So it's started snowing more and we hit -4 yesterday although still the snow has not settled properly. Getting the kids ready to go outside takes a while as they all have to put their little snowsuits and boots on which can drive you a bit insane but they are pretty good at it to be fair. I do not have a little snowsuit i'm thinking it would not look quite so cute on a fully grown adult! So I am surviving with primarni leggings and gloves which i think may have to be replaced with something a bit hardier soon like a polar bear! ( totally joking obviously i have not lost my animal loving ways even in Russia.) Mind you one of my friends is a governess for a hugely rich family and she says they have a polar bear rug in their full sized bowling alley. Horrid! I am encouraging her to drop something unfixable on it like marmite ( if only you could get marmite here that is).
Had a few nights out which seemed to end up in starlite the diner of heavenly burgers. Hence two week starlite ban which incidentally is up on sunday .. phew was having the withdrawal shakes!
Saturday was fun as it was the 50th birthday party of the owner of our school. So it was held in a huge fancy restaurant and consisted of all the teachers from the schools as well as our bosses doing lots of performances in between lots of eating and drinking. We had been practising hard at our school with our dance... it was all going well until i remember standing there in front of like 100 people and thinking oh my god what the hell is the next move? Anyway instead of doing the sensible thing of watching someone else i just freaked out a bit and stood there for what seemed like a very long time. Anyway i got back into it and thought hmm maybe it was not that bad. Then i was telling my flatmate Collette about it ( who was also dancing) and she said something along the lines of 'oh god ,i know i saw you Boe and i had to stop myself looking at you in case i messed up too! Can't wait to see the video!! It was also fancy dress with the theme 'back to the USSR' and it turns out fancy dress to Russians might mean more 'fancy' then what it means in the UK. So most people went in 60,70,80's but a kind of glam and dressy. I decided to go as a Russian rocket complete with Laika the first dog in space made mainly from resources from the classroom. Our boss told me she loved my costume and then admitted she had absolutely no idea what it was!
We are now gearing up for Christmas which is a much bigger deal than in the UK. No rummaging around in the school cupboard to see if the camel costumes still have a hump and if baby jesus has grown mould. No no we have to perform songs, dances as well as a play and it's all filmed and a really big deal. Luckily the dance teachers do the dances and the music teachers do the songs. ( it would be extremely dangerous to leave that in my hands! So the play is just down to us. The Littlest Christmas Tree it is and it's 3 weeks till d-day. Oh god! Still they are all very good at being in the spotlight as they we are constantly being filmed for this or that... i don't think a week goes by when i don't have the camera man stalking me around the classroom.
I felt a bit bad last week when at lunch one of the children ( the one who said i ate all the smetana! how rude!)
called me a 'silly billy' ( a phrase i fear i may have inadvertently taught them!) because i could not speak Russian. I calmly explained that the reason i don't speak Russian ( aside from the fact it's ridiculously difficult) is that in English school we learnt French and Spanish normally. This was my way of trying to convince her i was not a 'silly billy'. Then one of the boys piped up and asked me what the names of all the vegetables were in Spanish. Now i can order a beer and i can ask the way to the train station but i fear Mr Hunt skipped the vegetable module! But not wanting to lose face i just made it up. So now there are 5 russian children who think the spanish for carrot is caroto, cucumber is cucumbero and tomato is tomatoista!!
Looking forward to coming home for Christmas immensely I cannot wait to see the sea and breathe a bit of fresh air!!
from Russia with snowy love xx
Saturday was fun as it was the 50th birthday party of the owner of our school. So it was held in a huge fancy restaurant and consisted of all the teachers from the schools as well as our bosses doing lots of performances in between lots of eating and drinking. We had been practising hard at our school with our dance... it was all going well until i remember standing there in front of like 100 people and thinking oh my god what the hell is the next move? Anyway instead of doing the sensible thing of watching someone else i just freaked out a bit and stood there for what seemed like a very long time. Anyway i got back into it and thought hmm maybe it was not that bad. Then i was telling my flatmate Collette about it ( who was also dancing) and she said something along the lines of 'oh god ,i know i saw you Boe and i had to stop myself looking at you in case i messed up too! Can't wait to see the video!! It was also fancy dress with the theme 'back to the USSR' and it turns out fancy dress to Russians might mean more 'fancy' then what it means in the UK. So most people went in 60,70,80's but a kind of glam and dressy. I decided to go as a Russian rocket complete with Laika the first dog in space made mainly from resources from the classroom. Our boss told me she loved my costume and then admitted she had absolutely no idea what it was!
We are now gearing up for Christmas which is a much bigger deal than in the UK. No rummaging around in the school cupboard to see if the camel costumes still have a hump and if baby jesus has grown mould. No no we have to perform songs, dances as well as a play and it's all filmed and a really big deal. Luckily the dance teachers do the dances and the music teachers do the songs. ( it would be extremely dangerous to leave that in my hands! So the play is just down to us. The Littlest Christmas Tree it is and it's 3 weeks till d-day. Oh god! Still they are all very good at being in the spotlight as they we are constantly being filmed for this or that... i don't think a week goes by when i don't have the camera man stalking me around the classroom.
I felt a bit bad last week when at lunch one of the children ( the one who said i ate all the smetana! how rude!)
called me a 'silly billy' ( a phrase i fear i may have inadvertently taught them!) because i could not speak Russian. I calmly explained that the reason i don't speak Russian ( aside from the fact it's ridiculously difficult) is that in English school we learnt French and Spanish normally. This was my way of trying to convince her i was not a 'silly billy'. Then one of the boys piped up and asked me what the names of all the vegetables were in Spanish. Now i can order a beer and i can ask the way to the train station but i fear Mr Hunt skipped the vegetable module! But not wanting to lose face i just made it up. So now there are 5 russian children who think the spanish for carrot is caroto, cucumber is cucumbero and tomato is tomatoista!!
Looking forward to coming home for Christmas immensely I cannot wait to see the sea and breathe a bit of fresh air!!
from Russia with snowy love xx
Hahahaha... Loved reading it =))))
ReplyDeleteBoth me and Aaron noticed you forgot the moves =))))But you did a good job trying to get back to the dance =))))) At least you didn't do what my lil' sis did just the other day... She was performing with a poem, forgot the lines, ran away from the stage and burst into tears =)))))
Isn't your sister like 6 years old though? Oh my god you noticed too this is getting worse!! Ah well i never claimed to be a dancer!
ReplyDeleteYeah, she just turned 6 =)))))
ReplyDeleteAaahhh... Don't worry =)))) The whole performance was still great =)))))