(upbeat music)
- Good morning, ITA.
Welcome to Volgograd, Russia.
It's nine a.m. here, so let's get the day started.
All right, so the kids have just had breakfast
and are now cleaning up their rooms
and getting ready for the day.
I'm preparing for my lesson today
and today is the last day of lessons,
so I'm excited that you'll get to see that.
Each year our camp has a different theme
for the whole duration of the camp.
This year we are time travelers,
so the name of our camp is Out of Time, for this season.
And so today we are traveling back to the 19th century
to learn about the industrial revolution.
- Has got a display.
- (Michelle) It has a display?
Okay.
Anything else?
What else is different about those two phones?
- In the simple phone you can only call to another Russian.
And on smart phone you can play mobile games maybe.
- (Michelle) Yep, that's true, perfect.
What do we say when the air is dirty?
It starts with a 'p'.
Anyone?
- Pollution.
- (Michelle) Pollution!
Perfect, thank you, Dima.
- When we had (mumbling)
- (Michelle) Trevithick's.
- Trevithick's Pen (mumbling)
- (Michelle) Pen-y-Darren.
- Pen-y-Darren locomotive
carried 10 tens of iron,
five wagons, and 70 men nineteen--
- (Michelle) Nine point.
- 9.75 (sounding it out)
- (Michelle) Miles.
- Miles in four hours and 12 minutes.
- (Michelle) Perfect, good job.
- It's number five.
- (Michelle) Number five?
- Number...
- (Michelle) Yes.
- Urban life is better than rural
because there are many shops,
supermarket in the cities,
and there are many jobs.
- (Michelle) Okay, what else?
- In the cities are more concerts
and shops.
- Theater.
- It's good because people who lives there
they're very...
- (Michelle) They're very what?
Who can help her?
- They are very healthy.
- (Michelle) Healthy, why?
- Because they are not air pollution.
- (Michelle) No air pollution, good.
- There are not cars.
- (Michelle) No cars, good.
Anything else?
- People eats healthy food.
- (Michelle) They eat healthy food, good.
Anything else?
No, that's it?
All right.
Okay everyone, so classes are over.
They are an hour and a half long.
We actually did some exams,
so I got to proctor some speaking exams
and Jordan did as well.
The kids are at lunch now, so we're going
to join them in the canteen.
And after lunch, I'll show you what kind of activities
we're doing today.
This is our beautiful camp.
It's called Camp Orylonok.
Here in Volgograd the summers are actually pretty hot.
It's not too bad right now.
I think it's in the 80s with a light breeze.
So it's pretty good summer weather.
Here you can see we have a little volleyball court.
We don't typically use this court,
but other campers do.
This campsite actually has hundreds of kids.
But our camp program has 120 kids this term.
All right, we're coming up onto the canteen.
I'm not sure if I'll have time to show you,
but we also have a swimming pool.
We have a medical center with a doctor who's here 24/7.
We have a place where we can wash our clothes by hand
if you wanna do some laundry.
And it's a pretty good size campsite.
It is enclosed, so you know, kids don't get lost.
I mean, not really anywhere they can run off too.
But it's really nice, it's just really beautiful here.
I love it.
- (Female Electronic Voice) By color.
It also helps to have a picture of what it will look like.
- (Male Electronic Voice) The correct answer is A.
- All right, so one question we have is
As a non native speaker, can I still teach in Russia?
I think you can.
Most teachers in Russia are Russians
teaching English as a foreign language.
The only issue with you not being a Russian
and not being a native speaker
is that it's really difficult for Russian businesses
to hire foreigners,
so I'm technically not even an employee here,
I'm a volunteer.
But I'm here on a humanitarian visa
which I'll talk about more in response to another question.
So I think it'll be more difficult
if you're not a native English speaker.
So you might want to message me
and we can talk about it a little more directly.
Okay this is a really good question
and I'm going to elaborate on it quite a bit.
In short, yes I did have trouble getting my visa for Russia.
So let me tell you right now
if you're an American trying to get a visa for Russia,
you are going to run into some issues.
I know that we had a consulate in San Francisco
and they actually got shut down.
I don't really know all the details why.
But that's where we used to send all of our documents,
at least in my part of the country
where I'm from, Arizona.
We would send our documents to
the consulate in San Francisco for processing.
They got shutdown so now all of our documents
have to be sent to Washington, D.C.
And that's how Jordan who's here with me from Arizona,
that's how she had to get her visa to come to Russia
and she applied for a three year tourist visa
and they didn't approve her for three years.
She got approved for six months single entry.
When I applied for my visa, that was in 2017.
I applied in, I think it was March
is when I sent my documents.
It took like two months to get just my visa back
after I already had my passport and everything.
And so I literally got my visa in New York City
the day before my flight to Moscow.
So it was really last minute.
I got it just in the nick of time,
so it was really stressful.
So if you're trying to come to Russia to teach
and you're applying for a visa,
I would suggest applying for the visa
at least six months in advance
and have your visa ready for you
before you even secure anything.
Unless you have an employer who's willing to pay for
the visa and all the fees and processing and all of that.
(electronic music)