Ramblings from Russia

November 16, 2009

Hello one and all,

A month from now and I'll be home putting up the Christmas tree and back in tune with my real life and routine. It will be good to be home and I 'll certainly return with a fresh appreciation for all I have taken for granted in our country.

The theme for the week has been " I heard it through the grapevine". That song has followed me around this week as I shopped at the grocery store, ate at a restaurant, and browsed in a bookstore. It must mean something. Maybe I'll figure it out later. I hope I won't be losing my mind. ( got to know the lyrics to appreciate this!) It seems so strange to hear western music blaring out from passing cars, on street corners and in cafes. I wonder if it sounds as foreign to Russian ears as their language does to mine.

School continues to be a blast for me. This week we experimented with flying objects and invented things that could fly from found objects: helicopters, airplanes, gliders, parachutes etc. We had trial runs of our inventions out on the playground to the count of 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 BLAST OFF! I wonder what the military academy was thinking as we launched out gliders towards their building. No relatiation as yet. Hands on learning bridges the language gap for sure as children construct their ideas and try them out.

We have had a few snowy days which softens the already muted pastel colors of the buildings here. The Church of Spilled Blood has snow on its five onion domes and snowmen and snowbears decorate the parks around town. Some people are actually smiling as they watch people throwing snowballs at each other in the park I walk through each day on my way home from school. Those rigid Russian faces are softening too.

On the cultural scence this week I went to see the ballet of "Romeo and Juliet" which is my favorite thus far. There were school children there and it was perfect for them with all the action of sword fights, blood and gore with a little passion and romance thrown in for us older folks. The dancing was spirited and intense and the music of Procofiev was spellbinding. Last night I went to see "The Kings of Dance" which is a troop of international male ballet dancers performing more bizarre, modern choreography and it was dazzling. There were eight dancers and some could leap as high as their height. Talk about eight lords a leaping...there they were. Tonight we're going to see the Irish dance troop "River Dance" which I'm really looking forward to seeing. It'll be a nice change from my menu of ballet and opera.

Some funnies from the kids this week:
Darren who makes me laugh all day long was playing a game of Sorry with three other kids and he was in charge of deciding who would go first. Here's the chant I overheard him say:

Soldier, soldier in the grass,
Stuck a finger up his ass,
In, out, in, out
You are not it!

I guess it's time to teach other turn taking chants. In their innocence they didn't have a clue what it meant and the game began. Eeenie, Meanie, Miney , Moe is on my lesson plans for next week!
Ron Gleason, our principal, had hernia surgery this week so the kids wrote him Get Well notes. One of the kids said he was a great tropical (meaning principal!) I love the language funnies here.

We've been doing so much writing in here. Writer's Workshop is our favorite time of the day. I'm writing along with them and I read my story to them and ask for feed back. They parrot back all I say to them in their writing conferences, "More details! More details!" The room is a buzz with writers sharing their work. It's amazing what they can do when you allow them the time to get involved with their writing.

Laurie Schoenberger made it here and we've spent the weekend seeing a few sights, going to the ballet and River Dance, out for dinner and taking long walks. She'll be here for four more days working in our school with the 3-6th grade teachers. It's so nice to have her here! Tom will arrive on Nov. 20 so I am getting very excited to see him!

I hope you all have a healthy, safe week. Stay warm and know that I think of you all often with gladness in my heart.

Love,
Kathy