ann eliza odette: laba dienna!

so i've now been here 3 days and i'm so in love. yesterday we had our welcome meeting, orientation, training, and we got to watch the school's final spectacular. the kids are seriously so cute! it gets me so excited to start teaching. it is a little stressful because we got here a couple days ago and we start teaching monday. so we don't have tons of time to lesson plan, but i know it's all going to work out just fine! i'll be teaching the beginning kids, so they'll be anywhere from 4-8. it's going to be so much fun!

yesterday morning was seriously so funny. since madison and i live in the apartment by the school, we eat at the kindergarten. so we went over to the kindergarten to get breakfast and madison and i walk in to the kitchen and say "laba dienna!" which means good day or good morning or whatever, and 3 very VERY scary russian women are just standing there starting at us. so we just grab the food and leave as fast as possible. we had porridge, 3 rotten bananas, and some coconut croissants (they are seriously heavenly).

we headed to the school and did some training and attempted lesson planning. it's super overwhelming and stressful. especially trying to adjust to the schedule to last semesters teachers schedules and routines. dima has been helping us a lot and is seriously the sweetest man ever. he is so funny! madison and i walked out of the classroom yesterday and he looks at us and goes "you guys are the best!" and we say "no dima, you're the best", he shrugs his shoulders and says "i know!". he's so happy and so helpful it makes being here a lot easier. i'm with the best group of girls and my head teacher is the sweetest. i'm so happy here.

we took a break from training and had to go back to the kindergarten for lunch. madison and i were so nervous to go back in to the kitchen to get our food and we were so nervous. madison walked in and just kept saying "laba dienna, laba dienna, laba dienna!" and the ladies were looking at us kinda funny. we left the kitchen and tried to say thank you as many times as possible. you say it "achoo" and it sounds like you're sneezing. for lunch we had a soup/broth that was literally straight butter and shaved potatoes. THEY COOK WITH SO MUCH BUTTER AND I DIE. and then we had some really good meatballs and potatoes. oh and we got tomatoes! which is not very usual. but it was good!

last night, we went to the other girls apartment and we were going to old town for the night. dima knows a lady who has 16 year old twins. a boy named edgar, and a girl named greta. they wanted to take us out and show us around. it seriously was so much fun! old town is the most beautiful place ever! they have a huge cathedral right in the center of town! it really is one of the best places ever. and then we went and got way good pizza and some delicious ice cream for dessert. we just walked around and talked and laughed. it was so much fun. today was so much fun!

xo,
ann