Students and Salsa

Life is moving pretty fast here. It’s hard to believe I’ve been here almost a month! Also strange because I’ve been here a month and my schedule still isn’t totally set up yet.

I had another discussion group with the students on Friday, where some new students who joined and clearly did not want to speak English. It was a bit frustrating but finally they left and things got a bit better. We had decided on a topic to talk about but then when it came time to talk about it, they said they were ‘bored’ by the topic. Greattt. But when I asked them what they wanted to talk about they were silent. How can I know what interests you unless you tell me? So for this upcoming Wednesday I’m going to a) prepare more structure and b) hope that the silent boys don’t show up. (I’ve only taught classes of men so far. Twenty-two year old guys are really no fun… and they wonder why I’m not married.)

On Friday I finally sucked it up and called the director of the museum where I’m going to teach English as well so that the tour guides can communicate better. I was so nervous to call him because I know he doesn’t speak a lick of English, and my Russian abilities usually rely on a lot of pointing, gesturing and body language. Basically, I act like a five year old. Clearly this isn’t possible on the phone. So I prepared for about an hour on what I was going to say, wrote down a bunch of words and rehearsed it to myself, and finally worked up the cajones to press ‘send’ on his number. Once he answered and I identified myself, he starts saying (in Russian) ‘wait, wait, wait! One moment!!’ and then puts his son on the phone who can speak English. All that for nothing. I’ve noticed that the things you expect to be difficult are always easier and the things that you expect to be easy inevitably end up harder than expected.

Anyways we decided I would get picked up at 10 AM on Monday and go out to the museum (it’s far away from the city, hence the need for a ride) and they would just call me again on Sunday night to confirm this. So Sunday rolls around, I prepare this whole test to the give to the students so I can see what their level is, and a whole introductory lesson, and I wait for my call. No phone call. I eventually call the director again and this time his son isn’t around so I have to stumble through Russian to communicate with him and eventually I figure out he hasn’t been able to find a driver or gather the tour guides, so I won’t be coming in on Monday. He’s going to call me when he has it figured it out. I guess it’s good that I prepared the lesson already so I won’t have to later. I was honestly getting pretty excited to do some substantive English teaching where I would be more in control and having a class to myself. I really enjoy all the other teachers at the Academy and the students (who participate) are really great, but I feel a bit under-utilized there.

On that note though, today I went in to have my discussion class with the teachers and they all asked if I could come in and help out with some of their classes. They said they would tell me what they wanted me to talk about- they basically just want their students to hear a native speaker and be forced to speak in English since I won’t understand Azerbaijani. I jumped on this opportunity and said ‘of course of course!!’. I told two or three (not sure who was asking what) of the teachers I would help them out this upcoming Wednesday. At which point the other women were like ‘well, don’t you have your discussion club that day as well?’. My discussion club is an hour. They also said some stuff ‘but you’ll be so tired if you do all that!’. I told them I could handle it, considering all I’ll be doing is chatting in my native language, and I again reminded them that I’m there to help them with whatever they need. It’s as if they don’t think I’m up for anything substantive. I think part of this revolves around the fact that the Academy is very structured and a lot of these women have been there for a while so they already have their schedules and structure all figured out, so they weren’t necessarily prepared for me to come and help out. I’m hoping they start to realize more that I’m a resource for them, and that my assignment for the next ten months is to help teach English. Regardless, the women are all very nice and I like spending time with them.

Anyways today I had an adventure. My friend and I heard about beginner Salsa lessons for 30 manat (about $35) a month and they meet twice a week, so it’s a pretty decent deal. I figure I should probably learn how to move my body around since I realize I look a bit dorky attempting rhythm. My moves at the wedding consisting of tapping my feet together intermittently, trying to sway to the beat, and twisting my arms. Smooth, Anna.

The placement of these lessons is probably funnier than my moves, however. It’s actually pretty close to my apartment and the main train station. We had some directions from our friend where to go who does the advanced lessons because he’s super good, so he wasn’t there tonight. We had to walk down this one street and then look for a gray metal door (there’s a gray metal door every 5 feet in Baku) and (here’s the best part) next to it a sign that says “AZERBAIJAN DEAF SOCIETY”. Enter through this gray metal door and walk through the theatre. (Cue roughly 20 ripped-up red velvet seats with an antiquated stage.) Then wander up to someone who looks like they know what’s going on and stand there until they ask what you’re doing, and attempt in Russian/ English that you want to “tansevatz” (still can’t figure out Cyrillic- but that’s Russian for ‘to dance’). Luckily this woman put me out of my misery in stumbling through explaining salsa (remember how I revert to a 5 year old when speaking Russian so my next step would have been pantomiming salsa dancing to this woman. I’m such a foreigner) in Russian and she spoke English and brought us into a dance studio. (A dance studio in the deaf society… I really wish I understood this place, sometimes.) Anyways we met the instructor who spoke no English but was friendly. There were actually a lot of people and we met some other Americans there, some Texans working in oil and a Californian from the Embassy. Mostly it was Azeris though. I’d say there were about 30 people there in this cramped dance studio dancing salsa underneath the Azerbaijani flag. It was great- I love CIS countries. The woman who spoke English took the first-timers over in a corner and showed us the basic moves. I was paired up with the Californian guy who thankfully was around my level (read: very novice). The lessons lasted an hour and half, and then we paid the main instructor 30 manat with a plan to come back on Thursday. The instructor told me to practice at home. I guess he caught some of my moves.

I will conquer salsa dancing while here. I can’t look like a fool anymore when forced to dance. Who woulda thunk I would have come to Azerbaijan to learn how to salsa dance?