Rain. Today it poured all day, and the temperature hovered around a chilly 15C. My host mom said this was a good preview of a typical autumn. The streets turned into rivers, and the sidewalks were covered in gigantic puddles. There are a few stretches of unpaved path on my way to the bus stop, and they turned into mud mires. Now I know why it is so important to have good boots here; my feet were soaking all day because I wore my normal shoes.

On a brighter note, I found out that I will be teaching primarily ZII, which is the second level and lowest level that we Americans teach (the Russian staff teaches the very first level, which is mainly an introduction to the alphabet and the most simple elements of English). I'll be covering some basic English verb tenses, such as the simple present ("I go to the store on Wednesdays"), simple past ("I went to Moscow last year"), future with going to ("I am going to call him tomorrow") and the present perfect ("I have been to Kazan"). I'm sure it will also involve a lot of vocabulary and a lot a practice with using articles. Russians often have a terrible time learning how to use articles because Russian doesn't have them. I'm looking forward to a lot of explaining why "Tomorrow I will go to the Moscow" is incorrect while "Tomorrow I will go to the American Home" is right.

Speaking of funny errors, we have been administering and grading placement tests, which involved the prospective students taking a written test and the sitting down for an interview with one of the teachers. Some of them really speak great English, and others have serious trouble with the most basic phrases. One girl told me, in Russian, that the knew no English, and another girl cried during her interview with another teacher. Of course, these tests are just so we know where to place new students, and there is no minimum requirement for English knowledge, but it's obvious that some of the students are very nervous.

After the they finish taking the written tests, we grade them, and here is where the really funny mistakes come out. I admire anyone who puts in the effort to learn another language, and I'm sure they could get a good laugh out of my mistakes in Russian, but some of their errors are just hilarious. My favorite so far? One kid wrote, "The more I eat, the more I fat."