Spectacles!

Primary Level: My little ones did so well! They were absolutely adorable performing Peter Pan, and we had a lot of parents show up!  I was pleasantly surprised by how many parents came.  They all said their lines really well, and it was so fun watching their parents enjoy it!  I got a couple of gifts and had some parents thank me for what I did for their child.  One mother started to cry and said that her daughter always talked about us and would ask what certain words meant and really worked hard to learn new things.  It made my heart smile!  After the performance, I just played with the kids the rest of the time instead of teaching.  It was nice to spend the last day just hanging out with the kids rather than teaching them a formal lesson.  I got a lot of drawings from the kiddos, which was so cute.  Masha gave me hers, and then Alina decided to give me hers, and then a few others followed!  After we went to the park, we had lunch, and then I gave out some suckers and little cards to the kids.  I got lots of hugs, and then we left.  It wasn't as sad as I thought it would be, because the kids weren't overly heartbroken about it.  Which was nice.  I got a little sad when I left, but I was actually okay, and ready to get back home.  I of course already missed them the next day, but I think my desire to pack everything and get ready for the airport kind of over-powered everything else I was feeling.  But now, as I'm writing this, I really miss my little ones a lot.  I could use a Masha cuddle, and an Andrei smile.

Brett, Sveta, and Me

Level 2: A few days before the spectacle I found out that only 3 of my kids were going to be there. Which made the previous 2 weeks of learning "Happy" a total waste.  I was really bummed, because in all truth, you can't perform that song with 3 kids who barely know the words.  I already knew that the spectacle was going to be less than spectacular.  (See what I did there?)  So I decided to cut the sing short and add two Christmas songs.  I did thankfully have one more kid show up, so that was nice.  We sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," and "Jingle Bells."  To spice things up a bit I had them wear Santa hats and ring some little bells.  Although it wasn't the most incredible thing ever performed, I was still proud of them and the parents were happy.  Before we sang "Happy," each kid got up, introduced themselves and said what made them happy.  Ellya said her guinea pigs make her happy, Ceva said his Ipad makes him happy, Vlad said his Dad makes him happy, and Maxim said his Mom makes him happy.  It was cute to hear!  After the spectacle I got a bunch of gifts from the kids which was so sweet!  I tried to get a picture of all of us, but it was just so crazy, and the ones I did get were blurry.  But it was nice to have their parents take some pictures of us.  They really appreciated what I did for their kids and it was so sweet to hear their thank you's.  I am going to miss those kids so much and playing games with them!

Our last official class

Level 5: We had been working so hard on our spectacle and the kids learned their lines really well.  But the day of, I think we were all a bit frazzled.  I think we just had too many costumes, and it made it kind of slow and jumbled.  But the parents thought it was great and the kids did a great job and had fun together.  I loved watching them work so hard and really practice hard leading up to the performance.  I also tried to get a photo of us all together, but the person who took the photos didn't do a very good job, so they are all blurry.  But I'm glad I have at least something with most of us in it!  My level 5 kids really gave me a run for my money, but I really learned to love them all.  It was hard to say good bye!  I wanted to hug them all and say "You are smart kids, and you can learn English if you really keep at it!"  I had a parent come up to me and really thank me for what I did for his daughter and he said "You don't realize what you are doing."  It's true.  I woke up every day and taught these kids even when I didn't want to because I thought they weren't listening or didn't care.  But they do, and they learn things even when I think they don't.  It was just nice to hear that from a parent of one of my level 5 kids, because I thought that my level 5 class was the one I struggled with the most.

Me and Vadim

Moscow! (Day 3)

It was our final day in Moscow and we were heading back to St. Pete that afternoon.  We decided to visit a land mark in Red Square: Lenin's tomb.  It is basically a mausoleum that you walk through that holds Lenin's embalmed body.  You can only spend so much time there before they usher you on.  It was so dark inside and a bit hard to see.  There were some guards inside too, and I have to say, it was pretty interesting!  The guy has been dead since 1922, but he still looks scary.  He just has one of those intimidating faces.  Maybe it's the eyebrows??  Haha.  It was nice to be able to do it for free and not have to wait in a massive line!  When you are coming out of the mausoleum, you pass by some graves of important people.  One of them was Joseph Stalin, and I should have taken a picture.  But I cracked up because after I pointed out his grave to Kelsey, she whispered, "No one likes you..." Haha it was so funny.

Lenin's Mausoleum

Victoria, Kelsey, Me, and Kristin

After we took some more pictures around Red Square and in front of Lenin's tomb, the other girls decided they wanted to go hang out at one of the local mini malls.  I really wanted to see the Kremlin, so I went by myself.  I just wandered around the outside part of the Kremlin and took some pictures of the cathedrals.  Some of them were really amazing inside, but sadly I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside.  One of them was called Cathedral of the Archangel, and it held the tombs of 14 Russian Tsars, Princes, and Emperors!  The other cathedrals I went in were called Patriarch's Palace and the Church of the Synaxis of the Twelve Apostles of the Moscow Kremlin.  Long name, huh?  And I looked around the Museum of Applied Art and Everyday Life of the 17th Century Russia.  Also, a long name...  It included the personal belongings of the Patriarchs, precious dishes, pocket watches, clocks, needle work, embroidery, manuscripts and old printed bibles.  So, basically a lot of stuff!  The pocket watched were really cool and I would have loved to have reached in and grabbed one for myself!

After I was done at the Kremlin, Victoria and I ate at the most awesome Sbarro restaurant I've ever seen.  It was much more than pizza.  It was a huge buffet with all kinds of food!  We just talked and ate for a bit before heading back to the airport.

I would have loved to have spent more time in Moscow, but I am glad I got to see two of the main areas!  I would LOVE to visit more of Moscow some day in the future!  

Moscow! (Day 2)

The other girls decided to go to the souvenir market early in the morning, but since I already had most of my souvenirs, I decided to sleep in and go a little bit later.  I kind of enjoy having some travel time to myself and don't mind doing things on my own.  It's nice to not have to follow another person's schedule.  So, I left the hostel at noon and headed over to the souvenir market.  I still had to buy some things for myself and needed to get Ella her gifts.  The market was very cool!  It was incredibly huge and I didn't even see most of it!  I basically went through the main area and that was enough for me!  The market is all outside and lined with booths.  There are lots of matrushka dolls (nesting dolls), scarves, mittens, hats, decorative boxes, ornaments, and so many other things!  I found a beautiful medium sized matrushka doll for myself that was decorated with shiny gold leaf, blue paint, and wood burned.  It was so different from all the other ones, and I just loved it!  I also found Ella a penguin matrushka doll! It was the only one I saw so I snagged it!  She loves penguins and I was so excited when I found it!  I also got a bunch of beautiful matrushka doll ornaments that I just love.  I got Ella another matrushka doll that she could paint herself and some other little gifts.  The fun thing about the market is that people are so eager to sell their stuff that you can usually just start to walk away and they will shout a lower price!  That's how I got Ella's penguin for 150 rubles less!

After a bit of shopping, I decided to grab some lunch.  I walked over to a local mini mall and went to a little coffee house and ordered a caprese salad with salmon and a small cup of hot cocoa.  It was delish!  After a bit of relaxing, I headed back to the hostel. 

 I have to say, I was really proud of myself for finding all of the correct metro stops and areas!  Once I got to the hostel I decided to go to the park just across the street and wait for all of the Christmas lights to turn on.  The park was all decorated with tons of lights once the sun went down and I just waited for about 45 minutes for them to come on.  I sat on a park bench for a while and got some weird looks because it's not really customary to sit on a bench when it's really cold out.  So, I'm sure everyone could tell I wasn't a local! 

 

Once I took some pictures of the lights, I went back across the street to get a mcflurry at the McDonald's.  Let me tell you, you will not find a fancier McDonald's in all the world than the one in Moscow by my hostel.  It was insanely fancy!  I really should have taken a picture, because it was so huge and so clean.  It had 3 levels! Seriously! And big i-pad like screens where you could order yourself,  Also the food was a bit different. They had spring rolls with shrimp! Seriously.  I'm not kidding you, it was an experience.

After I got my McFlurry, I went down the street to my hostel and waited for the other girls to get back.  They took 2 trips to the souvenir market because they had so much to buy!  We shared the room with this hilarious guy from Turkey, he became our unofficial best friend, because he was really goofy and so entertaining!  He thought we were so interesting and asked us tons of questions and even read Kelsey's journal haha!  We ended up taking some pics of each other and talked to his friend from America.  Later that night, the girls and I all decided to have a little souvenir show and took out all of the things we had purchased that day and sat in a circle like it was elementary school and had a little presentation!  It was fun to talk about what we bought and who we were giving them to!

I had a great second day in Moscow and enjoyed spending time by myself and also hanging out with the girls in my group and some of the people in the hostel!