Russian Superstitions

On Wednesday and Thursday this week, I had a couple 8 hour training meetings for teaching. Thursday afternoon, we split up into our country groups and did some culture training. One thing I learned: Russians are very superstitious. Here's some examples of Russian superstitions:

* If you whistle indoors, your money will fly out the window
* Before leaving for a trip, you must have a moment of silence
* If you return home because you forgot something, you must look in the mirror before you leave again
* Never shake hands under a doorway; it will bring bad luck to the friendship or deal made
* If someone steps on your toes, you must step on their toes, or else you will have a quarrel with them
* If you go outside with your hair wet, you will get pneumonia
* Cold drinks are the most common cause for flus, colds, and general sicknesses
* Single women must NEVER sit at the corner of the table, or else they'll never get married. They also must not wear rings on their right ring finger (where Russians wear their wedding rings)

We also talked about how because we're cute young American girls, the Russian boys will be after us, so if we ever are bothered by them, we can ask the babushkas (grandmothers) to yell at them to leave us alone. Of course, the babushkas will also yell at us if we don't have our hats and gloves on, or if our coats aren't zipped or buttoned. It'll be quite the experience, I'm sure.

After teacher training this week, I've got a lot better idea of what I'll be doing over there, though I still don't know what age group I'll be with. I also met the head teacher, Areil, and another teacher, Tasha, from my group, and they are awesome girls! I can tell we're going to have a lot of fun, and I hope the rest of the group is going to be just as fun, too. I won't meet the rest of them til we're at the airport the day we leave. Tasha and I already talked about having a moment of silence before we get on the plane, like true Russians. :) About 2 and a half weeks to go!