One thing that I forgot to write yesterday was that Monday, March 8th, is women’s day. It is a big deal here. Kira’s mother came and told me that Kira would be bringing us stuff for women’s day, and asked what we would like best. She said that usually it was sweets and alcohol. It was just Sarah and me in there, and we looked at each other and said, “umm, sweet would be good, but we don’t drink alcohol.” Her eye’s got big and she said “none of you?” I guess it was just inconceivable that five young adults all did not drink.
This morning for breakfast we had casha, then some weird egg, lemon, puffy thing, then you put condensed milk on top of it. It wasn’t very good, but I was hungry, so I ate four pieces of bread with bologna on it, and the snacks in preschool.
Preschool went ok, but not great. We tried the color game, and it worked for about 30 seconds, then the kids figured out that they could just jump on whichever color they wanted without listening to us, then they started crumbling up the paper, so then we put the paper away. Got a ball, and they both said the balls name, then we played with that for a minute or two, then we got some legos. We were going to try to go over colors with them, but they did not want that, so they just played with them for a little while, then I went up to get snacks. They people in the kitchen have gotten to the point where I don’t even have to say anything. The first time I went to get snacks I had to really work to get them to understand what I wanted. Now I just walk up there, they see me, then they get my stuff without having to say anything. They have these really good sweet roll things, and I was really hoping that they would give those to us those, so I was really disappointed when they gave us some bread instead. It was some kind of fancy bread, not regular bread, but it was still bread. I brought it down, and Sarah grabbed a piece and told me it was warm. I decided to have some, and it was so good. I was glad that they had given us this instead of the sweet rolls. It was sweet to, but only a little, and warm, and soft, and so good. I came out and told everyone that it was warm, and the all had half a piece, then Caitlyn went up and got us more. It had cooled down, but it was still the best bread ever. I made Jamie tell me how to say “what is it called”, then had her spell it for me. I wrote it down, took the piece of paper and a pen to the kitchen, showed them the paper with the Russian words on it, then gave them the pen and had them write the name. I am so happy, I am going to see if Gulia has a recipe for it. Jamie says that the school probably doesn’t really have a recipe, they probably just make it. She said that when she was on her mission and would ask for recipes they would either tell her that you just make it, or tell her what is in it, then when she asks how much they tell her “however much it needs”. She said that Gulia is probably my best bet for getting the recipe, and if that doesn’t work I am looking on the internet, and if all else fails I am going to beg the school for the recipe, though that will probably be more like having Jamie beg the school for the recipe for me. It probably won’t be the same when I make it, though, but I can try to make it.
I was kind of hoping that they would give us more of the bread at lunch, because I very carefully(and incorrectly I later found out) told them how much we like it. We didn’t, though. They gave us roast and potatoes, which where really good.
During lunch we had been told that Irena wanted us in her office at 2, so at 2 we all went to her office. She had all kinds of flowers and stuff in there, and she had three tulips for each of us and lots of little fun sized candy bars, Snickers, Bounty(Almond Joy), Mars Bars(kind of like Milky Ways), Milky Ways(only different, well, same name, but they are the Russian version of them and the Mars Bars taste more like Milky Ways than the Milky Ways do), three kinds of dove, Twix. She gave us all of this because on Monday it is Women’s day, which is a big deal here, so they were giving us stuff.
After all that I prepared my lessons. We were making fans in the older class, so I had to hot glue Popsicle sticks together to make the handle thing, because I knew that we wouldn’t have enough time in class, cut out pieces of paper, and make little folds. It was a lot of fun, and the kids enjoyed it. We didn’t get finished, I never finish my crafts in there, there just isn’t enough time, and the main thing that we are supposed to be doing is talking, that is the purpose, the craft is just to make it fun and give us something to talk about, so I had them all write their names on their fans and I am going to finish them and give them to them.
The games were fun. We finished off Cat, cat, dog today, since we barely got through the rules yesterday. They had fun with that. I came up with different ways of playing, and I would switch how we played after a few minutes, like we hopped instead of ran, and it gave us something new to talk about, and made it so that it didn’t get boring, because it was changing. I loved it. I am glad that games are working out. Teaching is going a lot better, and I feel like I am finally almost getting it.
When we got on the bus I sat down next to one of my students, Sasha. I looked over at her and she was eating this long green thing. At first I looked at it and wondered where she had gotten a gummy worm, then I looked closer and just though “oh my goodness!” She wasn’t eating a gummy worm, she had rolled out play dough like a snake and was sitting there eating it. I tried to tell her no, that it was clay, but she said it was good. She was just eating it. Jamie had apparently also tried to explain to her that it wasn’t for eating, and she hadn’t listened. I am glad that it is not toxic, but I can’t imagine anyone eating it, that is just nasty.
When we got home we all went to the store. Since Monday is woman’s day we decided to get stuff for people. Louisa and Caitlyn got some stuff for Irena and Veronica, and Jamie, Sarah, and I got stuff for the cooks and other random people. For the people that we don’t really know that well we got a few different kinds of little candies and are going to put them in little bags with a hand written card that just says the equivalent of Happy Woman’s Day. I wish that I knew more about this. I really don’t know what is an appropriate gift, or who you are supposed to give gifts to, or anything. All I know is that people give gifts to women. I guess everyone knows that we are American’s, so they don’t expect us to really get all their traditions right.
At home we didn’t really do anything, just kind of hung out. Oh, one thing that happened. At lunch Jamie was talking to someone and at the end I heard her say “paka nyet”. I know that paka means see you latter, and nyet means no, and I couldn’t figure out what she was saying. I finally asked her and she laughed, told me that she loved confusing me, then told me that paka also means yet, so she was saying not yet. Russian is so confusing, I don’t understand it. There are also 4 ways to say I, and all different kids of cases, and I look things up in the dictionary and they are not there, because it is a case. It is just confusing. Word order doesn’t matter the same way it does in the US. I love you is Ya tibia lu-blu(I to you love), but you can rearrange those words in any order you want and it means that same thing. I guess that isn’t always the case, though, so you just have to know. Anyways, yeah, Russian is frustrating.
I have horrible Russian spelling. I am trying to make flash cards, but I am trying to write the words in Russian. I will write out how I think that it is supposed to be, then hand it to Jamie, and she will cross out my mistakes and correct it. Jamie is so patient with all of this, I can’t believe it, she just lets me annoy her to death with Russian questions. I really want to talk to her in Russian, just have times where we can only speak in Russian, but the problem is I really can’t. I have to look up every word in the dictionary, and that takes so long, and then I get frustrated and start talking in English because I just don’t know how to say what I want to say. It makes me more sympathetic to my kids, because this is how they must feel all the time, trying to talk to us in English and not being able to. I so want to learn, though.
Samantha
