I am going to go ahead and write about today, and then I will catch up on everything else later, because I am just getting more and more behind, and I am going to forget all the details of today, so I will catch up on what I have left out later, when I have time.
I think that I am almost over this stupid cold that I have had for a week, not quite, but hopefully almost. It is just ridiculous, I am usually the last to get sick, if I even get sick, which I don’t often, but this time I am the only one sick, and I have been for almost a week.
On the bus when I sat down by Aliona she starts showing me pictures of things, then telling me the name, and I would repeat it. The only thing is that the words she was telling me that were impossibly long, and I couldn’t even begin to repeat them, so she would say the word, then either say it one syllable at a time, or even say it letter by letter in some cases so that I could repeat it correctly. She is such a patient teacher, but I think that she doesn’t correct my mistakes, so I know that I pronounce things wrong.
We had potato pizza for breakfast this morning. It was just like your normal hot dog pizza, except that it had potatoes in it and no sauce. I actually liked it, though.
Today was supposed to be my planning day, because I have no classes, but I was lazy. I was so close to finishing Pride and Prejudice for the third time. Lydia had just run away and I couldn’t stop because it was just coming to the happy conclusion. Of course since I am a slow reader that little bit took me most of the day.
After breakfast I did just about the only productive thing that I got done today. After sitting there for a few minutes with my headphones in reading I noticed that Sarah was trying to get all her stuff done for her lessons. I asked her if she was going to be done in time and if she needed help, so I helped her draw on her bingo board. I did the stars, then she had to go(she had two classes, and the bingo was for the second class, so she didn’t need it quite yet). I was going to keep working on it and have it done when she got back, but after drawing on some barely recognizable banana’s I decided that I was going to ruin her boards, so I waited til she got back then asked what she was doing for game pieces, so I cut out all her game pieces while she finished the drawing.
Gulia came for culture class today. First we made a beet salad, then we talked about Ivan the terrible. We also talked a bit about Russian superstitions, but that was just a little side thing because Gulia happened to drop a knife. I think that she said we are actually going to have a lesson where we spend some time on that.
One thing that I love about the culture classes is hearing Gulia talk about it, then making a connection with something someone did, and realizing why they did it. Like the other night a boy had candy, and while talking to another boy about the candy he made a fist but stuck his thumb out between two of his fingers, and I didn’t know why he did it. Gulia said that it is something little kids do, about the equivalent of sticking your tongue out, but it basically means “I have something and I am not going to give it to you.”
After lunch I just went and hung out. When it was time for the older class Aliona came down to hang out with me. She didn’t have class, and she came down, asked if I had class, and when I said not today she spent the next hour and a half with me. We didn’t do much at first, we threw a ball back and forth, then one of Jamie’s students came down asking for her, so we went up to help him find her. She wasn’t in her usual classroom, so I wasn’t sure where to look for her, but I was just walking down the hall when I heard someone say “who has the button?” and figured it was her. After that Aliona helped me with some of my Russian, pronouncing some of the things on my flash cards, then we looked at pictures on my computer. Apparently looking at pictures is a big thing here, and Aliona brought pictures on the bus one day of herself to show me, so I showed her some pictures, until my computer died, then she helped me sort through some of my stuff, old projects that I hadn’t taken apart and put away. We also played with a mirror and pretended to be parrots by putting feathers on ourselves. It was so fun to hear her laughing. On the bus we just sit by each other, down in the classroom we were playing, and she was giggling about everything. She was also really excited because I was going to her house that night for dinner. That was the first thing she said to me when she came down, she asked if I was coming over that night. At least I think that is what she asked, from the hand motions and the few words I know that is what it seemed like she was asking.
When we went upstairs without even thinking I began eating dinner. I had eaten a bit when I realized that I was going over to Aliona’s house for dinner, and right then, as I was staring at my food thinking about this Louisa looked at me and asked if I was eating two dinners that night. I didn’t want to take my food back uneaten, so I ate some of it, just not enough to fill me up.
I went home with Aliona and her mom when her mom picked her up after school. We hadn’t been exactly sure what was going to happen, so we made sure to ask how I was getting home and all that before I left. Aliona’s mom said that she would take me home before 9:30. It felt almost like I was a little kid, having to be taken places and making sure I am home early and all that, but I didn’t want to be stranded someone in Russian alone trying to get home after dark. Louisa had also been a bit concerned about me going over to a Russian’s house without Jamie to translate, but Aliona’s mom speaks excellent English.
At the store last night I bought presents for Aliona and her family. I bought her a little candy bracelet, and a box of nice chocolates for her family, so I gave those to them when we got there. I met Aliona’s family, she showed me her new bird(she has been really excited about this bird all week, and we thought that she was saying that she got a new parrot, but it is actually a parakeet, but the word that she was using if you look it up in the dictionary says parrot), then we went up to her room. In her room she has this amazing, I don’t even know what to call it. Up nearly against the wall there is a wooden ladder type thing, and on either side of it, hanging from the ceiling are the ring things that they use in gymnastics, then on one side a rope ladder and on the other a climbing rope. They also have something that they use for a slide that they attach to the wooden ladder. It was amazing, but I was so afraid that Aliona was going to hurt herself when she started hanging upside down on the rings and the rope ladder. She did have a mat that she put under herself, though.
I was a little worried about dinner, because I am so picky, and I didn’t know what we were going to be eating, but it was pancakes. They cooked a whole stack of pancakes and laid out all kinds of things on the table that you could eat it with. I liked the powdered sugar the best, but I also had a pancake with red currant jam(she made it herself), and I even decided to be brave and put a tiny bit of caviar on one bite of pancake and tried that. I almost gagged, though I think that it was more the thought then the actual taste. I am wondering if there is any other fish related thing that I need to try while I am here. So far I have had dried squid, raw salmon, and caviar. I did have a salad with dinner, though, a real one with lettuce. Jamie says that the entire time she was on her mission she only saw a real salad once, and that was at an American’s house.
After dinner Aliona and her brother wanted me to dance with them, but it wasn’t so much dancing as it was running in circles around that room. Aliona took me up to the room that she shared with her brother, and the three of us played for a little while. I don’t think that her little brother understood that I didn’t speak Russian. He just kept chatting away to me, and every once in a while he would say something that I knew was a question. I can’t understand a bunch of Russian, but I know a little, and it is frustrating when the only thing I get out of a sentence is “do you want”, because I know that they are asking me something, I just have no idea what. It was also really amusing seeing them whispering in Russian around me, because they didn’t want me to hear what they were saying, like I would have understood it anyways, and then when they were speaking Russian and I started hearing my name said several times, but didn’t understand anything but the fact that they were talking about me. Anyways, after a while Aliona said something to her brother, and I think that she said the Russian word for English, so I am pretty sure that she was telling him that I only spoke English. It was a little frustrating being with two little children and not being able to talk to them or understand them at all. One of the first questions that Aliona’s mom asked me when we got in her car was how Aliona and I communicate. I told her that other than a few little words here and there, and some hand gestures we don’t. I tried to play some games with her, but it was hard because she couldn’t explain to me how to play. I managed to get the basic drift of it, so we were able to play.
After we played for a while Aliona wanted to paint. Her mom showed me some of her drawings, she is fantastic. I would have never thought that a 7yo little girl had drawn those pictures. There was one that was a self-portrait, and her mom said that it took her a month to do. So we both painted each other, and hers was better than mine. She then painted her hand and made a hand print on the drawing, and I did the same. Her and her brother both painted on their hands. I loved stuff like that when I was little, and since their nanny walked through several times and saw them I figured it was ok, but when the boy started painting on his face I figured it was enough, and started trying to persuade two children who didn’t understand me that they needed to clean up. The mom came in and that helped, because they understood what she was saying.
Aliona wanted me to watch a tv show with her, so I watched a Russian cartoon then we got ready to go. I took the left over pancakes home with me, and some palmnini. During dinner Aliona’s mom asked if I liked palnini, and when I told her that I bought it every weekend she showed me that she had tiny ones, then gave them to me.
When we got to the apartment they walked me all the way inside. I had kind of expected that they would wait in the car til I was in the complex, but they went in the complex with me, up the elevator, then made sure that I got inside the apartment before saying goodbye. I really did have so much fun. I have no idea why that girl likes me, but she is so sweet, I love her.
When I got home everyone was in the middle of playing phase ten, so they let me join in at phase 6, because they were all somewhere around there. I guess they had been playing that for a while, and were really happy when it finally ended.
Samantha
