From Russia With Love: Latest Happenings!

It has taken me a while to find something interesting enough to blog about! I'll fill you in on some things that have happened lately!

Firstly, I just thought this story was too cute not to share! We were at the park with the kids on Monday, and I felt the urge to ask Andrei and Masha what certain things around us were called in Russian. I'd point to an acorn and say "Shto eta?" And their faces would light up! Then Andrei would sound out the words slowly and break them up in to three sections for me to repeat haha. He is so smart! He genuinely loved the fact that I was trying to learn from HIM for a change! Then he ran over to the two teachers we work with and told them about how I was "speaking Russian." And then Brett, the other teacher said, "Das Vidanya," and Andrei freaked out and ran back over to me, and shouted, "Teacher Brett govario pa-russkie!" I looked at him and start laughing because Brett does not (I repeat, does not) speak Russian. I told Andrei, "Teacher Brett ne govarish pa-russkie!" And Andrei gives me this hilarious look, nods his head dramatically, and shouts, "YES!"
He is convinced that we both speak Russian. It is so cute!

Michael was very concerned about not being able to tie his bear hat!

Cute Kristina!

My little doll, Andrei!

Showing me the leaves he found!

Cute guy! (You should hear his voice! It's this cute raspy voice that makes him even cuter!)

Finding sticks

Kristina climbing on the playground

Silly Masha on top of the big turtle! She was meowing like a cat in danger! It was really funny.

Digging to China

They told me they were making a fire!

I am definitely going to cry like a baby when I have to leave these kids. I love them.

Next! My Level 2 class earned their pizza party and we had that during class today! I think they might be starting to respect me more and warming up to me. A boy in my class, Vlad gave me his other Milky Way bar before he left. He said, "This is you, teacher." He is the last kid I would have expected that from! Any who, I brought in a pepperoni pizza and the kids chowed down while we watched the LEGO movie. They kept asking to watch it in Russian, but I made them watch it in English! I was the only one laughing at the word jokes in the movie haha. I brought them some snickers bars too and we just had a good time. There was an old lady that works at the school with the special needs kids who tends to leave half way through our class, because we use one of their rooms. And she was so sweet to us! She saw that we were having a party and brought us a couple of apples and some drinks! Then she cleaned up some of our trash, even though I intended to clean it up myself! She was so sweet, she knew I didn't speak Russian, but she kept talking to me anyway! You can tell she is an awesome grandmother!

Lera and Ellya (who reminds me of Hermione)

Matvey, Seva, and Nika having some pizza!

Matvey, Seva, Nika, and Maxim!

The water we got from the sweet old lady!

Watching the LEGO movie

Seva, Vlad, and Nika!

Also, we have been trying to plan our trips! Me and a few other girls are going to Finland the 16th-19th of this month, and we have it all booked! I am so excited! I will be the first one of my Finnish family to return to Finland since the 1800's! How cool is that?? We are also planning our long trip to Sweden, Norway, and possibly some of the Baltics. That will be really cool.

I have been trying my hand at making soup and I think I am getting better with each try! There is this soup that they make for our lunches at the Kindergarten that I REALLY want the recipe for, but every time I try to explain that I want the recipe, Sveta just tells me the main ingredients haha. Oh well! I am going to try to make some authentic russian soup recipes pretty soon! I want to be able to cook some Russian food for my family when I get home!

Other than that, not much has been going on. It has been business as usual! Although, one quick funny story:

I have one of my fellow teacher Caitlin's host brother, Vadim, in level 5 class. And a bunch of us teachers have this inside joke about an SNL skit that Kristin Wiig did where she is hosting this party in the 1920's. Basically she acts like people are "making" her sing and dance, and she says in this funny voice, "Don't make me sing..." And so, after class one day, I taught Vadim how to say it, and told him to show it to Caitlin when he got home! he did it so well! It was so funny!

Also, millions of leaves were falling from the trees today at the park, and I tried to catch a little bit of it in a couple videos (you can see them on facebook, because, sadly, blogger doesn't let me upload vids). The forests here are seriously MAGICAL. They completely represent the enchanted forests from fairy tales!