first day of class

hello all!

today was the first day of classes, and it was pretty chaotic. i'm teaching the beginners class, which has proven to be pretty difficult. thankfully, masha (one of the directors) acts as a translator for our class since the students know almost nothing. we originally had 3 boys and 9 girls in the class, but the three boys switched to the elementary level. oh! for reference, we have four levels: beginner, elementary, intermediate, and advanced/upper intermediate. so now we have a class of 9 girls. because we have no set curriculum, we end up teaching a lot of stuff on the spot. i feel so bad because i think it's going so slowly, and i'm scared that the kids are bored or are unimpressed by our confusion, but they said what we taught was perfect for them.

after lessons, they have a coffee break with coffee and tea and various pastries to snack on. then we play games! we played an ice breaker so students from different levels can meet each other, the fruit game (too long to explain), and telephone charades. so fun! i got to meet a lot of different people and everyone seemed very enthusiastic. for the other days we'll be breaking up that activity time into active games, discussions, and inactive activities/crafts.

as for non-school related things:

it's pretty hot here and we walk a lot. we take the marshuka (sp?) or bus/van thing and it's always super crowded. since i'm super sensitive to motion sickness, it's not a good combination, but i'm able to pull through. i've experienced a lot of physical weakness because of dehydration and exhaustion, but i think that it's just a sign that even at my physical weakest, when i'm reaching my limits, God still provides strength to pull through and complete the tasks at hand. i've been so extremely thankful for that. i never realized how much i needed God to keep me awake and physically capable to go through the day. i've been trying to really be thankful for the little things that God blesses us with each day. i'm so oblivious to them because i take all the luxuries we have in america for granted. bah! so convicting.

as for food:

i've had a cmak (pronounced like smack) which is an ice cream bar, vanilla dipped in chocolate. ive had lagman (like spaghetti or lo mein), lepioshka (bread) almost every morning with jam and butter, pelmini (little mini fried tortellini), manty (dumplings), shashlyk (kebabs), plov (fried rice), and shoro (a salty, peanut buttery, oatmealy icky drink lol- we had a scavenger hunt and drinking that was one of the tasks ahh!).

anyway i miss everyone dearly and i look at my pictures all the time! but i'm still having a lot of fun experiencing everything here. it's been a true blessing!

hope that will satisfy you until i can write again.

paka!

van-kim