Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Bitter/Sweet

I have recently decided that bitter sweet is a good way to describe my time in Russia right now. As the weekend was coming to a close my roomates and I were shouting with excitement about only having two weeks of school left. We were so excited. This year has flown by but at the same time seems like it has been forever.

All year, since the end of September, I have been giving private English lessons to a 10 year old boy named Alex. I would go to his (3 story) apartment on Monday and Wednesday afternoons for an hour to help him with his English homework and help him to speak more and to speak better. He has a lovely family, very nice. His mom would bring me tea and snacks while we were doing our lesson. We rarely missed any lessons. Then he just spent the last 2 weeks in Italy on vacation. We had 2, 3 day weekends in a row, so I guess that means take a 2 week vaca? I don't know. So yesterday was our first lesson in over 2 weeks. Then in the middle of the lesson he told me there will be no lesson on Wednesday. So I asked if we would pick up again on Monday. He said no. On Wednesday he would go to his dacha (country home) for 2 weeks. Then he will be returning to Italy where he will be until September! Rough life for the kid. He went on to tell me about his house in Italy, his house in Dubai. So I am currently not feeling bad at all about them paying me about $50 each hour lesson.

Anyway, his mom is still in Italy but his grandmother was there. So she asked how much they owed and paid me the rest of the money. I left and was walking back to the metro and was just flooded with emotions. I wasn't quite to the point of tearing, but give me a few weeks and I might. Part of me was happy that I don't have the make the trek out there anymore and can spend my afternoons doing other things. But part of me was sad because it was a step closer to leaving here and leaving the life I have had for the past 2 years. I have been really excited about this, but now I'm feeling sad too.

But then this morning my mom called and they purchased my sister's ticket to come see me. She will be spending 3 weeks with me in June. It should be really great! So I went online really quickly and bought my return flight home to America. It is official! I will be be in Houston on June 27th at 2:05pm at the Bush Intercontential Airport. Again, happy my sis is coming, kind of sad that it is official that I am leaving.

So on this rollercoaster, we are back to happy again... This afternoon I will go with my dearest friend Polina and we will buy train tickets for me, Sara, Polina and Truc to go to St. Petersburg! It should be an amazing trip. We are going over a 3 day holiday weekend and during White Nights. So we should get to see some cool stuff and maybe even a parade or something.

Back to the rollarcoaster...we can call the part the twisty part, you know when you are on the rollarcoaster and it is kind of taking you in circles really fast and you think your head may explode! That is now. Because though I only have 2 weeks of regular school left, then we have 2 weeks of summer school. No one has any info for me yet so I can start planning lessons. Somehow, I need to plan and decorate the school in the next 8 days for about 30 or so lessons for 1-5th graders! AAHHH! Everything is so last minute here. And I have a TON of russian paperwork to do for the end of the year. Grades are due this Friday so I have a lot of grading and recording for the Russian documents to do.

So since grades are due this Friday, does that mean that next week is just pretend school? We are not allowed to do anything for a grade. So what is the point really? Plus most of our kids will go ahead and leave on vacation AGAIN. Like my private lesson student, most of my kids just took two weeks off. So I think we will watch movies next week!

Ok, that is kind of a short novel so I should probably get to work now!

OH and I forgot! Today is May 19th and yes it is a little chilly outside, about 55 in the morning. But I saw a girl in leopard printed ear muffs on the metro today! Really, is that neccesary?????

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