Almost Home!!

In the Minneapolis Airport, and they're saying our last flight to La Crosse will be on time!!  Woo Hoo!!!

Klin - Tchaikovsky's House!!!

Today was a wish come true for this music teacher...a trip to Tchaikovsky's house in Klin!!!  It was so amazing to walk where he walked, and see his home.  Everything in his area (not the servants' areas) were original to the way he had them.  The pictures on the wall were exactly as he had them hung, his desk, piano, all were as he would have used them!

The entrance he would have used...and the one that WE USED!!!

The front of the house.  The front porch opens right up to the dining room, and so on hot days they'd eat outside.

One of Tchaikovsky's conducting batons.  This was given to him as a gift.  The handle was real silver.

His top hat and gloves!

Tchaikovsky loved nature more and more as he grew older.  This is one of the paths he would have walked twice a day.

Here is the table where he read newspapers and had his tea.  If he spoke to people in the morning, he would spend the day editing his music.  If he did not speak, then they knew he would spend the day composing.

At this desk Tchaikovsky did all of his editing and final proofs of his compositions.  It was right by his piano.  Here is where he did the final proofreading of The Nutcracker before it was published!

This is the piano he would have played on.  It was a gift.  He spent his evenings entertaining guests in this parlor, and often played duets.  

Me in the parlor with his piano!

In the evenings, he and his guests sat here and read aloud to each other.

Tchaikovsky's bed.

And even his slippers!

THIS IS IT!!! The table in his bedroom that he wrote Symphony Number 6, and many of this other works.  He liked to be able to look out the window into his gardens.

A statute of Tchaikovsky with his house in the background.

Dolls!

At the celebration of the first day of spring today, their crafts teacher gave us a lesson on Traditional Russian Dolls.  These are not the Matryoshka dolls, but ones that are made by families for their children.

In the past, scraps of fabric or clothing would have never been thrown out.  They would have been saved and made into dolls for different types and traditions.  The smallest, just a few inches long would have been given to babies and tied on a string hung over their crib.

When a child grew older, the dolls would still be small, but more elaborate.  This one was a bunny.

This doll is called a "Helper Doll."  When girls turned 7 years old,  it was tradition for them to learn how to cook.  Families would be very large, and lots of help was needed.  At 7 the girl would receive a doll the height of their largest pot.  Then she would make her first meal of porridge.  The helper doll showed her the proportions - up to her neck would be how much porridge to put in, and then she would fill the pot to the top of the dolls head with water!

This is a comforting doll.  It would be hidden away in a secret place, and only brought out if the child was very sad over something.  Ljudmilla L told me that she had a doll like this when she was a child!

We got to make a doll that was special for traveling!  Here are the proportions of the fabric.

Raisa made one with us too!  The head was made of cotton balls.  

Here is part of the body, before the head scarf and apron were added.

Some of the students and adults with our dolls!

Polis-Licey

Today in La Crosse my students are celebrating Read Across America day for Dr Suess' birthday.  They will celebrate with a Read-a-Thon all day to raise money for our sister-school in Nicaragua.  Here in Dubna, we got to celebrate as well at Polis-Licey!  They had a celebration for the First Day of Spring, and we were the guests of honor!  (Ironically, this is the first day in several that it has snowed.)

Polis-Licey is a very small school with only a few classrooms that has both regular and special education students.  The other schools we went to were around 450 students, this one had less than 40. It was clear that they have a family atmosphere.  Mrs Every and I have both been looking forward to coming for a visit because we met their principal, Lyudmila G this summer in La Crosse.

The celebration began with Mrs Every and I being welcomed and the room cheering for us.  Wow - that's not the kind of entrance I'm used to making!

Then the students sang some songs for us.  Of course I loved this!!!

After the singing, a couple of teachers explained about some Russian traditions.  One is hand made dolls.  I'm actually going to do a separate blog on those, because they became an important part of our day.  They also had a ring of bread with a container of salt in the middle of it.  We were invited up in front, and we took a piece of the bread and dipped it in the salt.  This symbolizes that we have eaten meal together and so now we are like family.  It was very sweet!  This picture of it is from my friend Ljudmila L.  The funny part of this is that we wanted to embrace the tradition, and so really dunked our bread in the salt, not knowing that we were just supposed to touch it in there.  Have you ever eaten a mouth full of salt?  Whew!

Next the students showed parts of a play that they are preparing.  It was about a fly that found a coin, went to market and bought a samovar, and then invited her insect friends over for tea.  

See the large kettle that this boy is holding?  It is a samovar.    I have seen these in many Russian homes!  In the bottom is hot water for tea, and you get the water out by the faucet.  On the top is a holder for a teapot, to keep the water warm.  

After the play, a ladies choir came up and sang traditional songs.  I can not begin to tell you how special it was to me to be with these musicians, on the other side of the world, enjoying their music and in such beautiful clothing!

The audience was clapping along, and at one point adults spontaneously grabbed students to dance along.  There was such joy in the room, it really touched my heart!

After the performance, Mrs Every and I  were invited with the choir to sit down for tea.  We had delicious blini made by the parents and students.  

What a lovely tea!!!!!

This was no reserved staff...once again the bayan was pulled out for more singing and dancing.  I'm wondering would the North Woods Staff would look like if this was OUR teacher's lounge...

A Tour of Dubna

Yesterday was another great day in Russia!  The sun was shining, the sky was finally blue, and we were able to see many sights here around the city.

We spent most of the day in School 9.

These three students were our hosts for the day.  They stayed with us the entire time, taking care of anything that we needed, answering questions for us, and asking great questions too!

Last weekend here in Dubna they had a competition for English research projects.  Several students from School 9 did very well, and so their teacher had them share their presentations with us.

This girl gave an excellent presentation on the differences between Ded Moroz (Father Frost) and Santa Claus.  She actually answered many of the questions I'd been wondering.  I got a copy of her presentation to share with our 4th grade teachers!

After school we had a tour around Dubna, with a friend who had taken a group of Russian students to La Crosse last summer.  Here are some of the sights we saw.

Yet more things that La Crosse and Dubna have in common.  They both have 3 rivers that come into one.  And on this side of the river it is the Moscow Region, and on the other side of the river it is another region.  Just like Wisconsin and Minnesota in La Crosse! 

This is another cathedral that we got to see.  Although the building is not as old, the congregation has been here since 1134!  

We finally got to see the Rotunda!

And Dunba has the largest statue of Stalin in Europe.  See the blocks at the bottom that he's standing on?  I could barely reach the second row!

Apparently they like big things, this chair is gigantic as well.  The bottom rung of the chair was at least 10 feet tall.  The teenagers laugh about this chair because they think it is strange that it was built right by a cemetery, but it is actually at the driveway to a furniture factory as well.

This is a traditional house in Russia.  They are made of wood, and have beautiful windows!

This is a church recently built, but in a traditional style.  Before the churches were made of stone, they would have been made of wood.  

Details from the front of the church.  Beautiful!

School Number One

Today we were in School Number One, over on the Left Bank.  Dubna is divided into two halves, the Right Bank and the Left Bank, for the two sides of the Volga River.  From what I've seen so far, the majority of the city is on the Right Bank. 

School Number One.  Notice the blue sky?  We haven't seen it for a long time!  Today was a beautiful day, it feels like spring might be coming!

It was really interesting to see how they spell the phonetics of the alphabet!  They teach "British" english,  but some of these seem very different from how I would pronounce them.

Today I also had a great time skyping with a lot of my students...I really miss you guys!!

Tomorrow we are at our next stop on the whirlwind of trying to squeeze everyone in...School Number 9!

Vologda Lace

Vologda is known for two things - dairy products and lace!  An odd combination, I know.  Since we are from Wisconsin and know lots about dairy products already, I thought you would like to learn more about lace.

The lace from this region is hand made.  I remember my grandma making crochet doilies when I was growing up.  These are actually woven using bobbins and a large circular pad.

I think this technique would be very tricky to learn!  Each wooden stick is called a bobbin.  The artist makes pins to follow a pattern on the paper, and then uses the bobbins to weave the thread and make knots.

As they follow these patterns, the lace develops.  This is in a strip, but they also do circular patterns for table cloths, etc.

Here's a finished table cloth.  Incredible!

This is a zoomed in view of the table cloth.  When it is in larger pieces like this you can see the seams that divides it into quarters.  Then they are woven together.

Very interesting...this is an old school uniform!!!  Anna Z told us that her mother used to wear something like this when she was in school, and hated having to wear it.  Now the girls wear outfits like this for high school graduation.  Her mom thought it was funny that she was always trying to NOT have to wear the uniform, and now girls get to wear it as a special occasion!

The lace can also be woven into pictures.  

Here is a close up of the previous piece.  Every one of those threads were knotted by hand!

Sometimes they leave little loops in the stitches, which creates a snowflake effect.

This is the entire piece - it was a tablecloth.  I wish you could see how huge these pieces are - this table would seat 8!

And of course I couldn't help but include this one!  Even the flower bouquet was of lace!