Let me tell you about a kid named Volva. He is 8 years old and he is wicked smart! He already knows how to talk, read, and spell in English. Of course, it's not perfect. He just needs practice, but for his age, he rocks at English! He is seriously my favorite!!! I remember when I walked into class, he said I could only stay if I paid him $15 USD and another time, I was like, "Hey Volva!" and he squealed, "No! I'm WHITNEY HUDSON!" and he started singing, "and I will always looooooove youuuuuu" - so I joined him and we had a pretty awesome duet going on there. I'll never forget when I walked into one of the lssons and he was the only kid who showed up for class that day, so Selina (one of my girls whose teaching) was just staring at Volva and he was up at the chalkboard and I was like what the??? and Selina said, "Right now he's reciting word for word the airplane procedures and safety regulations," so I sat in and listened. It was seriously word.for.word. The kids we teach are sooo cute (they didn't start off that way at first though! they were HORRIBLE and so I emphasised discipline to my teachers and now they are WAY better...thats right, laying down the LAW BABY! hahaha). They are between the ages of 4-8. I think little Gleb is in love with me...everytime he sees me, he attacks me and starts like... making out with my cheek and doesn't let go until someone pulls him off me!!!!So it had been 3 weeks and we have been FINALLY shown our kitchen, where to do our laundry, and where to put our trash. Also, trash had been building up in our rooms and I've been asking Svetta (the babe/model I work with here at the school) over and over and over again what to do with our trash and she just kept telling me, "I don't know. I will find out,". I even tried finding some sort of dumpster outside, but nothing. It was a problem...especially the first week we got here. The school gave us raw chicken for the weekend and I tried telling them that we didn't want it because we didn't have a kitchen to cook it in nor did we have a fridge to put it in, but they didn't understand. The cafeteria ladies don't speak a lick of English and Svetta (my translator) left to go home for the weekend. It started smelling in our room, so I threw it in a waste basket and put it in the hall, BUT THEN the hall started smelling and I thought, "OH MAN!!! What the heck do I do with this chicken???!", so I went to a different floor of the school (we live in dorms at the school) that wasn't occupied and left it up there. I would just dispose it when they will finally show me where to put my trash. Well, then the day came and I tried retriving the spoiling chicken and the door to the floor was locked... uh ohhh... what happened to that chicken? Did someone else find the chicken? Do they know IT WAS ME?!?!?!!?!?! - who knows, but I just think its funny. (but seriously, tell me what I was supposed to do!)
oh.... and then theres the laundry. We had 3 weeks worth of laundry to do between 5 girls. There are no dryers in Russia, so we have to hang up our clothes. On our floor, there are a ton of empty bedrooms, so we hung them up there. Well, apparently the principal of the school was showing some people (business-like men) the new additions to the school and one of those additions were these dorms we were living in. They went up our floor and to one of the "empty" dorms and saw all of our underwear, bras, and other clothing everywhere!!! bahahahhaha, OOPS! So.... spoiling chicken and underwear... Americans!!! hahaha
Did you know it is bad to whistle indoors in Russia?? I had noooo idea! I was getting my food in the cafeteria and some song was stuck in my head, so I was whistling it and the lunch lady looked at me with a serious face, put her finger up to my face and waved it bacxk and forth motioning me to stop. I thought it was weird... maybe she didn't the song or something. I went over to my girls and was like, "Hey guys, so the lunch lady got mad at me for whistling," and they informed me that nobody whistles indoors because the Russians believe it is bad luck and that all your money will be taken away from you. Also, I give my leftover foods to people all the time and this is also bad!!! whaaaat? yeah! When you let others eat your food, they take your "power" from you. Well, I was thinking of getting some of the cafeteria ladies flowers and its good to know that in Russia, you want to give an odd number of flowers - if you give an even number of flowers to someone, that is bad. Even number of flowers mean death/funeral. Hahahha, can you imagine me coming in whistling and handing 2 flowers to one of the lunch ladies? I would be having good intentions and its just something would SOOOO happen to me!!!
I really do love the people I work with at the school! I have noticed that if you are total strangers with Russians (example: at the metros, streets, stores, etc), yeah, not very friendly...pretty rude BUT when you are part of their life, they care for you so mcuh! The lunch ladies at first, I thought they didn't like us....but they love us now! I know they do. I remmeber when we first gave them hugs and it was freaky for them, hahahah. A couple of nights ago, I gave Lena a hug and she hugged me back and squeezed me sooooooo tight :) :) and AWWW listen to this! I went outside on Friday night around midnight to make sure that the gate was unlocked (that's a long story haha) and one of the guards that works at the school was with me and I didn't grab a jacket cause I'd be outside for just a few minutes, but he pointed to his coat cause I had a short-sleeve shirt and I toldhim that I was alright, but he just off his coat and put it on me. Awww... they are so nice here!!!
There is a cereal here in Europe called "Muesli" (pronounced like "moose-ly"), so when anyone hears my name here, they get really excited and say, "OH MOOSELY! Like cereal!" - My name in Russian is Nusly + moose = Moosely :) That is Volva writing my name on the board :)
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