Gillian Grassie

Where’s Gubkin?

I spent most of June traveling around Russia as a part of the ESL Folk Project. The first of its kind, this project sought not only to assist young Russians in their study of the English language in a fun way, but also to introduce them to sides of American culture that are perhaps not very well represented by Hollywood and other popular mass media.

I originally wrote this post for the group’s blog about our experience at the Gubkin camp. There are many more stories, pictures, videos, songs, bios, teaching materials, etc available online at www.eslfolk.com. Enjoy!

Off The Rails

I’ve spent roughly half of the last month on a train, covering over 15,000 kilometers, from Hong Kong to Gubkin, where I’m now sitting in a hotel room in the South Western corner of Russia. If you ever wondered what it would be like to ride a train alone for four days traveling along the Transsiberian railroad, check out this blog post.

ESL Folk Tour in Russia!

Super limited web access at the moment, but just wanted to put up a quick note letting you know what I’m up to for the month of June – I’m currently traveling with a group of musicians to summer camps in Russia, teaching kids English through American folk music! This is our tour schedule:

June 5th – 8th: Elista
June 9th -14th: Rostov-na-donu
June 16th -19th: Gubkin
June 20th-23rd: Ufa
June 25th-28th: Samara

There’s a neat blog up for the project at www.eslfolk.com

More to come (here) soon!

Behind The Great (fire)Wall

I’ve been in China for the past few weeks and haven’t been able to update my twitter or facebook accounts. I put together this blog post of the tweets that would have been, if China would only let the twitter bird out of its cage…

A summary of the last month in installments of 140 characters or less

‘The Train’ included on Lebanon soundtrack, to premier at SXSW

More cool news: “The Train” was chosen for inclusion on the soundtrack of the indie film Lebanon, PA, which has been selected to premier at SXSW this month! Check out the trailer, and if you’re going to be in Austin, TX for the festival, stop by the premiere on March 14th.