What I will miss most about Russia (pt. 1)

(in no particular order... except for the first one)

THE KIDS- I really fell in love with the kids here. I'm probably biased, but I don't know of a more adorable group of kids anywhere--I'm going to miss them quite a lot.

While I feel like I've kind of overloaded my blog lately with pictures of my kids... I'm going to do it again anyway:

Varia. This little girl became one of my very favorites. She thought it was the funniest thing in the world to, everyday, call me either "Mees Dansuh" (because then I'd dance around) or "Mees Kapoosta" (because then I'd look very confused at her use of Russian). She may have made the biggest improvement of any of the kids, too, in terms of her willingness to speak English--there was nothing better than seeing them slowly start to use, pronounce and understand words better.

Robert. Gosh, I will miss his awesome hair, rocker/Spiderman poses (as he is demonstrating here), and his go-to phrase for telling-on the other kids: "I am Robert!"


Igor. While he could be a little turd (hence why this picture of me trying to catch him is so perfect), his near-perfect English and daily kissing attacks (he was ALWAYS running up to us and kissing our faces or stomachs or arms or whatever he ran into first as fast as he could until we managed to pull him off us) more than made up for it.


The older group of kids and I. I'll especially miss hearing big Anton's (red shirt) goofy laugh and Danya (blue shirt) pulling his puppy-dog eyes and saying "Mees Allah... pleease token."


Little Anton. This kid is, I think, hands-down the brightest/oddest/most adorable kid of the bunch. One of the best moments with Anton was at the dress rehearsal when our Cowboy Joe, Mischa, was sick, so we put him in as his understudy. Anton not only spoke the more difficult lines like a pro, but totally got into scrunching up his face to look like a "bad cowboy."


Lenna. I asked her if she'd come to America with me and be my other little sister, to which she only agreed if I'd bring her two boyfriends, Mischa and Vadim, along as well. :) I'm going to miss her hugs and witty little comments all the time.

THE SCHOOL STAFF: Overall, the teachers and staff at the school were so friendly and helpful. I'm going to miss our unfailingly humorous "conversations" with them. The lady in the brown was, I think, the most magical teacher I've ever seen--yeah, "magical" is the most fitting word I can come up with. She'd say one thing and the little Pre-K terrorist children would instantly turn golden. All of the teachers were so cute and funny in their own ways.

THE SCHOOL STAIRS: Okay, maybe not this one so much... Although I'm convinced that having to yank unruly kids up and down them everyday while belting "Baaaabyyyy shark doot-doo, doot-doot-doot-doo" over and over and over had something to do with the fact that not one of us gained the 15-30 lbs. we were informed was standard for ILPs in Russia. Woot!


THE CANTINA FOOD: The dang delicious Russian cuisine we got at the school 2x a day was rarely (for me) a disappointment. This is a typical picture of "my spot" at the table: I was always finishing off everyone elses' food... ha.


THE ANGRY COOKS: Trying to make the not-so-cheery cooks smile everyday not only turned into a fun game, but eventually, I think, even got them to kind of like us...? Perhaps "like" is a stretch, but still. :)


PLAYING GAMES WITH MY ROOMIES: Hours of "Ilyousha," "Quiddler," "Bing-Boozled" and many other made for good times at the flat. Here, we were playing a Christmas game that Sarah got together for us (complete with awesome presents, i.e. fake moustaches, Very Sexy for Him after-shave and gummy, fruit-flavored Mexican food candies). She was always getting fun stuff like this together--we definitely had a great head teacher.


THE WET GARLIC: So, I won't really be missing the nasty plates of remarkably pungent garlic that the nurses set everywhere in the school. But I really wanted to work this into my blog somehow--its just so strange and horrible. Setting these out, apparently, sucks the sickness out of the air. I think I'd choose Typhoid over voluntarily inhaling this junk everyday, though.


(to be continued...)