Having Fun and Gettin' R Done!

I am loving teaching more and more. My babies have been great to work with lately.....it's like they finally get me, the REAL Shayla....hehehe. We have a lot of fun together and we can joke around and have a good time. One tiny problem with all this mutual love is RESPECT. They respect my authority and do what I say but they don't view me as their authoritative teacher, more as their mentor and friend. They are constantly bombarding me with questions about my personal life and they always want to know what adult things I did on the weekend. One of my thirteen year old students, whom I call Punk Rock Polina, asked if she could go to a Halloween party with me! And when I am sick, my babies send me get-well e-mails. I can't decide if I like this or not. I like it that they get my humor and that they think I am funny, but I feel like maybe my classroom should be more professional and less casual. Then again, it is more fun for them to learn in an environment like this.....I can't decide, I just know that right now I am not conforming to the "norms" of teaching. Regardless, I find solace in the fact that any one of my classes would break out in tears if they found out that I wasn't going to be their teacher anymore.....hahaha...I'm serious, I really think they would chain themselves to the door and have a sit-in protest. Makes a girl feel good:) Next week I will be observed by my boss and I warned my class that they have to be good so that they can make me look good. I told them to cringe and quiver with fear when I speak and to act like they fear me. They just laughed and said that I wasn't scary......that I was a good and funny teacher.....so I am still working on the instilling fear part.....I have a week to whip them into shape. I really hate being observed because I can't be myself or funny, I have to be serious.....blah. Normally in my classes I am candid and I tease my students and they love it, when I am observed I feel like I am doing something wrong so I have to go "by the book" and can't "off-road it", if you will, as I usually do.

Last week we did Halloween themed activities. I taught my little babies about a good traditional American Halloween and they had lots of fun. We had a Halloween party and they came to class dressed up as witches, pirates, and jack-o-lanterns! One girl brought in her keyboard and played some Halloween songs and we all sang with her. They wanted to go trick-or-treating around to the different classrooms but the other teachers were not on board so I just gave them candy....hehehe. They don't really celebrate Halloween in Russia. Some people dress up because it is fun, but they don't go trick-or-treating or carve pumpkins. So this was a fun treat for the kids.

On the weekend I went to a Halloween party in Mytischi, hosted by an Irishman. He never lets us poor, lowly Americans forget that the origins of Halloween came from the great nation of Ireland. I have personally developed a distaste for this country due to his imperialism for it and because he is constantly raving about the Americanization of Ireland and how the Americans are ruining the world....the usual. Anyways he had jack-o-lanterns so I was there! Abby and I met lots of Russians and some very strange people, some of whom came in costume. We stayed up really late and waited for the bus to take us home, but we didn't know what time it came. So a Russian man, who was at the party dressed as a pirate, suggested we get the train instead. Abby, the pirate, a gopnik (Russian mafia), a guy-who-is-a-little-out-there, and I journeyed to the station. Pirate drew a map on a napkin and had a compass so we trusted him.....and he was Russian. Alas, he got us lost and we were all turned around but we enjoyed a delightful 6am walk through Mytischi anyways. When we finally did arrive at the train station, we had to wait for the train. A woman walked by and refused to sit by us because of the kid who was dressed as a gopnik. This made the gopnik feel like his costume was a success. He did look pretty great, he was wearing a full on tracksuit, a beanie, an over-sized coat, and a silver bullet around his neck....pretty legit. Anywho, we get on the train and Pirate realizes that it is going the wrong direction.......oh boy. So this has now become an official adventure. We get off at the next stop and we couldn't go the other direction without having to pay again, so the station guards suggest we jump the platform. The platform is about 5ft high and no stairs and no footholes.....so it was a team effort. Everyone got up and I helped push Abby's butt up and then I was left alone. So the gopnik had to push my butt up onto the platform.....it was quite an ordeal. So finally we make it on the correct train to Moscow. Once in Moscow I had to get on another train to Zelenograd.....all in all Mytischi is about a 2 and half hour journey for me if nothing goes wrong. Needless to say it was an interesting weekend.

This week was so exciting because we got Wednesday off for a Russian holiday and I journeyed into Moscow to enjoy the day with Abbeford. I was feeling so inspired that I translated some Latin Harrius Potter on the train. When I arrived in Moscow, I met Abby and we went for our usual cup of coffee at Starbucks. This is what we do....we walk around and take pictures and go to different coffee shops......I really never get sick of it. After coffee we walked around the Kremlin walls and into Red Square, which was closed off for the holiday. It was great and I was in a great mood because I was having a really good hair day. My mood is directly affected by the weather and my hair. We explored some more and went for another coffee...hehehe. I didn't stay in Moscow long because it takes so long to go back to Z-grad and I had to teach the next day, but it was a fun break in the middle of the week. This weekend, I hope to do more sight-seeing....weather permitting of course. So update completed for now!