Unforgettable

In the summer of 2011 I worked as an English teacher in Ryazan’. I was on my second trip to Russia and was curious of my trip would be in comparison to my first time. My experience in Ryazan’ was honestly one of the best experiences of my whole life, although it was only for one month. My host family was very hospitable. I had a wonderful hostess who became like a sister to me in the time that I lived with her and her family. Her parents only spoke Russian, so I was able to get very good practice with speaking and enjoyed having conversations with them. They made me feel like a son to them.
I was the instructor of the adult class, and luckily my students had prior knowledge of English. I felt a little bit foolish at first when I went to my first class expecting everybody to be at a low level of English knowledge (I started with the ABCs) and then found that many of them could hold a conversation in English. I worked with them to expand their vocabulary on a variety of topics and to help with to increase their fluency and comfort in speaking English. Some of the topics we discussed were travel, entertainment, food, family, and politics. I was very proud of the progress that my students made in the month that I worked with them, and I am delighted that I still keep in contact with some of them. Overall, my experience as an English teacher was wonderful and completely worthwhile. I truly enjoyed working with my students.
Outside of class, there was plenty of time to explore Ryazan’, meet new people, and just plain have fun! One of my favorite things to do while there was to meet up with the other volunteers and hang out with them and a group of Russians who we had befriended. The Russians we met are some of the nicest and most genuine friends I’ve made and I’m glad that I can call them friends. Aside from meeting people, Crossroads set up some nice excursions, including a trip to the city of Kasimov and a camping trip to Brykin Bor. Brykin Bor was a very peaceful place and the people who we stayed with, the Klimakov family, were very hospitable and lovely people. I was also fortunate to go on an evening trip to Konstantinovo, the birthplace of poet Sergei Yesenin, and on a camping trip with some of my friends to a lake where we swam at midnight. Needless to say, if I were to visit Ryazan’ again, my to-do list of visits would be huge!
If I could, I would go back to Russia and teach English and do it all over again. It was a truly worthwhile and amazing experience.