So I have been asked to stay next year and I have decided to accept. I am too attached to my students and to my friends in Zelenograd. I am really excited about this and to be honest I have surprised myself by wanting to stay. I look forward to really learning the language next year and traveling more. I was too busy this year to do that, this year was about learning how to be a teacher and making connections. I feel that I have done this and next year will be even better.
As usual, I have been hanging out with my Russian boys. We spend about 3 or 4 nights a week together and this weekend I am going back to the Dacha. I can tell that we are going to be life long friends. I had a really good weekend hanging out with my group of Russian ladies. We went ice skating and it was so much fun! Apparently in Russia you can skate all year round, so I am thinking even in the summer I will go to the rink. I don't have my own skates here so I just rent them, but I might buy some so that I can go skating outside. They freeze over all the basketball courts. The weather here is still winter:( Technically, in Russia Spring starts March 1st and around the beginning of March it looked like Spring. the snow was all melted and it was rainy and wet, but now the weather can't make up its mind and it is just slick ice everywhere. My friends have told me that it isn't unusual for it to snow in May in Moscow.....so we will see. All in all I would say that the winters back home were harsher than Moscovian winters. Regardless, I can't wait for it to be over! I am sick of the slush, snow, and ice!
My classes have been going well and my students continue to make me laugh:) Yesterday, I was doing a song-listen with Maroon 5's "She Will Be Loved". One of the missing words was "corner" and I was explaining the meaning and my little baby Artyome (who is the delinquent that graffiti's all the local buses) says, "Ah, yes this is where you pee!" I was so disturbed and of course I teased him for the rest of the listen and we were all cracking up, including him. I asked them if this was normal behavior for the men to pee in the streets, and they all said no except for Artyom....hahaha. After class he told me to check out the corner near Language Link because he was going to pee in it...hahaha. Got to love 'em!
I have fallen in love with another class to replace my missing FCE babies. One of the teachers was sick and I had to sub for her class and I loved it so much. I know that she hates this class because they are teenagers and they are too sassy for her British self to handle, but I am so used to it and we would have so much fun! So I asked her if I can have them and she is thinking about it. She hates them but she doesn't really want another class in their place, so she has to decide. But I am hoping that she says yes because I know that they would have more fun with me, because the students all know that this teacher doesn't like them and it makes me sad:( They shouldn't have to feel that way so I am trying to save them....hehehe.
My Russian friends made me get Russian facebook so now my students have friended me on this and they put pictures up of me that I didn't know they had taken. Sometimes when I was teaching I would see turn around and see them taking photos....I felt like I was in a zoo, but what could I do? So on the Russian facebook they have made photo collages of us. It was so cute that they took the time to do that. They all gave me presents for Women's day too. Women's day is March 8th and it is a national holiday and you don't have to go to school! So all these reasons are why I love Russia.....and why I will stay next year:)
Putting on our skates:)
Alla and I
The gang: Oleg, Alla, Rita and I
Shayla in action!
