See ya first week of being in Russia. I am basically a Russian now. I even seem to run every where I am going. Maybe that is why they are called Russians, cause they are always rushing.... haha I still think thats funny even though I have heard it just about every day. We officially made it through the first week. I have seen my hair freeze, learned the basics of the metro, met some drunken men and ate more danishes than I have in my life put together.
The first day of school was on Wednesday. Mindy and I are in charge of basic reading class and then we have a regular class right after that. So Wednesday afternoon we trekked through our building to the second floor and over to the main school building. Luckily these building are connected so we do not have to put on our thousand layers to get over there. We began the set up, excited for the first day of teaching. Class begins at 2:15 and we waited in anticipation as the time slowly got closer. We heard footsteps running down the hall and stood up, excitement racing through, the footsteps stopped just shy of our door and we heard another door open and close. The clock continued to pass... five, ten then fifteen minutes. Sarah went to talk to one of the other teachers about where our class was. She came back a few minutes later and relayed the news. Our entire class was absent. We let out a slight sound of disappointment, then remembered it was tea time and quickly got over it.
Tea time has to be one of the best times of the day. We rarely get to attend since we have basic reading at 2:15 to 3:45 and then our regular class begins at 4 and ends at 6, however, this class is on the other side of the neighborhood. So we have to run/ ice skate over there as quickly as possible. But today we sat and enjoyed some delicious pastries homemade by our chef Lenna. Of course we spent too much time there and had to run to our rooms to get our things and then off to the school.
As we got there the students began to stroll in. These kids are hilarious. We have all sorts of personalities, from the sweetest little girl, Lera, that can't stop hugging your leg to kissing your cheek, to the girls that belong on a new "Mean Girls: Mini Style". We have one boy, Maxism, that is just the cutest thing you could imagine. He always is wearing short overall type jeans, with striped long johns underneath topped with a smile that you can't resist. We went through our opening routine quickly and soon we split up into our individual classes. We began with saying our names. This was a challenge all by itself. The children would laugh hysterically as I would try to force my mouth to create a sound I had never heard before. The day was a bit of a challenge. By the time I was finished my hair looked like I had just stepped out of a convertible flying down the freeway at 120 mph, tokens were everywhere, and my voice was just about gone.
We rushed back to our safe haven knowing dinner would be waiting for us. As we got down to the kitchen everything was dark, which was not unusual so we continued towards the cafeteria. The table that usually held a delicious assortment of food was empty. We looked around in confusion and as we peered over to our right we saw a table filled with food, but placed directly in the corner. Like a time out chair. We sat down in confusion, but too hungry to care, however, there was no buckwheat insight so I was grateful for that. I have loved almost all the food I have eaten here, except buckwheat. Oh and the salad I tried that I thought was chicken, but it was in fact fish. It had water jugs and toilet paper sitting next to it, so we knew it was ours. Lenna came to explain that this will now be our table for every meal. As if we did not stick out enough. Earlier that day we had even sat with the children, wanting to branch out. Later that night we asked one of the directors about it. We found out that they have assigned seating at our school and we had been confusing people left and right. I still have a slight hunch that this isn't the full reason but I will except it for now.
Mornings our great since we do not teach until 2 o'clock. Yesterday we got to spend the day in laziness. We started by doing our first workout in Russia with a little Jillian Michaels and rewarded our selves by doing our nails and having a good needed girl chat with the whole group. We went to lunch and then were off to the work room wanting to get our lesson plans ready, with the sad though of missing tea time.
We learned quickly that this was going to be no easy task. Yesterday went a lot better. I was in charge of drama so I decided to do Snow White. While I was planning I could see the children loving dressing up and singing HI HO HI HO, joyfully in a circle. Never do lessons go the way you plan. I ended up doing a little dance and acting like a gangsta for most of the time and covered in sweat. So much for needing to workout. It's all about improv. Second day ended with my first real life drama. I had my first cryer, Dima. At the end of the day we do what is called store and the children get to pick an item based on how many tokens they earned that day. Dima was choosing from the 10-20 category when he spotted a much bigger prize and that is when the waterfall came. I have seen some good fake cries, but this one tops the charts. He had real tears within seconds and the saddest face I had ever seen. I had to hold in my laughter as he looked at me with desperation thinking I would easily give in. As I explained that he did not have enough tokens and tried to redirect his attention to the other toys he stopped crying long enough to choose one and then was out the door looking like he had just witnessed a crime.
This teaching thing might be a bit more challenging than I thought, but the kids are adorable and I think once I get the hang of it. It will be a lot better. Today we have both of our classes so hello overload, but it's the weekend so we get to go explore tomorrow! WAHOOOO!!!
The first day of school was on Wednesday. Mindy and I are in charge of basic reading class and then we have a regular class right after that. So Wednesday afternoon we trekked through our building to the second floor and over to the main school building. Luckily these building are connected so we do not have to put on our thousand layers to get over there. We began the set up, excited for the first day of teaching. Class begins at 2:15 and we waited in anticipation as the time slowly got closer. We heard footsteps running down the hall and stood up, excitement racing through, the footsteps stopped just shy of our door and we heard another door open and close. The clock continued to pass... five, ten then fifteen minutes. Sarah went to talk to one of the other teachers about where our class was. She came back a few minutes later and relayed the news. Our entire class was absent. We let out a slight sound of disappointment, then remembered it was tea time and quickly got over it.
Tea time has to be one of the best times of the day. We rarely get to attend since we have basic reading at 2:15 to 3:45 and then our regular class begins at 4 and ends at 6, however, this class is on the other side of the neighborhood. So we have to run/ ice skate over there as quickly as possible. But today we sat and enjoyed some delicious pastries homemade by our chef Lenna. Of course we spent too much time there and had to run to our rooms to get our things and then off to the school.
As we got there the students began to stroll in. These kids are hilarious. We have all sorts of personalities, from the sweetest little girl, Lera, that can't stop hugging your leg to kissing your cheek, to the girls that belong on a new "Mean Girls: Mini Style". We have one boy, Maxism, that is just the cutest thing you could imagine. He always is wearing short overall type jeans, with striped long johns underneath topped with a smile that you can't resist. We went through our opening routine quickly and soon we split up into our individual classes. We began with saying our names. This was a challenge all by itself. The children would laugh hysterically as I would try to force my mouth to create a sound I had never heard before. The day was a bit of a challenge. By the time I was finished my hair looked like I had just stepped out of a convertible flying down the freeway at 120 mph, tokens were everywhere, and my voice was just about gone.
We rushed back to our safe haven knowing dinner would be waiting for us. As we got down to the kitchen everything was dark, which was not unusual so we continued towards the cafeteria. The table that usually held a delicious assortment of food was empty. We looked around in confusion and as we peered over to our right we saw a table filled with food, but placed directly in the corner. Like a time out chair. We sat down in confusion, but too hungry to care, however, there was no buckwheat insight so I was grateful for that. I have loved almost all the food I have eaten here, except buckwheat. Oh and the salad I tried that I thought was chicken, but it was in fact fish. It had water jugs and toilet paper sitting next to it, so we knew it was ours. Lenna came to explain that this will now be our table for every meal. As if we did not stick out enough. Earlier that day we had even sat with the children, wanting to branch out. Later that night we asked one of the directors about it. We found out that they have assigned seating at our school and we had been confusing people left and right. I still have a slight hunch that this isn't the full reason but I will except it for now.
Mornings our great since we do not teach until 2 o'clock. Yesterday we got to spend the day in laziness. We started by doing our first workout in Russia with a little Jillian Michaels and rewarded our selves by doing our nails and having a good needed girl chat with the whole group. We went to lunch and then were off to the work room wanting to get our lesson plans ready, with the sad though of missing tea time.
We learned quickly that this was going to be no easy task. Yesterday went a lot better. I was in charge of drama so I decided to do Snow White. While I was planning I could see the children loving dressing up and singing HI HO HI HO, joyfully in a circle. Never do lessons go the way you plan. I ended up doing a little dance and acting like a gangsta for most of the time and covered in sweat. So much for needing to workout. It's all about improv. Second day ended with my first real life drama. I had my first cryer, Dima. At the end of the day we do what is called store and the children get to pick an item based on how many tokens they earned that day. Dima was choosing from the 10-20 category when he spotted a much bigger prize and that is when the waterfall came. I have seen some good fake cries, but this one tops the charts. He had real tears within seconds and the saddest face I had ever seen. I had to hold in my laughter as he looked at me with desperation thinking I would easily give in. As I explained that he did not have enough tokens and tried to redirect his attention to the other toys he stopped crying long enough to choose one and then was out the door looking like he had just witnessed a crime.
This teaching thing might be a bit more challenging than I thought, but the kids are adorable and I think once I get the hang of it. It will be a lot better. Today we have both of our classes so hello overload, but it's the weekend so we get to go explore tomorrow! WAHOOOO!!!
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