. 

(Matthew is the narrator for both videos as well!)

The International Academy has faced many challenges in getting to where it is today and is a school that serves as a family and home for many students who are already living outside of their home cultures. The value of the school not just in giving an education but in the lives of our students is stressed heavily in any conversation with past students and graduates.

One of the biggest problems the school faces, as is clear in the first video, is the problem of finding a building and buying it. The land prices in the city are outrageous and it would take literally 20 years for the school to save enough to buy the current building.

What the school would like to do is to set aside a fund for a future building, scholarships, and other needs. The aim is, through much faith and prayer, to achieve the necessary sum in 3 to 4 years rather than 20.

If you would like to support the International Academy in by donating, please go to:
http://myiasp.com/contribute.html
The role of the school is vital to these children and both Matthew and I feel that the school has almost done more for us than we have for it.
Please prayerful consider supporting IA in any way at all!


Tomorrow, I am off to work with a Russian girl's group by teaching them how to do water marble nails! :-) Wish me luck!
-Amanda

International Women's Day

Happy International Women's Day from Russia!
Matt suggested I post about why I like women's day since it is one of the bigger holidays over here. :-)
Russia does not celebrate Mother's Day or Father's Day. Instead they have "Defenders of the Fatherland Day" and "International Women's Day." Women's Day is much more common through Europe and include thanking mothers as a part of the holiday.
Personally, I appreciate that I do not have to be a mother to be appreciated in this holiday. Mothers are thanked for being mothers and single women are thanked for being single women; it's a holiday that is more inclusive of all women.
Parent holidays can also be painful for many people, like those who have had negative experiences with their parents or children. But Women's Day includes all women and all those who love them, not just related family members.
It's also nice to have women's place in society publicly acknowledged and celebrated. All cultures have times they can look back on where this was not the case and it is a blessing to see how cultures have moved forward from that.
But regardless of gender, we have been blessed by those who support us and those we work with here. So thank you to the men and women who have done so much for us this past year and half, and many of you for much longer! You are a blessing to us and we only hope to pass this blessing on to the kids at IA!
- Amanda

Basketball and Politics

Hello again!

Once more we have had a bit of a gap between posts here.  The semester has continued and the busyness and fatigue of it all has gotten the best of us in terms of blog posting frequency.  Right now we are enjoying a four day weekend for Defenders of the Fatherland Day which we are very glad for.  This year has definitely been more taxing and we have both been feeling a bit drained as of late, so it has been good to get some rest and recharge a bit.

The title of this post may seem a bit odd, but it focuses on the two things that I want to cover in this blog post.  I'll save the fun of IA's recent basketball tournament for last and begin with Russia's interesting political situation.  As you may or may not have known, March 4th is the presidential election in Russia.  As you also may know, there have been widespread protests and political frustration since the parliamentary elections in December owing to the widespread fraud that seems to have occurred.  The large-scale demonstrations that have taken place throughout Russia are the largest protests since the fall of the Soviet Union and are symptomatic of more than just political frustration.  Increasingly younger Russians and the emerging middle class feel a sense of frustration at a country that is increasingly perceived as offering no real opportunities for the future owing to systemic corruption and the Kremlin's program of "managed democracy."

We don't usually focus on political events here, but this is definitely something that we would appreciate your prayers about.    It is a strange feeling to compare the political situation here in Russia with what is going on in the United States.  While the U.S. has been experiencing a very public presidential campaign for over a year now, in Russia there is barely any signs that a major election will take place in less than two weeks.  Largely in response to the negative public reaction to the December elections, the ruling powers have run a very low key campaign.  You could be forgiven for living in St. Petersburg and not realizing that there is an imminent election.While it seems almost certain that Putin will win the presidential election, it is not at all certain what the reaction to this possibility will be or what the future holds for Russia.  These are interesting times to be a foreigner living in Russia.  We pray that meaningful changes would take place in Russia and that the clouds of fatalism that have covered this country for so long would begin to break.

Shifting gears to the other topic of this post, IA hosted a basketball tournament featuring its varsity and junior varsity teams these past two days.  We invited our friends and chief rivals from Hinkson Christian Academy in Moscow to come up and play us and we also invited a few Russian schools to join in.  Last month was a momentous event in the history of IA basketball as we defeated Hinkson for the first time in school history at the Anglo-American basketball tournament in Moscow.  Our team proved that the hard fought victory in Moscow was no fluke as we beat Hinkson for a second time with a score of 67 to 48!  It was an exciting game to watch and we were very proud of our students for playing so well.  Hinkson was able to exact some revenge on us in the junior varsity tournament, handily defeating our j.v. squad.  Our team played hard and never gave up, even though they were playing against a more experienced and physically larger team. It's always fun to watch our students play and to be able to cheer them on.

IA's year of transition (if there is ever such a thing as a normal year for an international Christians school) continues as well, with our interim headmaster and his wife leaving after finishing their time with us.  We have a short window of time before Mrs. Plaster returns to finish out the year and before our new headmaster for next year comes.  We greatly appreciate your prayers for our school during this time of changing roles as our school grows and adapts to new challenges and situations. Next year is shaping up to be interesting as well with more changes on the horizon, but I'll set that aside for a later blog post.

Here are some photos from the basketball games for your enjoyment:

One of our Cossacks soars above the competition to score!

The team huddles up during a timeout.

Number 33 on our team has some seriously awesome shoes.

Our opponents and arch (friendly) rivals: Hinkson Christian Academy from Moscow

Driving in the lane.

Battling for a free-throw rebound.

The final score.  Go Cossacks!

IA's junior varsity team against Hinkson's j.v. team.

More j.v. Cossack action.

Taking it to the hoop!

And finally a short video of some fast-break action from the varsity game.

Thanks for reading!

-Matt

Winter Update

Hello again,

It's been almost a month since our last post.  My only excuse for the long delay is that we have been busy and nothing spectacular has been happening.  Our second semester is now well underway and we are once again back at it.  The new quarter has been going well.  As always it brings its changes and challenges.

One change this quarter so far is that we have had several new students enroll just as we have also seen several students leave, with quite a few more to come before the year ends.  An international school like ours always has high turnover, but this has been the most we have experienced in our time here so far.

We continue to keep busy with afterschool work as well.  I am teaching a course that meets twice a week on English grammar for five of our highschool students and Amanda is still tutoring three times a week at the moment.  The reasons for me teaching this course is more one of availability than of ability (no one else wanted to do it), so it has been a bit of a stretch at times as I re-familiarize myself with English grammar concepts or learn them for the first time altogether.  I think I have learned more about English grammar through studying Russian.  I certainly can't think of another time in my life where I could see a term like "past perfect progressive tense" and have it make sense. I continue my Russian language studies twice a week, which means that Wednesday is perhaps my favorite day of the week since it is the only one on which I get to go home at the end of the school day:-)  All of these activities have gone so well so far.

The past two weeks have been extremely cold for us here as temperatures have dipped well below freezing to -25 Celsius yesterday (about -15 Fahrenheit).  Our apartment has been quite cold even though our heat is working so we have had to resort to running the oven and using a space heater.  Still, after the extremely mild winter that we have had so far it is nice to have some truly cold weather.  We only have a bit in the way of snow which is a bit disappointing after the piles of snow that we had last year.

To go along with the winter weather, our school has been hit by the usual winter mix of colds and flus this past week and quite a few students and teachers have been out.  Amanda missed one day this past week after getting sick, but thankfully is feeling much better. Between all of this I got to sub for quite a few classes in addition to teaching my own. Your prayers for our health and for the health of our fellow teachers and students is always appreciated!

We have received two important pieces of good news in the past few weeks that we are happy to share with you:

1. Our yearly financial report from World Partners was very encouraging.  Thanks in a large part for the many one time gifts that we have received our financial picture has gotten much much better.  We are so grateful for all of you have given, particularly those who have given these unexpected onetime gifts. God is providing for us through you and we as always are humbled by your tangible act of faith in our work.  We will continue to do our best to use these funds wisely.

2. Our landlord has agreed to extend the lease on our apartment.  This is something that we have been praying about for a while and were going to mention in our next letter, but sometimes God works ahead of us:-)  Our current rental agreement ends this August and we knew that meant that we might have to move.  Since we love our current apartment and really like our landlord we were praying that we would be able to stay here for the remainder of our time in Russia, and thankfully this appears to be the case.  The new agreement will be formally signed in August, but for now we are praising God for this new blessing!

Looking ahead, we would appreciate your prayers again for all of our students who will be leaving.  Several students have left already, mostly to return to Korea, and there will be many more in the coming weeks and months.  At the current time, our high school will be greatly diminished next year.  It is sad to say goodbye to students we have had the joy of getting to know over these past two years.

Even in the midst of "routine" days we are very grateful for the opportunity we have to be in St. Petersburg and to be teaching, and we thank everyone who has helped us to be able to do this!

Thank you again for all your prayers, we need and appreciate them.

-Matt

Hello all!
It has been a while since our last post and we are now heading back into the school year. We start 3rd Quarter tomorrow and we are looking forward to the new year!
My sister was hear for a part of the break and we were able to see tons and tons of things with her. We were actually amazed at how much we did!
(Most of the pictures and all of the panoramas are hers, unless otherwise noted. I am very jealous of the panorama feature!)

The first day she was here we walked around and went inside the Kazan Cathedral and the Spilled Blood. 

Photo by myself

 I do realize we posted about a million Spilled Blood pictures but the new camera we have does a much better job so I thought I would share another!

Her second day we intended to go to a museum but it was closed. So we went to St Isaac's Cathedral and the Bronze Horseman and the Peter and Paul Fortress. We were able to take the then 3 day old metro station of Admiraltiskaya (above, all shiny and new). There is talk of connecting it to the line we live near but nothing is happening with that yet. 

Beth and Matthew with the controversial statue of Peter the Great. 

A panorama of the Peter and Paul Cathedral 

New Year's Eve was rather epic for the three of us. We first went to see The Nutcracker at the Mariinsky Theater (above and below).

After, we had two of our friends from IA over for cookies and games. Then all of us met up with another couple from IA and we waited for the fireworks and looked at the lights on the Neva. It was a special treat because usually the river would be frozen and give no reflection.

Photo by myself

  Photo by myself

To get back home we took the metro too late and ended up having to come up on Nevsky Prospect where the party was in full swing. We grabbed a van and all headed home around 3 am. :-)

Next day was shopping at Galeria. We've posted pictures of Galeria before but Beth took this nice one of the inside of the mall. 

Monday we went to the Smolney Convent (above) and a Siege Museum near the city center. We ended up walking the whole thing since it was Jan 2nd and most of that first week is a holiday. Smolney is also near the government center so very little public transport runs through there any way. It ended up being around a 3 mile walk but the museum was very interesting and had many objects and artifacts from the Blockade.

Then we were off to the Catherine Palace. I had seen the outside this summer but I had never been inside myself so this was new for me as well! The main staircase is above. 

Bethany in the center of the Great Ballroom. 

After a certain point your ability to take in gold shiny becomes maxed out at these palaces! :-)

During WW2, most of the city around the Palace (called Pushkin) was destroyed. The Palace itself was badly damaged and people rescued many of the works of art and such during the war. People still aren't sure what happened to all of the Amber in the Amber Room though it is assumed the Germans took it. The picture above is of the main staircase (the panorama above) after the war. Many years have been spent restoring these rooms and the Palace in general. 

The gates at the front of the Palace

A Russian squirrel! They are very hard to find (a student who was born here told me she has never seen one!) and they have long feathery tufts on their ears. Officially the cutest animal ever!

We also went to the Ethnography museum. Above is a Vietnamese war god that greats you when you enter. 

Photo by myself

Thursday was a free day at the Hermitage and since the museum is spendy and the three of us are cheap we got up bright and early to get in line. 

Photo by myself

There were several benefits to this it turned out. 1) lovely pictures! 2) while we ended up pretty far back in the lines outside the gates (below)

Photo by myself

3) When the gates opened there were about 5 seconds of order before everyone started running for the offical lines by the actual museum entrance. The three of us bolted and actually made it very close to the front of the line. When we left the museum the line actually stretched out of the gates and past the Alexander Column! 

 So luckily we got in and had a free day at one of the largest art museums in the world! 

Photo by myself

The bottom half of the main staircase

 Photo by myself

Matthew with Zeus

 Photo by myself

 Photo by myself

My favorite room in the Hermitage. Also houses the peacock clock (two below).

 Photo by myself

This hall was modeled after a hall in the Vatican.

 Photo by myself

More ostentatious rooms! :-)

Beth and me with the peacock clock

A series of Dutch paintings relating to food and hunting.

Beth and Matthew on a famous foot bridge

The three of us together on her last day!

As can be seen we all had a great time! 

In other news, it is looking very positive that we will be able to stay for all of next year at least. Please keep praying as we begin the more official number crunching in the next few months! 

Also, please pray for me as I begin to work on renewing my teaching license. It is a very unclear process and could have very negative consequences if done wrong.