week one...done

Today is Monday. Labor day in America, but not here. I made it through a week of school and it was definately a challenge. The kids are so cute but they don't really like me yet. :) Ok maybe they're thinking about liking me. But think about it...if you were a little kid and it was the first week of school, wouldn't you be afraid of the new teacher that spoke in gibberish?? I try talking to them and they just look at each other and I can assume they are saying, "Did you get that?"..."No, did you?"..."No. She's weird." And then they walk away. :D It's pretty funny. I can laugh about it but it is also very frustrating. I am used to teaching in America where I was constantly talking to the children and they could communicate with me. I have had some moments of mutual understanding with the children and that was great. Today I was swinging two girls on the swing set and I could tell that they wanted me to swing them again. They kept looking at me and saying things in Russian. I just shrugged my shoulders and said, "In English, please." One of the girls really tried. She patted the swing and said, "Yes." So I pushed her and waited. When she wanted to swing again I asked her, "Again?" And she answered, "Yes, again." ! It was pretty cool. Both the girls started to say "again" when they wanted to be pushed some more. I was proud that I had taugh them a new word and it was during play, not only in the classroom.

Here's a quick funny story. Today during lunch I was going around asking them what they wanted to drink. (By the way, serving them lunch is super difficult when you can't speak Russian. I don't have it down yet.) Ok so anyways, they could chose from juice or tea. I knew the Russian word for tea and I THOUGHT I knew the Russian word for juice. (I'm really not supposed to talk to them in Russian but I wanted to just one time...probably shouldn't have tried.) So the Russian word for juice is "cok" pronounced like our word "soak." BUT like a dummy, I pronounce it a little differently and added an extra letter and ended up saying the Russian derogatory term for a woman. You know what I'm talkin' about. The two girls just looked at me and then looked at each other and continued talking. I realized what I had just done and I felt like an idiot!! I'm trying to get these kids to like me and I end up calling them a bad word!! Also, here are a couple pictures of the school for those of you who were waiting for them. Enjoy.